VentureBeat

(Updated, rumor that Backfence is shutting down is wrong, see fresh post here)

Roelof Botha is one of the hotter venture capitalists these days. The Sequoia Capital venture capitalist led that firm’s investment into video-sharing site YouTube — and saw that company sold within a year to Google for $1.65 billion.

Now he’s apparently reviewing the progress of his companies. Palo Alto’s Meebo, the site that lets people use integrate their instant messaging service online, has been out raising money for a while. One investor told us he was shut out from investing, suggesting Meebo is doing fine. Not hearing anything, we looked up chief executive Seth Sternberg. He says Meebo will raise the second round this quarter. So apparently Meebo is being given more time to figure out how to make cash — a nice counter-story to the current pain.

Botha also invested in Redwood City, Calif.’s Insider Pages, a site where users can go and share local reviews on everything from restaurants to doctors. Rumors are that it has laid off two-third of its staff, and we’ve messaged the company to see if it is true. Insider Pages competes with a growing number of community review oriented sites, including Yelp, Judy’s Book, Smalltown and BackFence.

The company has raised $10 million from Sequoia, Softbank and Idealab, and only last year moved to Redwood City from Pasadena.

Here’s a a graphic (scroll to bottom) showing a market matrix of local sites, including Insider Pages (with Smalltown putting itself at the sweet-spot, since it is Smalltown’s graphic). In reality, they all overlap significantly.

[Update II: We hear from a source that Backfence CEO is resigning and 12 of 18 people have been laid off, and the company is closing. We've put in calls to the company. No one answered when we called their Virginia office, 11am their time. Until confirmation, we'll keep this in rumor category. Update III: Something is definitely up. Even someone we know well there is declining comment. Update IV: Layoffs confirmed, but it is staying open. Fresh post coming shortly ]

In other Web 2.0 news, Tagworld doesn’t appear to be doing too well. The Los Angeles social networking company has taken down its management page. We’ve messaged the company, to find out more. Draper Fisher Jurvetson invested $7.5 million into the company. [Update II: On the contrary, someone very close to the company tells VentureBeat the company got a "huge investment" last month from a well-known company]

Meanwhile, more executives are leaving video site Guba, as it looks for a buyer. And another exec has left Wallop, another social networking site.

[In other Sequoia news, the firm has taken down the picture of Elon Musk, a co-founder of Pay Pal from its homepage, where the firm showcases some of its successes. This is apparently a response to Valleywag, which pointed out how Musk was the only one of the PayPal founders pictured -- and noting how other early players such as Max Levchin and Peter Thiel weren't represented. There are big differences among the founders about who should take credit for PayPal's early years, and so Sequoia -- prudently perhaps -- decided to dodge the issue, rather than further endanger its already frosty relationship with Thiel.]

See our earlier Q&A with Botha here.

(Updated with substantial clarifications from Juice co-founder Nick Desai)

Juice Wireless, the New York mobile video-sharing start-up, is still on hunt for financing, raising questions about its prospects amid a retrenchment hitting the video sharing industry in the new year.

Juice is raising a roughly $3.5 million round of financing, now calling it a “bridge” to raise even more capital — in recognition that competition has raised the stakes, and will require more resources.

A month ago, the company told GigaOm it was wrapping up the funding, but VentureWire reports today (sub required) it is still in the process of doing that. Moreover, even after soaking up $5.5 million in previous funding, and raising this next $3.5 million, Juice now plans to raise an additional $7.5 to $12.5 million.

Even after the gigantic success of YouTube (sold to Google for $1.65 billion), it isn’t clear just how these video companies will make money. Some even question whether YouTube would have survived without Google. Granted, video-sharing on the mobile phone, where Juice is more active, is a somewhat different market, but YouTube and others are already expanding there. It isn’t clear how Juice Wireless’ product, JuiceCaster is doing. It also isn’t clear whether its delay in raising venture capital is due to the lack of takers, or a search for venture backers willing to give it money on better terms.

Casualties are mounting. Last month, Mojungle, a site that lets you deliver photos and video to blogs and web sites from your mobile phones, listed itself on ebay for $60,000 (scroll down). It let users deliver video via SMS, MMS and email, but that wasn’t enough to lift it above all the competitors doing similar things (Shozu, Veeker, Mywaves, etc).

Guba, a San Francisco video-sharing start-up that bootstrapped itself and so doesn’t need to answer to investors, has hit rocky times too — even after signing several deals with Hollywood and boasting 300,000 subscribers paying $15 a month. Chief executive Tom McInerney (pictured left) has just stepped down, with the astonishing admission: “I think we can all acknowledge that YouTube has won the big prize….Guba is at a crossroads, and we’re deciding whether to look for funding or to sell. I think we’re inclined to sell.” He said other execs might follow his exit as the company figures out its future. “The billion-dollar opportunity has kind of passed,” McInerney said. “(The executives) are bright, and they’re interested in going for the gold.”

Just a few days ago, we reported the departures of two co-founders of Revver, another video competitor.

As for Juice, the company now says the $3.5 million round will close in late January and will come mainly from existing backer and angel investor group 21Ventures. The continued announcements suggest the company is fishing for other investors (a very public approach, when compared to YouTube’s secretive fund-raising).

21 Ventures’ David Anthony said Juice Wireless has signed deal with AOL in the U.K. and Cricket Communications in the U.S., and has a number of deals with other carriers being finalized, according to VentureWire.

[Update: Co-founder Nick Desai tells VentureBeat that VentureWire's reporting was misleading, and that David Anthony did not say -- or at least did not intend to say -- that the $3.5 million round would be raised by the end of this month. It will close this week, and was easy to raise, Desai said. Moreover, he said Juice is attempting to raise as little capital as possible each time, to be efficient. The $3.5 million will last through most of 2007, he said, and the additional round of capital will only be raised if the company can not find a buyer sometime this year. By raising less cash, Juice can ensure its primary investors a solid return, he said. He said 21 Ventures' Anthony referred to the additional financing in response to a question from VentureWire about what Juice will do if it takes longer than expected to find a buyer. Finally, Desai said he concurs there' s retrenchment underway in video sharing, but that Juice considers itself in a different industry, letting people upload photos and videos to their channel on Juice, but also to friends and other sites. Juice does not seek to be a destination site.]

Beginning today (Monday), CNBC is relaunching its web site, so that you can watch the programming from your computer — and it’s adding hours of live video not available until now.

To see all there is, go to the site and click on the various tabs. The company took us through a feature demonstration last week, and it’s extensive. CNBC has hired 55 more reporters and others editors for this; they’ll be posting 75 new videos each day.

It features between three and eight hours a live programming in a box at the top left hand side (see screen shot below). There’s a video player that you can place on your desktop to watch the live video. In the video player lower down (bottom right), there will be featured video news clips, and on other pages the video player will show clips relevant to accompanying stories.

The new CNBC will also feature a live newscast “Market in a Minute” at the top and bottom of each hour. The site will carry extensive blogging. A monthly subscription of $9.95 a month to “CNBC Plus” will provide three commericial-free live streams: CNBC U.S., CNBC Asia Pacific, and CNBC Europe.