Long the subject of buyout rumors, social news site Digg Inc. on Wednesday announced it has raised $28.7 million in third-round funding and that the money would fund its expansion plans.
The round was led by Highland Capital Partners and includes previous investors Greylock Partners, Omidyar Network and SVB Capital. It follows the company's $2.8 million Series A round in 2005 and an $8.5 million round in 2006.
Digg said it would use the money to double its staff to more than 150 by the end of 2009, accelerate its product and feature rollouts and expand internationally.
Digg reportedly hired Allen & Co. to shop the company late last year, but was rumored to be looking for a price tag of anywhere from $200 million to $300 million. Among the suspects linked to an acquisition of the company at various times were News Corp. [NWS], Google Inc. [GOOG] and Yahoo! Inc. [YHOO].
Digg is a user-submitted Web site where all the content is shared by its users from anywhere in the world. After the content is posted, other people read the submission and "Digg" what they like best. If a story receives enough Diggs it is promoted to the front page of the site. -- David Shabelman
See Sept. 24 blog post from Digg
See October 2006 blog post from Tech Confidential
See July 26 post from TechCrunch
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