Updated below: Social networking service Plaxo is putting itself up for auction and hoping to fetch up to $100 million, reports NYT. The Mountain View-based company, which was once infamous for the prodigious volume of e-mails it sent out, has tried hard to shed its reputation as a spammer. Originally conceived of as a contact manager, Plaxo has tried to position itself as a neutral third party in the social networking world. Last year it launched Plaxo Pulse, which collects and organizes information from other sites. Plaxo has raised over $20 million from various investors, including Sequoia, Globespan, Ram Shriram and Tim Koogle, notes NYT. It currently claims to have 15 million registered users, though it remains unprofitable.

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This wouldn’t be the first time Plaxo has pondered a sale. The site first considered the move two years ago. Both Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) were said to have been interested, according to a WSJ report from last summer. With its new strategy, Plaxo may earn itself a second look from some suitors, particularly with social networking as hot as it is.

Updated: PEHub says the service has received an unsolicited acquisition offer of around $200 million...the company has also has begun informal conversations with other potential partners. The story also refutes the NYT story that the company has hired a bank, and source tells peHUB that no such agreement has been signed.