by Gavin O'Malley, Friday, May 11, 2007 6:00 AM ET
WEB TV STARTUP JOOST HAS received another vote of confidence in the
form of $45 million in investment from five prominent media and
venture capital companies.
They include CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc., Silicon Valley venture capital
firm Sequoia Capital, Europe's Index Ventures and the Li Ka Shing
Foundation, founded by the chairman of Asian conglomerate Hutchison
Whampoa Ltd.
Joost's new investors are not saying how large their stakes are, or
how much they paid for them.
Joost, founded by the same entrepreneurs--Niklas Zennstrom and Janus
Friis--who brought the world Skype and Kazaa, last week announced a
lineup of 32 major brand advertisers to support its content.
Aided by a year-long partnership with Interpublic Group's Emerging
Media Lab, brand advertisers include Microsoft, Intel, Motorola, and
Sony Electronics. Separate deals have been made with Hewlett-Packard,
Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and Nike.
Unlike video-sharing sites like YouTube, which are dominated by short
clips, Joost's mission is to popularize long-form, high-quality,
ad-supported content.
The startup has clearly convinced major media companies that it will
deliver on these promises.
"We've carefully selected these investors from a variety of interested
parties," said Friis. They "bring unique assets to Joost that will
enable us to significantly accelerate growth and development of the
Company."
Joost "allows content owners to reach audiences of any size at any
time," said Roelof Botha, a partner at Sequoia.
The company made headlines recently when it signed Viacom as a content
partner, shortly after the media titan filed suit against Google for
alleged copyright infringement by YouTube.
Since then, Joost has signed a number of additional content partners,
including Warner Music, National Geographic, Turner Broadcasting, The
Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and CNN--along with programming from
Hasbro, the NHL, Sports Illustrated and Sony Pictures Television.
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