BusinessWeek reported on Thursday that eBay joined five other investors to purchase a 10 percent equity interest in Meetup.com. The article says Meetup plans to use part of the proceeds to hold regional conferences similar to eBay's annual community conference, with the first one in Houston in May. eBay founder Pierre Omidyar is on the board of Meetup.

Meetup describes itself on its website: "Meetup.com helps people find others who share their interest or cause, and form lasting, influential, local community groups that regularly meet face-to-face. We believe that the world will be a better place when everyone has access to a people-powered local Meetup Group. That's our goal."

http://digbig.com/4gqyg