Open-source textbook co. Flat World goes back to school with 40,000 new customers

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… Continue Reading

Flat World Knowledge lands $8M for online college textbooks

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… Continue Reading

Mobile search and ad company Jumptap raises $26 million more

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… Continue Reading

Roundup: IT spend trending down, Google’s next move, our many privacy issues, and more

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… Continue Reading

Parature raises $16M for customer service software

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… Continue Reading

IBM backs database company EnterpriseDB, squares off against Sun

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… 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… 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… Continue Reading