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May 2007
First Round Capital stumbles upon first big exit
[Posted on May 31, 2007 - 9:54 PM]
The wave of momentum that's been building up over the past year in First Round Capital's portfolio hit a crescendo this week with the announcement of its first significant...

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Adios Magellan, Looksmart, Mahalo, whatever your name is
[Posted on May 31, 2007 - 1:31 PM]
Jason Calacanis' new venture, Mahalo, has launched to mixed reviews. The human-edited search engine endeavors to offer users better results for the 10,000 most popular search terms, which account...

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eBay buys StumbleUpon for no discernible reason
[Posted on May 30, 2007 - 7:13 PM]
I love acquisitions where the acquirer spends millions of dollars of shareholders' money but won't deign to explain why. eBay seems to be on the buy side of many...

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Index Ventures burnishes reputation further with Last.fm exit
[Posted on May 30, 2007 - 4:58 PM]
One year after raising an undisclosed amount of funding from Index Ventures, Last.fm has hit the jackpot. The $280 million sale to CBS marks another major Web 2.0 exit...

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LaNetro Zed considers InfoSpace; TerraLycos Part Deux?
[Posted on May 29, 2007 - 4:30 PM]
Apparently the moratorium on Spanish companies buying American Internet companies has expired. In the wake of Terra's awful purchase of Lycos, cross-border activity died down for a while. Today,...

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Fatdoor launches - another local play DOA?
[Posted on May 29, 2007 - 1:48 PM]
I know that one of these startups targeting local markets will succeed eventually. But, because it's so tough to transfer success from one market to hundreds of others, I'm...

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A professor ruins Fred Wilson's great week
[Posted on May 26, 2007 - 8:31 PM]
It had been quite a week for Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson. First, WallStrip, an online finance video startup that Wilson had invested in, was sold to CBS just...

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The danger of Facebook's new strategy
[Posted on May 25, 2007 - 11:32 AM]
It's hard to argue with the logic behind Facebook's decision to open up its social network to outside applications. It means its users will spend more time on the...

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Couldn't Sequoia find a better real estate startup than Trulia?
[Posted on May 25, 2007 - 10:29 AM]
Sequoia Capital's $10 million Series C investment into online real estate information site Trulia is a smart move for the firm. Growing company. Rich market in flux. Very high...

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Accel and Norwest VCs share strategies for targeting teens
[Posted on May 24, 2007 - 4:09 PM]
With $195 billion in spending power, its no wonder so many venture capitalists and corporations are targeting the 13-18 year old market. I moderated a panel yesterday at an SDForum...

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Facebook and Apple dominating teen technology usage
[Posted on May 23, 2007 - 9:06 PM]
Judged against most of the student entrepreneurs in attendance at today's Teens in Tech conference, I was a major slacker in high school. It was quite shocking to see what...

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Join me tomorrow at SDForum's Teens and Tech conference
[Posted on May 22, 2007 - 11:55 PM]
I'll be moderating a panel tomorrow morning at a half-day SDForum event called Next Generation Tech: Teens Plugged In. The main topic of discussion will be how best to invest...

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CBS buys Wallstrip for the technology, not the content
[Posted on May 22, 2007 - 3:44 PM]
When I first heard last week that CBS was in the process of buying Wallstrip, I thought it was just the latest example of a stupid purchase by old...

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IVP will continue to focus on late stage with new fund
[Posted on May 22, 2007 - 3:10 PM]
While some firms struggling to adjust to the new venture capital market have thrown in the towel or reflexively focused on consumer Internet investments, Institutional Venture Partners has gone...

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Safeguard Scientifics still paying for the Internet bust
[Posted on May 21, 2007 - 4:32 PM]
When most people hear about Safeguard Scientifics, they think back to when the publicly traded venture capital firm was worth billions of dollars owing to its stake in Internet...

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TechMeme's founding myth
[Posted on May 17, 2007 - 3:40 PM]
It's common practice for entrepreneurs to promote their company by talking about an amazing Eureka Moment that caused them to establish their companies in the first place. eBay founder...

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Dawntreader Ventures MD on social shopping trends
[Posted on May 15, 2007 - 3:30 PM]
Dawntreader Ventures managing director Ed Sim views this week's sales of social shopping sites Cork'd and dreview.com as more evidence that e-commerce companies are looking to build content and...

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AOL's Third Screen Media buy benefits a pair of smaller VCs
[Posted on May 15, 2007 - 2:51 PM]
TD Capital Ventures and Blue Chip Venture Co. are two of the main beneficiaries of AOL's purchase of mobile phone advertising startup Third Screen Media for an undisclosed amount...

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TheLadders.com is growing
[Posted on May 11, 2007 - 5:10 PM]
It looks like Matrix Partners' investment in high-end job site TheLadders.com is developing nicely. It may be the complementary beers that I consumed last night at the TheLadders.com/GigaOm party...

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54 seconds of fame
[Posted on May 10, 2007 - 8:35 PM]
Actually, my contribution lasted closer to 10 seconds. But, I enjoy public radio and was happy to participate in a 54 second report on Apple's shareholder meeting today. I...

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Intel Capital CEO Summit highlights
[Posted on May 10, 2007 - 3:12 PM]
Intel Capital remains the most significant corporate venture capitalist by a longshot. So, its CEO Summit in Carlsbad this week is garnering a lot of attention. Aside from announcing...

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Merger mania: Google, eBay, Yahoo, Fox
[Posted on May 9, 2007 - 6:02 PM]
Six months ago, it was a fair question to ask where the Web 2.0 exits were? Because for all of the ink spilled and money invested on them, profitable...

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Google buying a vertical search startup? No way
[Posted on May 4, 2007 - 5:43 PM]
A research analyst is reporting that Google is in negotiations to purchase job search engine SimplyHired, according to a blog post today on Alarm:Clock. Call me SimplySkeptical. I don't...

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