« Previous post
Next post »

February 17, 2008

Who Bought Rupture?

Michael Arrington

26 comments »

We knew something was up when Shawn Fanning’s startup Rupture, an unlaunched social network around gaming, delayed and delayed their launch. Well, it turns out, say multiple sources, that Rupture was able to do what Parakey pulled off in 2007. Get acquired before launching, that is.

We’re shaking trees to find out the buyer and size of the transaction. But Fanning, who founded Napster, is having a good month. Just a few days ago we reported that his other startup, SnoCap, was acquired by Sequoia-backed Imeem.

Rupture has been tight lipped about releasing any information at all about the company, but as far as we can tell they raised just a single round of angel financing, in 2006. More as this develops.

Update: A source close to the company says we jumped the gun on this one a little bit, and that negotiations are still ongoing. No term sheet has been signed, although there are discussions going on. Also, the company raised another round of capital over the summer. Baseline Ventures led that round.

CrunchBase Information
Rupture
Shawn Fanning
Information provided by CrunchBase
  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 17th, 2008 at 11:45 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. www.teletubis.info » Blog Archive » Imeem Confirms Snocap Acquisition

    April 7th, 2008 at 8:36 am

  2. Imeem Confirms Snocap Acquisition

    April 7th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

  3. Shawn Fanning Finally Gets A Real Payday: Electronic Arts Buys Rupture For $30 Million

    May 8th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

  4. Shawn Fanning Finally Gets A Real Payday: Electronic Arts Buys Rupture For $30 Million | DougsTech.com - Tech News, Reviews, and Guides

    May 8th, 2008 at 5:51 pm

  5. Terbaik.Net » Blog Archive » Shawn Fanning Finally Gets A Real Payday: Electronic Arts Buys Rupture For $30 Million

    May 10th, 2008 at 8:41 am

Comments

RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. wild guess

    February 18th, 2008 at 12:09 am

    Microsoft?

    The 5 games featured on its front page are either PC or Xbox360 games.

  2. Kevin

    February 18th, 2008 at 12:16 am

    Congratulations to Shawn Fanning. I loved Napster in it’s heyday and now it is nice to see that he wasn’t a one hit wonder and he truly has got skills.

    Music industry shuts down Napster - millions in market cap up in smoke

    Have your venture get bought before it is even launched, while working on two companies at the same time. Priceless.

  3. darth maul

    February 18th, 2008 at 12:42 am

    congrats. a little bit like xfire, no? that was more IM groups about gaming.

  4. Everett

    February 18th, 2008 at 12:46 am

    Wow it goes to show VCs invest in the people and not just the products.

  5. Lev

    February 18th, 2008 at 12:49 am

    Electronic Arts.

  6. CouchTycoon

    February 18th, 2008 at 1:02 am

    well, I just can tell you, that it wasn´t me!!

  7. Ghaus

    February 18th, 2008 at 1:06 am

    @1

    Yeah featured game is “Halo 3″ on Rapture’s main page. Seems like MS got their hands on Rapture.

    @ 5

    You could be correct too. Lets see what Micheal finds out ?

  8. Lev

    February 18th, 2008 at 1:20 am

    Who said I was guessing? :)

  9. Andrew

    February 18th, 2008 at 1:39 am

    I thought Seth Green created Napster?

  10. Dan

    February 18th, 2008 at 3:00 am

    I’ve used the closed beta of this.. I hope whoever bought it didn’t pay to much. But it just goes to show.. publicity sells companies.. (at least at this stage of the game).

  11. Jon

    February 18th, 2008 at 5:56 am

    Wow… it’s either a totally mind blowing system, wickedly under-priced or the promotion of said system would put P.T. Barnum to shame. Either way, congrats!

    Jon
    http://buzvia.com - Where’s your traffic going?

  12. Erik

    February 18th, 2008 at 6:04 am

    Given the $10 million invested in Snocap how good an exit Fanning (or the VC’s) got is questionable. Both Morgenthaler and Ron Conway were in both Snocap and imeem.

    Has the sale price been made public?

  13. mark

    February 18th, 2008 at 7:18 am

    Michael you should check into the Snocap funding info you have put up. Snocap raised 15 million in Series C alone with Courtsquare Ventures in early 2006 ( http://www.stanwichadvisors.co.....elease.pdf ). Pretty sure they raised much more than the 10 million you mention in your post. Having followed SnoCap since the begining, I don’t see how anyone got out smiling. cheers.

  14. i know

    February 18th, 2008 at 7:53 am

    they were bought by ea. I saw ron and shawn negotiating the deal in soma.

  15. Chris

    February 18th, 2008 at 8:28 am

    Mark
    Re: I don’t see how anyone got out smiling. cheers.

    I’ll bet you imeem.com is smiling.

  16. Rushabh Choksi

    February 18th, 2008 at 8:47 am

    hey shawn congrats!!! finally i am seeing what i always wanted to: vc’s are investing in talent and not just the product.

  17. anonymous

    February 18th, 2008 at 8:53 am

    Maybe i should have taken that offer when Shawn was trying to talk me in to joining a few weeks ago!

  18. makes sense

    February 18th, 2008 at 9:16 am

    EA is smart to acquire social networking DNA…it would end up being a disaster if they tried to build it in-house. Much of their in-game advertising staff has come from outside the company, too.

  19. mark

    February 18th, 2008 at 10:47 am

    @chris - I said on the way out - as in seller, not buyer as in imeem. And as for them buying it - remains to be seen what they really got for the price they paid. That’s for imeem to figure out.

  20. snocrap

    February 18th, 2008 at 9:01 pm

    everyone lost money—get it right!

  21. loren

    February 19th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

    other than his name attached, shawn fanning hasn’t been involved with snocap in years.

« Previous post
Next post »