February 2007

JDSU buys PicoLight for amount of VC invested [Posted on February 28, 2007 - 11:20 AM]

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You can take the name out of the acquirer but you can't take away its acquisitive instincts. Before it changed its name to JDSU, JDS Uniphase was one of... Continue Reading

John Doerr to receive lifetime achievement award [Posted on February 27, 2007 - 6:43 PM]

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John Doerr will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award in Entrepreneurship and Innovation tonight from the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the Haas School of Business at UC... Continue Reading

Maxxan recaps, becomes CipherMax [Posted on February 27, 2007 - 3:44 PM]

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Talk about loyalty. Venrock and U.S. Venture Partners are still supporting Maxxan after six years has elapsed, $133 million has been invested and the company's product strategy and name... Continue Reading

Sequoia receives unwanted attention [Posted on February 27, 2007 - 2:53 PM]

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Sequoia Capital has had quite a run. Some big IPOs (Isilon and Mellanox), some big trade sales (Topio and YouTube) and a redesigned web site has put the venture... Continue Reading

After the fall, VSP Capital continues to profit [Posted on February 26, 2007 - 2:27 PM]

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VSP Capital continues to steadily earn profitable exits despite internal turmoil that led to partner departures and lawsuits last year. Its latest exit came when chipmaker LSI Logic purchased... Continue Reading

Microsoft makes second healthcare acquisition [Posted on February 26, 2007 - 2:05 PM]

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After buying 22 startups in 12 months last fiscal year, Microsoft is adding to its shopping list in the current fiscal year with healthcare related startups. Today, the company... Continue Reading

Viacom about to buy Last.fm? Not for $450 million [Posted on February 23, 2007 - 1:24 PM]

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DealBreaker is reporting that Viacom is in talks to purchase Last.fm for $450 million. I gave Last.fm an overall VC Rating of 8 back in May so I think... Continue Reading

Reactivity goes from failed "venture accelerator" to $135 million Cisco sale [Posted on February 22, 2007 - 5:41 PM]

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Reactivity began life very differently from the way it ended this week when it agreed to be purchased by Cisco Systems for $130 million. Founded in 1998 with venture... Continue Reading

Blog networks are failing? Tell that to Benchmark, Accel and Sequoia [Posted on February 22, 2007 - 3:55 PM]

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A post on Paul Scrivens' Wisdump blog today suggests that blog networks have failed. His idea is that most blogs -- let alone blog networks -- fail because they don't... Continue Reading

Imperium's $113 million raise among largest cleantech financings ever [Posted on February 22, 2007 - 2:48 PM]

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I interviewed Imperium Renewables chairman and CEO Martin Tobias last year for a story I wrote about ambitious startups trying to build billion dollar businesses. Tobias was the character... Continue Reading

The slow return of the Tech IPO [Posted on February 21, 2007 - 12:33 PM]

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The IPO hype machine received another boost today when Business 2.0's Michael Copeland wrote that the Tech IPO is back. I'm not so sure. If the Tech IPO was back,... Continue Reading

Six remaining in-game ad startups could tempt Sony, EA [Posted on February 21, 2007 - 11:56 AM]

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Google's $23 million purchase of Adscape earlier this month is the latest in-game advertising startup acquisition. Microsoft's deal for Massive last year was the biggest such purchase. But, the... Continue Reading

The Big 5 intellectual property investment houses [Posted on February 20, 2007 - 2:02 PM]

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Visto is only the latest, and largest, target of an investment fund targeting an intellectual property opportunity. In that deal announced last week, Altitude Partners invested $35 million to... Continue Reading

Odeo seeks third owner in five months [Posted on February 20, 2007 - 3:05 AM]

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Things get stranger and stranger over at Odeo. For a two-year old startup, it's sure had an interesting corporate life. First, the San Francisco podcasting search and technology company... Continue Reading

H.I.G. Ventures profits from Google's Adscape buy [Posted on February 19, 2007 - 2:29 PM]

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The venture capital beneficiary of Google's $23 million acquisition of in-game advertising startup Adscape Media last week isn't based in the normal locale. Usually, the money from a deal... Continue Reading

Visto turns to Altitude Capital for IP expertise [Posted on February 16, 2007 - 6:51 PM]

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Visto surprised some with another round of financing this week. It's shouldn't have. The company has gone too far for its investors to give up on it now. Besides,... Continue Reading

A dozen network acceleration startups down, 3 to go [Posted on February 16, 2007 - 4:15 PM]

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Akamai's $171 million purchase of Netli earlier this month is the latest in an industry-wide buying spree of 11 network acceleration and optimization startups for a total of $1.4... Continue Reading

DivX can't get VCs to let go even after the IPO [Posted on February 16, 2007 - 1:15 PM]

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With all the complaints heard around Silicon Valley about the tough IPO market, you'd think that when venture capitalists are fortunate enough to have a portfolio company achieve an... Continue Reading

Web startups attracting larger share of European VC [Posted on February 15, 2007 - 4:36 PM]

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Internet companies are accounting for a growing share of the venture capital invested in Europe and Israel. After hitting a peak of 14% share in 2001, Internet deal share declined... Continue Reading

The cream of the European crop; Index Ventures closes on $460 million [Posted on February 15, 2007 - 4:08 PM]

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More than any other venture capital firm in Europe, Index Ventures is legitemizing the local industry. I wrote the same thing six years ago but it remains as true... Continue Reading

Bessemer trains portfolio companies in SEO and SEM [Posted on February 14, 2007 - 2:13 PM]

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Bessemer Venture Partners recently brought about 25 of its portfolio company executives together to learn how best to utilize search engine optimization and marketing tools for their companies. It... Continue Reading

Gilman Louie suggests Web 2.0 entrepreneurs are "disease" stricken [Posted on February 14, 2007 - 12:57 PM]

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Venture capitalists seem to fall into two buckets when it comes to Web 2.0. They are either in love with consumer facing Internet startup using Web 2.0 technologies or... Continue Reading

LiveOps prefers Benchmark Capital to hedge funds [Posted on February 14, 2007 - 12:00 AM]

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