VentureBeat

Acquisition roundup: AOL – StudioNow, StockTwits – Abnormal Returns, LivePerson – NuConomy

Lots of merger reports are coming in this morning. AOL, in the largest of the three reported deals, has picked up Internet video firm StudioNow for a reported $36.5 million. That’s a pretty good payoff for investors in the Nashville-based startup. Clayton Associates and Claritas Capital had put only $3.5 million into StudioNow.

In addition, AOL confirmed last week’s rumors that CTO Ted Cahall is leaving AOL, and Google/Microsoft alumnus Jeff Raynar has become AOL’s...

Visible Technologies secures $22M for social monitoring

Bellevue, Wash. startup Visible Technologies announced it has raised $22 million in a fourth round of funding. The investment surely shows significant growth potential for social and digital media monitoring companies. It also suggests that big companies and brands might be starting to take out their wallets.

The ability to provide companies and brands with a way to monitor and measure is the stepping stone for them to take the leap of faith into social and...

Spot Runner launches web-based TV ad exchange — finally

TV ad company Spot Runner has launched Project Malibu, their much anticipated web-based platform for buying and selling television advertising. The move comes after nearly two years of development, massive layoffs, a heated lawsuit from investor WPP and a whopping $120 million raised from more than a dozen investors.

Spot Runner originally focused on serving local advertisers, letting them use a web-based service to serve ads on TV. But Project Malibu spotlights a shift in technology to a web-based advertising...

Judge dismisses suit against TV ad company Spot Runner

A U.S. district court dismissed the lawsuit accusing TV ad company Spot Runner of committing a “pump and dump” scheme.

WPP, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, filed suit against Spot Runner’s executives in April, saying that the founders committed fraud by selling large quantities of the company’s shares without disclosing the sales to investors. The advertising giant alleged that Spot Runner’s founders aggressively promoted WPP’s $10 million investment in it to gain new...

Roundup: Dell up, phishing down, App Store forecasts all around

Dell beats forecasts, boosting stock despite loss in profits — The company reported revenue of $12.9 billion net income of $472 million, 24 cents a share, a 23 percent decline from last year’s $616 million net from $16.4 billion in revenue.  That’s 28 cents per share excluding costs associated with an in-process restructuring. Analysts had forecast $12.6B revenue and 23 cents per share earnings. Dell’s stock price jumped to $15.65 just before the close of...

OneTXT lands $2M, takes on glutted virtual goods market

Virtual goods have become one of the most popular ways for online social networks and gaming companies to turn a buck — but the space is getting awfully crowded, making it perhaps ripe for consolidation. The newest brave startup to enter the market is OneTXT, which specializes in virtual good payment systems. It just raised $2 million to get started.

Based in New York, the company says it is different from its competitors because it...

Roundup: AOL spinoff, secret news meeting, and more

Here’s the latest action:

AOL spin-off approved by Time Warner — After AOL’s merger with the media conglomerate in 2000, it’s been, well, a long decade. AllThingsD has more.

Leading newspapers hold secret meeting to discuss charge for content — The Atlantic reports. No word on whether there was an entrance fee.

Social game-maker Playdom hire game veterans — Virtual Worlds News covers.

Hulu Desktop, kinda — “Hulu Desktop simply presents an alternate [user interface]...

Visible Technologies raises $6M to help companies track buzz

Visible Technologies, a service that lets companies follow what’s being said about them across the web, has brought in $6 million in a third round of funding. This bumps its total capital raised to $18 million since its founding in 2003. Based in Bellevue, Wash., the company’s investors include Ignition Partners and WPP Group. Two other companies, BuzzLogic and BuzzMetrics do roughly the same thing, reports paidContent.

Its two main products, TruCast and TruView, monitor...

WPP sues TV ad company Spot Runner for “pump-and-dump scheme”

Update:  Added the WPP complaint below.

Update II: Added letter from Spot Runner to employees, sent out Friday, below.

Spot Runner, the start-up Web company that lets advertisers places ads on TV, has been sued by one of its investors, WPP Group for securities fraud and breach of contract, AdAge reports.

WPP, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, said Spot Runner’s executives aggressively promoted WPP’s investment in it to gain new investors...

Women’s ad network Glam raises $10M more, beefs up in Japan

updated
Glam Media, the very fast-growing content and advertising network built largely around women’s content, has just raised another $10 million, largely to help fuel its growth in Japan.

Glam is now valued at just over a half billion dollars, we’re hearing from a source close to the company.

Glam has always been controversial in the business world.

It’s explosive growth over the past two years has been nothing short of remarkable: It has blown...

Google’s cross-platform advertising strategy is a shambles

Google’s cross-platform advertising strategy is looking pretty miserable right now.

Led until recently by former Google U.S. sales executive Tim Armstrong, this strategy sought to spread Google’s influence beyond search advertising to include print ads, radio ads and TV commercials. (See our past coverage of those initiatives here and here.)

Now, unconfirmed reports are emerging that Google’s cross-media ad operations didn’t perform as well as expected in the first quarter.

Layoffs across its sales operations...

Roundup: iPhone tethering works, AT&T prepping no-contract iPhones, IE8 arrives early and more

Here’s the latest action:

iPhone tethering and no commitment price — Just a day after Apple’s iPhone 3.0 software event, developers have found out that tethering is in fact an option in the new OS. They were able to get it working when connected over USB, according to MacRumors. This is great, but you will undoubtedly have to pay for it when AT&T and Apple officially turn it on.

A contract-free iPhone? — Speaking of...

The Filter raises more money so it can recommend more content

The Filter is one of many companies that recommends media to users based on their personal tastes. While internet radio services like Pandora filter music, and community-review sites like Flixster help you find movies based on what your friends like, The Filter is trying to be more holistic. It asks you to tell it at least six musicians and movies that you like or don’t like, then uses that information to provide more general recommendations...

Feeva helps advertisers target users with new precision

A San Francisco company called Feeva has launched a new ad service it says targets Internet users with unprecedented geographic and demographic precision.

Advertisers have long lusted after ways to target users — they can sell more if they reach the types of people likely to buy their products.

One of the sexiest sources of such data — the Internet browsing behaviors of individual users obtained directly from Internet service providers (ISPs) — has been...

The opportunity for ad networks in the recession

What do you have when you take a glut of internet advertising inventory and a shortage of advertising dollars? Opportunity — for those in the fortunate position of having the money, agility and foresight to take advantage of it, that is.

There are currently three tiers of ad networks. At the top are giants like AOL’s Platform-A, Yahoo, Google, ValueClick and Tribal Fusion. Tier two is made up of established companies with proven track records...

Advanced web analytics company NuConomy opens to the public

Nuconomy, a web analytics company that tries to measure every aspect of user interaction on a web site, is publicly launching its product today. The company goes beyond page views to look at things like comments, ratings, uploads, purchases, multimedia (like video views) and links you share with friends.

This way, a web publisher can more accurately identify audience members’ actions, and figure out how to make money from them — you can tell, for...

Behavioral targeting firm Proclivity Systems lands $5.5 million in second round of funding

Proclivity Systems announced a second round of funding today, to the tune of $5.5 million. Proclivity provides back-end analytics in e-commerce sites to help retailers determine what an online shopper may be likely to buy. By mining the data trail someone leaves behind while browsing a shopping website, Proclivity claims it can help send offers and campaigns to consumers at the right time and right price point.

The round of funding was lead by Fung...

Roundup: Crisis speculation, another marketing-firm VC, and more

How will the current crisis on Wall Street affect Silicon Valley? – “I don’t think it will have much of an impact on Silicon Valley as an operating entity,” banker Bill Hambrecht tells Om Malik. Watch the video for more.

Meanwhile, how will online advertising be affected by Wall Street turmoil? — Maybe not so bad, some hopefuls in the industry tell PaidContent.

Global Agency Interpublic Group creates new venture arm...

Mobile search and ad company Jumptap raises $26 million more

Mobile search and advertising company Jumptap has raised $26 million in a fourth round of funding led by AllianceBernstein, with all previous investors participating.

The company has positioned itself as an alternative to Google’s search and ad services for mobile devices. The largest carrier in the country, Verizon, is partnering with Google for these services. But Jumptap has business relationships with AT&T and 16 other carriers of various sizes,...