Slide banks $50 million on back of Facebook high

 

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Posted on 21 Jan 2008 at 08:01

Slide, a developer of Facebook applications, has banked a cool $50 million in its latest round of investment.

The figure is nearly 10 times that of the average investment in Web 2.0 firms in the first half of 2007, according to VentureOne.

Slide says the new cash will fund accelerated development of products and features, both on Facebook and MySpace. The company will also be looking at growing its current 65 employees to 100 this year. Acquisitions are a low priority, it adds, but not out of the question.

Slide is responsible for some of the most enduring Facebook and MySpace applications, including Slide Shows, Top Friends, SuperPoke and FunWall. Web traffic researcher Quantcast says Slide attracts 50 million Facebook users monthly, while Slide itself claims 143 million active users of its programs across the web.

Slide says it is poised to lead in the same way that Adobe, Electronic Arts and Intuit became leaders 20 years ago in design and imaging, games and finance.

"We believe there is a huge opportunity to build this next set of businesses," says company founder Max Levchin.

Author: Reuters