 | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology
Korea’s Danal Corp. has decided to buy back a controlling stake in its U.S. mobile payments subsidiary, BilltoMobile, in a transaction that closes this week, VentureBeat has learned.
The deal values San Jose, Calif.-based BilltoMobile at a little less than $100 million, according to a reliable source. Ownership of the subidiary was roughly divided among founders-employees, the parent firm Danal Co., and Morgenthaler Ventures. So Danal, which has pioneered mobile payments in Korea, is likely spending tens of millions of dollars to buy back the subsidiary. [...]
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology
(Editor’s note: Will Herman is an entrepreneur who has founded or held senior roles at several tech companies. This column originally appeared on his blog.)
Every company needs a board of directors – even startups.
Well, OK, maybe not every company. Raw startups – two people in a garage kinda thing – shouldn’t waste their time with anything formal. But young companies – those that are established and on their way, regardless of their size or level of funding should, as should any company more established than that. [...]
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology
Citrix Online, the division of Citrix Systems that provides remote, web-based services, just announced the acquisition of Paglo, a search tool for IT managers.
Menlo Park, Calif.-based Paglo describes itself as “Google for IT.” Its tools allow customers to search a company network for all connected devices, check the status of those devices, monitor server health, install software patches, and more. The acquisition allows Citrix to add IT management to its roster of services, which includes things like GoToMeeting (web meetings) and GoToTraining (remote training). [...]
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology
Here’s something you never see anymore in the game industry: a new startup making console games.
But that’s what Judobaby plans to do as it announces today it will make family games for the Nintendo Wii. The company is led by Dan Mueller, a 15-year game industry veteran who once worked at Sony’s U.S. game division (yes, he’s a traitor).
Mueller started toying with the idea back in 2007. He tooled around with as many as 13 different ideas for two years. He sold his house, recruited team members, and raised money from friends and family to get his Redwood City, Calif. [...]
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology
Giant chip makers like Broadcom, Atheros and Marvell dominate the market for Wi-Fi chips — the chips that allow us to wirelessly connect to the internet at almost every cafe. So it would seem that Wi-Fi startups are doomed from the start.
But Quantenna Communications begs to differ. Today, the Fremont, Calif.-based startup is announcing that it raised $15 million in a fourth round of financing for its Wi-Fi wireless radio chip sets. These chips use signal-improvement techniques to create much more robust Wi-Fi networks. [...]
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology
Strategic Design Network, a social game maker, has acquired social game payment services firm Payout Hub for an undisclosed price.
Austin, Texas-based Strategic Design Network makes social games. Seth Goldberg, president of SDN, says the move will diversify his company’s revenue streams as the company prepares to launch its own games this year.
Payout Hub provides the infrastructure to pay cash prizes in skill-based online games. It was founded in mid-2009 by New York entrepreneurs Brad Hargreaves, Sean Mehra, and Jeffrey Reitman. [...]
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology
Strategic Design Network, a social game maker, has acquired social game payment services company Payout Hub for an undisclosed price.
Austin, Texas-based Strategic Design Network makes social games. Seth Goldberg, president of SDN, says the move will diversify his company’s revenue streams as the company prepares to launch its own games this year.
Payout Hub provides the infrastructure to pay cash prizes in skill-based online games. It was founded in mid-2009 by New York entrepreneurs Brad Hargreaves, Sean Mehra, and Jeffrey Reitman. [...]
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology
Korea video game firm Bluehole Studio is making a move into the U.S. and European markets as it announces today it has created En Masse Entertainment, a new online gaming company in the U.S.
Seattle-based En Masse Entertainment will create massively multiplayer online games that compete with high-quality MMOs such as World of Warcraft. The division was established in 2009 and has been operating in stealth mode for a while.
The company has game veterans from big game companies such as Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, ArenaNet and NCsoft. [...]
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology
The latest quarterly report from Wi-Fi hotspot advertising network JiWire claims that the McDonald’s plan to offer free Wi-Fi in many of its restaurants this year will increase the number of available free hotspots in America by a head-turning 15 percent.
The count is expected to tip the scales away from paid hotspots, too, by making an estimated 52 percent of hotspots free ones. JiWire says the total number of public hotspots grew by 21.9 percent in 2009. McDonald’s alone will add a similar number in 2010, in addition to whatever new hotspots are added by other providers. [...]
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: GigaOM | Category: Media
In order to better understand the opportunities and implications of the second broadband buildout, we’re bringing together a group of more than 50 thought leaders in a town hall forum at our GigaOM headquarters here in San Francisco on Wednesday, Feb. 24th starting at 9:30 a.m.
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology
Pano Logic, which makes a desktop PC replacement that I wrote about last year, has announced a $20 million round of funding led by the Mayfield Fund. The Menlo Park-based firm, founded in 2007, previously raised $18 million in two rounds led by Goldman Sachs and Foundation Capital.
Pano claims to have tripled sales in 2009, although the company won’t specify from what to what. Having worked on the predecessors to Pano Logic’s devices in a previous career, I know that their claim to reduce total cost of ownership by up to two-thirds over a PC-based solution isn’t a stretch. [...]
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology
If you’ve ever had to crawl through your instant messaging chat archives just to prove a point to a friend, you would probably appreciate imo.im’s new chat history search feature. Now users of the web-based IM aggregator will be able to save and search their chat histories for any of its supported chat services. And most importantly, the searching is very fast — it allows you to view search results letter by letter as you type.
You don’t have to do anything special to turn on imo. [...]
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology
Online predators represent a real threat in online games. That’s why Sony Online Entertainment has integrated online threat protection software in its huge online game, Free Realms.
The NetModerator software was created by Crisp Thinking to block online pervs — predators, cyber bullies, and annoying users — in real time. The product also provides automated analysis of online communications which are really veiled overtures between would-be wrong doers who are trying to hide their language. [...]
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology
Lenovo recently released its latest tablet PC — the Thinkpad X201 — and with it came strong words against the iPad and the recent wave of similar “slate” tablet devices. As reported by CNET, Lenovo said that it’s not developing a slate device because it’s customers simply don’t want it.
Keyboards have long been a selling point for Lenovo’s computers (something it inherited from when IBM was still making Thinkpads). according to the company, it was the lack of keyboards that turned its customers off of slate tablets. [...]
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Mobile Marketer | Category: Mobile
By a href=" http://www.vis-solutions.com/" target="_new"Frank Powell/apAs marketers engage customers on their mobile devices, it is important that they focus on the five advantages that mobile marketing has over traditional Web marketing.img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/homepage-news/~4/17HdMSaJDC4" height="1" width="1"/
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Mobile Marketer | Category: Mobile
Consumers are increasingly using their WiFi-enabled mobile devices for on-the-go browsing, with 56 percent reporting that they connect via their handset, according to JiWire.img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/homepage-news/~4/91F9h6RYyL0" height="1" width="1"/
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Mobile Marketer | Category: Mobile
Dex One Corp. has launched a mobile application for Android-based devices to help consumers find local business information.img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/homepage-news/~4/UTIkRQRuelU" height="1" width="1"/
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Mobile Marketer | Category: Mobile
Millennial Media has acquired TapMetrics, a San Francisco-based mobile analytics firm focused on application usage and behavior.img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/homepage-news/~4/SRrWsB9Kuk4" height="1" width="1"/
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Mobile Marketer | Category: Mobile
Today in Mobile Commerce Daily: ScanLife links consumers to product info via UPC bar code scanning; PeoplesBank enters mobile banking to satisfy on-the-go customersimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/homepage-news/~4/BKKoJyRBMqo" height="1" width="1"/
Read more | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Source: Mobile Marketer | Category: Mobile
Red Jacket Resorts has created a mobile rewards club for guests that it is promoting via a multichannel effort.img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/homepage-news/~4/WD60QDSPuxw" height="1" width="1"/
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