Silicon Valley Wire

Apple's New iPad Tablet Computer to be Available April 3

Cupertino, Calif. -- The iPad, Cupertino-based Apple's highly anticipated new tablet computer, will officially hit store shelves next month, the company announced on Friday. The company said that basic Wi-Fi models will be available on April 3, while enhanced Wi-Fi and 3G models will be available in late April.  Customers will be able to pre-order both versions from Apple's web site beginning next Friday. The news comes five weeks after Apple first unveiled the product, which resembles a larger version of the iPod touch, featuring a 9.7-inch touch screen and an iPhone operating system. The device, which will sell for $499-$829, allows users to wirelessly browse the web, download apps, watch video and, in a step up from Amazon's Kindle, download and view print publications in full color. The half-inch thick device, which weighs 1.5 pounds, also boasts a 10-hour battery and up to 64 GB of storage.
http://www.apple.com/ipad
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/03/05ipad.html

Hayward-Based Anthera Raises $53.8M Between IPO, Placement

Hayward, Calif. -- Anthera Pharmaceuticals, a Hayward-based biopharmaceutical firm developing anti-inflammatory drugs, said that it has raised $53.8 million between its initial public offering and a subsequent private placement. Through the IPO, the company sold 6 million shares at $7 each, generating proceeds after expenses of $36.7 million. It then sold another 2.6 million shares for $6.58 each to previous investors, raising $17.1 million more. Shares of Anthera, trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol "ANTH," closed at $7 on Friday.
http://www.anthera.com/
http://www.anthera.com/press_mar042010.asp

Redwood City-Based BigBand Names Chairman, Loses COO

Redwood City, Calif. -- BigBand Networks, a Redwood City-based developer of video-networking platforms used by broadband service providers, has named Mike Pohl as its non-executive chairman, and announced the resignation of COO David Heard. Pohl, a 25-year telecommunications and cable veteran, has been a board member since last April. The company said that his appointment will separate the roles of CEO and chairman. Amir Bassan-Eskenazi will continue in his role as CEO. Heard will remain a consultant to BigBand through June 30. In other moves, Sean Rooney has resigned as senior vice president of worldwide sales, and the company has promoted Ray Fitzgerald to vice president of worldwide cable sales.
http://www.bigbandnet.com/index.php/news-releases/release_id/176.html

EchoStar to Appeal Court Loss in Ongoing TiVo Patent Case

Alviso, Calif. -- TiVo, the Alviso-based provider of digital video recorders and services, said that the U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court's ruling that found DISH Network operator EchoStar guilty of continued infringement of the company's digital video recorder patent. "This ruling paves the way for TiVo to receive the approximately $300 million in damages and contempt sanctions awarded to us for EchoStar's continued infringement through July 1, 2009," TiVo said in a statement. "We will also seek further damages and contempt sanctions for the period of continued infringement thereafter." EchoStar said in a statement that it plans to file for a review of the ruling by the full Federal Circuit. "We are disappointed in the Federal Circuit's split decision, but are pleased that Judge Rader agreed with our position," EchoStar said.
http://pr.tivo.com/easyir/customrel.do?easyirid=CA934452BA6418EF&version=live&prid=593321&releasejsp=custom_150
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dish-network-and-echostar-statement-regarding-tivo-86366137.html

Morgan Hill-Based Alien Technology Raises $10.9 Million

Morgan Hill, Calif. -- Alien Technology, a Morgan Hill-based maker of radio-frequency identification chips, tags and readers, said that it has raised $10.9 million in a new round of funding. Investors included previous backers Advanced Equities, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Sunbridge Partners. The company did not outline its plans for the proceeds. Founded in 1994, Alien provides its products to clients in industries such as retail, consumer goods, manufacturing, defense, transportation and logistics. The company also raised $38 million in a round that closed in late 2008.
http://www.alientechnology.com
http://www.alientechnology.com/newsevents/2010/press030310.php

Mountain View-Based Playdom Acquires Offbeat Creations

Mountain View, Calif. -- Playdom, a Mountain View-based developer of social games, said that it has acquired Offbeat Creations, a Bellevue, Wash.-based developer of games for Facebook. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Playdome said that the acquisition significantly expands its studio capabilities and game pipeline. Offbeat Creations, whose titles include the dice game "Super Farkle," said that its gaming applications are attracting 1 million active monthly users. Offbeat's development team will join the company's existing team in Seattle. The news comes four months after Playdom announced a $43 million funding round, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), as well as the acquisitions of Palo Alto-based Green Patch and Menlo Park-based Trippert Labs.
http://www.playdom.com 
http://offbeat-creations.com
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/playdom-announces-acquisition-of-offbeat-creations-inc-86254917.html

Former MySpace CEO, Austin Ventures Buy S.F.-Based MindJolt

San Francisco -- Former MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe, along with fellow MySpace co-founders Colin Digiaro and Aber Whitcomb, on Thursday announced that they have teamed with venture capital firm Austin Ventures to acquire MindJolt, the San Francisco-based developer of an online social gaming platform. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. MindJolt's catalog aggregates more than 1,300 casual online game titles, and its portal counts more than 20 million unique users. The company's new executive will include CEO DeWolfe, COO Digiaro, CTO Whitcomb and Richard Fields, the founder of MindJolt, who will serve as head of product strategy. "We're building out the company to become the next generation platform for game developers," said DeWolfe. "Our goal is to make it even easier for developers to get their games noticed and make more money from their work."
http://www.mindjolt.com
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100303006941/en/MySpace-Founders-Partner-Austin-Ventures-Acquire-MindJolt

Adrian Dillon Resigns as CFO of Agilent for Role at Skype

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Agilent Technologies, the Santa Clara-based developer of communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis technology, said that Adrian Dillon will resign his roles as CFO and executive vice president of finance and administration, effective April 1. Dillon, who has been with the company since 2001, will become the chief financial and administration officer at Skype. Agilent has named Didier Hirsch, its vice president of corporate controllership and tax, as acting CFO. Hirsch is the former CFO of HP's Europe, Middle East and Africa operations.
http://www.agilent.com
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100303007119/en/Agilent-Technologies%E2%80%99-Executive-Vice-President-CFO-Adrian

Menlo Park VC Firms Leads $36M Investment in TransMedics

Menlo Park, Calif. -- A pair of Menlo Park-based venture capital firms, Foundation Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, have co-led a new $36 million round of funding for Massachusetts-based TransMedics, a developer of medical devices for solid organ transplantation. The deal also included investments by Flagship Ventures and several previous backers. Founded in 1998, TransMedics is working on technology for patients suffering from end-stage organ failure.
http://www.transmedics.com/
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/TransMedics-Inc-Secures-36-prnews-2437992767.html?x=0&.v=1

San Francisco-Based Cloudmark Raises $23M in First Funding Since '04

San Francisco -- In its first outside funding since 2004, San Francisco-based Cloudmark, a developer of spam, phishing and virus protection technology, said on Wednesday that it has secured $23 million in a new round of venture capital, led by new investor Summit Partners. New investor Nokia Growth Partners and previous backers Ignition Partners and Industry Ventures also participated in the round, which the company will use to assist in its recent acquisition of Bizanga. Cloudmark said that its software detects messaging abuse with up to 99% accuracy and near-zero false positives for carrier customers that include Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications and EarthLink. The company last raised $11 million in September 2004.
http://www.cloudmark.com
http://www.cloudmark.com/en/press/releases/2010-03-03--cloudmarkreg-secures-23-million-in-growth-equity-funding-from-summit-partners-and-nokia-growth-partners

Mountain View-Based NetBase Raises $9 Million for Semantic Search

Mountain View, Calif. -- NetBase, a Mountain View-based developer of semantic search technology, said that it has raised $9 million in its third round of funding, led by Altos Ventures and Thomvest Ventures. The company will use the funds to build out sales, marketing and product management, as well as to expand its hosted cloud operations. NetBase's technology is designed to read sentences to surface insights from billions of sources in public and private online information. Its client roster includes five of the top 10 consumer packaged goods firms, including Procter & Gamble, and two of the top three science, technology and medical publishers, including Elsevier.
http://www.netbase.com
http://www.netbase.com/news_events/pr-030210.php

Campbell-Based Solar Components Introduces Personal Solar Device

Campbell, Calif. -- Solar Components, a Campbell-based developer of personal solar appliances, on Wednesday unveiled it first commercial product, a small solar cell device that the company says delivers more than 2.5 hours of cell phone talk time for every hour of charging time, or as much as 20 times as much as existing personal solar devices. Scheduled for market launch in June, the "Joos Orange" product will retail for less than $100, according to the company. The device is designed to be waterproof, can be charged by USB, works in low-light conditions, has a replaceable battery and provides its charging status to a personal computer. The Joos contains a Lithium-ion polymer battery that -- depending upon latitude, insolation and reflector use -- can generate between 10 to 20 watt hours per day. Privately held Solar Components was co-founded in 2008 by James Bullen and Nathan Schulhof.
http://www.solarjoos.com/
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-Joos-Orange-Personal-bw-192806225.html?x=0&.v=1

Palo Alto-Based Pivot3 Secures $25 Million in Funding

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Pivot3, a Palo Alto-based, developer of storage appliances for the video surveillance market, said on Tuesday that it has landed $25 million in a new round of funding, led by Focus Ventures. Previous investors InterWest Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mesirow Financial Capital Partners IX and Silver Creek Ventures also participated in the round, which the company will use to expand sales operations beyond the Americas. "We now have the resources to expand our lead in the surveillance vertical and also take our product into new markets," said CEO Bob Fernander. Pivot3's platform allows video surveillance clients such as the Port of Seattle, the Mall of America and the City of Trenton to consolidate physical servers into storage appliances, reducing heating and cooling costs, as well as the amount of space needed.
http://www.pivot3.com
http://www.pivot3.com/pr/funding

Google Acquires Web-based Photo Editing Service Picnik

Mountain View, Calif. -- Google said on Tuesday that it has acquired Picnik, a Seattle-based provider of web-based photo-editing tools. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2005, Picnik offers Flash-based software that lets users upload and edit their photos through cropping, red-eye removal and other tools. The company's technology currently supports Google's own Picasa Web Albums, in addition to photo services like Flickr, Facebook and MySpace. "We're looking forward to collaborating closely with them to improve the online photo editing experience on the web," Brian Axe, Google's product management director, wrote on the company's blog.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/google-welcomes-picnik.html
http://blog.picnik.com/2010/03/google-acquires-picnik/

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

Mountain View, Calif. -- Audience Inc., a Mountain View-based developer of voice processor semiconductors that incorporate noise suppression technology, said on Tuesday that it has raised $15 million in its fifth round of funding, increasing its total backing to $75 million. Participants included previous investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Tallwood Venture Capital, Vulcan Capital and VentureTech Alliance. The company plans to use the proceeds to roll out its noise suppression technology for mobile phones, as well as for continued product development. Audience said that its voice processors are designed to mimic the functions of the human hearing system to optimize voice communication and speech-based applications in noisy environments. 
http://www.audience.com
http://www.audience.com/news_20100302A.html

ExactTarget Acquires San Francisco-Based CoTweet

San Francisco -- ExactTarget, an Indiana-based provider of email marketing services, said on Tuesday that it has acquired San Francisco-based CoTweet, developer of a real-time business collaboration platform for Twitter. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. CoTweet will operate in San Francisco as a business unit of ExactTarget and will lead the company’s social media product development. Co-founder and CEO Jesse Engle will continue to lead the company's operations, as well as spearhead the creation and expansion of its social media lab. Founded in 2008, CoTweet is the developer of a web-based collaboration platform that allows companies to manage multiple Twitter accounts from a single dashboard, support multiple editors, track conversations, assign roles and create follow-up tasks. Clients include Whole Foods, McDonald's, Microsoft, Ford, Dell, Pepsi, Sprint, Intuit, Salesforce.com, USA Today and Coca-Cola.
http://www.exacttarget.com/connected
http://www.cotweet.com 
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ExactTarget-Acquires-Twitter-bw-290661455.html?x=0&.v=1

Apple Sues HTC for Patent Infringement of iPhone

Cupertino, Calif. -- Apple said on Tuesday that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against HTC, the Taiwan-based manufacturer of Google's Android smartphones. The Cupertino-based company alleges that HTC is infringing on 20 of its patents related to the iPhone user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. The suit was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware. "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours." Apple in December also filed suit against Nokia, claiming that the company violated 13 of its iPhone patents. More than 40 million iPhones have been sold worldwide since their introduction in 2007.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/03/02patents.html

National Venture Capital Association Launches NVCAccess Blog

Arlington, Va. -- The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), which represents more than 400 U.S. venture capital firms, said on Tuesday that it officially has launched NVCAccess, its official blog site for public policy updates, industry developments and association news. The organization said that it initially plans to update the blog several times a week, rolling out additional functionality and guest contributions over time. "NVCAccess will allow us to relay information more frequently to our members, policymakers, journalists, economists, academics and other interested parties in an effective manner," said Mark Heesen, president of NVCA.
http://nvcaccess.nvca.org

Anita Borg Institute Names Winners of Women of Vision Awards

Palo Alto, Calif. -- The Palo Alto-based Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology on Monday announced the winners of its Women of Vision Awards, which annually honor women making "significant contributions" to technology in the areas of innovation, leadership and social impact. Winners included Kristina Johnson, the Department of Energy's Under Secretary for Energy (Leadership Award); Kathleen McKeown, a computer science professor at Columbia University (Innovation Award); and Lila Ibrahim, the general manager of Intel's Emerging Markets Platform Group (Social Impact Award). All will be honored at ABI's fifth annual Women of Vision Awards Banquet in Santa Clara May 12. The event will feature keynote speaker Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.
http://anitaborg.org/initiatives/women-of-vision/

San Mateo-Based NexTag Names Jeffrey Katz as New CEO

San Mateo, Calif. -- NexTag, the San Mateo-based comparison shopping site that attracts more than 30 million visitors a month, on Monday named Jeffrey Katz as its new CEO. He replaces company co-founder Purnendu Ojha, who will remain chairman. Katz most recently served as the chairman, president and CEO of LeapFrog Enterprises, and previously was the chairman and founding CEO of Orbitz. Nextag is majority owned by Providence Equity Partners, which invested $830 million in the company in 2007. .
http://www.nextag.com
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100301006938/en/NexTag-Names-Jeffrey-G.-Katz-Chief-Executive

Palo Alto-Based VMWare to Acquire Products from EMC

Palo Alto, Calif. -- VMware, a Palo Alto-based maker of business infrastructure virtualization tools, said on Monday that it will pay up to $200 million to acquire software and staff from Massachusetts-based EMC's Ionix IT management business. The all-cash deal is expected to close by mid-year. Under the agreement, VMware will acquire EMC's FastScale, Application Discovery Manager, Server Configuration Manager and Service Manager products, and will maintain engineering, marketing, sales and support operations in the U.S., Europe, Israel, India and Australia. EMC will retain the Ionix brand and have full reseller rights for the products acquired.
http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2010/20100225-02.htm