Microsoft's HomeAdvisor snags $100M in funding

Microsoft Corp.'s online home-buying and financing service, HomeAdvisor Technologies Inc., has snared more than $100 million in funding from two big mortgage companies. The equity investments from Chase Manhattan Mortgage, part of Chase Manhattan Corp., and GMAC-Residential Funding Corp. will be announced Wednesday, HomeAdvisor said. The money should help HomeAdvisor move forward with its ambitious -- and still unproven -- plans to automate many aspects of the home-buying process, analysts say. The company, formed five months ago after Microsoft (msft) decided to reposition its existing HomeAdvisor real-estate site, competes with online lenders, back-end software providers and entrenched sites like Homestore.com Inc. -- Wall Street Journal