Buzzlogic helps place ads on influential blogs, raises cash
Buzzlogic, the San Francisco company that tries to help marketers and others gauge which blogs are the most influential for specific topics, has raised an extra $2.5 million in financing to help it promote its new advertising product.
The company launched its blog analysis product in May (our coverage), but earlier this month additionally launched a way to target advertising against those influential blogs. You type in a topic into Buzzlogic’s dashboard, and it provides you… Continue Reading
Donnorwood Media raises $5M for online games
[PEWeek has since corrected the amount of the funding. It is $5M, not $500,000. We've updated below.]
Donnorwood Media, a San Francisco online entertainment company, has raised $5M in convertible note funding from Battery Ventures and Transcosmos, according to a regulatory filing cited by PE Wire. Donnorwood publishes the online game Tringo, and also recently launched an avatar-building website called Meez.
Nuance shores up voice-recognition lead, buys BeVocal for $140M
Nuance Communications, the speech-recognition technology company, said it has agreed to acquire BeVocal, of Mountain View, Calif., for $140 million.
The deal allows the Burlington, Mass.-based Nuance, which dominates the speech-recognition market, to extend its reach into mobile calls, where BeVocal’s customers include carriers like Cingular, Liberty Wireless, Metro PCS and Virgin Mobile. It comes at a time when Tellme is making headway in mobile voice search (though Tellme relies on Nuance’s underlying speech-recognition technology).
Mobile phone… Continue Reading
Electronic Arts buys SingShot, the online social karaoke site
Electronic Arts, the Redwood City video game publisher, has acquired Singshot, the San Francisco start-up that lets you do karaoke online.
Singshot was among several companies holding American Idol-like talent competitions for its users.
We played with the product last year, and found it charming. However, we questioned how it would make money. Perhaps it needed a home like Electronic Arts to stay afloat.
The terms of the deal were undisclosed. Ranah Edelin, chief executive of… Continue Reading
Video service Brightcove raises $59M
Brightcove, a company that gives media outlets and other businesses a platform to deliver online video, has raised a whopping $59 million in a third round of funding.
Amid the trend of consolidation hitting the sector, this funding will help tide the company over. There are oodles of other companies doing something similar, from Twistage, to Reality Digital, vSocial and GridNetworks.
Besides, no one can afford to let Brightcove go under. All kinds of media groups are… Continue Reading
Edgeio gets $5 million to expand Web 2.0 classifieds site
Edgeio, a Menlo Park start-up trying to redefine the way people list classifieds, has raised $5 million in a first round of venture capital, and may raise more. Here is the release.
The round was led by Intel Capital and included an investment from Transcosmos.
The idea behind Edgeio is audacious because it seeks to do an end-run around the incumbents like Craigslist and others, by letting people bypass them entirely.
But in a notable development, some… Continue Reading
Online marketer Revcube, raises $14M
Revcube, a San Francisco start-up that makes software to improve the relevancy of online marketing, said it has raised $14 million in a third round of funding led by VantagePoint Venture Partners.
Previous investors include Generation Partners and Transcosmos. VantagePoint Managing Director and DoubleClick Founder David Carlick will join the Board of Directors.