Monday, March 3, 2008

Mzinga closes $32M funding, buys Delphi descendant Prospero

Online community developer Mzinga Inc. says it has closed a $32.5 million round of financing and plans to acquire Littleton-based Prospero Technologies LLC for an undisclosed amount.

Mzinga, which is based in Burlington, received the funding from an investor group that includes New York-based W Capital Partners and Chicago-based BlueCrest Capital Partners LP.

The company also plans to merge Prospero's 43 employees into Mzinga by the end of the month, officials said.

Mzinga, which was founded in 2007, employed 105 workers before the acquisition, said co-CEO Rick Faulk.

Prospero's roots go back to the mid-1980s, when it operated as Delphi Forums, a division of Delphi Internet Services, which was sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in 1993. In 1997, Delphi executives bought the company back, merged it with California-based Well Engaged LLC and renamed the combined business as Prospero in 2000.

The company was owned by its only investor, Littleton-based Mallory Ventures Inc.

Mzinga, which develops corporate intranets and wikis, was formed in August 2007 after the quiet merger of Woburn-based Shared Insights US LLC and Pennsylvania's KnowledgePlanet Inc. Shared Insights founder Barry Libert recruited Faulk and now serves as Mzinga's co-CEO with Faulk.