Venture Capital News Archives

Close WSJ Blogs November 30, 2009, 9:49 AM ET By Hillary Canada This morning's roundup of the latest venture capital news and analysis across the Web: Art by Mike Lucas Guardium Plays Hard To Get - IBM is offering to buy database security start-up Guardium for as much as $225 million, Reuters reports, citing Israeli newspaper TheMarker.

Procter & Gamble has been busy slashing prices and realigning its product portfolio to compete a bit more on a value platform.

Q: What do venture capitalists do? - A.N., West Hills, Calif. A: Partners in venture capitalist firms pool their money and invest in fledgling companies, sometimes specializing in certain industries or areas, such as computer-related technology or biotechnology.

Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson's announcement last week of a government guarantee for the principal amount invested in the newly launched Barbados Entrepreneurs' Venture Capital Fund is sweet news to the ears of the local, regional and international investment community.

Nextronex Energy Systems has secured $1 million in local investments to finance the production of the companya s new solar inverter manufacturing program in Northwest Ohio.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., BUSINESS WIRE -- SupportSpace, the leading provider of on-demand remote tech support solutions, announced today that it has raised $10 million in funding.

A tax break for U.S. financiers up for debate in the House Ways and Means Committee is indefensible, but not ready for termination, a committee member said.

Matt J. Whitworth, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that two Columbia, Mo., men were sentenced in federal court today for their roles in a multi-million dollar investment fraud.

BEIJING: China's top economic planner has issued guidelines to channel central government money into new venture capital funds to support the high-technology sector.

China's central government Thursday announced it is to join local governments and private investors in a pilot program to facilitate venture capital funds for innovative and high-technology industries, and industrial restructuring.

Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz is starting a new startup called Asana to solve enterprise collaboration, and he just closed a $9 million series A round from Benchmark Capital and Andreessen-Horowitz. this follows $1.2 million angel round last spring from investors including Ron Conway, Peter Thiel, Mitch Kapor, MySpace CEO Owen van Natta, ...

Transaction aimed at simplifying the company's group structure. Danish telecom operator TDC AS said Thursday it has signed a plan to merge with Nordic Telephone Company ApS in order to simplify the company's group structure and optimize its capital structure.

Total venture-capital investments could fall below the $1-billion mark this year for the first time since 1995.

In the latest lob into the morass that has become somewhat of a sport amongst journalists and those that follow the venture capital industry, Carl Schramm and Harold Bradley write in BusinessWeek about " How Venture Capital Lost Its Way ". The evidence? Venture capital funding is down - from an "astonishing" 1.1% of US GDP in 2000; and in the 3rd ...

Covestor Investment Management and kaChing are online ventures that seek to challenge traditional mutual funds.

In a desperate bid for survival, long-time office software maker Corel has agreed to a takeover by its majority investor, Vector Capital, a move that could help keep classic software packages such as WordPerfect and CorelDraw around as Microsoft Office alternatives, at least for a while.

Earlier today GigaOm reported that Dropbox raised a new $7.25 million funding round over the summer .

Is it possible that the Mac is making inroads with Enterprise IT?A Intel Capital announced at CEO SummitA that it is leading a Series A investment round in Active Storage of Torrance, CA, which builds high-performance storage solutions for the Mac platform.

Last week in New York, a group of 70 CIOs and soon-to-be-CIOs were asked how they were spending their time by the CIO Posse, a collection of active, transitioning and just-retired Forbes 1,000 CIOs.

Willard Ahdritz, the CEO and Founder of Kobalt Music Group , has received the Venture Capital backed CEO of the Year Award - Southeast and London region, from the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association Ltd.

Money will be hard to come by for venture capitalists next year as they struggle to lure skittish investors whose portfolios are still recovering from the recession.

Google Inc.'s acquisition of online advertising start-up Teracent Corp., announced Monday, marks yet another payday courtesy of the Internet giant for a member of one of the most prominent families in Silicon Valley.

Nov. 23 -- Alan Patricof, founder and managing partner of Greycroft Partners LP, talks with Bloomberg's Betty Liu, Jon Erlichman and Adam Johnson about venture capital funding.

As any entrepreneur who's spent some time trying to understand the venture capital universe will tell you, VCs typically invest locally.

TORRANCE, Calif.-- --Active Storage, Inc. today announced that it has completed its Series A funding round lead by Intel Capital with top-tier venture capital firms Mission Ventures and... OAKLAND, Calif.-- --There is encouraging economic news in the 5th Annual Greater San Francisco Bay Area Compensation Survey.

Roadmaps aren't inherently sexy, unless you're lost and hungry. But when they demonstrate plausible visions for the future, they can be well worth reading.

The Washington Business Journal is pleased to announce the 2010 Venture Capital Awards for Greater Washington.

Damballa, Inc., the company that stops Internet-based criminal use of enterprise networks, announced today that Val Rahmani has joined the company as its Chief Executive Officer .

With clean tech leading the way, Bay Area companies scooped up a remarkable 46 percent of venture capital investments in the third quarter of 2009, including the seven largest deals.

When people around the world try to explain the American system of entrepreneurship, they often point to venture capital.

Bangalore, Nov 19 : Leading software product firm Manthan Systems secured $15 million from three venture capital partners in the second round of funding, the company said Thursday.

Twitter Inc., the social-networking company valued at $1 billion by venture capitalists, said it is generating sales of more than $4 million a year and plans to build on that revenue with advertising.

MySpace has completed the purchase of imeem, which has been rumored since Monday, at a price that could make venture capitalists wary of investing in any startup that requires music licensing.

Private equity-owned fund manager Gartmore plans to list in London in a move which could kick-off a much-touted run of initial public offerings among companies owned by cash-hungry buyout firms.

U.S. electric-car maker Tesla Motors plans to go public soon, two sources familiar with the matter said, amid growing interest in green technology and battery-powered vehicles.

Warner Chilcott PLC, which makes women's health and dermatology products, said a secondary offering of 20 million shares priced at $22.25 per share.

The investor consortium who is the buying party and will control an approximately 70 percent stake is a group led by Silver Lake Partners and includes Joltid and "certain affiliated parties", the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and VC firm Andreessen Horowitz .

The last 15 months have been highly uncertain for both the venture capital industry and the companies they fund, but history shows that funding entrepreneurs takes patience and endurance.

Nov. 19 -- Larry Kramer, an adviser to Polaris Venture Partners, talks with Bloomberg's Betty Liu about plans by General Electric Co.

Jiong Ma spent a decade in scientific research before stepping into the fast-paced world of venture capital, a world sparsely populated by minorities and women.

CEOs say they are experts at recognizing the brown-nosers, the Dwight Schrutes of The O ffice .

The newest version of GoodGuide's iPhone application, now available for free from Apple's iTunes App Store, will make it easier and faster for consumers to find healthy and environmentally friendly products from socially responsible companies while standing in the aisle of a store.

Immunet, developer of next generation AntiVirus technologies, announced today that it has raised $2 million in an oversubscribed Series A round led by Altos Ventures with participation from Atlanta-based TechOperators.

This investment strengthens our balance sheet and fully funds us through to IPO." That suggests Toon and picoChip's VCs have pencilled in 2010 as the year for the company's IPO.

Location-based marketing platform Placecast has raised $5 million in funding from Quatrex Capital, Onset Ventures and Voyager Capital.

PORTLAND, Ore. - High tech startup companies today are most likely to be software application vendors or social networking sites.

Norwest Venture Partners has raised $1.2 billion for a new venture capital fund, an optimistic sign for technology start-ups. LifeSize Norwest Venture had invested in the videoconferencing start-up LifeSize Communications, which Logitech bought this month.

Bigfoot Networks , a maker of gaming software and hardware, has raised $8 million in a Series B financing round led by existing investors North Bridge Venture Partners , Palomar Ventures and Raven Venture Partners .

The Florida Opportunity Fund will invest $4 million with venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates to help boost some of the company's investments in the state.

According to the Wall Street Journal, merger activity in the healthcare sector is showing no signs of weakening -- in fact, deal-making in this sector has been setting records notwithstanding the downturns in the economy at large.

Social Network application developer and advertising platform RockYou has raised a whopping $50 million in a Series D round of financing from existing investor Softbank , we've confirmed with the company.

Fate Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that it has completed a $30 million Series B financing led by OVP Venture Partners.

It's been a year since Sequoia Capital distributed a memo that later became to be known as "panic notes," which warned their portfolio companies of a deep impending economic downturn.

Imagine you are at a dinner meeting. You receive a business card from your guest and scribble notes about your conversation.

The nation's largest publisher of newspapers serving the gay and lesbian community has shut down.

In this Jan. 12, 2009 file photo, Citigroup headquarters is seen in New York. Citigroup Inc.

Baltimore-based Millennial Media, one of the country's largest advertising networks for mobile devices, said Monday that it raised $16 million in new funding that it will use to fuel its growth and international expansion.

A lone San Antonio company managed to attract a venture capital investment during the third quarter of this year, according to the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP /National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Report, based on data from Thomson Reuters .

As Clear Channel Communications sets the stage to launch its fourth debt restructuring plan, some of the company's biggest lenders are trying to seize control of the company's outdoor unit in order to further squeeze the radio and billboard giant.

Bain Capital today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Citigroup Inc.'s controlling stake in Japan's leading call center operator, BELLSYSYTEM24, in a tender offer valuing the company at approximately 100 billion yen .

The Energy Industry has seen the constant interest of financial activity from various sectors often inter linked or sometimes cross industry.

A government-backed fund to invest in early-stage technology companies is set to be launched at the end of this year with up to 300m in initial funding, the science and innovation minister said on Thursday.

Close WSJ Blogs November 11, 2009, 3:33 PM ET By Scott Austin Start-up CEOs often spend nearly all of their waking hours building their companies.

Legendary Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc said on Friday that it is exploring a potential sale of the company as it struggles to deal with looming debt payments and attempts to come up with a long-term business plan.

Deal activity in Québec's venture capital market improved in the third quarter of 2009, as $87 million was invested in total, or 25% more than the $69 million invested in the second quarter of 2009.

Share + Nov 13, 2009 7:20 pm US/Eastern BOSTON Green tech has been a hot venture capital investment category the past few years, but that doesn't mean investors are actually earning money.

Warning that a Democratic Senate Campaign Committee Fundraiser scheduled to be held at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, CA., on Friday created an appearance of a conflict of interest, Consumer Watchdog called on the seven Senators scheduled to appear not to attend.

U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital is finalizing a roughly 100 billion yen deal to buy Japanese telemarketer Bellsystem24 from Citigroup Inc , three sources familiar with the matter said.

With consumer loans increasingly difficult to obtain, Americans are putting more effort into attracting lenders by monitoring and improving their credit scores.

Abstract We examine whether tolerance for failure spurs corporate innovation and increases firm value based on a sample of venture capital backed IPO firms.

Seattle based Redfin , an online real estate startup, has raised another $10 million in a venture capital round led by Greylock Partners .

Comment about "TV guide for the Internet age launched " Phone Name Comment 0 Thursday, 12th November 2009 - 16:41CET TV guide for the Internet age launched Clicker.com launched a TV Guide for Internet television today, designed to provide a new way to find everything from old Seinfeld episodes to cooking shows.

Close November 10, 2009, 7:58 AM ET By Scott Austin Venture capitalists and chief executives of venture-backed companies don't exactly see eye-to-eye when it comes to their respective roles as board members.

Playdom , the social gaming startup behind uber popular titles like Mobsters and Social Life , has raised $43 million in its first round of funding, we have confirmed.

Chip makers don't raise much money these days. But things must be getting better, because Stretch has just raised $10 million in a mezzanine funding round to expand production of its security camera chips.

SandForceTM Inc., the pioneer of SSD Processors that enable commodity NAND Flash deployment in enterprise and client computing applications, today announced that it has closed $21 million in Series C funding.

In its largest ever acquisition so far, Logitech International , a world leader in computer peripherals, agreed to acquire LifeSize Communications , leader in video conferencing, for $405 million in cash, and take on rival Cisco Systems and Tandberg in the highly competitive video-conferencing equipment market.

Investments in Canada's venture capital industry have slipped to their lowest levels in 14 years, a new report said Tuesday.

Nov. 10 - Dan Primack of peHUB says that while entrepreneurs may not need a business plan to get venture capital funding, writing one is still an important part of creating a good company.

Today: Nationwide, housing prices are stabilizing, Realtors say. Gamers line up for "Call of Duty" launch.

BioVex Inc. , a developer of potential cancer-fighting technologies, has added $30 million in venture capital.

It is hard to believe but it has been five years since we completed our first investment in the South West.

Investing in green energy can be good for both the climate and your wallet. How good depends on choosing the right investment vehicles and sectors to invest in.

Tethys Bioscience, a privately held company, announced today that it has closed a $25 million Series D round of financing led by aeris CAPITAL AG and including Wasatch Advisors as a new investor.

Google has just announced that it has acquired AdMob , the mobile ad platform that has been especially popular on the iPhone, for $750 million.

Morgan Stanley is seeking a buyer for its 34 percent stake in investment bank China International Capital Corp, Wei Sun Christianson, the U.S. bank's China chief executive, said on Monday.

Saas application creator Apprenda announced on Monday it has closed a USD5m investment round led by venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates Inc .

EmSense Corporation, the company that created the first scalable physiological and brainwave measurement technology, today announced the completion of a $9 Million Series C round of funding, led by an investment from Technology Partners with existing investor the Foundry Group also participating.

The San Francisco private aircraft charter and aviation asset management company appointed Doug Giese senior vice president.

The firm invests in early stage companies focusing on information technology, business services, communications and healthcare & medical devices sectors.

Silicon Valley venture capital firm Greylock Partners said Monday it has 575 million dollars in a new fund to back promising technology startups.

A Middleton company that won the Governor's Business Plan Contest earlier this year has raised $1 million from angel investors.

LogMeIn Inc. is planning to raise an additional $60 million via public stock offering.

More investments are starting to be made by state venture capitalists as the economy comes out of recession and the recent sale of Ann Arbor-based HandyLab Inc.

Metabolex, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of proprietary new medicines for the treatment of metabolic diseases, today announced it had closed an additional $8.6 million in financing.

One of the more contentious things in the negotiation between an entrepreneur and a VC over a financing, particularly an early stage financing, is the inclusion of an option pool in the pre-money valuation.

Five Nashville firms have been selected by the state to be part of a $120 million venture capital program.

Altruik, Inc. , a technology innovator in search engine optimization , today announced the closing of its Series A round of financing.

New Delhi, Bangalore: Just a month after Infosys chairman and chief mentor NR Narayana Murthy offloaded 0.13% of his stake in Infosys worth Rs 174 crore to set up a venture capital fund, his wife Sudha N Murthy has sold 22% of her stake in the company.

Ever since Blake Krikorian left Sling Media , the place shifting startup that he sold to Echostar for $380 million in September 2007 , he's been lying low.

Bayer CropScience has acquired Athenix Corp. in a deal that has an initial value of $365 million and could reach $400 million, Athenix's venture-capital owner said Wednesday.

CubeTree, a freemium enterprise collaboration suite built on a social networking platform, today announced that it has secured $8 million in Series B financing, led by InterWest Partners.

Two weeks after President Barack Obama announced a special conference to discuss increasing the flow of credit to small businesses, no information about the date, time, location or attendees has been made available.

Myth: The venture-capital-backed IPO market is going to rebound to the levels of the 1990s.

The news that Google Sites chief Joe Kraus has moved to Google Venture , Google's venture capital arm, is part of a larger strategy that has more to do with human resources than capital investments.

The bitter battle over the future of the Internet calling service Skype appears to be nearing an end.

Even amid the contraction of the venture capital industry, which fertilizes the seeds of new technology start-ups, some firms are expanding.

Former Vice President Al Gore thought he had spotted a winner last year when a small California firm sought financing for an energy-saving technology from the venture capital firm where Mr.

A third leading Chinese movie studio is aiming for a listing _ this time on the New York Stock Exchange _ as the country's entertainment companies turn to the capital markets to raise funds.

Stephen Pagliuca, running as a liberal Democrat to succeed the late Edward M. Kennedy in the Senate, said Monday that Kennedy aired "inaccurate" ads in 1994 as his fellow Democrat fended off a re-election challenge from Pagliuca's boss at Bain Capital, Republican Mitt Romney.

CubeTree, a freemium enterprise collaboration suite and social networking platform has secured $8 million in Series B financing led by InterWest Partners with existing investor Trinity Venture s also participating in the round.

BEIJING: China will launch trading on its long-awaited Nasdaq-style board on Friday in the hope of harnessing the vast amount of liquidity circulating in the economy for cash-strapped businesses, experts say.

One of the engines of Pittsburgh's dynamic economy is sputtering slightly this year.

The innovation coming out of the cloud computing market has, in many ways, made infrastructure startups interesting to venture capitalists again.

Dow Jones and Thomson Reuters agree on this one - although venture investments in cleantech have been climbing this year, they're down anywhere from 4% to nearly 39% compared to a year ago.

BAXI Partnership, the specialist trust that funds and supports employee buy-outs , expects to complete its first investment involving venture capitalists next year.