NBC Universal grabbing at women, buys Oxygen Media for $925M
NBC Universal said it will pay $925 million to acquire Oxygen Media, the female-focused cable network co-founded by Oprah Winfrey, continuing NBC’s aggressive effort to own the female demographic.
NBC already owns iVillage, one of the largest women-oriented content and advertising sites online, which NBC bought last year for $600 million. The female online demographic online has become one of the more sexy lately, boasting high growth rates. As viewers move online, Oxygen should stand to… Continue Reading
Roundup: Joost’s API, Fliqz’s easy video toolbar, NBC-iTunes rift, more
Here’s this morning’s roundup of the latest action:
Joost opens widget API to developers: Joost, the oft-hyped online video site started by the founders of Skype, has soft-launched an application programming interface this week. It is trying to get third-party developers to build widgets on top of its online TV network so Joost users can do more with the site’s data.
The company already has sample widgets available on its test site, including a “What’s Similar” widget… Continue Reading
Providence invests $100M into NBC-News Corp. video site
The YouTube-like site being formed by NBC Universal and News Corporation has received $100 in financing from a Rhode Island investment firm, Providence Equity Partners.
The New York Times’ Brad Stone has the story, saying the deal places a value of $1 billion on the venture, an astonishingly high valuation for a joint venture that has made surprisingly little progress since it was announced several months ago. The site, planned by NBC and News Corp. to… Continue Reading
WorldWide Biggies latest company to join video bubble
Albie Hecht, a well-known producer for some Paramount’s successes (including Academy Award nominee Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events, the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie), has just gotten a whopping $9 million in a first round of financing for his new entertainment studio company.
Investors in New York’s WorldWide Biggies, as it is called, include NBC Universal, Hearst Corporation, Alan Patricof’s Greycroft LLC, Platform Equity and PrismVentureWorks.
It’s difficult to count the number of new video studios that… Continue Reading
Healthline gets $21M more to extend health search engine
Giant players such as Google and Microsoft already provide health care-focused search sites, but they aren’t that impressive.
San Francisco’s Healthline, however, is focusing solely on health search, and is making surprising headway. It has six million monthly unique users, and is the only search engine among the top-twenty U.S. health-related sites — with the exception of Yahoo Health (see list below). And with healthcare a very important part of the economy, there’s a land-grab going… Continue Reading
Roundup: Solar-motorbike, Webwag, Marchex, Google Gadget Ventures, more
Here’s the latest (updated) action:
The solar-powered motorbike from SunRed in Spain — Read the little story about how the company hopes to make a prototype soon, and needs venture capital to do so.
Marchex launches huge Web site — The public company said it has launched more than 100,000 local and vertical Web sites, publishing more than one billion pages of content for hoping to bait people surfing online. These are third-rate sites, originally filled with advertising, but… Continue Reading
Ad network Adify gets $19M to build out vertical ad network model
Adify, the Belmont, Calif. company offering an online advertising network product that charges a lower fee to publishers, said it has raised $19 million in a second round of financing today.
That’s a lot of cash, but is probably necessary to keep Adify in the running, now that the industry is filled with all sorts of competitors.
The round was led by US Venture Partners, and includes previous investor Venrock Associates, and a strategic financing from GE… Continue Reading