Roundup: Cleantech gets record investments, Google opens enterprise market and more

Here’s the latest action:

Cleantech investments laugh in the face of recession — Everyone knows the economy is in the dumps, right? (Heck, it even says so in The New York Times.) Well, no one told the VCs putting their money in cleantech. The Cleantech Group reports that cleantech investment reached a record high of $1.25 billion during the first quarter of 2008, with $195 million going to biofuels and $119 million going to solar. It doesn’t hurt that cleantech projects can take so long that we’ll probably go through several more boom-and-bust cycles before some investments start paying off.

Google opens marketplace for enterprise apps — Following Monday’s launch of the Google App Engine, the search giant is taking further steps to position itself as a developer’s best friend. It just opened the doors on Google Solutions Marketplace, a listing service for applications that enhance Google’s enterprise offerings.

Last.fm says giving music away pays off – The company’s free, full-track music service launched 12 weeks ago, and it says the songs are promoting real sales. The 119 percent increase in purchases through Last.fm’s click-through partnership with Amazon seems to back this up.

Yahoo exec joining OpenX, aka OpenAds – Kara Swisher reports that former Yahoo Senior Vice President of Search Tim Cadogan has joined OpenX, a startup that provides open source ad serving software. The company recently changed its name from OpenAds and is moving from London to Los Angeles.

Will Google App Engine compete with Facebook? – Speaking of the Google App Engine, Nate Westheimer argues that the tech media (including VentureBeat) got the story wrong — the app engine won’t compete with Amazon’s web services at all, Westheimer says, but rather with Facebook’s F8 Platform. Unfortunately, he fails to understand that two products can still compete, even if they’re somewhat different.

HD DVD owners get $50 back from Amazon — If you’re the less-than-proud owner of an HD DVD player, you’re probably feeling pretty bummed right now. But even though you were on the losing side of the format wars, Amazon is offering a consolation prize — $50 in store credit. Maybe you can help Blu-ray players get close to Sony’s hoped-for-but-unlikely 50 percent market penetration.

Vignette acquires white label video publisher Vidavee — The deal was for $6.6 million, less than the $8 million Vidavee has raised, according to Paidcontent.

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