Cisco, Macromedia Invest in Game Maker

"Tom Online Inc., one of China's largest wireless Internet companies, on Friday said Cisco Systems Inc. and Macromedia Inc. will each acquire a strategic interest its games developing unit, Indiagames Ltd. Cisco and Macromedia will pay a total of $4 million for a combined stake of 18.2 percent in Indiagames through a subscription of new shares. Tom Online's share in Indiagames will be diluted to 62.4 percent from 76.3 percent. Indiagames' original shareholders and management, including its founder Vishal Gondal, will continue to hold a 19.4 percent stake in the company. Tom Online acquired its stake in Indiagames in February."

[AP]

Realtek: WLAN-solutions shipments to boom in 2005

"Realtek Semiconductor, already a large presence in Ethernet network controllers, anticipates the contribution from its WLAN solutions to become noticeable this year, according to company executive vice president Chen Chin-hsing at an investors conference yesterday. The IC design firm has entered mass shipments of its IEEE 802.11b/g solutions from this quarter, said Chen, adding that volume shipments of its 802.11a/b/g solutions are slated to kick off between June and July."

[Digi Times]

Verizon Pulling Plug on Free Wi-Fi

"Verizon Communications Inc. is turning off the free wireless Internet access it beams from New York City telephone booths for DSL subscribers who use laptops away from home or the office. "

[Yahoo! News]

Silicon Valley Guy

We'll pay 10k if anyone has this book (a la Intel)

IceRocket Phone Pics search

Westerners can learn from China, VC says

"Rather than wait for China to adopt Western business styles, U.S. corporations and investors would do well to "easternize," Silicon Valley venture capitalist Joseph Schoendorf said last week."


"A lot of my friends who have come here think China is westernizing, but from what I've seen and been reading about China and Confucius, we'd do better in the U.S. if we easternized — my word," Schoendorf said in his keynote speech at the Asian Technology Roundtable Exhibition (ATRE), a two-day technology and investment forum held here. "There is a core set of values here that I am struggling to learn, and I like what I'm learning. I don't think China is westernizing, nor do I propose that China do that."

[EETimes.com]

Peribit an Eight-bagger for Foundation

"Yesterday, I caught up with Adam Grosser, a partner at Menlo Park, Calif. VC firm Foundation Capital, which was an early investor in networking equipment maker Peribit Networks. As you may have heard, Juniper Networks on Tuesday said it will acquire Peribit for $337 million in cash and stock. For Foundation Capital III, the fund that invested in Peribit, the acquisition represents an eightfold return on invested capital (affectionately known as an eight-bagger). That's the best return so far for the fund, which was raised in 1999."

[Business Week blog]

DoubleClick deal gives a peak at private equity impact

"The buyout of Internet survivor DoubleClick Inc. by a private equity firm for $1.1 billion this week poses a riddle for tech investors: When is the absence of a takeover premium really a premium in disguise?"

[Investor's Business Daily]

Scoop: Indiagames Gets Big-Name Investors

"Indiagames will announce tomorrow that it's landed two big name investors—Macromedia and Cisco. One of India’s largest mobile content developers, the Mumbai-based company is majority owned by TOM Online, operator of one of China’s most successful Internet portals.

TOM, took an 80 percent stake (or about $18 million) in Indiagames this past December. Cisco’s share should amount to roughly 10 percent for $2.2 million, while Macromedia’s will come out to an 8 percent stake for $1.8 milllion.

Indiagames produces games using Macromedia's Flash Lite version of it media player. There are already 15 million Flash-enabled phones in Japan and Korean phones also use the software."

[business2blog / Matt Maier]

Ziggs

"Ziggs, based in Boston, is technically in beta, or prerelease, status. But it is open for business to all Web users. It claims to be indexing about 2.3 million Web sites, and to include people who work at nearly 43,000 companies. When you locate a person with Ziggs, you mainly get whatever biography page has been posted about that person on his or her company's Web site. If you aren't listed somewhere on the Web, Ziggs allows you to create a detailed profile that will pop up whenever anyone searches for your name, or for other characteristics that match your profile. You can even include a photo, a favorite quotation and a canned 'interview' based on questions Ziggs supplies. Ziggs is free for searchers. There will be a $25 annual fee to be listed in Ziggs, though it's free for the first year. For $50 a year, Ziggs will also buy an ad on the big search sites like Google designed to make your name pop up in the paid listings that run alongside search results."

[WSJ / Mossberg]

Lots of buzz these days around vertical search (jobs, travel, business, ecommerce, shopping etc.) , and in particular, peoplesearch. Another interesting people search company Zoominfo, formerly Eliyon (backed by Venrock) has partnered with Lycos in their people search offering. It will be interesting to see when Google will enter the space and which partner they will go with, if any. Yahoo has a people search page but it is white pages only and the datum isn't all that relevant. Other directory/people finding services include: switchboard.com, whitepages.com, bigfoot, peoplefinders.

Intelliseek's BlogPulse

Total identified blogs: 10,184,522

New blogs in last 24 hours: 52,349

Blog posts indexed in last 24 hours: 371,105

TV for Mobile Phones Set to Reach Masses

"About 125 million consumers will be watching television on their mobile phone in five years from now, a new survey found on Thursday. Mobile television is not yet commercially available, but trials are carried out around the world, and consumers are expected to be able to pick up the first TV phones by the end of the year. Handset makers will sell 130,000 TV phones this year, rising to 83.5 million by 2010, research group Informa said. "

[Reuters]

Is this the end for mobile application companies like Mobitv, smartVideo, or 1KTV who offer live TV and video content to the mobile phone? Likely not.

Spitzer Sues Intermix Over 'Spyware'

"New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Thursday sued a major Internet marketer, claiming the company installed 'spyware' and 'adware' that secretly install nuisance pop-up advertising on screens which can slow and crash personal computers."

[Yahoo]

This is the parent company of social networking site, Myspace.com, the company Redpoint just backed. Ouch.

Open Wallets for Open-Source Software

"The first time Marc Fleury tried to raise money for his technology start-up company, in mid-2000, a venture capitalist told him that he didn't have merely a bad business plan but a terrible one. Not only was Mr. Fleury planning to compete against the likes of I.B.M., but his product was open-source software, which he would give away. Four years later, he tried again. His business was still based on the free distribution of code, yet now there was a dogfight among venture capitalists competing to finance his company, called JBoss."

In February 2004, JBoss received $10M from Accel and Matrix.

[NYTimes]

Market Pulse: Quest Software to buy Imceda Software for $61M

"Quest Software said Tuesday evening that it has agreed to purchase privately held Imceda Software for $61 million in cash and stock. Irvine, Calif.-based Quest expects the deal to close in the second quarter. Quest sees the acquisition being neutral to its earnings per share within the first 12 months of closing, and adding to its earnings after that time period. The deal will move Quest into the database backup and recovery and security auditing markets, the company said."

[Yahoo]

Imceda has raised $9M in VC funding from Insight VP. More info on the deal here

Website Pros files for $70M IPO

Website Pros has filed to raise $70 million via an IPO of common stock. It plans to list on Nasdaq - ticker symbol WSPI - with Friedman Billings Ramsey serving as lead book manager. Company has raised $80M in VC funding since 1999 inception from Insight VP, Norwest Venture Partners and Crosspoint Venture Partners.

InnerWireless snags $15M

"With an infusion of $15 million, InnerWireless Inc. will double the size of its Richardson headquarters and boost its staff by 50% over the next 12 months, the Richardson high-tech company says.
The third round of funding, led by Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI), comes on the heels of contracts InnerWireless is netting from a half-dozen large organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, Houston's ChevronTexaco and the new Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. "

[Dallas Business Journal]

PayCycle raises $8.5M acquisitions war chest

"Online payroll company PayCycle said Tuesday it closed its series D round of venture funding, which was led by DCM-Doll Capital Management.
PayCycle said August Capital, Conning Capital Partners, Total Technology Ventures and Irwin Ventures also invested in the round, as did Jim Heeger, the company's new CEO.
In a news release, the Palo Alto company said it will spend the money on acquisitions.
PayCycle has raised $29.3 million since it was founded in 1999. The company sells a web-based payroll service for small and medium businesses. "

[SF Biz Journals]

Google tests out blog ad service

"Google is floating a trial balloon of a service that pairs advertisements with blog feeds. The Mountain View, Calif.-based search company is testing a new variation of its AdSense program for publishers that allows sites to display text or image ads related to their content and get paid by the click."

[Tech News on ZDNet]

Kanoodle, Moreover and Yahoo as well as a number of other startups are testing similar ad services for feeds.

Juniper acquires Redline and Peribit

"Juniper Networks said on Tuesday it agreed to buy two closely held start-ups for a combined $469 million in cash, stock and options to strengthen its ability to deliver applications over networks.

The Sunnyvale, California-based maker of routers that direct data over the Internet and corporate networks said it agreed to pay about $337 million in cash, stock and assumed stock options to buy Perbit Networks Inc. Peribit raised over $40M from Accel, Foundation, Mayfield, WK, others.

Juniper said it agreed to pay about $132 million for closely held Redline Networks Inc.

[Reuters]

Cisco Systems to acquire VoIP company Sipura - $68M cash

Cisco Systems is acquiring Sipura, a VoIP adapter maker, for $68 million. Sipura is a small company, and its gear will be merged with Linksys, the networking and router company Cisco bought in 2003. Two key reasons for the deal: Sipura has some large service providers as customers, and its products are interoperable with Cisco competitor Nortel Networks.

[Info World]

Jamdat Acquires Blue Lava, Wins 15-Years Rights to Tetris for mobile

"Global wireless entertainment publisher JAMDAT Mobile announced the completion earlier today of its acquisition of Blue Lava Wireless, LLC for approximately $137 million. As part of the transaction, JAMDAT has acquired an exclusive, 15 year worldwide license to the wireless telephony device rights for Tetris (with an option for an additional 3 years), one of the most popular mobile games worldwide. JAMDAT will immediately acquire the rights to publish Tetris in North America, Latin America and India, marking the first time that Tetris has been distributed in Latin America and India. Additionally, JAMDAT will acquire the Tetris wireless rights for Europe, China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand, as the current licensees' rights expire throughout 2005."

[PhoneContent.com]

WhenU, Inc. Attracts $20M Investment From ABS Capital Partners

"WhenU.com Inc., a leading provider of software-based contextual online advertising, announced today that it secured $20 million of Series A equity from ABS Capital Partners, a leading private equity firm focused on investing in established and profitable growth companies. The investment will be used to expand the sales and marketing force, acquire new distribution channels, continue software development and provide working capital. Ralph Terkowitz, a general partner at ABS Capital Partners, former CEO of WashingtonPost.com and current vice-Chairman of TrustE, had previously joined WhenU's Board of Directors in October 2004. "

[Marketwire]

WhenU will compete heads on with Yahoo/Overture, Google/Adsense, and other smaller contextual ad players. Online advertising is a large space ($3.5 billion in 2004) but YHOO and GOOG continue to dominate the space and will soon roll out new, innovative enhanced services.

Zeroing in on Middle-Market Retailers

"Not since the heady leveraged buyouts of the 1980s have such returns been seen in private equity. While the big box retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. are dominating the retail sector, and big department store mergers and potential buyouts hit the headlines, much of the action is among the small fry. "

[IDD]

Arena Solutions Announces $15M Round

"Arena Solutions, the leading provider of on-demand product lifecycle management software for mid-sized manufacturers, today announced that it has secured $15 million in funding. With this round, led by BA Venture Partners, and including investments from Otter Capital, Arthur Rock and Warren Hellman, Arena Solutions is entering a period of accelerated company growth in response to the aggressive adoption of PLM enabled by on-demand."

[Marketwire]

Arena was formerly known as Bom.com. $13M was raised in previous rounds by Arthur Rock, IDEO Ventures, and others. Arena lists well over 20 customers including Color Kinetics, Aruba, Alien, Dow Corning, Sierra Wireless. The company competes with the likes of Agile Software, Metaphase, Microsoft.

Security firms rake in funding

"Venture-capital firms are pouring millions into IT security firms.
Four companies have recently received financing: Anti-spyware and privacy firm Tenebril; SenSage, a maker of systems for collecing, storing, and analyzing event log data; enterprise digital rights management firm SealedMedia; and Intrusic, which makes technology to detect and remediate internal network breaches."

[SC Magazine]

DoubleClick deal reflects rebirth of online ad fervor

"Venture capitalists have long been the tough kids in the Internet advertising playground."

"Google, Shopping.com and NexTag are just a few examples of the castles they've built. These companies are generating boatloads of cash from advertising placed online."

"Lately, though, there's a new breed of investors that want to play: buyout firms."

"Earlier this month, San Bruno venture firm VantagePoint Ventures injected $60 million into Datran Media, a company that does everything from serve ads related to a Web site's content to direct e-mail marketing (read spam) and telemarketing."

"Datran's competitor, San Francisco's Adteractive, is reportedly about to raise a huge round of $100 million or more from investors led by General Atlantic Partners, with fundraising help from Perseus Group, a boutique San Francisco investment bank. General Atlantic and Perseus declined comment."

[SiliconValley.com / Matt Marshall]

Cisco Gaining Traction In Storage Networking

"Banc of America Securities said that after a "slow start," Cisco Systems is "gaining traction in storage networking." Banc of America said, "With expectations for great market growth, share gains, and more than 60% gross margins, we are positive on Cisco's position." The research firm said, "Business continuity and disaster planning, storage consolidation, data usage, and government regulations are driving robust demand for storage capacity, and Cisco is gaining share." Banc of America said Cisco is gaining share with traction at major original equipment manufacturers, particularly EMC (nyse: EMC). The firm, which rates Cisco at "buy," said its 12-month price target of $24 assumes the shares trade at 21-times the calendar 2006 earnings-per-share estimate of $1.13. "

[Forbes.com]

TheFaceBook snags a $81M pre-money valuation!

"Crazy days. I heard from a reliable source that TheFaceBook, which is a college social network with about 2 million users I think, was in the midst of a $6 million raise at $64 million pre (!) with an east coast media firm when Jim Breyer of Accel Partners literally interrupted and offers $9 million at an $81 million pre! This for a company with no track record, started by green college students, with Sean Parker as an advisor, in a space in which there are already many, big social network players. This is more of a story about how Accel, who hasn’t made a distribution in a while, is getting desperate. You didn’t hear it from me."

[Always ON]

The Biggest VC Deal of Q2?

Justin Hibbard from the Business Week's Deal Flow Blog reports that Adteractive will report a first round of financing in excess of $100M. Adteractive is a performance-based digital marketing services and technology company based in San Francisco.

Comparables in the space include 24/7 Media, Doubleclick, ValueClick, and FastClick, which went IPO a couple weeks ago and raised a mezzanine round late last year.

Fastclick's stock has not been favorably viewed by the street.

Say it ain't so Lenny!

"Lenny Dykstra's longtime friend and business partner has accused the former Philadelphia Phillies center fielder of using steroids and gambling illegally during his baseball career in a civil lawsuit, according to a newspaper report."

[CNN SI]

DoubleClick in PE buyout

It's final:

"Private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC has agreed to lead the buyout of Internet advertising company DoubleClick Inc. for $1.2 billion in cash and assumed debt.
New York-based DoubleClick, which advises advertising agencies, marketers, and Web publishers on marketing over the Internet, said Monday, April 25, in a statement that its shareholders will receive $8.50 a share, or a 10.6% premium to the closing price on Friday. That values the DoubleClick equity at $1.1 billion."

"In addition, San Francisco-based Hellman & Friedman and its partner San Diego-based venture-capital firm JMI Equity Fund LP will assume $135 million of zero-coupon subordinated notes."

[The Dealy Daily]

Jerry Putnam - An Electronic Trader's Big Score

"Jerry Putnam has muscled his way into the pantheon of bright lights in the emerging world of stock trading. As the CEO of Archipelago, the ex-stockbroker will become one of three co-presidents under CEO John Thain in the NYSE Group. According to BusinessWeek, that positions Putnam to promote and champion the future of electronic trading to the detriment of the specialists. Something like this has been talked about for decades. Now, thanks in large part to Putnam, it is happening. It will be exciting to watch."

[Fierce Finance / Business Week]

Topio Secures $8M Round from Star Ventures

"Topio(TM), (www.topio.com), the leading provider of enterprise software for data replication and recovery, announced today it has secured an $8 million round of venture financing; led by Star Ventures with participation of existing investors Sequoia Capital and Sigma Partners. Topio will utilize the funds to expand its sales, marketing, and product development activities to meet strong customer and channel demand throughout North America and Europe."

[Business Wire]

Sequoia led the first round of financing back in March 2001. Sigma led the $10M round in November of 2002. Topio competes in a very competitive space against Veritas, IBM/Tivoli, and Legato.

Infoblox Secures $30 Million

"Infoblox Inc., a developer of network identity infrastructure (NII) systems, today announced that it has closed $30 million in equity funding. The round was led and fully subscribed by its existing investors, including Sequoia Capital and Lehman Brothers, underscoring their enthusiasm for the network identity infrastructure market and their confidence in the Infoblox solutions and team. "

[Marketwire]

This was a Series E funding with participation from Chess Ventures (Schwab personal money), Duchossois Technology Ventures, and Open Praire Ventures. Infoblox claims to be the leading developer of network identity appliances with over 500 customers worldwide.

RMD Raises $3M for Healthcare Communication Network

"RMD Networks, Inc. today announced the company has secured $3 million in Series A financing to fund a unique technology that fosters improved system communication within the healthcare community. The investment was led by Sevin Rosen Funds, a top-tier venture capital firm, and facilitated through a partnership with Vesalius Ventures, a telemedicine venture capital accelerator. "

[TMCNet]

SideStep CEO steps down

SideStep, a search engine for travelers, said Chief Executive Brian Barth will step down and that the company will immediately begin searching for his replacement. Chief Financial Officer Russ Lemelin will serve as interim CEO, handling both positions until a replacement is found, Vice President of Marketing Phil Carpenter said.

[Venturewire]

ManiaTV Sees Itself As the Internet MTV

ManiaTV.com had 1 million viewers in February and has been doubling its audience each month, Massey said.


He won't disclose monthly revenues but says monthly expenses are roughly $500,000 for the 65-employee outfit with about 125 "campus maniacs" (students who earn stipends to spread the word at 300 U.S. colleges) and representatives in seven U.S. cities.


He says he expects to turn a profit in 12 months, unless ManiaTV spends more on investment and growth.

Start-ups shouldn't bother with detailed business plans: Mike Moritz

"According to BusinessWeek's Deal Flow blog, Michael Moritz, a general partner at VC firm Sequoia Capital and an early investor in Google, Yahoo! and Cisco, while speaking at the VentureOne conference in San Francisco told a story about Google that demonstrated why VCs always say they invest in entrepreneurs or ideas--and not business plans."

"As you might know, Google started out thinking it would sell its technology to corporations for internal use. After a year or two, that plan clearly wasn’t working. So the entrepreneurs started casting around for another strategy. "There is nothing like a declining cash balance to focus the mind," Mortiz quipped. Google's founders noticed the success of GoTo (later renamed Overture and bought by Yahoo) and set out to improve on its paid-search model. The rest is history--and so is Google's original business plan, which, to the founders' credit, they never formalized."

"When evaluating a nascent startup, Moritz doesn't look for a detailed blueprint of the future. "The longer the business plan, the worse the prospects for the company," he said. "The more comprehensive the financial projections, the more unlikely a company is to meet those expectations." The business plan for Intel was famously written on half a sheet of paper. Yahoo! never had a formal plan, Mortiz said. But in both cases, the founders had a very clear idea of the product or service they wanted to build."

[Venture Intelligence India]

Virgin Mobile USA Takes Step Toward IPO

"Telecoms group Virgin Mobile USA has hired investment banks Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) over a planned U.S. flotation of the company, a source close to the situation said Sunday. "

[Reuters]

Hellman & Friedman poised to buy DoubleClick

"San Francisco's Hellman & Friedman LLC could be close to acquiring the Internet-advertising firm DoubleClick Inc., according to a report published earlier this week."

"DoubleClick's shares climbed 16 percent Thursday to $8.56 after the New York Post identified buyout shop Hellman & Friedman as the leading contender to purchase the New York firm in a deal with an estimated value of $1.2 billion. The shares were little changed Friday. Both firms declined to comment."

[SF Gate]

Opinity

"San Jose, Calif.-based Opinity, Inc., a personal online and social reputation services company, has received $2.7 million in venture funding. The round's investors, all of Seoul, included SoftBank Ventures Korea; Solborn Investment, a South Korean publicly-traded Solborn company; Korean venture capital firm Korea Investment Corp.; management consulting firm Valmore Partners; and undisclosed angel investors. Using Opinity, individuals can review the online behavior of others as well as evaluate their own reputation data. Founded in 2004, the company partners with businesses such as auctions, classifieds, forums, gaming, relationship and social networking sites, to provide their customers information that customers need to make decisions about dealings through the Internet."
[The Deal / George White]

Founded in 2002, Opinity is the first online personal reputation services company. Based in San Jose, California, the company's management team has 40 years of combined experience in high technology. Wongyu Ted Cho, chief executive officer, and Doyon Kim, chief product officer, founded successful Internet start-ups Dialpad Communications and Serome Technology, growing large-scale web services from inception to acquisition.

Software startup TeleSym calls it quits

Bellevue-based TeleSym is closing its doors.

The 5-year-old software startup, which raised $18 million from Intel, Thomas Weisel Venture Partners, Siemens and others, developed technologies that allowed people to make phone calls over wireless Internet networks from mobile devices.

About 40 people were laid off yesterday, with all of the employees receiving some form of severance package, TeleSym Chief Executive Bob Hart said. The company, which won top honors at the prestigious Demo and Internet Telephony conferences in 2002, could return some of the capital to investors if it is able to sell the intellectual property assets, Hart said.

[SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER]

ConnectU.com creator sues thefacebook.com

"The close similarities between the two sites prompted creators of connectU to sue thefacebook.com's creator in the Massachusetts U.S. District Court for allegedly stealing both the concept and source code for the site."

"More than two years ago, Harvard sophomores Divya Narendren and twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss came up with the idea for an online directory system, Winklevoss said."

"They made an oral arrangement with Mark Zuckerburg to complete the coding for the connectU idea, he said. Zuckerburg eventually stopped working for connectU and founded his own site, thefacebook.com."

Sleeze.

TheFaceBook - raising a round from Accel?

As reported by alarmclock, thefacebook may have a raised a round of financing from Accel:

"Now a mole tells us that in an effort to restore Accel to its former glory, Breyer and his partners are throwing a lot of junk against the wall and hoping that something sticks."

"The case in point is thefacebook, a college social networking site, that was recently in the midst of raising a round from "an East coast media firm" at an already bubble-like valuation, when Accel swooped in and jacked up both the valuation and the size of the investment. We've seen the supposed figures - they make us dizzy. We don't know if the deal has been finalized."

Facebook CEO (one of 5 co-founders of the company), Mark Zuckerburg was at Harvard studying Psycholoy from 2002 - 2004 when he moved out to San Francisco to grow thefacebook (sounds like pud's move to SF to grow adbrite)

Check out traffic growth of thefacebook. Traffic rank for the site has jumped 556 places to #275 on alexa.



The site still has no business model and is no where near the traffic level of myspace. Time will tell if Accel and/or other VCs made the right investment at such a high valuation.

Red Herring Spring | Top 100 Private Companies

The list is baaack. Top IPO ready companies include Arcsight, Fortinet, Calix, Force 10 Networks, Netscaler, Vonage, Webroot.

Other interesting companies new to the list include ANDA Networks, Bivio, Blue Fang Games, Chimerix, Cittio, COPAN Systems, Webroot (see latest round raised from Accel and others), Sorrent, Six Apart, Passave, etc.

Web Growth, Innovation Threatens Papers

"Craig Newmark already has tormented newspapers by creating a Web site where anyone can post ads at little or no cost, capturing an ever-growing share of the classified advertising market that had been one of the industry's most dependable sources of revenue."

"Now, the founder of Craigslist.org is pondering ways to improve upon newspapers. He smells an opportunity, convinced that publishers are more interested in preserving short-term profits than pursuing online audiences who still passionately care about journalism but don't read newspapers."

[AP]

CoolMon - system stats on your desktop

New chip technologies power the "triple play"

"Higher bandwidth chip technology innovations are enabling service providers to deliver "triple-play" residential service plans. IDC says the addition of VoIP and high-definition video services will remain a top priority for many carriers and cable providers worldwide. The market research firm notes that increased competition from several fast-moving CLECs, large cellular carriers and specialized VoIP and IP video service providers, coupled with the desire to increase annual revenues per user, will drive further equipment replacement and expansion. In this environment, IDC predicts that the worldwide combined DSL, cable modem and passive optical network (PON) semiconductor market will pass the $2 billion mark by 2009."

[Fierce VoIP / IDC]

How VC Thwarts Innovation

Intersting weekly feature from IEEE Online.

The tech bubble saw an explosion of VC-funded start-ups—and a dearth of orignal ideas explains Bart Stuck & Michael Weingarten of Signal Lake Partners. They examine 1303 electronic high-tech initial public offerings for a 10-year period ending in 2002 and sorted out those that were VC-funded and compared them with those that were not. They rated them on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the most technically innovative.

Their findings: "Overall, the level of innovation during that decade was surprisingly low. Even more dismaying, it did not correlate well with VC funding: the level of innovation actually dropped sharply after 1996, even as venture funding was going through the roof."

"VCs won't look favorably on funding proposals involving years of research—regardless of the potential payoffs. It's not that they are not interested in innovation. They just won't fund innovation that takes time."

Casinos Bet Big on RFID

"Radio-Frequency identification technology is headed to Las Vegas, and it may just hit the jackpot. Casino chips embedded with RFID tags are being tested at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and will be on full display this month at the new $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino. The chips -- each of which will ultimately be given a unique player code to track behavior and wring more revenue out of high rollers -- could be a $100 million business by 2010. "

[Business 2.0]

Cisco to Buy Topspin - $250M

Cisco Systems Inc. said Thursday that it agreed to purchase privately held Topspin Communications Inc. for about $250 million cash and stock.

Company raised over $60M from Accel, Advent, Meritech, Presidio VP, Redpoint. Last round raised was in '03.

More from TheStreet:"Cisco needs new product markets to revive its growth prospects. In recent years, the company has targeted areas such as security and storage networking as potential growth areas. But in storage, for example, nearly two years of toil have left Cisco with only a small portion of the business."

Xanga.com ripe for the picking?

According to Marketwatch, little known Xanga is the third most popular blog site, only behind Google's Blogger with 8M accounts and LiveJournal's 6.6M accounts.

Xanga currently ranks as #14 top site on the internet according to Alexa.com, while Myspace (funded recently by Redpoint VP, and trades on the AMEX) ranks #18, Friendster (KP and Battery backed) #37.


Check out the graphs of Xanga vs. other blog communities.







Who will acquire Xanga? Yahoo (360 beta), Google, Microsoft already all have their own blog communities. And, LiveJournal was recently picked up by Six Apart.

Perhaps an Interactive Corp or AskJeeves (given their recent interest and acquisition in Bloglines) will find them accretive?

Or, Xanga may not even be up for sale, like Craigslist

Samsung pitches for WiBro wireless spec

"Trend: Samsung backs mobile TV technology WiBro

Samsung is backing a new wireless technology designed to let users watch TV on mobile devices and access the Internet. The new technology, called WiBro, is at the head of a new specification, called Digital Media Broadcasting. WiBro can transmit data at speeds up to 700kbps. Samsung and other backers are working to make WiBro compatible with emerging broadband wireless technology WiMax. Samsung yesterday was named to the board of directors of the WiMax Forum."


[Fierce Wireless/CNET]

AIM@Work: AIM Sync (Beta)

"With AIM Sync, you can add Buddies from your Outlook Contacts to your AIM Buddy List feature with one click of your mouse. Instantaneously, AIM Sync will scan your Contact list and match up email addresses with AIM screen names in the AIM database. It will even let you list your instant buddies according to their screen names, mobile phone numbers or both."

Plaxo-esque synch feature

Ciclon Semiconductor Purchases Agere Systems' Radio Frequency LDMOS Product Line Assets

"Ciclon Semiconductor Device Corp., a privately held developer of high frequency LDMOS products, announced today that it has acquired the RF LDMOS Product Line of Agere Systems (NYSE:AGR.A, AGR.B). With this acquisition, Ciclon will acquire certain research and development and manufacturing assets and inventory for ARF4 and ARF5 high voltage LDMOS technologies from Agere. In addition, Agere will license and assign critical intellectual property and software associated with the product line to Ciclon."

"The Ciclon team, led by CEO Mark Granahan, is composed primarily of former Agere Systems management and technologists who have extensive experience in RF and LDMOS product development and production. Key members of the team were involved in the ground breaking development and qualification of Agere's first generation technology, ARF4, taking less than twenty four months to commercialize. "

[BusinessWire]

QUALCOMM Announces Industry's First CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision A Chipset

"QUALCOMM Incorporated , pioneer and world leader of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital wireless technology, today announced the on-time sampling of the industry's first chipset for CDMA2000(R) 1xEV-DO Revision A, the Mobile Station Modem(TM) (MSM(TM)) MSM6800(TM) chipset, optimized to drive demand for data-intensive wireless multimedia. The high-performance, fully integrated MSM6800 single-chip solution, part of QUALCOMM's Enhanced Multimedia Platform, provides a full suite of integrated multimedia features to deliver significantly increased processing capacity and optimized audio, video, camera and graphics capabilities."

[TMCNet]

Lazard IPO

"As the world turns at Lazard, the latest chapter features the controversial boutique filing for an IPO, which laid bare some interesting heretofore unknown facts. It's fair to say Bruce Wasserstein, who was modestly paid last year (no bonus), stands to fare well. It's shooting to sell 30.5 million Class A shares for $25 to $27 each. Lazard will also concurrently offer $250 million of equity security units, plus up to an additional $37.5 million of equity units if the underwriters exercise options to buy additional units. The proceeds will be used to redeem membership interests held by partners. Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Lazard, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston and JPMorgan Chase are listed as underwriters."

[Fierce Finance / NYTimes]

Mintera raises $18M Series B

"Mintera Corp. says it has landed some new funding and has stocked its board with more industry heavyweights. The company today announced an $18.5 million Series B funding round led by new investors Polaris Venture Partners and RRE Ventures."

"No matter, Mintera's future -- and the appeal of 40-Gbit/s networks -- hasn't looked this strong in a while. "We're aware of a lot of RFP activity; anyone working in the backbone needs a network that's 40-Gbit/s capable," Unter says."

Seems like the company and its product are too early to market. Time will tell.

[Light Reading]

TDK Unit Sold to Golden Gate Capital

"Irvine-based chip maker TDK Semiconductor Corp. has been sold to San Francisco investment firm Golden Gate Capital for an undisclosed sum, the companies said Monday."

"TDK Semiconductor was a unit of TDK USA Corp., the American arm of Japanese electronics conglomerate TDK Corp. TDK Semiconductor will retain its current management team and remain headquartered in Irvine, but it will be renamed, Golden Gate said."

[LA Times]

Hedge Funds Move into Private Biotechs

"Move over, venture capitalists. Trying to get an edge on potential initial public offerings, yield-hungry hedge funds are investing in private biotechnology companies. "

[IDD]

IDC reports wireless LAN market boom

"IDC has attributed soaring growth across the wireless LAN (WLAN) market to a rapid adoption of broadband technology by consumers and SMEs."

"According to its latest figures, the overall sector grew by 119 per cent in 2004 compared to 2003. This was driven by a strong performance from the wireless router and switch segments, which both increased by around 500 per cent year on year. "

[ComputerWorld]

Pamela Anderson blogged

Are you Pamela's friend...ster? Here are more blogs from the cast and crew of Stacked, the new comedy airing April 13th on Fox. Interesting that Friendster has signed with Fox considering Scott Sassa, Friendster's CEO is an NBC guy.

Political Friendster

The Coming Chip Revolution

"Facing the limits of silicon, scientists are turning to carbon nanotubes."

[BusinessWeek]

MDV invests in Jadoo Power Systems

"If you've ever met Erik Straser, a VC at Mohr Davidow Ventures, you know this guy is passionate about energy. When I visited him at MDV's office in Menlo Park, Calif. last year, he filled the conference room with an expansive discussion about natural resources, global geopolitics, distributed generation, and the like. So when he called today to talk about MDV's first energy investment, I expected something big and revolutionary. Turns out it's small and practical. "

[Business Week Blog]

Google unveils mobile local search

"SAN FRANCISCO, April 11 (Reuters) - Internet search leader Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) late on Monday announced a test service for finding local restaurants, stores and other businesses via Web-enabled cell phones and other mobile devices."

"Google's local search service for mobile will be available in the United States and Canada at http://mobile.google.com/local, or from the main Google search page on mobile devices starting Tuesday morning."

[Reuters]

Union Square & Amazon fund Del.icio.us Service

"Surprise surprise..."

"It didn't come as much of a shock to find Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures led the funding, but that Amazon were involved was a little more interesting..."

"The list runs like this: Union Square, Amazon, Marc Andreessen, BV Capital, Esther Dyson, Seth Goldstein, Josh Koppelman, Howard Morgan, Tim O'Reilly, and Bob Young."

[Threadwatch.org]

Terachip receives $7.2 million cash injecton, appoints CEO

"TeraChip Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.), a provider of switching chips said it has raised $7.2 million in its latest funding round and appointed Rod Kay as president and chief executive officer. "

Accel and Benchmark med the latest round.

[EE Times]

Google v Craigslist

"As we discussed in this week's lead feature on geodata and Jack pointed out previously, open source information really lets you do some amazing things with mapping information."

[Guardian Unlimited | Onlineblog]

Dot-com ads make a comeback

"After the bubble burst in 2000, online advertising started a slow but steady rebound, and it's still climbing"

[SF Chronicle]

Google Gets (More) Mobile

"Google is getting a little bit more mobile with every new service it launches."

The firm's new question-and-answer service is somewhat reminiscent of older search engines like Ask Jeeves, answering quick questions through the wonders of the Web browser interface.

But Google is also making this service available on phones via SMS text messaging. Users can text questions to 'googl' (that's 46645 to the alpha-phobic amongst you) and receive answers on the phone. "

[Unstrung]

Product competes directly with 4info, who just raised a round from DFJ and others.

Greenfield Online Acquires CIAO AG for $154 Million

Greenfield Online, Inc (Nasdaq: SRVY - News), a leading provider of Internet survey solutions to marketing research and consulting companies, today announced it has completed the acquisition of Munich-based Ciao AG for aggregate consideration valued at approximately $154 million USD.

Ciao previously raised EUR28 million in three rounds of venture capital financing from Index Ventures, Apax Partners, Hubert Burda Media, and Wellington Partners. Its most recent round was raised in 2001.

AIG: What's the Buzz?

Is AIG worth the buy right now given the low valuation from the scandal - (e.g. Tyco, Martha Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, K-Mart, or Worldcom) ? Bill Mann says, "Uncertainty provides opportunity. But uncertainty should also be recognized for what it is."

[Motley Fool]

Yahoo backs Wikipedia, forges closer search ties

"Internet media company Yahoo Inc. said on Thursday it is providing servers and bandwidth to aid the Asian expansion of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia written and edited by people from around the world."

"Yahoo's backing is valued at "several hundred thousand dollars," said David Mandelbrot, Yahoo's vice president of search content."

[Reuters]

And whatever happened to DMOZ.org

GoFish

"GoFish Technologies is the first search technology company focused on digital media search and discovery, enabling search-engines to deliver meaningful and profitable product functionality in one of the highest-growth categories in the search market."

As of 11:16PST, Over 28,346,232 downloadable files to search and download.

SPAM

The United States remains the largest source of unwanted e-mail, or spam, but other countries are catching up, a security firm said.

[AFP Illustration]

The Evolution of Web Search

"As we've become completely immersed in the Internet era, Google has become a verb, librarians are increasingly lonely, and most of us have mastered the basics of Boolean logic--without even knowing exactly what it is. We've become a society of information managers, navigating huge amounts of data with ease and expertly tracking down obscure facts and figures."

[Forbes]

SEVEN Networks To Merge With Smartner

"SEVEN Networks Inc. and Smartner Information Systems Ltd., two closely held niche players in the wireless e-mail sector, plan to announce a merger as early as next week, sources told Dow Jones."

"Additional details weren't immediately available."

[Dow Jones]

SEVEN had pulled their IPO sometime last year. Company had filed for $100M IPO with only $7M in 2003 revs (net loss $13M). Look for the combined company to compete with Visto, Infoware, Good, Blackberry and others in the space.

VCs Find the Energy to Tap New Markets

"It doesn't take much more than a glance at oil prices to figure out that energy has become the biggest drag on the economy. It's less obvious that energy has become a huge opportunity for startups and investors. In practically every conversation I've had with venture capitalists lately, energy has come up as a sector in which they're looking to invest, if they haven't done so already."

[Business 2.0]

Progress Software Buys Apama

"Progress Software Corp., a supplier of technology to develop, integrate and manage business applications, on Wednesday announced it acquired privately held Apama Inc. in an all-cash transaction for about $25 million, net of cash acquired."

"Progress Software anticipates aquisition-related revenue of between $2 million and $3 million for the balance of fiscal 2005. The company said it expects the impact on operating income to be neutral, excluding in-process research and development, retention payments and amortization of acquired intangibles."

[AP]

8-12x multiple on Apama's 05 revs. Apama is based in the UK and investors include Carlyle Anschutz. Company raised over $24M with the last round valuation at $15M in 7/03.

Welcome to The Internet Archive Wayback Machine

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine puts the history of the World Wide Web at your fingertips. The Archive contains over 100 terabytes and 10 billion web pages archived from 1996 to the present.

Metric: Mobile sports revenues to top $1.3B in 2005

"According to a new study from Juniper Research, global revenue from mobile sports services -- including text-based sports updates and bulletin boards, video clips of highlights, and streaming mobile content -- will double to $1.3 billion by the end of 2005. Europe will account for the bulk of revenues from these services, accounting for 69 percent of the total. Asia and the US will both experience a dramatic increase in usage, with the US mobile sports market projected to generate more than $1 billion by 2009. The report predicts there will be more than 210 million mobile sports services users worldwide by 2009, including 120 million in Asia. North American share of the global mobile sports market will grow from 1 percent in 2004 to 26 percent in 2009."

[Fierce Wireless]

Zoominfo.com (formerly Eliyon)

Company was formerly Eliyon, the people search company. Their previous model (may be the same model still) was selling to enterprises - F500 companies. Now they seem to be targetting end users, with their google-esque search bar (on their home page).

Venrock is a backer. Previous customers include Oracle, Lockheed Martin, Wachovia, IBM, Microsoft, and Staples

"Our company name is changing, but our mission is not. Zoom Information Inc. - formerly Eliyon Technologies Corporation - remains focused on developing and delivering people information solutions that are at the forefront of technology innovation and that meet our customers' needs.

"ZoomInfo is a unique summarization search engine that finds, understands, extracts and summarizes information about people on the Web. Currently, ZoomInfo features more than 25 million people and 1.5 million company summaries.

"Hundreds of companies - including more than 20% of the Fortune 500 - use ZoomInfo to streamline their recruiting efforts, compile sales leads, enhance competitive intelligence efforts, and more. Our commitment to continued excellence in the recruiting, sales intelligence and financial services markets is firm. Our new branding better reflects our overall strategy and focus of summarizing people information on the Web."

More here from Search EngineWatch and InternetAdSales.com

Yagoohoogle

It's Yahoo and Google - 1 page, 2 frames.

CNET Buys Photo-Sharing Startup Windup

NEW YORK (AP) -- In the latest of a rush of online photography deals, CNET Networks Inc. said Tuesday that it bought a photo management and networking startup to bolster its Webshots picture-sharing site.

CNET, which operates a collection of technology and information Web sites, did not disclose how much it paid for Windup Labs and its HeyPix! service.

[AP]

Amazon Acquires Publisher BookSurge For On-Demand Printing

"Paper back: On Tuesday, Amazon.com (nasdaq: AMZN - news - people ) announced it had acquired BookSurge, a publishing company that will print books when ordered, rather than using warehouses stocked with titles. Charleston, S.C.-based BookSurge maintains a catalog with thousands of titles ready for print, all available for sale on Amazon. 'Print-on-demand has changed the economics of small-quantity printing, making it possible for books with low and uncertain demand to be profitably produced,' explained Greg Greely, Amazon's vice president of media products. The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Greely went on to explain that BookSurge would make it possible to print books for specific audiences, such as foreign-language titles and specialized art books, rather than for the general public."

[Forbes.com]

Fastclick off to slow start

"Fastclick Inc.'s initial public offering was flat Friday, April 1, a disappointing market debut for a company that landed the largest first round of venture capital funding in 2004."

"Shares of the Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Internet advertising company closed at their offer price of $12 on Nasdaq. The price was at the low end of the company's projected range of $12 to $14 per share. Fastclick sold 5.6 million shares to raise $67.8 million."


"It looked to be a good deal,' said Ben Holmes, principal at Protege Funds, a Boulder, Colo., investment firm that focuses on IPOs. 'The color we were hearing was positive, the allocations were very small, everything looked to be in order. Then you get the bomb with the $12 pricing. It just came out of the blue."

"Fastclick has been profitable since 2001. Last year it reported net income of $5.1 million on revenue of $58 million, compared with net earnings of $5.8 million on sales of $28.7 million in 2003."

"The company last year raised $75 million in financing from a group that included Highland Capital Partners Inc., Oak Investment Partners LP and Steamboat Ventures, the private equity investment arm of Walt Disney Co. Both Lexington, Mass.-based Highland and Menlo Park, Calif.-based Oak Investment have 25.5% stakes in the company that, based on the offering price of $12 a share, value their holdings at $59.7 million. Burbank, Calif.-based Steamboat Ventures has a 3.6% stake valued at $8.5 million."

"Holmes said one factor that may have deterred investors from the offering was FastClick's January disclosure that the company paid co-founders Jeff Pryor and David Gross, $21.8 million and $10.4 million, respectively, in September in connection with the $75 million fundraising."

"You could say it was a total disappointment and didn't trade as well as we hoped,' Holmes said. 'But you can also say the deal came in at $12 and it is trading around $12.75 [in midday trade]. It's not a failure. The underwriters knew the book and priced the thing correctly; it just wasn't the hot piece of business we hoped for. "

[The Deal]

Google Maps to Use Satellite Images

"Google Inc. plans to begin letting users plot driving directions and pinpoint locations on detailed satellite maps, upping the stakes in its competition with Yahoo Inc., America Online Inc.'s MapQuest.com, Microsoft Corp.'s MSN unit and other online mapping and search services."

[WSJ.com]

Groove backers left short

"Financial backers failed to recoup their investments in Groove Networks Inc., and rank-and-file employees weren't compensated for stock they'd been given in the Beverly software company that has agreed to be purchased by Microsoft Corp., according to documents filed in a lawsuit brought by a former Groove executive."

[Boston Globe]

Buyout Firms Are Redefining Turnaround

"Thanks to the hot IPO market, leveraged buyout firms can claim to have turned around a company in a matter of months. In the old days, a company went private, new management would spend a few years fixing it up and then a transaction would occur. Nowadays, the market seems willing to bet on established, albeit struggling, big companies that show promise. They're willing to bet on a turnaround rather than wait for it."

[Fierce Finance / AP]

Siano Mobile Silicon raises $11.5 million

"Mobile TV chip maker Siano Mobile Silicon snagged $11.5 million in first round funding from JVP (Jerusalem Venture Partners) with participation from Walden Israel and Star Ventures. Siano was founded in June 2004 by a group of Israeli entrepreneurs led by Alon Ironi, former CEO of Emblaze Semiconductor, who serves as the company's CEO, together with Adam Fisher, a General Partner at JVP and Siano's chairman of the board. The company develops silicon receivers for the mobile digital TV (MDTV) market."

'Social Network' Recruiting

"HR professionals are trying products such as Visible Path, which measures the strength of relationships by analyzing company e-mail accounts, and LinkedIn Jobs, an online job board that allows users to visualize how many “degrees of separation� lie between them and potential job candidates."

[HR Magazine]

Review: Desktop Search Programs Differ

"No longer is search just about finding stuff on the Internet. The battleground has moved to individual PCs as leading search companies develop free tools for cataloguing your computer. The three I tried are all good at finding files -- even ones I thought I had long deleted (whoops!!!)."

[AP]

Next Big Tech Ideas May Be Small Ones

"Five years after the tech boom went bust, there's a dearth of million dollar or billion dollar ideas, or so some fret."

"But it doesn't mean that there is no smart new technology to wow consumers. It's just that people are finding more efficient ways to do it."

[Reuters]

West Coast online community the Well marks 20 years with 4,000 subscribers

"Twenty years ago, two seminal Internet communities were born -- one on the East Coast, one on the West."

"The East Coast community, now known as America Online, has 22.4 million subscribers. The West Coast community, the Well, has just 4,000."

"Yet many credit the comparatively diminutive Well, which celebrated its 20th birthday Friday, with inspiring much of today's online interaction."

Poisson d'Avril

"Emperor penguins look up at a giant imposter at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, Japan. Zoo director Teruyuki Komiya dressed up for a stint in the penguin enclosure for the annual April Fool event to display a human being at the zoo(AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno)"

Rabble - Mobile blogging company

"A new technology expected to launch in April promises to turn cellular phones into mobile blogging tools."

"The application, called ``Rabble,'' streamlines the now-cumbersome process for publishing text or images from a cell phone to a Weblog. It also creates a way to search mobile blogs for items of interest -- from homes for sale in a particular neighborhood to updated tour information for a favorite band."

[SJ Mercury]

Airgo Plots Possible IPO

"Last December, Raleigh said the firm had shipped over a million of its chipsets in just seven weeks (see Airgo Hits Million Mark). Now, he says -- if the momentum continues -- the firm could go public next year."

[Unstrung]

Airgo's investors include Accel, Nokia, Oak, OVP, Sevin Rosen. Over $80M has been raised in the company. Last round raise was at a $125M post money valuation.

Invasion of the iSCSI arrays

Will iSCSI storage kick the SAN into extinction?

"If you ask Jim Tarala, CIO at Schenck Business Solutions, why he tossed his Fibre Channel SAN out for IP-based networked storage, you'll get a quick answer: cost savings. The fact that he also doubled capacity didn't make the decision any harder. Those two factors, according to experts and tech leaders, are primary drives in pushing IP SANS ahead of Fibre Channel. According to IDC, the trend is being driven by the big enterprises who are salivating to consolidate and save money. Ease of administration and maintenance are adding to the allure is iSCSI storage products. It's no surprise then that pundits expect every major vendor will have a native iSCSI SAN offering by year's end."

[Fierce CIO / TechWorld]

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