Black Duck Software founder Doug Levin and is out to create a new breed of social games that allow players to track events of their interest online, and react to them via interactions with other online players.
—Lycos, the Waltham, MA, company that offered some of the most trafficked online search engine and content products during the Internet boom, was bought by Indian digital marketing company Ybrant Digital for $36 million. Ybrant purchased Lycos from Korea-based Daum Communications, which says it reorganized and turned Lycos profitable in 2009 following its struggles that resulted from the dot-com crash.
—24M Technologies, the spinoff of Watertown-based lithium-ion battery maker A123Systems, attracted $10 million in Series A money from Charles River Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners. Cambridge-based 24M is developing energy storage systems that involve lithium-ion and flow battery technologies, and is collaborating with MIT and Rutgers University on a project that nabbed $6 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s advanced research arm, ARPA-E.
—Next Step Living, a Boston-based green tech company, said it raised $2.6 million in the first close of its Series B round of funding. The financing for Next Step, which audits and retrofits homes for greater energy efficiency, was led by John McQuillan, president and CEO of environmental consulting firm Triumvirate Environmental, and included funding from Black Coral Capital and the Clean Energy Venture Group.
—Shape Up The Nation, a Providence, RI-based health IT company, announced it had brought in $5 million in Series A funding. The startup uses social networking to help employees at self-insured companies achieve health and wellness goals. Shape Up The Nation’s management, as well as Cue Ball Capital and Excel Venture Management, participated in the financing.
—San Francisco-based Zynga, the company behind online social games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars, is moving into the Boston area with the acquisition of Cambridge startup Conduit Labs. The highly buzzed-about deal will transform Conduit, which makes music-based social games, into Zynga Boston. Financial terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed.
