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Media - Sunday, January 15, 2006

Gather Gets $6M More for Blog Network

Gather.com has raised $6M from Allen & Co. and Lotus Notes founder Jim Manzi. - it has raised $9M to date. Gather was founded by Tom Gerace, who founded the Be Free, an online marketing firm that raised $200M, went public and is now part of ValueClick.

Gather is not unlike About.com in that it shares ad revenue with bloggers. It has been getting a number of negative reviews from bloggers, including Steve Rubel. If Gather had not raised $6M but was just another blog network it might be considered cool, but bloggers think this is dumb money trying to cash in on a concept that is a crowded house.

We have to agree. This space is going to get as cluttered and ugly as the current RSS reader space has become. Unless Gather.com can think of some ways to be different, it will be tough for them to earn back a good multiple on the $9M it has raised to date. We know of several other companies in the works right now that will compete with Gather with what we think will have better blog cred and technology.

Read - Blogwatcher Gather.com gathers some capital (News.com)
Read - Gather Aims to Build a Blog Content Marketplace (Micropersuasion)
Read - Shall we Gather at the (funding) river (Mathew Ingram)