Roundup: Parakey sour grapes, Facebook’s sexual predator problem & more

Roundup: Parakey sour grapes, Facebook’s sexual predator problem  & more

Here’s a summary of the latest action. See below for more:
1) Sour grapes for Parakey investors; they get no Facebook stock
2) Facebook facing legal trouble back East, this time for child-safety issues
3) Amazon launches Amazon MP3, a competitor to iTunes
4) Private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson buys Vault.com

Parakey’s investors saw their money doubled when Facebook acquired, but got no stock — We’ve talked several insiders about the deal, and they confirm that Parakey (see our… Continue Reading

Facebook’s first acquisition: secretive start-up Parakey

Facebook’s first acquisition: secretive start-up Parakey

updated

Facebook has acquired Parakey, a Mountain View, Calif., startup that had been working on a new way for people to work seamlessly on applications while online and offline.

Founded by former Mozilla Firefox browser developers Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, Parakey had worked in secrecy for two years on a project it hoped would make online life much less complex for regular people. They called their PC download “a personal operating system.”

Notably, Parakey is Facebook’s first… Continue Reading

“Young Guns” form secret Silicon Valley society

“Young Guns” form secret Silicon Valley society

That’s what Rolling Stone wants you to believe, in its latest edition. In a story called “Baby Billionaires of Silicon Valley,” Rolling Stone catches up with a group nine entrepreneurs who get together to strategize. This is another hype job, since none of these people are billionaires. (Update: Blake Ross, in comment below, says this is no secret society, and headline is wrong.)

From the piece:

That’s why they’ve gathered here tonight. This is one of the… Continue Reading