Late last month, BoomTown posted about a huge venture funding effort by the high-profile and even more highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad, Flipboard.

Today, its co-founder and CEO Mike McCue confirmed the $50 million round at an eye-popping $200 million valuation, in a wide-ranging interview at the start-up’s Palo Alto, Calif., HQ.

“We’re obviously thrilled, because we think it confirms our focus that people want a beautifully designed way to interact with content and to share it,” he said. “And there is a lot more to come–on a scale of one to 10, we’re just at a two or three.”

The bulk of the new second round of funding–Flipboard had previously raised $10.5 million–came from New York-based Insight Venture Partners.

Insight’s Jerry Murdock said in an interview that he was excited about the idea of “social endorsement” that Flipboard was pioneering.

“We back great entrepreneurs and Flipboard is that and also in an obviously unique position to solve a problem of media consumption in the digital age,” he said. “The sky is the limit. Or more precisely it is the best environment to consume curated real-time content for Twitter and Facebook, because of the user experience and social endorsement integration with the content.”

Insight is also an investor in Twitter.

Also stepping up in the new Flipboard round is Comcast’s venture arm, as well as previous investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures and a spate of well known angels, such as Twitter co-founder and product guru Jack Dorsey, Facebook co-founder and Asana dude Dustin Moskovitz, the ubiquitous Ron Conway, actor Ashton Kutcher and the investment company of former News Corp. exec Peter Chernin.

“From a Comcast perspective, we’re intrigued with Mike and what he’s doing with content aggregation,” said Amy Banse, Comcast Interactive Capital’s new head. “We think we can learn from him and he from us.”

Co-founded by longtime entrepreneur McCue (Netscape, Tellme) and former Apple iPhone engineer Evan Doll in January, Flipboard launched to much attention in July.

The elegant Flipboard–which McCue recently told me in an onstage interview at the South by Southwest conference in Austin had zero revenues thus far–has changed the game on the consumption of social media.

Its innovative social magazine concept is attempting to make the social networking universe more accessible, consumable and, perhaps most importantly, visually arresting via its rich app.

Essentially, Flipboard pulls information from media RSS feeds and sites such as Twitter and Facebook data streams and then reassembles it in an easy-to-navigate, personalized format in a mobile tablet touchscreen environment.

In its current offering, there are pull-quotes, photos, videos, status updates and even the first paragraphs of linked-out content. There is also the ability to comment and share, as if one were on a social networking or microblogging site.

McCue said the new giant pile of cash will be used to increase its 32-person staff to about 50, international expansion, small acquisitions and more product development on more platforms.

The next in the arena will be the iPhone version of Flipboard, said McCue, followed by one for the Google Android mobile operating system eventually.

Left unsaid, of course, was the need for funding to fight the likelihood of increased competition in the hot space for delivering both professional and social content to consumers on a wide range of devices.

Rivals are varied, such as Silicon Valley’s most adorable news reader start-up Pulse and also Zite, a news reader which was recently sued for copyright infringement by a group of major publishers.

There are bigger potential players, such as Google, which is trying to find various ways to move into the social space.

In fact, said several sources, Google and others have made acquisition approaches to Flipboard, which has instead opted for raising more funding and staying independent for now.

McCue declined to talk about that, but did note that he is not surprised by publisher interest, especially of the worried and wary kind, in the arena.

“Anyone not respectful of others’ content is going to get in that kind of trouble,” he said, noting Flipboard has struck deals with 17 big publishers so far, including this morning’s announcement about a partnership with Oprah Winfrey’s and Discovery’s OWN cable network. “There is not one half to this equation.”

Right now, the Flipboard app is free and the business plan is advertising and some possible subscription scenarios.

McCue said advertising will be the key to Flipboard’s business plan in the future, although it’s not clear if the company will ever sell advertising itself.

Rather, it will partner with publishers seeking better distribution in the explosive tablet and smartphone market, where Flipboard has been gaining traction quickly.

But until that is sorted out, there is now $50 million more in the Flipboard kitty to figure it all out.

“With this funding, we can grow at the right pace and have a lot of flexibility to get the product right,” said McCue. “And, that’s the most important thing.”

Flipboard, the high-profile and highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad, is out raising another round of funding at an eye-popping $200 million valuation, according to numerous sources close to the situation.

The Palo Alto, CA, company declined to comment on its new funding efforts, which sources said had recently accelerated.

While that valuation might change, several sources considering the investment said it is unlikely to go down in the current frothy financing market in Silicon Valley, especially given Flipboard’s splashy profile and top-drawer pedigree.

Co-founded by longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mike McCue and former Apple iPhone engineer Evan Doll in January, Flipboard launched to much attention in July.

That included $10.5 million in venture funding from Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures and a spate of well known angel investors, such as Twitter Co-founder Jack Dorsey, Facebook Co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, the ubiquitous Ron Conway, actor Ashton Kutcher and the investment company of former News Corp. exec Peter Chernin.

At the time, it was unclear what Flipboard’s valuation was. But now, said several sources, it’s clocking in at a hefty $200 million, which is perhaps no surprise at a time of increasingly lofty investments in tech start-ups.

Suddenly, Foursquare’s $95 million valuation seems like a bargain! (Sorry, Dennis Crowley, for comparing you to the Kool-Aid pitcher dude.)

In any case, the elegant Flipboard–which McCue recently told me in an onstage interview at the South by Southwest conference in Austin had zero revenues thus far–has changed the game on the consumption of social media.

Its innovative social magazine concept is attempting to make the social networking universe more accessible, consumable and, perhaps most importantly, visually arresting via its rich app.

Essentially, Flipboard pulls information from sites such as Twitter and Facebook data streams and then reassembles it in an easy-to-navigate, personalized format in a mobile tablet touchscreen environment.

In this offering, there are pull quotes, photos, videos, status updates and even the first paragraphs of linked-out content. There is also the ability to comment and share, as if one were on Twitter or Facebook.

Flipboard has since added a number of features and will be launching its new iPhone app later this year.

Right now, the Flipboard app is free and the business plan is advertising and some possible subscription scenarios.

It will be interesting to see who will jump into this leader in a nascent market, besides its current investors. Sources said one likely target group for Flipboard could be a large traditional media company.

Until the financial dust settles, here is the video of an onstage interview by the Digital Solution’s Katherine Boehret with McCue at the All Things Digital event, D: Dive Into Mobile, in December:

(Full disclosure: ATD is part of Flipboard’s publisher beta program.)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110323/pretty-flipboard-fundraising-at-an-even-prettier-200-million-valuation/feed/ 8 http://allthingsd.com/20110318/viral-video-entering-the-source-code/ http://allthingsd.com/20110318/viral-video-entering-the-source-code/#comments Fri, 18 Mar 2011 07:15:37 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=41712

One of the movies that showed at South by Southwest was “Source Code,” an action thriller in which a solider is on a mission to find a train bomber by occupying his body.

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, it actually looks terrific.

Here’s the trailer, as well as the first five minutes of the film:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110318/viral-video-entering-the-source-code/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20110315/viral-video-conan-obrien-cant-stop-at-sxsw/ http://allthingsd.com/20110315/viral-video-conan-obrien-cant-stop-at-sxsw/#comments Tue, 15 Mar 2011 08:43:33 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=41600

Conan O’Brien has been all over the South by Southwest festival this week, hawking a new documentary about his time wandering in the late-night talk television wilderness after he left “The Tonight Show” last year.

That included a lively live interview with Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg on Saturday, as well as a series of appearances related to “Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop.”

His hysterical journey, of course, was deftly played out by O’Brien all over the Internet, which was definitely on “Team Coco.”

The documentary, which will be distributed in the U.S. in a multi-platform deal with AT&T, follows O’Brien on his “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television” tour.

Here’s a clip from the film:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110315/viral-video-conan-obrien-cant-stop-at-sxsw/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110314/video-groupme-dudes-talk-group-messaging-phenom-and-drink-beer-at-the-same-time/ http://allthingsd.com/20110314/video-groupme-dudes-talk-group-messaging-phenom-and-drink-beer-at-the-same-time/#comments Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:01:45 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=41586

If you had to pick the hotsy-totsy start-up to win the media darling of South by Southwest award for 2011–following in the precious footsteps of Foursquare and Twitter from years past–it would probably have to be GroupMe.

The group messaging/conference call/location/photo sharing service has, as these things tend to, garnered a lot of heat since its debut less than a year ago.

That has, of course, also meant the requisite big venture funding–$11.5 million in total–for the New York-based GroupMe, including from SV Angel, betaworks, First Round Capital, Lerer Ventures, General Catalyst Partners and Khosla Ventures.

And, no surprise, the dead-simple idea now has many start-up rivals, all vying to use combine mobile, texting, social, location, groups and smartphones into some unholy megatrend.

Still, GroupMe has built a slick little offering, which is likely to get scooped up by some bigger entity (or perhaps just copied, which is the sincerest form of flattery in tech).

Until then, its Co-founders Jared Hecht and Steve Martocci are enjoying their day in the sun–quite literally, at their free grilled-cheese-and-beer giveaway at SXSW this weekend in Austin, Texas.

Here is my video interview with their-future-is-so-bright-they-have-to-wear-shades pair:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110314/video-groupme-dudes-talk-group-messaging-phenom-and-drink-beer-at-the-same-time/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20110314/video-boomtown-versus-texas-hipsters-and-cheddar-cheese-cats-at-sxsw/ http://allthingsd.com/20110314/video-boomtown-versus-texas-hipsters-and-cheddar-cheese-cats-at-sxsw/#comments Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:18:17 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=41575

As it turned out, BoomTown did not succumb to hipster poisoning on my sojourn this past weekend to Austin, Texas and the famous South by Southwest festival.

The annual gathering, which has interactive, music and film elements, started last week and is still going strong–fueled, as far as I can tell, by beer, blogging, empanadas and excessive start-up hype.

Actually, it was a good time had by me, despite assertions from some longtime attendees that SXSW had somehow jumped the shark.

I personally saw no shark-jumping, but there certainly were a lot of free t-shirts and fake tattoos.

Here is a video of a variety of scenes from the weekend, from all over SXSW, from our very own All Things Digital party (I now can retire, since I had a drink named after me) to encountering a giant cheddar cheese sculpture of cats.

Yes, it was that kind of SXSW.

Enjoy:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110314/video-boomtown-versus-texas-hipsters-and-cheddar-cheese-cats-at-sxsw/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110311/pro-tip-how-to-stop-sxsw-twitter-overload-in-its-tracks/ http://allthingsd.com/20110311/pro-tip-how-to-stop-sxsw-twitter-overload-in-its-tracks/#comments Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:32:16 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=30629 There’s a lot of cool stuff happening in Austin at the South by Southwest conference this week, and All Things Digital will have three (3!) people on the ground to tell you about it. On the other hand, there’s going to be lots of stuff coming out there that isn’t so cool or interesting, and you may find breathless reports of such clogging your Twitter feed. One binary solution: TweetDeck’s filter function, which allows you to block any Tweet with “SXSW” (or any other term you want) from your feed. Not an endorsement! Just an option.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110311/pro-tip-how-to-stop-sxsw-twitter-overload-in-its-tracks/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110309/microsoft-plans-march-14-launch-for-new-internet-explorer-9-browser/ http://allthingsd.com/20110309/microsoft-plans-march-14-launch-for-new-internet-explorer-9-browser/#comments Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:35:52 +0000 Ina Fried http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/?p=4875 Aiming to ride the hip coattails of South By Southwest, Microsoft said it will launch the IE 9 browser at the Austin event on Monday. Even those not cool enough to be in Austin, though, will be able to download the new Internet Explorer starting at 9 a.m. PT, Microsoft said in a blog. The new browser aims to offer faster performance, greater HTML5 support and new tools to limit tracking by third-party Web sites.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110309/microsoft-plans-march-14-launch-for-new-internet-explorer-9-browser/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110307/viral-video-attack-the-block-and-boomtown-debut-at-sxsw/ http://allthingsd.com/20110307/viral-video-attack-the-block-and-boomtown-debut-at-sxsw/#comments Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:15:42 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=41306

Like many a geek–and after a decade away–I’m headed to South by Southwest later this week.

To get in the mood for the well-known multimedia festival in Austin, here’s one of the films making its debut this coming weekend.

It’s called “Attack the Block,” and is about a teen gang fighting an alien invasion. Plus, it has the best tag line ever: “Inner City Versus Outer Space.”

Which is just about how I am feeling about SXSW!

In any case, despite my lack of hipster cred, I will be there for a party hosted by WordPress with drinks by The Wall Street Journal Digital Network and All Things Digital on Friday, as well as to interview Flipboard Co-founder and CEO Mike McCue on Saturday in an afternoon session with the subtitle: “Game-Changer or Passing Fad?”

NetworkEffect’s Liz Gannes and The Digital Solution’s Katherine Boehret will also be at SXSW, so expect plenty of coverage from Texas.

Until then, enjoy this movie trailer, y’all:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110307/viral-video-attack-the-block-and-boomtown-debut-at-sxsw/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100728/facebook-wont-spend-much-bread-on-hot-potato/ http://allthingsd.com/20100728/facebook-wont-spend-much-bread-on-hot-potato/#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:08:37 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=21909 Another “buy them instead of hiring them” deal: Facebook is about to pick up Hot Potato, a start-up that specializes in organizing chats about “real time” events.

The transaction hasn’t closed yet, but the social network is set to pay something in the $10 million to $15 million range for the company, people familiar with the deal tell me. That will mean a modest return for the investor consortium that put $1.4 million into the firm last year, but it will still be a return.

Facebook, meanwhile, will presumably get the services of Hot Potato’s small team, led by CEO Justin Shaffer, a longtime veteran of pro baseball’s well-regarded MLB.com site. The most logical place for them to end up would be working on the social network’s mobile products.

Shaffer declined to comment; I have yet to hear back from Facebook PR. TechCrunch first reported on the pending deal.

Hot Potato launched last fall with a well-known team of backers, led by RRE Ventures, Betaworks and Ron Conway, and the plan didn’t call for an exit this soon, at this price. But the service never got significant traction, despite a push at the South by Southwest conference in March.

And given that the problem the Hot Potato crew was trying to solve–how to curate a stream of chatter/commentary for events as they happen–was something that Facebook itself should be tackling, it makes perfect sense for them to end up at the social network.

Here’s an interview I conducted with Shaffer in November, as his service was starting up, followed by a shorter chat with Kara Swisher in May at an event hosted by General Catalyst Partners, and Hot Potato’s own description of what it’s trying to do.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100728/facebook-wont-spend-much-bread-on-hot-potato/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20100319/five-tech-investors-reflect-on-sxsw/ http://allthingsd.com/20100319/five-tech-investors-reflect-on-sxsw/#comments Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:00:56 +0000 Tomio Geron http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=22882 Ever since Twitter Inc. broke on the scene at the annual South By Southwest festival three years ago, the techie crowds have multiplied at the Austin conference better known for its film and music. Foursquare Inc., another hot start-up, made noise last year when it launched there. Now that the tech portion of the festival has wrapped up, we asked several investors this week to reflect on the event. Most of them still found the conference useful, particularly to meet people from a variety of technology backgrounds from across the country, even if the events were more crowded than ever.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100319/five-tech-investors-reflect-on-sxsw/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100318/foursquares-next-move-a-big-funding-round/ http://allthingsd.com/20100318/foursquares-next-move-a-big-funding-round/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:00:40 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=17514 Start-up-of-the-moment Foursquare has lots of buzz, a rapidly growing user base and a triumphant tour of South by Southwest under its belt. Next task: Raising a pile of money.

Sources tell me that the mobile social network, which lets you tell your friends where you are, is lining up a new round of financing to bolster the $1.35 million it raised last August. CEO Dennis Crowley declined to comment.

I don’t know how much the year-old company intends to raise or the valuation it’s looking for. But speculating about both is a fun pastime for venture capitalists, who agree on one thing: The company won’t have any problem attracting suitors.

“Everybody and their mother is humping their leg,” says a VC who readily admits to Foursquare infatuation. So many investors are besotted that the chatter can get feverish. Another VC passes along a rumor that an investor offered to buy into the company at a $100 million valuation.

A more reasonable guess: New York-based Foursquare will wind up bringing in a West Coast-based VC, who will lead a round in the $10 million range that will value the company at something like $40 million. Foursquare’s first round valued the company at more than $6 million.

So what’s the appeal? Like plenty of other social media start-ups, Foursquare has minimal revenue. But it has a great story, which contains plenty of allusions to Twitter.

Like Twitter, Foursquare was founded by an entrepreneur who already built a start-up and sold it to Google (GOOG). And like Twitter, Foursquare launched at South by Southwest to some fanfare, and has seen its user base increase at breathtaking velocity.

When Crowley raised his first round of financing from O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and Union Square Ventures in August, Foursquare had some 50,000 users. That total is now approaching 600,000, boosted by a burst of 100,000 sign-ups over the last 10 days.

And while Foursquare, like Twitter, doesn’t have real revenue to speak of, it does have a notion of how to get some. It is working on tie-ups with local merchants, who can reward users who “check in” at restaurants, bars, etc.–and by doing so, provide free advertising for those establishments.

Foursquare still doesn’t do anything for me, but the service is doing just fine without buy-in from a middle-aged dude who doesn’t go out at night. And because Foursquare is a fun, buzzy story to write about, it gets written about a lot.

The real question for Foursquare: How will the start-up keep Twitter and Facebook from rolling over it? Twitter added its location feature this month, and Facebook is reportedly adding its own in April.

Both these companies have plenty on their plate, so it’s possible they won’t spend much effort chasing Foursquare’s niche. Still, it’s hard to see room for three social networks that let you broadcast your whereabouts to your pals. But that’s not dissuading guys who can write big checks.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100318/foursquares-next-move-a-big-funding-round/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100316/have-start-up-will-travel-start-up-bus-yields-winners-at-sxsw/ http://allthingsd.com/20100316/have-start-up-will-travel-start-up-bus-yields-winners-at-sxsw/#comments Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:00:35 +0000 Tomio Geron http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=22668 A start-up can be built anywhere–even at the back of a bus, near the bathroom.

A group of 25 entrepreneurs took a bus last week from San Francisco to Austin, Texas, with a zany plan–to break up into groups and build start-ups in 48 hours to pitch to investors at South By Southwest, the tech and music showcase.

Despite fighting motion sickness, a spotty Wi-Fi connection and sleep deprivation, the six teams turned out finished ideas from scratch, and two were names winners by a panel of investor judges.

One winner was DateBrowsr.com, a site that aggregates photos from a range of dating Web sites to give people quick access to what they want to see most when seeking a potential date–what people look like. The idea for the site came about almost as a joke, but the group decided it could work.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100316/have-start-up-will-travel-start-up-bus-yields-winners-at-sxsw/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100315/how-to-hoodwink-twitter-hint-its-easy/ http://allthingsd.com/20100315/how-to-hoodwink-twitter-hint-its-easy/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:00:46 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=17382 How can you use Twitter to spread falsehoods? So easy! So many options! Here are three:

• Make up a story about the death of a celebrity. Any celebrity.
• Make up a story about Apple (AAPL). Any story.
• Make up a story about Conan O’Brien and get the crowd at a Digg event to pass it along for you.

We saw the last one in action Saturday night at a South by Southwest event, when pranksters cooked up a stupid story about the unemployed talk show host, designed in part to promote a Web video studio.

This one didn’t get picked up by the mainstream press, but it did find plenty of takers for a while on Twitter.

CNET’s Daniel Terdiman, who happily participated in the hoax, describes it in great detail here. If you want the short version, here’s a video of the event’s genesis, provided by David Spark. Pretty simple stuff: Anyone can do it.

[Image credit: LiveFromAmsterdam]

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