Daily Tidbits: Alloy adds Takkle to 'Teen' Network
Takkle tool helps high school athletes create player and team profiles. Also: iWidgets adds funding and Facebook app NetworkedBlogs reaches 700,000 installs.
Alloy Media, a company that provides youth-focused online content, announced Wednesday that it has acquired Takkle.com, an online resource and college recruitment site for high school sports. According to the company, Takkle will join the Teen.com Network, which includes a number of youth-focused sites. Takkle provides tools for high school athletes to create player and team profiles, as well as share videos and photos from games. It claims to draw a monthly audience of "1 million athletes, both male and female." The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
iWidgets, a company that allows users to take their content from Hi5, Facebook, and other social networks and syndicate those across the Web, raised $4.1 million in a Series A round of funding led by Opus Capital, the company announced Wednesday. In connection with the funding, the company has also added Geoff Katz, a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Board of Governors, as vice president of business development and marketing.
NetworkedBlogs, a Facebook app that allows users to add blogs they love to the popular social network, currently has almost 450,000 active users and over 700,000 installs, ReadWriteWeb is reporting. According to the report, its nearest competitor has yet to reach 100,000 installs. Most importantly, the app's users are adding 500 new blogs per day, bringing the total number of blogs on the site to 125,000. The app is free for all Facebook users.
Kiva, a nonprofit microlending company, has unveiled an open-source API platform for those who want to create applications for the finance community. The company is encouraging developers to create applications for the iPhone or a map that displays real-time global fund transfers. But its executives did say they want developers to use the API to develop apps that go beyond its few suggestions.
Slide and Katalyst Media, companies that provide social apps and original content, respectively, announced a partnership that brings KatalystHQ exclusively to Slide's Facebook app, FunSpace. KatalystHQ is an original series that looks at the "inner workings of a Hollywood-based entertainment company." Katalyst Media and KatalystHQ were co-founded by famed model and actor, Ashton Kutcher. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.