Carl Freer
| Carl Freer | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Carl Johan Freer 9 May 1970 |
| Residence | Los Angeles, California |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, businessman |
Carl Johan Freer (born 9 May 1970) is a Swedish businessman and technology entrepreneur primarily known for founding the American company Tiger Telematics, which created the handheld game console Gizmondo, named by GamePro as the worst selling handheld console in history. Freer is also the founder of Singapore-based medical-device company, Aluminaid and co-author of several patents.
Freer founded Tiger Telematics, an electronics company that launched in 2002, raised over £160 million, and reached a market cap over $1 billion before it dissolved in 2006, due to the massive sales failure of its handheld console, the Gizmondo, named by GamePro as the worst selling handheld console in history.
Freer managed the development, launch and promotion of the Gizmondo. Freer was Chairman of the Tiger Telematics board of directors until he resigned in October 2005 pending publication of an article in the Swedish press. By 6 February 2006, the company was forced into compulsory liquidation and Gizmondo was discontinued. Other ventures included Xero Mobile—which had a service that automatically billed advertisers based on the number of marketing messages viewed by users—and Getfugu, which developed an application that enabled consumers to retrieve web content without typing a website address or search term into a browser. Freer co-founded a crowdsourcing networking website for filmmakers, financiers, actors and fans called FilmFunds as well as the Family Tree Foundation. In 2008, Carl Freer hosted a seminar at Georgia Institute of Technology entitled "High Tech Ventures in Mobile Gaming and Media". Freer discussed his experiences, his plans for a potential rebirth of Gizmondo as well as his plans for the development of new mobile video technologies. The event took place as part of GA Tech's GVU Center Lecture series. Later that year, a relaunch of Gizmondo was aborted. In 2010, Freer co-founded Aluminaid, which makes metal-based bandages to relieve pain in patients with first- and second-degree burns.
In 2005, Freer was fined £135,000 by a court in Stuttgart, Germany for canceling check payments in a transaction with a car dealer. Freer claimed he cancelled the cheques because he "thought he was being sold stolen cars".
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