Sean Ludwig is a staff writer for VentureBeat, and he covers mobile tech, cloud computing, and streaming media. Previously, he has written for PCMag, Fast Company, Computer Shopper, LAPTOP Magazine, Seattle Weekly, and others. When he’s not writing into the late hours of the night, he’s seeing ridiculous concerts, walking New York City, and eating Ben & Jerry’s. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Sean stands behind everything in VentureBeat’s ethics statement. Please send all pitches to tips@venturebeat.com.

stories by Sean Ludwig

MadeiraCloud nabs $1.5M from Sequoia for AWS-based visual cloud management

Amazon Web Services visualization startup MadeiraCloud has raised an undisclosed sum from Sequoia Capital, but a source tells us it's in the "low single millions."

Los Angeles startup Yekra nets $3M for its digital movie distribution platform

Digital entertainment distribution startup Yekra has raised $3 million in funding to give studios a way to distribute DRM-protected content without it being burdensome.

Groupon stock surges 10% on strong earnings, company says it’s ‘still a toddler’

Groupon has had a tough past few months, but at least today's Q1 earnings beat expectations.

SAP’s cloud moves show businesses won’t tolerate 18-month deployments any more

Enterprise software giant SAP has been throwing its hands in the air for years, exclaiming that it is indeed a cloud company. But yesterday, SAP took a big step that shows where the it and its customers are at by …

Morbid investment of the day: eFuneral nabs $250K to be a Yelp for funeral homes

End-of-life planning startup eFuneral has received a $250,000 investment to help people find resources online for funeral planning including funeral home reviews, estate planning, and cemetery information.

HealthTap scores $24M from Khosla & others, former Square COO Keith Rabois joins board

Health Q&A startup HealthTap has raised $24 million in its second round of funding and added former Square COO Keith Rabois to its board of directors.

Nest Labs acquires MyEnergy to help more folks track energy consumption

Smart thermostat maker Nest Labs has acquired MyEnergy to help provide more information to its customers about energy usage.

Microsoft: Windows 8 passes 100M license sales, Windows Blue update on the way

Microsoft still faces criticism for its Windows 8 operating system, but despite that, the software giant has sold more than 100 million licenses in its first six months of availability and important updates are on the way.

LevelEleven redesigns & rebrands its Salesforce app that cleverly gamifies sales

Detroit-based LevelEleven has rebranded and redesigned its flagship app that motivates sales people to generate more leads and close more deals.

Dropbox plans first-ever developer conference for July 9 in S.F.

Cloud storage powerhouse Dropbox will host its first-ever developer conference — dubbed DBX — on July 9 in San Francisco.

Microsoft says over 250M people are now using SkyDrive

Google Drive and Dropbox competitor SkyDrive now has more than 250 million users, Microsoft said today in a blog post.

YC-backed Zapier launches dashboard to track downtime for nearly 200 APIs

App integration startup Zapier has launched a new API status dashboard, a tool that can help developers and companies identify downtime for about 200 APIs.

McAfee to buy network security biz Stonesoft for $389M cash

Security heavyweight McAfee has agreed to acquire network firewall business Stonesoft for $389 million in cash so it can offer more powerful firewall protection to its clients.

Spotify acquires music discovery & playlist app Tunigo

Tunigo's app will remain inside Spotify and its team will move to Spotify's offices in Stockholm and New York.

Bad news for Bitcoin: CoinLab sues Mt. Gox for $75M after partnership fails

Back in late February, top Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox struck a deal to let Seattle startup CoinLab handle its U.S. operations. But now what looked like it would be a beautiful friendship has turned into an ugly mess.

New Kickstarter aims to bring life-sized Nikola Tesla statue to Silicon Valley

The campaign is the brainchild of entrepreneur Dorrian Porter, who has been fascinated and inspired by Tesla for several years.

LinkedIn shares tumble 10% after decent Q1 earnings, poor guidance

Business social network LinkedIn just posted its Q1 2013 earnings, and while the results trumped expectations, investors seem a bit spooked because it issued weak guidance.