Bill Gates Loves Queer Media

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, operating through his Cascade Investment arm, is among the investors participating in the $26.2 million funding of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender media company PlanetOut Inc.

As we reported yesterday, the future for PlanetOut looked a lot brighter Monday as the company secured the funds they needed for continued operations. Now it turns out that multi-billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates were among the investors that joined in to save the company.

The parent company of such notable media entities as Gay.com, Advocate and Out magazines has been loosing a lot of money lately and was in danger of bankruptcy as several million dollar loan payments were coming due.

PlanetOut, which trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker LGBT, went public at $9 a share in October 2004.

Since then the stock has been in free fall. It reached an all-time low of $1.18 on May 18, but has later recovered some after the news of the funding broke. The stock closed Monday at $1.59.