Category: Boston

Proteostasis Eyes Technique to Keep Your Proteins in Balance

One of those foggy concepts from eighth-grade biology came back to me the other day when I spoke with David Pendergast. It’s homeostasis, the idea that the human body naturally makes constant adjustments on the fly to maintain a proper balance of things like body temperature, water, or salt in your system. Pendergast, the CEO … Continue reading “Proteostasis Eyes Technique to Keep Your Proteins in Balance”

IRobot Nabs Nekton Research, Carbonite Comes Up with $20M, Parametric Ponders $2 Billion, & More Deals News

It was a light week for dealmaking among New England tech and life sciences firms, but if Parametric finds a buyer that one could be a doozy. —Bedford, MA-based iRobot (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IRBT]]) inked an agreement to acquire Raleigh-Durham, NC-based Nekton Research—a maker of unmanned underwater robots—for $10 million up front and a potential $5 million … Continue reading “IRobot Nabs Nekton Research, Carbonite Comes Up with $20M, Parametric Ponders $2 Billion, & More Deals News”

Verdasys Says it Has A Better Way to Protect Web Transactions Against Malware

It may sound strange, but there’s a computer security company just outside Boston where the engineers have declared that the conventional battle against viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other forms of computer malware is already lost. Norton, McAfee, and other anti-virus companies may still make millions selling consumers software that promises to keep computers malware-free. … Continue reading “Verdasys Says it Has A Better Way to Protect Web Transactions Against Malware”

Gaterocket, Inc. Garners $3,000,000 Series A Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=a0f722e9-4e45-43e8-934e-388cbb99c4c9&Preview=1 Date 9/15/2008 Company Name Gaterocket, Inc. Mailing Address 19 Crosby Drive Bedford, MA 01730 Company Description GateRocket offers the industry’s first Device Native™ verification solution for Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). This product can cut in half the time it takes to develop the electronic products that enrich our lives every … Continue reading “Gaterocket, Inc. Garners $3,000,000 Series A Round”

Ambient Devices Receives New Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=c12d9dbc-1ae8-4103-ac66-4f2f7c3531a4&Preview=1 Date 9/15/2008 Company Name Ambient Devices Mailing Address One Broadway 14th Fl Cambridge, ME 02142 Company Description The company’s wireless technologies enable instant, effortless access to dynamic information, such as weather forecasts, stock market reports, sports scores, and much more — with little or no user configuration. Website http://www.ambientdevices.com Transaction Type … Continue reading “Ambient Devices Receives New Funding”

Soft Tissue Regeneration LLC Receives $3,500,000 Series A Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=eeb0a856-6f99-4770-b0d0-52e75d4acec6&Preview=1 Date 9/15/2008 Company Name Soft Tissue Regeneration LLC Mailing Address 977 Seminole Trail Charlottesville, VT 22901 Company Description Soft Tissue Regeneration, LLC (“STR”) has developed and preliminarily tested a potential breakthrough technology for soft tissue regeneration of the anterior cruciate ligament (“ACL”) of the knee. Website http://www.softtissueregeneration.com Transaction Type Venture Equity … Continue reading “Soft Tissue Regeneration LLC Receives $3,500,000 Series A Funding”

Xconomy Rockin’ Tonight in Harvard Square

When we hired Greg Huang as our Seattle editor a few months ago, Rebecca wrote an article entitled, Introducing Greg. He Rocks. That’s because right after we hired him, he went on tour with what we described as his “fantastically quirky band,” Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives. The band, which claims influences by the … Continue reading “Xconomy Rockin’ Tonight in Harvard Square”

Big Fish Lands $83.3 Million Investment Round

No sooner had Greg published his 45-company-long list of members of the Greater Seattle gaming cluster, than one of those companies—Big Fish Games—jumped out of the pool to grab the spotlight in a big (think $83.3 million) way. That was the whopping amount of new funding the Seattle company, founded in 2002 by Paul Thelen, … Continue reading “Big Fish Lands $83.3 Million Investment Round”

Givvy Launches Online Tools for Getting Organized About Your Charitable Giving

Back in February I tried a million different ways to get Givvy founder John Treadway to tell me exactly what is was his months-old startup was building. The best I could get out of him at the time was something about online tools that give individual donors “more control and more empowerment over why, when, … Continue reading “Givvy Launches Online Tools for Getting Organized About Your Charitable Giving”

Novartis To Beef Up Vaccine Research in Cambridge

Novartis is doubling down on vaccine research. The Basel, Switzerland-based drug giant is announcing today that it is opening a new facility and hiring an additional 150 people by the end of 2009 for a Research Center of Excellence in Virology in Cambridge, MA. That will boost the company’s employment in Cambridge to more than … Continue reading “Novartis To Beef Up Vaccine Research in Cambridge”

ZvBox’s Unhappy Marriage of PC and HDTV

I really wish that I could write a positive review of the ZvBox—the appliance from Littleton, MA-based ZeeVee that taps into your house’s TV cables, allowing you to watch videos playing on your Windows PC from any high-definition TV in your house. When I first profiled ZeeVee back in May, I had high hopes for … Continue reading “ZvBox’s Unhappy Marriage of PC and HDTV”

Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Sets Up Stem Cell Registry With $570,000 Grant

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center said today it has provided a $570,000 grant to establish an international stem cell registry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The registry will be an online resource for academic researchers, companies, and members of the public looking for information on stem cell research. The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center … Continue reading “Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Sets Up Stem Cell Registry With $570,000 Grant”

Wiggio Offers Free Groupware for Harried College Students

When I was in college in the late 1980s, the apex of communications technology was the answering machine. Nobody had a mobile phone. Nobody even had an e-mail account, aside from a few computer-science majors. (And since there was no data connectivity in the dorms, even the geeks had to go to the computer room … Continue reading “Wiggio Offers Free Groupware for Harried College Students”

Living Proof’s Frizz-Busting Technology Unveiled, Sort Of

When I wrote last month that MIT professor Robert Langer and Polaris Venture Partners had teamed with veterans of the beauty industry, the burning question on my mind was: What would their product be? Well, I’ve just learned the answer (most of it, anyway). Living Proof, the Cambridge, MA, startup formed to apply innovations in … Continue reading “Living Proof’s Frizz-Busting Technology Unveiled, Sort Of”

How IRobot Took the Plunge into Underwater Vehicles

Every company chairman likes to grow her business—and one common way to do that is by finding new revenue streams. It’s just that for most companies, that stream doesn’t turn out to be the ocean. IRobot isn’t most companies. On Monday, the Bedford, MA-based maker of land-based military and consumer robotics dived deeper into the … Continue reading “How IRobot Took the Plunge into Underwater Vehicles”

Why Startups Should Quit Silicon Valley

I couldn’t help but notice that Yankee Group founder and Xconomist Howard Anderson, in a blatant act of disloyalty (just kidding, Howard), has blogged today for GigaOm, penning a post entitled: “5 Reasons to Move Your Startup Out of Silicon Valley.” The post is vintage Anderson, quippy and pointed—just the way he teaches at MIT’s … Continue reading “Why Startups Should Quit Silicon Valley”

Echo Nest Launches Musical Brain, Raises Capital

Somerville, MA-based Echo Nest, a startup focused on Web-based software for music search, personalization, and interactivity, made its public debut Monday at the Demo Fall 08 conference in San Diego. The company’s “Musical Brain” software, developed by MIT Media Lab graduates and company co-founders Brian Whitman and Tristan Jehan, automatically “listens” to and classifies digitally-stored … Continue reading “Echo Nest Launches Musical Brain, Raises Capital”

EmergInvest Emerges, UpDown Raises More Dough, Geezeo Grows—Is Boston a New Hub for Finance and Investing Sites?

Here at Xconomy, there are a lot of mornings when we have to decide whether to publish a bunch of brief stories, or lump the related ones together into what we call “roundups” or trend stories. Today was a pretty clear roundup/trend day, as news piled up from several Boston-area websites that help customers manage … Continue reading “EmergInvest Emerges, UpDown Raises More Dough, Geezeo Grows—Is Boston a New Hub for Finance and Investing Sites?”

New(ish) on Xconomy: More Venture and M&A Deals Than You Can Shake a Stick At, Thanks to Our Friends at VentureDeal

Habitual visitors to our Boston and Seattle homepages might have noticed something new about a month ago—a pretty blue box perched right on top of the event-listings box and packed full of headlines about venture financings and M&A deals. Click a headline, and you get a tidy little summary of the transaction, complete with information … Continue reading “New(ish) on Xconomy: More Venture and M&A Deals Than You Can Shake a Stick At, Thanks to Our Friends at VentureDeal”

X-Prize Goes Energy—With “Crazy Green Idea” Prize to Debut at MIT Today

A prize for a prize. That’s essentially the reason a trio of heavyweights—Ray Kurzweil, Xconomist George Church, and Saul Griffith—will be on hand at MIT this afternoon, as they help announce a $25,000 prize for whomever comes up with the best idea for a $10 million energy and environment prize to be awarded by the … Continue reading “X-Prize Goes Energy—With “Crazy Green Idea” Prize to Debut at MIT Today”

ACT to Vacate Facilities in Boston and California

Advanced Cell Technology (OTB:[[ticker:ACTC]]), a developer of stem cell treatments, says it has not renewed its lease on a facility in Alameda, CA, and has vacated labs in Boston as part of a plan to cut annual operating expenses by $5 million to $6 million. The company maintains operations in Worcester, MA, and in Los … Continue reading “ACT to Vacate Facilities in Boston and California”

The Infinite Canvas: An Interview with Scott McCloud, the Google Chrome Comic Guy

Over the last week, I’ve had several people tell me that the most interesting thing about Google Chrome isn’t the browser itself, but the way Google chose to present it to the world: via a comic book. Indeed, for at least a day or two, Scott McCloud’s Google Chrome comic—which was accidentally leaked to journalists … Continue reading “The Infinite Canvas: An Interview with Scott McCloud, the Google Chrome Comic Guy”

Millennium CEO Dunsire Juggles Growing Pipeline, Works to Maintain Nimble Culture—as New Owner Takeda Makes the Company its Center for Cancer Drug Development

Four months have passed since Cambridge, MA-based Millennium Pharmaceuticals was taken over by Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical for $8.8 billion. Now that some of the dust has settled, we checked with CEO Deborah Dunsire to see just how much has changed at one of Cambridge’s leading biotech companies. Quite a bit, although it’s not the usual … Continue reading “Millennium CEO Dunsire Juggles Growing Pipeline, Works to Maintain Nimble Culture—as New Owner Takeda Makes the Company its Center for Cancer Drug Development”

Alnylam Adds Another RNA Approach, Vertex Tackles Hardest Hep C Cases, Zafgen Places Big Bet on Fat Shrinkers, & More Life Sciences News

New England life sciences firms have been making some fascinating strategic moves recently, and a lot of our coverage this last week was focused on understanding these new strategies. —Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALNY]]) made its name with technology for turning genes off with a technique called RNAi, but now the company is also working on … Continue reading “Alnylam Adds Another RNA Approach, Vertex Tackles Hardest Hep C Cases, Zafgen Places Big Bet on Fat Shrinkers, & More Life Sciences News”

Parametric Seeks a Buyer

Needham, MA-based Parametric Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:PMTC]]), which makes software for computer-aided design and product lifecycle management, has hired Goldman Sachs to recruit potential buyers willing to consider a price tag in the neighborhood of $2 billion, according to a report this week in the Financial Times of London. The report said Goldman Sachs has sent … Continue reading “Parametric Seeks a Buyer”

New York Times Looks Under VMware’s Hood

If EMC CEO Joe Tucci’s dismissal this summer of VMware founder Diane Greene was intended to shore up investor confidence in the Hopkinton, MA, company’s once high-flying virtualization subsidiary, it backfired: VMware’s stock has been trading this week at roughly $35 per share, down about 33 percent from its price before Greene’s firing was announced … Continue reading “New York Times Looks Under VMware’s Hood”

If You Want a Faster Internet Connection, Move to Delaware, Akamai Report Says

The global network of 34,000 content distribution servers built by Cambridge, MA-based Akamai allows the company to gather massive amounts of data on Internet usage—information that it distilled and published for the first time back in May. Now the company has published its second quarterly “State of the Internet” report, detailing trends such as the … Continue reading “If You Want a Faster Internet Connection, Move to Delaware, Akamai Report Says”

Ignite Boston 4

O’Reilly Media sponsors its fourth Boston-area event featuring a dozen or more “lighting talks” by local technology entrepreneurs and personalities. This time, the keynote speaker is none other than Tim O’Reilly, who’s joined by Rails developer Dan Chak. More information here; RSVP to [email protected].

Battery Ventures Promotes Battery of Investors

It’s a good day to be an investor at Battery Ventures. The Waltham, MA-based VC and private equity firm announced today four promotions on its investment team. The four are part of Battery’s global team of more than 40 investors in Waltham, Silicon Valley, and Israel. —Jesse Feldman, based in Waltham, has been promoted to … Continue reading “Battery Ventures Promotes Battery of Investors”

Zafgen, Developer of Fat-Shrinking Drugs, Hires Novartis Scientist as New CEO and Emerges From Stealth Mode

Zafgen is creating drugs to shrink fat. Today, the Cambridge, MA-based biotech company took an early step toward its goal by hiring its first permanent CEO, Tom Hughes, the former vice president and global head of cardiovascular and metabolism research at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Cambridge. Hughes, 49, says he was drawn … Continue reading “Zafgen, Developer of Fat-Shrinking Drugs, Hires Novartis Scientist as New CEO and Emerges From Stealth Mode”

Vertex Fending Off Competitors By Treating the Toughest Patients With Hepatitis C

Vertex Pharmaceuticals is being chased by a couple of deep-pocketed competitors—Schering-Plough and Roche—in the race to develop the next big thing for patients with the hepatitis C virus. Now Vertex, the Cambridge, MA-based biotech company, thinks it has found a way to fend off the challengers. It intends to show its drug—telaprevir—can cure patients who … Continue reading “Vertex Fending Off Competitors By Treating the Toughest Patients With Hepatitis C”

Carbonite Inc. Secures $20,000,000 Series C Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=3b8fd7f2-11a9-426b-a3af-504220a78c52&Preview=1 Date 9/9/2008 Company Name Carbonite Inc. Mailing Address 334 Boylston St – 3rd floor Boston, MA 02116 Company Description Carbonite sells secure Internet-based backup for personal computer and laptop owners. Website http://www.carbonite.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $20,000,000 Transaction Round Series C Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. M&A … Continue reading “Carbonite Inc. Secures $20,000,000 Series C Funding Round”

Hangout Lets It All Hang Out, Wants to Become a 3-D, Interactive MySpace

A Boston startup transposing MySpace-style teen social networking into a 3-D virtual environment is one of the companies making its public debut at this week’s TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco. Executives from Hangout Industries, which has raised $6 million in venture funding from Polaris Ventures and Highland Capital Partners, went onstage at the conference today … Continue reading “Hangout Lets It All Hang Out, Wants to Become a 3-D, Interactive MySpace”

Daily TIPs: Sunlight for Everyone, Happy Birthday Google, Facebook for Spies, & More

Solar Power Provides Enough Energy for Everything, Expert Argues Solar power has the potential to provide for all the world’s energy needs, the research director of a Paris-based institute told a European energy conference, according to Agence France Presse. Daniel Lincot, research director for the Institute for Research and Development of Photovoltaic Energy, says solar … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Sunlight for Everyone, Happy Birthday Google, Facebook for Spies, & More”

Carbonite Puts Its Online Backup Software on Lenovo Computers, Raises $20 Million

Automatic Internet-based backup services—the first form of “cloud computing” to hit the mainstream market—have been making news lately. Last Wednesday, the Mozy division of Hopkinton, MA-based EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]) announced that its software will power an online backup service available to buyers of Thinkpad SL notebook computers, the newest line of business laptops from Lenovo. … Continue reading “Carbonite Puts Its Online Backup Software on Lenovo Computers, Raises $20 Million”

IRobot Dives Deeper into “Next Frontier” of Underwater Robotics with $10M Acquisition of NC Firm

Calling the undersea market “the next frontier” for robotics, iRobot announced today that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire unmanned underwater robot and technology company Nekton Research of Raleigh-Durham, NC. IRobot said that it will pay $10 million up front for Nekton, with the potential to pay an additional $5 million if certain … Continue reading “IRobot Dives Deeper into “Next Frontier” of Underwater Robotics with $10M Acquisition of NC Firm”

British Biotech Antisoma Sees Buyout of Xanthus as Beginning of U.S. Commercial Hub in Cambridge, MA

Glyn Edwards, CEO of British biotech firm Antisoma, has found just the tonic for both the particularly gloomy weather in London this year and the business risk his company once faced with only one experimental drug close to market approval: Cambridge, MA, drug developer Xanthus Pharmaceuticals. Xanthus, which Antisoma (LON:[[ticker:ASM]]) acquired in May for $52.2 … Continue reading “British Biotech Antisoma Sees Buyout of Xanthus as Beginning of U.S. Commercial Hub in Cambridge, MA”

Rod Brooks Follows His Heart(land), Amazon Helps Out OLPC, the Broad Gets $400M, GT Solar Shines Over Big Contract, & More Deals News

Summer’s over, school’s back in session, and the deals were jumping in just about every sector as September got underway. —IRobot announced co-founder Rod Brooks was stepping down as the company’s CTO (but remaining on the board of directors) to devote full time to his new company, Heartland Robotics. Cambridge, MA-based Heartland will focus on … Continue reading “Rod Brooks Follows His Heart(land), Amazon Helps Out OLPC, the Broad Gets $400M, GT Solar Shines Over Big Contract, & More Deals News”

Innovative Spinal Technologies Secures $18,000,000 Series C Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=50049072-9cec-4c95-9aff-425e7bb84fcc&Preview=1 Date 9/8/2008 Company Name Innovative Spinal Technologies Mailing Address 111 Forbes Blvd. Mansfield, MA 02048 Company Description Innovative Spinal Technologies is a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of the most innovative suite of products in Minimally Invasive Spine surgery worldwide. Website http://www.istspine.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $18,000,000 Transaction Round … Continue reading “Innovative Spinal Technologies Secures $18,000,000 Series C Financing”

UpDown.com Obtains $1,000,000 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=f307d608-28a7-4508-a410-e553e89b9dd5&Preview=1 Date 9/8/2008 Company Name UpDown.com Mailing Address Undisclosed Cambridge, MA 02140 Company Description In addition to giving members $1,000,000 in virtual money to invest, UpDown.com provides a platform for investors to improve their skills through collaboration, competition and aggregated wisdom. Described by major media outlets as “fantasy football meets the trading … Continue reading “UpDown.com Obtains $1,000,000 New Funding Round”

Simon and the Google Chrome Logo: Separated at Birth?

Has anyone else noticed the resemblance between Google’s logo for its new Web browser, Chrome, and the electronic game Simon, launched by Milton Bradley in 1978? Scroll down for a side-by-side comparison. Simon and its cousin Merlin were two of my favorite toys as a kid. Knowing how Googlers also love their games, I’m betting … Continue reading “Simon and the Google Chrome Logo: Separated at Birth?”

Biogen Idec, Elan Start First Cancer Trial With Tysabri

Cambridge, MA-based Biogen Idec and its Irish partner, Elan, said today they have started the first clinical trial of Tysabri as a cancer treatment. Tysabri, approved for multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease, is being studied initially in a trial of 12 patients with multiple myeloma, a deadly cancer of the bone marrow. The drug works … Continue reading “Biogen Idec, Elan Start First Cancer Trial With Tysabri”

Phase Forward Buys Clarix

Phase Forward (NASDAQ: [[ticker:PFWD]]), a Waltham, MA-based company whose software is used by large pharmaceutical companies and research institutions to manage the huge amounts of data generated by clinical drug trials, said today that it has acquired Clarix of Radnor, PA, for $40 million in cash. Clarix makes hybrid phone- and Web-based interactive voice response … Continue reading “Phase Forward Buys Clarix”

Amazon to Manage XO Laptop Giveaway Program

The “Give One, Get One” program introduced last holiday season by the Cambridge, MA-based One Laptop Per Child Foundation—which gave consumers in the United States and Canada the opportunity to buy two of the foundation’s XO laptops for $400, and have one sent to a child in a developing nation—was a success in several respects. … Continue reading “Amazon to Manage XO Laptop Giveaway Program”

What Web Journalists Can Learn from Comics

While the tech-blog world is exhausting itself testing and writing about Google Chrome, the new open-source Web browser released by the search giant on Tuesday, I’m still just having fun paging back and forth through the 38-page Scott McCloud Web comic that Google commissioned to explain the whole project. A lot of Silicon Valley companies, … Continue reading “What Web Journalists Can Learn from Comics”

Alnylam Sees Opportunity in Turning Genes On, And Off

A lot has been written about how Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, and plenty of other companies, see a gold mine in turning off problem genes through drugs based on the biological phenomenon called RNA interference, or RNAi. It turns out that Alnylam (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALNY]]), the highflying Cambridge, MA-based biotech company built around RNAi, sees another big opportunity … Continue reading “Alnylam Sees Opportunity in Turning Genes On, And Off”

Broad Institute Will Sever Administrative—Not Research—Ties with MIT and Harvard, Becoming “Stand-Alone” Organization

When we reported yesterday that the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard was set to receive a whopping endowment of $400 million from Los Angeles-based billionaire philanthropists Edythe and Eli Broad, we noted that it was rumored that the institute—originally structured as an administrative unit of MIT—was also set to become independent of both MIT … Continue reading “Broad Institute Will Sever Administrative—Not Research—Ties with MIT and Harvard, Becoming “Stand-Alone” Organization”