Oracle this morning announced that it has agreed to buy Pillar Data Systems, a privately-held provider of SAN Block I/O storage systems based in San Jose, California, which is said to serve nearly 600 customers across 24 countries. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
An interesting purchase, particularly since Pillar Data Systems is majority-owned by Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison through his venture capital firm Tako Ventures. According to a 2005 CRN article, Ellison invested over $150 million in the business. → Read More
American Express this morning announced that customers will now be able to pay for Facebook ads using Membership Rewards points, which the company says are used by millions of American Express small business and consumer Cardmembers.
Cardmembers can redeem Membership Rewards points for Facebook Ads through AmEx OPEN’s Facebook Page or the Membership Rewards program website. Each $6,750 spent can be redeemed for $50 worth of Facebook advertising. → Read More
Social enterprise giant Jive is releasing a study today, called the Jive Social Business Index, which surveyed 902 US-‐based executives at large and mid-sized companies on their views of social in the enterprise.
The study revealed that Social Business is increasingly perceived as a strategic executive imperative in the enterprise, with 78 percent of the executives surveyed admitting that having a social strategy is critical to the future success of their businesses. → Read More
After announcing its Zorro visual revamp and its Three Search Engine Monte challenge, Blekko is announcing today that it’s partnered with recipe search engine Foodily in order to curate its recipe search results.
As of today. users who search on Blekko for things like Kale Chips or Grilled Fennel will tap into the Foodily community’s curation for foodie-related slashtags like /recipe /nocarbs or /glutenfree, providing people with a curated result as well as insight into what recipes their friends like. → Read More
Clearspring Technologies, the developer of social sharing platform AddThis, is launching its mobile strategy today, unveiling optimized technologies for the iPhone, Android and mobile web.
For background, the AddThis button sharing tool is currently deployed on 9 million websites worldwide and allows users to easily and quickly share content with others through more than 300 social networking services in 70 languages. → Read More
Exclusive - Health Guru Media, a provider of health information videos, has raised $6 million in funding from a syndicate that includes new investor Western Technology Investment as well as existing backers Castile Ventures and Village Ventures. Health Guru Media operates HealthGuru.com, a video destination site with a library of more than 2,250 titles covering more than 100 different health conditions, plus lifestyle topics that include wellness and nutrition. → Read More
Well, apparently Animoto is going for it. This jewel of a startup, which lets people easily create professional-looking videos from audio and video clips and pictures, has raised a third round of funding – $25 million in a round led by Spectrum Equity Investors. Ben Spero, a managing director at Spectrum, joined the Animoto board of directors.
Previous investors Madrona Venture Group and Amazon also participated in this round. That brings the total raised by Amiando to $30 million. → Read More
SiliconBlue Technologies, which offers custom solutions for handset applications, including IP, design services as well as low-power, single-chip, CMOS SRAM mobileFPGA devices, has raised $18 million in Series D financing.
The capital injection comes from private equity firm Atlantic Bridge, with the existing group of investors including BlueRun Ventures, Crosslink Capital, NEA and Apex Venture Partners all participating in the round. → Read More
A pain point for online video conferencing platforms is that many of them don’t integrate with each other. For example, a Skype user needs to engage with a fellow Skype user to start a multi-party video conversation. Today, the Blue Jeans Network is coming out of stealth as a video conferencing solution to integrate across many platforms. In conjunction with its public release, Blue Jeans is announcing that it has raised $23.5 million from Accel Partners, New Enterprise Associates, and Norwest Venture Partners.
The name for the company is definitely original for a video-conferencing startup, but the company says that the name is exactly how clients should feel when using their product. So, you know that comfortable, easy feeling you get when wearing your favorite pair of blue jeans? This company wants to provide that ease and comfort when initiating multi-party conference calls in the cloud. → Read More
There’s no question about it: Google+ genuinely looks good. But, as thousands of people have already noted and joked about, it also really does look a lot like Facebook.
UX designer and consultant UXboy agrees, and put the two interfaces side by side to showcase just how much the entry pages of both services look alike. → Read More
For iPhone 4: Super-Cute Hello Kitty Cases From Japan Warn Friends And Foes With These Nine Aperture Science Test Chamber Labels “Light Scythe” Is A Monster LED Strip For Long Exposure Art Mouse Up And Roll Out With This Transformers-Themed Razer Gear Tag Heuer’s Android Powered Link Smart Phone → Read More
I’ve also been playing around with Google+ (and the neat mobile Web app) this morning and so far, I think it has some potential (not everyone agrees).
But people like me tend to use more than one social networking service, so I was happy to see someone has already built a Chrome extension that lets Google+ users push posts to Facebook and Twitter. It’s a little buggy from time to time, but overall, it works as advertised. → Read More
I’ve spent the last several hours using Google+. That’s a good sign.
While I first got a glimpse of the project when meeting with Google last week ahead of today’s story, such meetings are usually little more than fast-paced tutorials or worse, sales pitches. I definitely prefer to sit down and use things myself in a somewhat regular setting and see how I react. And seeing as the roll-out for Google+ is very limited right now, I thought I’d share some of those thoughts.
First of all, Google+ is easily already the most compelling social project Google has ever done. Yes, I know that’s not saying much, but it is saying something. That statement includes Wave, which was more ambitious, but was not nearly as polished at any point in its brief life as Google+ is right now. → Read More
It’s official. Jack Dorsey’s Square has joined the billion dollar valuation club. The mobile payments startup closed a $100 million series C led by Kleiner Perkins, a story we broke a few weeks ago. The new round values Square above $1 billion.
Tiger Management is also an investor. And Mary Meeker, the former Morgan Stanley Internet analyst who is now a partner at Kleiner, will get a board seat. → Read More
Is there a future for social browser startup RockMelt? Despite attracting only a few hundred thousand active users since its much-hyped launch, the company filled with ex-Netscape rockstars and backed by former Netscape founder Marc Andreessen just managed to raise another $30 million in a B round led by Accel Partners and Khosla Ventures, with Andreessen Horowitz, Ron Conway, Bill Campbell and Josh Kopelman also participating. Jim Breyer of Accel and Vinod Khosla will be joining the board as observers. That’s some pretty serious money. → Read More
Today’s soft-launch of Google’s new social galaxy, Google+, raises one interesting question: Can Google, a massive, multinational, cash-rich, consumer technology company with multiple successful productivity applications and services, take its dough out of the oven and bake a social network into their bread?
Over the past year, Google has undergone some big changes. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt stepped down. Co-founder Larry Page stepped in, reshuffling the deck and tying employee bonuses to creating a successful social experience. The result seems to be a slick-looking yet potentially Wave-like confusing constellation of social “circles,” “huddles,” “hangouts,” and ”sparks” that could, theoretically, lay the foundation for new, more nuanced social networks to form. In the middle of all the reactions to today’s release, I believe it’s important to step back and ponder whether Google is focusing its efforts on the wrong problem, and in doing so, to investigate a potentially better fit that coincides with the company’s own DNA. → Read More
After the big launch today, some of those lucky enough to get a Google+ invite were still left out in the cold a bit: iPhone users. You see, while the Google+ Android app was there ready to go on day one, the iPhone app remains in review with Apple. But fear not iPhone users, there is a little hidden gem you may not know about: a mobile web version of Google+ that works great in Safari.
If you simply point your iOS Safari browser to plus.google.com, you’ll find a solid web app written in HTML5. You can’t do quite everything you’ll be able to with the native app, such as Huddle (group chat). But it the main parts of the Google+ functionality are there. Stream, Photos, Circles, Profile, and Notifications appear in the main menu. → Read More
Vacation home rental service HomeAway has priced its IPO, which is set to begin trading tomorrow morning at $27 per share, giving the company a valuation of $2 billion. The company aims to raise as much as $248 million in the offering.
Last week, HomeAway priced the range of its offering between $24 and $27 per share, so this final pricing is at the high end of the range. The company’s shares will begin trading tomorrow morning on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “AWAY.” The company’s IPO is being underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan. → Read More
It seems that RIM might have gotten the memo that consumers aren’t exactly flocking to the BlackBerry Playbook. The same site that broke specs about the 10-incher a few weeks ago is now reporting that it’s been axed. Like killed dead. → Read More
The i/o Ventures Demo Day starts in a little under a half an hour, and I am about to head over to Valencia Street to watch the startups present. i/o Ventures is the SF-based incubator that offers five or six startups a 4-6 month long spot in its 7,000 square foor loft/coffee shop space as well as $25,000 in seed money, in exchange for around 8% of the company.
We’ve covered some of the companies before, put I am publishing a preliminary list here (to be updated as I watch their presentations). → Read More
