Categories: OLD Media Moves

Google invests in Bloomberg competitor Symphony

Google Inc. plans to invest in a new round of funding for Symphony Communication Services LLC that values the new rival to Bloomberg at about $650 million, reports Sarah Krouse and Justin Baer of The Wall Street Journal.

Krouse and Baer write, “Symphony has said it would offer news and research on the platform in addition to its primary chat function. It agreed last month to provide news content from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal on the platform. Dow Jones is a unit of News Corp.

“It has also formed partnerships with S&P Capital IQ, a research provider owned by McGraw Hill Financial Inc., and Selerity, a firm that collects data from the Web.

“Symphony launched its service on Sept. 15. It charges a monthly fee of $15 per user for organizations with 50 users or more, according to its website, and is free for individuals. The company hasn’t disclosed how many users it has accumulated.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.