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 Thursday, July 2, 2009 5AM Ventures III Reaches $159.25M Menlo Park-based 5AM Ventures, a venture investor in the life sciences industry, has now hit $159.25M in its fundraising for 5AM Ventures III, according to a regulatory filing from the firm today. Details on limited partners in the fund have not been disclosed. 5AM closed an initial fundraise on its newest fund in March, with commitments of $119.25M, according to regulatory filings. posted on Thursday, July 2, 2009(Full story) SpineGuard Gets $4M San Francisco- and Paris-based SpineGuard, which is developing medical devices for back surgery, said this morning that it has raised $4M in a funding round from Delta Partners. According to the firm, the investment brings its Series A funding to $15M. Other investors in the firm include Credit Agricole Private Equity, Innoven Partenaires, and A Plus Finance, which all invested in an April tranche of funding. (More info...) posted on Thursday, July 2, 2009 (More)(Full story) Hitachi GST Completes Buy of WD Facility San Jose-based Hitachi Global Storage Technologies said today that it has completed its acquisition of a substrate manufacturing facility previously owned by Western Digital. The firm said that the facility, located in Sarawak, Malaysia, produces aluminum substrates used in hard drives. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Western Digital announced the sale of the facility in May, and was previously a part of Komag. posted on Thursday, July 2, 2009(Full story) Bling Nation Raises $8M For Mobile Payments Palo Alto-based Bling Nation, a developer of mobile payment technology, said today that it has raised $8M in a Series A funding round. Lead investor in the round was Lightspeed Venture Partners,, Meck, Ltd., and CampVentures. Bling Nation develops a mobile payment product which allows consumers to pay merchants through their mobile phone, using text messaging. Bling Nation said that it had previously raised $5.3M in funding from Meck Ltd. (More info...) posted on Thursday, July 2, 2009 (More)(Full story) Wednesday, July 1, 2009 Green Technology Investments Up In Q2 One area of the venture market is saw a bump in activity, according to publisher Greentech Media: the green technology investment space. According to Greentech Media, investments in the space hit $1.2 billion in Q2, up significantly from the $836M invested in the space in the first quarter. According to the report, there were 85 deals in Q2 versus 59 deals in Q1. Greentech's analysis found that in Q2, solar power deals led in terms of investment category, with $33. (More info...) posted on Wednesday, July 1, 2009(Full story) Google Links Translation Tools To Browser Mountain View-based Google said last night that it has linked its language translation tools to its Microsoft Internet Explorer toolbar. According to Google, the newest release of GOogle Toolbar for Internte Explorer now can automatically detect if the language of a webpage is different that your default language, and will automatically translate that page. The firm said the language support will also be available for Firefox, but did not give a timeline for delivery of Firefox support. posted on Wednesday, July 1, 2009(Full story) Six Year Low In Exits, Says Report A report released today by Dow Jones VentureSource finds that Q2 of this year was among the worst ever for exits for venture capital-backed firms. According to the report, there was a 57% drop in exits this year, compared with last year, with only $2.8 billion of mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs in the quarter. Dow Jones reported $2.57 billion in mergers and acquisitions of 67 companies in Q2 of this year, down from $6. (More info...) posted on Wednesday, July 1, 2009(Full story) Tuesday, June 30, 2009 StrongMail Acquires PopularMedia Redwood City-based StrongMail reported Tuesday that it has acquired PopularMedia, a provider of social media marketing products. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. StrongMail said it would become a component of the firm's "social media framework" products. PopularMedia is based in San Francisco, and was venture backed by Sequoia Capital, Steamboat Ventures, and DAG Ventures. posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009(Full story) Paglo Looks To Cloud For IT Log Analysis Menlo Park-based Paglo announced Tuesday that it has rolled out a new, cloud-based service which will help IT administrators to search and index their log data. The firm said the new Log Management service from the firm will automatically capture and store their logs through an on-demand service, and then allow users to search those logs for information. The new service will start at $99 per month. posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009(Full story) Yahoo 360 Shutting Down, Really Yahoo told users of its Yahoo 360 social networking and blogging site today that it is officially closing its doors on July 13th. The site--which has been slated for closure for over a year now--provided a way for users to blog and share their personal profile information with other users. The firm is now encouraging its users to move their information to Yahoo's "Profiles" service. posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009(Full story) Flickr Ties Into Twitter Flickr, Yahoo's popular photo sharing and social networking site, said Tuesday that the firm has integrated the photo site with micro messaging service Twitter, and will allow its users to automatically send links to its photos via Twitter. According to the site, users can plug into Twitter using its existing "add a blog page" functionality. The new functionality allows users to either Tweet content when photos are uploaded via email, or through the "Blog this" functionality on the site. (More info...) posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009(Full story) Opus Capital Snags iPhone VP As General Partner Menlo Park-based venture capital firm Opus Capital reports today that it has snagged Bob Borchers, the former Senior Director of Worldwide Product Marketing for Apple's iPhone, as a general partner. Opus said that Borchers will focus on investments in mobile applications and services, as well as related hardware and software deals. Borchers was a part of the original iPhone team, and has also served at FusionOne, Nokia, and Nike. posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009(Full story) Yahoo Names Branding Head Sunnyvale-based Yahoo said Tuesday that it has hired on a new executive to boost the firm's branding efforts. According to Yahoo, it has hired on Penny Baldwin as Senior Vice President, Global Integrated Marketing and Brand Management. Baldwin joins the firm from Young & Rubicam Brands, Y&R Advertising and Wunderman Direct Marketing. (More info...) posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009(Full story) Firetide Gets $4.5M In Debt Round Los Gatos-based Firetide, a developer of wireless mesh networking hardware, has scored $4.5M in a debt round, according to a recent regulatory filing by the firm. Details on the funding were not released by the company. Firetide has previously received venture backing from Menlo Ventures, Coral Capital Management, HMS Ventures, Hawaiian Electric Industries, and Mitsui & Co. Venture Partners. posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 (More)(Full story) Simply Hired Expands Internationally Mountain View-based Simply Hired, a provider of job listings, said that it has expanded internationally with five new job search sites. According to the firm, it has introduced new localized sites covering Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Brazil, and the Netherlands. The firm said that those companies are "prosumer" countries with early adopters of innovative technology and Internet usage. (More info...) posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009(Full story) Zynga Hires Chief Designer San Francisco-based social games developer Zynga reported today that industry veteran Brian Reynolds has joined the firm as chief designer. In this newly created role, Zynga noted, Reynolds will head its East Coast operations while directing the product development team as it creates new social strategy games. Zynga described Reynolds as an industry "legend" who previously helped establish two prominent videogame studios: Firaxis Games and Big Huge Games. (More info...) posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009(Full story) Oracle Expands SaaS Offering For ISVs Redwood shores-based Oracle has launched a new, software-as-a-service offering targeted at ISVs, the firm disclosed this morning. According to Oracle, it has created a new license specifically targeted at independent software vendors (ISVs), which will allow them to purchase access to Oracle's Platform for SaaS on a monthly basis. (More info...) posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009(Full story) High Gear Media Snags $5.5M Palo Alto-based High Gear Media, an owner of a network of 38 automotive websites, said today that it has raised $5.5M in a Series B funding round. The round was led by DAG Ventures, and also included prior investors Accel Partners and Greylock Partners. The firm said the funding brings its total raised to $12M. High Gear Media will use the funding for further developing its technology platform, as well as strategic acquisitions. (More info...) posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 (More)(Full story) Monday, June 29, 2009 Facebook Names CFO Palo Alto-based Facebook reported Monday that it has named the former EVP and CFO of Genentech, David Ebersman, as the firm's Chief Financial Officer. Ebersman was at Genentech for nearly 15 years, and had served as EVP and CFO at that firm since 2006. Prior to a variety of roles at Genentech, he was a research analyst at Oppenheimer & Company, inc. Ebersman reports to Facebook CEO and Foudner Mark Zuckerberg. posted on Monday, June 29, 2009(Full story) Quantcast Targets Advertisers With New Offering San Francisco-based Quantcast, a provider of web analytics, said today that the firm has launched a new effort to help advertisers find the right target for their ads. According to the firm, it has launched the Quantcast Media Program which will allow marketers to determine the "distinctive" audience characteristics of their customers, so that they can better target their ads. (More info...) posted on Monday, June 29, 2009(Full story) Google Rolls Out SMS Services In Africa Mountain View-based Google announced today that the firm has launched an initiative in Africa to make its services easier to access, unsing a mobile phone and SMS, rather than the web. According to Google, the new services will allow users to use SMS to access information on the service using SMS queries, including health and agriculture tips, news, local weather, sports, and information, as well as a SMS-based marketplace for buyers and sellers. (More info...) posted on Monday, June 29, 2009(Full story) Qualys Names Retired Four-star General to Board Qualys reported this morning that it has appointed former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace to its board of directors. The Redwood City-based provider of hosted IT security risk and compliance management software and services described Pace as a retired four-star general who served more than 40 years in the U.S. Marine Corps en route to becoming the 16th chairman of the U.S. Military's Joint Chiefs of Staff. (More info...) posted on Monday, June 29, 2009(Full story) Cypress Hires India Head Mixed-signal integrated circuit manufacturer Cypress Semiconductor announced Monday that it has hired Rajeev Mehtani as senior vice president of India operations. The San Jose-based company said Mehtani will supervise its Cypress India business, which boasts more than 500 employees spread across locations in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. Cypress described Mehtani as a veteran of the semiconductor industry with more than 23 years of relevant experience. (More info...) posted on Monday, June 29, 2009(Full story) ParAccel Gains $22M Cupertino-based ParAccel, whic is developing massively parallel database software for the data warehousing market, said this morning that it has raised $22M in a Series C venture round. The round was led by Menlo Ventures, and also included prior investors Bay Partners, Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV), Tao Venture Partners and Walden International. ParAccel said the funding will go towards product development, sales and marketing, and to ramp up services and support. Menlo Ventures' John W. (More info...) posted on Monday, June 29, 2009 (More)(Full story) Friday, June 26, 2009 iSkoot Snags VP From eBay San Francisco-based iSkoot, a developer of web services for mobile handsets, said Thursday that the firm has snagged talent from eBay for its newest executive. According to iSkoot, it has named Wayne Fenton as Vice President of Global Product Development and Engineering. Fenton was most recently an enterprise architect at eBay, and has also served at Cisco Systems, Latitude Communications, and Oracle Corporation. Fenton will lead the firm's research and development efforts. (More info...) posted on Friday, June 26, 2009(Full story) |
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