Time Warner takes stake in Meebo

Posted May 1st 2008 3:31PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Time Warner (TWX)

Meebo, a web-based service that allows multiple and simultaneous instant messaging accounts, has raised $25 million, according to Reuters, to expand the revenue potential of the business, especially in Asia. Investors include Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), Japanese-focused Jafco Ventures and co-investor KTB Ventures, the U.S. arm of Korea's largest private equity shop, KTBnetwork.

This is the third round of funding for Meebo for a total of $37.5 million. The CEO, Seth Sternberg, 29, plans to use the funding to expand into Asia markets and to build a sustainable revenue model. Additionally, he wants to add Meebo chat rooms to Time Warner sites, including People magazine. Recently, Meebo hired Carter Brokaw as its chief revenue officer. He formerly worked at CNET Networks (NASDAQ: CNET)

Meebo has 30 million users per month and includes instant messengers such as Yahoo! Messenger from Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and ICQ. It was estimated by alleyinsider.com that Meebo is worth $220 million.

Jon Ogg is a producer and editor for the "10 Stocks Under $10" weekly newsletter for 247WallSt.com.

Tags: CNET, GOOG, Meebo, TWX, YHOO