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Title: I copypasta PR in this thread: $425 Million Invested In Virtual Worlds Companies Post by: schild on January 24, 2008, 10:17:06 AM Quote $425 MILLION INVESTED IN 15 VIRTUAL WORLDS COMPANIES IN 4TH QUARTER 2007 Research by Virtual Worlds Management Reveals 15 Companies Raised $375 Million, Two Companies Acquired for $50 Million January 24, 2008 - Austin, Texas -- Virtual Worlds Management, the leading media company tracking the virtual worlds industry, has announced findings from a comprehensive study of accountable transactions showing that venture capital and media firms have invested more than $425 million dollars in 15 virtual worlds companies during the fourth quarter of 2007. Of the $425 million, $375 Million was invested in 13 companies and the remaining $50 million consisted of two acquisitions. Fourth quarter numbers are up from $220 million having been invested in 23 virtual worlds-related companies in Q3 2007. In the third quarter Disney also announced its $700 million acquisition of Club Penguin. No comparable data is available for Q4 2006. Investors during the Q4 2007 period include: Omnicom, Alloy Ventures and Storm Ventures, Vickers Financial Group, DHX Media Ltd., Benchmark Capital, Canaan Partners, GrandBanks Capital, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures, Rustic Canyon Ventures, Providence Equity Partners, Charles River Ventures, Kodiak Venture Partners and Pequot Ventures, Gigamedia, Sony and Time Warner, Microsoft and BigFish Games. "Most of the investors in Q4 were venture firms," said Christopher Sherman, Executive Director of Virtual Worlds Management. "Sony and Time Warner, the only two media companies investing during the period both opted for Gaia Online. Meanwhile Omnicom invested in virtual worlds agency Millions of Us, and television personality Pat Sajak became a significant shareholder of Numedeon. The largest investment by far was ZeniMax's $300 million financing from Providence Equity Partners." Four of the companies that raised funding are squarely focused on the youth and kids virtual worlds market: Gaia, Hidden City, Numedeon and Star In Me. The close proximity of the online game industry to the virtual worlds industry can be seen in the recent funding news as well. Many of the software companies who received funding service both the online game industry and the virtual worlds industry. Indeed of the total 15 companies who received funding six are squarely in the game business as well as the virtual worlds business. It is worth noting that the Zenimax investment is only partially focused on virtual worlds, showing a still prevalent industry bias towards PC and console games. Zenimax owns game publisher Bethesda Softworks, but is also launching Zenimax Online Studios to tap into the massively multiplayer online game and virtual worlds markets. Virtual Worlds Related Companies Funded During Q4 2007 Editors Note: Each company links to a full article about their funding Code: Company Segment Amount Who Invested Acquisition Sorry for the bottom part being nearly illegible. if someone wants to table it up nice, go ahead. ANYWAY. I think this confirms that anyone can get funding. Also, 300M invested into Zenimax? Whut? Where's that money going? I'm pretty certain it's not going to employees. Title: Re: I copypasta PR in this thread: $425 Million Invested In Virtual Worlds Compa Post by: Draegan on January 24, 2008, 10:47:43 AM How can I scam a piece of the pie?
Title: Re: I copypasta PR in this thread: $425 Million Invested In Virtual Worlds Compa Post by: Yegolev on January 24, 2008, 11:37:07 AM I'm looking forward to nice photos of new cars from Raph and Lum.
Title: Re: I copypasta PR in this thread: $425 Million Invested In Virtual Worlds Compa Post by: Lantyssa on January 24, 2008, 12:55:26 PM Here you go:
Code: Company Segment Amount Acq. Who Invested Title: Re: I copypasta PR in this thread: $425 Million Invested In Virtual Worlds Companies Post by: UnSub on January 24, 2008, 05:33:41 PM I wonder how many of these projects will be scrapped due to loss of funding caused by sub-prime market related issues...
Title: Re: I copypasta PR in this thread: $425 Million Invested In Virtual Worlds Compa Post by: Viin on January 24, 2008, 05:47:46 PM What does Multimap have to do with Virtual Worlds?
Title: Re: I copypasta PR in this thread: $425 Million Invested In Virtual Worlds Compa Post by: sidereal on January 24, 2008, 05:48:24 PM Multimap mapping service 50,000,000 Microsoft yes Um, what? Multimap does mobile geolocation and mapping stuff. Not a virtual world.Also, 300M invested into Zenimax? Whut? Where's that money going? I'm pretty certain it's not going to employees. Elder Scrolls Online, yo Title: Re: I copypasta PR in this thread: $425 Million Invested In Virtual Worlds Compa Post by: Venkman on January 24, 2008, 06:28:43 PM Weren't these the same guys that cited $800mil in "Activity" in Q3 2007 when $700mil of that was for the $350mil down + $350mil later deal between Disney and CP, and another bit of that the Intel acquisition of Havok?
That leaves actual "Virtual World Activity" of 12mil +undisclosed + undisclosed (for Gaia, Star in Me, and Millions of Us). These guys seem like they're trying to sell news so they can sell reports so they can sell conferences so they can sell business services. They can say just about anything, and be so obviously wrong their "services" are questionable. * ya know, before I finished this post I was gonna say "Sheesh. Next they'll start using IGE and other farming/RMT companies as proof of "investment". There goes even that. Title: Re: I copypasta PR in this thread: $425 Million Invested In Virtual Worlds Companies Post by: Sunbury on January 25, 2008, 08:39:17 AM Quote Numedeon Platform undisclosed N Pat Sajak Pat Sajak? Wheel of Fortune Virtual World? www.numedeon.com http://www.whyville.net/top/pdf/whyville_101.pdf "Whyville.net is a leading virutal world website for... ages 8-15." "Whyville specialized in custom integrated sponsorships..." (aka targeted ads?) "Citizens attend live Senate debates..." Screenshots show very crude 2-d sprites (waist up only?) with text bubbles on a very flat abstract cartoony background. "1.7 million registered members will be visited > 40MM times spend 5MM hours generate 1BB page views" MM = Million? BB = Billion? Title: Re: I copypasta PR in this thread: $425 Million Invested In Virtual Worlds Compa Post by: Hutch on January 28, 2008, 10:22:54 AM Also, 300M invested into Zenimax? Whut? Where's that money going? I'm pretty certain it's not going to employees. Elder Scrolls Online, yo Yeah, we covered the Zenimax $hojillion already. (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=11217.0) |