REUNITED! This Time, Jeff Bezos Bets on Henry Blodget.
Henry Blodget and Jeff Bezos, together again!
As Blodget explains on his own site, the Amazon CEO is personally leading a $5 million investment round in Blodget’s six-year-old Web publishing business.
By my count, that brings total investment in Business Insider to more than $18 million; via IM, Blodget tells me that the new deal values the company above the $50 million valuation it earned during its last round in 2011. (Because of my conflict of interest, this makes me happy.)
So there’s the nuts and bolts of the deal (for more background on Henry and TBI, see Ken Auletta’s well-timed piece).
The only other thing to spell out here is that this deal reminds you that life is long, and relationships last.
In 1998, Blodget and Bezos helped boost each others’ careers, when Blodget correctly predicted that Amazon’s stock would pass $400 a share (thanks to Patrick LaForge for catching my bone-headed typo). Blodget has remained an Amazon bull since then, and it looks like Bezos has stayed in the Blodget fan club, too.