This week saw news of two interesting acquisitions and a couple of huge venture financings, among other deals cut by New England tech and life sciences firms. — Burlington, MA-based Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:[[ticker:NUAN]]), after a series of unsuccessful offers begun last summer, has finally convinced the board of the Canadian firm Zi (NASDAQ:[[ticker:ZICA]]) to accept … Continue reading “Vertex Puts up $375M for ViroChem, Nuance Finally Nabs Zi, Proteon Procures $38M, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
Category: Boston
GlassHouse Nixes IPO
File this under “no surprise there”: GlassHouse Technologies, the Framingham, MA, IT consulting company that filed for a $100 million initial public offering in October 2007, has now pulled the offering, according to an SEC filing cited by Reuters. The firm cited “market conditions” in its decision. GlassHouse has continued to raise money and add … Continue reading “GlassHouse Nixes IPO”
Souped-Up Herceptin Aims to Validate ImmunoGen’s Long-Sought Dream Cancer Drug
Nowhere but America makes it possible for a company to pursue its dreams for 28 years without making a profit. Even in the most optimistic times, it’s hard to explain. So how can it possibly be, in the depths of recession, that things are looking up at Waltham, MA-based ImmunoGen? This company has been around … Continue reading “Souped-Up Herceptin Aims to Validate ImmunoGen’s Long-Sought Dream Cancer Drug”
Three New Reasons To Put Off Buying a Kindle
I titled my January 23 column “E-Book Readers on the iPhone: They’re Not Quite Kindle Slayers Yet.” How quickly technology marches ahead. In the weeks since then, three very compelling new options have arrived for people like me who want to read e-books but balk at the price tag on Amazon’s Kindle 2, the best … Continue reading “Three New Reasons To Put Off Buying a Kindle”
Funding for Your Start-up Life Sciences Company
Do you have a commercial idea, but you’re wondering how to get funding for your life sciences or medtech initiative? At this discussion sponsored by The Capital Network you can hear from panelists selected from a spectrum of entrepreneurs and investors with the experience to get it done. Speaker list and registration details on the … Continue reading “Funding for Your Start-up Life Sciences Company”
Paul Graham Angel Investing Conference—Live Streaming Now
I just learned that there is a very interesting angel investing conference, happening as I type this, in Silicon Valley. The confab, bringing together angels and entrepreneurs, was organized by Paul Graham, of Y Combinator. It is live streaming here on Justin.tv. A parade of speakers seems to be imparting some great advice on angel … Continue reading “Paul Graham Angel Investing Conference—Live Streaming Now”
The State of Energy Storage Innovations: Development and Investments in (trans) Portable Applications
New energy storage technologies, entrepreneurship and investing will be the focus of this MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge Innovation Series program. Includes networking reception. Speaker list, program, and registration details on the event web site.
The State of Video on the Internet
Video on the Internet is hot – especially with the success of YouTube and social networking technologies like Facebook. Some of Boston’s leading technologists and strategists discuss key issues facing their companies such as privacy, customer experience, and funding at this speaker series event. See the event listing for a speaker list and directions.
Proteon Fills Coffers with $38M Round, Inks Deal for Potential Sale to Novartis
Proteon Therapeutics says it has closed a $38 million Series B round of financing to fund development of its drug for kidney disease patients on chronic dialysis—and the Waltham, MA-based company has struck a separate deal that gives Swiss drug giant Novartis an option to buy the firm if the drug, the lead treatment in … Continue reading “Proteon Fills Coffers with $38M Round, Inks Deal for Potential Sale to Novartis”
Wanted: A Few Good Mobile Demos
Here at Xconomy, we love our iPhones and Blackberries and Windows Mobile smartphones, and we love the local companies that create cool software and services for them. In fact, we love them so much we’re organizing an April 7 conference on “The Future of Mobile Innovation in New England“—and we’re looking for companies who want … Continue reading “Wanted: A Few Good Mobile Demos”
Spark, Grandbanks Up SendMe Stake
Spark Capital of Boston and Grandbanks Capital of Newton Center, MA, are among the investors in a $12 million Series D round announced today by SendMe Mobile, a San Francisco startup that sells ringtones, games, wallpaper, and other content to mobile phone users. Triangle Peak Partners led the round, which also involved True Ventures and … Continue reading “Spark, Grandbanks Up SendMe Stake”
Conn. Agency Pumps $515K into Helix Therapeutics
Helix Therapeutics, a biotech startup developing treatments for infectious and genetic diseases, has reeled in a $515,000 investment from quasi-public investor Connecticut Innovations, according to Connecticut Innovations. The investment is part of a $965,000 round of financing that included Cambridge, MA-based investment firm LaunchCapital, individual backers, and a line of credit from Webster Bank. Helix … Continue reading “Conn. Agency Pumps $515K into Helix Therapeutics”
Epix Pharma Appoints Gamzu CEO
The board of Epix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:EPIX]]) has appointed Elkan Gamzu to be its CEO, after the 35-year life sciences industry veteran served as interim chief executive beginning last summer, according to the company. Gamzu, 66, took over the CEO role at Lexington, MA-based Epix vacated by former Epix CEO Michael Kauffman, who resigned in July … Continue reading “Epix Pharma Appoints Gamzu CEO”
Founded by Apple Vets, Apperian Gets Down to Business with the iPhone
The Apple iPhone is perhaps the most powerful mobile phone ever built, so it’s no surprise that big enterprises want to use it, both to make their mobile workforces more efficient and to help customers access their products and services in new ways. But Apple, for a variety of reasons, isn’t interested in catering directly … Continue reading “Founded by Apple Vets, Apperian Gets Down to Business with the iPhone”
Novophage Forming to Combat Antibiotic Resistance with Engineered Viruses
A group of biotech veterans and up-and-comers in the Boston area are forming a startup called Novophage to make engineered viruses that may help combat the growing problem of resistance to antibiotics. It’s early days for Novophage. The firm has no office or venture backers to speak of, but it has formed an impressive roster … Continue reading “Novophage Forming to Combat Antibiotic Resistance with Engineered Viruses”
How to Collect Baseball Cards: A Few Thoughts for Coping With the Downturn
I have approximately 7,000 baseball cards in my collection. These treasures are arranged in numerical order, in long and slender cardboard “card boxes,” with the typical box containing cards from a single year. The vast majority of my collection hails from the sixties. My heyday covered the years 1962 through 1965, when I collected every … Continue reading “How to Collect Baseball Cards: A Few Thoughts for Coping With the Downturn”
Proteon Therapeutics Inc. Secures $38,000,000 Series B Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=59912525-3ffa-4b5e-a87d-a1498c36cbe1&Preview=1 Date 3/5/2009 Company Name Proteon Therapeutics Inc. Mailing Address 200 West Street Waltham, MA 02451 Company Description Proteon Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing PRT-201, a novel human recombinant protein that permanently dilates segments of blood vessels, blocks vasospasm, and reduces the formation of vascular scarring. Website http://www.proteontherapeutics.com Transaction Type Venture … Continue reading “Proteon Therapeutics Inc. Secures $38,000,000 Series B Financing”
Helix Therapeutics Obtains $965,000 New Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=02d3d778-942e-42c8-9fc9-c7c4bb92b0da&Preview=1 Date 3/5/2009 Company Name Helix Therapeutics Mailing Address Undisclosed New Haven, CT 06520 Company Description The company is developing DNA therapeutics that will cause a paradigm shift in the way that common genetic diseases are treated…by permanently curing them. Website http://www.helixtherapeutics.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $965,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed … Continue reading “Helix Therapeutics Obtains $965,000 New Round”
Onset Banks $3M to Expand Offerings
Onset Technology, a Waltham, MA-based provider of compliance software for smartphones, says that it has landed $3 million in a financing led by the Cedar Fund of Waltham, Israel, and Grand Cayman. Onset plans to use the capital to further develop its software for scanning, archiving, and protecting data on BlackBerry smartphones as well as … Continue reading “Onset Banks $3M to Expand Offerings”
Verivue Launches Media Delivery System, Scores $40 Million B Round
These days, there’s no sense in producing video for just one platform, like cable TV. Media companies also want to get their content out to consumers via the Web, mobile phones, game consoles, video-on-demand networks, and other platforms. The problem is that all of these channels use different video formats, protocols, and resolutions, which makes … Continue reading “Verivue Launches Media Delivery System, Scores $40 Million B Round”
Acusphere Cuts 40 Jobs
Biotech firm Acusphere says that it plans to move out of its corporate headquarters in Watertown, MA, and cut 40 jobs or about two-thirds of its workforce to conserve cash as it pursues approval of its imaging agent perflubutane polymer microspheres (Imagify) for detecting coronary artery disease. The company plans to move all of its … Continue reading “Acusphere Cuts 40 Jobs”
Regulus Therapeutics Follows Through on Fundraising, Independence Plans
Regulus Therapeutics, the fledgling biotech firm developing microRNA-based drugs, wasn’t kidding when it told Xconomy earlier this year that it planned to gain a more independent corporate charter and raise a significant round of financing. The Carlsbad, CA-based startup says this morning that it has raised $20 million in a Series A round of financing; … Continue reading “Regulus Therapeutics Follows Through on Fundraising, Independence Plans”
Permabit: Storing Enterprise Data Unerasably, At Bargain Prices
If you ate on your best china every night, flew first class even on puddle jumpers, and habitually drove your Mercedes rather than your minivan to the grocery store, it would be a lot like what most big companies do with their data, according to Tom Cook. More and more of the information that e-commerce … Continue reading “Permabit: Storing Enterprise Data Unerasably, At Bargain Prices”
Synta Melanoma Drug Trial Halted, Drug Regulators Hand Genzyme Mixed Bag, Ariad and ImmunoGen Reach Milestones, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
It was a bit of a rollercoaster for New England’s biotech firms this last week, with Synta Pharmaceuticals taking the worst dip. —Clinical Data (NASDAQ:[[ticker:CLDA]]) of Newton, MA, has raised $50 million in a convertible debt financing aimed at supporting late-stage development of its depression drug, vilazodone, and its cardiac imaging agent apadenoson (Stedivaze). —There … Continue reading “Synta Melanoma Drug Trial Halted, Drug Regulators Hand Genzyme Mixed Bag, Ariad and ImmunoGen Reach Milestones, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
Advanced Cell Technology Inc. Receives $400,000 New Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=1aa489f3-203d-4294-a2ef-694ecacb95bb&Preview=1 Date 3/4/2009 Company Name Advanced Cell Technology Inc. Mailing Address 381 Plantation Street Biotech V Worcester, MA 01605 Company Description Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (OTCBB:ACTC – News) is applying stem cell technology in the field of regenerative medicine to bring effective, patient-specific therapies to the bedside. The company’s Myoblast program is … Continue reading “Advanced Cell Technology Inc. Receives $400,000 New Financing”
Fanzter Inc. Lands $2,000,000 New Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=50986ad0-7633-4b2b-a43d-6f8fc3c26ea8&Preview=1 Date 3/4/2009 Company Name Fanzter Inc. Mailing Address 75 Crown Street, 2nd Floor Collinsville, CT 06022 Company Description The company is developing a website that brings together product recommendations and pop culture. Website http://www.fanzter.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $2,000,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. … Continue reading “Fanzter Inc. Lands $2,000,000 New Funding”
VeriVue Inc. Receives $65,000,000 New Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=78011d77-798d-44b0-945e-84eea2369b76&Preview=1 Date 3/4/2009 Company Name VeriVue Inc. Mailing Address 3 Carlisle Road Westford, MA 01886 Company Description The company is developing video telecommunications technologies. Website http://www.verivue.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $65,000,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. M&A Terms Venture Investor Undisclosed
Vertex Acquires Virochem for $375M to Make Cocktail Treatments For Hepatitis C
Vertex Pharmaceuticals sees combination treatments as the future of hepatitis C treatment, just as is the case with HIV already, and today it made a big move to beef up that cocktail approach. The Cambridge, MA-based biotech company said it has agreed to acquire Laval, Quebec-based ViroChem Pharma, a privately held company, for an estimated … Continue reading “Vertex Acquires Virochem for $375M to Make Cocktail Treatments For Hepatitis C”
Akamai Mum on Presidential Video Plans
Rather than sending President Obama’s weekly Web video address to YouTube for hosting, as it has in past weeks, the White House published last Saturday’s video on its own website, Whitehouse.gov, which is hosted by Akamai. But an Akamai official says the company can’t comment on whether the widely discussed decision signals a permanent turn … Continue reading “Akamai Mum on Presidential Video Plans”
Highland Program Offers No-Strings Stipends to Student Entrepreneurs
With the departure of Paul Graham’s Y Combinator startup school, Boston-area entrepreneurs have one less local source for seed funding and mentorship. With the advent of a Boston clone of Boulder, CO-based TechStars, they have one more—so things have evened out. But Highland Capital Partners‘ “Summer@Highland” program has been a constant in the area throughout … Continue reading “Highland Program Offers No-Strings Stipends to Student Entrepreneurs”
ImmunoGen Gets $6.5M Milestone Fee
ImmunoGen, a Waltham, MA-based developer of cancer treatments, says that it expects to collect a $6.5 million milestone from its partner, South San Francisco-based biotech giant Genentech, due to the start of dosing patients in a late-stage clinical trial for breast cancer drug T-DM1. The drug includes ImmunoGen’s cancer cell-killing agent linked to Genentech’s antibody … Continue reading “ImmunoGen Gets $6.5M Milestone Fee”
MIT Student, Startup Founder, Wins Prize
The new winner of the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize is Geoffrey von Maltzahn, an MIT graduate student of biomedical engineering. He has developed, among other inventions, particles made of gold nano-rods coated with polymers that are designed to gather inside tumors cells, according to a press release. Under near infrared light, the nano-rods heat up … Continue reading “MIT Student, Startup Founder, Wins Prize”
The Greatest Internet Pioneers You Never Heard Of: The Story of Erwise and Four Finns Who Showed the Way to the Web Browser
Three quiet and unknown Finnish engineers in their late thirties, Kim Nyberg, Kari Sydänmaanlakka, and Teemu Rantanen, have spent their working careers at the engineering software company Tekla in Finland. Their clients have used the software they created to model several well-known buildings, including Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, New York’s … Continue reading “The Greatest Internet Pioneers You Never Heard Of: The Story of Erwise and Four Finns Who Showed the Way to the Web Browser”
Digital Reef’s Similarity-Based Search Helps Corporate Data “Speak For Itself”
Sometimes (just sometimes) it pays to look behind the jargon in press releases. One glance at yesterday’s coming-out-of-stealth-mode announcement from Boxborough, MA-based Digital Reef, which starts off talking about “massively scalable unstructured data management platforms” and “capabilities [that] improve eDiscovery outcomes,” was enough to make even a nerd like me want to tune out. But … Continue reading “Digital Reef’s Similarity-Based Search Helps Corporate Data “Speak For Itself””
Genzyme Fails to Win FDA Approval for Large-Scale Production of Pompe Drug
Genzyme got some bad news today from the FDA. The Cambridge, MA-based biotech company said that U.S. regulators determined its drug for Pompe disease made in large-scale vats isn’t ready to be approved for the market. Plus, the FDA sent the company an additional warning letter after its inspectors spotted “deficiencies” at the company’s Allston … Continue reading “Genzyme Fails to Win FDA Approval for Large-Scale Production of Pompe Drug”
VCentrix Scooped Up by Momentum
Bedford, MA-based vCentrix, which hosts voice-over-Internet services for businesses, is becoming part of Momentum, a provider of white-label digital voice services based in Birmingham, AL, according to an announcement from Momentum today. “In such a fragmented market, both companies feel that hosted voice applications are entering a period of consolidation, and Momentum is well-equipped to … Continue reading “VCentrix Scooped Up by Momentum”
Ariad Gets $10M From Merck
Cambridge, MA-based Ariad Pharmaceuticals said today that it expects to receive a $10 million milestone payment from its partner, Merck, in connection with the start of a mid-stage clinical trial of Ariad’s experimental drug for lung cancer. The company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ARIA]]) used up $48 million of its cash reserves during 2008, and ended the year … Continue reading “Ariad Gets $10M From Merck”
Oasys Water Aims to Make Desalination Cheap Enough to Crack Mainstream Market, Relieve Shortages
We hear a lot about the bioengineered enzymes, switch grass, and multiple feedstocks needed to provide the massive amounts of raw material for the clean energy era. Another key ingredient is water—and lots of it. So after launching clean energy firms in recent years, entrepreneur Aaron Mandell started Cambridge, MA-based Oasys Water last year. Oasys, … Continue reading “Oasys Water Aims to Make Desalination Cheap Enough to Crack Mainstream Market, Relieve Shortages”
Harnessing the Crowd to Make Better Drugs: Merck’s Friend Nails Down $5M to Propel New Open Source Era
Biology has never really had a social-networking movement like open-source computing, where thousands of loosely-affiliated people around the world pool brainpower to make better software. If Merck’s Stephen Friend gets his way, about five years from now, he will have ushered in a new era in which biologists work together to make drugs that are … Continue reading “Harnessing the Crowd to Make Better Drugs: Merck’s Friend Nails Down $5M to Propel New Open Source Era”
The Summer Internship Shuffle
If you are a student enrolled in a MBA program these days, phrases like “Boy, your timing in going back to school has been perfect!” and/or “This is the best time to be a <fill in your standard business school career choices>” are serenaded quite often in your direction. Typical reactions to this would range … Continue reading “The Summer Internship Shuffle”
New Business Association Looks to the Future of Kendall Square, “The Product Cambridge Offers to the World”
Companies, merchants, and residents in the Kendall Square neighborhood of Cambridge banded together last week to form the Kendall Square Association, a non-profit group whose mission, according to its new president Tim Rowe, is to “improve, protect, and promote” the technology-saturated neighborhood. After several months of informal discussions, representatives from dozens of area organizations, including … Continue reading “New Business Association Looks to the Future of Kendall Square, “The Product Cambridge Offers to the World””
Is E Ink Working on Hearst’s New E-Reader?
According to a report today in Fortune, publishing giant Hearst Corp., owner of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the San Francisco Chronicle, and many other prominent newspapers and magazines, is developing an e-reading device similar to the Amazon Kindle 2 and the Sony PRS-700. Kenneth Bronfin, head of Hearst’s interactive media group, wouldn’t give Fortune details about … Continue reading “Is E Ink Working on Hearst’s New E-Reader?”
Nuance Ending Pursuit of Zi with $35M Deal
Burlington, MA-based Nuance Communications is wrapping up its long and sometimes contentious crusade to acquire Zi, a Canadian competitor in the market for text messaging software, which has agreed to Nuance’s $35 million buyout offer. The deal, announced today, provides shareholders of Calgary-based Zi (NASDAQ:[[ticker:ZICA]]) with 34 cents in cash and 0.4 shares of Nuance … Continue reading “Nuance Ending Pursuit of Zi with $35M Deal”
Ariad Arranges for Another $24.3M, Dismal Economy Doesn’t Stop Aveksa and Apparent Networks, Selecta Biosciences Chooses to Reveal Itself, & More Boston-Area Deals News
It was a mixed week for New England’s tech and life sciences firms, with several sizeable venture deals closed and a few less happy transactions as well. —Ariad Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:ARIA]]) cut a $24.3 million deal with new and existing institutional investors, who bought 14.37 million shares of the Cambridge, MA-based firm’s common stock. Ariad’s lead … Continue reading “Ariad Arranges for Another $24.3M, Dismal Economy Doesn’t Stop Aveksa and Apparent Networks, Selecta Biosciences Chooses to Reveal Itself, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
Massachusetts Technology Industry Needs a New Deal, Not a New Brand
If Silicon Valley didn’t exist, Boston would have to invent it in order to have someplace to feel inferior to. That’s the thought that occurred to me when I read an article in the Boston Globe last week about the Information Technology Collaborative. This new posse of industry, government, and academic leaders met in Cambridge … Continue reading “Massachusetts Technology Industry Needs a New Deal, Not a New Brand”
Here’s An Idea to Stimulate Massachusetts Innovation: Focus on Substance, Not Image
Unless you’ve been on an innovation vacation in recent months, it’s been hard to miss all the talk here in Massachusetts about finding a new “brand” for the state’s IT community—you know, as a way to compete with those who’ve gone to (or were already on) the Dark Side, aka Silicon Valley. I’ve got lots … Continue reading “Here’s An Idea to Stimulate Massachusetts Innovation: Focus on Substance, Not Image”
Innovation Index: Bay State Leads on Some R&D Scores, But Fed Grants Decline
Massachusetts bested many of its rival states in research and development funding and maintaining a healthy supply of college graduates, but the Bay State is falling behind in several key areas of its innovation economy, according to a new index released today by the quasi-public nonprofit Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC). The annual report, dubbed the … Continue reading “Innovation Index: Bay State Leads on Some R&D Scores, But Fed Grants Decline”
Environmental Operating Solutions Garners $5,850,000 New Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=9b6270f5-f836-44d9-a334-794b88dc6746&Preview=1 Date 2/27/2009 Company Name Environmental Operating Solutions Mailing Address 4A Colonel Drive Bourne, MA 02532 Company Description Environmental Operating Solutions, Inc. (EOS) creates agriculturally-derived products to remove the pollutant nitrogen from wastewater. Our proprietary MicroC™ technology was designed to safely and cost effectively reduce nitrogen by converting it to water and … Continue reading “Environmental Operating Solutions Garners $5,850,000 New Funding”
Synta Melanoma Drug Fails Disastrously in Clinical Trial, As Patients Show Higher Death Rate
Synta Pharmaceuticals reported some disastrous news this afternoon. The Lexington, MA-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SNTA]]) said it has halted a clinical trial involving more than 630 cancer patients because a greater number of people died after taking the company’s experimental drug along with traditional chemotherapy, compared with those who got the chemo alone. The trial, … Continue reading “Synta Melanoma Drug Fails Disastrously in Clinical Trial, As Patients Show Higher Death Rate”
BIO Boss Plays Defense as Member Companies Struggle to Survive, Political Heat Cranks Up
Lobbying for the biotech industry in Washington DC doesn’t sound like fun now. The industry is being left for dead by Wall Street, the IPO market has closed down, and about half of the 370 public companies are reporting they have run down to less than a year’s worth of cash on hand. Many of … Continue reading “BIO Boss Plays Defense as Member Companies Struggle to Survive, Political Heat Cranks Up”