LinkedIn Competitor Viadeo Raises €5 MillionViadeo, a European
social network for business contacts which is quite similar in idea and execution to LinkedIn, has raised a further €5 million in
funding from its existing investors, AGF Private Equity and Ventech. The extra cash will be used to fuel the growth of Viadeo in Asia; so far, the network has been doing very well in Europe, with over 1.3 million members.
DailyMotion Raises $34 Million; Another Copyright Infringing Success StoryFrench social video site DailyMotion has
raised a $34 million round from Advent Venture Partners LLP and AGF Private Equity, a division of Allianz AG. The new round comes on top of $9.5 million in previous
financing from Atlas Ventures and Partech International. The round puts DailyMotion’s total financing beyond that of their competitors, even
MetaCafe’s $45 million total financing. Dailymotion’s executive chairman, Mark Zaleski, said the new funds will ‘allow us to reach
operating profitability‘.
VersionTracker Acquired by CNETVersionTracker, an online publication for
software updates, has been
acquired by CNET. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. With this integration deal, VersionTracker and its sister sites iPhone Atlas and MacFixIt will be incorporated into the CNET family as well. This gives VersionTracker a larger audience and access to more resources, while CNET expands its niche sites and grows its offerings of Mac information on the web.
Microsoft Acquires Enterprise Group Chat Company ParlanoMicrosoft has announced that it has agreed to
acquire Chicago-based Parlano, the maker of the
enterprise group chat platform
MindAlign. Microsoft said that it would use Parlano’s
group chat functionality to improve Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator.
SayNow Lands $7.5 Million Series ASayNow, a service that enables ‘
celebrities to connect to their audience over the phone’ will announce $7.5 million
Series A funding September 12, in a round led by Shasta Partners. Tugboat Ventures’ Dave Whorton, a SayNow advisor since early 2006, also participated in the round as did Costella Kirsch. Rob Coneybeer, MD of Shasta Ventures will join the SayNow board of directors …
Zivity’s Model Contest Site Raises $1M in FundingZivity, the
social network aiming to be a user-generated Playboy Magazine online, has received $1 million in funding in a Series A round of funding, from
private investors. We mentioned Zivity yesterday and you can read about it
here… The New York Times to Acquire Freakanomics Blog, and MoreThe New York Times is acquiring the popular
Freakanomics blog, which was launched as a sort of spin-off to the success of the book, keeping up with its momentum. This will be the first blog that the New York Times acquires and adds to its larger media family, but there’s word that the newspaper plans to
acquire even more blogs in the not-too-distant future. Seems like blogs are getting acquired left and right these days, which is good for the creators, writers and publishers of these blogs, and good for the economics surrounding the
blogosphere.
TheFind.com Acquires GlimpseShopping search engine startup
TheFind has
acquired the high-fashion shopping site Glimpse.com for an undisclosed amount. It’s an early deal for Glimpse, which just launched this year. TheFind is a comparison
shopping search engine that crawls many shopping sites across the internet (190 million products at over 500,000 stores).
Maya’s Mom Acquired by BabyCenterMaya’s Mom, the
social networking site for mothers, has been
acquired by BabyCenter, the mom-centric parenting network, making this its first acquisition. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. According to the deal, Maya’s Mom will remain a standalone product, and its back-end software will be utilized across BabyCenter’s network of global websites.
SeatSmart’s Ticket Search Funded in Angel RoundSeatSmart, the search engine dedicated to finding
tickets for concerts, games and events, has raised a round of
angel funding for an undisclosed amount. The company is a ticket search aggregator of sorts, perusing Stubhub, Razorgator, eBay, and other major ticket-selling sites to bring you a variety of search results.
Jaxtr Closes $10 Million Series A; Announces 1 Million UsersJaxtr has raised a $10 million Series A round led by August Capital with Mayfield Fund, Draper Richards, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Luxemburg-based Mangrove Capital participating. They’ve also doubled their registered user base over last month, totalling 1 million users. They plan on getting to a break even point on the
investment and to total 20 million users by the end of next year.
SpiceWorks Raises $8 Million; Google Adsense Even Supports IT SoftwareIT software maker SpiceWorks just closed an $8 million in series B financing. The funding round was led by Shasta Ventures with participation from Spiceworks series A investor, Austin Ventures. Their series A was $5 million. Shasta Ventures co-founder and managing director, Ravi Mohan, and former Dell senior executive, John Hamlin, have joined the Spiceworks board of directors. The money will be used to support over 120,000 users as well as
software development and sales and marketing.
Wis.dm Raises $5M for Bookmarking and Media-Sharing SiteWis.dm, the
social bookmarking and media-sharing site that’s relaunched with a Q&A slant, has received $5 million in funding. The funding was provided by North Bridge Venture Partners, with its Michael Skok joining the board.
MocoSpace Raises $3M for Mobile NetworkMocoSpace, a
mobile social network, has received $3 million in a
Series A round of funding. The round was led by General Catalyst, and Pilot Group and Michael Daring, a former eBay executive, participated as well. The funding will be used to expand the company’s sales and marketing.
Fotolog Acquired by Hi Media, French Ad NetworkEXCLUSIVE: We had
previously speculated that New York-based Fotolog would be the next one to get
acquired. And we were right. It has been acquired by Hi Media, a Paris-based interactive media company for roughly $90 million - a combination of cash and stock, according to well-placed sources. The announcement is likely to be made later today.
FM Raises Another $4.5M; Are They Having Difficulty Filling Inventory?Reports from
PEHub and
Mashable indicate a new $4.5 million
Series B round of funding for Federated Media. Congrats! Federated Media provides
advertising for some of the world’s largest blogs including: TechCrunch (TC is in “open warfare” and looking for a replacement), Read/WriteWeb, GigaOm, Mashable, ArsTechnica, TechDirt and about 100 other blogs.
DivX Acquires Veatros to Create Enhanced Video Search & Discovery for the HomeDivX has
acquired Veatros, creators of a video identification technology, for $4.25 million. The acquisition of Veatros will be used for DivX to create an improved
video search and discovery service on the DivX Connected platform, incorporating metadata like cover art, information on videos’ directors and actors, and titles.
LendingClub To Close $10.26 Million Series APeer to peer lending service Lending Club will close a $10.26 million
series A round of financing from Norwest Venture Partners and Canaan Partners tomorrow. This comes a few months after the company’s $2 million angel round. Coinciding with the investment, Jeff Crowe and Dan Ciporin (former ceo of shopping.com) are joining Lending Club’s board of directors.
Conduit Labs Closes $5.5 Million Series A FundingConduit Labs, a yet-to-launch gaming
virtual world, just closed a $5.5 million series A round with Charles River Ventures and Prism Venture Works. In addition to the financing, CRV’s Susan Wu and Prism’s Will Kohler have joined the company’s Board of Directors.
SINOHUB Receives New RMB 23.5 Million Letter of Credit Line from Commercial Industrial BankSinoHub Technology Company, Ltd. today announced that it has successfully closed a RMB 23.5 Million
Letter of Credit facility with the Commercial Industrial Bank . The company will use the funds to expand its electronic component
procurement fulfillment business in China. Already a leading company in the rapidly growing field of electronic component supply chain management services in China (import, buffer inventory, procurement fulfillment, VMI, just-in-time delivery, export and other services), SinoHub will use these funds to propel itself into a dominant position in this field.
StreetBee Acquires JamJunky; Rebrands as GetYourGrooveOnStreetBee has
acquired JamJunky, a
music composition review service. CN
reviewed the service when it launched three months ago and JamJunky added a
Facebook application in July. CN described JamJunky as, ‘Basically JamJunky is a way for you to upload your own authored music and get feedback from your friends and other song writers to help perfect your songs.’
Google reveals stake in Chinese social Web siteGoogle revealed on Monday that it had
acquired a stake in Chinese community Web site Tianya.cn, indicating a foray by the global search leader into
social networking in the world’s second-largest Internet market.
Global Grind’s Pageflakes Clone Raises $4.5M in Series A RoundGlobal Grind, the niche start page for
hip-hop news and information, has raised $4.5 million in a
Series A round of funding. The round was led by Accel Ventures. New York-based Global Grind was founded by three creators of 360hiphop, which is a social network which was acquired by BET Interactive.
The Filter Brings Home $5M in Second Round of FundingThe Filter, a UK-based
music recommendation company, has received $5 million in a
second round of funding. Peter Gabriel has led the round, along with Eden Ventures, with both parties participating in the first round of funding, bringing the grand total to $6.8 million.
TripAdvisor Reportedly Acquires Where I’ve Been for $3 MillionIn what is by far the largest Facebook
application acquisition to date, travel company TripAdvisor has reportedly
acquired Where I’ve Been from Craig Ulliott for $3 million. The acquisition marks the first major successful exit of a Facebook application since the Platform launched just under three months ago. With 2.3 million users,
Where I’ve Been established itself as by far the biggest
travel application on Facebook, leading #2
Cities I’ve Visited (also TripAdvisor owned) by over 1 million users.
Kongregate Closes $5 Million Series A For Casual GamingCasual gaming community
Kongregate has closed a $5 million series A round led by Greylock today. This is on top of a $1 million angel round they raised from Reid Hoffman, Joe Kraus, Jeff Clavier and Richard Wolpert, among others. The
casual gaming category consists of all those addictive online
flash games that often distract you during your downtime (remember desktop tower defense?). James Slavet of Greylock pegs the casual game market at $500 million and expects it to grow even larger.
MTVN Acquires Another LGBT NetworkMTV Networks has acquired
DowneLink, a
multicultural, LGBTQ (Lesbian / Gay / Bisexual / Transgender / Questioning)
social networking site. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. DowneLink has a reported 400,000 members, more than 72% of which are African-American, Asian or Latino, making it a good buy for MTVN, which seems to be broadening its scope of LGBT sites and demographics.
YFonGlobal Acquiring Splinternet HoldingsYFonGlobal, the turn key, white label solution for
social networks and their necessary platforms, has begun the process of acquiring Splinternet Holdings, the developer of
Internet telephony products and services. The financials of the deal were not disclosed, but the deal is scheduled to close within the next two months.
SocialMedia Raises $1M for Facebook App NetworkSocialMedia, the aforementioned Facebook apps and MySpace
widgets company that will combine hosting, promotion and an
ad network, has raised $1 million in funding in a round led by CRV Ventures, SoftTech VC and the Hitforge seed fund.
Doppelganger Gets $11M in New FundingDoppelgagner, the company that offers programmed
virtual worlds for the teen demographic, has raised $11 million in funding, led by new investor ComVentures, and existing investors Draper Fisher Jurveston, Trident Capital, Draper Richards, KPG Ventures and Greycroft Partners. That brings the grand total to $25 million.
Diet Television Trims Name, Takes $2 MillionLater this week,
weight loss community Diet Television will announce it’s shortened its name to DietTv.com and raised a $2 million series A. The round was led by MentorTech Ventures.
Kontera closes second round, faces competition by Vibrant Media and LinkedWordsKontera, an Israel-based startup (officially headquartered in San Francisco), is raising $10.3 Million second round from Sequoia and other investors. It seems that the
ad networks online are very hot these past months after the major
acquisitions done by Google, Microsoft, AOL and others.
VOIP Startup Fring Raises $12 Million Series BIsraeli-based
VOIP start-up Fring has closed an estimated $12 million second round, led by US VC fund North Bridge Venture Partners. VenFin and previous investors Pitango, Veritas and Yossi Vardi also participated. If the investment estimate is accurate, it would be one of the larger rounds for a VOIP company.
Technology Blog Xconomy FundedXconomy, a Boston-area-based technology and news
blog, has received funding in a Series A round, led by CommonAngels. CommonAngels is an investment group in Lexington, MA, and it contributed funds from its investment pool as well as individual members. The financial terms were not disclosed.
CyclingTV Acquired by JumpTVJumpTV, an online
video aggregator, has acquired
CyclingTV for around $4.95 million, which is broken down into $2.21 million in cash, and $2.74 million in common stock, to be issued later this year.
The NBC and News Corp. joint venture Gets $100M in FundingThe NBC and News Corp.
joint venture, which has been dubbed the
YouTube Killer, has received $100 million in funding from Rhode Island-based investment firm Providence Equity Partners.
Pay Per Call Company VoiceStar Acquired by MarchexPay per call advertising service
VoiceStar has been acquired by local advertising company Marchex. Marchex total anticipated investment to
acquire VoiceStar will be $28 million, consisting of approximately $20 million in transaction consideration and $8 million in company investment.
Blockbuster Desperate To Do Something, Buys A LoserBlockbuster announced the
acquisition of movie download site
Movielink this evening. The price is not being disclosed (meaning it isn’t ‘material’ to Blockbuster’s shareholders), although the Wall Street Journal
says it was less than $20 million.
Pickle Purchased For $4.1 MillionPhoto and
video-sharing site
Pickle.com has been
purchased by Scripps Networks for a reported $4.1 million. Scripps is the company behind many lifestyles brands like DIY, the Food Network, HGTV, and Great American Country. This is their second web purchase after Recipezaar last month.
JS-Kit Closes $1.2 Million Seed RoundWeb widget provider
JS-Kit has been doing a lot of growing up since starting as a simple commenting
widget, founder Lev Walkin’s pet project in his off hours. Since then, that single widget has grown into a company with the addition of CEO Kris Loux, 12 engineers from Filmloop, and today’s $1.2 million round of financing led by the Entrepreneur’s Fund III.
Scrybe Closes Series AScrybe, the online/offline
calendar and organizer, has closed their
series A round of financing from Adobe Systems Incorporated and LMKR. In what is becoming an annoying trend, the company is not disclosing the size of the round.
Kaboodle Acquired by Hearst MagazinesKaboodle, the
social shopping site that looked like a better fit
for eBay than a media conglomerate, has been
acquired by Hearst Corporation for an undisclosed amount. Kaboodle had taken $5 million in first round funding from 10 investors including Ron Conway.
Acquisition for ClipmarksNew York based Clipmarks, a del.icio.us-like
social bookmarking service, may have been
acquired by Forbes. We have no information on the size of the transaction, but my guess is that it was on the very low side. The service allows users to bookmark all or a portion of a web page and annotate it.
Amie Street Closes Series A Financing Led By Amazon.comSocial
music marketplace Amie Street has closed a
Series A round of financing led by Amazon.com, along with some new partnerships and a site redesign. The amount of Amazon’s investment and the terms are not disclosed.
Worldwide Biggies Funded by NBC and HearstWorldwide Biggies, a
digital entertainment studio headed by former Nickelodeon and Spike TV President Albie Hecht, has closed a $9 million
Series A round of funding. The round was led by NBC Universal and Platform Equity, also getting a large chunk of that change from Hearst Corporation, Alan Patricoft’s Greycroft Partners and Prism Venture works.
Insightful Corporation Sells InFactInsightful Corporation (NASDAQ: IFUL), announced today the sale of its InFact
search technology and associated
intellectual property rights to Hypertext Solutions Inc. for $3.65 million in cash. Hypertext is a Seattle-based startup company focused on making information on the web more ‘intelligent’. The transaction closed today.
College Boy Stalwart eBaum’s World Bought For $17.5MToday San Francisco-based HandHeld Entertainment says it is
acquiring Rochester, NY-based eBaum’s World. HandHeld said it will pay $17.5M for eBaum’s World ($15M in cash, $2.5M in stock, and $2.5M in stock with a one-year hold back.) The company also said that it may pay up to $32.5M in earnouts over three years to the owner’s of eBaum’s world.
Online Travel White Labeler EZRez Raises $15MEzRez was founded in 2002 in Honolulu, Hawaii where it built a white label system for regional
airlines, wholesalers, rental car companies, hotels, activity providers and more. Today the company raised $15M led by
Canaan Partners with Azure Capital Partners and existing investors.
Content Personalization Widget Maker Minekey Raises First $3MSunnyvale, CA-based Minekey has raised $3M in Series A funding for their
personalized news recommendation widget. The funding round was led by NEA IndoUS Ventures, which had previously invested $600K in a
seed round.
Stealth Mode TuneUp Media Raises VC Funding To Help You Manage Your Music FilesGabe Adiv, who previously worked the biz dev levers at Gracenote, has a new startup in stealth mode called TuneUp Media, that he claims has raised
VC funding. What problem will the startup address? Our digital music lives are too complex the company finds and needs a better system.
Associated Content Raises $10M For Crowd-sourced NewsNYC-based Associated Content has raised $10M in a 2nd round from
Canaan Partners. The company is slightly controversial because of the backing of Google sales exec Tim Armstrong who invested in the company’s first $5.4M round and is back in at this round along with Softbank.
Streetline Funded For Smart Cities TechStreetline has completed pilot projects and studies for Los Angeles and San Francisco. The LA project has learned that despite two-hour time limits, the average driver stays parked for four hours. In San Francisco, Streetline learned that only 5.4% of
parking violations in San Francisco receive tickets. Streetline has raised $250K+ so far from individual investors including Internet pioneer Gordon Bell and it is planning a Series A round. They indicate on job postings that they have raised
venture capital so that round may be closed but the company has not responded to confirm.
DecisionView Announces $7 Million in Series C InvestmentDecisionView, Inc., the leading provider of
business performance optimization applications for the Life Sciences industry, today announced the close of a $7 million
Series C round of funding led by new investor, firstVentury, as well as existing investors Partech International and Granite Ventures.
Accoona Files for IPOInternet company Accoona Corp. filed Friday for an
initial public offering of its common stock. The Jersey City, N.J.-based company said it expects to use proceeds from the offering for research and development, business expansion and general corporate purposes. Accoona may also use a portion of the proceeds to acquire or invest in complementary companies and technologies.
SEM Firm iCrossing Buys Web Builder ProxicomArizona-based SEM giant iCrossing has
acquired Proxicom for an un-disclosed amount from Gores Technology. The deal was financed by a
funding round last week by iCrossing where it raised $62M from Goldman Sachs and some VC firms.
Compete Ups Ante With $10M In FundingToday Compete has raised another
round of funding at $10M in Series III funding from return
backers Charles River Ventures, idealab, Split Rock Partners and William Blair Capital Partners. Compete has raised $43M since 2000.
Disney Acquires Club Penguin For Up To $700 millionClub Penguin, a
social network /
virtual world that has been on the market for some time, was
acquired by The Walt Disney Company and announced today. An earlier deal with Sony fell apart over valuation and Club Penguin’s policy of donating a substantial portion of profits to
charity. The company, which launched in October 2005, has 700,000 current paid subscribers and 12 million activated users, primarily in the U.S. and Canada.
Discovery Acquires TreeHugger.com For $10millionDiscovery Communications has announced the
acquisition of
TreeHugger.com for what is believed to be $10 million. TreeHugger.com started as an environmentally focused blog in 2004 and grew to include forums,
green guides and other related features. The site sits in the Top 20 blogs worldwide according to Technorati and is said to have 1.4 million unique visitors a month. Alexa ranks the site at 5,395.
PayScale Gets $10.3M in Series C Round of FundingPayScale is an online service that lets you know how you compare to others that do the same job as you. It’s just raised another $1.5 million in a
Series C round of funding, led by SAP Ventures. This closes the round at $10.3 million. Previous investors include Allen & Co., Corporate Executive Board, Trinity Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, Fluke Venture Partners and Buerk Dale Victor.
Vringo Raises $12M in Series B FundingVringo, the
video ringtone provider, has closed on a $12 million Series B round of
venture capital funding. The round was led by Warburg Pincus, a global equity firm. The funding will be used to take Vringo around the world, as it expands markets in the US, Europe and Asia.
Curse Raises $5M in Series A for MMOG NetworkCurse, the
gaming portal, has received $5 million in a
Series A round of funding. The round was led by a French venture capital firm AGF Private Equity, and some angel investors participated as well. The MMOG company already raised about $800,000 in funding from
angel investors prior to this Series A round.
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EPR Network BlogLabels: DailyMotion, Fotolog, Freakanomics, Jaxtr, LinkedIn, MocoSpace, Parlano, SayNow, SeatSmart, SpiceWorks, TheFind.com, VersionTracker, Wis.dm
