VentureBeat

Here’s the latest action:
1. Medio’s roar turning to a squeal?
2. Sprint changing WiMax plans?
3. AOL rumored to be considering buying ad targeting network Quigo for $300 million
4. Bug Labs, for open-sourced electronic devices
5. Semantic search engine Hakia releases social networking tool
6. The amazing $200 Ubuntu Linux “green” PC at Wal-Mart
7. Cisco does its 125th buyout
8. Facebook’s stock has appreciated 33-fold, and then some
9. Internet Brands going public with growing losses, declining sales?
10. Shopstyle signs deal with In Style Magazine

Medio’s roar turning to a squeal? — We’re wondering what will happen to Seattle’s Medio, the company that provides mobile search technology to telecom giant Verizon, now that Google is reportedly close to signing a deal with the giant carrier to offer customers a GPhone. This which would carry a Google operating system, based on Linux and offering a host of Google applications including search. The Mercury News carried a profile story on Medio Tuesday, in which chief executive Brian Lent (pictured top left) boasts Medio has a broader reach than Google, citing its partnership with Verizon. The article appeared the day before the deal negotiations between Google and Verizon leaked. Obviously, Medio won’t get kicked off of Verizon’s phones overnight. The GPhone hasn’t even arrived yet. Still, the Merc piece is a notable read, explaining how Lent knew the Google co-founders at Stanford, but initially shrugged of the promise of search; he even turned down the No. 1 employee position at Yahoo. Verizon, in turn, may be flirting with Google for the following obvious: Apple iPhone has become a raging success, after Verizon turned down the chance to be the iPhone carrier partner. As Techdirt points out, Verizon and Google have a tough history, including the standoff over the 700 MHz spectrum debate and network neutrality. But the GPhone, that might paper over the differences.

Sprint Nextel changing WiMax plans? — Sprint may be rethinking its plans to offer high-speed wireless Internet service using WiMax technology, possibly merging its wireless broadband unit with start-up Clearwire, according to the WSJ.

AOL rumored to be considering buying ad targeting network Quigo for $300 million – But its just a rumor. Details from Kara Swisher.

Bug Labs, for open-sourced electronic devices — You’ve heard about all the open-source software. Well, New York’s Bug Labs is offering open source for hardware, drawing on outside developers to help fashion the building blocks of these personalized devices that will be easy enough for non-techies to assemble. It is backed by Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures and Robert Young, founder of open source company Red Hat. More about BugLabs here. It has similarities with Ponoko.

Semantic search engine Hakia releases social networking tool — Called Meet Others, it lets you meet people who typed in the same search query. Now that is geeky.

The amazing $200 Ubuntu Linux “green” PC at Wal-Mart — The price of this computer is truly in the basement. It runs OpenOffice software and comes pre-configured with links to all of Google’s online applications. See Wired story for more details. It stands in stark contrast to Nicholas Negroponte’s $100 laptop for the poor, began at a price of $100, but which now has crept upward to….$200. So apparently, there’s no need for the poor laptop any more. The developing world may as well order a Linux version straight from Wal-Mart.

Cisco does its 125th buyout –Cisco, the giant networking company, proves you can grow and prosper through non-stop acquisitions. It has paid $100M for Securent, a company that monitors access to a company’s data and communications regardless of vendor, platform, or operating system. Securent was founded in 2004 by Rajiv Gupta after raising capital from Greylock and Onset (via Alarmclock ).

Facebook’s stock has appreciated 33-fold, and then some – Many of us reported how the Microsoft deal to invest in Facebook at such a high value ($15 billion) makes Facebook’s private shares expensive. This, in turn, makes it tough to recruit motivated employees, because it means there’s little room for the stock to appreciate — at least for several years until Facebook starts making some money. NYT’s Miguel Helft has done a good job at exploring just how far the stock has risen.

Internet Brands going public with growing losses, declining sales? — We don’t get this one. The El Segundo, Calif., company has filed to raise $45 million in an IPO. But the company, whose sites include CarsDirect, WikiTravel, FlyerTalk.com among others, swung to a loss of $2.4 million in the first nine months of the year, and saw is revenues decline too. This, after buying 35 start-ups last year, enough to jolt any company. Buyer beware. It is backed by IdeaLab.

Shopstyle signs deal with In Style Magazine — ShopStyle, the fashion-focused shopping search engine that Sugar recently acquired, has announced a partnership with the popular In Style Magazine. Sugar has said its efforts to create a woman-centric network, a la Glam, was not working out, and has been looking into other means to generate revenue. Combining ShopStyle’s search with the editorial sensibilities of In Style’s fashionistas could prove lucrative for both companies. Under the terms of the deal, Sugar will receive a cut of revenues, as well as its CPCs.

updated significantly

Sugar Publishing, a network of woman-focused blogs, has acquired woman’s social shopping site ShopStyle, the latest deal in a fierce competition by a triad of companies hoping to become the leading woman’s Web destination. The amount of the transaction was undisclosed.

San Francisco-based Sugar is a relatively small network of content-oriented sites, but is backed by NBC and the respected and ambitious Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. Previously, we’d assumed Sugar trying to make inroads against two giants: incumbent iVillage, and the fast-growing upstart Glam. Glam, also of Silicon Valley (Brisbane, Calif.) has accelerated past iVillage and now claims it’s the largest woman’s network, at 21 million unique viewers. That compares to 1.2 million uniques for a combined Sugar and Shopstyle, according to MediaMetrix. iVillage has 15 million.

However, Sugar chief executive Brian Sugar now says he no longer sees Glam as a competitor. The two have continued to move in opposite directions, with Sugar focused on publishing content, and Glam focused on becoming a large ad supplier, he said. By selling ads on multiple sites, Glam is understandably going to have larger user numbers. It counts users from sites it doesn’t completely own, but which take advertising from Glam.

Sugar’s numbers have, in fact, declined from 1.3 million to 1 million in August, while ShopStyle declined from 206,000 to 188,000 uniques in August, according to Comscore. August is a slow month for many Web sites, becaus of summer vacation, so it’s too early to say whether the sites have stalled, or whether its just a blip on a path toward further growth. See graph below.

Sugar has continued to dismiss Comscore’s numbers, however, saying his internal data show the combined Sugar and ShopStyle attract more than 5 million unique users monthly. He says Comscore doesn’t include some of his sites, and that his internal numbers show traffic up in August.

The controversial Glam, led by entrepreneur Samir Arora, says it’s the fastest growing network on the Web. We just reported on its redesign, which includes a Digg-like feature. It has focused its efforts more on ad sales lately, hiring new sales executives like Karin Marke, who ran Fox/MySpace’s west coast sales, and Jennifer McLean, from Fox and DoubleFusion.

Earlier, we reported Sugar would soon announce its own network with advertising firm Federated Media. The thinking for that network was because Sugar didn’t have its own ad network, nor a significant shopping component — both areas where Glam is strong. By buying Shopstyle, another Silicon Valley company (Los Altos, Calif.) which lets women browse fashion products and create style books, Sugar also puts a stake squarely in the shopping-branding arena.

However, Sugar’s deal with FM, which was to have been called Sugar Network, has been scuttled. Sugar tells us that while the plans had once been firm, Sugar reconsidered several weeks ago after concluding the industry doesn’t need another network. It has become “commoditized,” said Sugar, meaning there is less money in the ad network model than meets the eye. “There’s a lot of hype,” he said. “It wasn’t going to move the needle.”

Insiders tell us that Sugar, FM and Glam have been “in play” recently. Large companies are looking to buy the private companies before they become too big. Glam, which is raising a warchest of $200 million, has been approached by several large companies. Glam itself had once considered acquiring both FM and Sugar. Meanwhile, Time Warner has reportedly been in talks to buy FM. FM chief executive John Battelle declined comment about Glam’s offer, and about talks with Time Warner. Arora won’t comment on acquisition talks, either.

Separately, Sugar also said it will change its name to Sugar Inc.

Sugar said it will soon add ShopStyle “widgets” on Sugar’s blogs that allow readers to shop.

Sugar also said his company will hit “cash-flow” positive this month.

Shopstyle had angel backing, but the names and amount invested were undisclosed.

One notable anecdote: We first wrote about the four companies — Glam, iVillage, Sugar and Shopstyle — as being in a race back in June. Sugar tells us that VentureBeat story sparked a conversation between Sugar and Shopstyle which eventually led to the acquisition.