PlanarMag secures $4M for electromagnetic components
PlanarMag, a West Sacramento, Calif.-based seller of electromagnetic components, has brought in $4 million in equity and securities, reports VentureWire. In the past, it raised $1.5 million in seed funding from American River Ventures.… Continue Reading
Mercantila lands $1M for retail site network
Mercantila, a San Francisco-based portal of related specialty retail web sites, has brought in $1 million in convertible notes from an undisclosed source. By “specialty” the company means niche — offering a springboard for e-commerce sites selling items like dog beds, massage tables, recumbent bikes, espresso machines and the like. All of these stores fall into four categories: home & kitchen, patio & garden, fitness & sports, and kids & baby — hardly everything you … Continue Reading
Dilithium ropes $8M for wireless multmedia systems
Dilithium Networks, provider of converged video services for wireless internet and mobile applications, has opened a round of funding targeted at $8 million. It last raised $18 million in 2005, bringing in $33 million total over three rounds from CM Capital Investments, Deutsche Bank, Infocomm Investments, JAFCO Ventures, Motorola Ventures and U.S. Venture Partners.… Continue Reading
WiMax vendor Aperto adds $170K after raising millions
WiMax equipment provider Aperto Networks has raised $170,000 in debt financing from undisclosed investors. Based in Milpitas, Calif., the company is actually one of the wealthiest in the space, having raised $159 million from Alliance Venture, Canaan Partners, GunnAllen Venture Partners, Innovacom, JAFCO Ventures, JK&B Capital, Quicksilver Ventures and Tyco Ventures, reports VentureWire.
Aperto makes WiMax base stations and network equipment for purposes ranging from residential-size deployments to full scale commercial. It also makes a … Continue Reading
Albeo raises $500K for LED-based lighting systems
Albeo Technologies has brought in $500,000 of an expected $750,000 round of debt, rights and securities to further its development of light emitting diode (LED)-based lighting systems, reports VentureWire. Based in Boulder, Colo., the company previously raised $1.5 million in a first round of capital from Green Spark Ventures, among others.… Continue Reading
AlertMe takes in $13M for online energy management
AlertMe, maker of a system that allows homeowners to measure and control the energy used by their appliances, has raised $13 million in a second round of funding. By hooking into a household’s broadband connection, the Alertme.com Energy Kit transmits power consumption data recorded from individual appliances to a centralized web interface where customers can view the information and actually control use. For example, they can flip switches, alter settings during peak energy periods, and … Continue Reading
Navify lets you see what Wikipedians are reading
Wikipedia is all about words words words. The big arguments at the user-edited encyclopedia are always about the wording of articles — and even a casual user can see that the articles emphasize written over audio or visual content. For those who think that’s a problem, a new web site called Navify wants to deliver a richer Wikipedia experience, with more focus on images, videos and comments. And it just added a continuously-updated list of … Continue Reading
Join TechFlash, VentureBeat and DEMO for cocktails in Seattle
As part of our effort to find the most exciting companies and products to launch at the DEMOfall conference in September, Chris Shipley and I are making several stops around the country meeting with local entrepreneurs. Next up is Seattle!
On Monday, June 22, we’re joining up with TechFlash co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop — for a casual evening of cocktails and conversation at Spitfire bar in Belltown. John and Todd recently launched TechFlash … Continue Reading
4Home snags $500K for universal home remotes in software form
4Home, maker of software dashboards capable of remotely controlling all of the electronics and appliances in your home, has raised $500,000 in convertible notes, according to VentureWire. As we’ve reported before, its technology allows users to turn on their dishwashers and turn off their coffee makers from work. It also provides a central hub for home media, including all movies, music and even web video — giving users the ability to access any of it … Continue Reading
Two local startups may help AOL find the road to salvation
As part of Tim Armstrong’s big turnaround plan for AOL, the online media conglomerate he recently became chief executive of, he’s buying two local-focused startups. One is Going, an events organizing site, another is Patch, a local news site.
Armstrong left a senior advertising spot at Google earlier this year, in a bid to restore AOL to the position of market dominance it held earlier this decade. Each acquisition was for around $10 million, according … Continue Reading
AquaGenesis absorbs funds for water purification technology
AquaGenesis, a San Francisco provider of water purification and conditioning technology, has brought in an undisclosed first round of funding to commercialize its products. Suited to industrial applications, its offerings will be marketed primarily to residential and food service clients, reports VentureWire.
The financing — said to be seven figures — was led by Clean Pacific Ventures (making the fourth investment from its first fund), and included several private investors. Clean Pacific has also backed … Continue Reading
Tesla founder sues company, CEO Elon Musk
Martin Eberhard, founder of Tesla Motors, the anointed darling of the electric vehicle industry, has filed suit against the company and its current leader, Elon Musk (right), who he accuses of slander, mismanagement, and, bizarrely, giving him a damaged Tesla roadster (the firm’s first product).
Hostility between Eberhard and Musk is nothing new. The co-founder departed in 2007 after losing too many boardroom skirmishes to Musk (at that time the company’s lead investor). But when … Continue Reading
Sans IPO, Bayhill secures $350M in Genentech licensing deal
Months after giving up on its IPO hopes last year — when the market was especially brutal for lifescience companies — Bayhill Therapeutics has landed a licensing deal worth $25 million in upfront cash and equity with Genentech. It could bring in as much as $325 million more if it hits certain sales and regulatory milestones, joining the ranks of several biotech firms that ditched public offerings for lucrative equity deals, VentureWire reports (citing Elixir … Continue Reading
Smart phone demand drives Qualcomm to raise financial estimates
Strong demand for smart phones has prompted high-end mobile chip maker Qualcomm to upgrade its revenue and income targets for the third quarter.
This is a big deal since most other categories of component makers are still have troubles because of the recession. Smart phones are evidently one of the few bright spots in the economy.
Revenues for the San Diego, Calif., company’s third fiscal quarter ending June 28 are estimated to be $2.67 billion … Continue Reading
Facebook bans scammy ad networks but problems persist
On Monday, Facebook banned SocialHour and SocialReach, two of the larger advertising networks on its developer platform. A main reason: These companies were running banner advertisements within applications that purported to show users things that their friends had done — but actually hadn’t. A common example: “Hey Anthony! Dean’s IQ is 156 and he challenged you to an IQ quiz, are you smarter than Dean?” but without Dean ever having taken the quiz in the … Continue Reading
Push.io wants to help developers build those cool iPhone 3.0 features
The excitement about building applications for Apple’s iPhone continues to grow, with a number of new abilities soon available to developers with the release of version 3.0 of the iPhone operating system on June 17. But actually taking advantage of those cool features requires more work and iPhone-savviness than some developers may be able to provide, say Dan Burcaw and Joe Pezzillo, co-founders of a new startup called Push.io — and naturally, that’s where their … Continue Reading
Otoy joins the fray of companies offering video games on demand
When OnLive came out of hiding in March and declared it could let gamers play fast-action games over the network — a futuristic service dubbed video games on demand — a lot of critics said it was impossible.
But now Otoy, a startup with just seven people, says it can do the same thing with even fewer resources. And beyond delivering fast-action games to players on PCs, Otoy says it can deliver fast games to … Continue Reading
Roundup: Digital TV transition hits Friday, Microsoft cuts MS Money, Google cuts trips
Here’s the latest action:
Digital TV transition — About 2.8 million aren’t ready for the switch from analog to digital TV on Friday.
Barry Diller on content — The CEO of IAC says, make people pay for it. Paidcontent (of course) has more.
Fifteen iPhone Apps rendered obsolete by the new iPhone – The lesson is, stay out the way of Apple, which is like a vacuum cleaner in sucking functions into the iPhone.
Microsoft
Palm promotes former Apple exec to CEO
Palm cleared up its leadership questions at the top today as it promoted Jon Rubinstein from executive chairman to chief executive. Meanwhile, current Palm CEO Ed Colligan is taking a job at Elevation Partners, the private equity firm that owns much of Palm.
Rubinstein is the logical choice to head Palm in the wake of the launch of the Palm Pre, the new smart phone that is pretty much flying off the shelves in Sprint … Continue Reading
iPhone guts exposed, analyzed
The guts of Apple’s newest gadgets are usually the subject of great scrutiny, largely because they push the technological limit on what is possible in cramming a computer into a phone.
Today, the latest guts have spilled out of the new Apple phone for the world to see. Samsung manufactures the system-on-a-chip inside the new iPhone 3G S. The Samsung-made SoC package, holds the microprocessor, graphics, and memory chips for the phone.
That’s a big … Continue Reading
