Walt Mossberg spends a week playing with the iPad. Here's why he thinks the iPad is a promising product with potential.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Walt Mossberg spends a week playing with the iPad. Here's why he thinks the iPad is a promising product with potential
Walt Mossberg spends a week playing with the iPad. Here's why he thinks the iPad is a promising product with potential.
Socialcast Secures $8 Million in Series B Funding From Menlo Ventures and True Ventures
Socialcast, the pioneer of activity streams for real-time enterprise collaboration, today announced it has secured $8 million in Series B funding from Menlo Ventures and True Ventures. The company plans to apply the new capital to continued innovation in its enterprise collaboration and activity stream platform, Socialcast Ease™ (enterprise activity stream engine), as well as infrastructure investments to support its rapid business growth, including acquisition of top engineering talent and scaling of its marketing, sales and customer deployment teams.
Socialcast, the pioneer of activity streams for real-time enterprise collaboration, puts an entire company's brain to work with Socialcast Ease™, the real-time enterprise activity stream engine. Behind the firewall or in the cloud, Socialcast's software enables instant collaboration in a secure environment to unite people, processes, and data across the enterprise.
"Socialcast's momentum in the enterprise collaboration space and visionary roadmap for the implementation of activity streams both impressed and prompted us to pursue an investment," said Sonja Hoel Perkins, Managing Director at Menlo Ventures. "As one of the first companies to recognize that activity streams are the next step in the evolution of collaboration and communication within the enterprise, Socialcast is in the driver's seat. The company is poised to redefine both the social computing and enterprise software categories. We are proud to be joining them in this pivotal growth phase."
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Silicon Alley Insider - Top 10 Tech Companies Warchests
The top 10 tech companies with the most cash and equivalents listed on the S&P 500 have $210 billion, while the next 62 tech companies from the S&P have just $108 billion in total.
Cash has become king to an even greater extent than in the past because of the credit crunch. A company with a lot of cash is in a disproportionately strong position now than it would be in normal times.
Avaak, Inc. Secures $10 Million in Series B Funding - Qualcomm Ventures, Trinity Ventures, InterWest Partners and Leapfrog Ventures
Avaak, Inc. Secures $10 Million in Series B Funding
Qualcomm Ventures Joins Leading Venture Capital Firms in Supporting Funding Avaak's Product Development and Market Expansion
Avaak, the industry leader in ultra low power wireless video networking technology, today announced that it raised $10 million in Series B funding led by strategic investor Qualcomm Incorporated who joins Avaak's existing investors Trinity Ventures, InterWest Partners and Leapfrog Ventures in backing Avaak's revolutionary wireless video technology, being delivered today in the Vue(TM) personal video network consumer product.
"This strategic investment reflects confidence in our Vue personal video networking product that has the potential to fundamentally alter the economics of installing and implementing video services in the consumer DIY market," said Gioia Messinger, co-founder and chief executive officer of Avaak, Inc. "The Vue is transforming how busy individuals and families keep track of what's important to them. With the help of our investment partners, we're excited to extend our reach to a broader customer base and make further enhancements to our award-winning product portfolio."
The Vue system allows consumers to monitor their homes or businesses via the Internet and access a live video feed through a mobile device. The system features a network of small, battery-powered cameras that can be placed anywhere, a unique and valuable offering in today's consumer electronics market.
"Avaak has taken video monitoring to a new level of simplicity, allowing consumers to view live video on their mobile devices," said Nagraj Kashyap, vice president of Qualcomm Ventures. "Vue's early success has been impressive and illustrates the product's strong market potential. Qualcomm is pleased to support Avaak as it enters its next exciting growth phase."
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
CNBC video: cisco hype hype hype machine
"Cisco unveils a new router it says has 10 times more capacity than its predecessor, with CNBC's Jim Goldman."
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Stylesight Raises $10 Million in Funding from Volition Capital and Cue Ball Capital
Stylesight Raises $10 Million in Funding from Volition Capital and Cue Ball Capital
B2B Trend Content and Software as a Service (SaaS) Provider Finalizes Additional Equity Funding and Names Richard J. Harrington to Board of Directors
NEW YORK, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Stylesight, the leading global provider of trend content, tools and technology for the fashion and style industries, announced today that it has closed a $10 million equity investment to fuel its ongoing growth and global expansion. The investment was provided by Volition Capital, a growth equity firm formed by the US team of Fidelity Ventures, and Cue Ball Capital. In conjunction with the financing, Richard J. Harrington, Chairman and General Partner of Cue Ball Capital, and retired CEO of The Thomson Corporation (now Thomson Reuters), will join Stylesight's Board of Directors.
"Volition Capital and Cue Ball Capital's investments in Stylesight underscores their confidence in our growth, and validates our ongoing momentum," says Frank Bober, Founder and CEO of Stylesight. "Volition has been a great partner since their initial investment in 2008 and we're excited with the addition of Cue Ball Capital and their unique approach to working with their investment partners."
With this additional funding, the Company is well poised to accelerate its rapid growth. Stylesight's strong heritage of product innovation, unparalleled customer service and best in class content will benefit significantly from this additional funding. Recently named FOLIO Magazine's 2009 Eddie Award Winner for "Best Retail Website," Stylesight.com is the premier provider of trend content and Software as a Service (SaaS) designer tools, and the only service available in Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and English translation. Stylesight offers its global subscribers the unrivaled ability to intercept, interpret and transmit the impulses of the style industry through its timely, relevant trend content and state-of-the-art technology.
"Stylesight has proven itself to be the premier information service for the global fashion industry," says Larry Cheng, Managing Partner, Volition Capital. "Their product portfolio is unmatched; the must-have trend service for retailers, manufacturers, designers and factories worldwide. We are pleased to assist Stylesight in their ongoing rapid growth in the fashion and style industry."
Stylesight's newest board member, Richard J. Harrington, is a renowned industry leader in the information media world. Prior to co-founding Cue Ball, Harrington served as CEO of The Thomson Corporation, and led its transformation into the world's largest information services firm. Under his tenure, the business saw its market capitalization nearly quadruple. Harrington brings this deep experience to the Stylesight board, and joins current board members, Larry Cheng of Volition Capital and David Bell of Pegasus Capital Advisors. In addition to Stylesight and other privately held companies, Harrington serves on the Board of Directors for Xerox Corporation and Aetna.
"We are extremely excited to be partnering with Stylesight and Volition Capital. Stylesight has that rare combination of inspiring innovation and sound business model fundamentals," notes Harrington. "Stylesight fits squarely with Cue Ball's focus on recurring revenue business models and differentiated intellectual capital. I am proud to be joining its Board and supporting its continued growth."
About Stylesight
Stylesight is the leading provider of trend forecasting and product development tools for creative professionals in the fashion and style industries. Founded in 2003 by apparel manufacturing veteran, Frank Bober, Stylesight's subscribers include leading retailers, designer and manufacturers worldwide. Stylesight is headquartered in New York with satellite offices stationed in fashion capitals around the world. (www.stylesight.com)
About Volition
Volition Capital is a growth equity firm that principally invests in high potential, founder-owned companies across different technology sectors. Our firm specializes in partnering with founders to help them achieve their fullest aspirations for their business.
One form of partnership comes through investing capital for the purposes of accelerated growth, strategic acquisitions, and shareholder liquidity. Another form of partnership comes simply from bringing all of our resources to bear to help our founders be successful – we call this "Capital +."
Our team has 75 years of collective investing experience helping dozens of companies navigate to successful IPOs and acquisitions. Assets invested in the current portfolio of 26 companies are approximately $400 million. Much of our success has come from investing in capital efficient technology companies in sectors such as: software, Internet, information services, and tech-enabled services. We strongly gravitate towards high growth companies that have demonstrated traction in the market and are looking for a partner to help them achieve clear market leadership.
Obama discusses clean jobs at an alternative energy company in Arlington, VA.
Obama discusses clean jobs at an alternative energy company in Arlington, VA.
Interview with Tom Reilly, ArcSight president/CEO
A cyber war might be a new threat to American businesses, with Tom Reilly, ArcSight president/CEO.
cnbc: Forget US Stocks—Buy Gold Every Month ‘Forever’: Faber
Investors should buy some gold every month “forever” or look to emerging market stocks rather than US shares, Marc Faber, editor of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, told CNBC.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Monday, March 01, 2010
CereProc, text-to-speech techstartup, gives Roger Ebert his voice back
Roger Ebert lost his ability to speak nearly four years ago, when he underwent a tracheostomy, a procedure that opens an airway through an incision in the windpipe, after surgery for cancer in his jaw.
CereProc, founded in 2005, creates text-to-speech solutions for any type of application.
The Company's core product, CereVoice, is available on any platform, from mobile and embedded devices to desktops and servers.
The voices have character, making them appropriate for a far wider range of applications than traditional text-to-speech systems. Our voices sound engaging when reading long documents and web pages, and add realistic, emotional, voices to animated characters.
CereProc has assembled a leading team of speech experts, with a track record of academic and commercial success.
They partner with a range of companies and academic institutions to develop exciting new markets for text-to-speech. CereProc works with our language partners to create new versions of CereVoice in any language.
CereProc Products
CereProc offers a range of products for home and corporate users.
Windows and Mac Voices
Many computers include text-to-speech voices. Unfortunately these voices often sound unnatural, or are only available in a single accent. CereProc voices allow your computer to speak in a variety of accents, including Southern British English, Scottish, and American. Try out the demo bar at the top of the page to listen to our range of voices. Most of these voices are available to download today.
CereVoice can replace the system voice on Microsoft Windows PCs and Apple Mac OSX. Voices for Windows and OSX for a single user/single device can be downloaded from our online store.
Prompt Creation Solutions
The CereProc Scuer allows the creation of professional-sounding prompts with CereVoice. The Scuer interface allows text-to-speech output to be tuned to create different versions of the speech.
Server Solutions
CereVoice Servers support Windows and Linux platforms, offering high performance in multi-threaded, multi-channel environments.
Developer Solutions
Speech application developers can use the CereVoice Software Development Kit (SDK) to create their own applications incorporating CereVoice text-to-speech.
Voice Solutions for Application Developers
Application developers can license CereVoice voices, either to redistribute the voice package itself within their application, or to distribute the audio generated from CereProc's voices. Please contact us via the contact page for further information on this licensing model.
Academic Licensing
The CereVoice SDK is also available free of charge to academic institutions for research purposes.
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