Myconfinedspace.com: Geek Gang Signs

CNBC - Dubai's Woes Won't Derail Global Growth: Mitul Kotecha, head of global FX strategy at Calyon Hong Kong

Dubai's debt woes is not going to lead to any particular downward revisions to global growth, believes Mitul Kotecha, head of global FX strategy at Calyon Hong Kong. He speaks with CNBC's Amanda Drury & Sri Jegarajah.

Oprah to Move to Cable: Oprah's announcement that she'll end her syndicated TV show in September 2011

Oprah announces that she'll end her syndicated TV show in September 2011

Facebook IPO? Facebook establishes a dual-class stock structure, a move that helps lay the groundwork for an eventual IPO.

Facebook Positioning Itself for IPO? Facebook establishes a dual-class stock structure, a move that helps lay the groundwork for an eventual IPO.

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody. Going viral.

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody. Going viral.

Ciena selected as successful bidder in auction of Nortel's optical networking and carrier assets - Nortel’s Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) business

Ciena snapped up Nortel's optical networking and carrier Ethernet business for $768 million in cash and convertible notes. Gary Smith, Ciena CEO, discusses the pluses and minuses of the deal.

“These optical and carrier Ethernet assets bring exceptional technologies, talent and scale that will accelerate Ciena’s current strategy to deliver innovative network solutions to customers worldwide,” said Gary Smith, Ciena’s CEO and president. “With this combination, we are bringing together complementary technologies in switching and transport to create an innovative powerhouse with the scale to challenge the industry status quo and offer customers a practical path for transitioning to automated, optical Ethernet-based networking. We will be intently focused on integration as we work together to deliver the benefits of this transaction to customers, employees and shareholders.”

“Ciena provides a natural fit for Nortel’s Optical and Carrier Ethernet assets, providing an environment where our businesses' expertise and technology can be grown and leveraged,” said Philippe Morin, president, Metro Ethernet Networks for Nortel. “The combination of our two organizations creates an industry powerhouse with a heritage of innovation and a shared commitment to building and maintaining reliable networks. With today's agreement, Nortel customers can be assured that they will be working with a known, trusted and experienced partner who can ensure continuity of supply and continue Nortel’s heritage of innovation.”

The assets to be acquired generated approximately $1.36 billion in revenue for Nortel in 2008 and $556 million (unaudited) in the first six months of 2009. Ciena expects the transaction to be significantly accretive to Ciena’s results of operations in fiscal 2011. Ciena is also expected to make employment offers to at least 2,000 Nortel employees to become part of Ciena’s global team of network specialists.

ExactTarget Raises $70MM and Adds Technology Crossover Ventures to Board of Directors, David Yuan

ExactTarget Adds Technology Crossover Ventures to Board of Directors and raises $70 million. The company, a global provider of on-demand email marketing and one-to-one marketing solutions, announced today that David Yuan of Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) has joined its board of directors following an investment in the company by the Silicon Valley-based venture fund.

"David and the TCV team bring tremendous experience leading the explosive growth of top-tier software and technology companies," said Scott Dorsey, co-founder and chief executive officer of ExactTarget. "David’s leadership and depth of experience will be invaluable to our team as we look to broaden our product platform and expand internationally."

"ExactTarget’s experienced and talented management team have built a clear industry leader for email marketing and one-to-one marketing solutions," said Yuan. "We are excited to help ExactTarget extend its leadership and capitalize on the exciting growth opportunities in the online marketing sector."

Since its inception in 1995, TCV has guided more than 40 companies through initial public offerings and currently has more than $7.7 billion under management.


About TCV
Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), founded in 1995, is a leading provider of growth capital to technology companies, providing funds to later-stage private and public companies. With $7.7 billion in capital under management, TCV has made growth equity and recapitalization investments in over 160 companies leading to 45 initial public offerings and more than 30 strategic sales or mergers. Representative investments include Altiris, eHarmony, Expedia, Fandango, Liquidnet, Netflix, RealNetworks, Redback Networks, Solect Technology, TechTarget, Travelport, Webroot, and Zillow. TCV has 11 partners and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. For more information about TCV, visit www.tcv.com.

About ExactTarget
ExactTarget is a leading global provider of on-demand email and one-to-one marketing solutions. The company’s software as a service technology provides organizations a single platform to connect with customers via triggered and transactional email, integrated text messaging, voice messaging, landing pages and social media. Supported by collaborative global services teams, ExactTarget’s technology integrates with more sales and marketing information systems than any other in the industry, including Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Omniture and Webtrends among many others. ExactTarget’s software powers permission-based multi-channel communications for thousands of organizations around the world including Expedia.com, Aurora Fashions, Papa John’s, CareerBuilder.com, Gannett Co., Inc., The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Home Depot and Wellpoint, Inc.


About David Yuan
David joined TCV in 2005 and has been in the venture capital industry since 2000. Prior to TCV, David worked as a Senior Associate at JPMorgan Partners, a $6B private equity fund, where he focused on enterprise software and Internet investments. Before JPMP, David was one of the first employees and director of business development and ad sales at 1stUp, an Internet Service Provider which was successfully sold to CMGi. David started his career in the San Francisco office for Bain & Company where he advised technology and private equity clients. David has also performed strategy and business development work in SAP’s Office of the CEO, as an assistant to the CEO at VMware, and in the corporate development group at KongZhong.David received an A.B. in Economics from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business. David currently serves on the board of Seismic Micro-Technology.

Kim Kardashian High-tech Entrepreneur? ShoeDazzle.com launches. Personality matched to your fashion sense with 6 celebrity stylists.

Los Angeles-based online high-end shoe rental site has raised $7MM. Founded by Kim Kardashian, the company charges members $39.95 per month ($479 per year) for which they get one pair of shoes sent per month based on their preferences.


Kim Kardashian
As ShoeDazzle’s Chief Fashion Stylist and Co-Founder, Kim makes all final decisions on which shoes to present to our members every month. From Dancing with the Stars to Keeping up with the Kardashians, she is always on the forefront of fashion. From photos in People to Us Weekly to starring in her own reality show, Kim Kardashian epitomizes Hollywood fashion.
Kim has long been one of the most fashionable celebrities in Hollywood. It was Kim's work as a fashion stylist and closet designer that prompted her sisters Khloe and Kourtney to open the designer clothing store DASH in Calabasas, California. Kim frequents designer fashion shows and has presented for various designer houses around the world.


Michael Bassolino
Michael began his career as a fashion stylist simply by offering advice on fashion to friends and family. From this came referrals, and advice quickly became consulting. His originality, along with his sharp eye for color and texture, set the stage for what was destined to become his company, Michael Bassolino Lifestyle Designs. Michael has appeared on major network television shows as an expert designer including HSN's Designers Challenge.


Merika Rock
Merika works with private clients across all career fields and backgrounds. They include teens to working mothers; college students; doctors; executives; brides; entertainers; athletes; models and actors. Her clients seek her assistance on everything from wardrobe consulting and wardrobe styling, personal shopping and arranging time with top hairstylists. Prior to establishing her image consulting business, Merika spent 10 years as a freelance model. Some of her other accomplishments include, "Merika's Style Report," a weekly style column for the CBS Network.



How it works:
1) Take the Fashion Survey:
It only takes a few minutes for us to get to know your style.
2) The company's stylists pick 5 shoes for you:
Based on your survey results, our fashion experts provide you with a choice of 5 fashionable shoes each month.
3) Choose the pair you want:
ShoeDazzle provides free shipping. If you are unsatisfied with your shoes, simply return them to us using the pre-printed return shipping label provided with your order.

Paper Tissue: Pic of the day - Points of View

Tish Tosh. The iPhone killer? A look at the Droid with David Pogue. First phone to run Android 2.0

The new Motorola Droid, offered by Verizon, is set to come out tomorrow, with David Pogue, New York Times tech columnist. First phone to run Android 2.0 OS

The next Amazon? or next Bust? Chegg.com Secures $112 Million

Chegg.com's transformative concept of money-saving, online rental access to textbooks has made it one of the Internet's fastest growing companies and the number one online textbook rental company. Launched nationally in 2007, to-date, Chegg.com has saved students more than $65 million off the cost of textbooks at more than 6,400 colleges. With a growing inventory of more than 2.4 million titles, Chegg.com puts textbooks into the hands of students when they need them arriving in the brand's iconic orange box. For every book rented, Chegg.com plants a tree through American Forests' Global ReLeaf Program. To date, Chegg.com has planted more than 3,000 acres of forests.

The No. 1 online textbook rental company, announced it has successfully closed $57 million Series D equity funding, led by Insight Venture Partners. In addition, Insight Venture Partners also led a syndicate that has provided a $25 million credit facility, adding to the $30 million in debt facility recently secured from Pinnacle Ventures and TriplePoint Capital. With this capital, Chegg.com plans to service the company's extraordinary growth, enhance its commitment to best-in-class customer service and further build partnerships with publishers, wholesalers and colleges. As part of the funding event, Deven Parekh from Insight Venture Partners joins Chegg.com's Board of Directors.

"We are thrilled with the continued excitement from leading investors who understand the tremendous value we provide to students around the country," Chegg.com Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Osman Rashid said. "This new funding is a significant step up from Series C and a testament to the growing market opportunity for Chegg.com's textbook rental offering. With college tuitions continuing to climb and higher unemployment rates, parents and students are looking for any and all ways to cut costs."

"Chegg.com exemplifies the type of company we look to invest in; a company that provides meaningful customer value, has a strong and growing customer base and, most importantly, an idea and an innovative spirit that drives business objectives," said Deven Parekh, managing director of Insight Venture Partners, which has also invested in Twitter and SolarWinds among others. "We are big believers in the market potential for online textbook rentals and are excited about the high-growth trajectory of Chegg.com. Insight's infusion of new financing will enable Chegg.com to execute on its aggressive growth plans."

"The aggressive growth Chegg.com has experienced is not only because we provide students significant savings on their textbooks -- on average $500 per year -- but our dedication to unparalleled customer service." Chegg.com Senior Vice President of Operations and Co-Founder Aayush Phumbhra said. "Some of the additional funding will be used to further enhance our commitment to best-in-class customer service and build more partnerships with publishers, wholesalers and colleges."

The founders:

Osman Rashid
Chairman and Co-Founder
As an entrepreneur extraordinaire, a bright idea is never far away for Osman Rashid, CEO and co-founder of Chegg.com.
Osman has founded four companies (so far). eBot.com, which launched while he was still in college, is an e-mail management company later sold to a major software provider. He also started Gravitywell, an ASP based customer service solution, and Venturian, a subsidiary of ATIO Corporation, where Osman served as VP of Business Development and Marketing. Between start-ups, Osman was Director of Business Development at Chordiant Software, Inc.
Since its launch in 2003, Chegg.com has grown over 25 times its original size. Osman was inspired to launch Chegg.com because he wanted college students to have convenient access to textbooks at a reasonable cost. Chegg.com’s purpose is simple: Students don’t need to purchase textbooks; they need to be allowed to rent them.
Osman holds a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. He resides in Fremont CA with his wife and two daughters. One day, Osman hopes to climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. He’ll get there.

Aayush Phumbhra
Vice President and Co-Founder
A business visionary, Aayush Phumbhra is now leading Chegg.com through the rental textbook market as a co-founder. Inspired by his personal experience and frustration with his own university’s bookstore, Aayush believes in the vision of Chegg.com: help college students save money by providing them with the option to rent rather than simply buy the textbooks.
Prior to the founding of Chegg.com, Aayush was an analyst at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and a management and technology consultant at BearingPoint. Before he moved to the United States in 2001, Aayush launched two companies in his native India, one of which focused on Web and graphic design.
As a VP, Aayush drives Chegg.com’s growth, spreading the service to more and more college campuses and leading in the development of strategic business relationships. Aayush holds an MBA in Marketing and Accounting from Iowa State University.

Sez Who? Sezmi secures $25MM from Morgenthaler Ventures, Omni Capital, TD Fund, Index Ventures, and Legend Ventures along with an unnamed strategic

Sezmi received $25 million in new funding from new and existing investors.

Sezmi was founded with an ambitious goal: to redefine the television experience with the first-ever personal television system. Our management team, with its strong and convergent industry strength, realized that no one was tackling a consumer demand both fundamental and, until now, unaddressed: to provide a true, fully-integrated alternative to expensive and mostly “by-appointment” television.

Sezmi offers the best of TV and the Internet in a seamlessly integrated, personalized way. We’ve completed successful technical trials and are now in consumer trials and we’ll be launching in U.S. markets in 2009. To learn when Sezmi is available in your area, go to Where can I get Sezmi?.

Sezmi is headquartered in the Belmont, California, in the Silicon Valley, with offices in Los Angeles and Ft. Lauderdale.

The company also announced today that it has made its all-in-one personalized television service available to the public in Los Angeles.

"This new funding places Sezmi in a strong financial position as we offer our service to the public and prepare for the next stage of expansion," said Buno Pati, chief executive officer of Sezmi. "We are very pleased to have the enthusiastic support of our investors and partners as we continue to execute on our plan."

Investors in this financing include previous investors Morgenthaler Ventures, Omni Capital, TD Fund, Index Ventures, and Legend Ventures, and a new strategic investor.

"We are in the midst of one of the most exciting times in television history," said Phil Wiser, co-founder and president of Sezmi. "With a deep understanding of the changing needs of television viewers, Sezmi created a completely new end-to-end offering to meet those evolving needs. We are thrilled to be in a position to deliver our service to the mass market."

Applied Materials CEO, Michael Splinter, discusses the Economy

Applied Materials CEO, Michael Splinter, discusses the Economy

IMImobile Raises $13 Million From Sequoia Capital, Others

IMImobile has raised $13 million in a financing round, led by Sequoia Capital and existing investor First Mark Capital.

“The new financing will enable us to develop our cloud infrastructure for Tier 1 telecom operators and allow us to expand our customer base and account penetration through acquisitions,'' IMImobile founder and CEO Mr Vishwanath Alluri said.

IMImobile's services are currently accessible to 500 million subscribers of over 40 operator customers in 66 countries.

“Our investment gives us an opportunity to contribute to the fantastic growth path of IMImobile and also opens up significant inorganic growth possibilities for the company,'' Mr Bhatnagar said.

Alluri stated that the funding will help them develop the cloud infrastructure for tier I telecom operators and allow them to expand their customer base and account penetration through acquisitions.

“Sequoia Capital’s global experience and strong local expertise will be a key differentiator as we look to launch into our next phase of growth,” said Alluri.

Promising Thin Laptops: Walt Mossberg reviews a new class of thin, lightweight, laptops that boast long battery life.

Walt Mossberg reviews a new class of thin, lightweight, laptops that boast long battery life. He says this new class, which falls between the netbook and a typical laptop, is a promising one.

wooga Raises 5mm euro round - Balderton Capital. Social Gaming, the next bubble?

Wooga creates social games for networks like Facebook. Founded in January 2009, wooga GmbH is based in Berlin, Germany
Wooga, a Berlin-based social gaming company, has raised €5 million in new VC funding. Balderton Capital led the round, and was joined by return backer Holtzbrinck Ventures.
Berlin-based social games developer wooga today announced that it has secured a further EUR5 million ($7.5m) in its latest round of funding led by Balderton Capital, one of Europe’s largest venture capital firms. Holtzbrinck Ventures, which provided funding earlier this year, has also participated in this round.

This latest investment will allow wooga to hire new talent, continue to develop top quality games and grow the company further. Roberto Bonanzinga, Partner at Balderton Capital, will also join the board of wooga.

Founded in January 2009, wooga (a contraction of “world of gaming”) develops games for social networks. Its first game, Brain Buddies, was released on Facebook in July 2009 and is currently one of the top 20 games on the Facebook platform with 6 million monthly users.

Roberto Bonanzinga, Partner at Balderton Capital, said: “wooga is a great early stage company, the kind of company Balderton loves to invest in. wooga has a dynamic and experienced management team, led by founder Jens Begemann, and it is based in Berlin, one of Europe’s most creative cities. Social gaming on sites such as Facebook is a key growth sector right now. We have full confidence in Jens’ ability to build a world-class team and look forward to working with wooga to expand its market further and build a global business.”

Dr. Lars Langusch, Partner at Holtzbrinck Ventures, said: “Since our initial investment in wooga a few months ago, the company has established itself as one of the top games developers for the Facebook platform. We are confident that wooga will continue to exceed our expectations.”

Jens Begemann, founder and CEO of wooga, said: “We are proud to have Balderton, one of the world’s leading investors in social media and gaming, as our new partner. We also welcome further funding from Holtzbrinck, which provides a vote of confidence in wooga and its future growth prospects. wooga focuses on offering a quality user experience that provides a safe, rewarding gaming experience. By providing true value in social gaming, we believe wooga can achieve sustained long-term growth. This investment will allow us to hire more talented people in the coming weeks and months.”

Bill Gates is asked about the similarities between Google's growth and his own experience with Microsoft.

Gates Talks Google. Microsoft founder Bill Gates is asked about the similarities between Google's growth and his own experience with Microsoft.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is asked about the job Steve Jobs has done as CEO of rival, Apple.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is asked about the job Steve Jobs has done as CEO of rival, Apple.

Indian IT giant Tata Consultancy Services is adding jobs at a time when U.S. unemployment is at a 26-year high. N. Chandrasekaran, Tata Consultancy

Indian IT giant Tata Consultancy Services is adding jobs at a time when U.S. unemployment is at a 26-year high. N. Chandrasekaran, Tata Consultancy Services CEO

Marc Andreessen talks about Skype - $2B deal, 40 million new users, network-effect business

Netscape founder Marc Andreessen heads a group that takes a majority interest in Internet phone service provider Skype. $2 billion dollar deal. HP, eBay,
- Skype added 40 million new registered users in the last three months.
- Skype did $185 million in revenue last quarter.
- Right now, it charges to connect calls into and out of the phone system.
- The global market for international long distance is $40 billion right now and Skype has only a small percentage of that.

10gen raises $3.4 Million in Series B Funding - Flybridge Capital, Union Square

10gen, an open-source software company and developer of the non-relational database MongoDB, announced it has completed a $3.4 million Series B round of financing led by Flybridge Capital Partners with participation from Series A investor Union Square Ventures. As part of the funding, Chip Hazard, a general partner with Flybridge Capital Partners, will join the company’s Board of Directors, which includes Union Square Ventures General Partner, Albert Wenger along with 10gen founders Dwight Merriman, Eliot Horowitz and Kevin Ryan.

10gen is developing and commercializing MongoDB, a high-performance, open-source, schema-free, non-relational database. MongoDB brings together the performance & scalability of key/value stores with the deep query capabilities of traditional relational databases.


Dwight Merriman, Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder
In 1995, Dwight co-founded DoubleClick and served as its CTO for ten years. Dwight was the architect of the DoubleClick ad serving infrastructure, DART, which serves tens of billions of ads per day. Dwight is co-founder, Chairman, and the original architect of Panther Express (now part of CDNetworks), a content distribution network (CDN) technology which serves hundreds of thousands of objects per second. He is also a board member of the web photo/video sharing company Phanfare. Dwight received a B.S. in Systems Analysis/Computer Science from Miami University of Ohio.

Eliot Horowitz, CTO & Co-Founder
As CTO of 10gen's innovative platform technology, Eliot has quickly become one of Silicon Alley's up and coming entrepreneurs, recently voted as one of "Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under Age 25" on BusinessWeek.com. Eliot is also the chief scientist of ShopWiki's breakthrough crawling technology. In January 2005, he began developing the crawling and data extraction algorithm that is the core of ShopWiki's innovative technology.

Kevin P. Ryan, Director & Co-Founder
Kevin Ryan, one of Silicon Alley's most well-known Internet entrepreneurs, is chairman and CEO of AlleyCorp, a network of affiliated Internet companies that includes six New York-based businesses - 10gen, Alley Insider, Gilt Groupe, Music Nation, Panther Express, and ShopWiki.

LogMeIn files for secondary offering - 3MM shares, 2.9MM existing shareholders, 0.1MM from company

LogMeIn files for secondary offering - 3MM shares, 2.9MM existing shareholders, 0.1MM from company.

LogMeIn provides on-demand, remote-connectivity solutions to small and medium-sized businesses, or SMBs, IT service providers and consumers. We believe our solutions are used to connect more Internet-enabled devices worldwide than any other connectivity service. Businesses and IT service providers use our solutions to deliver end-user support and to access and manage computers and other Internet-enabled devices more effectively and efficiently from a remote location, or remotely. Consumers and mobile workers use our solutions to access computer resources remotely, thereby facilitating their mobility and increasing their productivity. Our solutions, which are deployed and accessed from anywhere through a web browser, or “on-demand,” are secure, scalable and easy for our customers to try, purchase and use.

Link to SEC filing here

John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, discusses the company's earnings and outlook. Business activity picking up - positive upturn expected

John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, discusses the company's earnings and outlook. Company is in growth mode and is hiring.

Psychoanalyzing Twitter: Co-founder Jack Dorsey Speaks

Twitter Co-founder Jack Dorsey takes the stage at a seminar on Carl Jung's newly published Red Book, created by the Swiss thinker between 1914 and 1930. Plus, he practices a little Jungian-style free association with WSJ's Marisa Taylor.
Word Association: Google, Bing, Monetization, Facebook, Twitter...

Barron's Art of Successful Investing Conference - Fred Hickey Likes Microsoft (+50% higher) and Verizon with Margin of Safety

Fred Hickey: Tech Stands Tall

Fred Hickey, editor of The High-Tech Strategist, has been bullish on tech during this rally. Hickey argues at Barron's Art of Successful Investing Conference that Microsoft shares can go far higher and explains why he likes Verizon.

Comparison: Google Android vs. Apple iPhone

Discussing whether Google's android can outbeat Apple's iPhone, with Brian Marshall, Broadpoint Amtech; Andrew Nusca, ZDNet; and CNBC's Dennis Kneale.