Cisco shows growing collaboration ambitions with WebEx Mail and social networking tools
Cisco is expanding its lineup of collaboration tools today with a flood of new products and upgrades (61 in all, the company says). In addition to improving on established products like web meeting service WebEx, the networking giant is expanding into two new markets — email and corporate social networking.
Alex Hadden-Boyd, director of Cisco’s Collaboration Software Group, described WebEx Mail as “a bridge” between older email programs and newer web technologies. It integrates smoothly with… Continue Reading
Cisco buys Web security company ScanSafe for $183M
Cisco has smartly acquired ScanSafe, maker of software-as-a-service Internet security tools, which means it can now tighten the integration between its own networking gear and ScanSafe’s defenses against malware and other attacks.
The $183M price for the company, founded in 2004, fits nicely into our Revenge of the South Bay theme even though ScanSafe’s offices are a block from VentureBeat in downtown San Francisco. Companies that make boring-but-utilitarian IT back end hardware and software are being… Continue Reading
Cisco video: Is cloud computing powered by angels?
I guess no one has a clue what the increasingly fashionable term “cloud computing” means. At least, that’s the message we’re meant to take away from a new video from Cisco (embedded below), where many people are asked what cloud computing is, and most of the on-camera responses are confused, way out there, or both.
Here’s my favorite description: “Cloud computing is where God allowed all the clouds to be connected together by the angels.” I’m… Continue Reading
Roundup: Bartz is tougher than you, new Zunes are pretty
Cisco forecasts lower revenue for Q1, stock drops 74 points – – Barron’s reports that on Wednesday’s conference call with analysts, Cisco management “forecast fiscal Q1 revenue to decline by 15% to 17%.” It’s not bad compared to the street’s estimates, but traders punished the company with a 3.4% drop in after-hours trading.
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz wants you to know she’s tougher than you’ll ever, ever be — At Autodesk, she worked while undergoing chemotherapy… Continue Reading
Virtual events draw a live in-person crowd
Yes, these people in the picture are real. What’s weird is they’re attending a conference about virtual events. You know, the kind they have only in cyberspace where you pretend you’re at a live event.
As surreal as it sounds, the fledgling virtual events industry gathered today at a first-of-its-kind Virtual Edge event at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, Calif. While other conferences have been pummeled by the recession, there were 500 people… Continue Reading
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] for the site (now with sound effects!) that’s… Continue Reading
Roundup: VC investments plunge in Q1, Cisco sees sales stabilize, Facebook on Digg and more
Here’s the latest action:
Slowdown hits venture industry worldwide in first quarter — The venture capital industry sank 50 percent in the U.S., but the drop was mirrored in places such as Europe, Israel, China and India. Overseas, venture-backed companies raised $1.87 billion in 250 deals, compared with $3.65 billion in 430 deals a year ago, according to VentureSource. The first-quarter numbers also were down significantly from the fourth quarter of 2008, when investors committed $2.88… Continue Reading
Cisco buys Tidal Software for $105M — to virtualize the data center
Networking giant Cisco has acquired Tidal Software, a Palo Alto, Calif. company that will enable Cisco’s customers to manage their key applications more seamlessly over Cisco’s network. It paid $105 million in cash and retention-based incentives.
Tidal, a company that raised at least $16.5 million beginning 11 years ago from investors like J.P. Morgan Partners, Novus Ventures and VantagePoint Venture Partners, focuses on letting companies efficiently manage and automate their applications. Cisco says it wants to… Continue Reading
Free online meeting tool Mikogo launches for Mac
Mikogo, maker of the online meeting tool of same name, announced today the release of a free, public version that works across platforms, now including Mac. The software lets up to 10 meeting participants share a screen over the web during a presentation.
A group of colleagues can virtually huddle around one screen to edit a project collaboratively from their separate desks, or a single user can conduct a product demonstration as the rest of the… Continue Reading
Scheduling startup TimeBridge adds cheap web meetings
The established players in web conferencing better look out — scheduling startup TimeBridge is launching a new conferencing service that it says can save companies around 80 percent of what they would have paid for established products like Cisco’s WebEx and Citrix’s GoToMeeting.
The Berkeley, Calif. startup already has 300,000 users for its service, which is particularly useful because it integrates with existing calendar products like Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar and Apple iCal. Chief executive Yori… Continue Reading
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 off-limits for… Continue Reading
Roundup: Intel pours cash into factories, N.J. goes solar, Obama taps cybersecurity chief, and more
Microsoft to tighten ties with Facebook chat? — Steve Ballmer implies (oh so subtly) full interoperability between Facebook chat and Windows Live Messenger.
Intel to sink funds into factories — Despite the downturn, the giant earmarks $7 billion for its chip manufacturing plants over the next two years.
Obama anoints Melissa Hathaway cybersecurity czar — The former aide to president Bush’s intelligence director plans to evaluate current measures to secure government networks from spies and terrorists.
Cisco’s on the hunt for acquisitions —… Continue Reading
Roundup: Ashton’s new show, Woz’s new company and more
Here’s the latest action:
Pansonic lays off 15,000: The consumer electronics giant shed 5 percent of its work force. It joins NEC, Sony, Hitachi and other Japanese companies in announcing major layoffs.
Ashton Kutcher’s Katalyst Media teams up with Slide on new series — The show, called KatalystHQ, is the first sponsored web series to premiere on Facebook.
Steve Wozniak takes a job at storage startup Fusion-io — The Apple co-founder already sat on the Salt Lake City company’s advisory… Continue Reading
Obama’s choice for the post of chief technology officer narrowing?
The tech industry has been closely watching the Obama administration’s search for a chief technology officer and it looks like the short list includes two tech veterans of Indian descent, according to BusinessWeek.
Padmasree Warrior, the CTO of networking giant Cisco, and Vivek Kundra, the CTO of the government of Washington, D.C., are the front runners. I interviewed Warrior when she was the chief technology officer at Motorola years ago. She has deep knowledge in cell… Continue Reading
Cisco study: U.S. wins TV and mobile-watching world olympics
Cisco Systems has released results from its new Visual Networking Index survey looking at video consumption habits around the world, and some of them may surprise you. Among other things, it gauged people’s attitudes toward online, mobile and television viewing of video content in the U.S., China, Germany and Sweden. Below, we’ve broken down the report’s findings for optimum factoid digestion:
American internet users spend 2.5 as much time watching professionally-produced content (shows and movies created… Continue Reading
WebEx brings web meetings to your iPhone
As I visit companies and conferences around the Bay Area, one of my constant battles is finding a good spot for web meetings. It can be a pain in the neck to locate a quiet spot with a good wireless connection, particularly when I’m scrambling to get set up for a meeting that’s only a minute away. WebEx, the video conferencing company acquired last year by Cisco, just made my life a little easier by… Continue Reading
Xobni raises $7M to battle Outlook’s email overload
Xobni, a plug-in that tries to improve email organization in Microsoft Outlook, has raised $7 million in a second round of venture financing.
Xobni’s most prominent feature is an inbox sidebar that shows profiles of people you’re corresponding with. By making related content (phone numbers, past messages, files exchanged, and more) immediately accessible, Xobni helps you avoid fruitless or time-consuming searches through giant piles of email; Microsoft founder Bill Gates (somewhat hyperbolically) called it “the next… Continue Reading
Roundup: Cisco’s digital stereo, Twitter gets authority search, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Cisco offers digital stereo — The shift to digital entertainment is a big change from the company’s roots in routers and Internet pipes.
The Internet does another round of arguing about Twitter — Loic Le Meur, founder of video site Seesmic, sparked a discussion about the micro-blogging site Twitter by suggesting that the service should allow users to search by something he calls “authority.” Frankly, I got bored with the debate pretty quickly, but hey… Continue Reading
CES preview: what to expect at the big, not-so-gloomy tech trade show
THE BIGGEST U.S. TECH TRADE SHOW WILL FEATURE EMERGING MARKET TECHNOLOGY, 3-D GLASSES, AND DIGITAL CONTENT, ACCORDING TO SHOW CHIEF GARY SHAPIRO
The International Consumer Electronics Show coming up next week promises to be a sober extravaganza. It will have all the splashy booths and big parties as in past years, but it won’t be the best-attended show in history because of the economic slowdown.
Even with the economy in a funk, the show should be a… Continue Reading
Roundup: A tragedy on Justin.tv, Obama’s cell records improperly accessed and more
Here’s the latest action:
19 year old commits suicide on Justin.tv — The young man overdosed on pills while streaming live. People watching apparently weren’t sure if it was serious or not, but once they were, they alerted the police. By then it was too late. NewTeeVee has the full story.
Obama’s personal cellphone records hacked — The President-elect’s cell phone account with Verizon Wireless was improperly accessed by some employees. It was simply a regular phone and not… Continue Reading