Boca’s Multiply Gets Cash, Social Networking Wiz
By Stephen Pounds, The Palm Beach Post, Fla.
Sep. 8–Multiply.com has received a $16.6 million cash infusion and with it an adviser who helped make social networking one of the fastest-growing technological phenomena ever, the company said Friday.
David Scott Carlick was chairman of Intermix Media, parent of the wildly popular social networking site MySpace.com until its acquisition by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (NYSE: NWS, $22.35) in 2005.
“What we love about this round of financing is being able to work with David Carlick. Adding him to the board is just phenomenal,” said Peter Pezaris, chief executive of Multiply.
The Boca Raton-based Web firm received its latest round of financing from VantagePoint Venture Partners of San Bruno, Calif., and Point Judith Capital of Providence, R.I., as well as a previous investor, Transcosmos Investments in Tokyo.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to back Multiply’s exceptional management team,” Sean Marsh, general partner of Point Judith Capital, said in a statement.
Carlick’s arrival as part of the deal gives privately held Multiply a board member with extensive experience in the social networking space, an area of the Internet that has grown exponentially over the past five years.
A second networking pioneer, Lee Hower, co-founder of LinkedIn, a site aimed at business networking, also becomes an adviser to the company.
Multiply is not a “meeting place” networking site, such as MySpace or Facebook. It targets thirty-somethings and older users who are looking for a place to share photos and experiences with families and friends.
It has reached 6 million registered users and, in August, expanded its base of visitors to 10 million in August. By comparison, MySpace had 114 million visitors in June.
Pezaris said Multiply will use the cash to make technology improvements to the site, expand into other languages than English and Japanese and invest in research and development. The company has 16 employees.
“We really want to attack the market,” he said.
If Multiply.com can reach the 100 million-visitor mark, it can become a force in the eyes of advertisers, Carlick said.
“Advertisers are just starting to figure out how to deal with user-generated content,” he said. “They were comfortable with The Wall Street Journal-dotcom, but Susie Online is where their customers are.” Ultimately, Carlick envisions selling Multiply to a larger media company.
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