June 2006

Shocker from Aspen: VCs aren't trying to fund the next Google [Posted on June 30, 2006 - 3:54 PM]

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The latest development from Fortune's Brainstorm conference in Aspen is that venture capitalists are investing in China, India and wireless applications rather than trying to fund a company that... Continue Reading

Siemens buys Bayer's medical diagnostic unit, meet Siemens Medical's US honcho [Posted on June 30, 2006 - 2:50 PM]

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My latest After Hours column in Tech Confidential magazine profiles Thomas Miller and his passion for motor sports. The story is particularly timely in light of the news today... Continue Reading

Google keeps some secrets safe, lets others slip [Posted on June 29, 2006 - 3:51 PM]

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Google surprised everyone with the details of its payment processing solution, dubbed Google Checkout, which was unveiled today. Many thought it would be called GBuy. Others thought it would... Continue Reading

Is the $100 million revenue bar returning for IPO candidates? [Posted on June 29, 2006 - 2:10 PM]

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Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, expressed concern over the poor IPO market for venture-backed startups. "We are becoming increasingly concerned about the economic implications of... Continue Reading

VC Exit Rating: thePlatform [Posted on June 29, 2006 - 1:13 PM]

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Company: thePlatform Inc. Description: Digital media publishing system Location: Seattle Amount of VC raised : $12.5 million VC firms: Spark Capital, Generation Partners, Davenport Capital Ventures VC directors: Santo... Continue Reading

Bessemer goes gaga for digital video startups [Posted on June 28, 2006 - 3:24 PM]

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Bessemer Venture Partners' in-house blogger (and general partner) David Cowan released the firm's Fall 2006 Investment Lineup. He notes that the media world has managed to ignore the Internet... Continue Reading

Spin-out VC specialist [Posted on June 28, 2006 - 2:36 PM]

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My latest Silicon Valley Special column in The Deal magazine profiles Bart Schachter's investment strategy at Blueprint Ventures. The firm focuses exclusively on corporate spinouts and scored its biggest... Continue Reading

New York's VC competitive advantage is less competition [Posted on June 27, 2006 - 7:13 PM]

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Does New York have a competitive advantage when it comes to venture capital? Silicon Valley has the critical mass of connections, corporations, universities and history. Boston has MIT and stately... Continue Reading

Is the future of digital communications a 'winner takes all' game? [Posted on June 26, 2006 - 8:09 PM]

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Robert Donahue, managing principal at Quadrangle Group, raised a question during a panel I moderated this afternoon at The Deal's Convergence 2.0 conference worth considering. Is the digital communications landscape... Continue Reading

Bad news for Facebook: Xfire is Viacom's social networking play [Posted on June 26, 2006 - 2:21 PM]

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Michael Dolan, chief financial officer at Viacom, said today at The Deal's Convergence 2.0 conference that massively multiplayer online gaming companies are easier to monetize than social networking companies... Continue Reading

Ask Microsoft, AT&T and NBC your convergence questions here [Posted on June 22, 2006 - 7:51 PM]

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I'm moderating a panel on Monday at The Deal's Convergence 2.0 conference in New York that will consider the future of digital communications. It's a broad topic and the... Continue Reading

Mashery Launches with First Round Capital and angel funding [Posted on June 22, 2006 - 11:11 AM]

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I met Oren Michels a few weeks back when he bought my Bruce Springsteen concert tickets from me. He responded to a Craigslist ad I posted offering two tickets... Continue Reading

Software investment tips from Kleiner Perkins [Posted on June 21, 2006 - 2:27 PM]

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Has SaaS got you down? Not sure whether open source enterprise applications are about to hit? Then, take a deep breath and look to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers... Continue Reading

If Facebook is worth $2 billion ... [Posted on June 21, 2006 - 1:50 PM]

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Then why is it selling equity in exchange for advertising revenue? The rumored deal calls for Interpublic Group of Cos. to spend $10 million to advertise on the Facebook... Continue Reading

Little known VC fund achieves 11th exit in 18 months [Posted on June 19, 2006 - 4:04 PM]

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For a fund most have barely heard of, Infinity Venture Capital is doing well. The sale of the Israeli venture capital firm's portfolio company ProActivity Software Solutions to EMC... Continue Reading

Nokia-Siemens deal has little effect on VCs [Posted on June 19, 2006 - 2:15 PM]

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Reaction to the merger of Nokia and Siemens' communication equipment assets has been generally positive. Here is today's analysis from Infonetics Research's Richard Webb: A Siemens-Nokia partnership looks to... Continue Reading

For my money, best in show at UTR was Songbird [Posted on June 15, 2006 - 1:50 PM]

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Of the 32 startups presenting their wares at yesterday's Under the Radar conference, only three were named Best in Show. Here are the winners, sorted by category: “I’d pay... Continue Reading

Pixsy seeking to ride video and photo image search boom [Posted on June 15, 2006 - 12:51 PM]

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Image search is one of those technology problems that no one has answered sufficiently yet, but the one that does will be rewarded richly. As Google's Chris Sacca said... Continue Reading

Google's Chris Sacca slams Castpost [Posted on June 15, 2006 - 12:58 AM]

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The format at the Under the Radar conference is four startups present their products and then three judges comprised of analysts, venture capitalists or corporate executives evaluate the companies'... Continue Reading

Clickability looking to raise 2nd round... six years after the 1st one [Posted on June 14, 2006 - 7:02 PM]

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Clickability may have been ahead of its time. Its content management system is benefiting from the current interest in blogging. And the uptake of software as a service by... Continue Reading

David Hornik wants BBQ.com 2.0 [Posted on June 14, 2006 - 6:40 PM]

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During a discussion today at the Under The Radar conference, August Capital general partner David Hornik said that the type of search startup he's looking to fund is one... Continue Reading

VC Rating: MusicStrands [Posted on June 14, 2006 - 3:42 PM]

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Company: MusicStrands Description: Music recommendation engine Competitors: Last.fm, Pandora Location: Corvallis, Ore. and Barcelona Amount Raised: $6 million Round: First Date Announced: 3/2/06 VC Firms: GCR Capital, Debaeque Venture... Continue Reading

Multiply bidding to be one of the few social networking winners [Posted on June 14, 2006 - 2:51 PM]

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