That Was Fast: StumbleUpon's New Owners Already Making Presence Felt
I used to use Web discovery tool Stumbleupon before it sold to eBay a couple of years ago for $75 million. After that I sort of stopped, assuming it would reemerge, looking or operating differently, once eBay did whatever it was planning to do with it. Apparently, I wasn't alone in dropping my usage. As TechCrunch points out today, after the acquisition, StumbleUpon's traffic stagnated at roughly 1.5 million unique visitors per month. And little wonder. After eBay scooped it up, the company operated in a state of "suspended animation," said investor David Hornik of August Capital to VentureWire this morning. I have a feeling that's going to change, quickly. Yesterday, it was announced that StumbleUpon has been bought back for an undisclosed amount by its original founders, Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith, as well as original investor Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures and new investors Accel Partners and August Capital. And while many folks are scratching their heads over why they bothered -- StumbleUpon's original backers made a killing, having invested just $1.5 million in the company before eBay bought it -- the team is already making moves to reacquaint people with the service.
