Lala, Qloud may be leading contenders for Facebook music deal
Two online music companies, Lala and Qloud, are the leading contenders for a partnership with Facebook on its prospective streaming music initiative, I’m hearing. They’re not the most prominent companies Facebook has talked to about a potential deal, but from my understanding, that’s the point. Facebook will undoubtedly call the shots in any partnership. Neither company is especially established, and both could have more to gain from a Facebook partnership than continuing solo.
However, it’s … Continue Reading
Collaborative software company Smartsheet raises $1.25M
Smartsheet, which offers tools for online business collaboration, has raised $1.25 million in a second round of funding.
The Bellevue, Wash. startup’s features include the ability to manage tasks, share files, and collaborate on documents. There are a lot of other product management products out there, such as Jive Software‘s Clearspace, but we were hearing good things about Smartsheet back in 2007, and WebWorkerDaily’s Scott Blitstein sounds pretty impressed with the way the product integrates … Continue Reading
Video: CNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan takes Jim Goldman to task over Steve Jobs' health, too
CNBC Silicon Valley bureau chief Jim Goldman is having a tough week. Goldman said in December that “sources inside [Apple] tell me that Jobs’ decision was more about politics than his pancreas.” Ah, but this week, Apple announced that Jobs was sick and would be taking a 5-month medical leave of absence as a result.
What to do when faced with such damning evidence that eviscerates your prior reporting? Get mad at anyone who calls … Continue Reading
American Idol teams up with Habbo for an Idol-themed virtual space
In a sign that the Internet is becoming a key magnet for major brands, American Idol is teaming up with Habbo the world’s biggest online world for teens.
FremantleMedia Enterprises, which is the brand extension arm of American Idol co-producer FremantleMedia, will create an Idol-branded community within the Habbo virtual world, where teens chat with each other via cartoon-like virtual characters and decorate their virtual rooms. It will include in-world merchandise that Habbo residents can … Continue Reading
Girl Ambition launches community site for girls
Girl Ambition is launching a community web site for girls ages 7 to 13 today. While there are many sites that target this group, the three moms who founded Girl Ambition say they’re focusing on creating a fun place where girls can communicate with each other in an environment that promotes both online safety and self-esteem.
The Danville, Calif.-based site is a kind of starter social network for girls who can graduate to sites such … Continue Reading
Salesforce.com tackles customer service with the Service Cloud
It’s time to inaugurate a new era of customer service in the Internet cloud, says Salesforce.com. To that end, it’s launching a new product called the Service Cloud.
Traditional customer service channels, such as a phone number or an email address, are increasingly cut off from where the real conversation is, says Alex Dayon, Salesforce’s senior vice president of CRM customer service. Rather than contacting your company when they have problems, users are searching for … Continue Reading
Report: Steve Jobs' health crisis not cancer, but does it even matter?
Several years ago, Steve Jobs was diagnosed with a treatable form of pancreatic cancer. After a short leave of absence, Jobs was pronounced healthy, wealthy and wise. Except now, Jobs is sick again. And taking a leave of absence. Again. But is it the big “C”?
Brad Stone in today’s New York Times:
Two people who are familiar with Mr. Jobs’s current medical treatment said he was not suffering from a recurrence of cancer, but … Continue Reading
Identi.ca gets fresh aid in quest to out-message Twitter
How many ways can you send 140-character messages to the people you care about? Tiny Twitter rival Identi.ca is trying to find out, and it’s raised a small angel round from Montreal Start Up to help it in that pursuit. While Twitter has been gaining millions of users through its proprietary micro-messaging platform, Identi.ca’s home site apparently hasn’t grown at all. But that’s not really the point, because Identi.ca is a “federated” messaging service, meaning … Continue Reading
Video: Dan Lyons takes on CNBC's Jim Goldman over Steve Jobs' health
Newsweek columnist Dan Lyons takes CNBC’s Silicon Valley bureau chief Jim Goldman to task after Goldman swore that sources told him that Steve Jobs’ health was not the reason Apple marketing head Phil Schiller presented at Macworld instead of Jobs.
Goldman went so far as to slam Gizmodo after the gadget blog claimed its own sources said Jobs was having significant health problems. “Until Apple says something different, or I get my hands on something … Continue Reading
Roundup: PC shipments stall, layoffs galore, Obama Girl juices traffic
Here’s the latest relentlessly depressing action:
PC shipments stall in fourth quarter: The PC industry was once the engine of growth for tech. But thanks to the downturn, sales of PCs stalled in the fourth quarter,IDC reported.
Motorola to cut 4,000 jobs: After a weak holiday sales run, Motorola is expected to cut 4,000 jobs in 2009. It already cut 3,000 jobs last year and has cut 16,000 jobs since the start of 2007.… Continue Reading
Google finally confirms real, actual layoffs (sort of)
A Google regulatory filing obtained by The Associate Press last week was rather odd because we knew that Google was letting go of at least some of its contractors (as they put it, not renewing their contracts), but the filing seemed to go to great lengths to skirt around the actual numbers of just how many were being let go. Today, Google has clarified those numbers a bit more, and more importantly, has confirmed actual … Continue Reading
Omidyar working on Ginx, a Twitter app for sharing links
Ginx is a stealthy startup that eBay founder Pierre Omidyar is working on. The company is designing a service to let Twitter users share and discuss links from around the web. It’s not clear how the service works as it’s in “private, pre-alpha.” What’s known is that the company has raised $2 million from Omidyar, Ginx cofounder Randall Ching and Michael Mohr, according to a regulatory filing we learned of last night.
Here’s the press … Continue Reading
Ubicom rakes in $7M for home networking processors
Processor provider Ubicom, known for making silicon chips used in consumer products like wireless routers, announced that it raised $7 million in a fifth round of financing from August Capital, Mayfield Fund, Levensohn Venture Partners, Lehman Brothers Venture Partners and Investcorp Technology Partners. This brings its total capital raised close to $140 million since its founding in 1996.
Also big news for Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Ubicom is the promotion of Gangesh Ganesan, formerly vice president of … Continue Reading
NextMedium sells off product placement assets to Newport Coast
NextMedium, provider of an online platform that allowed advertisers to get their brands into TV shows, movies and web videos, has sold its technology and other intellectual property to Newport Coast Investments. It had been a while since the company raised money, last bringing in $6 million in second-round financing in July 2006.
NextMedium’s system, called Embed, brokered product placement deals and measured the the effectiveness of these advertising campaigns. It had a lot going … Continue Reading
SimplyBox lets users organize info, images snagged from the web
Web app SimplyBox has jumped on the bandwagon of companies looking to change the way internet users save and share information they find on the web. Once downloaded, the service lets users take screenshots of content on any web site and put them in categorized boxes via a toolbar at the bottom of the window. For example, someone looking for Paris vacation ideas could take screenshots of hotel rates, airfares and tourist destinations across an … Continue Reading
Corthera adds $10M for heart failure medication
Pharmaceutical company Corthera just took $10 million to close a $23 million third round of funding but is already looking to raise $40 to $50 million in a new fourth round by March to support clinical trials of a drug that could ease symptoms of heart failure, reports VentureWire. Poised for phase three clinical trials, the drug, called Relaxin, is actually a hormone capable of relieving the lung fluid congestion and hypertension that accompany heart … Continue Reading
The cost of a "complex" Jobs health issue: About $6 billion (so far)
It should come as no shock that Apple’s stock is tanking following chief executive Steve Jobs’ announcement that he was taking a medical leave of absence until June to get to the bottom of his “complex” health issue. But just how much money is being shaved off of the company’s market cap because of the announcement is pretty staggering: Roughly $6 billion.
At 4:46 p.m., before Jobs’ announcement was made public, Apple’s stock stood at … Continue Reading
Singulex lands $19M for diagnostic systems
Singulex, an Alameda, Calif.-based biotech firm, just raised $19 million in fifth-round funding to commercialize technology that uses protein biomarkers to diagnose cardiovascular and other disorders. Already in clinical trials, its system gauges changes in biomarker levels in the bloodstream to give doctors information on the progression and potential management of disease. Singulex has already forged partnerships with several pharmaceutical companies using the system to measure the effects of various drugs during clinical trials.
The … Continue Reading
Facebook takes bite out of Whopper Sacrifice
Burger King’s ingenious Facebook application, Whopper Sacrifice, has gotten a little healthier for Facebook friendships. The app, launched last week, awarded Facebook users a free Whopper hamburger if they defriended 10 Facebook friends. At first, the app notified your friends when you sacrificed their friendship for fast food — today, Facebook has made the app stop doing this.
Here’s Facebook statement on the matter:
We encourage creativity from developers and companies using Facebook Platform, but … Continue Reading
Steve Jobs taking a leave of absence from Apple until this summer to address his health issues
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is taking a leave of absence from the company to deal with his health issues, a memo sent today from Jobs to Apple employees states. Apple’s chief operating officer Tim Cook will step in to manage Apple’s day-to-day operations until Jobs’ planned return in June.
Jobs did not attend last week’s Macworld Expo — Apple’s last — after posting a note to the public on Apple’s website discussing what he … Continue Reading
