Deal Radar 2008: Comcast Buys Plaxo

Just as I said Comcast has not been doing anything to beef up its internet portfolio, they announced the acquisition of Plaxo for an estimated $150 Million.

Plaxo has so far raised $28 Million in four rounds, from Sequoia & Ram Shriram (Series A; 3/02, 11/02; $3.8M @ $7.5M post), Globespan Capital (Series B; 7/03; $8.5M @ $33.5M post), Cisco (Series C; 4/04; $7M @ $64M post), and DAG (Series D; 8/06; $9M @ $122M). Looks like DAG didn’t get much return on their investment, but the earlier investors did okay.

We have covered both companies extensively in the past. I had also said earlier that Palm should have acquired Plaxo with the logic that addressbook data backup and a centralized synch-up facility is a good service for any company in the unified communication business. Comcast’s acquisition logic is exactly the same. It makes sense.

Comcast’s results have been consistently improving lately (Read: Comcast Continues Upward Trend, Comcast Climbs As Predicted, Time to Buy Comcast?).

We did a comprehensive Web 3.0 analysis on the company last Fall, suggesting that they need to become a Digital Media company with a Web 3.0 strategy.

There is also the PeopleID opportunity that I pointed to for Plaxo which perhaps Comcast can pursue. It would need to be some sort of an OpenID style alliance with other companies in the business, or else that bigger vision is not achievable.

Interoperability is a requirement.

This segment is a part in the series : Deal Radar 2008