Valleywag: Meebo

Time Warner follows Bebo buy with Meebo stake, rhyming dictionary in hand

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 01 May 2008 08:00:00 PDT

Instant messaging service Meebo will today announce $25 million in funding from JAFCO Ventures, KTB Ventures and Time Warner, which spent $850 million to buy social network Bebo in March. Meebo founder Seth Sternberg only began looking for more funding that same month, hiring Montgomery & Co and hoping to raise $25 million to $30 million to set the company's value at $250 million. Today's funding round values the company at $200 million, the WSJ reports. Last year, funding valued Meebo at $90 million. But the real question is, how exactly does anyone expect to make money with instant messaging?

Is Meebo worth more than Bear Stearns?

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:20:10 PDT

Mountain View-based instant messaging service Meebo has hired Montgomery & Co. to raise another $25 million to $30 million, only a year after its last round. Reportedly, Meebo founder Seth Sternberg hopes investors will buy in at $250 million, up from $90 million last year. That's $10 million more than what JPMorgan wants to pay for Bear Stearns. Seth, I've embedded a Meebo IM window below, so that you can ping me and explain what you're drinking. I'd like some, too.

Internet commenters, leave Britney alone!

Owen Thomas — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:30:01 PDT

Meebo, the Web-based chat startup, is running chat rooms for the 3:30 p.m. debut of Britney Spears's latest video, the anime-inspired "Break the Ice." Great: A scalable real-time communications infrastructure allowing thousands of teenage girls to say, "OMG, Britney." Isn't that what text messages are for? [Blackout Ball]

Yahoo exodus continues apace

Owen Thomas — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:40:49 PST

Would the last Yahoo to leave Sunnyvale please turn off the lights? Glam Media has hired Kiumarse Zamanian, an engineer with several patents to his name, to run its ad platform. Chris Szeto, a key developer of Yahoo Messenger has joined Meebo, the instant-messaging startup. Their new employers would have you think that they left for "exciting new challenges." But the truth is their departures say far more about Yahoo.

Meebo wants to blank with you

Megan McCarthy — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:59:02 PDT

Something I blocked from my memory after last night's Meebo party: In announcing the launch of their new platform, the company announced a new slogan: "I want to ______ with you." ("At the same time," Meebo's site helpfully clarifies.) The fill-in-the-blank answer, in Meebo's eyes, would be "talk" or "play games" and the "with you" portion highlights Meebo's sales pitch — the ability to do such activities in real time, while others are online. Our question: What happens when that blank is answered with "share kiddie porn" or "plan a terrorist attack"?

At Meebo party, everyone's measuring themselves

Megan McCarthy — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:36:55 PDT

For two years running, Meebo has allowed you to skip the software download and log onto instant messenger using your Web browser. Never mind that you can already do this! The startup celebrated its second anniversary of AIMlessness at Pier 38 last night with a cake, open bar and a giant game of Guitar Hero. (Pictured above, tech consultant gadabout Dave Matthews — no, really, that's his name — jams on the imaginary Fender.) And really, though no one at Meebo will quite say it this way, they've figured out they need more of a purpose in life. That's supposedly coming from the new Meebo platform, which will allow third-party developers to create applications for integration into Meebo's service.

For an example of Silicon Valley incest, look no further than the guest list. Meebo founder Elaine Wherry is engaged to Plaxo cofounder Todd Masonis. The other Plaxo cofounder, Cam Ring, is dating Sandy Jen, another Meebo cofounder. Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg was an intern at Plaxo during business school. RockYou cofounder Jia Shen's brother, Jian, works as an engineer at Meebo. Members of all three companies have played on the same Ultimate Frisbee team since before their companies were launched. Oh, and they're all funded by Sequoia Capital.

Which would explain the presence of Sequoia's newest golden-boy partner, Roelof Botha, at the event. He stood out in his suit jacket and had an aura around him as green as a dollar. He walked around the room and every startup founder tensed, worrying that they would somehow screw up in his presence.

When they weren't worrying if they measured up for Botha, people were talking about how Meebo's platform measured up to Facebook's. The answer? Not really. The other source of conversation was the upcoming Google platform announcement, which TechCrunch revealed would be pushed back from its original date of November 5, but we now hear is set to be on time, if not early.

I should say Google's platform wasn't really a topic of conversation as it was a conversation killer. When stuck with a boorish biz devver from a widget maker, the easiest way to make my escape was to bring it up. When asked about that platform, the responses ranged from "I can't talk about that" to wild, blinking, stares. According to one anonymous founder type, at least one company "got in trouble" for revealing details. When asked for details, he backed off the subject, fearful of the long arm of Google.

Mission to Meebo

Megan McCarthy — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:33:45 PDT

Tonight, IM service Meebo throws a party on a pier. And, bonus, what happens when a bored designer transforms the team into a manga-meets-Captain Planet comic? It's all in today's Valleywag calendar.

IM client Meebo is throwing a "huge" party on a San Francisco pier to celebrate its second anniversary. Goes from 7 p.m.-10 p.m.
Silicon Valley Flickr Users meetup in Cupertino tonight at 7 p.m. [Upcoming]
"When Electronics Become Art" is the name of the new show by hacker Joe Grand, at the 20 Goto 10 gallery through November 7. [20 Goto 10]

Got a to-do that's a must-do? Send it to calendar@valleywag.com. Check out more events on our Google Calendar:

Need an introduction to the Meebo team? One of their designers whipped up this comic to celebrate the release of their Firefox sidebar widget. Let's see if their superhero powers come out tonight.

The Lobby's leisurely entrepreneurs

Megan McCarthy — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:53:30 PDT

While other startup founders have to stay home and, you know, work, these guys have the time and the spare $3,000 to spend hanging out at a zero-agenda conference in Hawaii. (For the record, we're jealous.) Spotted in Yahoo executive Bradley Horowitz's Flickr stream: Benchmark entrepreneur-in-waiting Nirav Tolia; "stepped-up" LinkedIn chairman Reid Hoffman; FeedBurner founder Dick Costolo, who's rolling in Googlebucks; Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale; Evan Williams from Twitter; Mashery's Oren Michels; and
Kevin Rose (and his new haircut) from Digg with Joshua Schachter from the Yahoo-owned Del.icio.us. One question: Is this really Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg? I don't recognize him looking so unnerdly. (Photo by: bradley23)

Automattic's Toni Schneider touts an investment

Owen Thomas — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 15:01:41 PDT

Wallstrip, the CBS-owned stocks videoblog, interviews Toni Schneider, CEO of Automattic, the blog software maker. Host Lindsay Campbell, as always, asks Schneider whether he's "long" or "short" a number of hot topics. Schneider shorts Facebook and Apple's iTunes, but, curiously, says that he's long Meebo. Curiously, because the Web-IM startup's buzz is mild at best, and Schneider, in the clip, doesn't disclose that he's an investor in Meebo through True Ventures, the venture-capital firm where Schneider moonlights as a partner. (While we're disclosing, I should mention that Schneider's company hosts my personal website, Ditherati.)

Uncov, the Web 2.0 reviewer with bite

Nick Douglas — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:42:25 PDT

NICK DOUGLAS — The best critic is a fellow creator. That's why it's satisfying to read pro-written blogs like logo-critiquing Brand New or advertising blog Adrants. In that vein, welcome Uncov, a Web 2.0 review blog by software engineers and comp sci geeks. In its first week, the authors of Uncov have already demonstrated skill and insight. For example, one author pointed out the big flaw in Meebo: the web-based IM client takes far more processor power than any user would tolerate from a desktop app. When you want an under-the-hood examination the user-reviewers at TechCrunch or Valleywag can't give you, try Uncov. (Photo: Hogbard)