VentureBeat

Here’s the latest (updated) action:
1) Kyte.tv raises $15 million
2) Electric Sheep Company lays off 22
3) FCC receives 700MHz auction applications
4) Microsoft signs $500M ad deal
5) GPS devices fly off the shelves
6) Netsuite sets high price for planned IPO
7) Eric Eldon, celebrity at large?

Kyte.tv raises $15M second round — An online startup that offers a video player allowing near-live communications by video, photo and chat, Kyte has picked up some steam online, attracting a decent-sized audience and celebrities like 50 Cent to its service. The $15 million second round was provided by Telefonica, Nokia, DoCoMo, Swisscom, Holtzbrinck and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, according to Robert Scoble. Quite a hefty amount, in comparison to the $2 million investment into live streaming video company, Ustream that we reported in yesterday’s roundup. However, Kyte still has some work to do in competing against newer, sharper-looking rivals like Qik, which says it can stream live video straight from your phone, something Kyte doesn’t quite do (though is working on).

Electric Sheep Company lays off 22 employees — It’s time to cull some lambs from the fold for the Electric Sheep Company, which builds software that third-party companies can add to virtual worlds Second Life. It had planned to build an ad network within these worlds. Instead, it has cut almost a third of its workforce, and is giving up on the ad plans for now. It plans to branch out beyond Second Life to worlds like Metaplace (our coverage). More details are at ClickZ News.

FCC receives applications for 700MHz auctions — More than two hundred applications were filed to bid on the upcoming Federal Communications Commission auction for the 700 Megahertz wireless spectrum, planned to begin January 24th. Although some applicants must correct and finalize their applications, the list contains some notable names — Google, of course, but also Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s venture firm Vulcan Capital, and startups like Frontline Wireless (expected). Check out the lists of finished and unfinished applicants yourself for more.

Microsoft signs $500M ad deal with Viacom – Taking a first step toward becoming a viable competitor to Google in the online ad market, Microsoft signed a deal with Viacom that it says is worth about $500 million, over a contract period of five years. Google, in turn, immediately claimed that the deal is proof that Federal anti-trust watchdogs should allow its merger with DoubleClick to go through. Microsoft may well be kicking itself, because as Bloomberg reports, the Federal Trade Commission will likely approve the Google-DoubleClick merger this month (although it must also find approval with European regulators).

NetSuite sets high price for planned IPO — First the expected range for NetSuite’s initial public offering was $13 to $16, then underwriters boosted it to $19 to $22. Now the final price has been set at $26, almost double the original range. That means that Larry Ellison, the billionaire CEO of Oracle whose family owns over 70 percent of the company, will make out like a bandit. NetSuite, of course, is a competitor to Salesforce, whose own stellar performance on the markets likely helped improve NetSuite’s outlook. Ellison was also at one time an early investor in Salesforce, which is now run by a former employee of his, Marc Benioff.

GPS devices becoming cheaper, more ubiquitous — Many GPS devices have dropped below $100, and even the better units often retail for little more than $200. Sales of the devices at local malls are through the roof, according to Dean Takahashi. Cell phones, likewise, are providing an ever-cheaper way to find your way around. Excellent news for the dozens of startups that have sprung up offering to show you the way to the nearest store, friend or event — now the question is, which will come out on top?

VentureBeat’s own Eric Eldon becomes a celebrity — Admittedly, those are the words of Speedddate.com, a dating startup that ran a session with eight “celebrity bloggers.” We (or he) will take the compliment. Way to end those lonely nights of blogging, Eric.

Kyte.tv, the San Francisco company that lets users manage their own TV channels online or on a cell-phone, has raised a second round of financing in the “single-digit” millions of dollars.

Swiss carrier Swisscom and German media group Holtzbrinck Ventures has invested in the round, Chief executive Daniel Graf told VentureBeat. He would not disclose the exact amount. The investment follows the launch of Kyte last month. Some 3,000 users have since downloaded the player, Graf said. The funding comes after a $2.25 million investment last year from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Draper Richards and Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom. (Here’s our most recent coverage, and link to the VentureBeat Kyte channel we showed off at the time).

Other investors in the latest round include “angel” investors Klaus Hommels, Oliver Jung, and Peter Schüpbach.

It’s just the latest new media investment for Holtzbrinck, which has become the German equivalent of News Corp. in terms of making Web 2.0 investments and acquisitions. Its portfolio includes studiVZ, Germany’s Facebook.

Imagekind is a Web site that lets artists upload their artwork for sale, and gives them the freedom to sell it at whatever price they want.

The six-month-old Seattle start-up has just raised $2.6 million in venture capital, which gives it ammunition to go after the industry’s leading site, Art.com. It will announce the funding tomorrow.

Art.com dictates prices more rigidly — it doesn’t let artists set their own price, and apparently only pays them a 10 percent royalty. Imagekind is more new-school, taking only a charge to cover the cost of printing, framing and shipping and small profit ($8.99 is the base price), but letting artists charge however much they want. Some artists are marking up to $300.

VentureBeat heard rumors that Art.com, of Emeryville, Calif., had expressed interest in buying Imagekind. Amazon.com actually made an offer. However, Imagekind decided to go it alone. Art.com, a 12-year-old company backed by Benchmark Capital and Polaris, has more than 500 employees worldwide and reportedly has $150 million in revenue. Imagekind is tiny in comparison. It struggled to get its first 100 artists last year, but now 6,000 artists have uploaded art. Sales have hit 1,000 pieces a month.

We spoke to President Kevin Saliba, who wouldn’t elaborate on the purchase offers, but said the intent is to carve out a No. 2 position behind Art.com, while focusing on higher quality printing paper than Art.com. To that end, it also does its own printing, and has a partnership with a large frame retail chain, Northwest Framing. The site is built with AJAX and Flash.

Imagekind’s funding comes from some high-profile investors. The round was led by Holtzbrinck, the German publisher that recently bought the German version of Facebook, Studivz, and which has become more active in the U.S. recently. Also participating were Crosslink Capital, the Samwer brothers (early investors in eBay Germany), Erik Blachford (former Expedia chief exec), Nick Hanauer (first investor in Amazon.com) and Bill Trimarco (of Larsen-Juhl, a framing company). Saliba said the 15-person Imagekind raised the money in order to do more marketing and expand to places like Europe.

Rumor is the valuation is in the $5- to $7 million range.