Plaxo, a social-networking site of sorts (but really more of a browser plug-in for maintaining contacts), is going on the auction block for as much as $100 million. Founded in 2001, Plaxo
operates one of the Web's original social media sites, though its influence has dwindled. The company hired specialty investment bank Revolution Partners to handle the auction.
In a bid to win back lost market share, Plaxo in October unveiled Plaxo Pulse, a service that collects information from sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg and feeds it directly to its
users while they browse the Web. The move was a big departure from the company's core business of maintaining address book information.
Plaxo, which loses money, says it has 15
million registered users. It has received more than $20 million in financing from venture capital groups and the networking services giant Cisco Systems. One of Plaxo's founders is Sean Parker, who
started the Napster music service.
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