Shawn Fanning negotiating to sell social gaming company Rupture for $30M
Shawn Fanning, who gained fame after launching early music file sharing company Napster, is in advanced stages of talks to sell his most recent social gaming start-up, Rupture, for $30 million.
The buyer would be Electronic Arts, but unlike first reported by Techcrunch, the deal hasn’t gone through. I reached someone very close to the deal but who requested anonymity, who said “nothing has been signed, but it’s getting close.”
“Is it likely to go through?,” the… Continue Reading
Wireless startup Fon raises $9.5M
Fon, a Spanish startup hoping to build “the world’s largest wireless community”, has raised $9.5 million in a third round of funding, according to TechCrunch.
Coral Capital Management led the round, with participation from British Telecom, Google, Allen & Co., founder Martin Varsavsky’s Jazzya and Joi Ito’s Digital Garage. Varsavsky says he’ll use the new funding to launch Fon in Russia, and to release a new version of the company’s Fonera router.
We covered the company last… Continue Reading
Roundup: Brightroll, Tumblr, Collective, Veeker, MobileEye, all raise cash
Here’s the latest action:
1) Brightroll raises $5M for video ads
2) LGC Wireless acquired for $169M plus
3) InterviewUp, answers for job interviews
4) Alibaba.com to go public
5) Yahoo’s CMO leaves, without explanation
6) Tesla’s shocking $1M crash tests
7) Tumblr, Collective Media, Veeker, MobileEye, BioFuelBox, GameLayers, Shooner, all raise cash
Boston’s Entrepreneur site
Brightroll serves billionth video ad, raises $5 million – The mark comes less than six months after serving half that number. The San Francisco company, which helps large… Continue Reading
Kongregrate, the online social game hub
Updated
Kongregate, of San Francisco, launches tomorrow with a host of Web games targeted at young males with social networking components pushing new bounds.
Kongregate is signifiacant because it targets a group that until now hasn’t been served by online social games. Social gaming has been the domain of women, especially older women (served by companies like Club Pogo, owned by Electronics Arts). Young males searching social action games have had to download large software programs to… Continue Reading
Fanning to launch Rupture, a social network for games
Shawn Fanning, founder of the popular music file sharing company Napster, is back in the game with a new start-up.
This time, Fanning wants to bring social networking to popular online games like World of Warcraft, as BusinessWeek first reported.
Experts say this is a promising area, because millions of gamers have formed communities with each other through playing, but their interactions have been limited by the confines of proprietary software. Why not open up… Continue Reading