Sequoia takes root in Evernote as early investor gets big exit

In a head-scratching private-market barter, illustrious venture firm Sequoia Capital has managed to secure an even larger chunk of up-and-coming Silicon Valley startup Evernote.

Russian firm Troika Ventures, Evernote’s first institutional investor, sold its stake in the note-taking and note-sharing company at more than ten times its investment.

Troika led a $4.5 million raise in Evernote in January 2009 (the round closed later in the year at $6.5 million), and quickly piled on with new … Continue Reading

Let’s look at the all the spectrum T-Mobile is getting from AT&T

With the AT&T/T-Mobile merger dead, AT&T is readying to compensate T-Mobile with precious mobile spectrum that covers 128 cellular market areas. But what exactly does that look like on the U.S. map?

The fine folks at GigaOM and spectrum expert Andrew Shepherd have developed a handy map, shown above, that shows exactly where T-Mobile will be getting new spectrum additions, which will help the company improve its own 4G offerings.

As noted on the map, … Continue Reading

Joyent grabs $85M from Weather Investment II, Telefonica to take on Amazon in cloud computing

Cloud computing startup Joyent has raised a humongous $85 million round of funding, which will help the company with its plan of out-innovating Amazon in cloud computing technology.

Joyent provides infrastructure cloud computing services for customers like LinkedIn, THQ, Gilt Groupe and Kabam. The company’s core offering will now be enhanced with a wide-ranging partnership with Telefónica Digital, the global business division of London-based telecommunications company Telefónica. With the new partnership, Joyent will be able … Continue Reading

Look out Groupon: Nearly 800 daily deals sites folded in the past 6 months

Watch your backs Groupon and LivingSocial. A new report suggests daily deals sites are loosing steam quickly, with 798 daily deal sites worldwide shutting down in the second half of 2011.

Even since before Groupon went public in November, analysts have wondered whether the daily deals business model is sustainable. Groupon’s IPO price of $20 per share shot up to nearly $30 on its first day of trading but today the stock is trading around … Continue Reading

AT&T could buy Dish to gobble up its precious wireless spectrum

After conspicuously losing its bid to acquire T-Mobile, AT&T is still out in the cold when it comes to wireless spectrum. But a new report says the telecom company could now buy Dish Network at a considerable premium to obtain its highly coveted spectrum.

AT&T’s primary motivation to buy T-Mobile USA was to get access to that company’s spectrum, a high-value commodity that makes it possible for customers to make calls and send and receive … Continue Reading

GamesBeat aspires to become bible of the games industry: acquires Bitmob

I’m delighted to confirm that VentureBeat has acquired Bitmob, the respected gaming news site known for its passionate community of users. Bitmob will be integrated with our GamesBeat channel.

The best part of the deal: Bitmob co-founder Dan “Shoe” Hsu, an industry veteran with significant street cred with gamers, will become the Editor-in-Chief of GamesBeat. He’ll join Dean Takahashi, our lead games writer, who has done an incredible job getting GamesBeat off the ground over … Continue Reading

Flagship raises $270M for green & health technologies

Flagship Ventures, a VC firm focusing on technologies for healthcare and sustainability, has closed its 2011 fundraising efforts with $270 million in the bank.

The new Flagship Ventures Fund IV L.P. was set at $250 million, but investors exceeded that amount. Investors included all types of organizations from foundations to corporations to individuals, including a few new limited partners that had not contributed to previous funds.

Flagship’s portfolio companies seem to be tackling big, human-scale … Continue Reading

Dow Jones said VCs had a “lackluster” 2011, recession still in effect

Don’t let the good times roll just yet, Silicon Valley: Analysts at Dow Jones are saying the effects of the 2008 economic crash still haven’t worn off for venture capitalists.

While U.S. VC funds finished the year with a strong fourth quarter of fundraising, funds raised by VCs during 2011 came in at barely more than half of the 2008 total.

“The industry has not yet bounced back from the recession,” said a Dow Jones … Continue Reading

IT outsourcer Internap acquires Voxel for $30M to add cloud power to lineup

IT infrastructure firm Internap has acquired hosting and cloud services provider Voxel for $30 million, the two companies announced this morning.

Internap provides “intelligent IT Infrastructure solutions” for enterprises and uses a variety of solutions to lower IT costs, including Colocation, Enterprise IP and Hybrid Hosting. With Voxel’s inexpensive VoxCLOUD cloud hosting services and data centers all around the world, Internap is picking up extra resources to stake its future on the cloud.

“As IT … Continue Reading

Last year’s deals: 2011 saw fewer exits, younger companies & more money

Mergers, acquisitions and IPOs for venture-backed startups were down in 2011 by some metrics and up by others.

Overall, the year saw a 14 percent drop in deal activity between 2010 and 2011. Dow Jones VentureSource‘s data shows 522 total exits for the year — that’s 69 deals fewer than in 2010.

However, companies in 2011 were exiting earlier than yesteryear’s counterparts. They took less capital along the way, and they also generated more money … Continue Reading

Samsung & Sony split up their LCD joint venture with a $934M buyout

Samsung and Sony are splitting up their LCD panel joint venture, the companies announced.

Samsung will be buying all of Sony’s shares of the venture, S-LCD Corporation, for KRW 1.08 trillion, roughly $934 million.

Pending regulatory approval, the deal is expected to close by the end of next month, January 2012. As a result of the deal, Sony expects to record Q3 2012 losses of roughly $847 million, but it expects this one-time loss to … Continue Reading

DST may invest $200M in Chinese microblogging company, Sina Weibo

In July, it was reported that Sina Corp. had turned down Digital Sky Technology (DST)’s $500m investment in Sina Weibo, a Chinese micro-blogging service. But it seems that the talk between two parties is still on going. We just heard from a reliable source that Sina finally accepted the investment from DST, an international investment firm founded by Yuri Milner. The source said the deal can ‘almost’ be confirmed:

The deal is a convertible bond … Continue Reading

In AT&T breakup, T-Mobile gets 3G roaming deal and wireless spectrum

The dust is settling from yesterday’s news that AT&T has given up its T-Mobile acquisition plans, and it turns out even a failed merger is quite expensive.

Because its proposed $39 billion merger fell through, AT&T now has to give up piles of cash and benefits to T-Mobile. AT&T will enter into a 7-year 3G roaming agreement that will boost T-Mobile coverage, and it has to give up a valuable package of AWS (Advanced Wireless … Continue Reading

Flash sales site Fab.com racks up $40M, now at 1.2M members

Fab.com, the flash sales site for design-oriented products, is seeing its pivot pay off in a big way.

The company, which initially started out as Fabulis, a social network for gay men, announced yesterday that it has raised $40 million in a second round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Additionally, Fab says it has grown by a 300,000 new members in the past two months, with a subscriber base of 1.2 million today. In … Continue Reading

HP acquires web-to-print company Hiflex to bolster its cloud imaging solutions

HP has acquired German print and cloud solutions company Hiflex for an undisclosed sum, the company announced today.

The buy isn’t too surprising if you’ve been paying attention to new HP CEO Meg Whitman’s comments over the past month. In mid-November, Whitman spoke about rebuilding the company’s financial position and acquisitions. She said: “No large acquisitions in 2012. Nothing the size of Autonomy, and maybe more like sub-$500 million.”

HP made the move to acquire … Continue Reading

StyleCaster grabs $1M from Zynga exec David Ko, Owen Van Natta and others

Fashion-focused media company StyleCaster has raised $1 million in a new bridge round from investors including Zynga chief mobile officer David Ko and Zynga board member and former MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta. The move will help the startup make further inroads with Silicon Alley and Silicon Valley.

StyleCaster’s main web site, Stylecaster.com, and its social channels offer news and features related to style, fashion and celebrities, and the company focuses intently on fostering conversations … Continue Reading

Cyber Monday sales may reach $1.2B, mobile shoppers will double

When it comes to made-up online shopping holidays, Cyber Monday is still expected to be the reigning champion this year.

Cyber Monday sales may reach $1.2 billion this year, reports the LA Times, up from over $1 billion last year. 122 million Americans are expected to take part in Cyber Monday deals, and the number of consumers using their smartphones to shop is expected to double, according to a recent survey by BigResearch.

By comparison, … Continue Reading

Amazon Cyber Monday deals: $199 Xbox 360 bundle, $300 Nokia N8, and more

Not interested in fighting through crowds today? Then it may just be worth sitting back and waiting for Cyber Monday deals — the online-only version of “Black Friday” — to roll in.

Amazon just revealed some of its deals for the conveniently made-up holiday, which includes a 250-gigabyte Xbox 360 (with Halo: Reach and and Fable III) for a cool $199, and Nokia’s former flagship phone, the N8, unlocked for just $299.99.

Other discounts include … Continue Reading

Black Friday 2011: the best apps and services for holiday shoppers

Whether you’re braving retail stores this Black Friday, or just choosing to stay at home and hunt deals virtually, it’s best to be prepared. If you have a smartphone, then it’s easier than ever to plan your Black Friday festivities ahead so you don’t end up missing out on the best deals.

We’ve compiled a list of our favorite apps and services to make you a Black Friday master:

TGI Black Friday: If you haven’t … Continue Reading

As Palm bidding continues, HP wants a sweet deal to keep webOS in printers (exclusive)

For some strange reason, HP is still really hot on the idea of mating webOS with its printers — to the point where it has become a crucial part of its negotiations to sell off its Palm assets.

In addition to settling on a good price for the Palm goodies, HP is also demanding that potential buyers license webOS back to it on the cheap for use in printers, a source with knowledge of the … Continue Reading