Wash Post/Tech Crunch: Google to buy Twitter (Rumour) / 2 sources +$250MM

From TechCrunch..."from two separate people close to the negotiations: Google is in late stage negotiations to acquire Twitter. We don't know the price but can assume its well, well north of the $250 million valuation that they saw in their recent funding."

"If this is accurate, it’s a brilliant deal for Google - the value of Twitter is only going to go up over time."

Also, this would be a great deal for the 20 or so Twitter employees as well as Twitter venture investors Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures. Google sure loves to overpay for companies especially when that Company was only recently trying to raise a funding round. It will be quite sad to see Twitter become one of the many subsidiaries lost inside of the Google Machine.

WSJ - Industry Ventures

"Many venture-capital firms are falling short of fundraising targets for their new funds. But Industry Ventures, which focuses on secondary venture-capital investments, plans to announce Monday that it has raised a $265 million new fund, above its target of $200 million."

"Hans Swildens, a founder of Industry Ventures, says the secondary market is now “more active than I’ve ever seen it.” He estimates that 10% of invested capital in the venture-capital business is currently exploring a secondary sale, up from 3% to 4% in normal times."

BusinessWeek: Google's Newest Role: Venture Capitalist

"Google (GOOG) has begun making VC-style investments to the tune of about $500,000 or less in promising startups, often buying those companies afterward, according to partners at Silicon Valley VC firms who spoke on condition of anonymity. In an effort to keep spotting promising deals, Google has been hiring a stable of finance pros. And it has invested more than $1 million in a Mumbai-based investment firm called Seedfund to gain access to technology such as automatic translation software that could help spur growth in India.
"Google has easy money," says Pravin Gandhi, a managing partner at Seedfund, which also has raised some of its $15 million from Motorola (MOT) and VC firm Mayfield Fund. So far, Seedfund has taken $500,000 to $750,000 stakes in four companies, including an online news site. On the horizon could be investments that help Google add specialized channels, such as information about autos, to its Web site or cultivate technology that can translate Web content from English into Indian languages, Gandhi says. "It's a somewhat less risky way to participate in the Indian growth story," he says. "