Silicon Valley Wire

Santa Clara-Based SkyPilot Networks Lands $3.4 Million in Funding

Santa Clara, Calif. -- SkyPilot Networks, a Santa Clara-based provider of broadband wireless mesh networks, said that it has raised $3.4 million in a new round of funding from previous investors, including August Capital and Mobius Ventures. The company, which raised $21 million in a round that closed in mid-2006, now has raised $70 million since its inception. SkyPilot plans to use of the funds to continue expanding its sales activities, as well as to bring new products to market for its customer base of broadband wireless service providers. "The recent financing is designed specifically to bring SkyPilot to profitability," said Paul Gordon, the company's president and CEO. SkyPilot's technology allows service providers, municipalities and public safety agencies to rapidly deploy wireless applications such as broadband access, Voice-over-IP, Wi-Fi and video surveillance.
http://www.skypilot.com
http://www.skypilot.com/newsevents/pr/pr_042908a.php

Shareholders Approve Macrovision Deal for Gemstar-TV Guide

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Four months after first announcing plans to acquire Gemstar-TV Guide, Santa Clara-based Macrovision, a provider of anti-piracy technology and informational databases, said that shareholders from both companies have now approved the $2.3 billion deal. The company also said that it has landed the necessary debt financing to complete the acquisition, which includes a $550 million term loan and $100 million of senior notes. The acquisition is now expected to close on Friday. "We are eager to continue our path to closing the transaction and moving forward as a combined company," said Fred Amoroso, the president and CEO of Macrovision. The company first announced the deal to acquire Los Angeles-based Gemstar-TV Guide in December, and received regulatory approval in January.
http://www.macrovision.com/
http://www.macrovision.com/company/newscenter/pressreleases/1434_8658.htm

Report: S.F.-Based Kongregate Receives $3 Million Investment

San Francisco -- Kongregate, a San Francisco-based publisher of free social online games, has received a $3 million investment from Bezos Expeditions, the investment firm of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, SiliconValley.com reported. Founded in 2006, Kongregate offers more than 4,000 free online games aggregated from more than 1,600 independent developers. Kongregate co-founder and CEO Jeff Greer told SiliconValley.com that the company will use the funds to develop display advertising for the site, and added that it is creating a revenue-sharing plan to provide compensation to developers of the site's most popular titles.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_9103997?IADID=Search-www.siliconvalley.com-www.siliconvalley.com
http://www.bezosexpeditions.com 
http://www.kongregate.com

Lurita Doan Forced to Resign as Head of General Services Administration

Washington, DC -- Amid allegations that she inappropriately politicized her agency's activities, Lurita Doan was "forced to submit" her resignation as head of the General Services Administration (GSA) on Tuesday. "Early this evening I was asked to submit my resignation, and I have just done so," Doan wrote in an email to supporters and co-workers last night, that was quoted first by Federal Computer Week's blog. Democratic lawmakers had called on her to resign last year following allegations that she used her role to help Republican lawmakers win re-election. She denied the allegations. Doan became the first woman to hold the role of GSA Administrator in May 2006.
http://www.fcw.com/blogs/editor/152388-1.html
http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?pageTypeId=8199&channelId=-13259&P=&contentId=24426&contentType=GSA_BASIC

Al Gore's Generation Investment Management Closes New Fund

Washington, DC -- Generation Investment Management, the investment firm chaired by former Vice President and presidential candidate Al Gore has closed a new $683 million fund focused on the environment, the Financial Times reported. Generations, which is based in London and has U.S. offices in DC, reportedly plans to invest its Climate Solutions Fund in the areas of renewable energy, energy efficiency technologies, energy from biofuels and biomass and the carbon trading markets. Both Gore and fund manager David Blood said that they have invested substantially in the new fund. Last year, Gore became a partner at Menlo Park-based investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), with the firm co-locating its European operations at Generation's offices in London.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/194dc15c-164f-11dd-880a-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
http://www.generationim.com/

Apple, Rogers to Launch iPhone in Canada This Year

Cupertino, Calif. -- Canadian telecommunications firm Rogers said that it has partnered with Cupertino-based Apple to launch the iPhone in Canada this year, but declined to provide details on pricing or a release date for the device. "We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year. We can't tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned," said Ted Rogers, president and CEO of Rogers Communications. CBC News reported that there are "thousands" of iPhones already in Canada, most of which have been unlocked to work with Rogers' network. Apple recently reiterated its target of selling 10 million iPhones worldwide in 2008.
http://micro.newswire.ca/release.cgi?rkey=1604292519&view=84735-0&Start=0 
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/04/29/tech-iphone-rogers.html 
http://www.rogers.ca 

Cox to Acquire San Bruno-Based Adify for $300 Million

San Bruno, Calif. -- Cox Enterprises, the Atlanta-based media conglomerate, said on Tuesday that it will acquire San Bruno-based Adify, a provider of technology and services used by traditional media companies seeking to expand their online advertising offerings. Seveeral media outlets, including the Associated Press, put the value of the deal at about $300 million. Adify was founded by the same team that created Flycast Communications, an early online advertising service. The company is backed by venture capital firms Venrock Associates and U.S. Venture Partners, as well as GE Commercial Finance, NBC Universal and Time Warner Investments. Adify will operate as a stand-alone company and will continue to be led by Russ Fradin, its president and co-founder.
http://www.coxenterprises.com/corp/presscenter/viewPressRelease.asp?articleid=1106
http://www.adify.com/

San Jose-Based Intacct Raises $15 Million in New Funding Round

San Jose, Calif. -- Intacct, a San Jose-based developer of web-based financial software, said on Tuesday that it has raised $15 million in a new round of funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Previous investors Emergence Capital, Sigma Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures also participated in the round. The company, which also raised $14 million in around that closed last June, provides web-based financial management and accounting applications to small and midsize businesses. Mike Braun, the president and CEO of Intacct, said that the company will use the additional funding to expand into additional vertical markets and channels.
http://us.intacct.com/news_events/2008/042908.php
http://us.intacct.com/

Redwood Shores-Based Oracle Closes $8.5B Acquisition of BEA

Redwood Shores, Calif. -- Three months after first announcing the deal, Redwood Shores-based database software giant Oracle said on Tuesday that it has completed its $8.5 billion acquisition of San Jose-based infrastructure software firm BEA Systems. The companies had been waiting to receive approval from the European Commission. Charles Phillips, the president of Oracle, said that the the combined companies "will provide a series of complementary and well-engineered middleware products, allowing customers to more easily build, deploy and manage applications in a secure environment." BEA agreed to the deal in January following months of pressure from major shareholder Carl Icahn to seek a buyer.
http://www.oracle.com/corporate/press/2008_apr/bea-closes-rls.html
http://www.bea.com

Menlo Park-Based Panorama Capital Closes $240 Million Fund

Menlo Park, Calif. -- Panorama Capital, a three-year-old venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, said on Tuesday that it has closed a new $240 million fund targeting life sciences and technology companies. The firm, which currently has more than $700 million under management, said that its first fund as an independent brand will be invested in the areas of life sciences, the Internet, semiconductors and Internet infrastructure and services. Panorama said that it already has made six new investments from the fund.
http://www.panoramacapital.com
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080429/20080429005209.html?.v=1

EA Co-Founder "Bing" Gordon to Become Partner at KPCB

Menlo Park, Calif. -- William "Bing" Gordon, a co-founder of Redwood City-based video game publisher Electronic Arts, will join Menlo Park-based venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) as a partner. Gordon, who has served as EA's chief creative officer for the past decade, will officially join the firm in June, working with entrepreneurs in consumer technologies. He will remain EA's chief creative officer emeritus. Gordon co-founded EA in 1982, and has been integral to the creation of more than 20 different game franchises, including Madden NFL, The Sims and Need for Speed. KPCB was an initial investor in EA.
http://www.kpcb.com/news/articles/2008_04_28.html
http://www.kpcb.com

Mountain View-Based Kaazing Lands $1 Million in Initial Funding

Mountain View, Calif. -- Kaazing, a Mountain View-based developer of infrastructure software used to create real-time web applications, said on Tuesday that it has raised $1 million in its first round of funding from several high-profile Silicon Valley private investors. The company said that it will use the funds to expand the development team for its web platform, known as Enterprise Comet, as well as to increase its marketing efforts. The platform is designed to allows companies to build online trading systems, online games, GPS tracking systems and sports and news broadcasting applications using standard web technologies.
http://www.kaazing.com
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080429/aqtu529.html?.v=3

USA Today Bucks Trend to Remain Nation's Top-Selling Newspaper

Schaumburg, Ill. -- Bucking a continuing national trend, USA Today, the national newspaper published by Gannett, saw its daily print circulation rise slightly during the six-month period ending March 31, according to new figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The newspaper's circulation was up 0.3% to 2,28 million for the period, keeping it the top selling paper in the U.S. USA Today and The Wall Street Journal were the lone papers among the top 25 to show circulation increases, with the average weekday circulation of the country's largest papers falling 3.2%. Locally, the San Francisco Chronicle saw its circulation dip 4.2% to 370,345, making it the 12th largest paper.
http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/myPRNJ.jsp?profileid=1140074&resourceid=3720857 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080428/ap_on_hi_te/newspapers_circulation_list_2  http://www.accessabc.com/   

Sunnyvale-Based InvenSense Lands $19 Million in Third Round

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- InvenSense, a Sunnyvale-based developer of motion sensing units  for mobile consumer applications, said on Monday that it has raised $19 million in its third round of funding, led by new investor Sierra Venture. Previous investors Artiman Ventures, Partech International and Qualcomm Ventures, as well as Foxconn, Inventec Appliances, Skylake Ventures, DoCoMo Capital and the VentureTech Alliance also participated. The company, which has raised $38 million to date, said that it will use the proceeds to expand its sales operations and introduce a new family of motion sensors to be used in such products as 3D-games and gesture-enabled mobile phones.
http://www.invensense.com
http://www.invensense.com/news/042808.html

Pleasanton-Based FrontRange Solutions Acquires Centennial Software

Pleasanton, Calif. -- FrontRange Solutions, a Pleasanton-based developer of IT software solutions, said on Monday that it has acquired Centennial Software, a U.K.-based maker of infrastructure management products. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Centennial has more than 3,200 customers worldwide who use the company's auto-discovery, inventory management and license management software. Michael McCloskey, the CEO of FrontRange, said that the companies plan to combine their "complementary products and technologies."
http://www.centennial-software.com
http://www.frontrange.com
http://www.frontrange.com/Company/PressReleases.aspx?id=8586

NextBio Launches Free Version of Life Sciences Search Engine

Cupertino, Calif. -- A year and a half after first introducing its life sciences search engine to researchers, Cupertino-based NextBio on Monday launched a free version for use by the general public. The company, which last June raised $7 million in its second round of funding, said that the tools allows users to search through more than 10,000 experiments, 16 million articles and literally billions of data points. It also allows users to import their own experimental data into the search engine, allowing them to share it with the community and collaborate with others. Saeid Akhtari, NextBio's CEO, said that while the company continues to grow its subscription accounts with larger R&D organizations, it choose to launch a free version to make the search tool "an invaluable resource" for researchers and clinicians.
http://www.nextbio.com
http://www.prweb.com/releases/nextbio/search/prweb897374.htm

Survey: IT Executives Cutting Budgets and Consolidating Assets in '08

Framingham, Mass. -- Amid talk of a recession in the U.S., senior IT executives say they already have seen a "significant" shift towards cost reduction rather than revenue generation, according to a new survey by market research firm IDC. "Being able to deliver IT services more efficiently, as a response to the economic downturn and to recent mergers and acquisitions, is setting today's IT agenda," said Henry Morris, IDC's senior vice president of software and services research. Based on 27 interviews with CIOs and other senior IT leaders, the firm said that many IT organizations already are reducing their spending for 2008, with more than half of the executives citing existing negative impact on the budgets from the economy.
http://idc.com/getdoc.jsp;jsessionid=4XCP3ONDAPVR0CQJAFICFGAKBEAUMIWD?containerId=prUS21200908

AOL Sees Major Gains in Site Traffic After Year-Long Revamping

New York -- Following a year of redesigning all of its major programming channels, AOL said that the sites in March hit all-time highs in terms of both unique visitors and page views, according to data from comScore Media Metrix. During the month, page views on AOL's programming sites grew 28%, and are up 35% from a year ago. Unique visitors also climbed 11% from a year ago to 56.5 million. "Our strong growth is a direct result of rebuilding each and every one of our vertical web sites over the past 12 months," said Bill Wilson, AOL's executive vice president of vertical programming. Wilson added that the improved numbers, along with the company's recently launched Platform-A advertising unit, "gives us a great opportunity moving forward to monetize our increasingly highly engaged audience." According to comScore, almost every major AOL vertical site has climbed in page views year over year, led by Body (760%), Home (475%), Food (319%), Living (241%), Moviefone (192%), Latino (165%) and Sports (148%).
http://corp.aol.com/press_releases/2008/04/aol-sites-break-traffic-records-march 
http://www.aol.com

San Jose-Based Immersion Names Clent Richardson as New CEO

San Jose, Calif. -- Immersion, the San Jose-based developer of touch feedback technology used in many video games, has named Clent Richardson as its new president and CEO, effective Monday. He will replace Victor Viegas, who will retain his role as chairman. Most recently, Richardson served as the CMO of Alviso-based TiVo, and earlier held the same role at Nortel Networks. Prior to that, he was chief sales and marketing officer at T-Mobile U.K.
http://www.immersion.com
http://immr.client.shareholder.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=306655

S.F.-Based CNET Expands Editorial and Ad Deal with Yahoo

San Francisco -- CNET Networks, the San Francisco-based technology media company, has announced a broad expansion of its editorial and advertising partnership with Sunnyvale-based Yahoo. Under the three-year deal, CNET will become the major supplier of technology news and product reviews on Yahoo. Yahoo also will sell some CNET ad inventory, while CNET will sell ads on some areas of Yahoo. In addition, Yahoo's toolbar will be distributed through a newly constructed program at CNET Download.com. "We're giving more people access to CNET.com's award-winning content, and driving new revenue streams into our business model," said Neil Ashe, the CEO of CNET Networks.
http://www.news.com 
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080424/20080424006523.html?.v=1

Mountain View-Based Cambiros Lands $3M in Financing from ATEL

Mountain View, Calif. -- Cambrios Technologies, a Mountain View-based developer of biochemical materials used in electronics manufacturing, will receive $3 million in equipment lease financing through a new deal with San Francisco-based ATEL Ventures, the firm said. "We are about to launch our first products and they will come out of the equipment and infrastructure that ATEL financing is helping us build," said Michael Knapp, the president and CEO of Cambrios. The company's technology utilizes nanostructures to develop electronic materials and processes for a variety of industries.
http://www.cambrios.com
http://www.atel.com/ventures
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080424/20080424006547.html?.v=1

Mountain View-Based Audience Raises $15 Million in Third Round

Mountain View, Calif. -- Audience, a Mountain View-based developer of noise suppression technology used in consumer products, said that it has raised $15 million in its third round of funding, which included investments by New Enterprise Associates, Tallwood Venture Capital, Vulcan Capital and VentureTech Alliance. The company now has raised $45 million since its inception. "We will use this capital to scale our business by adding to our current voice processor design wins, introducing new products and expanding into new markets," said Peter Santos, the company's president and CEO. Audience's first product, a voice processor designed to handle signals the way people actually perceive specific sounds, is currently in production.
http://www.audience.com
http://www.audience.com/news_20080423.html

Report: Justice Department Investigating Yahoo-Google Ad Deal

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- The Justice Department is investigating whether an advertising tie-up between Sunnyvale-based Yahoo and Mountain View-based Google violates antitrust laws, Reuters reported. Under a two-week test, scheduled to end this week, Yahoo is using Google's online ad system to provide relevant ads alongside its search results. Citing unnamed sources, however, Reuters reported that the Justice Department is looking into the potential implications of a longer deal between the two companies, and specifically how that might affect Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid for Yahoo, which is now valued at around $44 billion. One source told the news organization that Google CEO Eric Schmidt called Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, offering to help thwart the bid.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSWBT00884320080423
http://www.yahoo.com
http://www.google.com

Menlo Park's Silver Lake Sumeru to Acquire i2 from ChoicePoint

Menlo Park, Calif. -- Silver Lake Sumeru, a Menlo Park-based investment fund focused on middle-market technology companies, said on Thursday that it will pay $185 million to acquire i2, a developer of investigative analysis and visualization software, from Georgia-based parent ChoicePoint. Silver Lake said that it will make i2 a standalone company called i2 Inc., keeping its primary offices in McLean, Va. and the U.K. The company's software, used by clients in law enforcement, intelligence, homeland security and the military, is designed to help investigators and analysts form connections within volumes of seemingly unrelated data.
http://www.i2inc.com/
http://www.silverlake.com 
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080424/20080424005726.html?.v=1
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080424/clth086.html?.v=94

Mobile Media and Entertainment Revenue Expected to Double by 2012

Washington, DC -- U.S. mobile media and entertainment revenues are expected to more than double over the next five years, with the strongest growth occurring after 2010, according to a new report from Analysys, a U.K. market research firm with U.S. headquarters in Washington, DC. The firm projects revenues in the market to reach $6.6 billion by 2012, up from $3.1 billion this year, with the highest growth coming from mobile TV and video-on-demand services. "Operators, content providers and device manufacturers will have to work together to increase subscriber awareness of [mobile media and entertainment] offerings and to ensure straightforward pricing, and simpler purchase and delivery processes," said Alexandra Rehak, the co-author of the report.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/google/20080422005652/en
http://www.analysys.com/

Sony to Acquire Emeryville-Based Gracenote for $260 Million

Emeryville, Calif. -- Sony Corp. of America said that it will pay $260 million to acquire Gracenote, an Emeryville-based provider of music identification and mobile music services. Gracenote's existing business will continue to operate separately, and its senior management team will remain in place. The deal is expected to close in late May. Founded in 1998, Gracenote developed the CD identification technology that has become the standard used by Apple's iTunes, Yahoo's Music Jukebox and Winamp, as well as on portable music players from Sony, Samsung and others. "Sony sees tremendous growth potential in developing Gracenote as a separately run business unit," said Tim Schaaff, the senior vice president of software at New York-based Sony Corp. of America. "By broadly embracing Gracenote's platforms, Sony expects to significantly enhance and accelerate its own digital content, service and device initiatives."
http://www.sony.com/SCA/press/080422.shtml
http://www.gracenote.com/company_info/press/042208/
http://www.gracenote.com/

Palo Alto-Based Vysr Lands $2 Million, Emerges from Stealth

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Vysr, a Palo Alto-based developer of browser technology that lets users take their web services and social networks with them as they move around the Internet, said that it has landed $2 million in new funding and emerged from stealth mode.  Investors included Ron Conway, The Sandhill Group and Battery Ventures' Mark Sherman. Vysr has launched a public beta test of its RoamAbout application, which the company said "gives you the freedom to roam the web while staying connected with your friends." The application is currently available for the Firefox browser. "Today, consumers are forced to browse multiple sites to accomplish a single task or are shackled to one site to use a particular service," said Vysr CEO Guda Venkatesh. "With our open platform, we hope to evangelize a new class of applications purposely-designed for the user-centric web."
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=846610 
http://www.vysr.com 

San Mateo-Based Etelos Completes Reverse Merger with Tripath

San Mateo, Calif. -- Etelos, a provider of web-based software for businesses, said on Wednesday that it has completed a reverse merger into San Jose-based Tripath Technology, a developer of power amplification technology that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection more than a year ago. The all-stock deal will make Etelos a public company. Etelos's executive team will maintain control of the new entity and has applied for a new stock symbol. "This is a significant step in the growth of our company," said Jeffrey Garon, the company's president and CEO. "he completion of our merger is expected to allow us to more cost-effectively raise the capital we need to take our company to the next level."
http://www.etelos.com
http://www.etelos.com/article.espx?show=13731

San Francisco-Based BuzzLogic Acquires Activeweave

San Francisco -- BuzzLogic, a San Francisco-based provider of social media marketing services and developer of a social media ad network, said that it has acquired Activeweave, a San Francisco-based developer of the BlogRovR browser companion plug-in. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Activeweave's plug-in, which counts 180,000 registered users, allows users to view content from their favorite bloggers, relevant to the pages they're currently browsing on the Internet. BuzzLogic said that the deal "adds new dimension to how its algorithms analyze online influence," allowing the company to further help advertisers target blogs and other social media.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080422/aqtu537.html?.v=4
http://blog.stickis.com/2008/04/21/what-happens-when-rovr-crosses-the-road/
http://www.buzzlogic.com/blog

San Francisco-Based Linden Lab Names Mark Kingdon as New CEO

San Francisco -- Linden Lab, the San Francisco-based developer of 3D virtual world Second Life, has named Mark Kingdon as its new CEO, replacing company founder Philip Rosedale, who will remain chairman. Since 2001, Kingdon has served as the CEO of Organic Inc., a digital communications agency. Prior to that, he had been a partner with the consulting division of PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Our search for the leader of Linden Lab demanded both tremendous business skills and a deep understanding and passion for Second Life and where it is going," said Rosedale. Kingdon will officially assume the role on May 15.
http://lindenlab.com/
http://secondlife.com/
http://lindenlab.com/pressroom/releases/04_22_08

S.F.-Based Zvue Gets Delistment Warning from Nasdaq

San Francisco -- Zvue, the San Francisco-based provider of portable media players and content known until recently as HandHeld Entertainment, said on Wednesday that it has received a warning from the Nasdaq that its stock could be delisted. The company said that it is out of compliance with a marketplace rule, since it failed to maintain a minimum $1 share price for 30 straight trading days. Zvue now has 180 calendar days, or until Oct. 15, to regain compliance, or potentially face having its stock removed from the Nasdaq Capital Market.
http://www.zvue.com
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080423/20080423005455.html?.v=1

San Francisco-Based Sonific to Suspend Music Service

San Francisco -- Sonific, a San Francisco-based provider of licensed music widgets and free music applications for social networks, said on Tuesday that it will be forced to take its service offline as of May 1. Writing on the company's web site, CEO Gerd Leonhard said that the move comes "as a consequence of the unworkable music licensing situation and the resulting lack of solid revenue modeling." The company had attracted 80,000 users to its service and amassed a library of over 200,000 licensed songs. Leonhard, however, said that acquiring major label music for the service would have required the company to pay "very large cash advances" and even provide equity in exchange for licenses. He said the other options were either to move forward without "hit content," upsetting users, or add songs without licensing them, opening the company to potential copyright suits. "We neither want to engage in so-called copyright infringement nor do we have millions of dollars available to buy our way in when it is abundantly clear that doing business under the existing rules of the major labels will simply amount to economic suicide," Leonhard wrote. Sonific said that it is open to talking to any interested party that may have use for its user base, content relationships, technologies or distribution network.
http://sonific.com/home/offline
http://gerdleonhard.typepad.com/songspotting/

Palo Alto-Based Ning Raises $60 Million in Fourth Round

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Ning, the Palo Alto-based developer of a free service that lets users create their own online social networks, has raised $60 million in its fourth round of venture capital financing, PaidContent.org reported. The identiry of the investors was not disclosed. Ning was founded in 2005 by Marc Andreessen -- who also created Netscape and Opsware -- and Gina Bianchini. "We raised the money to enable us to keep scaling given our accelerating growth [over 230,000 networks on Ning now, growing at over 1,000 per day] and to make sure we have plenty of firepower to survive the oncoming nuclear winter," Andreessen wrote on his blog. "At current growth rates, we don't need it to get to cash flow positive, but having lived through the last crunch, it's good to be conservative with these things." The company had a pre-money valuation of $500 million.   
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-fc-omg-like-totally-ning
http://blog.pmarca.com/2008/04/ning-news-serie.html
http://www.ning.com

Report: Redwood City-Based Obopay Raises $20M in Fourth Round

Redwood City, Calif. -- Obopay, a Redwood City-based provider of mobile payments services, has raised $20 million in its fourth round of funding, GigaOM reported. While investors were not named, CEO Carol Realini told GigaOM that she and other executives contributed to the round through their Obopay mobile accounts. The company also raised $29 million in its third round led by Richmond Global Cellular, which closed last July. Founded in 2005, Obopay has developed a service that allows consumers to instantly get, send and spend money using their mobile handsets.
http://gigaom.com/2008/04/17/obopay-gets-20m-to-send-money-via-mobiles/ 
http://www.obopay.com 

Redwood City-Based Altor Networks Raises $6M in Second Round

Redwood City, Calif. -- Altor Networks, a Redwood City-based developer of virtual network security technology, said on Tuesday that it has raised $6 million in its second round of funding, co-led by Accel Partners and Foundation Capital. The company said that it will use the proceeds to fuel its market expansion. Altor's products, including a virtual network firewall and security analysis system, are designed to secure virtualized data centers. The company was co-founded by CEO Amir Ben-Efraim, the former head of business development at Check Point Software, and CTO Ulrich Stern, the former CTO of Medallia.
http://www.altornetworks.com
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080422/20080422005519.html?.v=1   

San Francisco-Based Six Apart Acquires New York's Apperceptive

San Francisco --Six Apart, a San Francisco-based developer of blogging tools, said that it has acquired Apperceptive, a New York-based provider of social media consulting and development services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. With the acquisition, Six Apart said that it will maintain a New York office, and launch Six Apart Services and Six Apart Media, a blog design and development service and blog advertising service, respectively. Apperceptive has helped build blog-powered communities for customers including The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, BoingBoing and Major League Baseball. Six Apart operates blog publishing services TypePad, Movable Type and Vox.
http://www.sixapart.com/about/press/2008/04/six-apart-launches-new-service.html
http://www.sixapart.com/blog/2008/04/six-apart-services-media.html
http://www.apperceptive.com 
http://www.sixapart.com

Sunnyvale-Based VirtualLogix Lands Investment from Motorola

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- VirtualLogix, a Sunnyvale-based developer of virtualization technology for connected devices, said that it has received an unspecified equity investment from Motorola Ventures, the investment arm of consumer electronics giant Motorola. "Our investment in VirtualLogix will help accelerate the delivery of their technology to next-generation communications devices and infrastructure equipment," said Reese Schroeder, the managing director of Motorola Ventures. The deal comes five months after VirtualLogix also landed an unspecified equity investment from Texas Instruments (TI) as part of a larger collaboration between the two companies. Other current investors include Atlas Venture, Cisco Systems, DFJ Esprit, Index Ventures and Intel Capital.
http://www.virtuallogix.com/index.php?id=62&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=323&tx_ttnews[backPid]=85&cHash=dba6fcb441
http://www.virtuallogix.com

Report: Venture Capital Investment Declined in First Quarter

New York -- Venture capitalists invested $7.1 billion in 922 deals during the first quarter, according to a report released on Monday by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). The dollar figure was down 8.5% from the previous quarter, with 11 of 16 industries tracked experiencing a decrease. Locally, Silicon Valley companies raised $2.6 billion in 306 deals. Despite the decline, the quarter still saw the fifth highest investment level since 2001. "Despite the current economic downturn in the United States, venture capitalists are still putting money to work across multiple industries and stages of development,” said Mark Heesen, president of the NVCA. "We do not expect to see significant declines in investment levels in the coming year.  However, the dollars going to later stage investments could increase if the IPO window remains closed for an extended period of time and venture capitalists have to sustain companies longer than expected." The biotechnology industry narrowly edged software as the No. 1 industry sector for the quarter, due to a 9% drop in funding for software companies. 
http://www.magnetmail.net/actions/email_web_version.cfm?recipient_id=28281570&message_id=474482&user_id=NVCA
http://www.nvca.org/

Mountain View-Based Bubble Motion Names CTO, CFO

Mountain View, Calif. -- Mountain View-based Bubble Motion. developer of a platform for voice messaging and advanced voice content applications, on Tuesday named TS Ramakrishnan as its CTO, Chris Dunn as its CFO, Paul Hedman as its vice president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Rick Osterloh as an advisor. Ramakrishnan most recently served as the vice president of engineering at AdMob, Dunn the CFO of Covad Communications and Hedman the COO of Seven Networks. Bubble Motion, which last month raised $14 million in a round of funding from Sequoia Capital, Sequoia Capital India, Comcast Interactive Capital and NCD Investors, claims  more than 135 million users of its BubbleTALK service, a short voice messaging service that works on mobile phones.
http://www.bubblemotion.com

Sunnyvale-Based Blue Coat Systems to Acquire Packeteer for $268M

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- Blue Coat Systems, a Sunnyvale-based maker of appliances and software used in content and application delivery, said on Monday that it will pay about $268 million in cash to acquire Packeteer, a Cupertino-based developer of technology that helps identify specific applications over wide area networks. To help pay for the acquisition, expected to close by mid-year, Blue Coat has agreed to issue $80 million in convertible notes to Francisco Partners II and an affiliate of Elliott Associates in a private placement. The notes are due in 2013. As part of the deal, Elliott Associates will terminate its tender offer for Packeteer and sell its 9.9% stake in the company to Blue Coat. "The acquisition of Packeteer will enable us to extend our leadership in solving branch office application performance challenges and addressing security threats," said Brian NeSmith, the president and CEO of Blue Coat Systems. "At the same time, we will begin to aggressively integrate Packeteer technologies with our own." Packeteer has more than 10,000 customers worldwide.
http://www.packeteer.com/
http://www.bluecoat.com
http://www.bluecoat.com/news/pr/1527
http://www.bluecoat.com/news/pr/1528

Pleasanton-Based iTradeNetwork to Merge with San Mateo's Instill

Pleasanton, Calif. -- iTradeNetwork, a Pleasanton-based developer of web-based business software for the food industry, said on Monday that it has agreed to merge with San Mateo-based Instill, a provider of spend intelligence software to the foodservice industry. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Robert Bonavito, the founder and CEO of iTradeNetwork, will serve as CEO of the combined companies. Instill will operate as a division of iTradeNetwork, which is majority owned by private equity firm Accel-KKR. The companies said that the merger will create a company capable of delivering supply chain products to both the retail and foodservice channels
http://www.itradenetwork.com
http://ww.instill.com 
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20080421005197/en

San Mateo-Based Keynote Systems Acquires France-Based Zandan

San Mateo, Calif. -- Keynote Systems, a San Mateo-based provider of Internet and mobile test and measurement services, said on Monday that it has acquired France-based software firm Zandan for about $3 million. Zandan's founder and former CTO, Jerome Jacq, joined Keynote in 2007. With the acquisition, the company has secured exclusive rights to the technology used to develop its Mobile Application Perspective (MAP) service, which allows users to test, measure and monitor mobile content from 22 geographic locations utilizing a library of over 1,000 wireless device profiles. "Our intent is to restructure the Zandan business in an orderly way over the coming six months and to rename it Keynote France," said Umang Gupta, the chairman and CEO of Keynote. "Thereafter , the company, which will be headed by Jerome Jacq, will have the mission of increasing our mobile and Internet business in France, Spain and adjoining countries."
http://www.keynote.com/company/press_room/releases_2008/04.21.08.html http://www.keynote.com/

Bay Area Companies Raises Slightly Less VC in First Quarter

San Francisco -- Private companies in the Bay Area received $2.56 billion in venture capital during the first quarter, down slightly from the fourth quarter, though more than $200 million above the total from a year ago, according to new figures released by Dow Jones VentureSource. The area's 213 VC deals were the most in three quarters. Companies in the information technology sector received about two-thirds of last quarter's funds, led by San Francisco-based Slide ($50 million) and Sunnyvale-based BridgeLux ($40 million). Santa Rosa-based medical device manufacturer TriVascular2 had the area's largest round at $65 million, followed by Brisbane-based Glam Media ($64.5 million). A trio of venture capital firms -- Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Benchmark Capital -- each participated in 12 local deals.
https://www.venturesource.com

San Francisco-Based GoFish Raises $1.5 Million in Private Placement

San Francisco -- GoFish, a San Francisco-based online youth entertainment and media network, said on Monday that it has raised $1.5 million through a private placement. Under the deal, the company sold convertible notes due in 2010 to accredited investors. "This financing will allow us to continue to implement our sales and marketing strategy," said Tabreez Verjee, the president of GoFish. The company said that its network of owned and operated sites reaches more than 60 million unduplicated online users worldwide.
http://www.gofishcorp.com
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080421/20080421005343.html?.v=1

Redwood City-Based EA Extends Tender Offer for Take-Two

Redwood City, Calif. -- Electronic Arts (EA), the Redwood City-based developer and publisher of video games, said on Friday that it has extended its tender offer for New York-based Take-Two Interactive Software until May 16. The offer, which EA launched on March 13 at $26 and has since lowered to $25.74 to reflect additional shares issued by Take-Two, was set to expire Friday night. As of Thursday, about 6.4 million shares of Take-Two -- less than 10% of the company's total shares -- had been tendered and not withdrawn. EA is offering $2 billion for the company, which is best known for its "Grand Theft Auto" game franchise. Take-Two's board of directors has twice rejected the offer.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080418/20080418005166.html?.v=1
http://www.ea.com 

Redwood City-Based Informatica to Acquire Identity Systems

Redwood City, Calif. -- Informatica, a Redwood City-based developer of data integration software, said that it will pay $85 million in cash to acquire Identity Systems, a Connecticut-based developer of data search and matching technology, from parent Nokia.The deal is expected to close by the end of May. Identity Systems offers a set of "fuzzy" algorithms that support identity search and matchingacross extremely large volumes of data. The company was founded in 1986 and became an independent division of Nokia in 2006.
http://www.informatica.com/news/press_releases/2008/04172008b_identity.htm

Los Altos-Based Cap Epsilon Seeking Buyer for Mobile Software Firm

Los Altos, Calif. -- Cap Epsilon, a Los Altos-based developer of software that lets mobile professionals access files from their office computers from any web-enabled phone, said on Friday that it has retained Sherwood Partners to help it seek out a potential buyer. The company, founded in January 2004, said that combining with an established player "will maximize the potential for the technology and four patents that the company has applied for." Cap Epsilon has made a pair of acquisitions in its brief history. In 2004, the company acquired a storage area network firm, eventually licensing its storage management software to a public company for $2 million. The company then acquired a search engine development company and started development on its pattern matching search technology. Michael Darnaud, the former vice president of sales and business development at Kenai Systems, took over as CEO in December. Interested parties should contact Darnaud at mdarnaud@capepsilon.com.
http://www.capepsilon.com/

YouTube Says User Partners Have So Far Earned $1 Million

San Bruno, Calif. -- Google's YouTube said that it has paid out more than $1 million in total revenue to members of its partner program, which shares ad revenue with "the most popular and prolific original content creators" on the site. The company revealed the results in a blog posting announcing that the program has now been extended to popular YouTubers in Japan, Australia and Ireland. The program was first expanded beyond the U.S. in December, to Canada and the U.K. "To others around the world, please sit tight -- we hope to bring the program to new countries soon," the company wrote on its blog.
http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=Mq0CYHI3XQE   

Report: Despite Economy, U.S. Game Sales Up 57% in March

Port Washington, N.Y. -- Bypassing the current troubles in the overall economy, U.S. video game sales hit $1.7 billion in March, up 57% from a year ago on strong sales of Nintendo's Wii and "Super Smash Bros. Brawl," according to industry sales data compiled by market research firm NPD Group. "You'd never know that the U.S. economy was under distress by looking at the video games industry sales figures," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. Nintendo sold 720,000 Wii units during the month, while Microsoft regained the second spot from Sony, selling 262,000 Xbox 360s to its rival's 257,000 PlayStation 3s. In the handheld category, Nintendo also led with sales of 698,000 of its DS, while Sony sold 297,000 PSPs. Among software titles, Nintendo's "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" led overall, selling 2.7 million copies during the month.
http://www.npd.com

WSJ: Yahoo Seeks Ad Deal with Google Following Test

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Following a successful week-long test, Sunnyvale-based Yahoo is now seeking to partner with Mountain View-based Google to provide ads alongside its search results, the Wall Street Journal reported. The tie-up comes at a time when Yahoo continues to fend off Microsoft's $42 billion takeover bid for the company. Some believe the Google deal could increase the changes of a potential merger with AOL, a company in which Google holds a 5% stake. 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120839839184321833.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news (subscription required)
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080417/yahoo_microsoft_google.html?.v=3