PodTech purchased by ViewPartner for less than half a million, ending a bloody story
Updated, including the full press release, below the article.
PodTech, a company that publishes online and downloadable videos about new technology, has been sold — for less than half a million dollars, I’ve learned — to ViewPartner, a communications technology company.
This is sad. In 2007, the Palo Alto, Calif. company was expecting to make $7 million in revenue by the end of the year, mostly through sponsorship deals with large technology companies, from what a source… Continue Reading
Facebook roundup: Hedge funds invest $500 million, and more
[See update; a good source tells VentureBeat this story isn't true, no deal has been closed]
Two un-named hedge funds may have invested $250 million each into Facebook, according to Forbes blogger Elizabeth Corcoran.
These deals apparently happened in tandem with the $240 million that Microsoft invested into Facebook, announced yesterday. Corcoran says the hedge funds invested at the same $15 billion valuation as Microsoft.
The numbers, if true, mean that Facebook now has $750 million in the… Continue Reading
Surprise: chief executives out at Podtech, Technorati
The chief executives of PodTech, a tech-news company, and Technorati, a blog search engine, separately announced their departures today — neither move is unexpected from these formerly high-flying companies
Both launched a couple of years ago, when the promise of podcasting and blogging were exciting but not well understood. They both made big bets about the evolution of the web that have — from what we can tell — turned out to be off.
Podtech’s John Furrier… Continue Reading
Podtech takes on more debt — but must decide whether fish or fowl
updated
Plenty is being written about the woes of podcast company Podtech.
Now the company tells us it is taking on more debt, and will be making an announcement soon. This follows a recent $2 million round of fresh capital reported last week.
Podtech, a San Mateo, Calif. launched more than a year ago to create content that could be streamed to viewers, and planned to find advertising to insert inside of the content.
It was never clear… Continue Reading
Two more video companies: National Banana, RockinCat
Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists continue to pump money into new video companies, even though there are hundreds, if not thousands, of video sites already out there.
The latest include National Banana, a site that produces serial comedy videos, and RockinCat, music videos from the Sunset Strip.
National Banana’s videos are produced by Hollywood’s Jerry Zucker, known for satirical movies “Airplane” and “Naked Gun.” Like Revision3, another video company, National Banana is bringing its comedy in episodes.
You might… Continue Reading
PodShow raises $15M more for….podcasting. Yikes!
Podshow, a company that promotes podcasts and finds sponsors for them, has raised $15 million more in a second round of venture capital from its big-name investors, following up on $8.85 million in a first round last summer.
Dan Primack has the scoop.
This is, frankly, surprising, because the business model still hasn’t been proven for this medium. This is a lot of money. There are other players out there, too, like Odeo (funding from Charles River… Continue Reading
Dogster raises $1M to expand — Woof! — but it’s not about the dogs
About a year ago, Dogster, the social networking site for dogs, made some eyebrow-raising news: It had turned profitable.
Now Dogster has raised a round of $1 million from a group of accomplished “angel” investors, to help it step on the gas.
In talking with founder and chief executive Ted Rheingold, we began to discover the real magic behind the site: It is all about the dogs, but then it isn’t really. Sure, dog owners are flocking… Continue Reading