—San Jose, CA-based social media monitoring ViralHeat moved to undercut competitors by releasing free, embeddable charts with real-time information about mentions of prominent people and brands on Twitter, Facebook, and the like.
—Cisco Systems in San Jose moved to acquire Extend Media, a venture-backed company in Boston that specializes in software and systems for Internet video delivery, as Greg reported.
—Cisco also invested $10 million in Mountain View, CA-based Atlantis Computing, which makes software for optimizing networks of virtual desktops.
—I wrote a column explaining why the central proposition of the cover story “The Web is Dead” in this month’s issue of Wired magazine is wrong, using the Fotopedia Heritage iPhone/iPad app, an offshoot of the Fotopedia website, as a case in point.
—Solazyme, the algae biofuel startup in South San Francisco, added another backer to its Series D venture funding round, previously reported at $52 million. The newcomer is Bunge Limited, Brazil’s largest processor of sugarcane.
—Google acquired San Mateo-based Like.com, purveyor of a “visual shopping” site powered by advanced computer vision software. Terms weren’t disclosed.
—A new San Francisco-based startup mentorship program called AngelPad, consisting of former Google employees, came partially out of stealth mode and announced a launch event on September 10.
—Nokia said it would acquire Motally, a San Francisco startup that makes software for monitoring usage of mobile applications.
—Alexza Pharmaceutical in Mountain View collected $5 million in licensing fees from San Diego’s Cypress Bioscience for electronic nicotine delivery technology, as Bruce reported. An additional $1 million milestone-based payment is in the offing.
—Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital contributed to a $15 million Series B financing round for Nimbula, a cloud computing startup in Menlo Park, CA.
