Semiconductor co. GTronix raises $5.5M
Fremont, Calif.-based fabless semiconductor maker GTronix has brought in $5.5 million of an anticipated $7 million round of equity, reports VentureWire. The company previously raised $23 million from Jafco Ventures and Menlo Ventures.
GTronix makes chips for acoustic, speech and image processing, among other applications.… Continue Reading
Open Sports Network raises $4 million for sports fantasy games
Open Sports Network said it has raised $4 million to create social games in the fantasy sports game genre.
Fox Sports is one of the backers and it has negotiated a five-year exclusive deal under which Open Sports Network will make fantasy sports game for FoxSports.com. Fox Sports Chairman David Hill will join Open Sports’ board. The deal fits a pattern where established media companies are turning to game companies to boost interest and fan … Continue Reading
Visage Mobile returns from the dead to focus on corporate phone management
Visage Mobile, former maker of software for mobile virtual network operators, unraveled a while ago, selling off most of its assets despite raising upwards of $90 million in venture capital. But now it’s reemerged with a new $2 million and a new business plan — software to help IT directors manage their employees’ mobile phones, reports VentureWire.
By recapitalizing, the San Francisco company was able to buy out its past investors that objected to its … Continue Reading
RPX raises funds to aggregate defensive patents
RPX Corporation, provider of a service that aggregates patents to prevent violations and subsequent litigation costs, has brought in an undisclosed amount of second-round funding from Index Ventures, Charles River Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Based in San Francisco, the company charges companies fees between $35,000 and $4.9 million a year — a decent exchange for some companies that pay out millions of dollars annually due to patent infringement. RPX actually buys the … Continue Reading
Mixpanel: A faster, simpler Google Analytics?
A startup called Mixpanel is launching today with an analytics service that it says can help companies get a much better sense of how users are actually interacting with their websites.
The biggest name in this market is Google Analytics, but Mixpanel is competing with many other companies too, such as NuConomy. Co-founder Suhail Doshi says many companies, including the makers of social network applications like RockYou, Zynga, and Slide (where Doshi worked), don’t find … Continue Reading
Microsoft puts on a brave face as revenue dives
Today, Microsoft announced revenue of $13.1 billion for its fourth quarter ended June 30 — a 17 percent drop since last year. At the same time, its net income fell 29 percent. Attributing these declines to the softening PC and server markets, the company argued the stats still demonstrate efficiency during tough economic times.
Chief financial officer Chris Liddell went as far as to say, “In light of that environment, it was an excellent achievement … Continue Reading
Letterman: "Does that cost you money, to be on Twitter?"
Last night, @KevinSpacey explained Twitter to a surprisingly clueless Dave Letterman, who truthfully responded that if he wanted a few thousand followers to say hi, all he had to do was walk outside to 53rd and Broadway.
The clip is good because Spacey and Letterman proxy the public’s opposing reactions to Twitter. Spacey loves the easy connection with fans around the world. Letterman gropes for words: “You know what it reminds me of? I’m thinking … Continue Reading
Airlines may jettison in-flight entertainment as personal gadgets proliferate
Imagine you’re running an airline. That means you’re trying to survive despite higher-than-ever fuel costs and a skittish population who balk at flying, either for work or leisure. Is there a way you can cut your costs further?
Yes: Remove your planes’ in-flight entertainment systems. Manufactured by, for example, Panasonic or Rockwell Collins, IFE systems are heavy, which adds to fuel costs. They’re pricey in terms of movie licensing fees. And travelers are increasingly tuning … Continue Reading
International venture capital plummets 63 percent in Q2
Overseas markets saw a sharp drop in venture capital investing in the second quarter, falling 63 percent since last year to $1.46 billion across 250 deals — the lowest it’s been for six years, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. To put this in context, $5.27 billion was invested in 595 deals in the U.S. during the same time period.
The data VentureSource collected comes from Canada, Israel, China, India and Europe. The second quarter’s investment … Continue Reading
NPD analyst: Apple now gets 91% of spending on $1,000-plus computers
My fellow San Franciscans have been in-your-face Apple zealots for decades. But industry analysts NPD now claim shockingly that we’ve become the norm. NPD analysts are going around saying that nine out of ten dollars spent in the U.S. on computers costing $1,000 or more go to Apple. NPD doesn’t have an official report, but the company was quoted by Betanews reporter Joe Wilcox. The 91 percent figure is not only insanely high, it’s a … Continue Reading
New York Times makes bloggers' day with drop in Q2 earnings
The New York Times Company’s cost-cutting efforts and higher newsstand prices have paid off, but the company has a long way to go to get itself out of financial trouble. Second-quarter profit clocked in at $23.3 million after factoring in employee severence and pension packages, plus (or actually, minus) depreciation and amortization of its assets, which include the new office building just outside Times Square in Manhattan. That’s a 42 percent drop from last year’s … Continue Reading
AT&T adds customers, but drops profits 15% in Q2
AT&T’s second quarter profits fell far short of last year’s, coming in at $3.2 billion. That’s 15 percent off from last year’s second quarter, when AT&T brought in $3.8 billion.
The company’s revenue stayed the same as last year, at $30.7 billion, but the makeup of that 30 billion has changed a lot. Home and business customers continue to abandon landlines in favor of mobile phones and Internet telephony.
AT&T’s wireless division reported 10% higher … Continue Reading
How-to video site 5min scores $7.5M for wider syndication
5min, a site that syndicates instructional videos to a host of other web sites reaching 200 million viewers a month, has raised $7.5 million in a second round of funding.
The 5min site itself has built a library of more than 100,000 short, professional-quality videos sorted into different categories ranging from fashion to food to parenting to video games. Right now, users can view videos teaching them how to fix a leaky washing machine, how … Continue Reading
Interviewing? Look for quick thinking, not 'right answers'
Coming up with a business concept is only half the battle. To make your idea come to fruition, you’re going to need a good software engineer. Unfortunately, finding one isn’t an easy process.
Yesterday, we discussed the six key attributes you should be looking for as you talk with prospective candidates, but getting a read on these in a single discussion isn’t always possible. To ensure you get a holistic view, though, it’s critical to … Continue Reading
DeviceVM brings search to its 'instant-on' Splashtop software
DeviceVM is announcing plans today to make its Splashtop “instant on” software, which allows you to access basic services like email and web browsing while your computer is still booting up, even more useful by directly integrating web search into the software.
Previously, users could access web search in Splashtop by loading up their web browsers. But Senior Director of Product Management Dave Bottoms says instant-on users are focused on speed and on getting onto … Continue Reading
Jigsaw finds profitability by delivering sales contact data as a service
Jigsaw, a company whose 900,000 users have built a database of 14 million business contacts, says it has found a winning business model — by offering access to and services around that database, the company claims to have hit profitability for two consecutive quarters, and to have doubled its revenue for the fourth year in a row.
Chief executive Jim Fowler says San Mateo, Calif.-based Jigsaw is trying to build a new business model around … Continue Reading
AdMob report finds Android lifting off, passing Windows
Android, the open-source mobile platform promoted by Google and built into the T-Mobile G1 built by HTC, is blasting off past Microsoft’s never-quite-successful Windows Mobile. AdMob’s June 2009 Mobile Metrics Report says Android traffic has increased 25 percent month over month. Among mobile operating systems, Android now has a global market share of five percent, which puts it ahead of Windows Mobile.
The report also features, for the first time, an estimated breakdown of the … Continue Reading
With My Career launch, Plaxo moves deeper into business networking
Social address book service Plaxo has been busy over the last few years building out social features, like a lifestreaming service, and integrating social data from sites like Facebook. But now it’s moving deeper into helping people do business networking.
It has recently launched a new part of the site, called My Career. A key feature launching today is the “Company Navigator,” which lets you easily find all the people you’re connected to on Plaxo … Continue Reading
Mitsubishi sprints ahead with i-MiEV sales launch on July 31
Mitsubishi announced today that it will begin taking orders for its zero-emissions car, the electric i-MiEV, on July 31. As soon as tomorrow, it will deliver the first few hatchback models to several electric power corporations in Japan. Individual buyers will receive them as soon as next April, the company says.
With a pricetag of about $49,000 in mind, Mitsubishi says its target is to sell 1,400 cars in the next year and 5,000 in … Continue Reading
Coskata looks to stimulus to finish commercial biofuel plant
Even though cellulosic ethanol maker Coskata just brought in $40 million in a third round of funding in November, it needs more to finish off its new commercial-scale plant — and the government stimulus package for biofuels looks like just the ticket.
Chief executive Bill Roe told VentureWire that Coskata is “very optimistic” about its chances of receiving the low-interest loans and loan guarantees from the Department of Energy soon. [Update: Previously, this post … Continue Reading
