NudgeMail gains momentum after teaming up with Google Calendar
Inbox “un-clutterer” NudgeMail now has tens of thousands of users within the first three months of its launch, with a significant gain this week that CEO Jeremy Toeman told VentureBeat is likely due to the startup’s recently announced integration with Google’s much-used Google Calendar.
“We’re really excited about the gCal integration, as it was one of the most-requested features from our users,” Toeman told me. “With NudgeMail on gCal not only do existing NudgeMail users … Continue Reading
RIM begins limited production of BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
Research in Motion is off to a slow start with its upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Production of the device is in full swing, though only at a mere 150,000 to 200,000 units a month, according to sources at component suppliers who spoke to the news site Digitimes.
Shipments of the PlayBook could be ready as early as February, the part makers say. With the tablet expected to be released in the US some time in … Continue Reading
Canada's Real Ventures announces lean startup program for games
Canadian game startups can look forward to receiving private support from a Montreal incubator program announced at a video game finance conference in Toronto.
The FounderFuel accelerator program by Montreal venture capital group Real Ventures will launch this summer, said Mark McLeod, a partner at FounderFuel. He addressed more than 200 game developers, executives and financiers attending the two-day GameON Finance conference.
The effort shows that the Canadians are bent on embracing games as a … Continue Reading
Samsung sells 2M Galaxy Tabs, 80M phones, in record-breaking quarter
Life is good for the reigning Android hardware king Samsung. The company released its record-breaking earnings report (PDF link) for the fourth quarter of 2010 yesterday, revealing that it sold 2 million Galaxy Tab tablets and 80 million phones.
Samsung announced in early December that it sold 1 million Galaxy Tabs in its first two months on the market. The 2 million number tells us that sales for the tablet just about doubled in December. … Continue Reading
For $200,000, George Whitesides will send you into space (video)
They call it New Space, a commercial effort to send people into space as tourists. Entrepreneurs are creating startups that are flying tourists into space, for a fee. One of the companies doing so is Virgin Galactic, a startup funded by billionaire Richard Branson of the Virgin Group.
We caught up with George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, at the recent Digital Life Design conference in Munich. He thinks that as early as next … Continue Reading
Deals & More: Storenvy snags $1.5M for indie e-commerce marketplace, Cohuman raises $600K to organize your to-do list
Today’s funding announcements include online networks for shopping and task management:
Storenvy brings in $1.5M for online shopping community: The creator of a social shopping network has raised a seed funding round led by Spark Capital and First Round Capital with participation from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Charles River Ventures and a group of angels. The San Francisco-based company, whose best-selling products include t-shirts and sunglasses, lets users create an online store for free, … Continue Reading
5 solid startup lessons
When Aaron Levie launched Box.net from his college dorm room, he was exploring a lot of new territory. Now, as CEO of a company that has raised nearly $30 million in venture capital since 2005, he has filtered what he has learned into five lessons, which he shares in this entrepreneur thought leader lecture, given at Stanford University:
Do something that was not possible three years ago.
Do something you are extremely passionate about.
Don’t
Silicon Valley VCs reach highest confidence levels in two years
Venture Capitalists are increasingly optimistic about the immediate future of investing in Silicon Valley. Their confidence registered 3.75 on a 5 point scale, with 5 indicating high confidence and 1 indicating low confidence, according to the quarterly Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index released today.
The index polled 35 San Francisco Bay Area venture capitalists in December 2010 about how they viewed the high-growth venture entrepreneurial environment in the San Francisco Bay Area over the … Continue Reading
Elevation Partners makes it official: Marc Bodnick resigns
It’s official: Elevation Partners has announced the resignation of Marc Bodnick from the high-profile private-equity firm, just a couple days after VentureBeat first reported his impending departure.
While Bodnick hasn’t commented on his plans, he’s widely understood to be joining Quora, a highly valued question-and-answer startup founded by former Facebook employees, in an unspecified role.
Elevation cofounder Roger McNamee made the following statement:
“Marc has made the decision to leave Elevation to pursue new opportunities. … Continue Reading
What you should know about LinkedIn’s IPO
You’ve probably seen that professional networking site LinkedIn filed for its initial public offering today. Now that the first wave of excitement has died down, let’s take a look at the most relevant facts about the company and its IPO plans, drawn primarily from the filing:
How much does LinkedIn want to raise through the IPO? Up to $175 million.
How does LinkedIn describe itself? “We are the world’s largest professional network on the Internet … Continue Reading
As Egypt cracks down on protests, it shuts off the internet
Egypt is reportedly trying to eliminate protests by pulling the plug on the nation’s internet connection. It’s a kind of pre-emptive strike against the country’s planned demonstrations tomorrow. Protests have been escalating daily.
Will it work? The country could go in the direction of Tunisia, whose government sank under protests, or Iran, which successfully repressed opposition last year. As we’ve seen over and over again, social media has become a force for change in the … Continue Reading
Sony throws the kitchen sink of gaming technology into NGP
With its new NGP portable entertainment gadget, Sony has stuck to its tried-and-true strategy of packing as much technology as it possibly can into a device.
From a quad-core processor to multiple motion sensors, the NGP, which Sony announced today, has more technology packed into it than any other gadget out there. That tells us a few things about its chances for success, its likely pricing, and where it’s going to fit in the market … Continue Reading
Verizon picks up a bunch of buildings for $1.4B — oh, and Terremark too
It turns out that the cloud is just a bunch of buildings.
That’s what telecommunications provider Verizon is banking on by buying Terremark, which runs a number of data centers, for $1.4 billion to promote its “everything-as-a-service” cloud strategy.
Verizon announced today that it is buying Terremark for $19 a share — a 35 percent premium on the company’s closing share price of $14.05. Shares of Terremark were up 36 percent in extended trading to … Continue Reading
With LinkedIn, outsiders can get in on the PayPal mafia's racket
For the past half-decade, a gang of well-connected entrepreneurs who worked together at online-payments startup PayPal have quietly built a string of successful Internet companies. At last, with Linkedin, public-market investors can get a piece of the action.
Not since Peter Thiel took PayPal itself public in 2002, ending a post-dotcom bubble drought in the IPO market, has this group produced a publicly traded company. Now LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman is playing a part in … Continue Reading
LinkedIn: We're powered by obsessives
Professional networking site LinkedIn just filed for its initial public offering, and that filing includes an interesting overview of the company’s “risk factors”, i.e., “What might go wrong.”
The company is obligated to emphasize the negative here, so it covers some obvious stuff like, “We have a short operating history in a new and unproven market,” and, “We process, store and use personal information and other data, which subjects us to governmental regulation and other … Continue Reading
Investors thrash Amazon.com after sales miss the mark
Shares of Amazon.com were down almost 10 percent in extended trading after the company posted less-than-stellar earnings for its most recent operating quarter.
Amazon.com generated about $12.95 billion in sales in the fourth quarter of 2010, up 36 percent from $9.5 billion in the same quarter in 2009. The site served as a major hub for shoppers during the holiday season. Holiday sales were quite good by most metrics, so expectations were pretty high for … Continue Reading
LinkedIn files for its IPO
Looks like we can finally stop asking when LinkedIn is going to have its initial public offering. The professional networking site just filed an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is the first step in the IPO process.
The IPO has been rumored for a while now, most recently with All Things Digital reporting that LinkedIn would file its S-1 today. When Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz joined the LinkedIn board earlier … Continue Reading
Netflix makes friends and enemies with ISP report cards, new social features
Netflix today issued its first report on Internet service provider performance, ranking cable company Charter the best and wireless provider Clearwire dead last.
By making the rankings public, Netflix likely hopes to shame ISPs into providing better performance for their customers. The move is the latest in a very public back and forth between Netflix and the ISP industry, who aren’t taking too kindly to the movie service’s all-you-can-eat video streaming.
Popular ISPs like Comcast, … Continue Reading
Microsoft's Kinectified game business grows 55 percent — fastest-selling consumer electronics device in history
Call it Kinectification. Microsoft said today that its video-game business grew dramatically thanks to sales of its Kinect motion-sensing system.
The Entertainment & Devices division — which includes Xbox 360 and PC games, Zune, Windows Phone 7, and consumer software — generated $3.7 billion in revenue in the quarter ended Dec. 31, up 55 percent from $2.4 billion a year earlier.
Peter Klein, chief financial officer, said in a conference call that Kinect is the … Continue Reading
Whoops! Microsoft's leaked Q2 earnings show strong game and business software sales
Microsoft isn’t all about Windows: Some serious growth in its entertainment and business divisions helped spur Microsoft to a strong finish in the second quarter of its 2011 fiscal year, with revenue up 5 percent.
The earnings were released — or rather, leaked — on Microsoft’s own website, slightly ahead of schedule in a rather odd snafu for Microsoft. Investors were nonetheless pleased with the results, sending Microsoft’s shares up about 1.4 percent in regular … Continue Reading
