eBay was attempting to sell off its stake in StumbleUpon, the website recommendation service it bought for $75 million in 2007. That didn’t happen. Instead, the company has been bought back by its investors and original founders. It emerges once again as an independent startup.
The new company is led by co-founder Garrett Camp, who now steps into the CEO role.
Yes, StumbleUpon is once again a startup. “The company is amply funded. And everyone is glad that the company is away from eBay,” a source tells us. It had been looking for at least $75 million we hear but wasn’t able to find a taker for that amount. Our understanding is that Sequoia place a competing bid, but Camp and investor Ram Shriram went with Accel and August Capital.
Below find the press release:
StumbleUpon Goes Independent; Backed by Founders and New Investors
April 13, 2009 – StumbleUpon, the best way to discover new content on the Internet, today announced that after nearly 2 years as a subsidiary of eBay Inc., it has returned to the ranks of an investor-backed startup. StumbleUpon is now backed by the original company founders, Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith, as well as a number of well-known investors including Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures, Accel Partners, and August Capital. Camp takes on the role of CEO of StumbleUpon. “We are grateful to eBay for its guidance. However, we realized there were few long-term synergies between the two businesses. It is best for us to part ways and focus on our respective strengths,” said Camp. “This change makes it possible for StumbleUpon to continue to innovate and focus on becoming the Web’s largest recommendation service.”
“StumbleUpon helps users discover the best of the web – it’s a way to find interesting content you wouldn’t think to search for,” said Shriram. “StumbleUpon’s personalized recommendation engine brings serendipity back to websurfing, and lets users sift through socially-endorsed content with a single click.”
StumbleUpon will remain focused on helping people discover interesting content by increasing the accessibility of the StumbleUpon service and the quality of recommendations. In addition, StumbleUpon has plans for several new products and features to be released in the upcoming months.
About StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon discovers Web sites based on your interests, learns what you like, and brings you more. With more than 7.4 million users and 425 million recommendations per month, StumbleUpon is the leading way to discover great content on the Internet. More than 20,000 advertisers are using StumbleUpon to promote products and services. Founded in 2001, StumbleUpon is based in San Francisco and backed by the same investors as Google and Facebook. For more information, visit www.StumbleUpon.com.
Interesting.. I wonder what kind of changes we’ll see now that ownership has changed again. I’d say going back to the original, it should be all good things!
~ Kristi
It’s going to be good as now investors own it and not a big company. There will be more focus on the prize.
I agree that this will allow the company to focus on making StumbleUpon even better, since the owners are now once again, in the business of StumbleUpon. This of course is in contrast to being in the business of eBay.
http://www.woopid.com/
It sure will. More focus and better tools will help SU in a big way.