VentureBeat

updated
We’re hearing that Akimbo, the San Mateo, Calif. video set-top box company that raised millions of dollars in fresh funding less than three months ago to make a fresh start in a new direction, has just thrown in the towel anyway.

In February, Akimbo brought in a new management team, $8 million in fresh funding [Update: Apparently, the company only raised $4M; the original announcement of $8 million had been a targeted amount, but it only ever raised $4M] and refashioned its technology to help video publishers deliver their own video online. It also wanted to help publishers monetize the video, by offering them ways to charge for pay-per-minute content, run advertising and subscriptions.

I have no idea why the company closed its doors so fast on this second attempt. The latest batch of money came from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Zone Ventures, Blueprint Ventures and AT&T. DFJ, Kleiner, Zone and Blueprint were original backers of the first incarnation of the company. The company had raised a total of $47 million.

From what we hear, the company shut its doors today, with the entire staff of more than a dozen being terminated except for three to stay on to help an orderly shutdown.

The company had initiated a round of layoffs recently. The company was apparently then trying to sell itself, but time ran out and the board finally decided to call it quits.

I’m trying to reach the company for comment. If there’s a lesson, it’s probably that this video industry is red hot, but also frenetic, and way saturated, and that a company is toast if it’s just a step behind.

Platform Solutions Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif. maker of mainframe computers that is going after IBM’s near monopoly in the sector, has raised filled its war-chest with more than $37 million in fresh capital from a group of investors including Microsoft.

PSI, as the company is known, has also signed joint sales agreement with Microsoft, giving it some good access to the large data centers of companies Microsoft already serves. It is going after the lower end of the IBM mainframe market, valued in the billions of dollars. It plans to undercut the dominant IBM product on price. Other investors include Blueprint Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Intel Capital, InterWest and InvestCorp.

Late last year, IBM sued PSI alleging patent infringement and breach of contract, and the dispute is still in court.

It’s the company’s third round of capital.

PSI’s computers consolidate z/OS, Windows, and Linux operating system into a single operating environment based on Intel Itanium 2 processor technology.

The mobile email company, Visto, has become one of the most controversial companies in Silicon Valley.

The Redwood City company has reportedly raised another $35 million in venture backing led by new investor Altitude Capital Partners, adding to the whopping $350 million the company has already raised. It is in the red, after ten years, and hasn’t announced a major customer in several months. Its penchant to file lawsuits is also worrying, and we’ve said before that is a reason why bias has crept into our reporting about this company.

Valley gossip site, Valleywag, says the company is on the rocks, but has no facts to back it up. PE Hub’s Dan Primack says the $35 million in cash, raised in December, would seem to contradict that, however there is no one on the record explaining the terms of that cash — and it is somewhat odd it wasn’t announced. Moreover, the company has a large cash burn rate, as Dan points out, caused by service contracts it pledged to.

Now we’re hearing its investors are spreading word that a 2007 acquisition is better than 50-50 odds. Yet we’re skeptical too, given that the company had said it planned to go public last year — and nothing happened (indeed, read that previous link for notes about the company’s questionable marketing). Indeed, with its huge cash burn, it may have to be sold.

Has this company hit the wall? We’ve contacted the company, and will report back if we hear anything.

Investors include Allegis Capital, Blueprint Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, ePlanet Ventures, GKM Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners, Oak Investment Partners and Rustic Canyon Partners.

Apologies for those who couldn’t get to VentureBeat’s website yesterday. Traffic was robust, and our servers aren’t as capable as we thought.

At least we haven’t been taken over by Russian hackers. That’s what happened with Blueprint Ventures’ website. Worse, it’s been turned into a pornography link page (for squeamish, not worth going there).

“It’s a pain in the ass,” Blueprint’s Bart Schachter told PE Week. “It’s in Russia, so there’s no legislative or regulatory things you can do over there.” For now, you can reach the Blueprint team by dropping the “s” on the end of the URL and email extensions, as in www.blueprintventure.com.

Related, but quite different, from the string of Chinese clone sites that imitated Silicon Valley venture firms a couple of years ago.