Robert J. ("Bob") Davis (born 1956) is a managing partner of

Highland Capital Partners Highland Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm with offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, and San Francisco. Highland has raised over $4 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 280 companies, with 47 IPOs and 134 Acqui ...

. He is the former

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Lycos Lycos, Inc., is a web search engine and web portal established in 1994, spun out of Carnegie Mellon University. Lycos also encompasses a network of email, web hosting, social networking, and entertainment websites. The company is based in Walth ...

, which he led since its inception and through its acquisition by

Terra Terra may often refer to: * Terra (mythology), primeval Roman goddess * An alternate name for planet Earth, as well as the Latin name for the planet Terra may also refer to: Geography Astronomy * Terra (satellite), a multi-national NASA scienti ...

at the peak of the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

Early life and education

Davis was born in

Dorchester, Massachusetts Dorchester (colloquially referred to as Dot) is a Boston neighborhood comprising more than in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester ...

in 1956. At the age of 10, Davis sold newspapers at a street corner and sold from mail order catalogs as a teenager. In 1979, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University, graduating with highest honors. In 1985, he received an MBA from

Babson College Babson College is a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Established in 1919, its central focus is on entrepreneurship education. It was founded by Roger W. Babson as an all-male business institute, but became coeducational i ...

. In 1999, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Commercial Sciences from Bentley College. He also received an Honorary Doctorate from

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

in 2000.

Career

From January 1982 to January 1993, Davis worked for Wang Laboratories, a computer manufacturer, as Director of United States Commercial Sales and Marketing and Director of Worldwide Marketing. From January 1993 to June 1995, Davis served as Vice President of Sales at Cambex Corporation, a manufacturer of computer-related products. Since its inception in June 1995, Davis served as the President and CEO of

. In 1996, 9 months after Lycos was founded, he led the company to the fastest

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

in history. Lycos was one of the first profitable internet businesses. As CEO of Lycos, he led the company to acquire more than a dozen websites including Wired.com,

HotBot HotBot was an American web search engine owned by Lycos. It was launched in May 1996 by ''Wired'' magazine. During the 1990s, it was one of the most popular search engines on the World Wide Web. History HotBot was launched in May 1996 by HotWir ...

, Tripod.com, WhoWhere, Quote.com, and

Matchmaker.com Matchmaker.com was the first online dating service. It was founded in 1986 and first operated via a bulletin board system. Members completed a questionnaire that enabled the platform to rank potential matches based on compatibility. History Ma ...

. Davis led the company through its acquisition by

for $12.5 billion in stock in 2000. After the Terra acquisition, he served as the CEO of Terra Lycos, the combined company. In 2001, Davis left Terra Lycos to join

, a

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

firm. He has served on the boards of

John Hancock Financial John Hancock Life Insurance Company, U.S.A. is a Boston-based insurance company. Established April 21, 1862, it was named in honor of John Hancock, a prominent American Patriot. In 2004, John Hancock was acquired by the Canadian multinational li ...

Ticketmaster Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an American ticket sales and distribution company based in Beverly Hills, California with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010, it merged with Live Nation under the name Live Nation Entert ...

Lycos Europe Lycos Europe was a pan-European network of websites, offering services including communication tools, online communities, web search, e-commerce, web hosting, homepage building and Internet access. It was an independent corporation, sharing no co ...

, Fastclick,

Children's Hospital Boston Boston Children's Hospital formerly known as Children's Hospital Boston until 2012 is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care children's hospital located in Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent both to its teaching affiliate, Harvard Medical Sch ...

, and the

Rivers School The Rivers School is an independent, coeducational preparatory school in Weston, Massachusetts. Rivers' Middle School program includes grades 6-8, while its Upper School program includes grades 9-12. As of 2014, 489 students are enrolled from ...

Books

In 2001, Davis wrote a book called ''Speed is Life: Street Smart Lessons from the Front Lines of Business'', which was published by Currency, an imprint of

Crown Publishing Group The Crown Publishing Group is a subsidiary of Penguin Random House that publishes across several fiction and non-fiction categories. Originally founded in 1933 as a remaindered books wholesaler called Outlet Book Company, the firm expanded into ...

. The memoir focused on practical advice for operating a company. Davis donated his proceeds from the book to the

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a private, nonprofit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress. In September 2013, the United States House of Representatives, United States Senate, and the Pres ...

External links

Technology and Global Democratization
a

C-Span Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

interview with Bob Davis on matters relating to internet commerce and regulation, July 2000.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Bob 1956 births American computer businesspeople American technology chief executives American venture capitalists Babson College alumni Businesspeople from Massachusetts Living people Northeastern University alumni