Skype is finally free — eBay settles with Skype co-founders, clearing way for buyout
EBay has settled with the founders of Skype, clearing up some nasty lawsuits that had stood in the way of a Skype acquisition. Now the Internet phone company to be sold to a consortium of investors that includes Skype’s co-founders.
Private equity firm Silver Lake Partners… Continue Reading
EmSense, the company that reads your brain’s reactions to ads, gets boost
EmSense — the San Francisco company that has created a device to read your mind to assess how you react to TV commercials and other media — has raised $9 million more in a third round of funding.
The company says it is trying to improve… Continue Reading
Newest GreenBeat speaker: Google CEO Eric Schmidt
I’m delighted to announce that Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt has agreed to speak at our GreenBeat event on Nov. 19, which focuses on the overhaul of our nation’s electrical grid.
Schmidt has been a vocal proponent of our nation’s need to invest in a… Continue Reading
DEMO’s visits to London and Boston show California is great place to launch
I’ve been on the road lately, in a continued effort to find and meet with the best companies around to launch new products at the DEMO conference, and have been developing some cool ideas for DEMO’s next conference in March. I’ll share more about those… Continue Reading
Renewable Funding let’s you easily finance your solar panel investment
Renewable Funding, a company that makes it easier for homeowners to finance solar or other renewable funding projects with friendly terms, has raised $12.2 million in a first round of funding.
The Oakland, Calif., based company’s model is noteworthy because it lets you attach your financing… Continue Reading
Nokia to invade U.S. market — will launch new phone with AT&T
AT&T, the major U.S. phone operator, will launch a Nokia Symbian phone with a Qualcomm chip in the U.S. market, an industry source close to Nokia has told VentureBeat. It’s just the latest in a wide front of attack the giant Finnish company is making… Continue Reading
Q&A with Cisco’s Laura Ipsen: Telepresence reduces carbon at Copenhagen
Laura Ipsen is senior vice president and general manager in charge of the Smart Grid for Cisco, and she’ll be speaking at our GreenBeat conference next month, where we’ll be discussing the most disruptive technologies bringing change to the old carbon-based grid system. Below is… Continue Reading
Augmented reality company Layar gets $1M boost, launches on Symbian
Layar, which has forged early leadership in the nascent but inspiring field of “augmented reality,” is about to finish raising a round of more than $1 million.
The Dutch company, which superimposes images and other data on top of a mobile phone browser, so that you… Continue Reading
Wikia, site for user-generated topic pages, sees “explosion of growth”
Wikia, a site that its founders liken to a Web version of a library — offering user-generated “books” of content about specific issues — is seeing explosive growth after some recent software changes.
Jimmy Wales, founder of the popular site Wikipedia, and later cofounder of Wikia,… Continue Reading
Will Shanghai become the Silicon Valley of “green revolution?”
First Silicon Valley venture capitalists, and now the Obama administration, are fretting that China might overtake the U.S. as the leader in green innovation.
And their fears are well-placed. A survey of Americans about their views on greenhouse gases, released yesterday, shows fewer Americans see evidence… Continue Reading
Massive funding to lift Smart Grid companies. Look for it next month
The federal government has earmarked $4 billion dollars for companies promising to build out a Smart Grid and improve power efficiency, but Silicon Valley’s startup community hasn’t seen much of that money yet.
That may change later this month and in November, when the Department of… Continue Reading
VentureBeat-DEMO meetup in London — see you at the Sanderson Hotel
VentureBeat is coming to London!
We’re hosting cocktails on Wednesday, Oct 28., at the groovy Sanderson Hotel in London’s Soho from 6 to 8pm. I’ll be in London to moderate at the Symbian mobile conference SEE next week, but wanted to take the opportunity to meet… Continue Reading
Stoke clings to dream of seamless WiFi-to-cellular roaming, raises $5M more
A few years ago, companies like Stoke and Bridgeport Networks emerged with a noble vision: Create a super phone network technology that lets you move seamlessly back and forth from your home WiFi connection to the cellular network outside. That way, you’d use the strongest… Continue Reading
GreenBeat spotlight: Picarro’s “sci-fi” box may prevent cap-and-trade fraud after Copenhagen
As the United States and world consider new policies and legislation to help stop climate change, verifying whether they actually work is going to be a big deal.
And it’s really encouraging to see a bunch of companies already trying to help. Picarro is one of… Continue Reading
Demo ‘10 begins in Boston — calling all awesome startups
It’s been a few weeks since Demo took San Diego by storm, and I posted a few days ago about a few of the cool things that happened to some of the demonstrating companies.
More on that in a sec. But here’s a reminder that we’re… Continue Reading
More GreenBeat all-star speakers: Andres Carvallo, Pamela Lesh, Benno Ritter, George Arnold, Frank Magnotti, Pilgrim Beart
We’re delighted to announce the latest speakers for our GreenBeat event on Nov. 18 and 19. The caliber of the speakers and program content is helping to make this the first, comprehensive conference on the Smart Grid.
We’re bringing in the industry heavy hitters, the most… Continue Reading
Droid, the phone that finally lets me cancel my iPhone — here’s why
A new phone called Droid is about to hit the market at the end of October, and it will likely have the glitz and power to bury the iPhone.
So I’m canceling my iPhone contract today. I’ll smugly wait out the rest of the month without… Continue Reading
Congrats to Web After Dark winners: Khush, iSyndica, Affective Interfaces and Happier.com
Congratulations to Khush, the startup that wins a spot to attend and showcase its technology at the Web 2.0 Summit Web After Dark party in San Francisco next week.
VentureBeat teamed up with venture capital firm Canaan Partners to select most promising Web 2.0-related company nominees… Continue Reading
Google maps fun places with Street View “trike”
With Google Maps, you can use a feature called “Street View” to take a virtual drive across town, or pretty much anywhere there are public streets.
But until now some of the funnest places haven’t been accessible by car, and so Google’s Street View car hasn’t… Continue Reading
Latest GreenBeat speakers: Adrian Tuck, Andy Tang, Andy White & Allan Schurr
I’m delighted to announce the latest speakers for our fast-approaching GreenBeat conference, the seminal event for leaders in the Smart Grid industry, on Nov. 18 and 19 in San Mateo, Calif.
It comes at a perfect time: It looks increasingly like more federal legislation is going… Continue Reading