In a strategic play designed to improve its existing services, financial news Web site TheStreet.com (NASDAQ:TSCM) Monday lured investments from a well-known technology executive and a portal operator.
The company sold a 5% stake of its company to Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures and Web-site operator Go2Net (NASDAQ:GNET) for $7.5 million in cash.
As a part of the deal, Vulcan and Go2Net each took an option to buy 7.45% of TheStreet.com stock within six months.
Thomas Clarke, CEO of TheStreet.com, said Go2Net has done a superb job on their message board and that he would like them to do the same for his company’s site.
“I firmly believe that you don’t have to recreate the wheel, particularly when Go2Net is doing such a good job,” said Clarke.
Under terms of the licensing deal, users of TheStreet.com’s main site can visit message boards using Go2Net’s technology platform, and subscribers to its paid RealMoney.com site can post and view messages in a private-label environment.
Clarke said the $7.5 million in cash would be added to TheStreet.com’s existing $90 million in the bank.
