The Deal: Waterfront Media absorbs $25M

"Waterfront publishes several consumer health-related sites, most notably Everydayhealth.com. The company's network attracts 9 million unique visitors each month, according to a July 2007 report from Media Metrix/Comscore.

The other new investor in the round, Foundation Capital of Menlo Park, Calif., took a smaller stake and did not receive a board seat. Prior investors following on included Rho Ventures and Time Warner Ventures, both of New York, BEV Capital of Stamford, Conn., and NeoCarta Ventures of San Francisco.

The deal values Waterfront at a significant premium compared with its Series C round in March 2006, according to Wolin. During the interim, Waterfront also raised $8 million in venture debt from Hercules Technology Growth Capital of Palo Alto, Calif.

Wolin said Waterfront was seeking deep-pocketed investors to help pursue acquisitions in preparation for an eventual public offering. He mentioned Scale's involvement with cellphone game developer Glu Mobile Inc. of San Mateo, Calif., and business optimization software maker Omniture Inc. of Orem, Utah, both of which have gone public since summer 2006, as evidence of the firm's success in guiding companies through the IPO process."