****Intel Joins Others To Fund Two Startup Firms
Newsbytes - August 19, 1998 18:17
%PC %SFO INTC V%NEWSBYTES P%NBYT
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1998 AUG 19 (NB) -- By Craig Menefee, Newsbytes. Intel Corp. [NASDAQ:INTC] has invested, with a group of other firms, in two high-tech startup firms, Liquid Audio and Quokka Sports. The previously undisclosed Intel investments were first reported by Reuters and were confirmed by separate announcements by the firms, both of which named Intel as one of their funding organizations.
Reuters described the investments as part of a general Intel strategy to invest in companies that create PC applications that require high-performance processors.
The companies fit the high-power CPU billing. Quokka Sports raised $16 million in venture funding to help expand its digital coverage of international sports events. The firm says it wants to "revolutionize the way people experience sports" by using a mix of streaming audio, video, and other digital technologies. The firm's coverage of the Whitbread Round The World Race for the Volvo Trophy this year garnered 768 million-plus "hits," or visits by people who clicked to the site with their World Wide Web browsers, the firm says.
Quokka, based in San Francisco but named after a Kangaroo-like Australian animal, said its $16 million is venture funding from firms including new investors Accel Partners and MediaOne Interactive Services. Intel, BancAmerica Robertson Stephens, Media Technology Ventures and Trinity Ventures had already participated in earlier funding, the firm said.
Liquid Audio, based in Redwood City, Calif., develops secure music systems for online music distribution. The firm announced it raised $20 million to develop technology to deliver music using the same broadband technology that makes high-speed Internet access, telephony and advanced digital services possible.
Liquid Audio said its $20 million was raised as a strategic third round of financing. In addition to Intel, the firm said money came in from principal investors MediaOne Interactive Services, a division of MediaOne Group broadband communications companies; an unnamed Metromedia Co. affiliate; Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, a software venture capital firm; Phoenix Partners, a high technology software investment firm, and Vulcan Ventures, the investment organization for Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen.
Reported by Newsbytes News Network: newsbytes.com .
17:00 CST
(19980819/WIRES BUSINESS, PC, ONLINE/)
|
