SB Nation is a sports and news blog company that is based in Washington D.C. The company has raised a $10.5 million Series C round led by Khosla Ventures. SB Nation previously raised $13 million in funding from Accel Partners, Allen & Company, Comcast Interactive Capital, and several angel investors.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was served legal papers when having lunch in Sun Valley, Idaho yesterday. The server pretended to ask Zuckerberg for his autograph, then told him “You’ve been served.” Zuckerberg was attending the annual business and media summit hosted by Allen & Co. Although no one in the media knows what the lawsuit is regarding, but we can easily speculate that it relates to privacy issues on the social network. [Gawker]
Music streaming service Pandora has had their first profitable quarter and the company has raised its fifth round of funding. The amount of the fifth round was undisclosed and it was provided by GGV Capital with participation from Allen & Company. Pandora currently has 50 million registered users and previously raised a total of $56.3 million. Pandora’s revenues for 2009 was $50 million, but the company had to pay about $28 million in royalties.
The Washington Post has announced that they are exploring the possibility of selling Newsweek Magazine. Newsweek has been losing money and The Washington Post chairman Donald Graham said that the magazine might be a better fit elsewhere. The Washington Post hired Allen & Company to help find a buyer. Newsweek launched in 1933 and was acquired by The Washington Post in 1961. [BBC]
AOL has hired Allen & Company along with Morgan Stanley to try and find a buyer for ICQ. ICQ is an instant messaging software that competed with AOL Instant Messenger before being bought out. There are supposedly two non-U.S. based firms that already have an interest in buying out ICQ from AOL. The deal will most likely take place when AOL spins off from Time Warner in December.
AOL is seeking around $300 million for ICQ according to a source with AllThingsD. AOL bought ICQ for $287 million in 1998 with about $125 million in earnouts. Tel Aviv based firm Mirabilis was the company that originally developed ICQ.
ICQ has lost quite many users in the United States since they launched originally, but their service is still strong in countries such as Germany and Russia. AOL Instant Messenger still has a strong user base in the United States.
Analytics company Quantcast is seeking a $50 million round of funding which would put them at a $300 million valuation according to PEHub.
The company is rumored to have received several term sheets, but the identities of the investors is not yet known. Quantcast monitors the traffic and demographics of about 10 million web sites and they are finding ways to monetize the service through a Media Program. The Quantcast Media Program gives advertisers the ability to select the audience they want to reach by having access to demographic information.
So far Quantcast has raised $25 million in total funding. Allen & Company invested $20 million Series B in 2007. Other investors include the Founders Fund, Polaris Venture Partners, and Revolution Ventures.
Gather.com is a service focused on making new friends and forming new social circles. The company is based in Boston, Mass. and has announced that they have raised $5.3 million in funding from Allen & Co., American Public Media, Jim Manzi (former CEO of Lotus), Jack Connors (former CEO of Hill Holiday), Kevin McClatchy, Andrew Tobias, and the Gerace family.
Gather had increase sales of about 49% in the first quarter over the same period about a year ago. Gather raised VC funding because they needed additional capital to help fund operations. Based on the current run rate, the company expects to be profitable by early 2010.
This round of funding puts the company’s total at about $25 million. Most of the investors that participated in this round had participated in previous rounds as well.
[via NEVC Funding]
The Business Insider is a blog that recently relaunched under one brand. The Business Insider was founded by Henry Blodget and this is the third round of funding. Although Blodget never announced himself how much was raised, it is rumored to be around $5 million.
The participants in this round of funding is believed to be Allen & Co., Marc Andreessen, Jim Friedlich, and Matt Luckett. Previous investors may have also participated. The last round of funding was around July 2008.
It is not known what The Business Insider plans to do with this round of funding, but it is expected that they will be revamping their entertainment section.
[via paidContent]
