Monday, July 24, 2006U.S. Venture Capital Investments Hit $6.7B in Q2Ernst & Young LLP and VentureOne are reporting today that venture capital investments hit $6.7 billion in the latest quarter, the highest quarterly investment level since 2001. The firms said in their quarterly venture capital report that that $6.73B was directed into 619 deals, a deal count increase of 3 percent over second quarter of last year. Capital investments were up 5 percent. The investments were the most venture capital invested in a single quarter since the fourth quarter of 2001. E&Y (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 24, 2006(Full story)
Interview with Mike Newman, CEO of AccordentAccordent (www.accordent.com) is a Hermosa Beach-based company which is a local high tech company that provides software for developing online, streaming presentations and webcasts. The online webcast industry has seen a lot of venture capital interest in the last few months. Accordent received a round of venture capital funding earlier this year, and it's not the only firm in this space to do so. Mike told me a bit about the firm's business and why it's raising funding now, along with what he t (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 24, 2006(Full story)
NextMedium Raises $6MLos Angeles-based NextMedium, a firm developing software for the advertising industry around audience measurement and media planning, has raised $6M in a Series B round. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, and also included Series A investors Ascend Venture Group and Globespan Capital Partners. NextMedium's platform provide product placement and advertising management. David Cowan of Bessemer Venture Partner joins the company's board of directors as part of the funding.
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Ambrx Expands Series CSan Diego-based Ambrx has expanded its Series C round, announcing today that it has raised an additional $3M in venture funding. Financing came from the Scottish Widows Investment Partnership. The additional capital brings the firm's Series C round of funding to $55M. Ambrx said that the new funding will be used to further expand its novel protein modification platform, support the development of its product pipeline, and for general working capital purposes.
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Ticketmaster Buys Spanish Ticketing FirmWest Hollywood-based Ticketmaster has acquired Tick Tack Ticket, a Spanish ticketing firm, the company said today. Ticketmaster said that it will acquire Tick Tack Ticket, based in Barcelona, as an operating arm of Ticketmaster Spain. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ticketmaster said that the acquisition would position it better to provide the marketplace in Spain with state of the art products and technologies.
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United Online Extends Marketing Into Best BuyWoodland Hills-based United Online announced this morning that it is offering its PrivatePhone and NetZero Voice phone services through Best Buy stores, as as a part of an extended marketing alliance with the retailer. United Online's PrivatePhone service offers a free phone number and voicemail for privacy reasons, and its NetZero Voice provides free computer-to-computer voice over IP calling services. Best Buy stores will be distributing demonstration and signup CDs for the services. Terms wer (More info...)
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Juice Wireless Scores WinJuice Wireless, a developer of mobile and online social media software, said today that it has scored a win at Starcom to power the firm's annual corporate meeting. Juice provided instant mobile messaging and polling data for Starcom's annual company meeting, which included 700 employees using text messaging. Terms were not disclosed. Juice Wireless is developing a mobile content publishing system, used for providing content to mobile phones, computers, and other devices. Juice operates its ser (More info...)
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Tilana Rolls Out Online Backup ServiceSan Diego-based Tilana Systems, a new company founded by a group of ex-Miva executives, has rolled out a beta of its online backup service. The firm said today that it has introduced a new file protection and synchronization service for Windows XP, based on continuous data protection (CDP) techniques. The firm's software stores a user's files off site and allows for version rollback of files. Tilana said its beta will be launched the first week of August. The company is headed by Joe Austin, for (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 24, 2006(Full story)