Widget dev firm Slide has secured $50 million in a new round of financing, drawn from a group that included Fidelity and T. Rowe Price. The company is now valued at $500 million.

BusinessWeek deduces that, over the long term, Slide may favor share offerings over selling to another company.

Widgets built by Slide reached 150 million users in 2007, according to comScore. The opportunities behind such reach, for a utility that can be wedded to any site, is of understandable interest to investors.