Tellme Networks woos big investors

Tellme Networks, the Silicon Valley startup that brought together enemies from the famed browser war between Microsoft and Netscape, has wooed two of the biggest venture capital firms - announcing a $47 million investment by Benchmark Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The BARKSDALE Group, founded by former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale, and former Microsoft executive Brad Silverberg, both previous investors in Tellme, both raised their ante in this round as well. "It's a good amount of funding," said Tellme CEO Mike McCue. "The investors were really psyched by the team." The Tellme team has coupled Netscape alums McCue and co-founder Angus Davis, both top executives at Netscape, with Hadi Partovi, a top Microsoft engineer who was one of the leaders of the Internet Explorer team.