Friday, December 8, 2006

Wikia Lands Investment from Amazon.com

Wikia, a site that allows users to share information, news, stories, media and opinions that fall outside the scope of an encyclopedia, said on Wednesday that it has received a new investment from Amazon.com.

The size of the round, the company's second, was not disclosed. San Mateo, Calif.-based Wikia, co-founded in 2004 by Jimmy Wales, the founder of popular open source encyclopedia Wikipedia founder, said that the new capital will help it to expand its range of topics, as well as its geographical scope.

The company also plans to enhance the software that runs both Wikipedia and Wikia with improved usability, spam prevention and community management features. Separately, Wikia said that it has agreed to acquire online sports community ArmchairGM in a deal valued at more than $2 million. Wikia received $4 million in its first round earlier this year.