Sports site The Active Network raises $80 million, for more acquisitions
The Active Network, a company that offers sports community sites like Active.com, has raised an $80 million fifth round of funding, led by existing investor and strategic partner ESPN, with additional funding from venture firms.
The San Diego-based company offers a range of events, marketing and online community services based around participatory sports. It was founded in 1998 and tried to IPO in 2004 before pulling back. It currently makes most of its $102 million in revenue through event transactions, according to what Techcrunch hears.
The company has already raised at least $275 million over its ten-year history. The new funding is for more acquisitions, which the company has already made eleven of since last year.
Canaan Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Performance Equity Partners also participated in this round.
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About the Author, Eric Eldon
Eric currently covers digital media technology and business news, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He also writes and edits stories about venture capital, and lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers. The startup didn't work out, but he learned a lot.