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 million, according to Techcrunch.
San Mateo, Calif.-based Zimbra’s clients include ISPs and a number of colleges. It was backed with $30.5 million in three rounds from Benchmark Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Accel… Continue Reading
Dell buys Zing, wireless access company for digital players
Dell said it has agreed to buy Zing Systems, a Mountain View, Calif. company that provides wireless download technology for mp3 or digital players. The terms were undisclosed.
Dell said it bought the company (see statement) to help its consumer business, but did not specify what devices would be supported with Zing’s WiFi access technology.
Although Zing doesn’t solve the wireless download problem for Apple’s iPod/iPhone, it does it for other mp3 or digital players, such as… Continue Reading
Obopay adds $29M to warchest, amid competition in mobile payments
Obopay, the Redwood City, Calif. company that lets you send payments to people from a mobile phone, has raised $29 million more in a third round of funding.
The service launched last year, and it’s not clear how much traction it has. The funding announcement was made quietly, after the fact (see wording), quite low-key given the intense competition the company is facing in mobile payments. There are at least eight other players, ranging from… Continue Reading
Buzznet, yet another social network, raises $6 million
You might think that by now, VCs would use business plans from new social network companies as kindling.
But Hollywood-based Buzznet, a network devoted to allowing indie music fans to bond over the bands they love, has raised $6 million in its second round of funding from Redpoint Ventures and Anthem Venture Partners. It was valued at more than $20 million, post-investment.
The site is different than music networking sites such as Last.fm . Instead of… Continue Reading
Obscure mobile company Mig33 grows quickly, raises $10M
Unheard of mobile service company Mig33 is showing explosive growth — by offering a simple way to text, IM and make cheap voice calls.
The company has gained four million subscribers in less than eighteen months, mostly in South East Asia, many of whom are using it as their only way to access the Web. Significantly, this is not a technology company. It is using standard technology, and following through with a clean execution.
Tomorrow (Monday) it… Continue Reading
Google acquires wiki company JotSpot; Kraus vindicated
Filling out its portfolio of online office applications, Google has acquired wiki company JotSpot for an undisclosed amount.
Co-founder Joe Kraus (pictured here) says he “couldn’t be more excited,” and we can understand, given his rocky ride several years ago at search engine Excite.
Kraus had been badly burned, and we could sense in Joe an intense, but quiet determination while building Jot that he was going to do this one right.
Way back in 1993, Kraus… Continue Reading
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 year by letting you do things like pull up Google maps by scrolling your mouse over an address written in the e-mail, or pop up your calendar when you mouse… Continue Reading
Intermolecular, a secretive nanotech company, raises $27.62M
Intermolecular Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based nanotech company, has raised $27.62 million in Series C funding, according to a regulatory filing cited by PE Week Wire (apologies, link not working). Return backers include CMEA Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and U.S. Venture Partners.
According to job notices on the site (such as this one), it is mixing chemistry, material science and semiconductors.