Monster buys community site, Affinity Labs, for significant $61M
updated with input from Affinity
Monster, the giant job listing company, has acquired Silicon Valley’s Affinity Labs, a company that runs several online community sites — including for police officer, healthcare employees, teachers, government employees and technologists. The purchase price was about $61 million.
This is an eyebrow raising price, because most of Affinity’s sites are just a few months old, and we’re told they have less than 500,000 visitors a month combined. In other words, the… Continue Reading
MySpace to buy Photobucket?
(Update: VentureBeat has now confirmed this with a source, who says details have to be wrapped up before an announcement is made. There is no exact price yet, because that is one of the things still being negotiated. It is somewhere between $400 million, which is Photobucket’s asking price, and $200 million, which is what MySpace asked for. Also, see latest stats below.)
Photo-sharing site Photobucket has agreed on terms to be acquired by the giant… Continue Reading
Yahoo acquires online contest site, Bix
Yahoo has acquired Bix, the Palo Alto start-up that lets people compete in online karaoke, hot or not and other contests.
The amount was undisclosed, but this acquisition was fast; Bix launched barely three months ago.
It is the latest sign of focus by Yahoo in its acquisition strategy. Its purchases have slowed to a trickle, but the deals it has completed concern community, user-generated sites (Flickr, del.icio.us, Upcoming.org and Jumpcut), which stands in contrast with… Continue Reading
Cisco acquires “quadruple play” company, Orative, for $31M
Cisco Systems, the Internet communications giant, said it has agreed to acquire privately held San Jose company Orative Corp for $31 million — as part of its effort to offer the so-called quadruple play: voice, video, data and mobility to businesses.
Earlier this year, Cisco Cisco launched what it called the “Unified Communications system,” which enables businesses of all sizes to integrate all of their communications systems with their IT infrastructure.
Orative’s technology allows Cisco to… Continue Reading
Practical Instruments joins solar gold rush, raises $8M
Updated
Practical Instruments has raised $8 million in a first round of funding to develop what it says is the most powerful solar “concentration” technology yet.
It uses solar panels that track the sun as it moves. The panels use mirrors to concentrate the sunlight for the photovoltaic process, thereby boosting performance.
It is the latest in a wave of entrants in the booming solar power industry, and will compete against a number of other “concentration” companies, including… Continue Reading