Talking tech with Bill Joy

"When Bill Joy joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a partner earlier this year, it sounded at first blush like an odd coupling...."

[CNET]

Is Fastclick IPO putting pressure on ValueClick?

"In recent days, Fastclick has been on its road show, with executives trying to convince shareholders to buy into the company's initial public offering."

At the same time, ValueClick (VCLK: news, chart, profile) stock has been under pressure. ValueClick shares are below $11 after being above $13 a couple weeks ago."

[CBS Marketwatch]

Google Doubles E-Mail Space

"A year after unveiling a free e-mail service with a full gigabyte of storage, Google Inc. is doubling the capacity of each account and plans to keep bumping up the limit in the future."

[AP]

Eye-surgery firm iScience raises $15M

"Eye-surgery instrument maker iScience Surgical Inc. said Thursday it raised $15 million in its series C round of venture funding. "

"The Redwood City company said Three Arch Partners, a new investor, led the round, while Prism Venture Partners, De Novo Ventures, Asset Management Partners and Pacific Horizon Ventures -- firms that have already invested in earlier rounds -- also gave money. "

UTStarcom Won't File on Time

"UTStarcom (UTSI:Nasdaq - commentary - research), struggling with a bookkeeping morass, won't file its 2004 financial report with the SEC on time. The failure puts the wireless networking outfit in technical default on a series of bonds."

"Alameda, Calif.,-based UTStarcom expects to file the 2004 10-K and an amended 10-K for 2003 by April 15. The company is restating a number of line items to reflect revised accounting for related-party transactions, taxes, inventory and other matters. The 2004 annual report had been due Thursday."

[The Street]

Investors who purchases put options (as mentioned in the previous article on UTSI) would have made out considerably.

This company never fails to disappoint:

UTSTARCOM INC (RT-ECN)
Symbol: UTSI
Last Trade: 10.75 12:00PM ET
After Hours Change: N/A
Today's Change: 1.09 -9.20%
Bid: 10.74
Ask: 10.76

Groundwork raises $8.5M

"Groundwork Open Source Solutions has closed a Series B round led by Mayfield Fund, bringing the two-year-old startup’s total venture funding to $11.5 million, the company said Wednesday."

[Red Herring]

Trapeze Networks raises $13.6M

Trapeze Networks has raised $13.62 million in Series C funding, according to a regulatory filing. The company has raised over $60 million in total VC funding, with backers including Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Oak Investment Partners, Castile Ventures and DAG Ventures. www.trapezenetworks.com


This announcement comes after the company announces an OEM agreement with Nortel

Time For VCs To Start Pitching Startups?

Grier on Techdirt comments that some founders who opt not to take on VC financing can do quite well by bootstrapping. Indeed he is right. VC financing is expensive (liquidation preferences, etc) and takes a sizeable % ownership (not to mention strain to grow company faster than normal) chunk out of one's business. It certainly is not for everyone.

That said, it is important to note that many of the more capital intensive startups - the ones that command higher acquisition values - do require VC financing. There's a correlation between risk return to the amount raised and the dollar out. Topix and Bloglines were not acquired for hundred of millions of dollars. The companies that receive VC financing usually are the ones that are acquired for large chunks of money. VCs are hoping to hit 2 or 3 home run investments, which can return all the committed capital (and more) in a VC fund.

An example of this is Cisco's acquisition of Airespace for over $450M. Founder Hae Nahm and Storm Ventures, collectively, will pocket over $100M in a matter of 3 years. That is an impressive IRR to say the least. Compare this home run to the "triple" that Topix and Bloglines founders hit. Though the Topix and Bloglines founders made out, in relative terms, they did not hit an out of the ballpark home run.

2 examples of this include Liquidnet, where the founders and mgmt team grossed well over $100M, at least, in a sale to the later stage private equity companies. Liquidnet previously raised VC money from TH Lee and others. The second example is Webroot, whose founders cashed out from the first institutional round of money in - led by Accel

Also to note, the right VC partners (like good strategic partners) bring guidance, credibility, contacts (customers, bankers, other future financing) to the startups they back.

Stuck in the Middle with UMD

Good piece written by Ross Rubin, who writes a weekly column on future technology for Engadget, on Playstation's UMD - universal media disc.

Fotolog secured major investment from BV Capital

"In a sign of the growing corporate and capital interest in blogging, photo blogging site Fotolog has announced a $2.4 million investment from BV Capital, an independent venture capital fund, as well as private investors."

Fotologâ„¢ Stats
1,166,714
Fotologgers
38,246,322
Photos
117,197
Photos Today



Interesting, that if Flickr was acquired for roughly $16M and Fotolog has a comparable number of users and more traffic, that the company should be valued at or above $16M. It's unclear how much BV invested of the 2.4M investment total (likely $2M) but as the only VC in, they are likely to have a substantial stake in the company and as a result will yield high return on the (likely) exit should the metrics - usage, subscribers - continue to trend upwards.

PSP Web Browser

In case anyone is looking for a PSP Web Browser hack here it is.

This is another interesting article about the PocketMac iTunes PSP Port

Fingerprint Sharing Alliance making the 'Net safer

"Arbor Networks, maker of the Peakflow Platform for network data analysis, has developed a cooperative with telecoms, data/networking companies, and ISPs around the world called the Fingerprint Sharing Alliance. The alliance is designed to let the different companies communicate rapidly and automatically with one another to fight Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and other types of attack. Arbor summarizes it as "A community for coordinated, rapid attack resolution."

[Geek.com]

TiVo tests way to get responses to ads

"TiVo Inc. began testing interactive advertising tools over the weekend as it looks to appease companies wary of users' ability to skip over ads."

[SFGate.com]

VoIP calls get podcast treatment

"A growing number of people are sharing the digital music on MP3 players and other music devices using freely available software and Skype, a free Internet phone service."

"The enthusiasts are borrowing heavily from another personal broadcasting phenomenon called podcasting, in which digital recordings are posted on a Web site for download to a variety of music players, including desktop PCs and portable gadgets like Apple Computer's wildly popular iPod. "Skypecasters," as they call themselves, use Skype's peer-to-peer telephone network to distribute recordings over the Internet directly to each other for free."

[CNET News.com]

Brix Scores $5 Million in Funding

"VoIP performance management and service assurance solutions provider Brix Networks announced today that the company secured a $5 million in its fifth round of venture capital funding."

[TMCNet.com]

Juniper Buying Kagoor $67.5M cash

"Juniper said the move would help it bring secure networking to customers through so-called rich traffic processing. The company cited Kagoor's session border control technology, which Juniper said "delivers a powerful solution for network operators looking to cost-effectively deploy quality voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) and other rich media services."

[The Street]

13.5x multiple to last year's revs of $5M. Company had raised approx. $40M from Accel, Vantagepoint, Intel, Siemens, others.

PhysOrg: World's First 10Gbit CMOS Photonics Platform

"Luxtera Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, and the world leader in silicon photonics, announced today that it has solved the longstanding problem of building advanced photonic interfaces into mass-produced silicon chips. For the first time, it is possible to integrate high-speed optical fiber interfaces in silicon devices produced in an industry-standard CMOS fabrication process. This capability will give computer and communication OEMs the performance benefits of optical-fiber communications, delivered with the economics of silicon. "

[PhysOrg.com]

Company is backed by August, NEA, Sevin Rosen. Last round raise of $15M in March 03. Total raise to date - $23.5M. Company likely will need another couple rounds of financing since it's in product development phase still.

Google Acquires Urchin Software

Google Inc. said late Monday it has agreed to acquire Urchin Software Corp., which makes software to help companies analyze the traffic at their Web sites.

Thousands of Internet sites use products from San Diego-based Urchin to help better understand their users' experiences and track the performance of advertisements and other aspects of visits to Web sites. Google expects the service will help Web sites increase their advertising returns.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The rumor price is $30M.

There appears to be no previous VC funding in Urchin

[AP]

Investors buy puts on UTStarcom before filing

Talk about no confidence in a stock. The street has hammered UT Starcom (UTSI) in the past year or so b/c of decling margin and product growth concerns within and outside of China for their handset and proprietary systems lines of businesses.


Stock chart shows that the stock is trending way below 50 and 200 day MA. There appears to be no price support at current levels.

NetIQ to Sell WebTrends Business Unit to Francisco Partners

NetIQ Corp. (NASDAQ: NTIQ), a leading provider of integrated systems and security management solutions, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its WebTrends web analytics business unit to Francisco Partners, one of the world's largest technology-focused private equity funds. Pursuant to the agreement, Francisco Partners will acquire NetIQ's WebTrends business unit for approximately $94 million in cash.

[Marketwire]

Another Way to Play PlayStation Portable

"Pssssssp! There is a new consumer electronics rage in town, and for once it doesn't come from Apple Computer. It is the PlayStation Portable, or PSP, handheld gaming device built by Sony (SNE:NYSE ADR - commentary - research)."

"One supplier that could prove a winner if PSPs prosper could be the small-cap U.S. company that provides its brains: chipmaker Mips Technologies The PSP contains two 32-bit MIPS R4000 chips; one is the CPU, while the other handles media-processing tasks. The company announced second-quarter results in January that showed a 45% increase in revenue; net income swelled to $3.5 million, or 8 cents a share, from $477,000 in the previous year. "

[TheStreet.com]

Think of it as the PortalPlayer for ipod. Half of MIPS current revs come from royalties from licensing.

Seven Big Investors to Buy Sungard

Silver Lake Partners, Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Providence Equity Partners, and Texas Pacific Group agreed to acquire Sungard Data (SDS ) in an $11.3 billion deal. Terms: $36 cash per Sungard share.

More at Bloomberg

Software makers think inside the box

Selling a hardware, rather than software, gives startups an edge over rivals says Fred Meyer of Cast Iron, a Sequoia backed startup.

[Cnet]

Is Silicon Valley Similar to Detroit?

"HAS the technology industry - a big and undeniably important slice of the economy - become a business whose best days are behind it?"

[NYTimes.com / via SiliconBeat/com]

Is Silicon Valley's piece of the IPO pie shrinking?

"We've been hearing a lot about buyout funds recently, and now there's evidence to suggest they may be replacing the valley's hundreds of smaller venture capital firms as the primary backers of companies that go public. While we saw 22 Silicon Valley venture-backed companies go public last year, we've only seen one local company go public so far this year -- Threshold Pharmaceuticals -- which was relatively small, at $37.33 million. Could there be a link?"

[SiliconBeat.com]

From Wikipedia's Creator, A New Site for Anyone, Anything

"Four years ago, Jimmy Wales launched a free online encyclopedia that anyone could edit. Now, Wikipedia is one of the most popular sites on the Web, and Mr. Wales is building on its success with a new venture. This time, he intends to make a buck.

Mr. Wales's closely held company Wikia Inc. has begun promoting its first for-profit endeavor, an ad-supported site called Wikicities.com that is based on the concept behind Wikipedia. Through Wikicities, groups of Web users can create their own free Web sites and fill them with, well, nearly anything. Among the topics being discussed on the nascent site: Macintosh computers, college hockey and real-world cities like Los Angeles, Beijing and Calgary."

[WSJ.com]

OmniVision Acquires of CDM Optics, Inc.

"OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:OVTI - News), one of the world's leading suppliers of CMOS image sensors, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding securities of CDM Optics, Inc. ("CDM"). CDM, a privately held Boulder, Colorado-based corporation, is the exclusive licensee of patented technology, developed by its co-founders, that substantially increases the performance of a camera system by increasing the depth of field and/or correcting optical aberrations of a photographic image. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close no later than April 30, 2005."

Online poker is the Net's fastest-growing business

Some observers say that the U.K. market is becoming the Silicon Valley for online poker as companies seek to tap the stock market for capital.

Online poker is rapidly becoming big business, expected to generate revenue of $2.8 billion a year in revenue, according to Dennis Boyko, whose PokerPulse.com site tracks volume of more than 260 virtual poker sites in real time.

Nearly three-quarters of the revenue comes from the house's 3 percent to 5 percent take from the pot in cash games like the ones Jewell plays. The rest is made in tournaments, with the operator paid about 5 percent to 10 percent of the prize money, often about a half-million dollars.

Online poker's expansion far outpaces the 22 percent expected growth in online gambling overall or the 4.3 percent for live-action gambling, according to research by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

[CBS Marketwatch / Bambi Francisco]

We've been calling this online poker trend since the inception of the blog. : )

Seeking a More Intuitive Search Tool

"A gaggle of contenders has recently put forth replacements for Microsoft's search. Some are popular Web portals -- Ask Jeeves, Google and Yahoo. Some are small, obscure developers -- Copernic and Blinkx. One's a division of Microsoft itself, its MSN Internet service.


All six of their search add-ons are free downloads: Ask Jeeves Desktop Search (sp.ask.com/docs/desktop/), Blinkx v2.0 (www.blinkx.com), Copernic Desktop Search 1.2 (www.copernic.com; a version of this should be offered by America Online soon), Google Desktop (desktop.google.com), MSN Toolbar Suite Beta (desktop.msn.com) and Yahoo Desktop Search (desktop.yahoo.com). All require Windows 2000 (news - web sites) or XP (save Copernic, which allows Win 98 or newer), and all but Google Desktop and Copernic are in test form -- though none crashed in a week of use."


[Washington Post]

Sony Bets on Strong U.S. Debut for PSP Game Machine

"The world's No. 2 consumer electronics maker is expecting more than a million gamers will snap up the PSP, essentially a $250 handheld version of the PlayStation 2 (news - web sites) console with a built-in screen."

[Reuters]

PSP: Convergence of Mobile Entertainment

"Sony PSP may be the “all in one� mobile web, gaming, music, movie, and communications technical device on the market, posing a direct competitor to Apple, Microsoft, and others expanding into the handheld market. Convergence seems to be the buzz word of 2005. The concept was on the tongues of all speakers at SES NY this year, and is now in the hands of antsy Playstation Portable users in the US."


[Search Engine Journal]

Our Prediction: The PSP will be a huge sucess - comparable the ipod.

Creative Commons

"Yahoo! today announced the beta version of the new Yahoo! Search for Creative Commons. Now, in addition to using our search engine to find works you can build upon and share, you can now easily access licensed works using the power of Yahoo! search. Read more about it on the Yahoo! Search Blog, where Creative Commons' Chairman, Lawrence Lessig made a special guest blogging appearance. "

Yahoo! Groups New Site Interface -- thumbs down!

The previous My Yahoo Groups was more functional with a much better site user interface.

FastClick IPO

"Fastclick gives IPO investors a chance to place their bets on the burgeoning Internet advertising market. Expect the company's IPO to turn in a solid first day followed by solid gains in early trading. But the stock isn't yet a candidate for your kids' college fund because the company has a limited history and operates in a rapidly evolving industry with a new and unproven business model."

[Forbes]

Google IM?

"Google's plans for April Fool's day"

"Last year, Google Inc. (GOOG: news, chart, profile) introduced its free e-mail service, Gmail, on April 1. Some of the initial reaction was skeptical. A gigabyte of storage? Free? No way! But it turned out to be true. Now there is some speculation about what the king of search may have up its servers this year.

Philipp Lenssen, who writes Google Blogoscoped, is among those who say the suspense is building. One of his readers suggests there are two possibilities: Gmail (finally) comes out of beta test, and Google introduces its own instant messenger service.
'If GIM (Google IM) goes live,' Lenssen responded, 'there will likely be a new round of privacy discussions. After all, Google would display its context ads based on what you chat about."

Google's Hello already has a chat feature. What ever happened to Orkut btw (the site is horrendously slow...)?
[CBS Marketplace / Barnarko]

Many Advertisers Find Blogging Frontier Is Still Too Wild

"At their best, blogs are an advertiser's dream: the diary-style Web sites that feature running commentary and reactions are tightly targeted niche markets where avant-garde enthusiasts regularly return to read, post and send in tips. Well-placed blog ads can boost a company's image as cutting-edge. Plus, they're inexpensive: $350 a week, for instance, for premium positioning on Mr. Denton's high-profile inside-Washington blog, Wonkette, which got 2.2 million 'page views' last month, a measure of how many times a single visitor looks at one Web site page.

But many companies are wary of putting their brand on such a new and unpredictable medium. But many companies are wary of putting their brand on such a new and unpredictable medium. Most blogs are written by a lone author. They are typically unedited and include spirited responses from readers who can post comments at will. Some marketers fear blogs will criticize their products or ad campaigns. And, like all new blog readers, companies are just learning how to track what's being said on blogs and which ones might make a good fit for their ads."

[WSJ/ Log-in required]

Altiris buys Pedestal

"Altiris said Thursday it would spend $65 million to acquire security vendor Pedestal Software, a move that should hearten venture capitalists who are invested in the security sector."

[Red Herring]

Acquisition price, according to Red Herring was over 5x the $12 million that VC's (Venrock and 3i; first round of financing was in 2003) had invested in the company. Altiris said it expects the acquisition to contribute as much as $18 million in revenue for 2005. Good IRR and ROI for both firms.

Irdeto Access Acquires LockStream

"Irdeto Holdings B.V., a subsidiary of multinational media group Naspers (NASDAQ: NPSN and JSE: NPN), and LockStream Corporation announced today that Irdeto Holdings, through a newly formed subsidiary, has acquired certain assets and liabilities of LockStream, a leading provider of mobile Digital Rights Management (DRM) software, based in Seattle, Washington. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

LockStream is a great addition to the Irdeto Access content protection portfolio for digital TV, IPTV and mobile networks. With this acquisition, Irdeto Access gains leading-edge products which are already deployed in real applications, and a top-notch team to drive us towards our objective of leading the mobile content protection market, said Graham Kill, CEO of Irdeto Access."

[Infosat]

Topix.net acquisition price: $50 - $100M?

Greg Linden:

"Update: There seems to be a fair bit of confusion about the valuation Topix.net received, in part created by Bambi Francisco first reporting only that "the funding was less than $5 million" but then updating her article to say:

The three newspapers bought 75 percent of the company for a market valuation below $100 million, but north of what venture capitalists valued Friendster, according to someone close to the deal. Friendster ... received a market valuation of $50-plus million.
My interpretation of this is that Topix.net was valued between $50-100M for the buyout and also received $5M in cash for expansion and future operations. Very impressive. "

VC Bloggers

"Someone pointed out to me that a number of VC bloggers either are fundraising (Roger McNamee, Bill Burnham), or just closed funds (Fred Wilson). No idea if that is coincidence, or strategy, although my best guess is the former. More importantly, though, I wonder what LPs think of this VC blogger phenomenon. There certainly are some tangible business goals that a blog can help pursue - such as letting serial entrepreneurs know what types of technology you're interested in - but it also can be a major time drain. If I'm committing capital to a fund, do I want one of its GPs spending an hour, or sometimes more, blogging?"

[PE Wire / Daniel Primack]

Yahoo's game of photo tag | CNET News.com

"Yahoo's buyout of community photo site Flickr goes well beyond sharing pictures.

The deal, made public Sunday, is the latest in a string of acquisitions in the red-hot online photo-sharing space. But, more importantly, Flickr is a pioneer in a new method for cataloging the Internet that some believe could revolutionize Web search. As a result, Flickr could give Yahoo new competitive tools to take on Google, if it can put Flickr's community-based technology to broader use."

[CNET]

The Long Tail

"An analysis of the sales data and trends from these services and others like them shows that the emerging digital entertainment economy is going to be radically different from today's mass market. If the 20th- century entertainment industry was about hits, the 21st will be equally about misses. "

"This is the world of scarcity. Now, with online distribution and retail, we are entering a world of abundance. And the differences are profound."



[Wired]

Novell to buy Tally Systems

In a move aimed at bolstering its ZENworks system management suite, Novell Inc. says it plans to buy Tally Systems Corp. No terms of the acquisition of Lebanon, N.H.-based Tally were released Wednesday by Novell, a networking and Linux development company that last year moved its headquarters from Provo to Waltham, Mass. Novell did say it expects to close the deal by mid-April, with customers soon after being able to take advantage of Tally's integrated set of inventory, license management, software usage and trend analysis tools.

Tech, Startups, Capital, Ideas.
Tech, Startups, Capital, Ideas. Home · About · Archive. Thursday, December 4th, 2008. The Current Environment. The holiday season has arrived none too soon ...
www.vcdave.com/ - 60k

Intel Deploys Pre-Standard WiMAX

"LONDON -- WiMAX backers continue to seed early versions of the technology among prospective customers, hoping that it will spark demand when services roll out in early 2006.
In the latest example, Intel has provided the U.K.'s National Museum of Science and Industry an early WiMAX deployment for its reserve warehouses, which sit on an abandoned airfield near Intel's offices in Swindon, Wiltshire."

[Extrem Tech]

Intel invests in E Ink

"Intel has pumped cash into E Ink, the electronic 'ink' technology developer, it was revealed yesterday.

The investment - the amount was not made public - comes through Intel Capital, the chip maker's venture capital division, which funds start-ups developing technology and applications that, one day, may boost demand for PCs and thus Intel's chip products."

[The Register]

Next On List: Buyout Countdown List

"These are neat little tech plays that don't make sense as standalones in a year or so or could reap rewards a lot faster by selling -- hence our countdown clock:
Technorati, Feedster, FeedBurner, Findory, Pheedo, PubSub, Tribe, LinkedIn...
Rafat: I would add a couple more:
-- Moreover, and BigChampagne,

Update: Nominees so far from paidContent readers: del.icio.us, 43Things, Plaxo, Grouper, Pixpo, Shutterfly, GoFish.com."

[Paid Content]

BMC buys OpenNetwork for $18 million

BMC Software said it is acquiring OpenNetwork for $18 million in cash. OpenNetwork makes software for online access management and single sign-on techniques, which BMC will use together with software from Calendra, its other recent acquisition in the identity management space. OpenNetwork, like BMC, is a large Microsoft partner and its software works with Microsoft's servers.

[Fierce Enterprise]

Mobile TV White Paper from TI

Broadband wireless chip group ups funding

LONDON -- Broadband wireless chip specialist Provigent, Inc. has increased its third round funding to $10 million and the total amount raised thus far to $21 million.

The additional funds were provided by all of the Los Altos, California based company's previous backers, including Sequoia Capital, Pitango Venture Capital, Magnum Communications Fund, Ascend Technology Ventures, Delta Ventures, and Andrew Viterbi, Co-Founder of Qualcomm.

[CommDesign]

Teneros lands $17.5M up round

"Teneros Inc., a developer of hardware and software e-mail appliances for Microsoft Corp. products, has landed $17.5 million in Series B funding from new lead investor Star Ventures of Munich and existing investors New Enterprise Associates of Baltimore and Sevin Rosen Funds of Dallas. "

"Steve Lewis, co-founder and CEO of Teneros, said the startup received a $7 million Series A round of funding less than a year ago, in July 2004, after turning away several potential investors. "We actually completed the Series B without a lot of effort," he said. "This was not a difficult fundraising exercise."

[The Deal]

Yahoo Inc. Again Expands E-Mail Storage

"Yahoo said late Tuesday that it will provide 1 gigabyte of storage for each free e-mail account. The current limit is 250 megabytes. The expanded storage will be available in mid-April, said Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo's vice president of communications products."

GMail must be hurting Yahoo's user growth.

How a Startup Got to the Exit First

"Cisco's (CSCO) deal to buy Wi-Fi switch maker Airespace for $450 million is likely to be one of the biggest acquisitions of a venture-capital-backed company you'll see all year. A deal that big elicits cheers from nearly everyone in Silicon Valley. But the guy cheering the loudest is Tae Hea Nahm, a Storm Ventures partner, who will make more than $100 million on the deal for Storm and its limited partners. But beyond the money, the success of Airespace is a confirmation of an idea and a company that Nahm founded and managed from its earliest days within Storm Ventures. "

[Business 2.0]

Newspaper Giants Buy Web News Monitor

More on Topix from the NY Times:

"Three of the nation's biggest newspaper publishers, the Gannett Company, Knight-Ridder Inc. and the Tribune Company, are joining forces to buy three-fourths of Topix.net, a Web site that monitors more than 10,000 online news sources.

Each publisher will own 25 percent of the company. Topix.net, based in Palo Alto, Calif., will retain the rest and continue to run the site. The cost of the acquisition, which is scheduled to be announced today, was not disclosed.
Topix.net is a news aggregator, continuously monitoring updates on thousands of news media Web sites as well as government sites and organizing links to articles in more than 300,000 subject areas. Topix.net already keeps track of news from sites operated by Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Tribune, but the acquisition will allow it to approach the newspapers' online advertisers about using its technology for customizing ads. It will also let Topix.net add material like television listings."

Topix.net to be acquired by newspaper J-V

"Earlier today, Tony Gentile had a rumor that Topix.net was acquired by Knight-Ridder--it's true.

Knight Ridder, in partnership with the Tribune Media Company and Gannett, has acquired 75% of Topix.net for an undisclosed amount. I spoke with Rich Skrenta, Topix CEO and founder, and he told me that the deal would allow Topix to remain as an independent entity based in the Valley--and deploy their skills across the KRD-Trib-Gannett platform."

[Susan Mernit's Blog]

Pretty savvy acquisitions in the past year by the larger media players of startups with top media related technology at rather inexpensive valuations (I presume): Yhoo (Flickr for ~$16M), Google (Keyhole), AskJ (Bloglines), eBay (Craigslist; 25% stake for undisclosed amount), Tribune/Gannett/Knight Ridder (Topix), IAC (Zero Degrees). It seems like a trend that's happening more and more and I presume it's only a matter of time before other related blogging companies in the space - SixApart, Typepad, Technorati, Newsgator, others - will exit or die (hopefully not).

A Unified Theory of VC Suckage

"One of my most vivid memories from our startup is going to visit Greylock, the famous Boston VCs. [1] They were the most arrogant people I've met in my life. And I've met a lot of arrogant people.

I'm not alone in feeling this way, of course. Even a VC friend of mine dislikes VCs. 'Assholes,' he says."

From Paul Graham. Referenced from Alarm Clock

IBM set to use spam to attack spammers

"IBM unveiled a service Tuesday that sends unwanted e-mails back to the spammers who sent them.

The new IBM (Research) service, known as FairUCE, essentially uses a giant database to identify computers that are sending spam. E-mails coming from a computer on the spam database are sent directly back to the computer, not just the e-mail account, that sent them."


More on FairUCE here

TelASIC Communications Closes $26 Million Funding

TelASIC Communications Inc., a leading developer of high-performance analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) and sub-systems for the 3G wireless infrastructure market, today announced the closing of a $26 million Series D round of financing. ComVentures, a leading venture capital firm focused on communications technologies, led the round. Existing investors Mission Ventures, The IPO Group, Agilent Technologies, and Redpoint Ventures participated as well. "

"TelASIC will use the additional funds to support the Company's ramp into high volume production and bolster key organizational functions as it continues to grow."

OuterBay boosts valuation with $12M

"Data storage software maker OuterBay Technologies Inc. has landed $12 million in Series C financing from previous investors and new lead investor Focus Ventures of Palo Alto, Calif.

Focus contributed $4.2 million to the round, which increased OuterBay's valuation by an undisclosed amount. Previous investors BA Venture Partners in Foster City, Calif., and LeapFrog Ventures, Mayfield and Redpoint Ventures, all based in Menlo Park, Calif., also participated.

"I think there's a roughly 50% chance OuterBay could get big enough to go public, or else one of the major players in the storage industry might acquire them," Bird said. "They are growing pretty rapidly, and their partnerships with EMC and Sybase [Inc.] make them pretty interesting."

[TheDeal.com]

8 million bloggers can't be wrong

"Dave Sifry's Technorati.com reported Tuesday morning it is now tracking slightly more than eight million Weblogs through its search tool and directory services.

The value of blogs to businesses is their ability to enable and facilitate communication. "The result is a living, always-on example of the potential wisdom of crowds," the Outsell analyst said. Blogs offer "full transparency and instant dialogue on authenticity and accuracy."

Blogs already are being mined for early intelligence warnings. At least four firms track the online conversations as market research for clients: Intelliseek BlogPulse, Techdirt, Factiva Insight, and Bacon's Information. Paid subscription Web logs are not far away."

[CBS Marketwatch / Frank Barnarko]

HP to Acquire Leading Online Photo Service Snapfish

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 2005-- HP (NYSE:HPQ - News; Nasdaq:HPQ - News) today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Snapfish, a leading online photo service.

Snapfish is a leading online photo service, with more than 13 million registered members and 350 million unique photos stored online. Snapfish, which is based in San Francisco and has operations in the United Kingdom, enables film camera, digital camera and camera phone users to share, print and store their most important photo memories at the lowest prices -- online or off. Snapfish is the most often used site for printing digital photographs online, according to InfoTrends, and has received a Rising Star Award as the site demonstrating the fastest growth on the Internet, as measured by Nielsen//NetRatings. Additional information is available at www.snapfish.com and www.Snapfish.co.uk.

Yahoo to Buy Photo-Sharing Site Flickr

NEW YORK (AP) -- Ludicorp Research & Development Ltd. President Stewart Butterfield on Monday confirmed Internet portal Yahoo Inc. will acquire the privately held company, which operates photo-sharing Web site Flickr. TheStreet.com reports the number to be around $16M.

PokerRoom.com's Mobile Effort

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 2005--You still need to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, but for the first time you can always walk away no matter where you are. PokerRoom.com, one of the fastest growing online poker sites in the world, today announced it is launching the first ever interactive cell phone poker. A mobile effort indeed! Using the most secure protocols and patent pending collusion software, players can play Texas Hold 'Em for "real money" or "play money" beginning Monday, April 11, 2005.

Dilithium Networks Secures $18M in Series C Financing

"Dilithium Networks, a leading provider of wireless multimedia solutions, today announced that it has secured $18M in series C funding. The financing round was led by USVP, a prominent Silicon Valley based venture capital fund, with participation from existing investors including Motorola Ventures, JAFCO, Deutsche Bank Capital Partners, and CM Capital. Singapore's Infocomm Investments Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Infocom Development Authority, also participated as a new investor."

Leading Mobile Search Service 4INFO Secures $8.0 Million in Funding

"4INFO Inc., the leading mobile search service, announced today that it has completed an $8.0 million round of equity funding led by U.S. Venture Partners with participation by Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Tim Connors, general partner of U.S. Venture Partners, has joined 4INFO's board of directors. "

IAC to Buy Ask Jeeves In a $1.85 Billion Deal

WSJ.com - IAC to Buy Ask Jeeves In a $1.85 Billion Deal:

"IAC/InterActiveCorp agreed to buy search site Ask Jeeves Inc. in a stock deal initially worth $1.85 billion, a move that promises to roil the Internet's most competitive market.
IAC will issue 1.2668 shares of common stock for each Ask Jeeves share. IAC said it will buy back at least 60% of the number of shares it will issue for the acquisition, as part of a previously authorized share-repurchase program."

[WSJ.com / Log - in required]

Internet Sites Transform Cursors Into Advertising Space

"Online ads are so prevalent, advertisers are running out of room for them on Web sites.

So they've found a new spot to park their ads: at the tip of your computer's cursor."

[Investor's Business Daily]

Yahoo Tests Blend of Blogging, Networking

Yahoo Inc. is preparing to introduce a new service that blends several of its Web site's popular features with two of the Internet's fastest growing activities -- blogging and social networking.

Check it out here

DRAPER FISHER JURVETSON / On the Record: Tim Draper

Interesting interview with Tim Draper:

"Within three weeks, we had 100,000 registered Hotmail users in India. And we got 11 million users overall in 18 months. So, I look back at that, and I think, "Wow, that made a huge impact on society." Then I started to think, "You know, Hotmail may be one of the best environmental companies that the world has ever known, because you're using no paper and you're using no gasoline. You're not using rubber and you're not cutting down trees, and you're communicating with 300 million people."

I started to think that something like Hotmail made a bigger impact on society than anything I could have done in the public sector. "

[SF Chronicle]

Sean ''P. Diddy'' Combs Keynotes at CTIA WIRELESS 2005

"The worlds of hip-hop and wireless technology are set to unite, as one of the most creative and influential musical and cultural visionaries of this generation meets with the leaders responsible for the innovative and staggering growth of the wireless industry. CTIA-The Wireless Association(TM) proudly announced today that Sean "P. Diddy" Combs will keynote on Day One of CTIA WIRELESS 2005, the world's largest wireless show, set to open March 14 in New Orleans."

Werd.

How to Keep the VCs From Snooping Around

"You are seeing deal activity picking up and due-diligence cycles getting strained in terms of what you can do and should do," John Occhipint, Woodside Fund, says. And if the funding is for a later-stage startup that VCs have previously funded, forget about it."

[Business 2.0]

Video Game Firm Xfire Countersues Yahoo on Patents

"Online gaming company Xfire said on Thursday it countersued Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) in a legal battle over instant-messaging patents.

Yahoo previously had sued Xfire, alleging a former employee who went to work for the privately funded Xfire had developed products that infringed on Yahoo patents.

In its answer and countersuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, Xfire denied Yahoo's allegations and asked the court to dismiss Yahoo's complaint."

[Netscape News]

Online dating firm Spark files for $75 million IPO

"NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Spark Networks, operator of JDate.com and AmericanSingles.com, filed for an initial public offering Thursday in a bid to raise up to $75 million with underwriter Piper Jaffray."

[Marketwatch]

eBay Launches Classified Service

"Months after its purchase of a 25% stake in Craig's List, a network of community sites based mostly in the U.S., eBay launched its own collection of online classified sites called Kijiji. "

Btw. Craigslist is not for sale.

And doing a google search of Kijiji brings you to the Kijiji Coffee House of Nashville

What's a kijiji? Guru.net / Answers.com doesn't know either

[The Street]

nano-tek

"For months rumors have circulated around Nano-Tex - as well as Nanofilm, another start-up with products already on the market - concerning a possible IPO in the near future. The rumors faded somewhat after Nanosys last August pulled its IPO citing market conditions. Although Nano-Tex is mum on any plans, the company's new $35 million Series A round is certainly a big step in that possible direction. Nano-Tex makes nanotechnology-based textile treatments designed to improve the quality of everyday fabrics, and it plans to use the new funding for the development and marketing of its products. The start-up's CEO noted that this round is about "three to four times oversubscribed." Though he declined to provide a valuation, he said Nano-Tex is at "the high end of the range of what comparable companies are valued in the venture market." Having introduced its first product in 2000, Nano-Tex has licensed more than 80 textile mills worldwide to use its treatments in products sold by more than 100 apparel and interior furnishing brands, including Gap, Old Navy and Nike."

"Nano-Tex set out last summer to raise $25 million, but soon boosted the size of the fund to make room for sizable new investors alongside previous ones."

“We had so much interest that we didn’t need to hire an external fundraiser,� Mr. Tice said. “We had 21 interested parties and 11 investment bids—we were substantially oversubscribed.�

More on the round from Red Herring

[VentureWire Alert]

Peerflix

"Menlo Park, Calif.-based Peerflix Inc. has landed its first round of venture financing. 3i Group plc’s office in Menlo Park, Calif., and BV Capital of San Francisco co-led the round. Founded in 2004, Peerflix is an online peer-to-peer service that allows members to legally trade DVDs. The money will be used to accelerate member acquisition, scale the company’s infrastructure and develop new product offerings and enhancements. As a result of the funding, Robin Murray, partner with 3i, and Thomas Gieselmann, general partner with BV Capital, will join the board of directors. Peerflix, which also has an office in Vancouver, British Columbia, currently offers its services in the U.S. and Canada."

[The Daily Deal]

Nokia, others launch wireless TV trials

"Nokia today launched a wireless project bringing live television to mobile phones and handhelds. The project will test wireless TV services with 500 users in Helsinki. Nokia is working with Finland's largest broadcaster, the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE), leading commercial TV channels, and carriers TeliaSonera and Elisa. Trial users are able to view real-time TV and radio programs on the Nokia 7710 smartphone equipped with a special accessory to receive wireless TV broadcasts.

In other mobile TV news, both Orange and SFR said they plan to launch mobile TV trials in France. Orange and Bouygues Telecom said they plan to form a partnership with Television France 1 and satellite-television company TP to launch a test service with 200 of each of the carriers subscribers. SFR, a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal, said it also plans launch a similar venture with Vivendi pay-TV broadcaster Canal Plus."

[Fierce Wireless / WSJ]

Yahoo Launching Mobile Games Studio

"Yahoo Inc. says it has acquired technology to take its popular Web-based parlor and card games from personal computers to mobile devices."

"Yahoo said it will integrate technology from New Jersey-based Stadeon, Inc. to permit multiplayer games across multiple platforms. Terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed."

[SF Gate]

79% of paid search money goes into 4 top categories

"Paid search spending in the US is highly concentrated, according to JupiterResearch. Just four categories (retail, financial services, media and entertainment and travel) accounted for 79% of the $2.6 bln spent on paid search in 2004. Each vertical provides a rich landscape of opportunity and a blueprint for how other categories will develop. "

[www.itfacts.biz]

Del.icio.us

del.icio.us

"Tagging is a new way surfers can organize and share sprawling Web content, providing a fast-growing grassroots alternative to traditional search."

[BusinessWeek]

Yahoo! is negotiating acqusition of Flickr

"A high level source within Yahoo told SiliconValleyWatcher that the two companies are in negotiations over the purchase price and other details, but that as of late Friday night Pacific Time, no final agreement had yet been reached."

[Silicon Valley Watcher]

Yahoo to invest in blogs, analyst says

"Internet media company Yahoo Inc. (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) is likely to build and buy tools that help its users create, publish and search blogs, Susquehanna Financial Group Marianne Wolk said in a note on Friday."

[Reuters]

Two firms offer $3.5B to buy all 30 NHL teams

"Two Boston companies have offered NHL owners a way out of their labor woes: Sell the entire league -- pucks, Penguins and penalty boxes -- for more than $3 billion."

"An offer of between $3 billion and $3.5 billion would translate to between $100 million to $117 million per team."

Should the deal go through, it would be a very profitable investment for Bain and Game Plan LLC in the long term.

[CNNSI]

Podcasting gives voice to amateurs

More news on podcasting. It's the future.

[SF Chronicle]

Engineer held in theft at Fremont chip firm

"A former chip-design engineer remained jailed Tuesday on federal charges of illegally taking proprietary files from a Fremont semiconductor company and passing them to a potential competitor in Taiwan where he had hoped to work."

Yikes. IP theft has been happening more frequently esp. when work is outsourced.

[SF Chronicle]

TREND: Asia's ringback tone craze

"In Korea and China, tens of millions personalize their phone service with favorite tunes. But why not in America? Just wait."

[Red Herring]

Journey to the Center of Google

"You’ve heard the story. Larry and Sergey drop out of school, start a company in a garage, then become billionaires. But will Larry and Sergey ever grow up?"

Fascinating piece from GQ

[Men.style.com]

For Martha, Crime Will Pay Nicely

"Now that Stewart has paid her debt to society, she can look forward to a queen-size salary, a lucrative TV deal, and probably a book."

How about another jail sentence?

[Businessweek]

Web Marketers Fearful of Fraud in Pay-Per-Click

"Businesses that pay billions to Google and Overture to steer potential customers to their Web sites are increasingly questioning how much fraud lurks in the blossoming pay-per-click model of advertising."

[NY Times / Log-in required]

Craigslist CEO: A lot of offers, but we're not for sale

"That is the latest word from the CEO of Craigslist, which is one of the fastest-growing and highly-coveted properties on the Web.

"Nothing has changed. We're not for sale," said Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist CEO and president, in an interview with MarketWatch."

For the right price, they are for sale.

[CBS Marketwatch]

Walden International Puts All Its Chips In One Basket

"Walden International's Lip-Bu Tan hasn't cashed in his chips yet. But he has amassed a number of chip investments in China as the firm now plans to invest exclusively in semiconductor startups, PE Week has learned. "

[Private Equity Week]

Friendster Blogs

"Friendster, a so-called social networking site of linked personal profiles, launched a beta, or test version, of Friendster Blogs, a section of the site that lets people post and archive the daily musings known as blogs.

Friendster, which recently defended its ad-based revenue model and disavowed any plans for fees, introduced three paid upgrade packages with Friendster Blogs."

[CNET]

VC `lemmings' have a new fad to run after - online consumer tech

"The VCs are doing the lemming thing again -- this time they're all rushing to invest in online consumer technologies. The result is a whole lot of similar VC-funded companies, all facing some very tough odds."

[SiliconValley.com / Matt Marshall]

Arroyo Raises $12M, Drops CEO

"Arroyo Video Solutions, Inc., developer of a unique video platform that enables operators to deliver advanced video applications, today announced the completion of a $12 million Series B round of expansion financing, bringing total venture capital investment in Arroyo to more than $25 million. The round was led by Matrix Partners, a top venture capital firm, with participation by all existing investors including: DCM - Doll Capital Management, Foundation Capital, Time Warner Investments and Comcast Interactive Capital. The new financing will be used to accelerate Arroyo's growth in advanced video services by addressing new strategic opportunities and markets. "

Arroyo co-founders were previously from 3Com (CTO and Senior Vice President of Technology) and Novell (Co-founder known as the "father of the network operating system).

[Light Reading]

Technorati and Google

It makes a lot of sense for Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft to acquire Technorati, Feedster or one of the other vertical blog search companies (Mark Cuban's Ice Rocket.)

Mirra: Wherever You Go, There You Are

"The other pressing need was to have access to files while outside the main office. The Fortex Group decided to go with an in-house server. The company looked at a $2,000 server with a lot of bells and whistles, but ultimately went for the cost savings of a Mirra server that came in at about $300. That solved the issue of sharing, but, even better, it also solved the issue of backing up files. Free, secure web access and file sharing over the internet are part of the Mirra package. "

[Entrepreneur.com]

Bloggers Add Moving Images to Their Musings

"Web logs - the personal online journals better known as blogs - use text to dissect nearly every conceivable topic, and now video blogs, or vlogs, which incorporate moving images, are on the rise. Mobile blogs, or moblogs, have brought blogging into the cellular age by allowing people to post video and photos taken with camera phones to a blog, or to call in an audio posting.

But the object remains the same as with traditional blogs: to inspire (or to provoke) others to post responses to one's ruminations and images.

Some vloggers are further blurring the lines between journalism and blogging by producing news reports of local interest."

Does this blog inspire or provoke? If not, maybe it's time to Flickr.


[NY Times / Log-in required]

Network Intelligence rakes in $12M

"Security appliance maker Network Intelligence Corp. has raised a $12 million third round of venture capital in an up round led by Bain Capital Ventures of Boston and Castile Ventures of Waltham, Mass.

Sweeney would not disclose a valuation for the round but said it was up nominally from Network Intelligence's $5 million second round of August 2003.

Network Intelligence was originally founded in 1997 and initially sold a firewall analysis software product that worked in conjunction with network equipment manufactured by San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco Systems Inc."

Does it make sense for Cisco to acquire them?

[TheDeal.com]

Microsoft, Telematics, and Voice-Recognition

Interesting Red Herring article on MSFT's entrance into the telematics space. With the FIAT announcement, MSFT will compete head on w/ Onstar for future auto manufacturers.

Friendster blogs

Strategic move by friendster (and TypePad) to begin incorporating blogs. Friendster now competes w/ blogspot, livejournal/sixapart, xanga.

Segway takes to rough terrain

"Segway launched three new models on Tuesday of its personal mobility device, the Human Transporter, including a cross-country version and one designed for golf courses."

[CNET]