Benchmark’s Peter Fenton nails both FriendFeed, SpringSource deals in one day

Benchmark’s Peter Fenton nails both FriendFeed, SpringSource deals in one day

Benchmark Capital’s Peter Fenton scored two exits in one day — a rarity in the world of venture capital.

Fenton was the lead partner behind SpringSource’s $420 million sale to VMWare, the company’s biggest acquisition yet, and FriendFeed’s sale to Facebook. A competitive triathlete, Fenton has… Continue Reading

Mobile payment startup Boku rolls up social rivals, raises funding

Mobile payment startup Boku rolls up social rivals, raises funding

Mobillcash, Paymo and Zong have spent the last year or so competing to offer mobile payment services, most prominently for social gaming applications and casual gaming sites. Now, as social gaming continues to grow in users and revenue, the competition is getting fiercer — and that… Continue Reading

G.ho.st offers “virtual computer” product

G.ho.st offers “virtual computer” product

updated: clarifying total funding

G.ho.st, the company that wants to give you a free “virtual computer” to perform most of your computer tasks from any browser, has raised $1 million more in backing.

G.ho.st is notable because it may be first joint Palestinian-Israeli technology start-up, with its… Continue Reading

Benchmark entrepreneur talks making money from open source

Benchmark entrepreneur talks making money from open source

We’re seeing a paradigm shift in open source business models, said Benchmark Capital Entrepreneur in Residence Rob Bearden at today’s InfoWorld Open Source Business Conference. In the past, open source companies normally moved into a mature market dominated by a few large, complacent players, then… Continue Reading

Benchmark Capital keeps hiring — adds four more professionals

Benchmark Capital keeps hiring — adds four more professionals

Benchmark Capital, the respected Silicon Valley venture capital firm that backed eBay, continues a hiring spree: It has just hired three new entrepreneurs-in-residence, and an executive-in-residence.

And it could herald a new model for the way VCs work in Silicon Valley: By outsourcing, or perhaps more… Continue Reading

Benchmark has raised a sixth fund of $500M

Benchmark has raised a sixth fund of $500M

Benchmark Capital, one of Silicon Valley’s leading venture firms, has just finished raising its sixth fund, totaling $500 million, the firm told VentureBeat earlier today.

Partner Steve Spurlock said the firm’s partners haven’t changed, and that its focus will remain on enterprise software, internet and security… Continue Reading

Vontu’s $350M win shows how patience, focus pays off

Vontu’s $350M win shows how patience, focus pays off

If you’re an entrepreneur, you may want to avoid the Web 2.0 area, which is littered now with unpromising me-too ideas. You may want to consider something less sexy — data security, for example.

Vontu, a six-year-old Silicon Valley (Cupertino, Calif.) company which makes software to… Continue Reading

Yahoo to buy email provider Zimbra for $350M

Yahoo to buy email provider Zimbra for $350M

Yahoo is set to announce the acquisition of open-source email provider Zimbra, a company that has made headway providing services for other big companies such as Comcast. The news was first reported by AllthingsD, but there was no price mentioned. It’s rumored to be $350… Continue Reading

Two top Google engineers leave — to Benchmark Capital

Two top Google engineers leave — to Benchmark Capital

Two more high-level Google engineers have left the Googleplex — this time to join well-known venture capital firm Benchmark Capital.

Bret Taylor (left) and Jim Norris (right), two of the masterminds behind Google Maps and several other Google products, have joined the firm as “Entrepreneurs in… Continue Reading

OpenTable seating 2 million a month, appoints Jeff Jordan as CEO

OpenTable seating 2 million a month, appoints Jeff Jordan as CEO

Jeff Jordan, a former eBay and PayPal executive, has joined San Francisco online reservation service OpenTable as chief executive.

His mandate is to help take the company to the next level, now that it is seating two million diners a month.

OpenTable has said very little about… Continue Reading

Collactive seeks to overwhelm Digg, Reddit with interested stories

Collactive seeks to overwhelm Digg, Reddit with interested stories

Updated

Collactive is a new company that lets users mobilize friends and others to get more attention for causes they care about by overwhelming news-ranking sites such as Digg.

Users identify articles or video clips they care about, and then specify what actions they want their friends… Continue Reading

Ericsson picks up broadband services co., Entrisphere, for reported $290 million

Ericsson said it has acquired Entrisphere, a Santa Clara company providing fiber technology so that people can access broadband.

The amount was not disclosed, but Network World hears a rumor that it was $290 million. For a company that soaked up at least $146 million since… Continue Reading

Secretive Benchmark-funded company, Vvond, raises $15M for large movie library site

Marquee Inc. (f.k.a. Vvond), a Santa Clara, Calif.-based developer of software for secure on-demand access to a large movie library, has raised $15 million in a second round of funding, according to a regulatory filing cited by PE Week. Benchmark Capital was joined by return… Continue Reading

Red 5 Studios wants to bring Web 2.0 to games — raises $18.5M

Red 5 Studios wants to bring Web 2.0 to games — raises $18.5M

Red 5 Studios, a new start-up formed by the team that built popular online game World of Warcraft (WoW), has raised $18.5 million in venture capital to create online games that integrate more social networking aspects from the outset.

The funding comes from Benchmark and Sierra… Continue Reading

Zimbra’s rocking email service

Zimbra’s rocking email service

Updated

Zimbra, the open source messaging software company, has just announced that it has sold four million Zimbra mailboxes, an impressive milestone for the three year old San Mateo company.

Zimbra, you’ll recall, gives you an email platform that implements the latest AJAX majic. It started last… Continue Reading

Local review site Yelp raises $10 million from Benchmark

Local review site Yelp raises $10 million from Benchmark

Yelp, the Web site offering user-generated reviews of bars, restaurants and other places, has raised $10 million in venture capital from Benchmark Capital.

We recently mentioned Yelp’s wave-making with its parties.

Yelp, like other recent Internet companies, is challenging incumbent sites like Citysearch by developing a… Continue Reading

oDesk, marketplace for developers, raises $8 million

oDesk, marketplace for developers, raises $8 million

oDesk is a start-up that provides a marketplace for companies to hire developers online and then keep near unprecedented control over them remotely.

The Palo Alto company has just raised $8 million more in venture capital.

Benchmark Capital, a Silicon Valley firm known for its backing of… Continue Reading