Quote:LiveDeal.com
(http://www.livedeal.com), one of the nation's leading free local online classifieds
sites, today announced a joint venture with Canadian media company Torstar
Corporation...aimed at delivering one of the largest free local online classifieds site for Canada
later this year....
The joint venture between...marries the strength of LiveDeal's industry-leading Web classifieds technology with the
extensive local reach of Torstar's Canadian media brands including the Toronto
Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper; CityMedia Group's family of daily and
community newspapers in Southwestern Ontario; and Metroland's 90+ community
newspapers in Southern Ontario.
The resulting joint venture, called LiveDeal Canada, will be a free local
online classifieds site
full article:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-25-2005/0004194243&EDATE=
As part of the partnership with Torstar, the company also secured $4.85 million in funding
Quote:FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LIVEDEAL.COM, ONE OF THE LEADING FREE LOCAL ONLINE CLASSIFIEDS PROVIDERS, SECURES $4.85 MILLION IN SERIES B FUNDING
Canadian Media Company Torstar Takes Minority Stake, Venture Firm Draper Richards Joins Round; Investment to Support Companys Rapid Domestic and International Expansion
SANTA CLARA , Calif. , October 25, 2005 -- LiveDeal.com (www.livedeal.com), one of the nations leading free local online classifieds sites, today announced the company has secured $4.85 million in Series B funding. The round was led by one of Canadas major media companies, Torstar Corporation, which took a minority stake in LiveDeal.com. Also investing in the round was venture capital firm Draper Richards, which is managed by Silicon Valley venture capital luminary Bill Draper, an early investor in Skype, Hotmail and GoTo.com (Overture) among others. In addition, the round included seasoned individual investors from eBay, HP and the real estate industry. The funding will be used to further accelerate LiveDeals strong market acceptance and expand LiveDeals free local online classifieds platform both domestically and internationally.
Millions of people from all walks of life are embracing the benefits of LiveDeals free local online classifieds, said Rajesh Navar, LiveDeals founder and CEO. This investment by Torstar and one of Silicon Valleys most successful VC firms, is further validation of the strength of our technology platform and our value proposition to make local buying and selling easy and affordable.
In a separate announcement today, LiveDeal.com also announced the formation of a new joint venture with Torstar to deliver a free online classifieds site in Canada later this year. This partnership is the first step of LiveDeals international expansion strategy.
As one of the most-respected media companies in Canada, Torstar is an incredible partner and we look forward to strong growth as we embrace the Canadian online classifieds opportunity, said Steve Harmon, VP corporate development for LiveDeal.
LiveDeal.com was founded in 2003 by Navar, an original member of the engineering and management teams at eBay and other successful Internet companies. Navar has assembled a senior management team that brings a depth of expertise across the Internet, ecommerce and media industries, and who have previously helped grow successful start-ups and create innovative technologies.
More than one million unique users visit LiveDeal.com each month to buy and sell items across a variety of categories. The company recently relocated to new headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif. to accommodate its continued rapid expansion and additional personnel requirements. LiveDeal is hiring across a number of critical functions, including engineering, product management and marketing to support the companys explosive growth. Revenues are also keeping pace with LiveDeals growth, up 10 times over 2004 levels.
http://info.livedeal.com/aboutLD/press_1...nding.html