Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Oak Investment Partners

Sports Website Bleacher Report Raises $22 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:30:24 +0000

Bleacher Report is a sports website that has raised $22 million in a round led by Oak Investment Partners. Crosslink Capital and Hillsven Capital participated in this round. Oak Investment Partners plans on helping Bleacher Report expand to other verticals where content creation and publishing is encouraged by social engagement.

Bleacher Report will use the funding for building additional content and expanding into video and mobile. Bleacher Report has raised $40.5 million in funding total. Bleacher Report is also fighting the notion that they are “all SEO fodder.” They plan on optimizing their content for search, but only 30-35% of their traffic is from Google and 30% is direct traffic. Bleacher Report will also use the funding for creating new content formats.

[paidContent]

FirstRain Raises $6.4 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:54:26 +0000

FirstRain has announced $6.4 million in funding today. This is their fifth round of funding from Oak Investment Partners. Oak Investment Partners are the majority owner of FirstRain as the company recently changed their product focus. “I built a new management team and targeted Wall Street,” stated FirstRain president and CEO Penny Herscher. FirstRain was originally founded in 2000. FirstRain is a “business monitoring engine.”

“It was very small, with virtually no revenue,” stated Herscher said, “It was a technology company looking for a marketplace.” FirstRain is a software-as-a-service business that keeps subscribers alert with breaking news, trends, events, etc. Some of their clients include Symantec, Capital IQ, and Fidelity.

Oak Investment Partners put in $35 million into FirstRain over four investment rounds. This round of funding will be used for expanding sales and R&D teams. This round of funding will also enable the company to focus on mobile services.

Plastic Logic Raising $700 Million To Build A New Plastic Display Factory

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:00:14 +0000

Plastic Logic is raising $700 million to build a new factory for building next-generation plastic displays. The funding is coming from government-owned Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (Rusnano). Initally the company will receive $150 million and Oak Investment Partners will put in another $50 million.

Rusnano will also offer $100 million in debt financing with “partial guarantees.” Plastic Logic will receive another $400 million in additional debt and equity over the next few years. Plastic Logic has already raised $200 million in funding. Plastic Logic is known for building the Que tablet. The Que tablet was never created as it constantly faced delays. Now the company is building the “next-generation electronic reader for business,” according to paidContent. The new factory will also start building hundreds of thousands of display units around 2013-2014.

Online Marketing Company Ybrant Digital Raises $48 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:18:41 +0000

Ybrant Digital is an Indian based online marketing company that plans on going public this year. The company has raised $48 million in a new round of funding, putting them at a total of about $100 million. This round was a combination of debt and equity. Oak India Investments, an affiliate of Oak Investment Partners participated in this round. Current investors Asia Pacific Capital and ICICI Bank also participated in this round. This is Ybrant’s fourth round of funding.

Ybrant Digital plans to use the funding to develop new technology, acquire other companies, and expand internationally. Ybrant is also known for acquiring Internet search company Lycos.com for $36 million in a stock deal. Ever since Ybrant started in 1999, they have acquired 6 companies. Ybrant used to be known as USAGreetings.com. Ybrant has 16 offices across the globe.

Market America Acquires Shop.com

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:03:24 +0000

Greensboro, North Carolina based Internet marketing firm Market America has acquired comparison shopping website Shop.com. The financial details are unknown. Market America will maintain Shop.com’s Pasadena and Monterey headquarters. Shop.com received funding from Oak Investment Partners, Amazon.com, and Bill Gates. [SoCalTech]

Reunion.com Buys Wink.com To Create A Merged Social Network/Search Engine

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:41:21 +0000

Wink.com has been acquired by Reunion.com. Wink.com is a search engine focused on individuals. Reunion.com is both a social network and a search engine. Both Wink and Reunion will be merging and launching a new website. The new site will be launching in early 2009.

Reunion.com first partnered with Wink.com in April 2007. Wink’s people profiles became available to Reunion’s members. Last year Reunion.com acquired ZoomInfo. Reunion.com was started with $1.4 million in angel funding and raised $25 million Series A from Oak Investment Partners.

Wink’s original investors was Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel. Cambrian Ventures and Greylock invested $6.2 million Series A in Wink around January 2005.

Demand Media Raises $100 Million; Funding Tally At $320 Million Now

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:04:06 +0000

Demand Media Inc. is a Santa Monica, Calif. based company that was founded by Richard Rosenblatt. Roseblatt was the former President of Intermix Media, parent company of MySpace. News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media became the part company of MySpace when they acquired Intermix.

The company has raised a 3rd round of funding at $100 million by investment banking company, Goldman-Sachs. The previous investors include 3i Group, Generation Partners, Oak Investment Partners, and Spectrum Equity Partners [Source: alarm:clock]. Demand Media has raised a total of $320 million as of now.

So what does Demand Media actually do?

To be honest, I couldn’t really decipher what they do from their About Us page. “Demand Media is in the business of buying domain names with organic traffic (names with easy to remember names) and adding social networking features to them. Accordingly, they also own domain registrars eNom and BulkRegister” is how Mashable described them.

How they raised $320 million as a domain name brokerage business and what Demand Media will do with the money boggles my mind, but clearly being the guy who at one point ran MySpace means something to all these investors.

Microsoft Acquiring Parlano As A Value-Add To Communications Software

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:16:41 +0000

Today Microsoft made an announcement that they would be acquiring Parlano. Parlano is a Chicago, Ill. based company that developed software called MindAlign, an enterprise group chat messaging system. Microsoft is expecting to implement Parlano software as a part of Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator. Microsoft Office Communicator is an internal messaging system that works similar to Windows Live Messenger, commonly used among major corporations.

“Parlano has been successful in meeting the rigorous communications needs of companies in financial services and other vertical markets,” stated Gurdeep Singh Pall, the corporate vice president of the Unified Communications Group at Microsoft. “Parlanoâ€™s expertise and technology, added to Microsoftâ€™s unified communications offering, will deliver customers the most complete presence, instant messaging and group chat solution on the market.”

Financial terms for the acquisition were not disclosed. Parlano is a spin-off from UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland) and has 50 employees. Parlano’s investors include Longworth Venture Partners and Oak Investment Partners.

“Parlano has helped many organizations enhance operations, improve service delivery and increase sales through more effective ongoing group communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing,” stated Nick Fera, the chairman and CEO of Parlano. “The resulting competitive advantage will be further enhanced as we bring Parlano technology together with Microsoft Office Communications Server and Office Communicator.”

Digital Marketing Company, iCrossing Has Raised $62 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 16:13:14 +0000

iCrossing is a digital marketing company founded in 1998. The company has raised $62 million in a fifth round of investment that brings their total round of funding to $110 million. The $62 million investment was received from Goldman-Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) and several other investors.

“iCrossing is at the forefront of developing search and social media strategies that engages not alienates users,” stated Richard Rosenblatt, the chairman of iCrossing. “The market is responding and iCrossing has seized a leadership position in the digital space. With CEO Jeff Herzog’s vision for the future, there are sure to be even bigger things to come^.”

What does iCrossing actually do? An example of their work includes developing a solution to make PR Newswire mobile. PR Newswire is a press release website. Essentially, this would benefit journalists all over the world. Other major clients include Coca-Cola, Colgate, GM, Office Depot, and Travelocity.

Investors in iCrossing include:
1.) Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS): Goldman Sachs is a global investment and securities firm based in New York. Goldman Sachs focuses on investment banking, asset management, and trading and principal investments. Some of Goldman Sachs’ case studies are available at: http://www2.goldmansachs.com/insight/case_studies/.
2.) Oak Investment Partners: is a venture capital firm with $8.4 billion in committed capital. Some of the consumer Internet investments that Oak participated in includes aQuantive (acquired by Microsoft for $6 billion), Connexus Corporation, Fastclick, Inc. (acquired by ValueClick), and Shop.com
3.) RRE Ventures: RRE is a venture capital firm that manages $850 million in assets. Some of the companies that RRE has invested in includes WeddingChannel.com, Stockback (acquired by Vesdia), SmarterKids.com, Pinnacor (acquired by MarketWatch), and eMachines.
4.) StarVest Partners L.P.: is a private equity company that has $150 million in assets. Companies that StarVest invested in include Tibersoft Corporation, Newgistics Inc., NetSuite Inc., Connected Corporation (acquired by Iron Mountain Inc.), and Insurance.com

References:
[1] iCrossing press release: Goldman Sachs and Oak Investment Partners Lead Investment in Digital Marketing Leader iCrossing

For further details, refer to iCrossing’s website: www.icrossing.com