Microsoft’s Ballmer: MSFT will acquire 20 companies a year
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer just said at the Web 2.0 conference here in San Francisco that the software giant will acquire 20 companies a year for the next five years, ranging from $50 million to $1 billion.
This steals from the playbook of News Corp, the media company that generated excitement among Internet companies after it acquired MySpace and others. There’s a tactic here: By declaring you are hungry, you get entrepreneurs coming to you… Continue Reading
Web 2.0 Summit: MadeIt, Nokia’s new phone, and Zennstrom’s disappearance
Web 2.0 Summit, co-hosted by O’Reilly Media and CMP, kicks off this Wednesday at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel. A who’s who list of Web 2.0 digerati will converge for three days of deal making, partying and more deal making.
If you didn’t have the budget to nab one of the $3,595 tickets for the event, fret not – VentureBeat reporters will be on hand to bring you frontline dispatches.
In preparation for the event, here’s a quick… Continue Reading
Compendia Bioscience, cancer-genomics data miner, leverages the Web for biodata analysis
A number of startups are starting to bring the power of the Web to bear on complex masses of biological data. One of the latest is Compendia Bioscience, an Ann Arbor, Mich., computational biotech that’s focused on mining cancer-genomics data. The company just received a $2.4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to further development of Compendia’s lead product, a program that combs through and analyzes publicly available data on gene activity in a… Continue Reading
Has smart money abandoned U.S. Web 2.0 companies?
Venture capitalists invested about six percent more into Web 2.0 companies in the first half of 2007, but the increase was attributable to more deals in Europe and Israel.
Notably, early investors in Web 2.0 slowed their pace. For example, Silicon Valley’s Benchmark Capital backed just three deals during the first half of the year, with only one in the Bay Area. In 2006, Benchmark was the sector’s top global investor, with 16 deals. It was… Continue Reading
IBM’s QEDwiki — Web 2.0 widgets for big businesses
For years, web-based software has promised to radically transform the software industry. Cheap, simpler Web tools are much more attractive to corporate customers, compared to antiquated, expensive subscription software.
Large, incumbent business software providers are jumping on bandwagon to provide these tools — even as they try to find ways to protect their old, better-paid business.
IBM, for example, has been developing an “enterprise mashup maker” since last year — web-based wiki software called QEDwiki (see video… Continue Reading
Inpowr creates a social network for ME
There’s a social networking site for nearly every person, animal, and interest – but what about a social network for the person who matters most? That’s right, a social network for YOU, the proud recipient of Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.
Look in the mirror. Do you really know yourself? Could you be happier? Thanks to a new web site called Inpowr, which launched yesterday at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, you can… Continue Reading
Ignite lights up Web 2.0 Expo
O’Reilly Media’s Web 2.0 Expo kicked off yesterday in San Francisco, with 10,000 attendees from 59 countries. VentureBeat’s Mark Coker took notes from the day.
The highlight was the evening’s Ignite event: Imagine packing a large conference room with about 600 geeks, giving ‘em all the free beer they can drink, and then entertaining them with a rapid-fire procession of sixteen fast-talking techies who each deliver a twenty-slide PowerPoint on an eclectic subject with only fifteen… Continue Reading
Is Web 2.0 over and out?
Updated
New Internet technologies, defined vaguely as “Web 2.0,” have gone mainstream, but the cycle of innovation may be slowing, suggests a venture capitalist.
Separately, data shows that venture investments in Web 2.0 companies last year increased strongly, but that valuations actually dropped.
Peter Rip, of Crosslink Capital, who has invested in several Internet companies considered Web 2.0-focused, including Riya, Vast and Teqlo, posits that one way to check the “energy dissipation” around Web 2.0 is to look… Continue Reading
Web 2.0 bubble bursting: Peerflix cuts workforce, carnage mounting elsewhere
This year has become the “show-me” year. Internet start-ups showing no traction are getting shut down, or trimmed — abandoned by once wide-eyed investors.
The Web 2.0 bubble is bursting, but VentureBeat agrees with others that this is more like an “oozing.” New, innovative companies will continue to get funding from VCs, but with more caution. Investments amounts in Web 2.0, while booming, are so far nowhere near the absurd levels seen during the 1999-2000… Continue Reading