Altair Semiconductor raises $22 million for cell phone WiMax processors
Altair Semiconductor has raised $22 million in a third round of funding for its cell phone chips. The chips can process so-called 4G wireless technologies, such as WiMax, which brings both voice reception and high-speed Internet data connectivity to cell phones. The chips can also process LTE (Long Term Evolution) cell phone signals and XGP (a Japanese wireless technology) network calls.
The company’s ALT2150 chip, a mobile WiMax processor, is in a variety of handsets already.
The… Continue Reading
Monday deal fever: Fraud Sciences, Trolltech, E-Dialog, Anywhere.fm all acquired
A number of companies decided to compete with DEMO for media coverage today by announcing some rather large acquisitions:
Paypal ponied up $170 million for Fraud Sciences, which prevents online fraud;
Nokia paid $153 million for Trolltech, which helps developers build cross-platform applications;
GSI Commerce gave $157 million for E-Dialog, an e-commerce company;
Finally, Imeem bought Anywhere.fm, an internet radio service.
Here are a few notes on each:
Paypal’s acquisition of Fraud Sciences was an all-cash deal for $170 million. The company had taken less… Continue Reading
Pudding Media takes first funding, gives more details
When we first talked with Pudding Media CEO Ariel Maislos in September, he showed us his company’s software — a voice-recognition system capable of picking up keywords from conversations and using them to deliver contextual advertising to users.
The system isn’t working perfectly, but Pudding Media provides a good example of a company that’s moving into new territory hoping to succeed against significant technical barriers. Its potential has now led VCs to place a significant $8… Continue Reading
FraudSciences Corp. takes $11M for fraud analytics
Fraudsciences Corp., a Palo Alto, Calif. based startup, has taken $11 million in a second round of funding to develop software that prevents fraudulent credit card purchases.
The software actively tracks online buyers as they go about purchasing products, in an attempt to tell if they are using stolen credit card information. The company claims its product can make overseas transactions, among others, more secure. A money-back guarantee to retailers in case of fraud-related charge backs… Continue Reading
Altair raises $18M for mobile WiMAX chips
Altair, an Israeli company, is joining the race to be at the forefront of what some believe will be telecom’s next hot trend—mobile WiMAX. Altair, which makes chips that work with mobile WiMAX networks, announces today an $18M round of funding.
Mobile WiMAX is considered attractive because, compared to Wi-Fi, it offers much greater range and broadband access, although it has plenty of critics.
Wireless is a complex space with enough acronyms—UMTS, 3G and 4G, LTE, HSPA—to… Continue Reading