Venture capital firm VantagePoint Venture Partners has reportedly pulled the plug on mobile social networking service provider 3Guppies. According to VentureBeat, VantagePoint--which assumed ownership of 3Guppies (formerly Mixxer) in a $20 million deal combining mobile social networking firm MoPhone and ringtone provider 3Guploads--made the decision to cut its losses after 3Guppies CEO John Dearborn and senior management execs failed to deliver metrics compelling enough to translate to a second round of financing. VantagePoint let go the 3Guppies staff last week, but will continue paying their salaries through the end of the month. VantagePoint explained the shutdown thusly: "It just was not a good idea to blast to the end of the runway and crash, but to taxi off gracefully."
For more on 3Guppies' demise:
- read this VentureBeat article [1]
Related article:
3Guppies [2] debuts photo sharing app for Facebook
Links:
[1] http://venturebeat.com/2007/12/19/vantagepoint-venture-partners-puts-a-3guppies-a-20mm-investment-to-death/
[2] http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/3guppies-debuts-photo-sharing-app-facebook/2007-10-24