Mint competitor HelloWallet is launching on the iPhone today, with an application that provides at-a-glance spending guidance, budget details and your available cash balance.
As a company, HelloWallet aims to differentiate itself from Mint by functioning as a full-service financial advisor, in addition to being a personal finance tracking application. On mobile, this aspect to its service shows… → Read More
Y Combinator alum ReadyForZero is rolling out an upgrade to its debt management service today, with new features that will now allow its users to centralize and manage more of their debt using its online application. Previously, the company was focused only on reducing consumers’ credit card debt. Now it’s adding support for mortgages, auto loans and student loans, too. → Read More
Wave Accounting Inc. has just closed $5 million in financing, in a Series A round led by Charles River Ventures, with the participation of OMERS Ventures. The financing will be used by the company to continue the development of its free online accounting software for small businesses and market it internationally.
Wave is a completely free (not freemium, but free) accounting package that… → Read More
After having been a tech executive for many years, I needed to take a break, and I wanted to give back to society. Duke University engineering dean Kristina Johnson gave me a great spiel about how the school’s Masters of Engineering Management program churns out great engineers, and how engineers solve the world’s problems. She said that I could make a big impact by teaching engineering… → Read More
Foxconn employees, with the help of Apple, will receive a 66 percent raise. The increase will raise the average salary from $132 a month to about $292, an impressive number. There is a required performance review period for three months before the raises will be doled out. → Read More
BraveNewTalent.com, one of the slew of social media enabled graduate recruitment sites to launch this year, has had £102k in finance from RBS under the government’s new Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme that encourages business growth and staff expansion. Like many social media takes on traditional approaches, BraveNewTalent.com flips the recruitment model, allowing graduate job… → Read More
BBG has an interesting bit about how netbooks nicked 20% off of standard laptop revenue even though there was a 1% increase in revenue. Why? Because foolish laptop manufacturers have been gunning for that sub-$999 price point for years now and now that they finally hit it they can’t bring it back up to sane levels thanks to sub-$500 netbooks. → Read More
Yes, we’ll soon all be at each other’s throats fighting over cans of soup, but Apple? It’s fine, despite that drop earlier in the week. That’s what Citi and Goldman Sachs say, at least. Those two haven’t failed yet, so we’d do well to hang on their every word. Both Citi and Goldman Sachs kept a “buy” rating on Apple stock, despite the fact that it tanked by… → Read More
The financial crisis is hitting the technology sector hard. Apple (AAPL) is down 18 percent over the last 16 months and Google slipped below $400 a share for the first time in two years. Best Buy (BBY) hit its lowest mark of $35.64 since 2005 and Circuit City (CC) just hit .77 cents a share. Want more? RIM (RIM) is tumbling, Nokia (ADR) is down to 18.43 a share verse 38 at the beginning of the… → Read More
If I had bought Apple stock back in 1985… AlleyInsider is reporting that AAPL is down to $110 – 14% – due to stock downgrades by Morgan Stanely and RBC. Why? Because folks aren’t buying stuff – it’s “the weakest [90-day electronics spending] ever seen” – and Kathryn Huberty points out that Apple isn’t in the sub-$1,000 laptop market where… → Read More
I don’t pretend to understand the reasons behind the current financial meltdown, but I do know that the topography of the money business is going to be changing soon. I don’t have any way to capitalize on that (I just cower here in a corner, nervously stroking my Benjamins), but domain squatters do. By now every possible merger, acquisition, and bailout is reflected in domain names… → Read More
You may have woken up to news that we’ll all be standing in bread lines in just a few short weeks—I’ll be back in the US of A in just about a month to witness the country’s unraveling in person—so credit to Sirius XM’s Mel Karmazin for trying to keep the company afloat. Sirius XM is, after all, a luxury expense; when there’s proper bills to pay, listening… → Read More
Blockbuster has withdrawn its bid to acquire Circuit City. Jim Keyes, Blockbuster Chairman and CEO, said the company’s decision was based on market conditions and the completion of “initial due diligence,” but said that he hasn’t given up on the dream of “a consumer retail proposition” that would marry content and devices “under one brand.” → Read More
In an earnings call today Time Warner reported that it was planning to spin off its Cable holdings, “under the right circumstances.” No specifics were noted but Time Warner Cable is obviously bolted on to the weak AOL and TW media holdings and not quite the best fit for a media company in the first place, synergy be damned. TWC had a $771 million in profit last quarter, which is pretty… → Read More
GPS sales have been booming. Last January’s CES saw just about every manufacturer under the sun dumping out unit after unit, some with millions of points-of-interest and whatever else they can dream up to differentiate themselves in a crowded market. Alas, the party is over and everyone who wanted a GPS now has one, resulting in a slowdown in sales. GPS devices are like 20-inch rims &mdash… → Read More
“Other companies that make these devices are no longer relevant.” Whoa. Jim Cramer of the popular show “I Scream a Lot About Finances,” basically lumped Dell in HP in with Wang Computing and Ye Olde Typewritery while talking up Apple like a fiend. He basically says that Apple is big with the kids and, therefore, is looking to boost its market share and earnings over the… → Read More
Citigroup analyst Jason “the Flame” Bazinet believes that DVD revenues — and later Blu-Ray revenues, at this point — will fall steadily in the next few years, bucking the growth trend that bouyed the spirits of Hollywood bigwigs for years. He expects total sales to fall to $21.4 million this year and the overall Blu-Ray uptake to remain steady and, sadly, cannibalize… → Read More
I’m interrupting the normal coverage today to write about something I care deeply about. The long feature I wanted to post today will have to wait. Let’s make one thing clear. The reason TechCrunch was started by Mike Arrington three years ago was to cover the wave of new startups appearing on the Internet scene in his stamping ground of Silicon Valley. Fast forward to 2007 and… → Read More
Microsoft chief exec Steve Ballmer’s was in London today to announce a new startup fund for the UK called the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Programme. The programme, which already exists in the US, is to encourage startups and in doing so to also promote Microsoft technologies to them such as Silverlight and Live Services. There are a handful of UK firms kicking it off, including Skinkers… → Read More
The growth in venture capital investment into Web 2.0 companies is rising in the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe, even as it slows among early investors in Silicon Valley. The UK is at the hub of this activity with a record seven deals at the start of the year, accounting for $22m invested. And Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands have each seen their first Web 2.0 deals completed in the first… → Read More
Talk about the vaguest of vague here, but apparently Apple is interested in bringing video rentals to the iTunes Music Store sometime during 2008. The company briefly discussed the option during Thursday’s shareholder meeting but has yet to come up with anything definite. Several other important points were brought up during the meeting. Apple’s not splitting its stock, the iPhone will… → Read More
Ruh-Roh, iPhone! The partnership that was supposed to make email on the iPhone sweeter than a kiss from a small Jack Russell puppy covered in sugar is now in jeopardy as the company-soon- to-be-known- as-the-company-formerly-known-as-Cingular and its parent company pare down the partnerships. The news is pretty tepid, but it was enough to drive down Yahoo stock and make us wonder if the iPhone… → Read More
Time Warner today announced that Time Warner Cable is becoming a public company. It expects shares to be traded as a Class A common stock on the New York Stock Exchange with the “TWC” symbol. Shares could begin trading as early as March 1. The move comes as a result of Time Warner Cable purchasing assets from Adelphia when it filed Chapter 11. In exchange for the assets, TWC coughed up… → Read More
Following its recent launch, visual search engine Quintura.com plans to release a specially designed interface for market-specific sectors. Yakov Sadchikov, co-founder and CEO of Quintura (picture by Darren Straight), told TCUKI today: “As a next step, we are going to release Quintura’s visual navigation/search web services for Women and for Kids.” Sadchikov recently demonstrated the… → Read More
OK, OK, no more 2.0 ‘clichesuffixes’ I’ve been eagerly awaiting the launch of Wesabe (not to be confused with the nuclear horseradish) for several weeks. Firstly, it’s an interesting concept and secondly, one of the co-founders is Marc Hedlund - O’Reilly Media’s entrepreneur-in-residence and author of hugely entertaining and informative talks on VC Funding… → Read More
UK based Zopa is the financial equivalent of eBay. It puts borrowers and lenders directly in touch with one another. Zopa has a very good management pedigree, it was setup by the team that setup Egg. Richard Duvall. The Chief Executive Officer – led the team that created Egg; was its Launch Director then its first Chief Marketing Officer. James Alexander. The Chief Financial Officer –… → Read More
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