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Intel Capital, the global invest arm of Intel, is taking a $20 million stake in Telligent Systems, which has created a collaboration and social-networking computing platform for businesses including Intel.
The $20 million investment by Intel Capital was announced Sept. 23.
In a statement, the two companies said that Telligent has already collected an initial payment from Intel Capital, and Intel Capital will then acquire its remaining stake in Telligent within the next 12 months. The two companies did not disclose how large of a stake Intel Capital now holds with Telligent.
In a blog post, Telligent CEO Robert Howard wrote that his company, which he founded in 2004, would invest the $20 million in sales and marketing as well as product research. The company’s signature software, Community Server, is a social computing platform for businesses that offer a number of Web and collaboration tools and software, including blogging, RSS feeds and video.
In a statement, Telligent claims to have 3,000 different customers for its Community Server software, including Intel. Intel uses the Community Server as the base for its Software Network Support Forums Web site. Other customers include the Associated Press, Microsoft, Dell and the NFL.
Intel Capital has shown an interest in investing in companies that work to create various Web 2.0 platforms. In January, Intel Capital invested $10 million in Endeca Technologies, which is developing new types of information access software that is built around access-optimized databases. In the enterprise, Endeca competes against the likes of Google and IBM.
One reason for this interest in Web 2.0 companies is that Intel is seeking out companies and technologies that will benefit its own chip development. If companies such as Telligent and Endeca are building technologies that require large-scale data centers to support Web 2.0 and database platforms, then Intel will benefits later by selling more server processors to support these massive data centers.
Intel Capital made a series of similar investments in virtualization companies several years ago before the technology went mainstream within the enterprise. Some of the beneficiaries of Intel’s investments included VMware, Virtual Iron and SWsoft, which is now known as Parallels.