Riot Games is a social game development company that is best known for creating the League of Legends.  Earlier this week Riot Games announced that they have raised about $8 million in Series B.  The investors include Benchmark Capital, FirstMark Capital, and Tencent Holdings.  Rather than making revenue from advertising, Tencent and Riot games depend on the sales of virtual goods.

Riot Games is currently developing an online game platform which is what the funding will go towards.  Considering that Tencent is one of the largest virtual good dealers in China, they may even lend their expertise to Riot Games.  The company is licensing the League of Legends in China and will launch in the country by 2010.

Tencent is the parent company of Internet portal QQ.com.  They sell virtual goods through their portal, IM software, social networks, and games.  These virtual goods include pets, clothing, wallpapers, etc.  Tencent made about $700 million last year according to BusinessInsider.

iBiquity Digital Corporation is a company that develops HD radio technology.  It gives radio signals better sound quality and less static.  The company has been working on better radio technology on cars and households for several years now.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, iBiquity has raised $42 million in funding from investors such as Grotech Ventures, CBS Radio, Radio One Inc., Entercom Communications, FirstMark Capital, New Venture Partners, Union Square Ventures, and Clear Channel Radio.  This round of funding puts iBiquity at over $172 million in total funding over the last decade.

[via BizJournals]

Conductor is a New York City based firm that measures SEO and optimization for Fortune 500 companies and SMBs.  The company recently announced a $10 million round of funding led by Matrix Partners and involving previous investor FirstMark Capital.

The company focuses on getting links to their site to improve search ranks rather than search engine marketing.  Conductor charges clients by approaching publishers on behalf of the Fortune 500 companies or SMBs for inbound links.  Conductor will then offer the companies analytics for their inbound links.

Conductor was started by Seth Besmertnik back in 2005.  Back then the company was known as LinkExperts.  BusinessInsider named the company as one of the Most Valuable Digital Startups with an estimated value of $100 million.  The problem with Conductor’s business model is that selling paid links is a violation of Google’s quality guidelines.

[via AlarmClock]

It is pretty unique that athletes hedge some of their investments in Web 2.0 startups.  Maybe WePlay will start a new trend because they have received $8.6 million in Series B funding from Deep Fork Capital, FirstMark Capital, Derek Jeter (MLB New York Yankees Captain and Shortstop), LeBron “King” James (NBA Cleveland Cavaliers Small Forward), and Peyton Manning (NFL Indianapolis Colts Quarterback).

This isn’t the first time that these three athletes invested in WePlay.  The three athletes along with Ron Conway provided WePlay with $870,000 in seed capital.  FirstMark Capital, Tony Parker (San Antonio Spurs Power Forward), Brandi Chastain (former San Jose CyberRays soccer player), and Summer Sanders (Olympic swimmer gold medalist) participated in WePlay’s $3.5 million Series A round.

WePlay is a niche social network with a heavy focus on youth sports.  WePlay features include calendars, groups, profiles, tournament and camp tracking, photo and video uploading, and blogging.

WePlay was founded by Steve Hansen, the former CFO and COO of Yahoo!’s GeoCities.  Rick Heitzmann, the Chairman of WePlay and Managing Director at FirstMark Capital, stated that he wants WePlay to become “the operating system of you sports.”

Related Links:
1. WePlay
2. WebWare
3. TechCrunch

“Television media represents the largest percentage of advertisers and agencies’ media budget today,” stated Brian McAndrews, SVP of Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group at Microsoft.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has opened up its wallet once again.  This time it’s not for the most trafficked search engine company.  Microsoft has acquired Navic Networks, a Waltham, Mass. -based company that designs & delivers advertisements to cable TV networks.  The price was undisclosed, but there is speculation about the price being $200-$300 million.

Previous investors in Navic include Himalaya Capital, Highland Capital Partners, FirstMark Capital, Pilot House Ventures, and Lauder Partners.  Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is also planning on entering the television advertisement foray through their AdWords program.

Clearly this is Microsoft’s way of becoming more competitive against Google.  Rather than building an TV advertising platform internally, just buy one.

Information Source:
[1] Microsoft Press Release: Microsoft Announces Acquisition of Navic Networks