alarm:clock

Media - Thursday, February 14, 2008

Obit Site Tribute.com Spins Out of Troubled Eons With $4.3M

Tributes.com, has been spun-out from baby-booming business Eons with a dowry of $4.3M from Dow Jones, Eons and other "strategic backers". The obituaries site was originally a feature of Eons but apparently they feel it was popular enough to make it a standalone business.

If you are not familiar with it, Eons was founded by Jeff Taylor, who was founder and CEO of Monster.com. This is an odd deal as last September we reported that Eons had made mass lay-offs. Eons had raised $22M in Series B funding led by Charles River Ventures with Intel Capital, Humana, General Catalyst Partners and Sequoia Capital. Then CEO Taylor blew a bunch of cash on some lousy TV commercials.

While we agree that there should be a marketplace for obits on the Internet, particularly as newspapers are vanishing before our eyes, the Tributes.com just looks wrong at first site. Seeing the names and descriptions of beloved men and women who have recently passed away, next to a pink add for Tmobile or another ad for some sweepstakes scam looks tacky at best.

View - site