Silicon Valley Wire

Palo Alto-Based CloudShare Raises $10 Million in Second Round

Palo Alto, Calif. -- CloudShare, a Palo Alto-based tech startup formerly known as IT Structures, said on Friday that it has raised $10 million in its second round of funding from Sequoia Capital, Gemini Capital and Charles River Ventures. The company plans to use proceeds to fund product development and expand its go-to-market capabilities. CloudShare has developed technology that lets users share copies of complex IT environments online, allowing them to collaborate with customers, partners and colleagues. "Since founding CloudShare in 2007 we've been focused on developing our technology," said CEO Zvi Guterman, adding that the company now has officially exited stealth mode. "We now have all the right assets in place." CloudShare's customers include VMware, Cisco and SAP.
http://www.cloudshare.com
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/CloudShare-Lands-10M-in-iw-1071045753.html?x=0&.v=1

Redwood Shores-Based Rocket Fuel Lands $3 Million in New Funding

Redwood Shares, Calif. -- Rocket Fuel Inc., a Redwood Shores-based startup developing an intelligent ad serving platform designed to understand consumer interest and intent, said on Friday that it has raised $3 million in a new round of funding led by previous backer Mohr Davidow Ventures. The company plans to use the proceeds to continue building its corporate infrastructure, scaling operations and expanding its engineering team. "With this recent investment, we see a clear path to profitability in late 2010, and we'll be scaling to better address the demand we see for optimized display advertising," said CEO George John.
http://www.rocketfuelinc.com
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Rocket-Fuel-Secures-3M-in-iw-1302229292.html?x=0&.v=1

Palo Alto-Based Pageonce Raises $6.5 Million in Funding

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Pageonce, a Palo Alto-based developer of personal finance and travel information applications for smartphones, said that it has raised $6.5 million in a new round of funding, led by Israel's Pitango Venture Capital. The company now has raised $10 million since its inception. Pageonce's flagship product, Personal Assistant, is a popular personal finance and travel app for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Windows platforms, with more than one million registered users. The app allows users to log in once to view aggregated personal information from various password protected sources. "Our goal is to own the personal information management category on the mobile platform," said CEO Guy Goldstein. The company also has named Jim Scheinman as its new COO. Scheinman was previously Bebo's first employee and a member of the company's board of directors.
http://www.pageonce.com/
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Pageonce-Announces-One-prnews-2233792909.html?x=0&.v=1

San Mateo-Based Deltagen Acquires Benten BioServices

San Mateo, Calif. -- Deltagen, a San Mateo-based provider of drug discovery and screening tools to the biopharmaceutical industry, said that it has acquired Benten BioServices, a Pennsylvania-based provider of manufacturing and testing services to drug developers. Under the deal, Deltagen issued 9.1 million shares of its stock in exchange for all outstanding shares of Benten. Penn Venture Partners and Life Sciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylvania then invested $1.25 million and $250,000, respectively, in the combined company, which was valued at $8.5 million. Deltagen said that the acquisition will allow it to expand its existing drug discovery and screening products with complementary services and technologies.
http://www.deltagen.com
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Deltagen-Acquires-Benten-bw-1320923222.html?x=0&.v=1

S.F.-Based FusionStorm Acquires Adexis Division of Cranel

San Francisco -- FusionStorm, a San Francisco-based systems integrator and managed services provider, said that it has acquired Ohio-based Adexis, a division of Cranel specializing in systems, storage and networking technologies. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. FusionStorm said that the acquisition bolsters its engineering talent and strengthens its Midwest sales teams. "They add some unique talent to the company and also bring with them some new partnerships and areas of business that we were not currently delivering to our clients," said John Varel, the CEO of FusionStorm.
http://www.fusionstorm.com/
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Fusionstorm-1089208.html .

NCR Acquires Campbell-Based DVDPlay to Expand Video Rental Kiosks

Campbell, Calif. -- NCR, video rental giant Blockbuster's partner in the burgeoning market of automated DVD rental kiosks, said on Thursday that it has acquired Campbell-based DVDPlay, which operates a network of 1,300 kiosks in the U.S. and Canada. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. With the acquisition, Georgia-based NCR said that it expects to have 3,800 Blockbuster-branded rental kiosks in operation by year's end. The deal also will provide Blockbuster with new kiosks in California, Colorado and Illinois.
http://www.ncr.com
http://www.dvdplay.com
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20091210005170/en

Friendster Acquired by Malaysian Payments Firm MOL

Mountain View, Calif. -- Confirming earlier media reports, Friendster, the online social network with U.S. headquarters in Mountain View, on Thursday announced that it has been acquired by Malaysia-based MOL Global. Though financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, reports earlier this week pegged it at more than $100 million. Friendster in July hired Morgan Stanley to help it seek a buyer. Founded in 2002, the social network pioneer has limited popularity in the West, compared with market leaders MySpace and Facebook, but is still widely used across Asia, where the majority of its 115 million users reside. MOL, which is owned by Malaysian tycoon Vincent Tan, plans to integrate the site into its own business "to create Asia's largest end-to-end content, distribution and commerce network." MOL operates a network of over 500,000 physical and virtual payment channels across 75 countries. MOL's Ganesh Kumar Bangah will become group CEO of the combined company, while Friendster CEO Richard Kimber will become non-executive chairman.
http://www.friendster.com
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mol-global-to-acquire-friendster-78932997.html

Sunnyvale's eInfochips Acquires nGIN Technologies

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- eInfochips, a technology design services company with dual headquarters in Sunnyvale and India, said on Thursday that it has acquired nGIN Technologies, an India-based provider of networking software and services to telecom manufacturers. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. "With this acquisition, eInfochips will now offer a much wider and deeper portfolio of networking products and services to its customers," said Pratul Shroff, the CEO of eInfochips. Johnson Rajkumar, the CEO of nGIN, added that eInfochips' video delivery and networking capabilities "complement ours."
http://www.einfochips.com/
http://www.ngintech.com
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/einfochips-acquires-ngin-technologies-78945582.html

S.F.-Based Hellman & Friedman Completes Acquisition of Datatel

San Francisco -- Hellman & Friedman, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, said on Thursday that it has completed its deal to buy Datatel, a Virginia-based provider of administrative software systems and e-marketing tools to colleges and universities, from an investor group led by Thoma Bravo. Plans for the acquisition were first announced in early November. Financial terms were not disclosed. Datatel's current management will remain in place, led by John Speer, its president and CEO. The company, which has focused exclusively on higher education since 1979, said that its technology is used by nearly 800 institutions.
http://www.datatel.com 
http://news.datatel.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1236&view_id=1088&

AOL Begins Life as Independent Company Following Spinoff

New York -- Shares of AOL recovered from an early decline to close up slightly on Thursday, their first full day of public trading in nearly nine years. The company, which late Wednesday completed its spinout from former parent Time Warner, is trading under the symbol "AOL" on the New York Stock Exchange, where CEO Tim Armstrong rang the opening bell. "As an independent company with a recognized global Internet brand, we will be competing for the future of content, communications and advertising and that is a very exciting and significant opportunity," said Armstrong. Shares of Time Warner, meanwhile, rose more than 4% on the day. "With the separation of AOL, we've returned to our roots as one of the leading content companies in the world," said CEO Jeff Bewkes. "We're now better positioned to focus even more closely on driving the best possible performance at our content businesses in the most efficient way." Through the spinoff, owners of Time Warner stock received one share of AOL for each of their 11 shares. Long known for its dial-up Internet service, AOL is attempting to reinvent itself as a content company, battling with the likes of Google and Yahoo for online advertising dollars.
http://corp.aol.com/press-releases/2009/12/aol-celebrates-day-one-independent-company
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Time-Warner-Inc-Completes-bw-3428111370.html?x=0&.v=1

Palo Alto-Based Financial Engines Files to Raise $100M in IPO

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Financial Engines, a Palo Alto-based provider of online financial advice and professional services related to retirement planning, on Wednesday filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise up to $100 million in its initial public offering (IPO). The company has yet to disclose details of the offering, such as the number of shares or their expected price range. Co-founded in 1996 by Nobel Prize-winning economist Bill Sharpe, Financial Engines plans to list its stock on the Nasdaq under the symbol "FNGN."
http://www.financialengines.com
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Financial-Engines-Files-bw-656270064.html?x=0&.v=1
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1430592/000095012309069405/f52084orsv1.htm

Palo Alto-Based Facebook Enhances Privacy Settings

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Facebook on Wednesday called on its more than 350 million users to "review and update their privacy settings," pointing them toward new settings that let users further control who sees what they share on the service. The new Publisher Privacy Control feature lets users select a privacy setting for every post they make at the time they create it. The company is doing away with the large "regional networks" setting in favor of four narrower settings: Friends, Friends of Friends, Everyone and Customized. Palo Alto-based Facebook also has created a Transition Tool, which will require people to review and update their privacy settings. The tool gives them the option to maintain their current settings, or choose Facebook's "recommended" setting -- which "takes into account how users have shared that information previously and recognizing that users may consider some information more sensitive." Finally, Facebook said that it will take steps to limit the visibility of content created by users under 18.
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=196629387130
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/facebook-asks-more-than-350-million-users-around-the-world-to-personalize-their-privacy-78861127.html

Palo Alto-Based DisplayLink Raises $8 Million, Hires New CEO

Palo Alto, Calif. -- DisplayLink, a Palo Alto-based developer of network display chips and software designed to make it easy to hook up multiple monitors to a single computer, said on Wednesday that it has raised $8 million and hired semiconductor industry veteran Craig Ensley as its new chairman and CEO. The company's third round of funding included investments from Atlas Venture, Balderton Capital, DAG Ventures and DFJ Esprit. It has raised $59 million to date. Ensley most recently served as the president and COO of Peregrine Semiconductor, and previously held executive roles at Cirrus Logic, including senior vice president of the embedded products division and senior vice president of engineering. DisplayLink's technology, which enables virtual graphics connectivity between computers and displays, is found in PC accessories including monitors, docking stations, display adapters, projectors and thin client systems.
http://www.displaylink.com/
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/DisplayLink-Names-Craig-bw-3675950004.html?x=0&.v=1

MySpace Acquires Assets of San Francisco-Based imeem

San Francisco -- Nearly a month after reports first surfaced about the deal, online social network MySpace said that it has acquired "certain assets" of struggling San Francisco-based music streaming service imeem. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2003, imeem claims 16 million users for its ad-supported service. The company, however, was close to seeing its licenses to stream major label songs expire, due to its inability to continue paying per-song streaming fees, PaidContent reported. MySpace said that it already has begun to redirect imeem users to its MySpace Music site, and is working to make users' existing playlists compatible with the service. "As quickly as possible, we'll be working to offer users the imeem playlists they've created on MySpace Music," MySpace CEO Oven Van Natta wrote in a blog post. The company added that several of imeem's top executives will remain as "consultants to help manage this transition."
http://www.imeem.com
http://www.myspace.com/pressroom?url=/article_display.cfm?article_id=1126
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-its-official-myspace-music-acquires-imeem-will-move-users-to-myspace-mu/

EnerNOC Acquires Concord-Based Cogent Energy

Concord, Calif. -- EnerNOC, a Boston-based provider of clean energy and energy management technology, said on Wednesday that it has acquired Cogent Energy, a Concord-based energy management consulting firm. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cogent Energy's has provided consulting services to about 200 customers nationwide, including California State University, the University of California, the city and county of San Francisco, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the state of California. EnerNOC said that the acquisition will allow it to service smaller facilities with less sophisticated control systems, which significantly increases the size of the potential market for EnerNOC's energy efficiency applications.
http://www.enernoc.com
http://www.enernoc.com/press/releases/release.php?press_id=153&keepThis=true&

AOL to Complete Spinout, Prepare Shares for Trading on NYSE

New York -- Internet pioneer AOL was scheduled to officially begin its new life as a fully independent company late Wednesday, completing its spinout from Time Warner and preparing for Thursday's debut on the New York Stock Exchange. Under the terms of the deal, owners of Time Warner stock were to receive one share of AOL for each of their 11 shares after the close of the markets. AOL, which now has a market value of about $2.5 billion -- down from more than $100 billion prior to its 2001 merger -- reportedly plans to celebrate its newfound independence Wednesday night with a party in New York featuring recording artist Diddy, according to the blog AllThingsD. Officials then will ring the opening bell at the NYSE Thursday morning. The separation occurs nearly nine years after the two companies completed a $164 billion merger that analysts have lamented as one of the most disastrous of all time. Now, with the bulk of its core dial-up Internet business gone, AOL will try to reinvent itself as a major player in the Internet content arena, competing with the likes of Google and Yahoo. To help in that effort, the company is in the process of cutting about one-third of its workforce -- up to 2,500 employees -- in a move to reduce expenses by $300 million a year. The cuts will leave AOL about 4,400 employees, down from a high of more than 20,000. Even so, some analysts believe that the company may suffer decreasing profits for several years to come, according to Bloomberg, with its dial-up subscription base possibly disappearing altogether by 2016.
http://kara.allthingsd.com/20091209/aol-puff-daddy-parties-and-cockroaches-on-npr/?reflink=ATD_yahoo_ticker
http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/09/technology/aol_spinoff/
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aJOcqoviAQyQ

San Mateo-Based Actuate to Acquire Canada's Xenos Group

San Mateo, Calif. -- Actuate, a San Mateo-based developer of business intelligence and corporate reporting software, said on Tuesday that it will acquire Toronto-based Xenos Group, a developer of software designed to streamline supply chains. Actuate will pay $3.29 a share under the deal, which values Xenos at $26.7 million. Pete Cittadini, the president and CEO of Actuate, said that the acquisition will help expand the market opportunity for its Eclipse BIRT open source project, a development environment for rich information applications. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010.
http://www.actuate.com
http://www.xenos.com
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20091208006542/en

Redwood City-Based Support.com Acquires Sammsoft

Redwood City, Calif. -- Support.com, a Redwood City-based provider of online technology support services over the Internet and phone, said on Tuesday that it has paid $8.5 million in cash to acquire Sammsoft, a Seattle-based provider of consumer software products designed to maintain, optimize and secure personal computers. Support.com said that the acquisition will allow it to add software to its assisted services, as well as provide it with an online marketing channel to reach consumers directly with offers for software and services related to computer performance. Sammsoft, which is operated by former Microsoft employees, said that substantially all of its employees will remain with the company.
http://www.support.com
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/SupportCom-NASDAQ-SPRT-1087083.html

Menlo Park-Based DCM Invests in Japan's Tonchidot

Menlo Park, Calif. -- DCM, the Menlo Park-based venture capital firm focused on the technology sector, said on Tuesday that it has led a new $4 million funding round for Tonchidot, the Japanese developer of an application that allows camera-attached mobile devices to access hypertagged social, informational and entertainment services over the Internet. Previous backer Itochu Technology Ventures also participated in the company's first round.  The company said that it will use the proceeds to fuel its global expansion. Tonchidot launched the Japanese version of its Sekai Camera service for the iPhone in September, and now plans to target other countries, as well. DCM's Osuke Honda will join the company's board of directors.
http://www.tonchidot.com
http://www.dcm.com
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20091208005312/en

San Francisco-Based Francisco Partners to Acquire QuadraMed

San Francisco -- Francisco Partners, the San Francisco-based private equity firm focused on the technology sector, said on it will acquire Virginia-based QuadraMed, a provider of information technology services to the healthcare industry, in an all-cash deal worth approximately $126 million. News of the deal, which will take the company private, drove shares of QuadraMed up 30% in Tuesday's trading on the Nasdaq. "After a thorough and careful review of the strategic alternatives available to us, [we] have concluded that this transaction represents the best option to maximize value for our shareholders," said James Peebles, QuadraMed's chairman. The company said that it plans to maintain its Reston, Va. headquarters, as well as its operations at various offices throughout the U.S. CEO Duncan James said that going private will allow the company to "place more emphasis on generating long-term value for our clients with less distraction on short-term results for the public markets." The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010.
http://www.quadramed.com
http://www.franciscopartners.com
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=81676&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1363332&highlight

Mountain View-Based Google Adds Real-Time Data to Search Results

Mountain View, Calif. -- Mountain View-based Google said that it has added real-time data to its search results, including updates from services like Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook, as well as seconds-old news stories and blog posts. The real-time data can be found by clicking on "Latest results" or "Latest" from the search options menu. Google also has launched a new "hot topics" section to Google Trends that will display the most common topics people are publishing to the web in real-time. Sunnyvale-based rival Yahoo began including similar real-time data in its search results last month, while Microsoft's Bing added data from Twitter in October.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/relevance-meets-real-time-web.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRkYmx4A9Do

Palo Alto-Based Facebook to Launch Safety Advisory Board

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Facebook, the Palo Alto-based online social network, said that it plans to create a global safety advisory board, aimed at protecting its members from online predators. The board will be made up of representatives from organizations including Childnet International, The Family Online Safety Institute, Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely and WiredSafety. "One of our first projects together will be to overhaul the safety information that's available to you from the Facebook Help Center so that the resources are more comprehensive and include content that's specifically tailored to the needs of parents, teachers and teens," the company wrote in a blog post.
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=195195332130

Menlo Park-Based 5AM Ventures Closes New $200 Million Fund

Menlo Park, Calif. -- 5AM Ventures, a Menlo Park-based venture capital firm focused on the life sciences sector, said on Monday that it has raised $200 million for its newest venture fund, known as 5AM Ventures III. The firm said that it plans to continue investing in early-stage life science companies developing novel therapeutics. A "meaningful portion" of the fund also will target companies developing diagnostics, materials, medical devices and reagents. Founded in 2002, 5AM so far has invested in 27 companies, and currently has more than $400 million under management.
http://www.5amventures.com
http://www.5amventures.com/documents/news/2009News/1207095AMFundIII.html

Milpitas-Based Ixys to Acquire San Jose-Based Zilog

Milpitas, Calif. -- Ixys, a Milpitas-based developer of chips used to control and convert electrical power, said on Monday that it pay about $62.4 million to acquire San Jose-based Zilog, a supplier of microcontrollers and universal remote control components. The deal is expected to close by the end of March. Ixys said that the acquisition will compliment its current power management technologies, allowing it to increase its penetration in the automotive electronic and electric market. The companies also plan to cut costs by pooling their resources in areas such as research and development and manufacturing. "As the world migrates toward SoCs, Zilog's core microcontroller technology along with Ixys's core power solutions create entirely new products," said Federico Faggin, the co-founder and chairman of Zilog.
http://www.zilog.com/
http://www.ixys.com
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20091207005339/en

Report: Friendster Near $100M Acquisition by Asian Firm

Mountain View, Calif. -- Friendster, the online social network most popular in countries outside the U.S., is close to a deal that would see it acquired by an Asian buyer for at least $100 million before year's end, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. "We have a shortlist [of suitors] at this point that we are negotiating with," Friendster CEO Richard Kimber told Reuters, adding that the majority are in Asia. Friendster, which earlier this year opened its U.S. headquarters in Mountain View, in July hired Morgan Stanley to help it seek a buyer, or at least sell some of its assets. Founded in 2002, the social network pioneer has limited popularity in the West, compared with market leaders MySpace and Facebook, but is still widely used across Asia, where over half of its 100 million users reside.
http://www.friendster.com
http://www.reuters.com/article/idCNSHA19695420091203?rpc=44

San Jose-Based Arteris Lands $9.7 Million in Fourth Round

San Jose, Calif. -- Arteris, a San Jose-based developer of technology designed to improve the performance of system-on-chip (SoC) architectures for multimedia, telecom and mobile applications, said on Monday that it has landed $9.7 million in the first tranche of its fourth round of funding. New backers Qualcomm and ARM led the investment, which also included previous investors Synopsys, DoCoMo Capital, Crescendo Ventures, TVM Capital and Ventech. The company, which now has raised nearly $35 million since its inception, plans to use the proceeds to expand its global sales and customer support operations.
http://www.arteris.com
http://www.arteris.com/pr_7_dec_09.php

Google Acquires EtherPad Developer AppJet for Wave Team

Mountain View, Calif. -- Mountain View-based Google has acquired San Francisco-based AppJet, the developer of an online collaborative word processor application called EtherPad, according to a posting on EtherPad's blog. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The team behind AppJet will join the development team working on Wave, Google's real-time communication application. AppJet said that current EtherPad users will be supported through March 31, at which time their creations will be deleted. AppJet had to date raised around $700,000 in funding.
http://www.appjet.com
https://wave.google.com/wave
http://etherpad.com/ep/blog/posts/google-acquires-appjet

Cupertino-Based Apple Acquires Music Streamer Lala

Cupertino, Calif. -- In a move that could signal its intention to launch a subscription service to complement iTunes, Cupertino-based Apple confirmed that it has acquired Palo Alto-based online streaming music service Lala, Reuters reported. Launched in 2006, Lala offers a music streaming service featuring eight million songs, including tracks from all four major labels. The service lets users listen once for free, then allows them to purchase wither a web-only version of the song for $0.10 or an outright download. Google recently partnered with Lala, along with iLike and other services, to enable instant streaming of songs from music-related search results. "Apple recognizes that the model is going to evolve into a streaming one and this could probably propel iTunes to the next level," a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
http://www.lala.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091205/media_nm/us_apple