Yahoo's Decker out, new CEO Bartz making early impression
After news leaked out earlier today that former Autodesk chief executive Carol Bartz will be Yahoo’s new chief executive, the company confirmed it via a press release — and added that president and erstwhile chief executive candidate Sue Decker (pictured) is resigning. So it’s the end of an unhappy era at Yahoo, maybe.
The usual niceties about Decker’s departure, in the press release:
Yahoo! also announced that President Sue Decker has informed the Board that … Continue Reading
Electric cars disappointed in 2008 — and 2009 won't be different
The Detroit Auto Show is underway, and the world’s most famous vehicle brands are touting the next generation of cars. And although yesterday’s fervent promises of hydrogen-powered vehicles have mostly fallen away, they’ve been replaced with new promises, this time centered around the idea of the electric car.
Don’t believe the hype. Although electric vehicles are almost certainly the way forward, much of the motion is really a show intended to sway the opinion of … Continue Reading
Custom tags to make Facebook apps faster, more interesting and ubiquitous
Facebook is now letting third-party application developers create their own snippets of code, called “custom tags.” These tags can be used to make an application perform better as well to build features from one application into another application. For example, a game app could use these tags to integrate a song from a music application.
Facebook also plans to further develop these tags for Facebook Connect, a service that lets third-party sites do things like … Continue Reading
Twitter gets a business guy. Up next: business plan?
There seem to be two types of people: Those who talk about Twitter non-stop, and those who talk about Twitter’s lack of a business plan non-stop. Those who fall into the latter category will be happy to know that Twitter has hired a director of mobile business development, Kevin Thau.
But don’t let the “mobile” in the title fool you. Thau will be working on several fronts as Twitter’s overall “business development guru”, writes co-founder … Continue Reading
Starwood Energy buys majority interest in Nautilus Solar
Private equity firm Starwood Energy Group Global just acquired a majority stake in rapidly growing Nautilus Solar Energy, a Chatham, N.J. company that says it provides end-to-end services for solar power generation. Full terms of the deal have yet to be released, but Starwood says it has committed $50 million to Nautlius’ project pipeline, which allegedly has the potential to generate 50 megawatts in the next two years.
Nautilus has seven retail operations up and … Continue Reading
Is Apple making an iPhone nano for China, for the world, or for no one?
In 2008, Apple moved quickly to expand the iPhone empire around the globe. One country still not conquered, however, is also the world’s most populous: China. But a new report suggests that country could finally see an iPhone this year — and to top it off, it may be a so-called “iPhone nano.”
Bidding over components that would be included in an iPhone nano is near an end, according to the Chinese paper Economic Daily … Continue Reading
Ad network Go Internet Media zeroes in on education market
Go Internet Media, an online advertising network, seeks to differentiate itself by focusing on the education market. Right now, it handles targeted advertising campaigns for 1,000 universities across the U.S., and it just raised $10 million in first-round capital to further increase its sales reach, the Santa Clara, Calif. company says.
Internet Media says it measures its success in rising enrollment rates of students properly matched to the institutions being advertised. To target ads and … Continue Reading
BiPar snags $20M for inhibitor-based cancer therapies
Pharmaceutical firm BiPar Sciences just brought in $20 million in private equity and venture debt to advance its lead therapy, targeting breast cancer, to phase-three clinical trials. The investment will double the Brisbane, Calif.-based company’s cash on hand, a huge vote of confidence for its treatment methods based on inhibitors that kill cancer cells by preventing them from repairing their own DNA, BiPar says.
Its lead compound, currently in phase-two tests, could also be used … Continue Reading
Alter-G uses anti-gravity tech for physical therapy, raises $8M
Medical device maker Alter-G, has an interesting concept for physical therapy: Anti-gravity. Based in Menlo Park, Calif., it offers a special treadmill, called the G-Trainer, that uses air pressure to give patients the feeling of weightlessness as they are moving. And it just landed $8 million in second-round funding to continue growing its operations and market penetration.
The anti-gravity environment is said to allow patients to extend their range of motion while taking strain off … Continue Reading
CES: Are 3-D glasses moving beyond the gimmick stage? Nah
Before my trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, I predicted that TV and computer makers would be hawking 3-D options in order to differentiate themselves. Hollywood’s been trying to use 3-D glasses in theaters in an effort to make an experience not available at home, and I expected TV makers would probably be playing catch-up. And I was right. I saw LG, Samsung, Sony, Nvidia, Viewsonic, iZ3D and others pushing … Continue Reading
A new force has entered Yahoo: Carol Bartz, CEO
Carol Bartz, former chief executive at software services company Autodesk, has accepted the chief executive job at Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal and BoomTown are reporting. Bartz has years of experience leading Autodesk and serving on the boards other technology giants like Cisco and Intel. Although her experience is in tech-heavy companies, not Yahoo’s core business of consumer web services and advertising, she’s one of the more respected executives in the Valley.
So Bartz is … Continue Reading
Watch the 10 best performances on Smule's Ocarina
Smule — the startup behind iPhone application Ocarina, which transforms your phone into a musical instrument — just announced the winners of “This Contest Blows,” who will receive $1,000 each for delivering the best Ocarina performances and sharing the videos on YouTube. While there aren’t any mind-blowing displays of unimpeachable musical talent, it’s definitely a nice showcase of what users can do with the app.
Here are the winners:
* Hardrockgrl’s “Oh Shenandoah ”
* … Continue Reading
Review site RateItAll gets more social
RateItAll, the site that lets users review anything and everything (and shares its ad revenue with reviewers), unveiled its redesign today. The overhaul includes new social networking features that overlay its regular reviews.
The biggest addition in this area is the option to take a “compatibility quiz,” which means rating a bunch of items in a particular category, be it fruits or Web 2.0 companies. Then the site gives you a list of other users … Continue Reading
Syngas startup Ze-gen takes $20M to torch trash
Ze-gen, a company that plans to round up waste from construction sites and turn it into gases that can be used to generate electricity, has won $20 million in funding to help build its first full-size facility.
Based in Boston, Mass., Ze-gen has been moving quickly to prove its process at a small test facility, completed in the second half of last year, and start building a larger, commercial plant.
The gasification process is a … Continue Reading
Graphene Energy raises $500,000 for ultracapacitor storage
Graphene Energy, an Austin, Tex. startup based on technology from the University of Texas and Virginia’s College of William and Mary, has taken a $500,000 seed round from Quercus Trust and 21Ventures.
Ultracapacitors (insulating layers between conductors that house electric fields) are being explored by a variety of startups for their energy storage, usually as a component accompanying batteries in electric cars. Graphene is seeking to improve the technology by improving capacitance, or the amount … Continue Reading
Aster Data raises $12M for cheap warehousing
Aster Data Systems, which stores data for social networking site MySpace (and others), has raised $12 million in a second round of venture funding.
The Redwood City, Calif. startup offers “frontline data warehousing,” which basically means storage of all of a company’s data for business analysis. Aster dubbed its system nCluster because the data is spread across clusters of cheap servers. The company says nCluster offers three key innovations compared to competitors like Teradata, Netazza … Continue Reading
Sanarus raises $3M to battle breast cancer
Sanarus Medical, maker of a device used to diagnose and treat breast cancer, brought in $3 million in convertible note funding from existing investors, reports VentureWire. It’s currently working on a product that uses ultrasound technology to detect the early stages of the disease.
The Pleasanton, Calif. company already has several devices on the market, many of which are based on cryotechnology — basically, the freezing of small, targeted sections of breast tissue — which … Continue Reading
Evolution of Dance 2: Shaking the moneymaker on YouTube
Evolution of Dance, a toe-tapping journey through the history of dancing styles, is one of the most popular YouTube videos of all time, second only to Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” music video. But how do you make money off your 109 million video views?
Judson Laipply, the motivational speaker/comedian and dynamic dancer behind the original Evolution of Dance, is trying to figure that out with today’s release of Evolution of Dance 2.
Debuting on The Today … Continue Reading
Astro Gaming raises $3.5 million for gaming accessories business
It looks like earning street cred with gamers is worth actual money these days. Astro Gaming said it has raised $3.5 million in a second round of funding for its gaming headset and accessories business.
The San Francisco company spun out of Astro Studios, an industrial design company that helped craft the Xbox 360 in August 2006. It has raised $2 million from Seraphim Investments and designed an audio headset for professional gamers. Astro Gaming’s … Continue Reading
Report: Obama picks Julius Genachowski for FCC chair
President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate tech veteran Julius Genachowski to head the Federal Communications Commission, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cites “a source close to the transition team.”
This isn’t the first time Genachowski name has come up as the likely replacement for outgoing FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, as well as a possible candidate for the new position of chief technology officer. (The latter position remains nebulous, while the FCC remains involved … Continue Reading
