Intel accused of antitrust violations by FTC

Intel settled its long-running feud with Advanced Micro Devices, but now it faces a new antitrust complaint from the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC sued the world’s biggest chip maker today, accusing it of using its dominant market position to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly for the past decade.

The complaint covers not only the market for microprocessors, but also graphics chips. It alleges that Intel blocked rivals from selling their chips by cutting … Continue Reading

Foursquare rival Rummble acquires Wi-Fi finder Total Hotspots

Rummble, the U.K.’s answer to the location-based services craze, has bought Wi-Fi finder Total Hotspots.

It’s largely a talent acquisition: Total Hotspots managing director Alex Housley becomes Rummble’s vice president of business. The two companies partnered earlier this year to bring Total Hotspots’ database of Wi-Fi access points to the Rummble community.

Total Hotspots is the profitable startup behind an iPhone app that tells users where the nearest paid and free hotspots are around the … Continue Reading

Social investment startup kaChing raises $7.5M to disrupt mutual fund industry

kaChing, a company that´s aiming to disrupt the mutual fund industry, raised $7.5 million in its first venture-backed round of financing, led by DAG Ventures.

kaChing is part of a young cohort of startups that are trying to democratize the fund management industry, by allowing individual investors to copy the trades of other skilled investors instead of turning to professionally-run funds that can charge around 3 percent in fees.

The Palo Alto-based startup recently opened … Continue Reading

Frosmo launches tournament game portal on Facebook

There are huge numbers of games on Facebook, but Helsinki startup Frosmo, hopes it can grab some attention amid all the noise by doing something a bit different. The company will provide a tournament and prize-based social gaming service on Facebook.

The company, started in 2008, makes infrastructure for staging tournaments in casual games. It has created a white-label service that is used by 30 partners, including major portals in Eastern Europe, Asia, and the … Continue Reading

Social game maker Zynga raises $180M from Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies

The Russians are coming. First, Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies bought a $200 million stake in Facebook. Now that same investor has invested $180 million in Zynga, the fast-growing social game company.

The New York Times first reported the news, but it has since been confirmed by Zynga.

The investment no doubt gives Zynga a stratospheric valuation, and it shows that global investors are closely watching the social gaming industry that is profiting from giving … Continue Reading

Venture capitalists say industry will shrink, slowly

The chorus declaring that the venture capital industry is shrinking now includes 90 percent of VCs, according to the National Venture Capital Association‘s annual survey, Venture View 2010.

That’s, uh, pretty overwhelming. Things are a little more divided when it comes to the size of the contraction, but even then, 58 percent of respondents agreed that the industry will shrink 16 – 30 percent. That doesn’t necessarily mean we will see big layoffs — 63 … Continue Reading

RockYou explains how a hacker stole 32 million passwords — and what it's doing about it

Social app maker RockYou confirmed today that it is notifying millions of its users that their usernames and passwords may have been compromised by a hacker who broke into the company’s older applications known as widgets.

In an exclusive interview, RockYou chief technology officer Jia Shen said the company was notified of the SQL injection attack against RockYou.com last week by officials at security firm Imperva. Shen said RockYou shut down the site for its … Continue Reading

Biofuel companies still on shaky ground despite wins with airlines

When it comes to biofuel adoption, the airlines are way ahead of the automakers. In August, synthetic fuel maker Rentech signed a deal to produce 1.5 million gallons of diesel made from sewer sludge to power ground equipment for eight airlines at LAX. Today, that same company and competitor AltAir landed preliminary contracts to supply 15 airlines with renewable fuels.

But even deals of this size aren’t enough to give biofuel companies the financial boost … Continue Reading

Insider trading charges against Broadcom executives dismissed

In a courtroom shocker, Broadcom founder Henry Nicholas and the company’s former chief financial officer won a legal victory as a federal judge found that prosecutors had intimidated witnesses.

U.S. District Court judge Cormac Carney dismissed stock-option backdating charges against the former chief executive Henry Nicholas and CFO William Ruehle. The case was scheduled to go to trial in February and had been in the works for years, but Carney said that the government prosecutors … Continue Reading

Fat Spaniel wins $4.6M, points to growth in home solar generation

As renewable sources of energy like wind and solar power start to gain more momentum, measurement and analysis startup Fat Spaniel may start to see bigger business. Based in San Jose, the company monitors exactly how much power is being generated by renewable systems — and now it’s raised $4.6 million in debt financing to continue meeting demand, according to a filing with the SEC.

Fat Spaniel’s software communicates with renewable energy hardware like solar … Continue Reading

Professor claims Square took his credit card reading technology

Square, a new company that makes a small device for credit card payments from your mobile phone, has probably stirred up more excitement than any startup launching in recent months.

But Bob Morley, an associate professor of electrical engineering at Washington University, says there’s a big hitch: He built Square’s credit card reading technology and has filed a patent for it, so the San Francisco company doesn’t own a key part of its tech. He … Continue Reading

How soon till mobile TV really gets going?

Mobile TV has analysts excited. ABI Research estimates that mobile TV will have 43 million subscribers by 2013, and research firm TeleAnalytics estimates 50 million mobile TV users in North America by the same year. But so far mobile TV has not nearly lived up to the hype. Qualcomm’s FLO TV, the technology used behind the current market leaders — AT&T’s Mobile TV and Verizon’s V Cast — still isn’t making money. For this holiday … Continue Reading

India's GupShup SMS social network crosses 26 million users

Facebook and Twitter are surely be the most popular and most influential social networks on the Internet. But Indian SMS-based social network GupShup’s 26 million members proves that sites not built and hosted from the San Francisco Bay Area can attract large audiences.

GupShup published a press release this morning claiming a user base of 26 million people, adding the claim that this makes it India’s largest social network:

Part of SMS GupShup’s success has … Continue Reading

My Health Direct secures $4M, not just redirecting emergency room patients

If you’ve ever had to visit the emergency room at your local hospital then you’re no stranger to a jam packed waiting room, crying babies and a long wait. In an effort to remedy the problem, My Health Direct, a company that provides a web-based software for healthcare providers to redirect patients with non-emergency conditions to other health care providers, has secured $4 million in first round funding led by Chrysalis Ventures.

In the press … Continue Reading

Silver Spring becomes the smart grid's golden goose with new $100M

If it wasn’t already, Silver Spring Networks is now the official leader of the smart grid sector. Following success in 2009, it is expected to be the first startup in the space to go public, as early as next year. And now it’s secured $100 million more in equity to continue expanding in the U.S. and overseas.

This isn’t just good news for the Redwood City, Calif.-based maker of data networking equipment for utilities and … Continue Reading

Liquid cooling becomes hot as Asetek raises $8M

Liquid cooling used to be the domain of supercomputers and computer gaming freaks. But as graphics chips and microprocessors become more powerful and power hungry, liquid cooling may have a real future.

That’s the bet of investors who have put $8 million into Asetek, a liquid cooling vendor in both the enthusiast computer market as well as the broader computer market.

San Jose, Calif.-based Asetek makes liquid cooling systems that keep gamer PCs and other … Continue Reading

DEMO & VentureBeat head to Atlanta, a city that punches above its weight

I’m traveling to Atlanta tomorrow, in the lastest trip I’m making to major cities to meet with local start-ups and entrepreneurs.

Atlanta gets overlooked as a technology and business center. While it’s a small city — at only the 33rd largest in the nation — it has the third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies headquartered within its borders.

And there are reasons why entrepreneurship should percolate well here going forward. There’s Georgia Tech, its … Continue Reading

ActiveIdentity buys security software maker CoreStreet for $20M

ActiveIdentity, a Fremont, Calif.-based maker of security software, says it is buying CoreStreet, a company with very similar offerings that provides authentication software to government agencies. The acquisition should give ActiveIdentity access to public-sector clients that it didn’t enjoy previously.

CoreStreet had raised $14 million from POD Venture Partners, Updata Partners and several private investors.… Continue Reading