Mark vs. Dan

Andreeson on Twitter

twitter
- new kind of messaging
- half sms or half txting.
- limited at 140 characters
- subscribe to followers
- finally growing vertically,

- many uses/apis/ecosystem: news, videos, search

- real time electronic message system

- why did he invest?
1) evan williams/blogger and odeo for podcasting (failed; gave money back to investors)
2) side project spun out - twitter and took off.

- twitter is viral and would/could get big (e/g paypal are smart; peter thiel knows that concept)

Andreesen On his VC fund

on vc fund
- w/ ben horowitz
- been investing already
- 36 deals in 3 months already
- ~200k+/ deal to 1m+ (this is getting crowded)
- lots of startups dont need money to get started
- on sandhill

on dot com/scale
- if no scale, no opp for business

Notes on Andreesen's Charlie Rose interview

Andreesen comments:

1. On Facebook:
- Goog is the next msft, and fbook the next goog.
- fbook building own organic biz model; not taking normal advertisement. they are undermonetized
- 6th largest country, on its way to 500m users
- confusion around 15b valuation because of preferred stock.

Facebook vision: connect EVERYONE on the planet
175m ppl online, 6b on planet, 3b w/ electricity,
175M --->3B is a HUGE opp

2. Ning
- 20m users
- 2m users a month
- 1m social networks on ning (a lot of porn! which andreeesen
- Ning like Yahoo Groups; Andreesen belongs to dozen groups

3. Andreesen /personal
- on bod of facebook
- new fund
- angel investor in linkedin; top jobs site, 20m resumes on linkedin

4. Obama
- use of social networking fundamentally changing politics
- obama on youtube, etc.
- youtube does make money ($200m+)
- youtube/fbook are undermonetized assets; can easily monetize

5. Viacom/Youtube
- suing youtube is wrong
- they should use a "buyitnow" button vs. suing them

6. Next big idea?
- innovation is dead? (Andy Grove and Judy Estron think so)
- cloud computing a big deal
* AMZN s3, etc.
- Cloud computing is enabling the next Zuckerbergs

7. Mobile has arrived
- catalysts/ingredients: 3G, content, handsets,
- iphone is a template; copycats to follow
- iphone is first mobile computer (distribution, phone, network, apps, OS, ecosystem, etc)
* first time someone built a game changer device
* real OS that really makes things possible
- Ning and fbook - huge opp in mobile

8. Qik
- Live streaming to internet or phones
- 3B phones, 3B mkt for streaming

Fenwick: Trends in Terms of Venture Financings - Down for Q408

"Like the rest of the economy, the world of venture capital and startups is starting to feel more pain from the deepening global financial crisis.

That's the main takeaway from a new survey detailing trends in venture capital investments during the fourth quarter of 2008 by the California law firm Fenwick & West. "

-----
"Background — We analyzed the terms of venture financings for 128 companies headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area that reported raising money in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Overview
Up rounds exceeded down rounds 54% up vs. 33% down with 13% flat. This was the lowest amount by which up rounds exceeded down rounds since 3Q04. Perhaps more ominously, down rounds increased each month through the quarter, and for December 2008, 45% of all financings were down rounds, compared to 48% up and 7% flat. "

" A breakdown of 4Q08 financings by industry shows that Web 2.0/digital media was by far the strongest industry. When Web 2.0/digital media companies are excluded from the results, up rounds decreased to 46%, down rounds increased to 39%, with 15% of rounds flat.
The Fenwick & West Venture Capital Barometer™ showed an average price increase of 25% for companies receiving venture capital in 4Q08 compared to such companies' prior financing round, a significant decline from the 55% reported in 3Q08, and the lowest quarterly total since 1Q05. If Web 2.0/digital media financings are factored out the Venture Capital Barometer would have been flat (0%).
Anecdotal evidence indicates that there is a flight to quality, with venture capitalists focusing on funding their most promising companies, and perhaps even pulling forward financings for those companies, to make sure they have sufficient funds should the poor financing environment continue for a prolonged period, or worsen. If true, this evidence, combined with the significant reduction in U.S. venture investment in 4Q08 described below, could indicate that less promising companies are not being funded (as opposed to being funded at lower valuations) which could cause results to be skewed in a positive direction. "

Latest VC fundraising (Pehub)

"Trinity Ventures has secured $276 million for its tenth fund, according to a regulatory filing. It is unclear if this represents a final close. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm raised $300 million for its ninth fund in 2005. www.trinityventures.com"

" GrandBanks Capital has quietly held an $85 million first close on its second fund, which is targeting $150 million. The Newton, Mass.-based firm focuses on early-stage investments in the software and services space, and previously raised $125 million for its debut vehicle in 2000. Deals from that fund include Colubris Networks, Enpocket (sold to Nokia in 2007) and GlassHouse Technologies (IPO registration)"

10 reasons the market is in trouble

"1.    The Sunday paper costs more than NYT stock

 2.    The Citi ATM fee costs more than C stock

 3.    The paper that a mortgage is written on costs more than FRE stock

 4.    A subscription to Sirius Satellite radio would cost more than
 SIRIstock
 5.    A gallon of gas costs more than F stock

 6.    One ride costs more than SIX (Six Flags) stock

 7.    A bottle of soda costs more than JSDA stock

 8.    A 5 minute long distance phone call costs more than VG
 (Vonage)stock
 9.    A 5 stick pack of gum costs more than RAD (Rite-Aid) stock

 10.   The strawberries in a smoothie cost more than JMBA (Jamba)"

BusinessWeek: Michael Moritz: Lessons from a Long-Ball Hitter

"There's some talk about the dearth of innovation today. Is Silicon Valley dead?

Things get overblown in the Valley. As the obituaries are currently being penned, those are overstated, too. Last time I checked Stanford hasn't stopped producing wonderful 23-year-old graduates. And Silicon Valley houses many companies with frustrated engineers. Good ideas and brilliant people will find us very willing to step out into the cold with them.

So what has changed?
What has changed is that there are more smart people elsewhere. Good ideas spread more quickly.

Are there any benefits to building a business in a downturn?
There's less frenzied money. There's more time to think. The hiring environment is a lot easier and the money goes a lot further.

Do you still do seed-stage deals?
We do seed stage. Thirty percent of the companies we finance were incubated here. We are very selective. We are doing it with a few rather than a lot. My guess is more of it happens over the next few years because of the dearth of financing.

What about Google? Didn't they crack their business model during the downturn?
The chilly aftermath of the Internet bubble was a big benefit to Google. It helped with hiring. It made it difficult for startups to get financed. Its larger competition had to tend to the home fires. There was not a clamor to go public so it helped them stay out of the crosshairs of the competition."

cnet: Escalade Hybrid. oxymoron?

The good:
With its hybrid power train, the 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid turns in good fuel economy for such a heavy vehicle without compromising performance. Traffic reporting is well-integrated with the navigation system and driving aids include blind-spot detection and a rear-view camera with object warnings.

The bad:
Audio sources are limited in the Escalade Hybrid, with no iPod integration available. Bluetooth phone support is basic and can't download a phone's contact list.

The bottom line:
The 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid combines ostentatious luxury with an overt green theme, while offering seating for seven, cargo room, and fuel economy worthy of a V-6.

Matching a Cadillac Escalade with a hybrid power train seems ridiculous, but the Cadillac brand is made for taking cars over the top, then finding another top to go over. The Cadillac Escalade, in particular, serves as an example of American excess, a big luxury SUV cruiser never meant to be taken off paved surfaces. Although adding a hybrid power train mitigates the generally poor fuel economy of the gas-only version, its more important function is to highlight the popular green trend. And the Escalade Hybrid makes no secret of its greenness, sporting hybrid signs and badges from every angle.

interesting phenomena: surviving plane crashes

CNN: LONDON, England (CNN) -- The crash of a Turkish airliner in the Netherlands and the recent landing of a jet in the Hudson River in New York demonstrate how safe modern aircraft have become, according to safety experts.

Emergency services help to evacuate passengers after Turkish Airlines plane crashes in Amsterdam.

The Boeing 737-800, which originated from Istanbul, Turkey, was trying to land at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol when it went down.

At least nine people were killed in the crash and 50 injured, 25 of them seriously, the airport's director said Wednesday. The plane was carrying 127 passengers and seven crew members.

Pictures from the scene showed the plane broken in three pieces. One tear was in front of the wing, splitting the "Turkish" logo in two, and a larger tear was farther back along the fuselage.

Most of the injured were seated toward the back of the plane, which sustained the most damage, a passenger on the plane told Turkish station NTV. Many of the passengers simply walked off the plane through the cracks in the fuselage, witnesses told NTV. See where the plane crashed

Kieran Daly, of the online aviation news service Air Transport Intelligence, said it was clear from the New York and Amsterdam crashes that many accidents are now survivable.

Daly said that in many previous crashes, fatalities were caused by fire. But in the 1980s many new laws came in, especially in the United States, that brought about vast improvements in the materials used to build aircraft, meaning they did not burn as easily. Watch as air expert discusses safety »

The pictures from the Amsterdam crash indicated there had not been a widespread fire, Daly said. He said the impact had been severe but it could have been survivable because of the lack of fire.

He said there was "precious little" in common between the two accidents unless the Amsterdam incident was also caused by a bird strike. But the low number of casualties in both crashes was testament to technical advances made by the aviation industry.

The Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 that crashed in Amsterdam was built in 2003 and was inspected last year, Daly said. "They really are pretty much state-of-the-art airliners with every imaginable technical benefit the industry has come up with over the years," Daly told CNN.

"It is a tribute to Boeing and Airbus that their aircraft are so safe. Most accidents now are caused by single causes, like bird strikes, that you simply can't legislate against."

"You would be optimistic that they would be quite survivable in an accident." Daly said the Turkish aviation industry has a "pretty good record" of safety, and that Turkish Airlines, the national carrier, has a "very good record."

The airline's last accident was of a small commuter jet in 2003, he said. It was a fatal crash that happened at a remote airfield in eastern Turkey, he said. "Their mainline operation is safe," Daly said. "Their pilots are well thought of."

The last accident at Schiphol Airport happened in December 2003 when an EasyJet flight carrying 103 passengers to London collided with a lamppost while taxiing during icy conditions, according to Aviation Safety Network's Web site. The crash caused significant damage to the aircraft, but no one was killed.

The other two most recent accidents at Schiphol -- in 1998 and 1997 -- also resulted in no fatalities, according to the network.

The last fatal incident at the Amsterdam airport happened in April 1994 when a KLM aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff as it tried to return to Schiphol. Three of the 24 passengers and crew members on board were killed.

Another airline expert, Philip Butterworth-Hayes, said the safety of the Boeing 737 along with the five runways of Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and its advanced safety systems would have helped as the pilot tried to land the plane.

"The 737 is an extraordinarily robust aircraft," said Butterworth-Hayes, editor of Air Traffic Management Insight. Both the New York and the Amsterdam crashes involved a major impact but the aircrafts' fuselages were not scattered around a large area, showing how strong these planes are, he said. iReport.com: Watch video at scene of crash

Stressing that it was too soon to speculate about the cause of Wednesday's crash, he said the pilot appeared to have control of the plane a long way down its approach to the airport. It landed close to a remote runway at the airport, and its five runways would give flight controllers more options in bringing down a plane that was in trouble.

CNN's Richard Quest said on older aircraft the seats would have come apart "but in this case the seats and their belts saved them.

ap: More flock to job sites -- even if they have jobs

"AP
More flock to job sites -- even if they have jobs
Thursday February 26, 12:05 am ET
By Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer
Nielsen: Traffic to job sites jumped 20 percent in February

NEW YORK (AP) -- As job losses mount amid the economic turmoil, more people are turning to career-development Web sites even if they are still employed, a new study finds.
Nielsen Online is set to report Thursday it found a 20 percent increase in unique visitors to job-search and career-development sites in January -- 49.7 million, compared with 41.5 million a year earlier. The unemployment rate was 7.6 percent last month, the highest in more than 16 years.


"People are worried about their jobs," said Chuck Schilling, Nielsen's research director for agency and media analytics. "(Even) if they are employed they are worried about it."

People 65 and over represent the fastest-growing group among visitors to job sites. Schilling said people are living longer and wishing to remain active -- and also might be turning to the job market out of necessity.

"These are people that, perhaps, the technology explosion left behind and they are competing against people in their 20s who grew up in the information age and are seeking the same information-related jobs," he said.

Schilling said Web sites and advertisers could appeal to older job-seekers by providing content that is relevant to them.

CareerBuilder.com and Yahoo Inc.'s HotJobs site were the two most popular sites, followed by Monster Worldwide Inc.'s Monster.com. CareerBuilder.com is owned by Microsoft Corp. and newspaper publishers Gannett Co., McClatchy Co. and Tribune Co.
"

reuters: lehman selling vc unit - Teneya Capital

"Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc said on Tuesday it struck a deal to sell its venture capital business to a group led by the unit's management team and investment firm HarbourVest Partners. The price was not disclosed.

The unit will be renamed Tenaya Capital and will have $750 million under management and about 45 portfolio companies.

Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection in September after trying to finance too many risky assets with too little capital. It has been selling various assets since then, including December's sale of its prized asset management unit Neuberger Berman to a team consisting of Neuberger's management."

eetimes: Will Synopsys take over the world?

" EDA and IP vendor Synopsys Inc. has momentum, and its major competitors in EDA have been reporting losses for several consecutive quarters. Synopsys says its relative strength will buttress trends that have been working in the company's favor, driving even more marketshare its way.
But does the semiconductor industry want an EDA market increasingly dominated by one player?

"Customers want to make sure there are at least two viable EDA vendors," said Rich Valera, an analyst with Needham & Co.

Synopsys earlier this week surprised analysts and just about everyone who has been paying attention to the electronics ecosystem by posting better-than-expected revenue and profit for the quarter ended Jan. 31. Synopsys posted a net income, based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), of $52.4 million on revenue of $339.8 million. And the company expects to maintain revenue for the current quarter, even in the face of an ugly downturn, projecting sales of between $332 million and $340 million."

Charlie Rose: Gladwell interview

Malcolm Gladwell is a United Kingdom-born, Canadian-raised journalist now based in New York City who has been a staff writer for “The New Yorker” since 1996.
Gladwell is the author of the books “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” (2000) and “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” (2005).

TTD: Americans Cutting The Cord On Pay TV? Uh, Nope.

"Given all the hoo-hah over Hulu.com, TV.com and various other Web-based video sites, you’d think Americans were yanking out their pay television subscriptions in droves. But apparently, that’s not actually happening.
Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett notes that the U.S. based cable, telco and satellite TV companies that have reported Q4 results to date added an aggregate 441,000 subscribers in the quarter:
AT&T +264,000
Verizon +303,000
DirecTV +301,000
Comcast -233,000
Time Warner Cable -119,000
Charter -75,000
The same set of company’s added an aggregate 396,000 in the year ago quarter: in other words, as a group they are modestly picking up steam, rather than accelerating."

Valley Buzz: Google Finds Mythical Lost Cities

"it’s a pretty quiet day in Silicon Valley and the way pink slips, pay cuts, and disappointing profits have been going of late, that may be a good thing. Top of the buzz online is—I’m not kidding—Google may have found the lost city of Atlantis. Yes, the one we last heard of from in 9000 BC when it sank, according to Greek philosopher Plato. The new Google Ocean project is mapping the worlds seas, and it has apparently found a network of criss-crossed lines that look like an birds eye view of a city under water. And according to Atlantis experts (Yes, that’s a job apparently), the site just off the Canary Islands is one of the possible sites the island could have been. Now, mapping Atlantis isn’t going to do much for Google’s revenues, shareholders. But come on, you have to admit it’s pretty cool to find a city whose existence we’d relegated to Disney movies."

---

Here is another from CNET: 

"From what it sounds like, a British aeronautical engineer was playing around with the new Google Earth 5.0, which includes undersea data, and noticed something funny off the coast of Africa, about 600 miles west of the Canary Islands, that resembled a pattern of a street grid. According to the United Kingdom's Press Association, the pattern of streets equated to an area the size of Wales.

In case you've had more important things to read about for the past few thousand years, Atlantis was a legendary island city first mentioned by Plato, allegedly a hard-core naval power located somewhere near North Africa that disappeared when it sank into the ocean. Guess global warming was a problem back then, too."

TSMC exec: Chip industry to recover in 3 years

"Things are gloomy all around, the global chip industry included. And as much pounding as the semiconductor market has taken, it hasn't hit bottom. The good news? It's "pretty close," Morris Chang, chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., told The Wall Street Journal in an interview Friday."

""I think it will be 2012 before the total revenue of the semiconductor industry gets back to the '08 level," said Chang, who has worked in the industry for more than 50 years. He founded TSMC, the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, in 1987.
Last month, TSMC reported a 64 percent drop in profit for the fourth quarter of 2008, compared with the same period the year before. Its sales were down 31 percent. The news came on the heels of Intel reporting a steep drop in profit for the fourth quarter. Lora Ho, chief financial officer of TSMC, said in a statement then: "The global economic recession continues to worsen. Customers...continue to pare their inventories aggressively, resulting in a further significant cutback of wafer demand."

Adobe CEO'S 2008 compensation valued at $16.4M

"Shantanu Narayen, the chief executive of Acrobat software maker Adobe Systems Inc., was awarded compensation valued at $16.4 million in fiscal 2008, although the vast majority of that was in stock options that currently have little value.

About $14.2 million of the compensation was in stock options that have a strike price of $34.64 and vest through 2015, according to an analysis by The Associated Press of a proxy statement filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Adobe's shares closed Friday at $18.04, so it could be some time before they are worth cashing in. They could also expire worthless.

SEC rules require Adobe and other public companies to provide an estimated value of the option on the date they were granted, knowing that executives have several years to decide when — or if — to exercise options."

eweek: VCs AWOL on Health Care IT Investments

"Venture capitalists gave a bad prognosis to health IT care reform in 2008. While the VCs lavished almost $5 billion each on general software and biotechnology and another $3.4 billion on medical devices, the industry dropped just $195 million on health care services. President Obama's $19 billion dedicated to health IT initiatives in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will help, but health care inflation still looms as a major barrier to investments."

Friedman: Start Up the Risk-Takers

"Reading the news that General Motors and Chrysler are now lining up for another $20 billion or so in government aid — on top of the billions they’ve already received or requested — leaves me with the sick feeling that we are subsidizing the losers and for only one reason: because they claim that their funerals would cost more than keeping them on life support. Sorry, friends, but this is not the American way. Bailing out the losers is not how we got rich as a country, and it is not how we’ll get out of this crisis."

bizjournals: Social Solutions lands $6M venture capital round

"Social Solutions has landed a $6.5 million second round of venture capital.

It brings total investment in the Baltimore technology company, which sells software that helps nonprofits and social service agencies track their effectiveness, to about $9 million.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Frontier Capital was the lead investor. Existing investors WWC Capital Group, based in Virginia, andIDEA Fund Partners, based in North Carolina, also contributed.

The company will use the investment to expand sales and marketing of its software and also make improvements to it.

“With this funding from Frontier Capital, we will be able to accelerate the development of our innovative solutions, build out service delivery and increase the number of human services organizations that are maximizing the outcome of their efforts,” CEO Matt Schubert said in a statement.

Social Solutions is Baltimore’s 19th fastest-growing private company, according to Baltimore Business Journal research. The firm took in $5.2 million in revenue in 2007, up from $3.6 million in 2006."

DuranADay: Top 20 Internet Millionaires Under 30

List is unconfirmed...
"1. Mark Zuckerberg [ Facebook ] 23 years old | $700M
2. Andrew Gower [ Runescape ] 28 years old | $650M
3. Blake Ross and David Hyatt [ Mozilla ] 22 years old | $120M
4. Chad Hurley [ Youtube ] 30 years old | $85M
5. Angelo Sotira [ Deviant ART ] 26 years old | $75M
6. John Vechey [ PopCap Games ] 28 years old | $60M
7. Alexander Levin [ WordPress ] 23 years old | $57M
8. Jake Nickell [ Threadless ] 28 years old | $50M
9. Sean Belnick [ Biz Chair ] 20 years old | $42M
10. Kevin Rose [ Digg ] 30 years old | $31M

More private equity firms to waive fees? - Reuters

REUTERS: Bain proposes waiving some investor fees

Private equity firm Bain Capital is proposing temporarily waiving management fees for investors in its private equity funds, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Under the proposal, which was put to investors last week, Bain would recoup the fees when investments in the funds were realized, the sources said.

The waiver would probably only apply to the older of its private equity funds, the sources said. Those have little unspent capital remaining and need to conserve that to make follow-on investments in current portfolio companies.

Private equity firms typically charge management fees of around 2 percent on a quarterly basis. Bain would have the option each quarter to defer the fees, one of the sources said.

Bain declined comment.

Private equity firms have been struggling to keep portfolio companies healthy during the economic crisis, while having few opportunities to recoup money by selling their investments.
Meanwhile investors in private equity funds, known as limited partners, are less willing to commit more funds to the asset class.

Carlyle Group [CYL.UL] co-founder David Rubenstein said at a recent conference that limited partners will have more power to dictate fees and fund sizes, and predicted that for the next few years, they will hold the balance of power.

SiliconAlleyInsider: 6M subs for MobiTV (only)

"Mobile TV is still a niche service in the U.S. But at least one company is on the winning end.
Mobile TV provider MobiTV said today that it's reached 6 million subscribers for its mobile TV and radio services.
That means growth is accelerating -- and pretty rapidly. It took about 2.5 months to get to 6 million subscribers from 5 million, which it announced in late December. Before that, it took about 7.5 months to get to 5 million subs from 4 million, which it announced in mid-April."

BuzzMarketing: C Level Tweeters

CEOsRichard Branson - CEO - Virginhttp://twitter.com/richardbranson
Tony Hsieh - CEO - Zapposhttp://twitter.com/zappos
Brian Halligan - CEO - Hubspothttp://twitter.com/bhalligan
Dan Neely - CEO - Networked Insightshttp://twitter.com/dneely40
Penelope Trunk - CEO - Brazen Careeristhttp://twitter.com/penelopetrunk
Bernie Borges - CEO - Find and Converthttp://twitter.com/berniebay
Rob Howard - CEO - Telligenthttp://twitter.com/robhoward
Lewis Green - CEO - LG Business Solutionshttp://twitter.com/LewisG
Drew Neisser - CEO - Renegadehttp://twitter.com/dneisser
Mukund Mohan - CEO - BuzzGainhttp://twitter.com/mukund
Sam Flemming - CEO - CIChttp://twitter.com/samflemming
Marcel LeBrun - CEO - Radian6http://twitter.com/lebrun
Arron Newman - CEO - Techrigyhttp://twitter.com/aaronnewman
Jeff Dachis - CEO in Residence at Austin Ventureshttp://twitter.com/jeffdachis
George Colony - CEO - Forrester Researchhttp://twitter.com/gcolony
Scot Wingo - CEO - ChannelAdvisorhttp://twitter.com/scotwingo

Venturebeat: Windows Mobile for Windows Phones rolls out touchscreen, marketplace and syncing

"With a whole raft of competitors hogging the mobile spotlight recently, Microsoft tried to stage a comeback at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress with today’s announcement of new Windows Phones from HTC, LG, and Orange. Chief executive Steve Ballmer also confirmed a touchscreen user interface, an application marketplace, and a MobileMe-style synchronizing service — that yes, rhymes will a certain device by Apple, though Microsoft apparently didn’t realize it.
In her rundown of the news, All About Microsoft’s Mary Jo Foley reports that this is part of a broader shift in Microsoft’s mobile strategy; the company says it’s now interested in selling to both businesses and consumers, not just businesses (who are probably all using BlackBerrys anyway). There’s some rebranding, too — you may have noticed that Microsoft is calling the devices “Windows Phones” now, though the operating system is still Windows Mobile.
Will consumers buy it? It’s hard to say, since I haven’t had a chance to try any of these ..."

BizJournals: Jive Software reports 70 percent increase in revenue

"Jive Software Inc. reported Monday that it closed 2008 with revenue that grew 70 percent over 2007.

The company did not report actual revenue. But CEO Dave Hersh has said in previous interviews that he expected 2007 revenue of $15 million. If achieved, that would put Jive at $25.5 million.

Jive also said it added more than 200 customers during 2008.

Portland-based Jive creates social-networking tools that companies can use to communicate both with their customers and to communicate internally.

Many companies use Jive’s tools to provide customers a way to discuss products and help each other with technical issues. That cuts down customer-support calls and saves companies money.

Jive is one of Portland’s highest-profile venture-backed companies. It raised $15 million in mid-2007 from Sequoia Capital, its first outside funding since the company was founded in 2001.

SearchEngineWatch: Should Google Buy Twitter?

"Google's attempts to break into the social networking space haven't really been too impressive, though they obviously recognize its importance. Their Open Social involvement and launch of Friend Connect show they have commitment. The problem? Their efforts haven't proven as popular as Google Search or Gmail.

Actually, they should've worked more on integrating something through Gmail, which could have had a much more viral reach. People could have simply clicked to recommend it to others.

Twitter would be the perfect platform. Though if they're feeling really generous, they should buy it and keep it free, sort of like what they did with Google Analytics. It would give them the hottest thing in social media right now and an area that could use some help with tracking success.

Left to its own devices, Twitter could create a large chink in Google's armor. It generates traffic and is far more accurate on building TrustRank.

True, people are gaming it to some point, but fakes are found out a lot quicker than they are in search results pages. While the fake Dalai Lama grabbed tens of thousands of followers, he was shot down inside 36 hours."

good vc comment from fred wilson

"But there's a saying that I heard early on in my tenure in the venture business that still rings true: The best time to raise money is when you don't need it"

maybe.

infoworld: Stratus Technologies Avance

"Stratus Technologies Avance
Avance runs on top of a customized version of the Citrix XenServer virtualization platform, providing fault tolerance to any Windows or Linux guest running on either of two physical servers -- at substantially lower cost than other high-availability solutions. Installation and management are straightforward, and delays in server responsiveness during a failure proved minimal in our testing: less than a sec..."

infoworld: 2009 Technology of the Year Awards: Platforms and Virtualization

Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services is like a techno-tinker-toy set with limitless compute, storage, and communication facilities. Programmers and architects of distributed systems will find the AWS site nothing short of a playground, and organizations with applications that require worldwide connectivity, a proof-of-concept laboratory, or substantial compute or storage facilities on an irregular basis will find EC2, S3, SQS, and SimpleDB compelling.

altassets: Greylock Israel the most active Israeli venture capital fund of 2008

"Greylock Israel was 2008’s most active Israeli venture capital fund, followed by Vertex, and then DFJ Tamir Fishman and AquAgro, according to the IVC Research Center’s league of most active venture capital funds in Israel. The survey ranked funds by the number of first investments made last year.
US-based Greylock Partners’ subsidiary Greylock Israel made nine first investments, four of which were in the IT and software sector.

Vertex’s eight first investments were split among the IT and software, internet and semiconductor sectors.

DFJ Tamir Fishman, a merged entity between Tamir Fishman Ventures and the US’s Draper Fisher Jurvetson, made four of its seven investments in internet companies.

Cleantech-dedicated venture capital fund AquAgro made all seven of its deals in that sector.

In 2008, 33 first investments (28 per cent) were made in seed stage companies, compared to 43 per cent in 2007. Proseed, a venture capital fund traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, made the most investments in seed companies with three deals. 12 of 32 venture capital funds made no investments in seed companies.

Ten first investments were made in foreign companies in 2008. Infinity’s Israel-China venture capital fund, with 60 percent of its managed capital designated to investments in China, made four of its five first investments in Chinese companies.

In 2008, Israeli venture capital funds made 119 first investments in technology companies, compared to 127 investments in 2007. The dollar amount of the first investments dropped 28 per cent from the previous year.

Koby Simana, IVC CEO, said, “The reduced activity reflected the economic crisis that deepened in the fourth quarter and the difficulties confronted by Israeli venture capital funds in raising new capital. We expect a continued decrease in first investments in 2009.”

The IT and software sector attracted the largest number of first investments (26) in 2008 - 22 per cent of the total number of investments. In 2007, the sector ranked fourth, with 16 per cent. The life sciences sector ranked second with 25 investments or 21 per cent, while in 2007 the sector managed to attract only 7 per cent and ranked fifth.

The survey relates to investments in Israeli and Israel-related companies and in foreign companies made by Israeli management firms.
"

OC Register: My daughter racked up 14,528 text messages in one month

"OMG!!!
This isn't exactly proud papa news: My daughter, Reina, who recently turned 13, just racked up 14,528 text messages in one month.
Thank God she's too young to drive.
Given that she's had a cell phone for less than six months, and she is supposed to share the phone with her 14-year-old brother (and use it mainly for emergencies) — well, I'm speechless.
Or should I say, textless?
Her mother, Manako, recently got the phone bill from AT&T. Only 23 pages of the bill came with the bill mailed to her home in Lake Forest.
Manako went online and looked at the PDF version of the bill. The PDF file, covering the period from Nov. 27 to Dec. 26, totaled 440 pages.
OK, the bill included charges for two other phones, including one belonging to Reina's 22-year-old sister, Hana, who accounted for a comparatively modest 7,101 text messages during the same period. Older sister Marina, 24, accounted for a measly (whew!) 700.
But still…A 440-page phone bill? Thankfully, Manako signed up all of them for unlimited texting.
If not, the 20 cents per text for Reina would have totaled $2,905.60.
That's a lot of house chores.
•••
I'm no math whiz, but I did some quick calculations on Reina's thumb-numbing total.
Assuming my daughter slept an average of eight hours during the billing period (she usually sleeps more), that works out to 484 text messages a day — or a text message every two minutes she was awake.
Could AT&T have made some mistake?"

seekingalpha: 15 Companies That Might Not Survive 2009

"We examined ratings from Moody’s and data from other sources to develop a short list of potential victims that ought to be familiar to most consumers. Many of these firms are in industries directly hit by the slowdown in consumer spending, such as retail, automotive, housing and entertainment.

But there are other common threads. Most of these firms have limited cash for a rainy day, and a lot of debt, with large interest payments due over the next year. In ordinary times, it might not be so hard to refinance loans, or get new ones, to help keep the cash flowing. But in an acute credit crunch it’s a different story, and at companies where sales are down and going lower, skittish lenders may refuse to grant any more credit. It’s a terrible time to be cash-poor.

That’s why Moody’s assigns most of these firms its lowest rating for short-term liquidity. And all the firms on this list have long-term debt that Moody’s rates Caa or lower, which means the borrower is considered at least a “very high” credit risk.

Once a company defaults on its debt, or fails to make a payment, the next step is usually a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Some firms continue to operate while in Chapter 11, retaining many of their employees. Those firms often shed debt, restructure, and emerge from bankruptcy as healthier companies.

But it takes fresh financing to do that, and with money scarce, more bankrupt firms than usual are likely to liquidate - like Circuit City. That’s why corporate failures are likely to be a major drag on the economy in 2009: In a liquidation, the entire workforce often gets axed, with little or no severance. That will only add to unemployment, which could hit 9 or even 10 percent by the end of the year.

It’s possible that none of the firms on this list will liquidate, or even declare Chapter 11. Some may come up with unexpected revenue or creative financing that helps avert bankruptcy, while others could be purchased in whole or in part by creditors or other investors. But one way or another, the following 15 firms will probably look a lot different a year from now than they do today:"

StartupNation.com - 09 elevator pitch competition

"In the StartupNation Elevator Pitch Contest, you submit a video or audio file up to two minutes in length in which you pitch your business and your need for investment dollars.
An illustrious panel of early stage investors will choose five winners from among the 100 most voted-for recipients.
Each of the five winners will be given an opportunity to present their business to the investors in a live, private, online presentation using GoToMeeting, the industry standard online presentation service.
Each of the five winners will also receive a Toshiba Satellite Pro S300 laptop computer, the latest laptop designed to fit the on-the-go needs of entrepreneurs, plus they will receive a GoToMeeting Annual Plan with unlimited usage, free of charge. "

paidcontent: Appraisal Set Facebook Value At $3.7 Billion

"A Facebook appraisal discussed in court last summer put the value of the social network at $3.7 billion, a far cry from the $15 billion valuation based on Microsoft’s 2007 investment. The info comes from the Associated Press in a report that explains how it cracked the electronic versions of blacked-out court documents. According to AP, the appraisal, which was used to set the value of employee stock options, came up during a closed court hearing in a lawsuit by former classmates of Mark Zuckerberg’s who claimed he stole their idea."

ZoomSystems Announces $20 Million Financing to Expand Domestically and Internationally

ZoomSystems, the technology leader that created automated retail, announced today that it has closed a $20 million Series E financing round from Sierra Ventures, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., NeoCarta Ventures, Motorola Ventures, the strategic venture capital arm of Motorola (NYSE: MOT), and Starfish Ventures. The funds will be used to expand the ZoomSystems automated retail channel domestically and internationally.

ZoomSystems has established a network of automated retail stores, called ZoomShops, that offers a unique shopping experience; the convenience of online shopping coupled with the consumer gratification of immediate product delivery. ZoomShops automate all the capabilities of a retail channel, allowing brand and location partners to differentiate themselves with an enhanced consumer experience. All ZoomShops are centrally networked and monitored and provide brands the most efficient way to grow their revenue and profits, resulting in the highest sales-per-square-foot average in the retail environment. ZoomSystems partners with leading brands including Apple iPod, Sony, Proactiv Solution, Best Buy, Macy's and Rosetta Stone to place ZoomShops in high-traffic locations such as airports, shopping centers, and retail. There are currently over 800 ZoomShops throughout the United States and Japan.

Gower Smith, founder and CEO of ZoomSystems, said, "We are continuing to deliver results for our customers, even in this challenging economic environment. The continued support from all our institutional investors is a testament to the strength of the ZoomSystems' business. We now have the capital to control our destiny and focus on operational excellence."

"We are extremely pleased with ZoomSystems' continued rapid growth and clear leadership position in the new space of automated retail," said Jeff Loomans, partner at Sierra Ventures. "We were very happy to participate further in this exceptional opportunity, and are pleased to be able to continue working with the ZoomSystems team."

ZoomSystems' executive management team, board of directors and advisors all have extensive technology and retail backgrounds at companies that include Borders Group, Kroger, PepsiCo Inc., Saks Inc., MCI Communications Corp., Visa International, Starbucks and Mattel.

About ZoomSystems

Founded in 2002, San Francisco-based ZoomSystems enables brands to place their products directly in the path of consumers in an intensely interactive manner, removed from the competitive clutter of traditional retail. ZoomShops offer the immediate gratification of instant product delivery and are the first automated retail concept offering such a wide variety of leading brands. ZoomSystems partners with leading brands to implement networks of automated retail stores in high-traffic locations such as airports, shopping centers, supermarkets, and retail. ZoomSystems' investors include Goldman, Sachs & Co., Sierra Ventures, NeoCarta Ventures and Motorola Ventures. For more information, visit www.zoomsystems.com.

About Sierra Ventures

Sierra Ventures, founded in 1982, is a privately held venture capital firm focused on investments across all areas of the Information Technology sector from semiconductors to enterprise software. Sierra Ventures has managed nine venture capital partnerships and currently has more than $1.5 billion of capital under management. Some of the firm's investments include 360Commerce (acquired by Oracle), Active Software (acquired by WebMethods), AmeriGroup (AGP), Authentec (AUTH), Centex (acquired by WorldCom), ConvergeNet (acquired by Dell), FatBrain (acquired by Barnes & Noble), Frontbridge (acquired by Microsoft), Healtheon (merged with WebMD), Interact Commerce (acquired by Sage), Intuit (INTU), Micromuse (acquired by IBM), OnAssignment (ASGN), OnLink (acquired by Siebel), Quinta (acquired by Seagate), StrataCom (acquired by Cisco), Sourcefire (FIRE), Sychip (acquired by Murata Manufacturing) and Teradata (acquired by NCR). More information is available at http://www.sierraventures.com.

About Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global financial services firm providing investment banking, securities and investment management services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high-net-worth individuals. Founded in 1869, the firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other major financial centers around the world.

About NeoCarta Ventures

NeoCarta Ventures is a leading venture capital firm specializing in early to mid-stage technology investments. The firm focuses on investments in IT infrastructure, software, hardware, networking, media and wireless. With offices in San Francisco and Boston, NeoCarta partners' backgrounds include senior investment experience with outstanding track records at GE Capital, Intel Capital, Thomson, and NBC. NeoCarta works closely with entrepreneurs and actively adds value by providing strategic guidance, team-building skills, industry knowledge, and operating expertise. With NeoCarta's unique mix of financial, operational, and technical expertise, the firm is able to add value at all stages of a company's development. www.neocarta.com

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. From broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to high-definition video and mobile devices, Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) had sales of US $30.1 billion in 2008. For more information, please visit www.motorola.com.

About Starfish Ventures

Established in 2001, Starfish Ventures is an Australian-owned venture capital fund manager seeking superior returns through active investment in innovative technology companies. Starfish Ventures has over $400 million in funds under management and has made investments in over 35 companies to date. Starfish seeks investments in emerging Australian businesses across all technology sectors including biotechnology and life sciences, information and communications technology, and clean technology. Further information about Starfish Ventures can be found at www.starfishvc.com.

paul's blog: Communicating with code

"Some people can sell their ideas with a brilliant speech or a slick powerpoint presentation.

I can't.

Maybe that's why I'm skeptical of ideas that are sold via brilliant speeches and slick powerpoints. Or maybe it's because it's too easy to overlook the messy details, or to get caught up in details that seem very important, but aren't. I also get very bored by endless debate.
"

----

"The point of this story, I think, is that you should consider spending less time talking, and more time prototyping, especially if you're not very good at talking or powerpoint. Your code can be a very persuasive argument.

The other point is that it's important to make prototyping new ideas, especially bad ideas, as fast and easy as possible. This can be especially difficult as a product grows. It was easy for me to stuff random broken features into Gmail when there were only about 100 users and they all worked for Google, but it's not so simple when there are 100 million users."

smart guy profile: paul buchheit

crunchbase:

"Paul Buchheit co-founded social network aggregator FriendFeed, along with three other former Google employees. He is also an investor in FriendFeed and participated in a $5 million Series A round in February 2008.

He was the 23rd employee at Google, where he created Gmail and implemented many of its innovative features. He developed the original prototype of Google AdSense, and was responsible for Google’s famous “Don’t be evil” motto."

GameFly Inc. Acquires Shacknews Ltd.

"GameFly.com, the leading subscription-based videogame rental company, announced today that it has acquired Shacknews Ltd., the parent company of the Web’s leading independent news site, Shacknews.com, and videogames-related digital download site, FileShack.com.

Shacknews.com, commonly referred to as “The Shack,” is one of the oldest and most respected independent sources of video game information.

Shacknews.com is rated by both comScore, Inc. and Compete as one of the top five video game news Web sites. FileShack.com is a popular destination for PC game patches, video, betas and trailers for video games on all console platforms. Founded in 1995 by Steve Gibson, Shacknews is revered among hardcore gamers as a hub for news, features and editorial relating to both PC and console games. GameFly plans to maintain the editorial team of Shacknews.com, while offering technology and infrastructure resources to support additional reach and scale.

“Shacknews.com and FileShack.com are a perfect fit for GameFly as we continue to expand and diversify our offering,” says David Hodess, GameFly CEO. “With its avid, engaged community and commitment to providing an independent voice for gamers seeking the most accurate and up-to-date news and information, it goes to the core of our vision as a company, which is to be the ultimate resource for the entire gaming community.”

“When I started Shacknews fourteen years ago, I couldn’t have dreamed it would grow to become what it is today,” says Gibson. “GameFly has demonstrated a true understanding of and commitment to the authentic gaming culture. We are confident they will protect the legacy and community we’ve established, while at the same time providing much needed resources to expand into new and exciting areas that would not otherwise be possible.”

GameFly continues to build on its leadership position in the online videogame rental market by offering a wide range of gaming resources not only to loyal subscribers, but to the gaming community as a whole.

About GameFly

GameFly™ is the leading online video game rental service. With a choice of more than 6,000 titles, GameFly offers the widest selection of games for the PlayStation® 2, PlayStation® 3, Xbox™, Xbox 360™, GameCube™, Game Boy™ Advance, Nintendo DS™, Nintendo Wii™ and PSP™ without the hassle of due dates or late fees. With plans starting at $15.95 a month, GameFly subscribers can rent one to four games at a time and keep them for as long as they like. Subscribers manage their GameQ™ online and receive games directly from the U.S. Postal Service via first class mail. GameFly is also a great source for high quality, used video games at exceptional prices. For more information and a free trial, please visit www.gamefly.com."

china newswires: Real Gold Mining's new shares fully subscribed ahead of IPO

"Real Gold Mining, which expects to raise as much as HK$1.03 billion through its initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, has allocated 90% of the shares on offer to international institutional investors and the remainder to Hong Kong retail investors, the Standard reported.

One of the largest mainland-listed gold mining firms has placed a large order, sources said. The gold miner planned to sell 165 million new shares at prices ranging from HK$4.35 to HK$6.25 apiece.

Real Gold said the proceeds from the IPO will be used to fund future potential acquisitions of gold resources in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and other regions, develop new mines and for general corporate purposes.

RGM launched bookbuilding in Hong Kong on Feb. 5. The roadshow will end on Friday in Toronto and Los Angeles, following stops in Singapore, London, New York and Boston.

Reportedly, Citigroup and Macquarie have been appointed to arrange the deal. Shares of Real Gold Mining will start trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Feb. 23."

imf: worse is yet to come !

"Advanced economies are already in a depression and the financial crisis may worsen unless the banking system is fixed, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

“The worst cannot be ruled out,” Strauss-Kahn said today in Kuala Lumpur, where he was attending a gathering of central bankers from Southeast Asia. “There’s a lot of downside risk.”

Ten days ago, the IMF cut its world-growth estimate for this year to 0.5 percent, the weakest pace since World War II. Stimulus packages worldwide won’t succeed in dragging the global economy out of recession unless confidence is restored in the banking system, Strauss-Kahn said.

“All this will work if, and only if, the different countries are likely to do what they have to do in terms of restructuring the banking sector,” he said. “And today it’s not done.” "

fun card game - iphone app

zdnet: Mint.com offers close-to-home peek at economy’s impact

"There are some forms of number-crunching I hate - which reminds me that it’s time to start gathering up receipts for my tax accountant. And then there are “fun” types of number-crunching. Take, for example, the guest post on TechCrunch this morning by Mint.com’s CEO and founder Aaron Patzer.

Mint.com, the online personal finance program, is one of my favorites. (The iPhone/iPod Touch app rocks!) I have been using it faithfully since I made a money-management resolution for the new year and love how it breaks down my financial situation from so many different angles.

Clearly, Mint.com knows what’s happening in my life - how much money I bring in every month. how much credit card debt I have, how much I spend on groceries and how badly my 401(k) tanked and what’s happened to my savings account. And since Mint.com has signed up nearly 1 million subscribers (actually, 900,000 is more like it), it also has a sampling of data that’s better (and likely more reliable) than any other survey-taker out there.

So what do they know? Well, we know that somewhere around the summer months, consumer spending tanked to the tune of about $400 per month and that it took another dip just before the holidays, decreasing by about another $200."

"Looking across spending as a whole in 2008, we can see a phase change beginning in the summer. After a bump in the May/June time frame from tax refunds and credits, we see spending declined by $400 / month / household. Spending eroded even further (a $200 drop) in November along with consumer confidence, bouncing back only slightly for the holidays."

sjmercury: O'Brien: Will the eternal optimism of venture capitalists survive 2009?

"You've got to admire the eternally sunny outlook of Silicon Valley's venture capitalists. It's their unflagging faith in the future that has kept this region the world's undisputed center of innovation for several decades.
But the coming year is going to test that faith. In fact, 2009 looks to be a pivotal moment for the valley's lifeblood industry.
First, though, let's stop and acknowledge how deep that belief system runs by looking at the latest venture capital statistics. Generally, you don't have to look at any numbers to know that 2008 was one of the bleakest years the economy has experienced in decades. And that was true for venture capital fundraising and spending.
Let's look, though, to a more telling statistic: the amount invested in early stage companies. In VC parlance, this is known as the "seed" round. The amount of seed capital invested rose 15 percent in 2008 to $1.5 billion for 440 companies, up from $1.3 billion in 2007 for 450 companies.
What does that tell us? "That's a good bellwether for the sense of confidence VCs have in the future," says Steven Bengston of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Silicon Valley.
That number says that in their heart of hearts, VCs believe the current downturn is just the latest in a regular series of cyclical downturns, some which are worse than others. But still, a cycle that we will eventually pass through. And given the typical three- to five-year horizon for such investments, they..."

YouNoodle - interesting concept, but...

..tough to build a venture/startup rating and community site... wonder if YouNoodle’s financial backers Max Levchin and Peter Thiel, and the Founders Fund will back them for series A given the macro headwinds..hmmm






-----
How does it work?
YouNoodle's model is based on rigorous quantitative analysis of historical data and the application of the latest relevant theory.

What type of startups qualify?
Any startup can try it. The first version of the model has been optimized for Internet startups before they have raised funding.

What type of data is used in the prediction?
The model focuses on the team (backgrounds, education, dynamics between team members), advisors (backgrounds, track record), financial factors, and company concept.

Will my data be public?
The answers given during the test are private. Everyone on YouNoodle has a public profile (name, headline, resume), and you may choose to publish a public startup page at the end.

Is this for real?
Banks have used quantitative models to assess business loans for more than 20 years. Can you imagine the insurance industry without the use of computers? VCs, angels, entrepreneurs and service providers have extremely difficult decisions to make when investing their cash and time in startups. In the United States alone, $67 billion in cash was invested in startups in 2007. Our goal is to provide technology to help ensure these resources are used most effectively.

macworld: Latitude "coming soon" for iPhone

"Google’s just-announced Latitude, a service that lets users track the location of their friends—kind of like the Marauder’s Map in “Harry Potter,” except instead of an enchanted parchment you use Google Maps—is “coming soon” for the iPhone and iPod touch, according to Google’s posts touting the feature.

In a list of phones Latitude supports, support for iPhone and iPod touch is listed as “Coming soon! … via the Google Mobile App” (), at least in the United States.

It’s a direct assault by Google on the location-savvy social networking used by apps such as Loopt ().

Our pals down the hall at PC World have a more detailed look at how Google Latitude works, if you’re curious."

-------
"BANGALORE (Reuters) - Google Inc released software on Wednesday that allows users of mobile phones and other wireless devices to automatically share their whereabouts with family and friends.

Users in 27 countries will be able to broadcast their location to others constantly, using Google Latitude. Controls allow users to select who receives the information or to go offline at any time, Google said on its website.

"Fun aside, we recognize the sensitivity of location data, so we've built fine-grained privacy controls right into the application," Google said in a blog post announcing the service.

"You not only control exactly who gets to see your location, but you also decide the location that they see."

Friends' whereabouts can be tracked on a Google map, either from a handset or from a personal computer.

Google's new service is similar to the service offered by privately-held Loopt.

Companies including Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, already offer Loopt's service, which also works on iPhone from Apple Inc.

Latitude will work on Research In Motion Ltd's Blackberry and devices running on Symbian S60 devices or Microsoft Corp's Windows Mobile and some T-1 Mobile phones running on Google's Android software.

The software will eventually run on Apple's iPhone and iTouch and many Sony Ericsson devices. "

EETimes: Rhines challenges pessimistic prognosis for EDA

"Walden Rhines, chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics Corp., stuck a positive note during a keynote address at the DesignCon program here Tuesday (Feb. 3), presenting data that he said debunked many commonly held pessimisms about EDA and the broader semiconductor industry.
Contrary to popular belief, the number of EDA vendors is not shrinking due to consolidation, migration to new technology nodes is not slowing, EDA tools are not becoming too expensive and chip vendors are not rushing to single-vendor tool flows, Rhines said.

Rhines, who was also presented with a Fellow Award by the International Engineering Consortium—the organizer of DesignCon—said he believes EDA growth has slowed in recent years because the industry is in a lull between major technology transitions, and that revenue growth would accelerate once a new problem is identified that requires new solutions from EDA vendors.

"And if you don't think the 22-nanomer node will be a big problem, you should talk to some of the design engineers about computational lithography and other things," Rhines said, adding that EDA would continue to innovate through the current downturn.

"We have to have new problems to solve and grow the market not by selling someone more of the same solution to attack the same problem, but solutions to the new problems," Rhines said. He added that he believes problems associated with multi-corner, multi-mode analysis would emerge as the new killer problem for IC designers that would require innovative new tools and methodologies, thus driving EDA growth.

Rhines showed clippings from electronics publications bemoaning what he said has become a well-accepted trend that the migration to new technology nodes is slowing. Then, using data from market research firm VLSI Research Inc., Rhines demonstrated that design completions at the 65-nm node is accelerating at roughly the same rate as previous migrations to the 130- and 90-nm nodes.

"The data says to me that rather than the slowing of adoption of new tech, what we are finding is the adoption of leading edge semi technology is about the same as it has always been," Rhines said.

Addressing the common notion that EDA tools are becoming prohibitively expensive, Rhines showed data indicating that EDA revenue as a percentage of IC revenue has been "absolutely consistent at 2 percent over much of history."

Rhines pointed to a bright future for EDA, despite the doom-and-gloom that surrounds the industry. The number of chip designers in the world is growing he said. While he joked that not all of the designers are acquiring EDA software legally at the moment, he said their companies would likely "clean that stuff up" as they matured in places like China, India and Eastern Europe."

marketwire: RNA networks Brings Memory Virtualization Into the Enterprise Data Center

"RNA networks, a leader in memory virtualization software that transforms server memory into a shared network resource, today announced the launch of its Memory Virtualization Platform (MVP) and first product, RNAmessenger, based on the MVP. Memory Virtualization unleashes high-performance computing from existing commodity hardware by decoupling memory from the processor and server. Uniquely, the RNA Memory Virtualization Platform is transparent to existing applications and operating systems allowing enterprises to leverage their existing IT assets with no changes.
"Reliance on fragmented local server memory has been a key roadblock to optimizing performance in data center clusters, but memory virtualization eliminates size limits and slashes access times by providing distributed shared memory for all CPUs in a cluster," said Eyal Waldman, Chairman, President and CEO, Mellanox Technologies. "By combining RNA Networks' Memory Virtualization with Mellanox Technologies' unrivaled connectivity performance, data center architects can achieve new levels of performance with high efficiency and lower costs."
RNA networks' software improves utilization of existing data center resources, and provides a high-performance alternative to data center investments aimed at addressing the limitations of memory availability. Businesses that utilize memory virtualization are experiencing increased top line results because of the large performance boost directly attributable to memory virtualization. All of this is accomplished with no changes to the IT infrastructure.
"For years, distributed processing, whether across WANs, LANS, backplanes and now multiple cores has suffered from I/O and memory constraints," said Glen Van Datta, Vice President of Engineering, Trion World. "To create a rich user experience will inevitably require a large distributed pool of shared memory across the IT environment. RNA's Memory Virtualization is exciting technology in this arena."
RNA Memory Virtualization Platform and RNAmessenger"

siliconvalleyinsider: Facebook Growing Seven Times Faster Than LinkedIn

"In Davos, LinkedIn founder and CEO Reid Hoffman tells TechCrunch that the company is growing by about 1 million new users every 17 days. That's an average 59,000 new users a day, or about one seventh of Facebook's user growth rate. (LinkedIn has more than 34 million users.)"

IVP - smart and or lucky - 4 partners make midas list

Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), one of the premier later-stage venture capital firms, is pleased to announce that four of its General Partners: Todd Chaffee, Steve Harrick, Sandy Miller and Dennis Phelps, have been named to the prestigious Forbes Midas List of the Top 100 Deal Makers. The firm’s recent exits include ArcSight (ARST), Business.com (RHD), ComScore (SCOR), Danger (MSFT), MySQL (JAVA) and Quigo (TWX).

Since 2000, the Forbes' annual Midas 100 List seeks to identify individuals who deploy venture capital to create wealth for their investors and build valuable, long-lasting companies and who are recognized as market leaders in their industry segment. They consider tech and life sciences companies that have gone public or been acquired within the past five years. The results are based on extensive reporting and surveys sent to thousands of professionals, including angel investors, bankers, lawyers and venture capitalists.

Here are the descriptions of the IVP general partners who were selected for the Forbes Midas List:

#58 Stephen Harrick
Institutional Venture Partners
2008 Rank: NA
Age: 38

Young financier lands on the Midas list thanks to Sun Microsystems' $1 billion buyout of open-source database firm MySQL. Was an early investor in Business.com, acquired by R.H. Donnelly in 2007 for $350 million. Logged time at Highland Capital and Internet Capital Group before joining IVP in 2001.

#64 Todd Chaffee
Institutional Venture Partners
2008 Rank: NA
Age: 49

Digital media expert enjoyed one of the few sizable IPOs of 2008; network security firm ArcSight debuted on the Nasdaq in February. Past successes include ComScore, Akamai, Netflix, Yahoo! and VeriSign. Served as president of Visa Marketplace, the credit card giant's in-house investment fund, prior to joining IVP.

#65 Dennis Phelps
Institutional Venture Partners
2008 Rank: NA
Age: 35

Communications and software guru got his start as an investment banker at Hambrecht & Quist. Broke into venture investing at Battery Ventures. Portfolio company Quigo Technologies, a Web advertising network, was acquired by Time Warner for over $300 million last year. Currently managing IVP's investments in Dust Networks (wireless sensor networking) and Yodlee (online banking applications).

#90 J. Sanford Miller
Institutional Venture Partners
2008 Rank: 64
Age: 59

Later-stage specialist led investments in Skystream Networks, PlaceWare and Vonage. Chairman of Handango. Got his start as technology investment banker. Co-founded Thomas Weisel Partners before moving to 3i, a global venture firm. Joined IVP in 2006.

About Institutional Venture Partners (IVP)

With more than $2.2 billion of committed capital, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is one of the premier later-stage venture capital firms in the United States. The partnership is currently investing IVP XII, a $600 million later-stage fund focused on investments in rapidly-growing technology and media companies. Founded in 1980, IVP has a 28-year IRR of 43.2% and has invested in over 300 companies, 85 of which have gone public. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity and select public market transactions. Since its inception, IVP has invested in such notable companies as ArcSight (ARST), Ask Jeeves (IACI), Aspect Communications (ASPT), At Road (ARDI), Business.com (RHD), Clarify (CLFY), ComScore (SCOR), Concur Technologies (CNQR), Danger (MSFT), Digital River (DRIV), Form Factor (FORM), Foundry Networks (FDRY), Juniper Networks (JNPR), LSI Logic (LSI), Mobile 365 (SY), MySQL (JAVA), Netflix (NFLX), Polycom (PLCM), Quigo (TWX), Seagate (STX), Synchronoss (SNCR), Tivo (TIVO) and Websense (WBSN). IVP has offices in Menlo Park and San Francisco, California. For more information, visit www.ivp.com.

smart guy profile - Mark Mahaney (as seen on fast money)

Mark S. Mahaney is the Internet Analyst at Citigroup Investment Research.

For the past two years, Mark has been ranked #2 in the Greenwich Institutional Investor Poll for the Internet sector and ranked as Runner Up in the Institutional Investor Annual Poll for the Internet sector.

Prior to Citigroup, Mark covered Internet stocks for seven years on both the sell-side and the buy-side at American Technology Research, Morgan Stanley, and Galleon Capital. Mark holds an MBA from Wharton Business School (1996), an MA from Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (1990), and a BA from Amherst College (1987).

Prior to Wall Street, Mark worked in management consulting with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Senate, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Mark lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife Patricia and their sons Noah, Carter, Aidan, and Malcolm. Mark is a member of the National Down Syndrome Society and Cure Autism Now.

bits: OpenTable and Medidata Hope to End I.P.O. Drought

"nitial public offerings are a rare breed these days, but two venture-backed technology companies are set to brave the public markets.

OpenTable, the online restaurant reservation service, filed Friday to raise $40 million in an I.P.O., and Medidata Solutions, which makes software to manage clinical trials, filed on Jan. 26, hoping to raise $86 million.

If either succeed, it would be the first I.P.O. of a venture-backed technology company since August, when Rackspace Hosting, a Web hosting provider, went public. That is a startlingly long drought. All told, only six venture-backed companies went public last year, the fewest since 1977 and down from 86 in 2007, according to the National Venture Capital Association.

Rackspace has not performed particularly well. Its shares dropped 20 percent in the first day of trading and are down 61 percent since August.

It is not just venture-backed companies that are having a tough time in the public markets, of course. There have been no I.P.O.’s since November, when Grand Canyon Education, which provides online degrees, went out, according to Renaissance Capital IPO Home. Its shares rose only 1 percent in the first day but have returned 44 percent since then.

bberg: Intellectual Ventures buys Transmeta IP

"Intellectual Ventures’ funding unit bought more than 140 patents and pending patents from Transmeta Corp., the Bellevue, Washington-based patent-development and licensing company said in a statement Jan. 28.

The acquisition comes in the wake of closely held Novafora Inc.’s $255.6 million acquisition of Transmeta of Santa Clara, California.

Transmeta, once backed by billionaires George Soros and Paul Allen, evolved from a chip manufacturer into a designer in 2005 after failing to compete with Intel in the market for low- power computer processors. The company eventually made almost all its money from services and technology-licensing revenue.

Intellectual Ventures -- known as IV -- says it will license the technology on a non-exclusive basis.

IV was founded by Nathan Myhrvold, former chief technology officer of Microsoft Corp. In 2005, Myhrvold told the Association of University Technology Managers his company was interested in acquiring patents from universities. His company opened an office in Japan in 2007.

Peter Detkin, who formerly led the litigation efforts at Intel Corp., is an IV founder and vice chairman.

The company now has more than 2,000 semi-conductor patents, Paul Reidy, IV’s vice president of semiconductor licensing said in the statement. He said the newly acquired patents cover “some of the most interesting breakthroughs in microprocessor architecture we’ve seen in the last decade or so.”

Some of the other Transmeta IP will go to Novafora, where it can be used to improve the closely held chipmaker’s own technologies.

“This transaction demonstrated how Intellectual Ventures’ unique business model can enhance the creation, dissemination, and use of technological inventions,” Vincent Pluvinage said in the statement. He leads strategic IP acquisitions and private equity partnerships at IV."

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