Former Microsoft exec and Sling Media co-founder Blake Krikorian dies at 48

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Blake Krikorian.
Blake Krikorian.

Blake Krikorian, the former CEO of Slingbox maker Sling Media who was also a Microsoft executive and Amazon.com board member, has died at 48, Recode reported Thursday.

Krikorian was a successful tech entrepreneur and in 2004 founded Sling Media, maker of the popular Slingbox video streaming service, which was acquired in 2007 for $380 million.

He later joined Microsoft as a corporate vice president, following the company’s acquisition of his home-automation technology startup, R2 Studios.

Krikorian became an Amazon board member in 2011, but resigned from that post after news of the R2 Studios acquisition surfaced.

Recode’s Kara Swisher has more details about why Krikorian was so well-respected and loved in the Silicon Valley tech community.

“Considered one of tech’s most savvy execs with regard to video and media distribution, Krikorian was also one of its most ebullient characters and was never shy about expressing his opinion about anything,” Swisher wrote.

More from Swisher:

His favorite topic, of course, was how the whole Hollywood and Silicon Valley relationship was faring. He loved that intersection and spent his life dedicated to grokking how to make it work. But he still managed to keep an almost childlike wonder about the strides that had been made in media delivery.

I’ll never forget him geeking out with my two young sons at his really tricked-out home theater, testing some new 3-D product, as hopped up as they were on the coolness of it. (After that much fun, my elder son jokingly asked Blake to adopt him.)

Several fellow tech execs and entrepreneurs shared their thoughts about Krikorian on Twitter Thursday:

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