Silicon Valley Wire

Rosetta Stone Sues Google for Trademark Infringement

Mountain View, Calif. -- Rosetta Stone, the Virginia-based developer of language learning software and online services that last spring raised $112.5 million in its initial public offering (IPO), said on Friday that it has filed suit against Mountain View-based Google over alleged trademark infringement. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, claims that Google's Adwords advertising program allows software piraters to purchase the right to use the company's trademarks or other terms "confusingly similar." "Google's search engine is helping third parties mislead consumers and misappropriate Rosetta Stone trademarks by using them as ‘keyword’ triggers for paid advertisements and by using them within the text or title of paid advertisements," said Michael Wu,  Rosetta Stone's general counsel. The suit seeks injunctive relief to prevent Google from selling the company's trademarks. The company did not reveal whether it is seeking monetary damages, as well. 
http://www.rosettastone.com
http://investors.rosettastone.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=227935&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1306455&highlight=

Redwood City-Based Qik Lands $5.5M for Mobile Streaming Video

Redwood City, Calif. -- Qik, the Redwood City-based developer of a mobile video streaming service, said that it has raised $5.5 million in a new round of funding from Quest Venture Partners, CampVentures and individual investors. The company previously had raised $4 million from angel investors including Marc Andreessen and Mark Benioff. Founded in 2007, Qik offers a service that lets users stream video from their cell phones to the web.
http://qik.com/
http://qik.com/blog/337/qik-announces-new-financing-

Intel Completes Initial Tender Offer for Alameda's Wind River Systems

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Intel, the Santa Clara-based chip-making giant, said on Friday that its tender offer for shares of Alameda-based Wind River Systems has expired, with the company acquiring 89% of its outstanding shares. Intel paid $11.50 each for 69 more shares of Wind River, a developer of software for embedded computing systems. The company now plans to launch a second offering to acquire all remaining shares. That offering will expire on Wednesday, when the companies will complete their deal and Wind River's stock will cease trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Intel said that the acquisition, first announced in June, will allow it to grow its processor and software presence outside the traditional PC and server markets.
http://www.intel.com  
http://www.windriver.com   
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20090710corp.htm?iid=pr1_releasepri_20099710r

Palo Alto-Based NVP Leads $17.4 Million Round for China's Borqs

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), a  Palo Alto-based venture capital firm focused on the technology sector, has led a new $17.4 million round of funding for Borqs, a Chinese developer of mobile software products for wireless service providers. Previous investors GSR Ventures and Keytone Ventures also participated in the company's second round. Mohan Kumar of NVP will join the company's board of directors. Borqs' software, which is based on Google's Android mobile software, is designed to give carriers the ability to create a branded user interface capable of working across different types of smartphones.
http://www.borqs.com
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090709006188/en

Live365 Decries Webcasting Rate Deal; Submits Own Proposal

Foster City, Calif. -- Live365, the Foster City-based developer of a "microwebcasting" service that powers web radio stations, said that a royalty rate deal announced this week by SoundExchange will have detrimental effects to its business, and submitted its own rate proposal to the agency. "This deal once again focuses only on a handful of major webcasters, those that are capable of earning more than $1.25M annually," the company said in a statement, noting that its user-created stations "will never reach even 2% of the revenue and listening limits set in this 'pureplay' deal." Additionally, the SoundExchange deal calls for an annual $25,000 upfront payment from all webcasters, "a fee greater than these microwebcasters can earn with their niche audiences and very limited listening," Live 365 said. The company said that it has submitted an alternative rate proposal to SoundExchange that "not only provides these microwebcasters the same reduced rates as offered to much larger players, but also leverages webcasting service aggregators… to assist SoundExchange with the administration, royalty collection and payment, full census reporting, and compliance for tens of thousands of these tiny stations."
http://www.live365.com
http://www.live365.com/choice/

Santa Clara-Based Data Domain Ends Bidding War, Chooses EMC Bid

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Ending a protracted bidding was for the company, Santa Clara-based Data Domain, a maker of data storage appliances, on Thursday entered into a formal deal to be acquired by EMC in a cash tender offer valued at $2.1 billion. Data Domain had rejected the offer last month, choosing instead to accept a competing cash and stock bid by Sunnyvale-based NetApp. The company now has paid NetApp a $57 million termination fee to break that deal. "Data Domain's board of directors has unanimously determined that the definitive merger agreement with EMC and the terms of the EMC tender offer are advisable, fair to and in the best interests of Data Domain and its stockholders, and recommends that Data Domain stockholders tender their Data Domain shares to EMC," Data Domain said in a statement. 
http://www.datadomain.com/news/press_rel_070809.html
http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2009/20090708-02.htm

Mountain View-Based SolFocus Completes Third Round with Another $30.6M

Mountain View, Calif. -- Seven months after initially closing its third round of funding, Mountain View-based SolFocus, a developer of systems that generate electricity from solar panels, said on Thursday that it has raised an additional $30.6 million to close the round at $77.6 million. Apex Venture Partners led the round, which also included participation from previous backers New Enterprise Associates (NEA) -- which led the previous two rounds -- NGEN and Yellowstone Ventures., as well as new investor Demeter Partners. The company will use the capital as it continues to make the transition from pilot production to full-scale commercialization. SolFocus' system uses reflective optics to concentrate sunlight 650 times onto small, highly efficient solar cells.
http://www.solfocus.com
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090709005314/en

Yahoo Settles Suit with NFLPA Over Fantasy Game Rights

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- Yahoo said that it has settled its lawsuit against the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) over a requirement that the company pay licensing fees to use  players' names and statistics in online fantasy football games. "We did reach a settlement and we are going to explore other opportunities with the NFL players union to work together," Yahoo Sports spokeswoman Nicol Addison told Reuters. Sunnyvale-based Yahoo sued the NFLPA in federal court in June, following a decision to not renew a previous license agreement that had expired. Last September, CBS and the NFLPA also sued one another over the issue of players' statistics in fantasy sports games. In April, the court ruled in favor of CBS, but that ruling is under appeal.
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090707/tc_nm/us_yahoo_sports_3

SEC Continues Probe into Apple Statements on CEO's Health

Cupertino, Calif. -- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is continuing to investigate whether Cupertino-based Apple tried to mislead investors about the medical condition of CEO Steve Jobs, Bloomberg News reported. The SEC reportedly is interested in "how his condition went from 'relatively simple' to 'more complex' in nine days," a source told Bloomberg. Jobs announced on Jan. 5 that a "hormone imbalance" with a "relatively simple" treatment was the cause of his increasingly gaunt appearance, before saying on Jan. 14 that the health issue was "more complex than I originally thought," and said he would take a six-month medical leave of absence. During the time away, Jobs underwent a successful liver transplant before returning to work at Apple on a limited basis last week. "The issue is not going to be whether they needed to disclose the medical records," Duke University securities law professor James Cox told Bloomberg. "It's going to be whether they monitored the disclosures about his health, in relation to investor expectations that Apple would continue to be led by Jobs."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ammDViTHaP0U

Milpitas-Based JDSU to Acquire Finisar's Network Tools Business

Milpitas, Calif. -- JDS Uniphase (JDSU), a Milpitas-based provider of communications test and measurement equipment, said on Thursday that it will pay $40.6 million in cash to acquire the Sunnyvale-based Network Tools business of Finisar. The deal is expected to close later this month. Network Tools provides storage area network (SAN) protocol test tools, software and services, and generated $44.2 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending April 30. Dave Holly, the president of JDSU's Communications Test and Measurement business, said that the acquisition will allow his company to offer enhanced services to its lab and manufacturing customers. The Network Tools business, which has more than 100 employees, will become a new unit of JDSU, with Dave Buse continuing to lead the business.
http://www.jdsu.com
http://www.jdsu.com/news/news-releases/2009/jdsu-announces-definitive-agreement-to-acquire-network-tools-business-from-finisar.html