CrunchPad Partner Speaks Out and Plans Media Event

By Dena Cassella December 4, 2009

Who is Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan? Depends on who you ask—if you ask TechCrunch’s founder and editor, Michael Arrington, he’ll probably say that Rathakrishnan is the “CrunchPad murderer.” Rathakrishnan is the founder and CEO of Fusion Garage–TechCrunch’s Singapore-based partner in the CrunchPad endeavor– and, according to a Silicon Valley PR firm, he has scheduled a demonstration of the device. Rathakrishnan also says that he “just wants to share his side of the story” on Monday about why the CrunchPad is in, according to Arrington, the “deadpool.”

If you haven’t heard of the CrunchPad or why it’s dead, let us catch you up real quick. The CrunchPad was intended to be a touchscreen tablet computer that was being designed by Arrington because (as Wikipedia quotes) “we want a dead simple web tablet for $200.” So they tried to build one, and solicited the help of Rathakrishnan’s Fusion Garage. On November 30^th, Arrington said that the two companies had planned to debut the CrunchPad at TechCrunch’s “RealTime CrunchUp” conference in early 2010, but the operation was killed because Rathakrishnan and his investors tried to cut them out of the deal. Although, TechCrunch alone owns the CrunchPad trademark, both companies shared development expenses and neither company truly owns the device. The CrunchPad is just floating in tech limbo, waiting for this whole thing to be settled, but we doubt that will happen anytime soon or anywhere outside of a courthouse.

According to Megan Alpers of McGrath/Power Public Relations, Rathakrishnan’s conference with reporters and industry analysts will be held this coming Monday, December 7^th, at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco.

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