Om Prakash Malik (

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

: ॐ प्रकाश मलिक; born September 29, 1966) is an

Indian-American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, who are also referred to as "Indians" or "Am ...

web and technology writer. He founded and wrote content for

Gigaom Gigaom is a technology-focused analyst firm and media company. It was founded by Om Malik in San Francisco, California. In March 2015, it was shut down and in June 2015, its website and content were acquired by Knowingly and relaunched. History ...

, which he sold in 2015 after it faced financial difficulty. He authored the book ''Broadbandits: Inside the $750 Billion Telecom Heist'' and articles by Malik have been published by ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', ''

Brandweek ''Brandweek'' is a three-day brand marketing symposium and a part of Adweek, Llc. It was also previously a weekly American marketing trade publication that was published between 1986 and April 2011. Profile Brandweek is a part of Adweek, cover ...

'', and ''

Crain Communications Crain Communications Inc. is an American publishing conglomerate based in Detroit, Michigan, United States, with 13 foreign subsidiaries. History Gustavus Dedman "G.D." Crain Jr. ( Gustavus Demetrious Crain Jr.; 1885–1973), previously the ci ...

''. He is now a partner at True Ventures.

Biography

Early life and education

Malik was born in and grew up in middle-class family in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

. He graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi affiliated with

Delhi University The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

in 1986, with an honors degree in

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

Career

After graduating, Malik had several journalism positions in

, including with ''VP Fun'' and Newsmen Features, where he specialized in lifestyle features. He moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and then spent time in Eastern Europe. He moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1993 to be a writer for '' India Abroad'' and then for ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

''. He was also a senior writer for ''

Red Herring A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences toward a false conclusion. A red herring may be used intentiona ...

'', focusing on the telecommunications sector. In late 1994, he launched DesiParty.com, an events site for Indian immigrants. Also in 1994, he co-founded the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA). In 1995, he helped launch the now-defunct magazine, ''Masala'', and its website Masala.com, a South Asian portal. In 1997, Malik was on the original team at Forbes.com led by David Churbuck. In 1999, he left Forbes.com to work as an investment manager at Hambrecht & Quist Asia Pacific; his stay there lasted only a few months because he decided he preferred being a writer. In 2000, he moved to

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

to write for '' Business 2.0'' magazine. In 2001, he started

, a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

. The website had a monthly global audience of over 500,000, and was among the top 50 blogs worldwide by

Technorati Technorati is a search engine and a publisher advertising platform. Technorati launched its ad network in 2008. In 2016, Synacor acquired Technorati for $3 million. The company's core product was previously an Internet search engine for search ...

rank. It was listed in the Blog 100 Index by CNET. His book, ''Broadbandits: Inside the $750 Billion Telecom Heist'', was released in 2003. It investigated fraud by telecom companies during the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

. Malik announced on June 12, 2006, that he was going to work on

full-time, although he continued to be a contributing editor and had a regular column in '' Business 2.0'' until its demise in October 2007. In July 2006, Malik wrote a post about

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that was credited as one of the first media coverages of the social networking service. From July 2007 to March 2008, Malik hosted the podcast ''The GigaOm Show'' on

Revision3 Revision3 was a San Francisco, California, San Francisco–based Multi-channel network, multi-channel television network that created, produced and distributed streaming television shows on niche topics. Founded in 2005, it operated as a subsidia ...

with Joyce Kim, which focused on technology and business. Malik was also a frequent guest on the former ''CrankyGeeks'' podcast with John C. Dvorak. Malik left

in January 2014. In March 2015, the company ceased operations due to financial difficulty. In May 2015, it was acquired by Knowingly Corporation.

Personal life

In December 2007, Malik suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

at age 41, likely caused by incessant smoking of cigars and cigarettes as well as drinking alcohol and eating unhealthy foods. The heart attack forced him to reconsider his priorities.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Malik, Om 1966 births 21st-century American non-fiction writers American bloggers American male bloggers American male journalists American male writers of Indian descent American technology writers American writers of Indian descent Indian emigrants to the United States Living people Revision3 Writers from Delhi