Roundup: iRobot co-founder moves to new robot venture, botnets surge, IPOs come and go, and more

Roundup: iRobot co-founder moves to new robot venture, botnets surge, IPOs come and go, and more

Roomba technologist moves to new robotic venture — Rodney Brooks, chief technology officer and co-founder at iRobot, is moving on to a new company called Heartland Robots, which will work to “rehumanize and revitalize manufacturing.”

Zombie networks surge ahead — Botnet networks of infected computers have tripled in size over the past three months, according to a tracker, the Shadowserver Foundation.

Newspapers giving business to ad startups — Faced with falling revenues, some of the biggest dailies, including the… Continue Reading

Grocery software company iTradeNetwork to buy Instill Corp.

A company called iTradeNetwork, which provides management software for the grocery industry, is about to acquire the Instill Corporation. Instill is a venture-backed startup that also targets the food service industry, in its case by making the purchasing process more efficient.

Instill will be brought in as a division of iTradeNetwork, but the deal’s financial details have not been disclosed. The merger was facilitated by Accel-KKR, which purchased a majority stake in the iTradeNetwork in December.

Instill… Continue Reading