EC Roundup: Becoming a giant-slayer and 6 critical tips for launching a startup

Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner.

Ask the attorney: M&A waters can be dangerous – especially for the buyer — Buying a competitor is a sign of strength, but one that also carries a lot of risk. Attorney Scott Edward Walker runs down four more things to watch out for, and strategies to keep the upper hand.

5 ways startups can slay giants — Entrepreneurs regularly face off against companies significantly larger than them. … Continue Reading

Our hands-on impressions: Nintendo to start selling DSi XL a week before Apple debuts iPad

To buy a DSi XL, or an iPad? That is the question.

The coming week is a big one for gamers, as Apple and Nintendo go head-to-head in the handheld gadget market. Nintendo starts the battle on Sunday as it begins selling the DSi XL game handheld for $189.99. Apple follows with the April 3 debut of the iPad, which is a tablet computer with many applications beyond games.

On the one hand, the competition … Continue Reading

GameStop rolls out Jolt as it moves into digital distribution of games

The nation’s biggest game retailer GameStop, which opens some 400 retail video game stores a year, launched its first free-to-play online game today. This move, together with the company’s acquisition of Jolt Online Gaming last year, shows that GameStop isn’t blind to the fact that digital distribution of online games could threaten its physical store business.

Its new free online game is Legends of Zork (right), a fantasy game based on a classic game franchise. … Continue Reading

Freemium Summit: Evernote shares the insider secrets of free apps

Giving away your product for free can be either a disaster or a great move. Doing it the right way is an art, as various speakers said at the Freemium Summit in San Francisco today.

A case in point is the “freemium” business model of Evernote, which creates software that serves as a memory aid, or external brain. The company gives away its product for free on a variety of platforms and charges a $5 … Continue Reading

Speaklike offers human-powered translation for blogs

Blog publishers wanting to translate their works into multiple languages now have a range of human-powered translation options from translation company Speaklike. The company, which launched a translation service for instant messages last year, has built a plug-in for the popular WordPress blogging system used by VentureBeat and The New York Times.

The system isn’t instantaneous, but it uses experienced freelance translators rather than amateurs or machine translation.

Speaklike offers a pay-as-you-go system for small … Continue Reading

Nvidia gets back in the game with long-awaited Fermi graphics chip

Since Advanced Micro Devices launched its newest generation of desktop graphics chips in September, Nvidia has been a distant second in graphics chip performance. But today, the company is launching its own graphics chip, the GeForce GTX 400 series, code-named Fermi, in hopes of reclaiming its speed demon title.

These are high-end graphics chips that hardcore gamers care about, but in six months to a year they’ll be widely available to all PC consumers. The … Continue Reading

Verizon slows down expansion of its FiOS fiber network

Verizon is looking to end the expensive roll out its FiOS service — which delivers high-speed internet, television, and phone service to millions of subscribers across the East Coast. The company will finish up its FiOS expansion in certain major markets, but those that haven’t received it yet are most likely out of luck, according to the AP.

The company is still looking to bring FiOS to communities where it has secured “franchises” — the … Continue Reading

Bancorp, Sungevity team up to finance residential solar

Rooftop solar panels may be dropping in price, but they’re still out of range for most consumers to buy out of pocket. To bridge this gap, companies like SunRun and SolarCity have cropped up, offering new payment models to make solar panel ownership more realistic. Now one of the newer entrants, Sungevity, has landed a partnership with U.S. Bancorp to finance short-term solar leases.

This leasing program launched today in California, helping regular homeowners find, … Continue Reading

Apple-Google rivalry doesn't stop Jobs and Schmidt from getting coffee

The relationship between Google and Apple has been cooling for a while now. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt left Apple’s board of directors last year because the two companies were becoming more and more competitive. And despite claims of mutual admiration, a long article published earlier this month in The New York Times highlighted how the rivalry has turned personal, with Apple chief executive Steve Jobs feeling betrayed by Google’s decision to enter the smartphone … Continue Reading

Facebook may automatically share your data with 'pre-approved' partners

Facebook said it may start automatically sharing data about users with special partners the minute they visit a site for a more ‘personalized’ experience. The changes are part of a new privacy policy the company proposed today.

Update: A more detailed statement from Facebook on the new program is here.

The company didn’t say who these pre-approved partners would be, but said that site members would be able to opt-out of having their data shared. … Continue Reading

Telecom gear maker Calix goes public at top of range

Petaluma, Calif.-based Calix, maker of broadband hardware and software unknowingly used by many rural customers in America, completed an initial public offering today for which shares were priced at $13.00. Reuters reports that the price was at the top of the company’s expected range.

The company’s name is pronounced with a short a. It’s New York Stock Exchange symbol is CALX.

In today’s offering, Calix sold 6.3 million shares, raising an estimated $82.3 million.

VentureBeat … Continue Reading

RunKeeper's iPhone app lets you broadcast your morning run to a live audience

Running can be a lonely endeavor without a running mate to push you further. But what if you knew you had a live audience? RunKeeper, which offers an iPhone app that lets you track your distance, time, elevation, pace, and path on a map, has now updated its app to let others watch your progress, live, online.

Called RunKeeper Live, the new service works like this: A user starts logging a run on the iPhone … Continue Reading

Facebook's proposed location policies hint that friends can tag you at places

Facebook proposed a few changes to its privacy policy today — notably, it’s taking a much broader approach to including location options.

The company hasn’t launched geotagging or “checking in” yet. But in the most recent version of its privacy policy released last year, the company said it would allow people to add “a location to something you post.” They’ve made that a lot vaguer now. Instead, you can tag posts with a “place” like … Continue Reading

Wikipedia prepares for user interface lift

The Wikimedia Foundation, creators of popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, just announced that during the week of April 5, the site will begin rolling out changes in the default user interface settings for projects. The changes should make for a better user experience in finding and sharing content, according to the company’s blog.

The company claims some 500,000 current users have been beta testing the new interface for the last six months, but for those who … Continue Reading

Angels sing: 'frankly ridiculous' restrictions might 'destroy Silicon Valley'

Angel investors don’t usually stay up at night worrying about Capitol Hill. But a financial reform bill proposed by Chris Dodd, the Democrat chairing the Senate Banking Committee, includes new restrictions on startups and angels.

Not surprisingly, investors aren’t happy about it, saying it’s “insane,” “frankly ridiculous,” and aims to “destroy Silicon Valley.”

There are three changes that should have a particular effect on angel investors, a catch-all category which includes everyone from friends and … Continue Reading

Nokia buys Novarra to bolster its mobile web browser capabilities

Nokia said today it has purchased Novarra, a maker of mobile web browsing technology. The companies didn’t disclose the purchase price.

Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, currently builds its own mobile browser, so it can incorporate the Illinois company’s technology into its own future browsers. Since data service usage is skyrocketing, having a good mobile web browser is essential.

Novarra was founded in 1999 and raised $50 million in funding in 2007.  Novarra … Continue Reading

China's Perfect World acquires Japanese online game operator C&C Media for $21M

China’s Perfect World has agreed to acquire C&C Media, a Japanese online game operator, for $21 million.

Perfect World, which is traded on NASDAQ and has a market value of almost $2 billion, bought the company from Japanese video game publisher Atlus.

C&C Media was created in 2001 and it runs MK-Style, a web site with online games and services. Perfect World makes high-end online games such as Perfect World as well as casual online … Continue Reading

Secret Builders raises $2.3M to expand educational virtual world for kids

Secret Builders is announcing today that it has raised $2.3 million in funding for its online virtual world with educational games for children. In doing so, it has shown that it’s one of the survivors of what was once a very hot sector now littered with dead companies.

The San Mateo, Calif.-based company debuted its Secret Builders web site in December, 2008. It has slowly built up to 1 million registered users, and it now … Continue Reading

The perfect startup team? Grey hair and Mohawks

A startup team made up solely of college students may find themselves making tons of rookie mistakes, but a company founded by veterans may be trapped in yesterday’s thinking. And any company made up solely of either demographic has virtually no chance of getting VC money. That’s why Heidi Roizen, managing director for Mobius Venture Capital, says the best way to turn heads is to have a combination of both in this older, but still … Continue Reading

Adknowledge launches Cambyo payment gateway to monetize free goods

Adknowledge, which runs a huge private advertising network, is announcing today a new way for online merchants to make money. Its new Cambyo offering is an ad-sponsored payment gateway that lets consumers pay for goods and services by participating in sponsored ad offers.

Cambyo gives consumers the choice of paying in standard currency (with a credit card, mobile payments etc.) or participating in sponsored offers. They can get a product or service for free by … Continue Reading