MeeVee Buys Top 10 Sources for Relaunch

It’s an interesting sign of consolidation in the web 2.0 space when startups start buying startups. MeeVee, a Burlingame, Calif.-based web TV guide, has bought the assets of Cambridge, Mass.-based Top 10 Sources, an editorially driven web curation tool. The purchase was completed in August for an undisclosed price, but MeeVee was waiting to implement the tools into its site before announcing the deal, according to MeeVee CEO Michael Raneri.

Top 10 Sources was part of Top Ten Media, which raised $3.5 million to incubate three web content properties, none of which have made it big yet. StyleFeeder, a community shopping site that Top Ten had acquired last year, was recently spun off and raised $1 million of its own on the strength of strong growth and a popular Facebook app. Top 10 Sources, which had seen growth after focusing on entertainment and celebrity content, was bought by MeeVee. And Lisensa, a copyright system for independent creators, is being retooled and has also raised its own venture capital, Top Ten Media founder John Palfrey said in a phone interview on Monday.

MeeVee recently raised another $3.5 million of its own “just to get a little more breathing room” following the acquisition, according to Raneri. It hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing for the company this year; it laid off 20 percent of its staff in July.

MeeVee, which offers a guide that combines television and online content, is broadening its show library with user-created “interest channels,” which aggregate news and blogs and gossip RSS feeds using Top 10 Sources technology. The site is also adding community features and widgets, and signing up content creators such as CBS (CBS). The new features are being launched Tuesday as “MeeVee 2.0.”

Raneri has told NewTeeVee a couple times that the goal of the relaunch is to be “kind of like a Joost but without the download.” MeeVee’s business model is primarily advertising but also includes relevant e-commerce, he said.

We’ve written about many competitors to MeeVee, including Couchville, Tape It Off the Internet, Sidereel, TV Guide’s Stingray, and LocateTV. So far, we don’t see a standout among the crowd. Let us know if you prefer one online TV guide over another.

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