Why hasn’t Digg made any progress? It’s worth only $164M now
Has the news site Digg really made no progress in two years?
That’s what you’d have to conclude from the value investors are placing on Digg after their most recent investment: $164 million.
You’ll remember the hyped BusinessWeek article from more than two years ago that reported “people in the know” said the company’s value was “easily worth $200 million.” The reference suggested Digg and its investors were hoping to steer perceptions that it was worth at… Continue Reading
Roundup: Facebook suspends Super Wall, Khosla joins Obama and more
Here’s the latest action:
Facebook suspends RockYou’s Super Wall – The social networking site has turned off the Facebook application’s viral aspects, like invitations and notifications, presumably as part of its efforts to crack down on spammy app activity. RockYou chief executive Lance Tokuda says he’s working with Facebook to get the suspended features restored soon. The move follows the shutdown of RockYou competitor Slide’s Top Friends application at the end of June due to a… Continue Reading
SuccessFactors files for IPO despite mounting losses
SuccessFactors, a San Mateo, Calif. company that provides online management tools for employee performance, has filed for an initial public offering to raise up to $125 million.
Top private investors include Greylock, which owns a 32.3 percent stake, TP Ventures, with 20.1 percent, Cardinal Ventures, with 9.2 percent; Canaan Partners, with 7.6 percent, Emergence Capital Partners with 6.7 percent and Granite Global Ventures, with 5.3 percent.
The company lost $12.6 million during the quarter ended March 31,… Continue Reading
Revision3 raises $8M more for niche TV
Revision3, a San Francisco company creating high-quality video shows on niche topics, has raised $8 million more from investors.
Like several other companies, including Podtech (see our coverage) and Next New Networks (our coverage), its seeks to exploit the trend toward niche video viewing. Revision3’s own slant has been toward serial content, with regular hosts of shows lasting between 20 minutes and an hour. They include the geek show “Diggnation,” and cooking show “Ctrl-Alt-Chicken.” The idea… Continue Reading
Facebook raised $37M, but not under duress
The fast growing social network Facebook confirmed today that it has raised more than $37 million in venture capital to date (something already known), but that it did not do so under duress.
The company was responding to a Times of London story that suggested Facebook was desperately in need of more servers last year to manage its growth, and that it was forced to sell a ten percent stake to Greylock Partners — in order… Continue Reading
Glimpse launches yet another site for women’s online shopping
Glimpse.com, a San Mateo, Calif. online site for women shoppers, has launched, though it has maintained a decidedly quiet public relations stance.
It is just the latest in a string of sites focused on women’s fashion, shopping or news to have raised money, including Glam.com, MyShape.com, SugarPublishing and Real Girls Media.
Glimpse.com, backed by Greylock and Redpoint, declined comment, as did Greylock, when we got in touch with the company a couple of weeks ago.
It lets… Continue Reading
Payoneer, a payment option aimed at bloggers, raises $4M
Payoneer, a New York company that lets bloggers and others use a prepaid debit MasterCard to save money while making payments abroad, has raised $4 million.
Payoneer claims that that most other forms of payments open to small Internet publishers are too complicated or costly. These publishers often need to make payments to companies that provide them with advertising, for example. A prepaid MasterCard, which does require a few set-up steps, is either cheaper or easier… Continue Reading
Roundup: Apple TV a hit, YouTube killer, Google PPA, Wink & more
Updated
Apple TV is a hit — According to early accounts, at least.
YouTube killer? — [Update: This has been confirmed.] Rumors have existed for some time about collusion among the big-media players to challenge YouTube, the king of video sharing. Now the LA Times reports that News Corp. and NBC Universal plan to announce as soon as today that they’re building an online video site “stocked with TV shows and movies, plus clips that users can modify and… Continue Reading
Will statistics mess kill Digg acquisition by News Corp?
San Francisco news ranking start-up Digg has become a symbol of new-age Internet buzz, ever since its hyped cover story on BusinessWeek several weeks ago.
Now TechCrunch reports Digg has been in recent acquisition discussions with a number of companies, including News Corp. — with a price of $150 million being discussed.
Rumors abound of a possible sale. BusinessWeek cited sources saying Digg was worth $200 million, but that value was so out of whack with Digg’s… Continue Reading