Monday, July 31, 2006

Interview with Brett Butler, CEO of Axiom Microdevices

Ziff Davis: We’re For Sale, Somebody Please… | paidContent.org

"So this has been the worst kept secret in the trade media world: Ziff Davis has been trying to sell itself…rather its owner, private equity firm Willis Stein & Partners, which bought the magazine assets of Ziff Davis for $780 million in cash in 1999, has retained Evercore Partners and Lehman Brothers as its bankers for a possible sale, in full or in parts."


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Tech Confidential Blog: Social networking comes of age

"The over-50 crowd needs a social network, too. That’s the latest mantra of Jeff Taylor, founder of job site Monster.com, who on Monday launched his latest venture, Eons.com, a MySpace.com of sorts for the 50-plus crowd. "

Cell-Phone Sector Offers Technology Bright Spot

"This weekend's program featured an interview with a Texas Instruments executive, and I couldn't help but listen given that the stock of this fine tech company hit a 52-week-low last week."

Sunday, July 30, 2006

YouTube CEO says IPO would be 'exciting' - MarketWatch

"The buzz around the new brand has built in recent days as YouTube founder Chad Hurley, 29, emerged as the latest Internet whiz kid with well-covered appearances at the Allen & Co. bigwig retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho and at the Always On Conference.
Sitting down for a chat with MarketWatch's Bambi Francisco, Hurley declined to say if anyone has approached the company to buy it out even as 100 million videos a day are watched."

Friday, July 28, 2006

Alien Technology joins growing list of scrapped IPOs - MarketWatch

"Alien Technology joined a lengthening list of initial public offerings to dry up in the summer heat in the face of geopolitical jitters, swooning markets and more attractive places to put your money."

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Dead2.0

Mr. Sand Hill Slave and his assessment of dead 2.0 '06, Funding the Web 2.0 gravy train

Private Equity Week: Worldview Technology Partners is calling it a day

"Worldview Technology Partners is calling it a day, PE Week has learned. After nearly a year of trying to raise $275 million for its fifth fund, the Palo Alto-based venture capital firm has withdrawn the offering, according to two sources.
One of Worldview's co-founders declined to comment and the firm's other partners did not respond to PE Week's messages seeking comment."

pascalsview: Best Practices for VC Board Meetings

Entrepreneurship Blog: 65 VC & Angel Investor Blogs


Feld Thoughts
VC Adventure
McInblog
Burnham's Beat
Our Man in Nirvana
Venture Chronicles
Will Price
Early Stage VC
Who Has Time For this?
Beyond VC
Oxyfish
Jeff Clavier's Software Only
Venture Blog
Signum sine tinnitu - by Guy Kawasaki
SF Venture
Texas Startup Blog
Mark Pincus Blog
Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed
Way Too Early
Redeye VC
A VC
This is Going to be BIG
Union Square Ventures
Tim Oren's Due Diligence
From Istanbul To Sand Hill Road
The VC in Me...
Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
TJ's Weblog
Now What?
Pure VC
Allen's Blog
Seeing Both Sides
Release1.0
The Perceptions and Reverie of a VC Investor and Entrepreneur
Genuine VC
Northwest VC
Geekfishing Blog
A Little Ludwig Goes A Long Way
VC Ball
Ego Ventures
Israeli VC on Sand Hill Road
Chritine.net
Venture Chicks
Venture Inside
VC Mike's Blog
Why VC?
VC Confidential
Florida Venture Blog by Dan Rua
The NVA Blog
Alsop Louie Partners
Seriously Clueless
Is this Israel?
The Post Money Value
Occam's Razor
NW Venture Voice
Cleantech Investing
Bill Gurley's Above the Crowd
Pascal's View
Ventureblogalist
Sacred Cow Dung
Class V
Paul Graham: Essays
Morten Lund
Life With Alarcity
Rodrigo A. Sepulveda Schulz

Agilent | Agilent Technologies signs agreement to acquire Xpedion Design Systems, a leading provider of RFIC simulation and verification software

"Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and Xpedion Design Systems, Inc. today announced they have signed a definitive agreement for Agilent to acquire Xpedion, a privately held company that provides software for wireless and high-speed digital circuit and systems design in the communications industry. The transaction is subject to standard closing conditions. Financial details were not disclosed.
The combined passion, technology and capabilities of these industry-leading companies will drive innovation and continue to solve the challenging problems faced by radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) designers.Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and Xpedion Design Systems, Inc. today announced they have signed a definitive agreement for Agilent to acquire Xpedion, a privately held company that provides software for wireless and high-speed digital circuit and systems design in the communications industry. The transaction is subject to standard closing conditions. Financial details were not disclosed.
The combined passion, technology and capabilities of these industry-leading companies will drive innovation and continue to solve the challenging problems faced by radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) designers.Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and Xpedion Design Systems, Inc. today announced they have signed a definitive agreement for Agilent to acquire Xpedion, a privately held company that provides software for wireless and high-speed digital circuit and systems design in the communications industry. The transaction is subject to standard closing conditions. Financial details were not disclosed.
The combined passion, technology and capabilities of these industry-leading co"

SI.com - Writers - Austin Murphy: Landis denies doping allegations - Thursday July 27, 2006 4:00PM

"Floyd says he didn't do it -- didn't inject testosterone, didn't apply a testosterone patch to any part of his body. Floyd Landis just returned my call, and I asked him straight up: 'Did you do it, bro?'"

"Dr. Moosburger explained how it was done. "You put a standard testosterone patch that is used for male hormone-replacement therapy on your scrotum and leave it there for about six hours. The small dose is not sufficient to produce a positive urine result in the doping test, but the body actually recovers faster."

DriveCam Highlights Riskiest Driving Behaviors in Recognition of National Safety Month

"DriveCam Inc., the Driver Risk Management (DRM) company, announced today that it is supporting June 2006 as National Safety Month by highlighting risky driving behaviors that can lead to collisions. By identifying those driving behaviors that are more likely to result in accidents, DriveCam strives to heighten awareness and improve safety for commercial drivers and the communities they work in."

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

HP to acquire Mercury for $4.5 billion - Yahoo! News

"HP said on Tuesday that it was buying Mercury Interactive for $4.5 billion in a deal to become a leader in IT management software.

HP will pay $52 per share for Mercury in a deal that will combine that company's suite of application management software and services with HP's OpenView family of network and IT service management software, HP said in a statement."

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

AMD's Dangerous Dell Deal - Forbes.com

"Two months ago, Advanced Micro Devices got a long-sought win: It cut a deal with Dell to start supplying processors for some of the computer giant's servers. Dell has traditionally only used chips from AMD's rival Intel, so the pact was supposed to be big news for AMD, and a sign of bigger things to come."

Google's new click fraud fighter emerges - MarketWatch

"Internet search engine Google Inc. says its newest weapon against click fraud is the truth.
Starting Monday evening, Google's hundreds of thousands of AdWords advertising clients could learn the number of times Google believes their ads were the subject of click fraud.
The goal is for Google advertisers to get their first, real look at the scope of the click fraud problem and how it directly impacts them, according to Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google' business product manager, trust and safety. The truth, or at least how Google sees it, could be a powerful weapon in Google's favor, Ghosemajumder said. Internet search engines and their advertisers disagree about the amount of click fraud that occurs."

Limelight Takes the Spotlight [Fool.com: Commentary] July 25, 2006



"A new delivery boy: In June, Akamai and MIT together sued Limelight, which describes itself as 'the content network for digital media.' At issue are two MIT patents licensed exclusively to Akamai. One covers software that captures and copies data from a website so that it may be distributed across an unlimited number of servers. The other, according to The Boston Globe, is for a process for capturing photos and images to be used by content delivery networks (CDNs), which bring the Web geographically closer to users."

Limelight takes $130 mln from Goldman; eyes Akamai | Reuters.com

"Limelight Networks Inc., an up-and-coming rival to market leader Akamai Technologies said on Tuesday it had completed a $130 million equity financing round from Goldman Sachs Capital Partners. Akamai and Limelight are the leading players in the content delivery market -- specialized networks that media distributors count on to help them speed the delivery of digital files, music and movies to business and consumers over the Internet."

Vinod Khosla debunked: ethanol is NOT the answer | EnergyBulletin.net | Peak Oil News Clearinghouse

There we come to the crux of the matter: People trust that he knows what he is talking about. The Wikipedia biography says he is “successful and influential�. Make no mistake; he is influencing people in this ethanol debate, including political leaders. Khosla is convincing people that his projections are viable. Yet, are they carefully scrutinizing his claims? No, because they trust him. Yet claims like his, will dampen conservation efforts, and Americans will not be prepared for Peak Oil. After all, Khosla, a guy they trust, says we are going to produce enough ethanol to replace our oil imports.

Become a Billionaire in 3 Easy Steps

In fact, Khosla’s slide 78 shows very optimistic growth projections in all of the following areas: crop yield per acre, ethanol yield per ton, and acres of biomass planted. It shows cellulosic ethanol growing from 0 gallons produced in 2006 to 173 billion gallons produced in 2030. We will need that ethanol to get to our condos on the moon. Fortunately for us, he has cellulosic ethanol scaling up just as corn ethanol starts leveling off. The result is an exponential curve of ethanol production that he extends out to the year 2030 (slide 17, shown below), at which time he has the U.S. producing almost 200 billion gallons of ethanol (versus the current 4 billion gallons). Because after all, we all know that crops don’t fail, droughts don’t happen, and technology always delivers on its promises. That’s why I don’t worry about bird flu. I know a vaccine will be produced in plenty of time.

Red Herring 100 Asia



The 200 companies short-listed as finalists for the “Red Herring 100 Asia�:


24/7 Customer
India
Outsourcing

24X7 Learning
India
Software

51.com
China
Internet and services

51show
China
Internet and services

9You
China
Internet and services

abKey
Singapore
Computing

ACL Wireless
India
Communications

Actela
Korea
Security

Advanced Radio Engineering
India
Communications

Aidi Communications
Japan
Semiconductors

Aigo
China
Computing

Airoha
Taiwan
Semiconductor

Allyes AdNetwrok
China
Internet and services

Antig
Taiwan
Energy

AppLabs
India
Software

ASKnLearn
Singapore
Internet and services

Aurigo Software Technology
India
Business software

Avesthagen
India
Biosciences

Axstone
Korea
Communications

Baihe Online Technology
China
Internet and services

bbmao.com
China
Internet and services

Bluebird Soft
Korea
Computing

Britesoft Solutions
Malaysia
Software

BuzzCity
Singapore
Internet and services

CGen media
China
Entertainment and media

Cgogo
China
Internet and services

China Broadband Communications
China
Communications

China Data Group
China
Outsourcing

ChineseAll
China
Internet and services

Chipnuts
China
Semiconductor

CinemaChoice
China
Internet and services

ClearTrail Technologies
India
Communications

Clipcomm
Korea
Communications

ColorME
China
Internet and services

Comat Technologies
India
Software

Comsenz
China
Internet and services

Converge Labs
India
Communications

Coruscant Tec
India
Internet and services

Creative Mobile
Korea
Communications

CSDN
China
Internet and services

Daumsoft
Korea
Internet and services

dianping.com
China
Internet and services

DideoNET
Korea
Communications

Dratek
China
Internet and services

Drishtee Dot Com
India
Software and services

DynaScan
China
Entertainment and Media

EC Navi
Japan
Internet and services

eDuShi
China
Internet and services

eInfochips
India
Semiconductor

Encore Software
India
Software

Enovation
Australia
Business software

Ensoltek
Korea
Biosciences

ESQUBE
India
Communications

Euglena
Japan
Biosciences

Evalueserve
India
Outsourcing

eWarna
Malaysia
Internet and services

Exist Software Engineering
Philippines
Business software

gammaStar
China
Biosciences

Gbaopan.com
China
Storage

Geotude
Malaysia
Internet and services

GetData
Australia
Security

GigaDevice Semi
China
Semiconductor

Gmedia
China
Communications

GNI Ltd.
Japan
Biosciences

GoPets
Korea
Entertainment and media

Gpans
Korea
Security

Hansun Tech
China
Internet and services

HiChina
China
Internet and services

hoodong
China
Internet and services

Huanxin
China
Internet and services

Hurix Systems
India
Software and services

Hutchison MediPharma
China
Biosciences

I.T. UNITED
China
Services

i1
China
Business software

IamEmo
Australia
Communications

Icon Lab
Korea
Communications

Ideamov
China
Communications

Imagis
Korea
Semiconductor

IndiaIdeas.com
India
Internet and services

iNFOiSLIVE
China
Entertainment and media

Infozech
India
Communications

INKA
Korea
Entertainment and Media

Innoviti Embedded
India
Communications

Innoxius
Singapore
Communications

InstaColl

Intellicus Technologies
India
Business software

iSoftStone
China
Outsourcing

i-Sprint Innovations
Singapore
Security

iVista
India
Software and services

iWOW
Singapore
Communications

Jade Technologies
China
Semiconductors

Jataayu Software
India
Communications

KaiTone
China
Communications

LDK Solar Hi-Tech
China
Solar

Linguamatix
Malaysia
Internet and services

Madhouse
China
Internet and services

Majitek
Australia
Computing

MakeMyTrip
India
Internet and services

MassMedia Studios
Australia
Internet and services

Mauj Telecom
India
Communications

McubeWorks
Korea
Communications

MetricStream
India
Business software

Miartech
China
Semiconductor

midas
India
Communications

MindTree Consulting
India
Outsourcing

Mobile2win
India
Internet and services

MobilityOne
Malaysia
Internet and services

Mofile
China
Internet and services

Morpho, Inc
Japan
Software

Mostitech
Korea
Computing

MTEKSOFT
Korea
Computing

MyZus
India
Communications

Nano Carrier
Japan
Biotech

Nano Fusion
Japan
Energy

Naukri.com
India
Internet and services

Naviblog
Japan
Internet and services

Nayio Media
Korea
Internet and services

NeoAccel
India
Communications

NetAlter
India
Internet and services

Netinfinium Technologies
Malaysia
Communications

NetMagic Solutions
India
Outsourcing

Netpia
Korea
Internet and services

new rock tech
China
Communications

Newgen Software
India
Software

n-Logue Communications
India
Internet and services

Noah Education
China
Computing

Novatium Solutions
India
Computing

Oak Pacific Interactive
China
Internet and services

Ocimum Biosolutions
India
Biosciences

PayEase
China
Internet and services

Peering Portal
Korea
Software

Pentamicro
Korea
Semiconductor

People Interactive
India
Internet and services

Persistent Systems
India
Software

Personal Computer to Network
China
Software

Phi Microtech
Japan
Semiconductors

PI R&D
Japan
Electronics

Pinstorm
India
Internet and services

PIVoD Technologies
Australia
Entertainment and Media

POSDAQ
Korea
Internet and services

Powai Labs
India
Semiconductors

Pulse
Australia
Internet and services

RAMSWAY
Korea
Semiconductor

Rock Mobile
China
Communications/wireless

Shanghai Hintsoft
China
Internet and services

Shanghai Nanamimi
China
Internet and services

Shanghai Sunway
China
Biosciences

shenzhen horizon
China
Internet and services

SiBiono GeneTech
China
Biosciences

silk road
China
COmmunications

SIMmersion Holdings
Australia
Software

Singular ID
Singapore
Nanotech

SkyWave
Japan
Communications

SmartPay Jieyin
China
Internet and services

SoftJin
India
Semiconductors

SoftRun
Korea
Computing

SoGua
China
Internet and services

sss
China
Internet and services

Str8Up
China/USA
Internet and services

Sun Wah Linux
China
Software

SunTec Business Solutions
India
Software

Symbio
China
Outsourcing

Syscan Digital Systems
China
Internet and services

Taiwan Liposome Company
Taiwan
Biosciences

TechnoDex
Malaysia
Software

Teledata Informatics
India
Software

TELiBrahma
India
Communications-mobile

tenCube Pte. Ltd.
Singapore
Handsets

Teruten
Korea
Security

Thin Multimedia
Korea
Communications

tianji.com
China
Internet and services

Tmsuk
Japan
Computing

Tomato LSI
Korea
Semiconductors

Toodou
China
Internet and services

Toonz Animation
India
Entertainment and Media

Trinity
Japan
Security

Trusted Delivery
Singapore
Security

Ubicod
Korea
Media and entertainment

Ultra Chip
Taiwan
Semiconductors

Vembu
India
Computing-storage

veredus laboratories
Singapore
Biosciences

VietnamWorks
Vietnam
Internet and services

WaaWoo
Korea
Computing

WAPTX
China
Internet and services

Wayz Japan
Japan
Business software

Wealink
China
Internet and services

Winitech
Korea
Business software

WITS Interactive
India
Internet and services

Worksoft Creative Software
China
Services

WSO2
Sri Lanka
Business software

XCome
Taiwan
Communications

XPlus
China
Internet and services

xueda
China
Internet and services

xunlei
China
Internet and services

YASU Technologies
India
Business software

YeePay
China
Internet and services

YiCha Online
China
Internet and services

YourAmigo
Australia
Internet and services

zhongsou
China
Internet and services

Zio Interactive
Korea
Entertainment and media

A Little Money Goes A Long Way

"Using the power of social networking to help small businesses around the world "

Facebook to give away 10 mln iTunes music samplers | Reuters.com

"Facebook, a wildly popular online social networking site, on Tuesday said it would give away 10 million music samplers to Macintosh and PC users from the iTunes Music Store in a back-to-school promotion."

Motorola to buy on-demand video firm Broadbus | Reuters.com

"Motorola Inc. said on Tuesday it will acquire privately held Broadbus Technologies Inc., a provider of technology for on-demand video for multiple devices."

$25 million more for Zillow

"The financing -- led by Boston-based Par Capital Management and including funds from Benchmark Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures -- comes just nine months after Zillow raised $26 million. And it brings total financing in the 19-month-old company to $57 million, making it one of the most heavily funded consumer-Internet startups to emerge in the past two years. Last month, the company attracted 2.1 million unique visitors, ranking 11th among real estate Web sites, according to comScore Media Metrix."

Monday, July 24, 2006

SEQUANS Raises US $24 Million in Financing Led by Kennet Venture Partners

"SEQUANS Communications, a leading supplier of fixed and mobile WiMAX chips, has raised US $24 million in a new round of equity financing. The round was led by Kennet Venture Partners, a leading international private equity firm that provides growth equity to technology businesses in Europe and the US. SEQUANS' existing investors, Add Partners, Cap Decisif, T-Source, SG Asset Management and Vision Capital, also participated in the round. "

Kazaa, Skype, and now "The Venice Project"

"Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the entrepreneurs who created the pioneering Web applications Kazaa and Skype, are working on a new communications venture, BusinessWeek.com has learned. The pair plans to develop software for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web, according to people familiar with the matter.

Working under the code name 'The Venice Project,' Zennstrom and Friis have assembled teams of top software developers in about a half-dozen cities around the world, including New York, London, and Venice. The teams are currently in negotiations with TV networks, although it's not clear whether any agreements have been reached. A formal announcement of the new venture could come as early as this fall. "

Saturday, July 22, 2006

ESPN.com - OLY/TDF2006 - Julich Diary: The most amazing ride I've ever seen



"Floyd Landis' Stage 17 ride on Thursday was the most amazing ride I have ever seen in my life and will go down as one of the best rides of all time, and Landis will go down as one of cycling's gutsiest riders.
For him to bounce back like he did, after such a devastating blow to his confidence, it's nothing short of amazing, (a) to just have the mind-set to give it a shot at all, and (b) to maintain his advantage over the 200.5-kilometer stage and the brutal last climb (12 kilometers on an 8.5 percent gradient)."

Friday, July 21, 2006

Micro Persuasion: Wikipedia Gets Clustered Search Engine

"FUTEF has created a new way to search Wikipedia that is actually kind of clever. They scour the open source encyclopedia the way Google and Wikipedia themselves do, but they go a step further in letting you narrow your search by category. So, as they explain, if you're searching for cuisine it will return related categories that help you drill down further. I would love to see them add live previews and, more importantly, RSS feeds so I can track a search."

InnoCentive


"InnoCentive® is an exciting web-based community matching top scientists to relevant R&D challenges facing leading companies from around the globe. We provide a powerful online forum enabling major companies to reward scientific innovation through financial incentives."

Where Is The Station? » Blog Archive » PornoTube: A YouTube For Porn

ESPN - 2007 Porsche 911 Turbo Photo Gallery

37Signals, 1 Big New Investor: Jeff Bezos

"Since we launched Basecamp we’ve been contacted by nearly 30 different VC firms. We’ve never been interested in the typical traditional VC deal. With a few exceptions, all the VCs could offer us was cash and connections. We’re fine on both of those fronts. We don’t need their money to run the business and our little black book is full. We’re looking for something else. "

GigaOM : » Jeff Bezos Invests in 37Signals

"Amazon founder and chief executive officer Jeff Bezos has invested in 37 Signals, a Chicago-based software-as-a-service company. The investment comes from Bezos Expeditions, a personal investment company of Jeff Bezos. The company has steadfastly refused venture capital investments, but I guess changes are in order."

Thursday, July 20, 2006

EETimes.com - Moto Q 'teardown' finds XScale inside

"Motorola's stylish new Q smart phone is powered by an XScale applications processor from the business unit that Intel Corp. said early this month it would sell to Marvell Technology Group for $600 million, according to a 'teardown' analysis conducted by market research firm iSuppli Corp.
The chip, PXA270C5C312, is the same processor that iSuppli (El Segundo, Calif.) found in a recent analysis of the Blackberry 8700c, the firm said. "

Mountain View Access Points and Coverage Holes

Neat

GigaOM : » Skype, All Talk, Just Not Facts

"The only information we have – Skype business brought in $44 million this quarter, up 25% from last quarter when that line of business brought in $35.2 million. Just to play around for a minute, in the first quarter 2006, Skype business brought in about 37 cents per registered user. In the second quarter that number is up to 39 cents per registered user. Hey growth is still growth, even if its two pennies.
Thanks to free calling, Whitman pointed out that by June there were 10 million users in North America."

RED HERRING | Obesity Fight Gets $45.2M Lift

"EnteroMedics said Wednesday it raised $45.2 million in a third round of venture funding that will spur development of a device to help the morbidly obese lose weight.EnteroMedics said Wednesday it raised $45.2 million in a third round of venture funding that will spur development of a device to help the morbidly obese lose weight."

Search engine optimization and Online marketing: Yahoo & Zillow Partner for Home Estimate Search

"Zillow and Yahoo have teamed for real estate estimate search as Zillow Zestimates are showing up as a shortcut in Yahoo search results. In addition to the search shortcuts, Zillow is also be featured in Yahoo’s real estate section for finding the value of a home."

Redeye VC: After all is said and done, more is said than done

"So - how does a VC get comfortable with an entrepreneur's ability to execute? When I look at my current investments -- and try to separate those companies that are thriving versus those that are struggling -- a few things stand out. "

TechEffect: CinemaNow beats MovieLink to the punch

"Earlier this week MovieLink announced a deal which could allow its users to burn downloaded movies onto DVDs some time in the future. This is a huge step, unfortunately MovieLink's main competitor, CinemaNow actually rolled out the service today, according to M&C Movies."

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Jobster reels in $18 million more in VC

"Jobster, which helps employers recruit online, has raised $18 million more in venture capital and is launching a service for employees.
The Seattle company has now raised $48 million, a significant amount for a two-year-old enterprise.
The new money comes on the heels of the launch of Jobster's new Web site, which went live Thursday. The site (www.jobster.com) now allows job seekers to search for an opening by job title and city.
The results are pulled from numerous sites, including Monster.com, craigslist and others."

YouTube - Beyonce - Deja Vu (Music Video) (DVDHQ)

Central Valley Business Times: MaxPreps

"MaxPreps Inc. of Cameron Park says it raised $7 million in a recently-completed second round of financing.
Investors include BEV Capital, DFJ Frontier, and lead investor Dolphin Equity Partners.
Salvatore Tirabassi of Dolphin Equity Partners and Mike Majors of BEV Capital will join MaxPreps' board of directors.
The money will be used to increase marketing and distribution, add new senior management and expand business development efforts, the company says."

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Yahoo stock falls on disappointing sales

"Shares of Yahoo fell more than 10 percent in after-hours trading minutes after the world's largest Internet portal reported only a 26 percent increase in quarterly sales and a 78 percent drop in net income.
In a release, Yahoo reported a 14 percent increase in adjusted net income, excluding stock-based compensation, for the quarter ended June 30."

The Technology Chronicles : What's old is a new investment again

"Venture capitalists are increasingly rummaging for 'beaten-down' companies in the debris from the tech-stock bust to make lower-risk bets on companies that survived.
'It's not five guys in a garage; it's 500 guys in a warehouse,' Rory O'Driscoll, a managing director at BA Venture Partners in Foster City, who has been studying such 'survivor' deals, told VentureWire."

EETimes.com - Matsushita backs analog/RF tool startup

"Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. has made a strategic investment in analog/RF tool provider Berkeley Design Automation Inc., joining previous investors Woodside Fund and Bessemer Ventures to provide $6 million in Series B funding, Berkeley Design said Monday (July 17).
Berkeley Design (Santa Clara, Calif.) claims that its Precision Circuit Analysis technology enables designers to verify analog/RF circuitry problems that otherwise would be impractical or infeasible. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. has made a strategic investment in analog/RF tool provider Berkeley Design Automation Inc., joining previous investors Woodside Fund and Bessemer Ventures to provide $6 million in Series B funding, Berkeley Design said Monday (July 17).
Berkeley Design (Santa Clara, Calif.) claims that its Precision Circuit Analysis technology enables designers to verify analog/RF circuitry problems that otherwise would be impractical or infeasible. "

United Press International -Analysts fret over new Internet 'bubble'

"Steadily rising levels of venture capital have some tech analysts worried that a second risky Internet bubble has developed.
The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that some Silicon Valley observers believe speculative capital is once again chasing technically unsound ideas and that another shakeout like the disaster of 2000 could occur.
'The market has capacity for a certain number of successful winners,' Mike Hirshland, a general partner with Polaris Venture Partners, told the newspaper. 'Whether it's one, two or, if it's really exciting, three, is debatable ... but eight?' "

Advertising Age - MediaWorks - YouTube Rival Revver's Killer App Is Its Ad Model

Revver.com's model is attractive to video makers because of its ad-revenue sharing model, but that's not the only reason they chose it. "They don't make you give up any copyrights, the small ad is at the end of the piece so you don't have to watch a 30-second ad before you see the work, and we really liked the backgrounds of the people behind it," Mr. Voltz said.

The ad Revver attaches is a simple one-frame clickable spot tacked onto the tail of the video. Revver founder and CEO Steven Starr's unique idea for Revver is that the coding, or the proprietary technology that tracks data about each piece of content, resides on the file. So content creators who send their original work to Revver are sent back a "revverized" version that can be put anywhere on the net. The Diet Coke and Mentos ad, which debuted online about a month ago, actually resides on Mssrs. Voltz and Grobe's site, Eepybird, although it can also be accessed at Revver.com and many other places online.

RED HERRING | US Crackdown on Web Gambling

"The U.S. government upped the ante on online gambling with the arrest of a high-profile executive of a Costa Rica-based sports-betting enterprise and the announcement of indictments charging 11 individuals with racketeering, conspiracy, and fraud.

David Carruthers, chief executive of BETonSPORTS and a British citizen, was arrested on Sunday as he attempted to change flights in Dallas on a trip from the United Kingdom to Costa Rica"

RED HERRING | ShopWiki Scores $6.2 Million

"ShopWiki received $6.2 million in its first round of funding Tuesday, enabling the shopping search engine created by three DoubleClick executives to expand internationally.ShopWiki received $6.2 million in its first round of funding Tuesday, enabling the shopping search engine created by three DoubleClick executives to expand internationally."

Tiny New Chip Holds Big Promise

"Researchers at Hewlett-Packard have created a chip so tiny that it could almost invisibly store information on ID cards, hospital wristbands, or digital postcards.
The Memory Spot device, roughly the size of a grain of rice, is based on CMOS low-power circuit technology and has a built-in antenna. The chips could be embedded in a sheet of paper or stuck to any surface, and could eventually be available as self-adhesive dots. "

Venture funds' big rebound

"Fundraising by venture capital firms and their big cousins, buyout firms, is on track to hit new records, which could pump more money into Silicon Valley companies and start-ups.
In the second quarter ended June 30, 50 venture capital firms raised $11.2 billion, the most since the first quarter of 2001 and well beyond the $6.8 billion raised in the first quarter of 2006, according to a report released Monday by Thomson Financial and the National Venture Capital Association."

Monday, July 17, 2006

Reuters Mobile To Move To Ad-Supported in U.S.; New Mobile Site | paidContent.org

"Reuters, the news agency, is making an important statement about mobile advertising: it is moving all its mobile content services to being ad-supported. Also, it is launching a new mobile site, and it is sponsored exclusively by HP, promoting its new line of color laser printers."

Technology | Reuters.co.in: Paymate

"Silicon Valley private equity firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and its Indian partner Sherpalo Ventures have bought an undisclosed stake in Indian mobile commerce enabler Paymate, senior fund officials said.
KPCB's third investment in India suggested that the private equity business was flourishing and that bigger deals could be on the way, industry officials said on Friday.
Sherpalo and KPCB together are investing more than $5 million in the three-month-old company that had been developing for nearly three years a software product to enable transactions on mobile phones, but is yet to launch it.
'The investment is upwards of $5 million,' said Sandeep Murthy, partner at Sherpalo Ventures and the Indian representative of KPCB, but declined to discuss details."

RED HERRING | Phone Firms Create Ruckus

"Ruckus Wireless added 16 local phone companies Monday to its suddenly packed customer portfolio, making it one of the leading independent providers of in-home wireless communications technology.

The Sunnyvale, California-based startup, a Red Herring 100 company, is hoping to establish the credibility of its portfolio of products among rural phone companies looking to offer broadband and IPTV (Internet Protocol television) services in their markets."

uXcomm Gets $13.6M

"Beaverton, Oregon-based uXcomm, a provider of software for embedded systems management and deployment, has raised $13.6M. uXcomm said this morning that it received the Series B funding from Intel Capital, along with existing investors Foundation Capital and OVP Venture Partners. uXcomm will use the funding for product development, sales and marketing, and to expand its global operations. The funding brings its total funding to over $20M. uXcomm's software is used by server, storage, and application system builders to develop management software. "

Friday, July 14, 2006

Winblad says dollars going to private equity 'frightening' - San Francisco Business Times:



"Ann Winblad criticized the amount of money flowing into private equity -- of which venture capital is just a small portion.
'It's a frightening number,' she said. "

YouTube - ZIDANE a new way to solve problems.. do it like zidane...

YouTube - Playboy Body Painting Video

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Kronos buying staffing company Unicru for $150 mln | Reuters.com

"Kronos Inc., which supplies staffing services and software to companies, on Thursday said it agreed to buy privately-held staffing company Unicru for $150 million.
The all-cash deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Kronos' fiscal 2006. The company said Unicru is expected to add total revenue of about $50 million in fiscal 2007.
Kronos expects the deal to add to earnings in fiscal 2008, it said."

Citrix Wins Microsoft Partner of the Year Award for Breakthrough Office Systems Software Deployment: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

"Citrix Systems, Inc., the global leader in access infrastructure solutions, today announced Citrix Access Suite(TM) won the 'Office Systems Desktop Deployment Award' in the Information Worker Solutions Category at Microsoft's 2006 Worldwide Partner Conference. Citrix was selected from a highly competitive field of thousands of Microsoft partners for delivering innovative access solutions built on Microsoft technology to healthcare services specialist Beverly Enterprises, among Citrix's 180,000 enterprise customers. Microsoft presented the award, Citrix's first in the Information Worker category, at a ceremony on July 13 in Boston, Mass."

Steven Syre Boston Capital - The Boston Globe: TH Lee Success

"The last private equity fund fully invested by Thomas H. Lee Partners is no exception, a cash pool of $6.1 billion first raised in 2000 and ultimately sunk into 23 companies. One of those investments, the fund's stake in the infamously bankrupt brokerage Refco Inc. , attracted public attention like a magnet. The eventual tally on Lee's interest in Refco depends on the results of litigation, but its $450 million investment is carried on the fund's books at a loss of nearly $170 million today.

The rest of the Lee fund, which receives much less attention, is a very different story. A long list of solidly profitable and occasionally spectacular investments in the portfolio has lifted its return to limited partners over 28 percent, after fees on an annualized basis, according to investors familiar with the fund."



"But Lee investors who committed their money six years ago have to like the way the investment story has turned out."

CinemaNow Secures $20.3 Million



CinemaNow Inc., the leading Internet provider of premium on demand movies, today announced it has secured $20.3 million in Series E financing led by new investors EchoStar Communications Corporation and Index Holdings. Previous investors Transcosmos, Cisco Systems, Lionsgate and Menlo Ventures also participated in the financing, marking the company's largest single round to date.


"The strong financial backing from established leaders in the technology, entertainment and investment communities will allow us to accelerate our growth and maintain our leadership position in digital distribution," said Mark Amin, chairman of CinemaNow. Added Curt Marvis, CEO of CinemaNow, "By establishing strong commercial agreements as part of the financing with EchoStar and Index, leaders in satellite and mobile services respectively, CinemaNow will remain on the cutting edge of new and innovative models defining the next generation of home entertainment."

YouTube - Boob Bash

IndianExpress.com :: It’s raining venture capital funds for Indian, South Asian firms

"Making a mark in the field of venture capital, companies run by Indians and South Asians in the US last year raised more than Rs. 6,525 crore ($1.45 billion). In the first six months of this year, they raised $591.2 million (Rs 2,659 crore). "

YouTube - boob

RED HERRING | China VC Gold Rush Continues




"Beijing—Venture investment in China in the first half of 2006 nearly doubled to $772 million compared to the same period in 2005, according to a new report.

The report, released by Zero2IPO, a Beijing-based venture capital research firm, at the China Venture Capital Semi-Annual Forum 2006 on Tuesday, found that 121 Chinese firms received venture investments, an increase from the first half of 2005 by 49 percent.

The number of firms, however, also represents a 17 percent decline from the 147 firms that landed venture funding in the second half of last year. Still, total venture investment has risen 5.4 percent over the second half of 2005.

“Valuations are up, and the average deal size is now $6.2 million, up from $4.2 million last year—an increase of almost 50 percent,� said Zero2IPO CEO Gavin Ni.

But Mr. Ni called this trend a “low-grade fever,� not a clear valuation bubble."

Red Herring Asia - August

Red Herring Asia “Meet Asia’s Innovators� Summit



Join Asia’s Foremost Entrepreneurs and Venture Capital Experts in Celebrating Innovation and Winners of Red Herring 100 Asia Award
in Hong Kong, August 28-30, 2006

Summary:
On August 28-30, 2006, over 300 delegates will come together in Hong Kong to discover an exceptional array of entrepreneurs and leading experts from the best technology firms in Asia. Themed “Meet Asia’s Innovators�, Red Herring Asia 2006 will present the winners of the Red Herring 100 Asia award, selected by Red Herring editors from nearly 500 submissions. Each attendee at Red Herring Asia is personally invited to join this exclusive gathering. The program will feature high-level keynote sessions, panel discussions, corporate presentations by winners of Red Herring 100 Asia award, and insights by top-tier global venture capitalists and investors who will share their strategies and accomplishments in venture investment in Asia. Beyond networking opportunities with Asia’s most sought-after entrepreneurs, the conference provides deep insight into the Asian technology scene.


Conference Contact: Maggie Xiao at mxiao@redherring.com 650-585-3419
Media Contact: For Communications and Public Affairs, please contact Xenia von Wedel, Terpin Communications at Xenia@terpin.com, phone 415-595-2030

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

MobiTV Receives $70 Million Investment Led by Oak Investment Partners: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

"MobiTV, Inc. the global leader in television and digital radio services for cellular, WiFi and broadband-enabled devices, today announced the successful first close of the company's Series C financing. The $70 million investment led by Oak Investment Partners will fuel the Company's rapid expansion in response to the overwhelming demand for its mobile television and radio service across international markets. Oak Investment Partners' Bandel Carano will join MobiTV's board of directors as part of this investment."

Sequoia Capital China denies reports of switch to semiconductor investments - Forbes.com

"Sequoia Capital China has denied media reports that it will shift its investment focus from the Internet to semiconductors.

Its founding managing partner Neil Shen told a conference in Beijing that reports of a change in direction for the venture capital firm over the next few years were mistaken.

'That is quite a misquote,' he said of the report, which cited Steven Ji, vice president of Sequoia Capital China, as predicting that its investments in semiconductors would increase and those in the Internet would decline. "

AsiaMedia :: WORLD: Porn from video-sharing

"Popular video-sharing websites that are supposedly safe for children are themselves the source of nudity and violence, say parents.
Such websites are meant to protect children in gated online communities, where all participants are screened, but parents say that scenes that make them blush are appearing.
The user-generated videos have become a phenomenal form of entertainment and appear on the websites of MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo, Google and, soon, also Microsoft Corp's MSN.
YouTube, the leading video site that helped catapult the genre with a public launch last December, attracted more than 20 million visitors in May this year. The company says it averages 50,000 new video uploads per day.
It all began several years ago with Napster, whose users shared online files, especially on music. An explosion of amateur online music-sharing took place -- and the trend spread to video-sharing.
The latest concern among parents is in contrast to the usual worry about pornography sites and paedophiles in chatrooms."

RED HERRING | Online Poker Rakes in $3.3B

"As lawmakers debate the future of online gambling in the United States, evidence continued to build Tuesday for the eventual regulation of an industry worth tens of billions of dollars.

A new study suggests that Internet poker, if properly regulated and taxed, could net the federal government a hefty $3.3 billion each year. According to the study’s author, Internet poker’s explosion in popularity merits serious consideration.

“It is the major draw in terms of Internet gaming,� said Judy Xanthopoulos. “It’s already responsible for most of the growth.� "

WSJ.com - Making a Buck Off Your Pet-Trick Videos

"In his spare time, Patrick Sell, a 31-year-old marketing analyst, enjoys shooting short videos of well-dressed women strolling along New York City streets, then posting them on the Web. He used to upload his productions -- about 180 to date -- on the video-sharing phenomenon YouTube, but now prefers a new service called Revver. The reason: Revver pays him.
Revver allows Mr. Sell to pocket a portion of the revenue the site takes in from ads it attaches to his clips -- an amount that now earns him about $15 a day. 'My issue with YouTube is that even as the producer of the video, I can't get paid for it,' says the self-styled video auteur, who asks the women for permission to film them and also posts his clips on Idonothingallday.com."

More on revver.com, a DFJ portfolio company

Secure Computing to acquire CipherTrust | CNET News.com



"Secure Computing said Tuesday that it plans to acquire messaging security firm CipherTrust in a deal estimated at $273.6 million. The deal, which will give shareholders of privately held CipherTrust a 14 percent stake in the combined company, includes $185 million in cash, 10 million shares of Secure Computing stock, and a $10 million note that is contingent upon hitting certain performance goals. CipherTrust CEO Jay Chaudhry will become chief strategy officer as well as the vice chairman of Secure Computing's board when the deal closes, which is expected to be by Sept. 8. "


According to Business Week: The company said it expects the deal, which is seen closing by Sept. 8, to add about $15 million to $20 million in revenue in 2006, and roughly $80 million in revenue in 2007.

Our Take: The deal is dilutive to Secure Computing. SCUR is trading down 38% in after hours trading. CipherTrust, based in Atlanta raised their most recent $42 million round in March 2004 led by Battery Ventures and Greylock with participation from USVP and Moro-Moseley. Overall this seems to be a good deal for VC investors and CipherTrust employees. Look for further consolidation and funding in the security/appliance space.

YouTube - alive with technology

Random car commercial.

RED HERRING | Engage Attracts $5 Million



"Engage.com, a next-generation dating site, said Tuesday it has raised a $5-million first round of funding.

The round, led by Advanced Technology Ventures, included seed investors Revolution Ventures, The Founders Fund, and Josh Kopelman, and brought Engage’s total funding to about $6 million.

Engage hopes to spark slowing growth in the online dating sector by adding a twist to the personals formula. The idea is to “bring social networking into dating, more closely mimicking how the world actually works,� said Steve Baloff, a general partner at ATV who has joined Engage’s board.

Social networking sites such as MySpace do serve as dating services for many users, but San Francisco-based Engage, which soft-launched last summer, is a bit more explicit. The company facilitates personal introductions to start relationships. "

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Watson by Intellext. Watson provides context search on the desktop.



"Intellext Inc., which spun-out of Northwestern University early last year, has released a new version of its intelligent search technology and sealed a grant to develop search products for government markets.
The company, which is backed by about $5 million from Palomar Ventures, Motorola Ventures, LaSalle Investments and University Fund, was formed in late 2002 inside Northwestern's DevLab by professors Jay Budzik and Kristian Hammond. Spun out in early 2005, Intellext released a first version of its flagship 'Watson' software in the fall of 2005, said Chief Executive Al Wasserberger.
Intellext's Watson, which can be downloaded in a free, ad-supported version or a subscription-based professional version, is designed to understand what a user is working and proactively search for useful information. The software acts like a sidebar, sitting along side an Internet browser, text document or even a slide show presentation, and intelligently search subjects as a user types. 'Technology like this is about finding information that you didn't know you should be looking for,' said Wasserberger."

MySpace gains top ranking of U.S. Web sites-Hitwise | Reuters.com

"Online teen hangout MySpace.com ranked as the No. 1 U.S. Web site last week, displacing Yahoo Inc.'s top-rated e-mail gateway and Google Inc.'s search site, Internet tracking firm Hitwise said on Tuesday. News Corp.'s MySpace accounted for 4.46 percent of all U.S. Internet visits for the week ending July 8, pushing it past Yahoo Mail for the first time and outpacing the home pages for Yahoo, Google and Microsoft's MSN Hotmail."

RED HERRING | Kontera’s In-Text Ads Get Cash

RED HERRING | Kontera’s In-Text Ads Get Cash: "Kontera, a startup that’s putting text ads right into the text, said Monday it has raised $7 million in venture funding from Sequoia Capital and Lehman Brothers Venture Partners.

The year-old company, which has offices in San Francisco and Israel, is focused on in-text advertising, in which words in the body of the text on a page are turned into links to contextual ads.

The Kontera deal reflects heavy investor interest in the online advertising space, which Forrester estimates will be worth $26 billion by 2010, and an increasing willingness to explore advertising methods that some consumers may find invasive or annoying. "

How It Works

Kontera offers web site owners a JavaScript tag to include in the code of their pages, allowing it to analyze content in real time and pick out links judged to be the most appropriate keywords for advertising. That means ads are no longer relegated outside the main content of the page; when users hover their mouse over the links, ads appear.


Other articles:
Is Kontera the Next AdSense?


No more Kontera AdLink

Indiawest Online: Khosla Ventures Launches Ethanol Plant Company



Khosla Ventures, a venture capital company founded by entrepreneur Vinod Khosla, has formed a joint venture with Western Milling, California's largest grain milling company, to operate 55-gallons-per year ethanol plants.

The first three plants in the joint venture, dubbed Cilion, are expected to be in California, according to Menlo Park, Calif.-based Khosla Ventures.

Cellfire Secures $10 Million Series B Led by Menlo Ventures

"Cellfire Inc. announced today that it has secured $10 million in Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures, one of Silicon Valley's leading venture capital partnerships. The Company
will tap this new financing to drive continued growth in the mobile marketing arena for its critically acclaimed mobile coupon service."

Cellfire(TM) is a free downloadable application that provides valuable coupons from a host of local and national retailers within the user's geographic region. It is the only mobile coupon service available today that provides money-saving deals for some of the most popular national venues. Current offers include rent-one-get-one-free from Hollywood Video,
a free appetizer at T.G.I. Friday's, as well as numerous discounts from retailers such as 1-800-flowers, Carlson Travel and other local retailers.

Thoughtput: News: Gear6 Secures $10 Million To Accelerate Storage And Deliver Real Time Performance

"Gear6, accelerating storage and delivering real time performance, today announced a $10 million round of funding led by InterWest Partners, and joined by previous investor U.S. Venture Partners (USVP). The financing will support the market entry of Gear6 solutions, designed to address the widening gap between increasingly powerful servers and constrained, disk-based storage systems."

Friday, July 07, 2006

YouTube - sexy porn



More and more NC 17 type content popping up on youtube. This latest video is all the rage.

Bambi Francisco: Tribe at less than $5 million?

"From what I hear, the price for Tribe is far from the $50 million reported by Rafat (at Paidcontent.org). Rather it's less than $5 million, according to a source close to the situation. NBC is looking at Tribe's technology to incorporate new Web 2.0 features/tools into its social community iVillage. Of course, $5 million sounds really tiny considering that Beebo (one-year-old social network site received a valuation well north of $50 million). Then again, Tribe hasn't really taken off in popularity, and broadened its user base. According to the latest traffic figures from Nielsen//NetRatings, Tribe.net had 611,000 unique visitors and 2.7 million pageviews in May. By comparison, Friendster (which isn't exactly a success story) had 102 million pageviews in May. Bebo had 123 million pageviews. Yahoo 360 had 117 million pageviews while Tagged (social network for teens) saw 130 million pageviews. "

VC Ratings:Tribe.net

"This confirms what had been apparent for months now: None of Tribe.net's investors are going to profit from their investment. Mayfield, Knight-Ridder and Washington Post Co. will be lucky to get their $9.3 million investment back from NBC. "

SearchOracle.com : Sizing up Oracle's open source tactics

"Oracle is leveraging open source to grow its mainstream products."

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Tribe.net Being Bought by NBC | paidContent.org

Developing: So the rumors which Valleywag first reported on are true…NBC is buying the veteran social networking and online classifieds service Tribe.net, I have confirmed from my sources, though the deal is not supposed to be announced for some time to come. Susan Mernit has also confirmed it from her sources. This is the second online acquisition NBC has done after buying iVillage earlier this year for about $600 million"

Our analysis: the deal was done for probably less than $10M and investors, Mayfield, Knight Ridder, Washington Post who poured roughly $10m into the 20 some odd employee company made little, if any money back.

Traffic Rank for tribe.net: 1,761
Traffic Rank for hi5.com: 59
Traffic Rank for friendster.com: 47
Traffic Rank for xanga.com: 42
Traffic Rank for craigslist.org: 30
Traffic Rank for myspace.com: 5




Website stats: friendster and hi5 traffic trending back up since Jan 06





With increased functionality - video, file sharing, photo grabbing, community postings, ...- added to both social networking sites earlier this year, Hi5 and friendster are now seeing the results as their users are coming back in herds and spending more time on the sites, thus creating further value for adverstisers, and venture investors. Someone should reconsider the $10M offer and buy friendster now.


Is myspace traffic on the decline? Not a chance, according to Bambi Francisco:

News Corp. says that MySpace is adding 230,000 new members each day and has more than 90 million members. That's nearly 4 times the 23 million members MySpace had on July 19, 2005, the day News Corp.announced it was buying the social network.
MySpace is the fastest-growing property across the top Web brands, drawing 42 million unique visitors in May, up 329%, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
Monthly pageviews grew nearly 400% to 19.3 billion. Among the top Web properties, MySpace's pageviews are second to Yahoo's (YHOO : Yahoo! Inc.



FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Hefty bill for online click fraud

"Online advertisers paid more than $800m last year for fraudulent clicks on their ads and more than a quarter of them have reduced their spending as a result, according to a study by the Outsell media research firm.
The figures represent a blow to internet companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN who earn most of their revenues from advertising.
The three have avoided putting a number on the incidence of click fraud but Outsell said it averaged 14.6 per cent of all clicks billed to advertisers, even after Google and others had filtered out those ones they believed to be invalid.
The 14.6 per cent equates to $800m of the $5.5bn US search engine market in 2005."

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Parature receives Series A funding

Parature, provider of award-winning, on demand customer support software, announced today that the company has successfully completed a Series A financing for $13.5 million.

This oversubscribed round includes Vienna, Va.-based Valhalla Partners, and Menlo Park, Calif.-based Sierra Ventures, both private venture capital firms with strong track records of success in the information technology industry. With this event, Gene Riechers, General Partner and Co-founder, Valhalla Partners, and Vispi Daver, Principal, Sierra Ventures, have been named to Parature's board of directors. Parature plans to use the financing to further enhance its customer support and help desk solution, as well as boost sales and marketing efforts.

Intel Capital Invests in IGA WorldWide

Following Microsoft’s recent acquisition of in-game advertising specialists Massive Inc., Intel has today announced that it has joined up with a bunch of venture capitalists to pump a load of cash into IGA Worldwide, the leading independent in-game advertising company.The company announced earlier today that it has received a combined $5 million investment from Intel Capital and a number of other investors to complete a Series A funding round that totals $17 million.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Yahoo rejects last.fm to the tune of $40 million - Valleywag

I heard it that Yahoo was looking to buy last.fm last week but dropped the deal. Wasn't interested in spending more than $30M apparently, so when talks reached $40M, things collapsed.

4 of Top 10 Sites on the web are chinese





Top Sites as listed on Alexa.com

- 4 chinese sites - baidu, sina, netease (163), qq.com


-------------------------------------------------------------

1. Yahoo! Personalized content and search options. Chatrooms, free e-mail, clubs, and pager. www.yahoo.com

2. Microsoft Network (MSN) Dialup access and content provider. www.msn.com

3. Google Enables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. Features include PageRank, caching and translation of results, and an option to find similar pages. The company's focus is developing search technology. www.google.com

4. Baidu.com 全�最大中文�索引擎,�人们�供简����赖的信�获�方�。 The leading Chinese language search engine, provides “simple and reliable� search experience. www.baidu.com

5. Myspace Social Networking Site. www.myspace.com

6. 新浪新闻中心 包括�日的国内外��类型的新闻与评论,人物专题,图库。 www.sina.com.cn

7. 腾讯网(http://www.qq.com) 掌��时新闻资讯,体验全�娱�产� www.qq.com

8. Yahoo!カテゴリ 有料審査制�ディレクトリ。ウェブサービス�形�APIを公開。 www.yahoo.co.jp

9. EBay International person to person auction site, with products sorted into categories. www.ebay.com

10. 网易 中国最大的网络社区和门户网站 www.163.com

MetaCafe lands $15m more for filtered video sharing

Israel based video sharing MetaCafe has announced that it has received $15 million in funding from Benchmark Capital and Accel Partners. Founded in 2004, MetaCafe uses a filtering algorithm to prescreen videos before they appear on the site. A desktop client is used to upload and download the videos, only about two dozen of which are newly approved each day. The end results of that filtering are viewed by 20 million unique visitors each week. Instead of a YouTube style fat pipe of content, MetaCafe relies on just a tiny number of high-quality selected videos to drive a large amount of traffic. It’s like YouTube meets Fark.

[TechCrunch.com]



Nokia Phone

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Google Checkout (youtube)

Captcha

A CAPTCHA (an acronym for "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart", trademarked by Carnegie Mellon University) is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human.

Ehhh - we're human here.