Silicon Valley Wire

Intel Capital Leads $30 Million Round for SecureKey Technologies

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Intel Capital, the investment arm of Santa Clara-based chipmaker Intel, has led a new $30 million round of funding for SecureKey Technologies, the Toronto-based company announced on Friday. The company said the capital will fund the commercial rollout of its online and mobile authentication tools. New investors Visa, MasterCard, Discover Financial Services, Rogers Venture Partners and TELUS also participated. Intel is currently working with SecureKey, which plans to deploy its tools in Intel Identity Protection Technology (IPT) beginning on Ultrabook devices later this year   By embedding its technology in a variety of devices, SecureKey can enable "tap/click to pay" and "tap/click to authenticate" capabilities, and provide secure proxies to stored credentials in device or cloud-based digital wallets.
http://www.intel.com/about/companyinfo/capital/index.htm
http://www.securekey.com
http://www.securekey.com/announcements/2012-05-25%20SK%20Funding%20Release.php

President Obama Takes to Twitter for Online Q&A Session

Washington, DC -- President Obama on Thursday took to Twitter for an impromptu question-and-answer session following a speech on clean energy in Iowa. Sitting in front of a laptop, Obama bagan the hour-long session with the tweet, "this is barack - let's get this started! -bo." He then proceeded to answer seven questions ranging from America's dependency on oil to refinancing options for underwater home owners. The complete text is available at the top link below.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/05/24/president-obama-talks-congresstodolist-twitter
https://twitter.com/whitehouse/status/205846823527657472/photo/1 (Photo)

AOL Investor Urges Shareholders to Replace Board Members

New York -- Hoping to persuade shareholders to vote out several of AOL's current board members, investor Starboard Value on Friday issued a letter to stockholders urging them to consider its three nominees. The firm, which owns 5.3% of AOL, is pushing the election of Dennis Miller, Jeffrey Smith and James Warner, in place of incumbent directors Alberto Ibarguen, Patricia Mitchell and James Stengel, at the company's annual meeting next month. The letter includes a point-by-point rundown of Starboard's take on its recent actions and AOL's responses. "If elected, our nominees are committed to working constructively with management and the board to substantially improve the profitability of AOL's Display business, including a full re-assessment of Patch, which, we believe, is losing approximately $150 million per year," Starboard wrote. "There are good and valuable businesses inside AOL. Our nominees plan to work with the board to help optimize the performance of these businesses in order to drive a material improvement in cash flow, profitability and value."
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/starboard-sends-letter-aol-shareholders-151800495.html

Benchmark Capital to Open New office in S.F. Tenderloin District

San Francisco -- Benchmark Capital, the Menlo Park-based venture capital firm, will open a new office in San Francisco's Tenderloin district, closer to the headquarters of many of its portfolio companies, including Twitter. "Our move to the city speaks to this change in the entrepreneurial landscape," wrote Peter Fenton, a general partner at Benchmark, in AOL technology blog TechCrunch. "Two out of every three new investments we have made since 2009 have been in San Francisco. Our partners currently sit on more than 20 boards in San Francisco including Twitter, Yelp, Instagram, Uber, NewRelic, Zendesk, Dotcloud, Asana, OpenTable, DemandForce, NextDoor, ServiceSource, Lithium, Marin Software, 1Life, Second Life, Coverity, EngineYard, Couchsurfing, Grockit and Pipewise." Twitter next month plans to move its headquarters about a half mile away from the new office, which will be on the top floor of the Warfield Theater.
http://www.benchmark.com
http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/25/benchmark-in-san-francisco/

Intel to Spend $40 Million on Network of Research Centers

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Intel, the Santa Clara-based chip-making giant, said on Thursday it will invest more than $40 million over the next five years in a worldwide network of university research communities. The company said the network, to be called the Intel Collaborative Research Institutes (ICRI), is an outgrowth of its U.S.-based Intel Science and Technology Centers. Each institute -- the U.K.-based ICRI for Sustainable Connected Cities, the Germany-based ICRI for Secure Computing and the Israel-based ICRI for Computational Intelligence -- will have a specialized focus. The three will collaborate with their own multi-university communities and other ICRIs, as well as the U.S.-based Intel Science and Technology Centers. "Forming a multidisciplinary community of Intel, faculty and graduate student researchers from around the world will lead to fundamental breakthroughs in some of the most difficult and vexing areas of computing technology," said Justin Rattner, Intel's CTO.
http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2012/05/24/intel-invests-more-than-40-million-in-worldwide-network-of-university-research-centers-to-drive-innovation

Fremont-Based Corsair Postpones Initial Public Offering

Fremont, Calif. -- Corsair Components, a Fremont-based supplier of high-performance hardware components for personal computers, said on Thursday it has postponed its planned initial public offering (IPO). The company, which is planning to raise as much as $96.6 million, cited adverse market conditions. "We have decided that we will re-launch when equity market conditions are more favorable," said Andy Paul, the company's co-founder, president and CEO. "While we do intend to expand our capital base through public capital markets, our existing capital structure and balance sheet provides sufficient capital to enable continued investment in our brand strength, products and people."
http://www.corsair.com
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120524005759/en/Corsair-Announces-Postponement-Initial-Public-Offering  

Palo Alto-Based HP Outlines Plans to Cut 27,000 Jobs

Palo Alto, Calif. -- A week after leaks first surfaced about impending layoffs at HP, the Palo Alto-based technology giant late Wednesday made them official, outlining plans to downsize by about 27,000 employees, or 8% of its staff. The company said it will offer eligible employees early retirement packages, with the number of layoffs depending on how many accept the deals. The restructuring is expected to be completed by the end of fiscal 2014, with HP saving in the range of $3-$3.5 billion a year. "These initiatives build upon our recent organizational realignment, and will further streamline our operations, improve our processes, and remove complexity from our business," said Meg Whitman, HP's president and CEO. "While some of these actions are difficult because they involve the loss of jobs, they are necessary to improve execution and to fund the long term health of the company."
http://h30261.www3.hp.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=71087&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1699268&highlight= 

Report: Congressional Committees Investigating Facebook IPO

Menlo Park, Calif. -- A pair of Congressional committees are looking into widespread allegations of impropriety involving Menlo Park-based Facebook's initial public offering (IPO) last week, The Huffington Post reported. Both the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee told the publication they're gathering information, with an eye on potential hearings. Controversy has swarmed around the IPO following reports that underwriters shared key earnings information about Facebook with only a limited number of institutional investors. "Effective capital markets require transparency and accountability, not one set of rules for insiders and another for the rest of us," said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), chairman of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection. "There's a lot that we don’t know about this IPO, but a lot that we do. We know that the SEC must fully investigate and take appropriate action if it discovers any violations." Facebook began trading on the Nasdaq last Friday.
http://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/brown-statement-on-reports-relating-to-facebooks-ipo-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/23/senate-facebook-ipo_n_1539842.html

Kony Solutions Raises $15 Million in Third Round of Funding

San Mateo, Calif. -- Kony Solutions, the Florida-based creator of a mobile app development platform, with West Coast operations in San Mateo, said on Wednesday it has landed $15 million in its third round of funding, led by Insight Venture Partners. The company said it will use the proceeds to fuel operations growth, sales and marketing programs and regional expansion. The news follows a year in which the company grew bookings by more than 200% and added more than 30 major customers, including Aetna, CIBC, Scottrade and Sun Life Financial. "This funding will help us continue managing the incredible growth we’re seeing in our business," said CEO Raj Koneru.
http://www.kony.com
http://www.kony.com/kony-solutions-completes-successful-year-accelerated-growth-announces-series-c-funding

San Francisco-Based Livevol Raises New Funding

San Francisco -- Livevol, a San Francisco-based provider of real-time data to professional and retail equity and index option traders, said on Wednesday it has raised an unspecified amount of private funding. Ron Chez, the co-chairman of Merriman Capital, served as lead institutional investor, and will join Livevol's board of directors. The company plans to use the proceeds to expand its data, analytics and brokerage services. "The investment… provides Livevol with a strong financial base and a strategic partner as we further grow our platform to become the premier technology provider for equity and options trading," said Stefen Choy, the co-founder and COO of Livevol.
http://www.livevolsecurities.com
http://www.merrimanco.com/

Report: San Francisco Commuters Wasted 48 Hours in Traffic Last Year

Kirkland, Wash.  -- San Francisco commuters on average wasted 48 hours in traffic last year, the third highest figure in the U.S., according to a new report from Inrix. Honolulu (58 hours) tops the list, followed by Los Angeles. All told, 70 of the nation's 100 most populated cities showed decreases in traffic congestion last year -- a trend Inrix attributes to a lack of employment combined with high fuel prices. The report also cited an 11-mile stretch of the CA-4 EB (California Delta Highway) from Bailey Rd. to Somersville Rd. as the country's 10th worst traffic corridor. The stretch takes 16 minutes on average to travel, with 11 minutes of delay.
http://www.inrix.com/pressrelease.asp?ID=156

Obama Orders Federal Agencies to Make Key Services Wireless

Washington, DC -- Looking to accelerate the government's shift to mobile technology, President Obama on Wednesday issued a directive requiring each federal agency to make two key government services available on mobile phones within the next 12 months. The administration said it also will ramp up efforts to make large amounts of government data more accessible to the public, with the hope of spurring entrepreneurs to develop a range of new services and mobile apps. "Americans deserve a government that works for them anytime, anywhere, and on any device," said Obama. The White House said the goal of the program is to make dozens of additional government services accessible through mobile phones by next spring. "We're living in an increasingly mobile world and it is critical that the federal government keep up with the way the American people do business," said Steven VanRoekel, the federal chief information officer. "Already, families can use government apps to check the wait time at the airport, get access to critical veteran services and check the status of their tax return. Today's directive will accelerate our drive to make key services easily accessible to more Americans than ever."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/05/23/obama-administration-launches-sweeping-shift-mobile

Santa Clara-Based AccelOps Raises $15 Million in Funding

Santa Clara, Calif. -- AccelOps, a Santa Clara-based developer of integrated security, network and data center monitoring and management software, said on Tuesday it has raised $15 million in a new round of funding, led by USVP. Several previous backers also participated in the round, which the company will use to drive expansion. The news comes as the company, which introduced its first product two years ago, revealed it has now surpassed the 150-customer milestone. "With more organizations deploying private and hybrid cloud solutions, and increasingly sophisticated security threats looming, there is a broad and growing need to correlate and analyze events across the entire IT infrastructure in real-time," said Chris Rust, partner at US Venture Partners.
http://www.accelops.com
http://www.usvp.com/html_vers/

SAP to Acquire Sunnyvale-Based Ariba in $4.3 Billion Deal

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- German business software giant SAP said on Tuesday it will acquire Sunnyvale-based Ariba, developer of a cloud-based business commerce network, in a deal worth $4.3 billion. SAP will pay $45 a share under the deal, which is expected to close during the third quarter. SAP said the acquisition will establish it as a leading business network, adding business-to-business collaboration to its existing offerings, and also significantly boost the company's cloud applications portfolio. Ariba, which has approximately 2,600 employees, is the second-largest cloud vendor by revenue. Ariba's current management team will continue to lead the company, which will operate as an independent business under the name "Ariba, an SAP company." "By combining Ariba's open global trading network and SAP's solutions and analytics, we are ushering in a new era of business-to-business collaboration and driving new levels of productivity," said Bob Calderoni, the CEO of Ariba
http://www.ariba.com/
http://www.sap.com
http://www.news-sap.com/sap-to-expand-cloud-presence-with-acquisition-of-ariba/

San Jose-Based IDT Launches Exchange Offer for PLX Technology

San Jose, Calif. -- Integrated Device Technology (IDT), a San Jose-based developer of mixed-signal semiconductor, said on Tuesday it has launched an exchange offer to acquire shares of Sunnyvale-based PLX Technology, a maker of semiconductor-based connectivity products. The companies originally announced the agreement, at the time worth approximately $330 million, on April 30. Under the deal, set to expire on June 30, PLX stockholders will receive $3.50 in cash and .525 shares of IDT for each of their shares.
http://www.idt.com
http://www.idt.com/about/press-room/idt-commences-exchange-offer-acquire-plx-technology-inc

Survey: Bay Area CFOs Say Revenue Will Outpace Headcount Growth

San Ramon, Calif. -- More than half of Bay Area chief financial officers believe revenue growth at their companies will significantly outpace headcount this year, according to a new survey by San Ramon-based Armanino McKenna. Of the more than 200 CFOs interviewed, a majority say they plan to optimize processes, deploy new technology and increase the use of partnering to grow at a faster pace with small to no increases in headcount. Moreover, 71% also said they plan to expand into new geographic markets, including international, over the next three years.
http://www.amllp.com
http://www.amllp.com/pdfs/2012-CFO-Bechmark-Survey-Report.pdf (PDF)

Alameda-Based BioTime Completes Deal for XenneX

Alameda, Calif. -- BioTime, an Alameda-based biotechnology firm focused on regenerative medicine and blood plasma volume expanders, said on Monday it has completed its acquisition of Massachusetts-based XenneX, a provider of services and tools designed to enhance bio-medical research. The deal, technically a merger of XenneX into BioTime-unit LifeMap Sciences, was first announced in April. Through the agreement, XenneX stockholders received approximately 1.4 million shares of LifeMap -- a 13% stake in that company -- as well as 450,000 shares of BioTime. XenneX holds the exclusive, worldwide licenses to market GeneCards and PanDaTox. GeneCards is a searchable database of human genes, while PanDaTox is a searchable, database used to identify genes and intergenic regions. "The need for the LifeMap database is a reflection of the growth of the field of regenerative medicine," said Michael West, BioTime's CEO.
http://www.biotimeinc.com/
http://www.lifemapsc.com/
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83805&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1697986&highlight=

Mountain View-Based AnchorFree Lands $52 Million in Third Round

Mountain View, Calif. -- AnchorFree, a Mountain View-based developer of tools designed to secure mobile browsing sessions, block malware and protect user privacy, said on Monday it has raised $52 million in its third round of funding, led by Goldman Sachs. The company, which now has raised $63 million since its inception, said it will use the funds to market its core Hotspot Shield applications worldwide. The company said the technology secures a user's browsing by channeling all web activities through a personal Virtual Private Network (VPN). AnchorFree, which also has offices in Switzerland, was founded by David Gorodyansky (CEO), Eugene Malobrodsky (CTO) and Peter Hoag (executive vice president of finance and administration).
http://anchorfree.com

Sunnyvale-Based Yahoo Reaches Complex Deal to Sell Alibaba Stake

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- Following months of negotiations, Sunnyvale-based Yahoo said it has reached a deal to sell half its stake in Alibaba Group back to the Chinese e-commerece company for $7.1 billion. Under the complex agreement, Yahoo would receive $6.3 billion in cash and up to another $800 million in stock for a 20% stake in Alibaba, which would be valued at approximately $35 billion. Yahoo also would be able to eventually sell another quarter of its stake through an eventual initial public offering (IPO), and the remainder at a future point in time. "Today's agreement provides clarity for our shareholders on a substantial component of Yahoo's value and reaffirms the significance of our relationship with Alibaba," said Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo's interim CEO. The deal follows a tumultuous period for Yahoo, which earlier this month installed Levinsohn following the resignation of CEO Scott Thompson, who had been under fire for allegedly misrepresenting his academic credentials.
http://www.alibaba.com/
http://pressroom.yahoo.net/pr/ycorp/234207.aspx