Recession? What recession? Meebo reportedly aims to raise $25-30 million
The instant-messaging start-up is hoping to hit a valuation of $200-250 million, the blog VentureBeat said.
Web-based instant messaging and chat service Meebo is planning to raise $25-30 million in venture funding, VentureBeat reported Monday.
This would likely peg Meebo's valuation at between $200 and $250 million, a whole lot more than the $60-70 million that it was reportedly worth after a funding round last year. As VentureBeat's Matt Marshall noted, investment banking flop Bear Stearns was just sold for $236 million. Never mind that reports show venture funding may be drying up and the economic forecast hasn't been getting any better recently.
Meebo, which is supported by advertising revenue, has reportedly hired the San Francisco bank Montgomery & Co. to handle the effort, and some big names in the social-networking space--possibly even Facebook or News Corp.'s MySpace.com--may be interested. MySpace operates its own instant-messaging service, and Facebook is rumored to have one in the works.
