Medical device maker Emphasys on the auction block

Emphasys Medical, maker of a valve that diverts air to only the healthy parts of lungs in emphysema patients, has put itself up for sale after the Food and Drug Administration rejected its lead product in December. This is the second relatively recent defeat for the Redwood City, Calif.-based company, which had to withdraw its IPO filing last May. Since then, all but five of its 50 employees have been laid off.

Founded in 2000, … Continue Reading

A dark day for the weakest video game publishers

It was a dark day on Thursday for the weakest video game publishers.

A trio of publishers may not be long for the world: Midway Games, Eidos and D3 Publisher.

First, Midway Games filed for bankruptcy protection. The famed Chicago publisher of the Mortal Kombat series filed to reorganize to escape a burden of $150 million in debt. In December, Sumner Redstone gave up on his investment in the game company. He sold his stake … Continue Reading

The next Microsoft and Apple battleground: retail

This is set up almost too perfectly. We’re in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, retail sales are plummeting, consumer spending is way down and so what does Microsoft decide to do? Open retail stores. Insert two paragraphs of punch-line here.

But I’m going to surprise you here and go the other way. I think this is actually a smart move by Microsoft — in theory, at least.

Now’s the … Continue Reading

Infinite SMS ends the text messaging rip-off. Sort of

More and more people are picking up on the fact that SMS text messaging is a scam — VentureBeat writer MG Siegler complained about the text message rip-off in the iPhone 3G pricing plan last June, and even The New York Times has looked at accusations of carrier price-fixing. There have been some applications offering workarounds on the iPhone — such as SMS for Free, which lets you send, and only send, a text message … Continue Reading

Tzero Technologies shuts down; that's the end of ultrawideband

Goodbye to another ultra-wideband company. Tzero Technologies has shut down its business of making wireless chips for transferring high-speed video from one consumer electronics device to another, according to an EE Times report.

We’ve been expecting this ever since troubles began in November with the shutdown of the biggest firm in the industry.

The company joins a shakeout in UWB that has claimed WiQuest and Focus Enhancements. Artimi merged with Staccato. UWB started with much … Continue Reading

Acclaim resets the music game business with Rockfree

Howard Marks is a high-energy guy.  He can talk a mile a minute about Asian online game business models, or user-crafted games, and everything in between.

But most interestingly, the chief executive of Acclaim has just reinvented the music game genre’s business model.  At the Casual Connect show in Hamburg, he gave me the scoop on Rockfree, something that can change the fast-growing music game business.

Music games like Rock Band –- which just shipped … Continue Reading

[Updated] Defying recession: U.S. video games grow 13 percent in January

The U.S. video game industry continues to defy the recession, with sales in January up 13 percent compared to a year ago.

Overall January sales were $1.33 billion, up from $1.18 billion a year ago. Game hardware was up 17 percent to $445.4 million; game software grew 10 percent to $$676.6 million; and game accessories were up 11 percent to $209.8 million.

Nintendo continued to rule the roost. It sold 679,200 Wii console units, while … Continue Reading

Financial wrinkle lost ConnectU some Facebook settlement dollars

Now we know a little more about why ConnectU tried to get out of its “$65 million” settlement with Facebook last summer and why it’s still suing its former lawyer.

Back in 2004, you’ll recall, the company accused former contractor Mark Zuckerberg of stealing ideas and code from it and then launching his own college-focused social network, Facebook. After a series of lawsuits, ConnectU settled for $20 million in cash and 1,253,326 in common stock, … Continue Reading

Is this the mysterious new iPhone?

The first iPhone was released in June of 2007, with its follow-up, the iPhone 3G launching in July 2008, so it’s certainly possible that Apple will launch another update at some point this summer. And in fact, there’s been some evidence out there suggesting Apple is in the process of testing a new version of the iPhone. Now there may be some pictures as well.

While it isn’t much (just the back of the device), … Continue Reading

VentureBeat is looking for a Director of Sales

VentureBeat is looking for an experienced, creative and driven media salesperson to be our Director of Sales.

The successful candidate will work closely with founder Matt Marshall and VentureBeat’s business development manager to lead a revenue growth strategy that expands beyond standard advertising and into custom sponsorship packages, events and syndication deals like the one we have with the New York Times.

We’ve got some interesting projects brewing, which we’ll be talking about in coming … Continue Reading

Try the best jobs going in the downturn: VentureBeat writer and VentureBeat intern

Do you have a passion for non-fiction writing and technology?

Want to get involved with one of the most respected and influential blogs right now — with a top position on the Techmeme Leaderboard and syndication in outlets like the New York Times?

If your answers are yes, VentureBeat may be for you. We’ve been making a lot of moves lately and have more in store.

We’re looking for full-time writers, as well as a … Continue Reading

ST-Ericsson joint venture creates wireless chip powerhouse

ST Microelectronics and mobile phone maker Ericsson have combined their wireless chip divisions into a joint venture with 8,000 employees.

The new company will be based in Geneva, Switzerland and brings together what were formally called Ericsson Mobile Platforms and ST-NXP Wireless. It is now a supplier to four of the top five cell phone makers and will have combined revenues of about $3.6 billion for 2008. It also has $400 million in cash.

Alain … Continue Reading

Google could have saved Hansel and Gretel with My Tracks

In the Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, the children leave a trail of breadcrumbs as they walk into the woods so they can mark where they’ve been and remember the way back. Unfortunately, some animals eat those breadcrumbs and the children stray into big trouble. Had Hansel and Gretel just had a G1 phone, they might have been saved.

A new application for Android-powered phones called My Tracks, lets you set out on a … Continue Reading

Ocarina-creator Smule raises $3.9M to make iPhones musical

Smule, which makes interactive music applications for the iPhone, has raised $3.9 million in a second round of funding.

The Menlo Park, Calif. company made a splash last year with its Ocarina app, which turns your iPhone into a musical instrument and allows you to share and listen to Ocarina music from around the world. Ocarina was one of the best-selling paid apps in Apple’s App Store and showed up on virtually every year-end top … Continue Reading

Skyfire integrates an activity stream with Twitter, Facebook and feed support

Skyfire, the mobile browser that touts itself as translating the desktop web browsing experience to mobile phones, has added a useful new feature today: Activity streams. The browser now has a default area that lets you pipe in articles from your favorite sites as well as friends’ activity from Facebook and Twitter.

This feature is part of the new Skyfire version 0.9 being launched just ahead of the Mobile World Congress taking place in Spain … Continue Reading

Google enables the most direct YouTube monetization: Selling videos

These days, YouTube seems to get just about as much press for its lack of money-making ability as it does for all its accolades. Google is obviously trying to find the right way to draw money from the site without ruining it, but it has so far stayed away from perhaps the most obvious form of monetization: Selling videos. Until now.

Google has created a new section in the My Videos area of the site … Continue Reading

Mario and Sonic teaming up again on the Winter Olympics

Nintendo and Sega are teaming up again to bring the Mario and Sonic characters back together in a Nintendo Wii game based on the upcoming Winter Olympics.

That’s a big deal, since the one-time rivals are collaborating on a title whose earlier version, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, sold more than 10 million copies (more than $50 million at retail) worldwide, thanks to its timing ahead of the Beijing Summer Olympics. The new … Continue Reading

Will an angel step up to fund Divide By Zero's Empire Online?

James Portnow knows how the economic turmoil can upset the best-laid plans. After he started his online game company, Divide by Zero, nine months ago, he tapped his network and rounded up six investors who promised to contribute $600,000 to his startup.

But a few weeks ago, one of the angels told him that a promised $100,000 wasn’t coming. Now Portnow is in a scramble to find a new angel to replace the other. It’s … Continue Reading

Feeva helps advertisers target users with new precision

A San Francisco company called Feeva has launched a new ad service it says targets Internet users with unprecedented geographic and demographic precision.

Advertisers have long lusted after ways to target users — they can sell more if they reach the types of people likely to buy their products.

One of the sexiest sources of such data — the Internet browsing behaviors of individual users obtained directly from Internet service providers (ISPs) — has been … Continue Reading

TimeBridge takes the headache out of group meetings

TimeBridge, one of the many startups that wants to help you schedule meetings, is now making it even easier to coordinate those meetings within a company, team, or other group. In fact, TimeBridge says it’s the first web scheduling service to add a “group” feature.

Chief executive Yori Nelken says the new feature was based on user activity and demand. People were trying to form groups anyway, so TimeBridge decided “to just build it into … Continue Reading