Justin Timberlake takes a stake in Myspace
Myspace’s new owner, Specific Media, said Wednesday that Emmy- and Grammy-Award winning artist Justin Timberlake will take an undisclosed stake in the newly acquired company.
Timberlake will play a major role in developing the strategy and creative direction of Myspace, according to Specific Media. Both parties plan to unveil details of Myspace’s new direction later this summer.
“There’s a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to … Continue Reading
Will Sprint benefit from LightSquared’s broken LTE network?
Troubled wholesale mobile broadband provider LightSquared has confirmed today that the company has entered a 15-year deal with Sprint to provide high-speed wireless service for the carrier’s 4G LTE network, reports Bloomberg.
The news comes on the heals of an announcement last week that government agencies had completed tests showing that LightSquared’s 4G LTE network interferes with GPS signals, affecting aircraft and automobile navigation systems and emergency response services like OnStar. Fixing the problems will … Continue Reading
Bing replaces Google as default search engine on BlackBerry devices
At the BlackBerry World 2011 conference today in Orlando, Florida, today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced that its Bing search engine will be replacing Google as the default search and maps provider on all of Research in Motion (RIM)’s BlackBerry devices.
The Bing search engine has been steadily gaining market share — it currently holds 27 percent of the search engine market compared to Google’s 67 percent — and this deal comes as a major … Continue Reading
LinkedIn, GitHub team up on collaboration tool for programmers
Professional social networking startup LinkedIn has joined forces with well-known open source coding repository GitHub, which will allow others in a user’s network to see what projects they and their connections are working on at any given time.
GitHub is a central repository for code and has become a key source of reputation for coders in the open-source community.
Under the new partnership, GitHub actions will be introduced into LinkedIn’s network update stream and will … Continue Reading
Silicon Valley VCs reach highest confidence levels in two years
Venture Capitalists are increasingly optimistic about the immediate future of investing in Silicon Valley. Their confidence registered 3.75 on a 5 point scale, with 5 indicating high confidence and 1 indicating low confidence, according to the quarterly Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index released today.
The index polled 35 San Francisco Bay Area venture capitalists in December 2010 about how they viewed the high-growth venture entrepreneurial environment in the San Francisco Bay Area over the … Continue Reading
Google snags Twitter movie recommender Fflick for $10M
Search behemoth Google is back on the prowl again, today snapping up microblogging Twitter recommendation service Fflick for around $10 million, the companies confirmed this morning, one being an unnamed source at Google.
An official Google spokeswoman refused to comment, saying, “We don’t comment on speculation, as you know.”
Fflick uses Twitter to show you what movies the people you follow are recommending as well as what movies they’ve commented on positively or negatively. It … Continue Reading
Exit activity leapt 25% in 2010, but is 2011 the "Year of the IPO?"
Successful exit activity for venture-backed companies rose 25 percent in 2010 from the previous year, reaching levels close to those seen before the recession and netting $39 billion in liquidity for 514 companies, according to a study released today by Dow Jones VentureSource.
However, although the amount of successful exits was up, they are still lagging in size dollar-wise, as “blockbuster” events stayed largely out of the headlines because VCs are holding onto the companies … Continue Reading
VCs say they'll invest, hire and sell more in 2011
Venture capitalists say they will invest more in 2011 as hiring in the sector heats up and selling begins to shake off the lingering woes of the financial crisis, according to a study released today by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Dow Jones VentureSource.
The survey polled 330 venture capitalists in the U.S. and 180 CEOs of U.S.-based venture-backed companies between Nov. 29 and Dec. 10, 2010, looking for their views on where … Continue Reading
DocuSign ropes in $27M to continue domination of electronic signature space
Electronic signature cloud platform DocuSign announced today it has closed $27 million in third round financing and added two key hires to its executive team.
DocuSign creates technology to let businesses to replace handwritten signatures with electronic ones, so contracts can be sent online.
The Seattle-based company had hired Roger Erickson, formerly senior vice president of technology solutions and services at Autonomy ZANTAZ, as vice president of customer success; and Dustin Grosse, formerly sales and … Continue Reading
Google-backed satellite provider O3b raises $1.2B to bring the world online
Google-backed Internet satellite company O3b Networks has raised $1.2 billion in what is says is its final funding round before it launches its “constellation” of fiber-quality satellites to bring the developing world online.
The Channel Island-based company’s name comes from “the other three billion,” referring to the number of people in the world who currently do not have regular Internet access.
The three-year-old startup has thus far been focused on building easy-to-use global satellite-based Internet … Continue Reading
Angels and VCs partner up to pump $282M into startups
Angel investors and venture capital firms are teaming up to find the best deals, new data released today shows, with investors paying particular attention to startup companies active in the IT and business technology space
The statistics released by Dow Jones VentureSource showed that during the first three-quarters of 2010, angel and VC co-sponsored deals put $282 million into 68 separate deals.
That’s a significant uptick year-over-year, when the same period in 2009 saw only … Continue Reading
Offers.com nabs $7M in first-round funding as online coupon sites battle
Discount deal site Offers.com said today it has closed first-round funding of $7 million as it seeks to add more staff and take on an already-crowded online coupon marketplace.
Unlike the spate of online deal site fundings we’ve seen over the last two weeks, Offers.com focuses less on “deal of the day” social or luxury buying, and more on customer-specific coupons for Main Street-type retailers like JCPenney, Kmart and the Home Depot.
Offers.com does this … Continue Reading
Stealth social networking startup CafeBots scores $5M from sFund
Stealth social networking startup CafeBots came into the light in a big way today, after the firm announced it has closed an initial funding round of $5 million from early stage venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’s brand new sFund.
Palo Alto-based CafeBots was founded by Stanford professor Yoav Shoham in an effort to create technology that gives online users tools that act on their behalf on Facebook.
Those tools will then … Continue Reading
Return of the deals? Seagate buyout talks heat up
Private equity firms TPG Capital and KKR are reportedly in talks to acquire hard-drive manufacturer Seagate, adding further credibility to rumors that cropped up yesterday that Seagate will be going private for the second time in a decade, according to a report by Bloomberg News.
The private firms will offer Seagate $16 per share, a 26 percent premium over yesterday’s closing price and a 4 percent premium over its current share price, according to the … Continue Reading
SocialShield pulls in $10M to help parents monitor kids' social networking
SocialShield, a service designed to help parents keep their kids safe while using online social networks, announced today that it has received $10 million in a first round of institutional financing from a conglomeration of sources including U.S. Venture Partners, Venrock and a group of angel investors.
The San Bruno company, which was founded in September 2009 by Noah Kindler and Arad Rostampour, searches through more than 50 databases to determine whether a child is … Continue Reading
Acision swoops up $100M as mobile data gains speed
Notoriously well-connected Russian-American billionaire Len Blavatnik has decided to place a sizable bet on mobile data leader Acision, on Tuesday announcing he would lead the way in a $100 million funding infusion into the firm.
Blavatnik will partner his existing shareholdership in Access Industries with Irish investor Dermot Desmond’s International Investment and Underwriting, and private equity fund Atlantic Bridge, to underwrite the deal.
Privately held Acision currently offers a range of mobile services through its … Continue Reading
Spanish shopping club Privalia aims for Latin America with $95M score
Spain’s largest online sales club, Privalia Venta, is taking sharp aim at a booming Latin America. The company announced today that it has received a $95 million infusion of financing from Index Ventures and General Atlantic.
Privalia, which already holds majority market share in Italy, Mexico, Brazil and Spain, says it intends to use the funding to tackle new markets after its sales jumped 158 percent over the first half of 2010.
The latest round … Continue Reading
SunRun teams with Virgance to finance solar for consumers
Spain’s largest online sales club, Privalia Venta, is taking sharp aim at a booming Latin America. The company announced today that it has received a $95 million infusion of financing from Index Ventures and General Atlantic.
Privalia, which already holds majority market share in Italy, Mexico, Brazil and Spain, says it intends to use the funding to tackle new markets after its sales jumped 158 percent over the first half of 2010.
The latest round … Continue Reading
Solar Power Partners takes on $32M for solar panel sales
Spain’s largest online sales club, Privalia Venta, is taking sharp aim at a booming Latin America. The company announced today that it has received a $95 million infusion of financing from Index Ventures and General Atlantic.
Privalia, which already holds majority market share in Italy, Mexico, Brazil and Spain, says it intends to use the funding to tackle new markets after its sales jumped 158 percent over the first half of 2010.
The latest round … Continue Reading
BrightView picks up $6M for improved solar manufacturing
Spain’s largest online sales club, Privalia Venta, is taking sharp aim at a booming Latin America. The company announced today that it has received a $95 million infusion of financing from Index Ventures and General Atlantic.
Privalia, which already holds majority market share in Italy, Mexico, Brazil and Spain, says it intends to use the funding to tackle new markets after its sales jumped 158 percent over the first half of 2010.
The latest round … Continue Reading
