Cash Infusion for Digg

Sam Gustin writes: Digg has just excavated a nice chunk of cash.

The social news site announced today that it has raised $28.7 million in a series C investment round led by Highland Capital Partners, bringing the total amount it has raised to $40 million since it was founded four years ago.

The company, which says it now has 30 million unique monthly visitors, says it will use the money to double its work force, expand internationally, and move to new headquarters in San Fransisco.

Digg is a service which allows web users to vote for the most popular stories on the internet, thereby propelling them to the top of Digg's homepage.

"In just four years, the Digg community has grown into a globally diverse group of people who have a common passion to discover and share entertaining and relevant content," said Jay Adelson, Digg's chief executive said in a statement.. "This round of funding allows us to accelerate that momentum and build the team to deliver features that will continue to change the way people consume content on the web."

Meanwhile, Om Malik is reporting that as part of the deal co-founder Kevin Rose may have been able to sell some of his shares in the company, effectively taking some of his stake off the table.

Digg's announcement signals that it aims to move ahead as an independent company after conducting acquisition talks with several large tech companies.

In July, TechCrunch reported that Google was in final negotiations to buy the company for $200 million, but those talks broke down and Google walked away.