Whitman and Katzenberg Raise $400 Million for Quibi

(Bloomberg) -- Quibi, the startup online-video service led by Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg, has raised an additional $400 million and may seek more as it nears an April launch date.

The new financing will help pay for content and marketing, the company said on Wednesday. The owners might consider adding an additional $100 million to the current fundraising round. They had previously attracted $1 billion from backers that included Walt Disney Co., Walmart Inc. heirs and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Quibi, short for “quick bites,” plans to sell video subscriptions to millennials and tell stories in shorts of less than 10 minutes. Katzenberg, a former top officer with DreamWorks Animation and Disney, is chairman, while Whitman, who led EBay and Hewlett-Packard, is chief executive officer.

Quibi plans to charge $4.99 a month for a service with ads and $7.99 a month without ads. The Los Angeles-based company is working with T-Mobile US Inc. to offer a version to the carrier’s customers for free.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rob Golum in Los Angeles at rgolum@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net

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