Softbank Capital

Twitter While You Watch TV? Bluefin Labs Is Watching.

Peter Kafka in Media on January 24 at 6:00 am PT

And the marketing start-up has just raised another $12 million. Think about that the next time you fire off a comment during an NFL game.

Social Web Spans Generations on Newly Launched Ohanarama

Liz Gannes in Social on June 21, 2011 at 2:59 pm PT

Kids and social networking are a touchy combination. But it’s not always creepy for kids to interact online with adults. Ohanarama, a social gaming site that launched today, joins family members virtually to play together.

Lerer Ventures Considers New $50 Million Fund With Hippeau Addition

Kara Swisher in News on February 8, 2011 at 10:17 am PT

One of the more interesting pieces of news that got pushed deep down in stories in the noisy swirl around AOL’s $315 million acquisition of the Huffington Post was the move of its CEO Eric Hippeau back to the investor side. He’ll be going to Lerer Ventures, which is run by HuffPo co-founder, chairman and major investor Kenneth Lerer, and is contemplating a big expansion of its efforts. BoomTown talked to both about it today.

You've Got Arianna: AOL Buys Huffington Post for $315 Million in Cash and Stock, Appoints Huffington Editor in Chief

Kara Swisher in News on February 6, 2011 at 9:01 pm PT

In a bold and definitive move, AOL is paying $315 million, mostly in cash, to buy the Huffington Post, one of the Web’s most prominent news and opinion sites. As part of the deal, Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington–who was derided by some when she co-founded the left-leaning site in 2005 with investor and well-known communications exec Kenneth Lerer–will become editor in chief of a new unit that has purview over all of AOL content properties. The deal was signed just this afternoon.

I Can Has $30M: LOLcats Become Funny Business

Liz Gannes in Social on January 17, 2011 at 9:00 pm PT

Would the thought of investing $30 million in a set of WordPress blogs and tools for captioning pictures of cats make you laugh out loud?

Hey Start-Ups! These Guys Have Checkbooks. Just Ask Them!

Peter Kafka in Media on December 10, 2010 at 6:19 am PT

When times are tough, you don’t get VCs in a room to convince start-ups to work with them. But that’s what’s happening Wednesday, so take the money while you can. Also: Free beer!

SoftBank Keeps Up Its Game With MocoSpace Funding

Kara Swisher in News on September 23, 2010 at 6:00 am PT

SoftBank Capital forked over $3.5 million in funding to mobile entertainment destination MocoSpace. SoftBank recently invested $150 million in online gaming powerhouse Zynga and apparently wanted to make a play in mobile browser-based social gaming.

Exclusive: The (Digital) End Is Nigh–News Corp. Unloading Beliefnet and Considering Jettisoning Jamba/Jamster

Kara Swisher in News on May 27, 2010 at 10:17 am PT

Beliefnet, the spirituality site bought by News Corp. in late 2007, is being shopped around for sale, according to several sources. Sources said that the media giant is also considering selling off Berlin-based Jamba/Jamster, a mobile content provider now called Fox Mobile Group. News Corp. paid $187.5 million to VeriSign for a 51 percent stake in Jamba in 2006 and bought the rest in 2008.

Yahoo Snaps Up Associated Content for $90 Million to Compete With AOL and Demand Media

Kara Swisher in News on May 18, 2010 at 1:00 pm PT

Yahoo–in a clear attempt to get deep into the social content space and better compete with both AOL and Demand Media–announced the acquisition of Associated Content. Sources close to the situation said the price was $90 million in cash, which is a solid outcome for Associated Content, a start-up that found itself in an increasingly crowded space for cheaper content.