News for the foodie/NY blog scene: Ben Leventhal, co-founder of the influential Eater blog, is headed to GE’s NBC Universal, where he’ll oversee “lifestyle content” for NBC’s growing local Web unit.
Last week, Jeff Bezos made $2 billion in one day, courtesy of a massive spike in Amazon shares. That gives him more money to plow into the likes of Aviary, a Long Island-based company that makes design software. The Amazon CEO has made a second investment in the company as part of a $7 million round led by Spark Capital.
Yet another sign that revenue-free start-ups can still attract investors, given the right pitch: Boxee, the software company that makes it easy to get Web video onto your TV, has raised a $6 million B round led by General Catalyst. I’m told the new round pegs the company’s value in the $25 million to $30 million range. What’s the appeal? The chance that the company could play a role in the disruption of the $70 billion TV business.
Web video companies that wanted to take on YouTube are having a very hard time. But Web video isn’t going away, either, and there has to be some way to make it work for users, publishers and investors. Right?
Hence, another round of funding for 5min, a video start-up that just raised a $7.5 million B round. New investor Globespan Capital Partners led the round, and Spark Capital, the VC shop that has made several video bets (along with a big one in Twitter) made a second investment.
Now that Joost has given up the ghost and bailed out of the Web video portal business, who’s next? A good bet: Veoh, one of the best-funded would-be YouTubes. Multiple sources tell me the company is aggressively marketing itself to would-be buyers, and it’s asking for less than the $70 million investors like Michael Eisner have plowed into the company. Meanwhile, rival MetaCafe is looking for a “strategic investor.”
A system to speed elite travelers through airports shuts down after four years and $116 million. Its failure will rub some shine off a couple of well-known media types: The entrepreneur behind Court TV and some of the primary investors behind Twitter.
Earlier this year, casual game site OMGPOP raised $5 million from venture capitalists. Now it’s trying to extract some cash from its users.
Give the Twitter guys credit for honesty: Asked to explain how their big-hype, zero-revenue company will make money, as we did at last week’s All Things Digital conference. and they’ll cheerfully admit that they’re not sure. At least one of their investors seems to be equally unfazed, though Spark Capital’s Bijan Sabet predicts that the company’s plans will become clearer in the next 18 months.
Video site Veoh, one of the biggest players in the “who will be the next YouTube” competition, is restructuring the company, laying off a good chunk of its staff and replacing CEO Steve Mitgang with founder Dmitry Shapiro. Shapiro says the company, which has been primarily focused on playing video and selling ads on its own site, will now be concentrating on a new “Video Compass” player that users will have to download onto their Web browsers in order to use.
Web start-ups that plan to make money from advertising are having a rough time raising money. But Web start-ups that say they’ll do it by charging customers something? Still possible.
Today’s example: OMGPOP, the casual gaming site formerly known as iminlikewithyou, which has raised a $5 million in a round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.
Just in case anyone was wondering: Hulu, the Web video service that lets you watch Fox and NBC shows on your computer, really doesn’t want you to plug that computer into your TV. And Boxee, a start-up that makes it easy for you to plug your computer into your TV so you can watch Web video, doesn’t care.
And they say bloggers don’t work! I had to get off my sickbed today to call David Karp, the CEO of Tumblr, and ask him if he really was in talks to sell his company to Yahoo, as Gawker/Valleywag reported. For the record, Karp says the report is “categorically untrue.”
Tumblr is exactly the kind of start-up that’s supposed to be gasping for air in today’s dismal economy: A trendy but niche Web service with a prominent founder and exactly zero revenue. Instead, it has raised a $4.5 million funding round from Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital, which values the company at around $15 million.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
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