Visible Measures earns $10M for video tracking biz
Visible Measures, an online video analytics company, has raised another $10 million in funding. According to company executives, the funds will be used to build out its current online video tracking products, and expand its data tracking tools.
The company’s core product is VisibleCampaign, which allows content publishers and advertisers to track and demystify the reach and engagement of their video content. It works by allowing publishers to embed tracking tools into their videos, which … Continue Reading
Nvidia fires back at Intel with chip set countersuit
Nvidia filed a countersuit against Intel today, alleging that Intel broke contract when it refused to grant Nvidia a chip set license on future Intel microprocessors.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia is asking the courts to allow the graphics chip maker to terminate its own contracts with Intel, which sued Nvidia last month.
The companies signed a license four years ago that allowed Nvidia to make Intel chip sets. In turn, Intel got to make chip … Continue Reading
RIM's rumored TV app will need shows. Fast.
Word on the street is Research In Motion is looking to bring some TV magic to its line of BlackBerry smartphones. According to NewTeeVee, multiple sources have hinted at RIM announcing a new TV download service at the upcoming CTIA conference.
Again, this info is considered unconfirmed (a RIM spokesperson said the company doesn’t comment on unannounced apps), but here’s the skinny so far: The RIM subscription service would allow users to download full-length television … Continue Reading
Obama administration to tighten regulation on VCs?
Venture capitalists may soon be facing more stringent reporting requirements, according to testimony from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner today about the Obama administration’s plans to overhaul the country’s financial regulations.
But many details still need to be filled in, and there will probably be plenty of debate and revision before anything actually becomes law. Geithner’s proposal would (for the first time) require hedge fund, private equity, and venture capital fund advisers to register with the … Continue Reading
Portable Contacts lets you get friends' info on other sites
MySpace, Plaxo and now Google all support a new open standard for sharing social data across web services. Called Portable Contacts, it lets third parties securely access data like your address book in Gmail or your friends list for use on other sites. What are the implications? Third-party sites are getting more data that they can use in other products. For example, a web site might use Portable Contacts to pull information out of a … Continue Reading
Nordic Windpower whips up funds for unique turbine
Nordic Windpower, maker of a cost-effective two-blade turbine, announced that it’s raised an undisclosed amount of interim financing (in preferred stock) to bring its technology to the market within the year. The Berkeley, Calif. company claims that its two-blade turbine design is cheaper, lighter and more effective than the three-blade models most of it rivals rely on.
The round was provided by Goldman Sachs, Impax Asset Management, I2BF Venture Capital and Pulsar Energy Capital. Nordic … Continue Reading
New Leaf Paper raises $5M to produce sustainable paper products
San Francisco-based New Leaf Paper has raised $5 million in venture capital to sell environmentally friendly paper and printing services. It will use the round, led by Pacific Community Ventures, to expand its retail operation and diversify its product line.… Continue Reading
Barosense looks to raise $30M to market obesity device
Barosense, creator of a minimally-invasive device that can treat obesity, has announced its intent to raise $30 million in a fourth round of funding to commercialize its product. Already many of its existing investors have pledged to provide half that amount, including Delphi Ventures, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Invesco Private Capital, RWI Ventures, Synergy Life Science Partners and Wharton Ventures.
Based in Menlo Park, Calif., Barosense says it expects to close this round by the end … Continue Reading
Neuraltus scores $17M to treat degenerative brain disease
Neuraltus Pharmaceuticals, developer of drugs used to treat degenerative neurological diseases, brought in $17 million in a first round of funding from Latterell Venture Partners, VantagePoint Venture Partners and Adams Street Partners. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company says it’s currently working on therapies for conditions ranging from Lou Gehrig’s Disease to Parkinson’s Disease.
The money should be enough to push drugs for both these diseases through the first two phases of clinical trials, Neuraltus says.… Continue Reading
Tesla unveils electric sedan with sky-high hopes
Tesla Motors, still one of the major players in the electric vehicle game despite recent financial woes, has finally unveiled its hotly anticipated Model S sedan, slated to go on sale in late 2011. With a price tag of $50,000, the car is certainly more practical for prospective buyers than Tesla’s first submission — its $109,000 roadster (beautiful, but unrealistic in today’s economy). The San Carlos, Calif. company has clearly pinned its hopes on this … Continue Reading
Obopay scores $70M from Nokia for mobile payments
Obopay, provider of a mobile service that lets people transfer money to one another through text messages, just received an investment from Nokia, estimated at $70 million. [Update: It turns out that not all of this money came from Nokia, as most people reported. There were other undisclosed investors involved. TechCrunch suggests that several of Obopay's old-faithful firms also chipped in, including Qualcomm, Redpoint Ventures, Onset Ventures and Richmond Management, but nothing has been … Continue Reading
SynthaSite no more — website builder now called Yola
Updated
Starting today, free website builder SynthaSite has a new name — Yola.
Normally, I don’t spend time worrying about branding, as long as a company name isn’t egregiously stupid. Still, I was a bit confused by the move, since SynthaSite seems like a clearer and more obvious name than Yola, and the San Francisco company already reached one million users under the old name.
So what’s the deal? According to the company’s frequently asked … Continue Reading
Apple WWDC: June 8-12. iPhone and Snow Leopard to be featured
Apple has just officially unveiled the dates for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). It will be June 8 – 12 in San Francisco. As expected, the focus looks like it will be on the iPhone OS and Mac OS X Snow Leopard, judging from the website.
These dates are almost spot-on with the days predicted earlier this month by The Baltimore Sun after it looked at the schedule for The Moscone Center, where the … Continue Reading
Skype for the iPhone next week?
There are well over 25,000 applications now in Apple’s App Store. But there are still a few notable omissions. One of those is the hugely popular Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) application Skype. But that could change as soon as next week, GigaOM’s Om Malik has learned.
Citing a “very reliable” source, Malik says the iPhone app for the service could launch next week at the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas. He notes that … Continue Reading
Twitter madness comes to college basketball
Are you one of those people who won’t stop twittering about the NCAA college basketball tournament happening now? Here’s something for you. A site that lets you exchange tweets with other people who are watching the same tournament game as you. Called MarchTweetness — a Twitter pun on the colloquial “March Madness” name for the tournament (har) — it’s a partnership between advertising network Federated Media, Twitter itself, and advertising sponsor AT&T.
To get started, … Continue Reading
Reconstructing the fall of game developer Flagship Studios
Flagship Studios was one of the most ambitious game development studios started in recent years. It launched a critically acclaimed game, Hellgate: London, in November, 2007 that had garnered more than 60 game review magazine covers.
The game sold more than 450,000 copies (at $50 each, that’s $22.5 million at retail) But by August, 2008, it was out of business.
Stephen Goldstein, former director of business development and general counsel of Flagship, said in a … Continue Reading
Get your Lady Gaga downloads in now. iTunes variable pricing starts April 7.
Since its launch, Apple’s iTunes store has had one price for almost all music tracks: $0.99. This uniformity has kept things simple for customers, and no doubt helped the store rise to its current place as the number one music retailer in the United States. But on April 7, the price structure is changing.
We’ve known about this for a while. As part of the deal get the music labels to supply iTunes with digital … Continue Reading
Awards night at the Game Developers Conference
Thousands of people packed the giant auditorium at the Moscone Center’s Esplanade Ballroom in San Francisco tonight for the annual Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice awards.
The winners included PC and console game Fallout 3 by Bethesda Softworks, which beat out the favorite LittleBigPlanet to win the Game Developers Choice Game of the Year. It’s win came as a surprise, since although the role-playing game has been a critical success, it hasn’t been … Continue Reading
Video: AT&T employees relentlessly pat themselves on the back for "fixing" SXSW
On Saturday night at SXSW a couple weeks ago, I was seriously considering seeing how far I could throw my iPhone.
The thing just was not working. And it hadn’t worked since SXSW started on Friday. It wasn’t Apple’s fault; it was AT&T’s. The network — as you may have heard — got absolutely slammed, and failed. I couldn’t make a call, I couldn’t send a text, and using any sort of data over the … Continue Reading
Thanks for coming to GamesBeat
We’d like to thank everyone for coming to GamesBeat 09, our inaugural games conference held Tuesday in San Francisco. The event drew hundreds of attendees, with every part of the video game ecosystem represented. There were venture capitalists (like Tim Chang of Norwest and Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed above), industry executives such as John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment (below), entrepreneurs, investors, and the media. The attendees came from all over, including Argentina, India … Continue Reading
