It’s a pretty good day — and year — for Accel Partners
It’s weird how good news for VCs seems to have come in pairs.
This morning, Electronic Arts said it’s buying social gaming company Playfish for up to $400 million in cash and stock, and a couple hours later Google announced that it’s buying mobile ad network Admob for $750 million. The common thread? Accel Partners, which invested in both companies.
Previously, Accel’s Jim Breyer was behind two big acquisitions on Sept. 1: Raytheon’s acquisition of BBN Technologies,… Continue Reading
Mark Zuckerberg: The evolution of a remarkable CEO
About six months ago, critics pummeled Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
He’d made questionable management decisions, or so it appeared from the outside. He’d fumbled the site’s redesign and botched the company’s terms of service agreement — moves that whipped up negative publicity and user backlash. Some people asked whether it was time for Zuckerberg to go.
Six months later, those critics have gone. The company is enjoying astounding momentum — blowing through user growth forecasts… Continue Reading
Roundup: Amazon’s ‘ham-fisted’ error, Facebook’s baseball surge and more
Here’s the latest action:
Gay books disappear from Amazon’s sales rankings — What caused the incident now known as “amazonfail”? The online retailer first blamed a glitch, and is now saying a “ham-fisted” cataloging error is at fault. Meanwhile, a hacker claims to be responsible.
With the start of baseball season, teams see a surge in Facebook fans — The Boston Red Sox’s page grew from 1,173 fans to more than 46,000 in under a week.
Banner advertising isn’t dead… Continue Reading
Q&A with Jim Breyer: Maven Networks, online video opportunities and Facebook
It’s official: Maven Networks, a video platform services provider, has sold to Yahoo for around $160 million. I covered the deal in some detail, when news of it leaked a couple of weeks ago.
Maven, which provides video hosting and video ad distribution software to large media companies, had some high-profile investors, including Accel Partners‘ Jim Breyer, who also is a board member and large investor in Facebook, Walmart Stores, Inc., and Marvel Entertainment. I spoke… Continue Reading
Etsy: Online market for handmade goods funded, fighting mass production
Etsy, a site for buying and selling hand-made crafts, has raised $27 million in a round led by Accel Partners, with Accel’s Jim Breyer joining the company’s board of directors.
Think eBay’s e-commerce site, but for arts and crafts, and also more tastefully designed. Etsy’s crafts range from handmade furniture to bracelets (sample below).
The vision behind the company is that it can help small-time craftspeople find customers and make a living, while reducing society’s reliance on… Continue Reading
Accel Partners, Facebook backer, raises new fund
Accel Partners, the Silicon Valley firm that backed Facebook two years ago and expects to make a major profit from that company, has raised a new $520 million fund.
The new fund comes at a time of considerable momentum for the firm. Over the past year, ten of its companies have been bought or gone public each boasting a value of $100 million more.
The cash gives the company fresh “gunpowder” to invest in new companies, now… Continue Reading
In history revision, Microsoft now a friend of the valley
updated
There’s a remarkable revision occurring in Silicon Valley, with the old business lore being edited so that Microsoft suddenly emerges as a friend — even after decades of being outcast as an aggressive bully.
Microsoft has long been known for its predatory behavior: It would strike a partnership with your start-up, to get an inside look at your technology — and then build an in-house clone to drive you out of business (Read Jerry Kaplan’s book… Continue Reading
Battery Ventures’ mistake on Facebook
There’s a notable piece at Boston.com today about how Battery Ventures partner Scott Tobin (pictured left) decided not to invest in Facebook when Mark Zuckerberg pitched him three years ago in Boston.
Tension between the firm’s East and West Coast offices contributed to the firm’s rejection of the Facebook founder (Battery, by the way, has since been quite open about the division, and says it has cleared things up). However, Facebook has become a billion dollar… Continue Reading