Revenge of the South Bay: VMware acquires SpringSource for $420M to enhance cloud capabilities
The boring business back end of technology is still a lucrative market. Virtualization company VMware, whose software aims to let datacenter managers do more with less hardware, today announced its imminent acquisition of privately held SpringSource, a company that makes “lean software” tools used by high-level Java programmers both to speed up their application development and to cut costs.
Web 2.0 execs, here’s the punchline: The deal is valued at $420 million, of which $362 million… Continue Reading
Sentilla powers up with $7.5M for energy management
Sentilla, a company that offers hardware and software for facilities to manage their energy use more efficiently, just brought in $7.5 million in second-round funding to continue product development and expand worldwide.
For now, the Redwood City, Calif. firm gives commercial and industrial companies several ways to determine how much energy they consume and how to cut down. Its Java-based software packages work together to let clients create and run their own energy-saving applications in the… Continue Reading
Replay Solutions wins $2M to bust software errors
Replay Solutions, developer of software that detects errors in other applications running on your computer, pulled in an extra $2 million today in what is now a $13 million second round of financing. The bump came from UV Partners, which joined previous investors Hummer Winblad, Partech International and Sigma Partners.
The Redwood City, Calif. company provides software that records the performance of other software applications. When it comes across something unusual, it can play back the… Continue Reading
Founder Diane Greene ousted from VMware as poor results announced
Diane Greene was ousted as chief executive of VMware today.
Just a few weeks ago, Greene was beaming with pride when she received a “visionary award” from the SD Forum. Her chief scientist, Mendel Rosenbaum, introduced her as proof positive that you don’t have to be a jerk to be a successful CEO of a multibillion dollar company.
Things can change fast. VMware announced today that Greene has been replaced by former Microsoft executive Paul Maritz as… Continue Reading
Roundup: Diving Dow’s depressing month, Microsoft virtualizes, and Xbox 360 price cuts rumors
Here’s the latest action:
Dow Jones has its worst June since Depression: U.S. stocks tumbled on Friday and sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst June performance since the Great Depression. Record oil prices, credit-market write downs and the the economic slump spooked everybody. Goldman Sachs told investors to sell GM stock, sparking a sell-off as crude prices rose again. The broader S&P 500 index fell 2.9 percent on Friday. The Dow is at… Continue Reading
Capturing the scene at the SD Visionary Awards
Once a year venture capitalist Heidi Roizen and her husband Dave Mohler open up their Woodside villa to host the SD Forum’s Visionary Awards honoring pioneers of Silicon Valley. Each time I attend, I’m mesmerized by the estate and its furnishings, from the Moroccan guest house with its old rifle collection to the Tuscan villa architecture with its zany mix of animal head trophies.
Upon walking up the long driveway into the foyer of the mansion,… Continue Reading
VMWare acquires B-hive to manage virtualized machines
Virtualization leader VMWare will acquire B-hive, a San Mateo, Calif, startup that makes performance management software.
VMWare says it will use B-hive’s software to manage its virtualized machines. The virtualization company will also make B-hive’s R&D facility in Israel the core of a new development center.
The deal follows VMWare’s acquisition of desktop virtualization company Thinstall in January. This acquisition should close during the third quarter of this year; the terms were not disclosed. B-hive raised a… Continue Reading
VMWare, riding virtualization wave, buys Thinstall
VMware has acquired San Francisco company Thinstall, which sells a so-called “desktop virtualization technology,” continuing VMWare’s efforts to maintain its leadership position in the hot virtualization arena.
Desktop virtualization is considered the next wave of virtualization. In Thinstall’s case, it lets companies put applications more rapidly on PCs, and then pull them off again without trace. It works by packages up any Windows application and placing it on a PC without actual installation (it run on… Continue Reading
Roundup: Warner CEO changes online music stance, engineers become scarcer, and more
Here’s the latest action:
1) Warner CEO praises Apple, DRM-free music
2) VMWare is after your engineer blood
3) Berners-Lee warns of walled gardens
4) Microsoft completes $47M acquisition
5) Another VC speaks in favor of taxing himself
6) Joost rolls out new ads
7) Billeo raises $7M for easy payment
Warner Music CEO now supporting DRM-free music, iTunes – “We used to think our music was perfect just the way it was … of course, we were wrong,” said Warner Music CEO Edgar… Continue Reading
Roundup: Sprint’s WiMax bet, Twitku, VMware’s $750M mistake, Bolt-dead and more
Here’s the latest action:
Sprint doubles bet on WiMAX –- Sprint doubles its investment pledge on the untested WiMAX technology (WSJ, subscription required), which Sprint will use to provide widespread broadband over its network. It now plans to spend $5 billion by 2010.
Twitku, the Meebo for twittering — Twitku is a new service that lets you post a single message about what you’re doing simultaneously to Twitter and Jaiku. Those two services are rivals in letting people send… Continue Reading
Roundup: Twickr, Yappd, EggNetwork, My iTunes, iMovie, Classmates & more
Here’s the latest action, about 80 percent of it in Silicon Valley:
Introducing Twickr — This is Flickr photos on Twitter, the messaging service that lets you send one-liners to your friends. Web guru Dave Winer came up with it , and Twitter investor Fred Wilson writes more about how it works.
Introducing Yappd — Which is similar. It is a Twitter copycat, also with picture messaging.
VideoEgg unveils EggNetwork — ads for Facebook applications — VideoEgg, which lets publishers serve… Continue Reading
Cisco to invest $150M in virtualization company, VMware
Cisco Systems has agreed to invest $150 million in VMware, a leader in the hot virtualization trend, before the Hopkinton, Mass company goes public.
VMware’s virtualization software lets companies run multiple operating systems and applications on a single machine, thus saving costs on hardware.
In exchange for its investment, Cisco will get a 1.6 percent stake in VMware.
VMware’s parent, EMC, the data-storage equipment maker based in Hopkinton, Mass., plans to spin off 10 percent of the unit… Continue Reading
Roundup: Facebook IPO talk, the video firehose, Ning’s ridiculous valuation & more
Here’s the latest action (updated):
Airborne mash-up: lawn chair travels 193 miles –Oregon resident Kent Couch tried to fly to Idaho last weekend — in an apparatus made out of his lawn chair carried by 105 large helium balloons. He carried instruments to measure altitude and speed, and also a parachute. He didn’t make it, though. (Image courtesy of AP)
More adult supervision at Facebook — Chamath Palihapitiya, a former AOL executive turned venture capital investor at the… Continue Reading
Virtualization company, VMWare, files for up to $100M IPO
VMware, a Palo Alto, Calif. subsidiary of EMC Corp., has filed to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering.
VMware makes virtualization software that allows a computer to run multiple operating systems, and it was acquired by Hopkinton, Mass.’ storage software giant EMC three years ago for about $625 million.