Meebo close to raising large round, starts to focus on making money
Instant-message startup Meebo is closing a round that will value it at between $175 million and $200 million, according to a Techcrunch rumor, which says the company has only made $1 million since launching in 2005. And the company’s announcement today that it’s hired a… Continue Reading
Roundup: Quattrone is back and banking, LiveJournal rebellion and more
Frank Quattrone is back as a banker — Quattrone and associates are starting a new boutique investment banking firm, called Qatalyst Group. During the (last) bubble in the ’90s, Quattrone was a top deal-maker, helping many promising (and unpromising) startups of the era go public. Some… Continue Reading
Meebo raising round, valued up to $250 million. Bear Stearns sold for $236 million
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Meebo, the site that lets users send instant messages from a single page — across various IM platforms — is trying to raise $25-$30 million at a nose-bleed valuation of between $200 million and $250 million, I’m hearing from multiple… Continue Reading
Even as Bebo’s big sale happens, lofty valuations will elude other start-ups
Clouds are gathering over Silicon Valley’s consumer internet companies. The sale of social networking company Bebo (our coverage) comes at a time when private investors are changing their tune. They’re no longer pumping money into start-ups at the same huge valuations they were doing last… Continue Reading
Meebo hit its stride in 2007, with growth of Meebo Rooms
Meebo Rooms, the chat room service offered by IM company Meebo, is experiencing eye-popping growth. After just seven months, its attracting well over twice the monthly unique users that Meebo’s own web site gets. And Meebo’s own site is no slouch.
People apparently want to IM… Continue Reading
Meebo introduces real-time chat in Facebook applications
Meebo, the cross-platform instant messaging company, has built a Meebo Rooms widget especially for Facebook applications, which it makes available today.
It is significant because it could help make applications on Facebook more social, thanks to real-time communication. However, it will also let people chat using… Continue Reading
Meebo partners with VideoEgg to help app developers make money
Meebo, the Silicon Valley company that lets you message across multiple IM services from a single Web site, is taking significant pains to make money from its millions of users.
Last month, it launched a way for outside developers to produce games and other content to… Continue Reading
Meebo aims big, introduces games
updated
Meebo, the online instant messaging company, has been picking up users at a rapid rate, breezing along with high-profile backing by VC firm Sequoia Capital.
But its move today to deliver games on its platform is its most ambitious move yet to take it from a… Continue Reading
Meebo introduces developer platform, third party voice and video apps
Instant messaging service Meebo has opened its platform to third party developers, which will put it in competition with Facebook, Google and other communications platforms. The new applications on Meebo already include voice and video services.
We wrote last week, here, that Meebo had a great… Continue Reading
IM service Meebo unveils file sharing
Meebo, provider of a popular instant messaging service, is unveiling a useful service tonight: File sharing.
The Mountain View company is letting users share files with each other, from office documents to photos to music.
Any file under ten megabytes is fair game, although each user is… Continue Reading
Meebo, Google and IMVU fastest growing instant messenging services
Meebo, an instant messaging service, has grown 354 percent between now and ten months ago, according to Nielsen (pdf). Perhaps this is no surprise, considering the range of viral products it has been releasing, such as its embeddable chat rooms.
Other Silicon Valley tech companies also… Continue Reading
Meebo introduces “partner” rooms, featuring music industry
Meebo, a web service that lets you use different instant messaging services from a single page, has been busy working to monetize their month-old IM chat room feature (our previous coverage here).
Partners using Meebo’s online chat rooms on their Web sites (using an embedded Meebo… Continue Reading
Meebo launches Meebo Rooms, to stay ahead
Earlier today, we wrote about the IM players, and noted that start-ups such as Meebo and eBuddy will have to work hard to to keep from getting swallowed by the big guys.
Coincidentally, Meebo had been working quietly on a project that launches tomorrow: Meebo Rooms…. Continue Reading
Instant messaging: feature or product?
Web-based instant messaging services, such as Meebo and eBuddy have had high growth rates over many months. They’ve raked in a lot of funding from hungry VCs. But we see IM becoming a commodity.
So far, these non-aligned startups have offered an advantage. They’ve let everyone… Continue Reading
Roundup: WSJ on sale?, 4Info’s SMS network, plankton, PropertyShark, more
Here’s the latest action:
News Corp makes $5 billion takeover bid for Dow Jones — If the bid is accepted, the owner of Fox News would own the old, gray business media icon, the Wall Street Journal. What next?
PropertyShark takes property snooping a step further — If you… Continue Reading
IM service Meebo growing quickly, raises more cash
Meebo is an instant message service loved by students, because they can use it from any computer, even at school. Its usage keeps growing — it doubled registered users to more than a million over the past three months.
The meta-instant messaging service (it works across… Continue Reading
Web 2.0 shakeout continued: What’s up at Insider Pages, Backfence, Meebo, others?
(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… Continue Reading
“Young Guns” form secret Silicon Valley society
That’s what Rolling Stone wants you to believe, in its latest edition. In a story called “Baby Billionaires of Silicon Valley,” Rolling Stone catches up with a group nine entrepreneurs who get together to strategize. This is another hype job, since none of these people… Continue Reading