Silicon Valley Wire

Cupertino's MagnaChip Semiconductor Files for $250 Million IPO

Cupertino, Calif. -- MagnaChip Semiconductor, a Korea-based maker of analog and mixed-signal chips with U.S. headquarters in Cupertino, on Monday filed to raise up to $250 million in its initial public offering (IPO). The company, which emerged from Chapter 11 in November, plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "MX." Details of the offering, such as the number of shares to be sold and their expected price range, have yet to be announced. MagnaChip's products include display drivers, which are used in flat panel displays and mobile multimedia devices, and chips used for power management in consumer products. The company also provides
specialty analog and mixed-signal foundry services for fabless semiconductor companies that serve the consumer, computing and wireless markets.
http://www.magnachip.com
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1325702/000095012310024348/f54652orsv1.htm

San Francisco-Based ANTs to Sell Up to $10M in Stock to Fletcher

San Francisco -- ANTs software, a San Francisco-based developer of database migration tools, said on Monday that it has struck a deal to sell up to $10 million in tock to Fletcher International. The company plans to use the bulks of the proceeds for research and development, as well as to executive its go-to-market strategy. "We have a number of very significant corporate milestones on the horizon and this investment agreement allows us to move towards meeting our goals," said Joseph Kozak, the chairman and CEO of ANTs. George Ladner of Fletcher International said that his firm hopes to "find additional ways to support their growth."
http://www.ants.com
http://www.fletcher.com
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100315005576/en/ANTs-Software-Announces-10-Million-Investment-Agreement

Santa Clara-Based Rovi Acquires Recommendations Firm MediaUnbound

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Rovi, a Santa Clara-based developer of digital entertainment technologies formerly known as Macrovision, said on Monday that it has acquired Massachusetts-based media recommendation service MediaUnbound. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. MediaUnbound was founded in 2000 by undergraduates at Harvard University, and its clients have included Napster, MTV Networks, NTT DoCoMo and HMV. Rovi said that the deal will improve its recommendation capabilities while also decreasing its time to market for new products. Rovi operates the All Media Guide database of metadata on 1.8 million albums and 16 million tracks, in addition to 1.2 million TV episodes and 430,000 movie titles.
http://www.mediaunbound.com 
http://www.rovicorp.com

San Francisco-Based RMG Acquires Pharmacy TV

San Francisco -- RMG Networks, the San Francisco-based developer of a place-based network of entertainment and advertising screens, announced on Monday that it has acquired Pharmacy TV, a video network whose screens are deployed near pharmacist counters in major grocery and drug store chains. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. RMG said that its digital entertainment and ad network, which includes 60,000 screens across in-flight, fitness and other sectors, reaches 25 million consumers monthly. The company is backed by digital cinema network National CineMedia and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. RMG said that it plans to accelerate Pharmacy TV deployments in 2010.
http://www.pharmacytv.net 
http://www.rmgnetworks.com
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/RMG-Networks-Extends-into-bw-2942899067.html?x=0&.v=1

Menlo Park-Based Sequoia Backs Mobile Application Developer Snaptu

Menlo Park, Calif. -- Sequoia Capital, the Menlo Park-based venture capital firm, said that it has made an unspecified investment in Snaptu, an Israeli developer of mobile applications. Snaptu, formerly known as Moblica, offers a mobile service that incorporates social networking, news, information and sports applications into a single app that works on a wide range of mobile devices. The company said that its app has been downloaded to over four million phones worldwide. "We see huge value for consumers and mobile operators in Snaptu's unique approach to bringing mobile applications to virtually any phone," said Gili Raanan, a partner at Sequoia Capital.
http://www.snaptu.com
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Snaptu-Attracts-Investment-From-Sequoia-Capital-1131015.htm

Sunnyvale's Commtouch to Repurchase Another $5M in Stock

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- Commtouch, an Israel-based developer of messaging and web security technologies with U.S. headquarters in Sunnyvale, said on Monday that it plans to buyback an additional $5 million in company stock. The news follows a similar program in 2008 and 2009, in which the company repurchased $4.9 million of its stock. Commtouch reported $17.3 million in cash resources as of Dec. 31, with slightly less than 24 million shares outstanding. "With our strong cash position, the execution of this plan will not inhibit us from continuing to explore potential transactions aimed at accelerating the company's business expansion plans," said Gideon Mantel, the company's chairman and CEO.
http://www.commtouch.com
http://www.commtouch.com/press-releases/commtouch-board-directors-approves-additional-stock-repurchase-plan-5-million

Locals Proliferate New Forbes 400 List of World's Billionaires

San Francisco -- Larry Ellison, the founder of Redwood Shores-based Oracle, is the highest-ranked Bay Area technology executive on the newly released Forbes 400 list of the world's richest people. Ellison comes in at No. 6 with a net worth of $28 billion. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the co-founders of Mountain View-based Google both rank No. 24 at $17.5 billion each. Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu tops the list with a net worth of approximately $53.5 billion, followed by Bill Gates ($53 billion) and Warren Buffett ($47 billion). The complete rankings are available at the link below.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_The-Worlds-Billionaires_Rank.html

S.F.-Based Twitter Launches Location-Sharing Feature

San Francisco -- Twitter, the San Francisco-based microblogging service, said that it has introduced a new location-sharing feature, giving users the option to include the location from where they are sending their tweets. "A recent burst of interest in location sharing applications, games and services has many Twitter users excited about appending geographic data to some of their tweets," Twitter co-founder and CEO Biz Stone wrote on the company's blog. Stone added that "not everyone wants to add their current location to a tweet," so the company has turned the feature off by default, meaning users must activate location-sharing. The new feature currently only supports Firefox 3.5 and Chrome browsers for Windows.
http://blog.twitter.com/2010/03/whats-happeningand-where.html

San Mateo-Based Lucid Imagination Lands $10 Million

San Mateo, Calif. -- Lucid Imagination, a San Mateo-based developer of software and services for the open source Apache Lucene and Solr search technology, said on Thursday that it has raised $10 million in its second round of funding. Participants included new investor Shasta Ventures and previous backers Granite Ventures and Walden International. "Companies want to find data as easily as consumers find stuff on the Internet every day," said Eric Gries, the CEO of Lucid Imagination. "With this investment, Lucid Imagination can continue to satisfy [that] appetite." Lucid, which last summer also landed an investment from In-Q-Tel, the venture fund backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said that its goal is to serve as a central resource for the Lucene community and marketplace. Customers include AT&T, Nike, Sears, Ford, Verizon, Zappos, The Motley Fool, Macy's and Cisco.
http://www.lucidimagination.com/
http://www.lucidimagination.com/About/Company-News/Lucid-Imagination-Secures-10-Million-Series-B-Funding

Mountain View-Based Matrixx Software Raises $9M in Second Round

Mountain View, Calif. -- Matrixx Software, a Mountain View-based developer of software that helps service providers charge for their services and content in real time, said on Thursday that it has landed $9 million in its second round of funding from Greylock Partners and Tugboat Ventures. David Strohm of Greylock and Dafina Toncheva of Tugboat have been appointed to the company's board of directors. Founded in Feb. 2009 by Portal Software founders Dave Labuda, Luther Kitahata and Jennifer Kyriakakis, Matrixx has created a technology designed to reduce the cost-per-transaction for service providers to charge for their services.
http://www.matrixxsw.com
http://www.matrixxsw.com/news-events/press-releases/2010/0311.php

Menlo Park-Based USVP Leads $25M Round for LivingSocial

Menlo Park, Calif. -- U.S. Venture Partners, the Menlo Park-based venture capital firm focused on the technology sector, has led a new $25 million round of funding for LivingSocial, the Washington, DC-based developer of several popular social networking tools and a new social commerce service. Grotech Ventures and Steve Case's Revolution also contributed to the company's second round. The company said that it will use the funds to launch LivingSocial Deals -- its new group buying program that offers at least 50% off each day at various local restaurants and attractions -- in Chicago, Denver, Raleigh Durham and San Diego. The service now operates in 13 markets, including San Francisco. Users sign up to receive daily emails or iPhone notifications featuring one offer a day. When someone purchases the deal, they receive a unique link to share, and if three other people buy the deal using the link, their deal is free. "Online group buying is a movement that is clearly resonating with consumers," said Tim O'Shaughnessy, the CEO of LivingSocial. "This round of funding enables us to accelerate our growth throughout more cities." LivingSocial also is the creator of popular Facebook applications "Visual Bookshelf" and "Pick Your Five,"
https://livingsocial.com 
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/social-commerce-leader-livingsocial-raises-25-million-series-b-round-led-by-us-venture-partners-87328387.html

Battery Ventures Raises $750 Million for Ninth Fund

Menlo Park, Calif. -- Battery Ventures, the Boston-based technology venture capital firm with West Coast offices in Menlo Park, said on Thursday that is has closed a new $750 million fund -- its ninth, overall. Battery said that it will continue with its strategy of investing from a few hundred thousand in seed money up to $100 million in companies across a wide range of technology industries. "With improving market fundamentals, we believe the next few years will be healthy ones to put money to work, and we're geared up to find the next generation of entrepreneurs and opportunities," said Tom Crotty, managing partner. Founded in 1983, the firm now managed nearly $4 billion of committed capital.
http://www.battery.com
http://vocuspr.vocus.com/VocusPR30/Newsroom/ViewAttachment.aspx?SiteName=Battery&Entity=PRAsset&AttachmentType=F&EntityID=113235&AttachmentID=deff06ad-b508-4432-9489-2b2957ea015d

San Francisco-Based Chomp Lands $2 Million in Funding

San Francisco -- Chomp, a San Francisco-based provider of reviews and recommendations of applications for Apple's iPhone, has raised $2 million in new funding, VentureBeat reported. Investors included Bluerun Ventures, Brian Pokorny and David Lee. Chomp has attracted 300,000 users who have posted 1.5 million reviews since the service launched two months ago. The service allows users to post simple "like" or "dislike" ratings of iPhone applications, along with a 60-character review, and creates recommendations based on past preferences.
http://chomp.com
http://deals.venturebeat.com/2010/03/11/chomp-raises-2m-for-iphone-app-recommendations-launches-new-site-and-features-at-chomp-com/

Evri Acquires S.F.-Based Radar Networks, Owner of Twine.com

San Francisco -- Evri, the Seattle-based developer of a semantic web search and discovery engine, said on Thursday that it has acquired San Francisco-based Radar Networks and its flagship property, Twine.com. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Twine.com is a site that allows people to collect online content, such as videos, articles and web pages, and organize it by topic. The site's semantic technology is designed to learn a user's interests, and make customized recommendations. Nova Spivack, the founder and CEO of Radar Networks, will remain with Evri in an advisory capacity. Radar's team will consolidate to Evri’s San Francisco offices.
http://www.evri.com
http://www.twine.com
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100311005440/en/Evri-Announces-Acquisition-Twine-Relaunches-Consumer-Site

Intel Science Talent Search Kicks Off Finals in Washington, DC

Washington, DC -- The top 40 finalists in the annual Intel Science Talent Search arrived in Washington, DC on Thursday to begin competing for more than $630,000 in awards from the Santa Clara-based Intel Foundation. All research projects will be on display Sunday at the National Academy of Sciences, with the top 10 winners announced at a ceremony on Tuesday. The grand prize winner receives $100,000. The pre-college science competition, now in its 69th year, has produced winners of the Nobel Prize, the Fields Medal, the National Medal of Science and the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Some of this year's projects include measuring indoor air pollution caused by paraffin and soy candles, building a new, clearer hearing assistance device that can be replicated for cell phones and radios and assessing inequalities in how high schools compete in national science competitions.
http://www.intel.com/education/sts/index.htm 
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100311005324/en/Promising-Young-American-Scientists-Compete-100000-Intel

Mountain View-Based Apprion Lands $8 Million in Third Round

Mountain View, Calif. -- Apprion, a Mountain View-based provider of wireless application networks and services to the process manufacturing industry, said on Wednesday that it has raised $8 million in its third round of funding. Participants included new investor PEI Funds and previous backers Allegis Capital, Motorola Ventures, CTTV Investments and Anvil Investment Associates. Apprion's ION System is designed to let industrial facilities deploy and manage multiple wireless applications as one unified system. The company has clients in the oil and gas, chemical, pulp and paper and power and utilities markets.
http://www.apprion.com/
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Industrial-Wireless-Leader-iw-3332608313.html?x=0&.v=1

San Francisco-Based RainStor Raises $7.5 Million in Second Round

San Francisco -- RainStor, a San Francisco-based developer of infrastructure software designed to provide a repository for historical structured data, said on Wednesday that it has secured $7.5 million in its second round of funding. Participants included new investors Storm Ventures and Informatica, and well as previous backers Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures and Dow Chemical. The company said that it will use the funding to expand into new markets, grow its partner base and invest in product development and R&D. RainStor's data management and storage technology allows clients to store massive amounts of structured data for regulatory or business purposes. The company said that it has more than 50 clients, as well as partners such as Informatica, Adaptive Mobile and OnPoint Technologies.
http://www.rainstor.com
http://rainstor.com/news-blog/news/rainstor-raises-75-million-in-series-b-funding

Incubator for Irish Tech Startups to Open in San Jose

San Jose, Calif. -- A new incubator slated to open in San Jose will provide a base of operations for up to 30 Irish technology startups. The Irish Innovation Center (IIC) will officially open next month, following its dedication this weekend by Ireland Prime Minister, Brian Cowen. The center, to be led by Gordon Ciochon, the former head of global operations at Symantec, will provide flexible office space for the startups, as well as access to venture capital firms, banking and legal services. It will be closely affiliated with the Campbell-based Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG), which late last year announced plans for a $100 million venture capital fund, focused on high-potential Irish startups. The ITLG is chaired by Craig Barrett, the former chairman and CEO of Intel.
http://www.itlg.org
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100309007273/en/Innovation-Center-Irish-Startup-Companies-Opens-Silicon

Google Adds Bike-Specific Directions to Google Maps

Washington, DC -- Appearing at the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC, Mountain View-based Google on Wednesday unveiled a new addition to Google Maps that features step-by-step biking directions. The feature, still in beta testing, provides routes optimized for cycling, highlighting bike trails, bike lanes and bike-friendly roads. The directions provide time estimates for trips based on an algorithm that takes into account the length of the route, the number of hills, fatigue over time and other variables. The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit that creates networks of trails from former rail lines, provided information on bike trails in more than 150 cities. Google said that bike-specific directions have been the most requested feature on Google Maps. A mobile version of the tools is also planned.
http://maps.google.com/biking
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/20100310_biking-directions.html

Survey: More Than Half of Workers Check Devices While Driving

Chicago -- More than half of workers who own smart phones said that they check their devices while driving a vehicle, according to a new survey by CareerBuilder. Sales professionals (66%) admitted to being the biggest offenders. Twenty-one percent of workers said that they check their devices each time they vibrate or beep, and 18% said that they are required by their companies to be accessible beyond office hours. "The lines between work and life can be very blurry these days," said Rosemary Haefner, the vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. "Seventeen percent of workers said they feel like their work day never ends because of technology connecting them to the office." Haefner said that workers need to allot technology-free time when away from the office, to both reduce the potential for burnout and avoid risky behavior.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/More-Than-Half-of-Workers-prnews-1633051897.html?x=0&.v=1