Open-source textbook co. Flat World goes back to school with 40,000 new customers
Flat World Knowledge, publisher of free, open-source online college textbooks, says it has expanded its customer-base exponentially in the last year from 1,000 students at 30 universities to 40,000 at 400 universities headed into this fall — its busiest time of year. VentureBeat last reported on the company in March when it raised $8 million in a first round of funding — since then it appears it has only gained momentum.
With several startups cropping up… Continue Reading
Flat World Knowledge lands $8M for online college textbooks
Flat World Knowledge, a publisher of free, open-source online college textbooks, says it has raised $8 million in a first round of funding, offering technology that some say could fundamentally change the way students acquire and read books for school. The money will be used to add more titles to its offerings.
For a while now, traditional textbook sales have been on the decline due to internet sources, piracy and the growing used-books market — not… Continue Reading
Mobile search and ad company Jumptap raises $26 million more
Mobile search and advertising company Jumptap has raised $26 million in a fourth round of funding led by AllianceBernstein, with all previous investors participating.
The company has positioned itself as an alternative to Google’s search and ad services for mobile devices. The largest carrier in the country, Verizon, is partnering with Google for these services. But Jumptap has business relationships with AT&T and 16 other carriers of various sizes, and has said it reaches around… Continue Reading
Roundup: IT spend trending down, Google’s next move, our many privacy issues, and more
Spending in IT trends downward — Growth in spending is slipping from 7 percent to 5 percent this year, according to a Goldman Sachs report summarized on CNET. Cost cutting measures are getting the most new investment, with server virtualization topping the list.
Google may start auto or music service — Having successfully predicted that Google would start Google Health and a virtual world, which turned out to be Lively, research firm Hitwise has turned back to its… Continue Reading
Parature raises $16M for customer service software
After years dominated by lumbering giants like Peregrine Systems and BMC Remedy, the customer service market is ripe for innovation, say executives at a startup called Parature. The company bootstrapped itself for several years, but chief executive Duke Chung sees a coming “land grab” as more companies enter the field and start targeting the smaller customers who have traditionally been ignored.
In order to keep up with the competition, Parature has been raising substantial amounts of… Continue Reading
IBM backs database company EnterpriseDB, squares off against Sun
updated
IBM has invested in open-source database company EnterpriseDB, part of the giant company’s effort to hold its own in the fast growing Web application services market.
IBM typically does not invest in start-ups, but it has watched on as competing server company Sun acquired the popular open-source database company MySQL. Databases are a key component of the “stack” required to run applications on the Web, basically a place that stores the information that is called upon… Continue Reading
Nirvanix, competitor to Amazon’s storage delivery service, raises $12M, as expected
Nirvanix, a San Diego, Calif. company that is competing wth Amazon’s’s S3 by offering a storage delivery service for media applications, has raised $12 million in a funding round, as expected (see earlier coverage; scroll down).
It was led by Mission Ventures and Valhalla Partners with participation from Windward Ventures. Nirvanix will use the funds to expand its so-called Storage Delivery Service (SDS). The company said it has 40 customers. The company raised $2.5 million earlier… Continue Reading
Software security co., Fortify, to buy Secure Sotware
Palo Alto’s Fortify Software, which provides security products for the software development process, said it will buy a company that does something similar, Mclean, Va.-based Secure Software. The goal is to have a larger customer base, it said.
See full statement here.
Secure Software has raised about $14.5 million from investors including Amalia, Charles River Ventures, Updata Partners, and Valhalla Partners. Terms were undisclosed, so it isn’t clear whether they made money on the deal.
Fortify Software, meanwhile,… Continue Reading