Category: Boston

LiveWire Mobile, Inc. Acquires Groove Mobile for $14,500,000

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=34901ed7-b5b5-47d7-8e58-9c3089f647e0&Preview=1 Date 3/18/2008 Company Name Groove Mobile Mailing Address 24 Crosby Drive Bedford, MA 01730 Company Description Groove Mobile is the world’s leading mobile music service. Groove Mobile’s Complete Music Gateway includes Full Track Mobile Downloads, Peer-to-Peer Sharing and Personalized Music Recommendations, in addition to providing Personalized and Programmed Streaming Radio, Music … Continue reading “LiveWire Mobile, Inc. Acquires Groove Mobile for $14,500,000”

DiMasi Proposes $50 Million Program to Jumpstart Clean Energy Startups in Massachusetts; Renewable Energy Fund Would Be Slashed

On Tuesday, Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi will announce a proposal for a five-year, $50 million spending program designed to boost the state’s clean energy sector, mainly by providing seed grants for early-stage technologies, retraining experienced entrepreneurs from other industries to navigate the energy business, and overhauling vocational-ed programs. Investors and executives are greeting the … Continue reading “DiMasi Proposes $50 Million Program to Jumpstart Clean Energy Startups in Massachusetts; Renewable Energy Fund Would Be Slashed”

Axcelis Again Spurns Sumitomo

The board of Axcelis Technologies, the Beverly, MA-based maker of specialized semiconductor manufacturing equipment, continued evasive maneuvers today in its struggle to avoid a takeover by Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo Heavy Industries. The board unanimously rejected Sumitomo’s increased bid of $6.00 per share—up from $5.20 per share in its original, unsolicited bid in early February—as insufficient. … Continue reading “Axcelis Again Spurns Sumitomo”

Luminus Devices Aglow With $72 Million in New Financing

When these guys say they’re looking to expand they ain’t kidding. Luminus Devices of Billerica, MA, said a few months ago that it was working to build its LED business beyond TV and display applications and into the general illumination market; a deal with Arizona’s Avnet Electronics Marketing, inked a few weeks ago, marked an … Continue reading “Luminus Devices Aglow With $72 Million in New Financing”

GreenFuel Strikes A Deal, Sirtris Teams with Bayer on Crops, Salient Files for an IPO, & More Deals News

A new IPO filing, a few solid venture financings, and a decent assortment of new partnerships… Dare we call it an uptick it dealmaking? You be the judge. —GreenFuel Technologies, a Cambridge, MA firm developing algae-based fuel-production systems, struck a deal worth up to $92 million to build a plant in Europe. It’s an important … Continue reading “GreenFuel Strikes A Deal, Sirtris Teams with Bayer on Crops, Salient Files for an IPO, & More Deals News”

IDG Ventures Boston is Now Flybridge Capital Partners; Clearing Up “Brand Confusion”

Update, 4/18/08: Boston Globe columnist Scott Kirsner spoke with Greeley and with IDG’s Pat McGovern and got more background information about the name change and Flybridge’s new direction. — Local early stage venture capital firm IDG Ventures Boston has a new name and twice as much money to put behind it. The company announced today … Continue reading “IDG Ventures Boston is Now Flybridge Capital Partners; Clearing Up “Brand Confusion””

Luminus Devices, Inc. Receives $25,000,000 Series E Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=3807bd32-4d9f-4d6e-8bd5-8e56006400f5&Preview=1 Date 3/17/2008 Company Name Luminus Devices, Inc. Mailing Address 1100 Technology Park Drive, Unit 2 Billerica, MA 01821 Company Description Luminus Devices develops and manufactures innovative, high-power, solid state lighting solutions for high-definition televisions and other display products. Its patented PhlatLight™ (Photonic Lattice) technology and manufacturing processes deliver a new level … Continue reading “Luminus Devices, Inc. Receives $25,000,000 Series E Funding”

Endeca Technologies Inc. Obtains $25,000,000 Series F Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=079ba91f-29e5-47c0-be68-cd1dd073c991&Preview=1 Date 3/17/2008 Company Name Endeca Technologies Inc. Mailing Address 101 Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142 Company Description The Endeca Information Access Platform aids information-based problem solving across a wide variety of business processes, including eCommerce, marketing campaign analysis, product design and parts reuse, knowledge management, customer service, and more. To meet … Continue reading “Endeca Technologies Inc. Obtains $25,000,000 Series F Financing”

BMC Software, Inc. Acquires BladeLogic Inc. for $800,000,000

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=c8814c78-8f71-427f-b10f-b6aff7de8419&Preview=1 Date 3/17/2008 Company Name BladeLogic Inc. Mailing Address 10 Maguire Road Lexington, MA 02421 Company Description BladeLogic was founded by industry veterans who understood these problems first-hand given their experience in directly managing highly complex, globally-distributed computing environments, including eleven data centers on four different continents. Website http://www.bladelogic.com/ Transaction Type M&A … Continue reading “BMC Software, Inc. Acquires BladeLogic Inc. for $800,000,000”

Aprigo, Inc. Garners $3,000,000 Series A Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=e59e0add-ef61-4e2d-8ba7-bade1d8719b9&Preview=1 Date 3/16/2008 Company Name Aprigo, Inc. Mailing Address 460 Totten Pond Road Waltham, MA 02451 Company Description Aprigo is all about solving data management issues with a different kind of thinking. We’re exploring SaaS and data management from a new perspective, with a fresh approach, not bound by conventional thinking. Website … Continue reading “Aprigo, Inc. Garners $3,000,000 Series A Funding”

Surrge Travels from Boston to Austin to Launch New Music Referral Service; Taste Makers Can Earn Serious Money

I must be the only Web journalist who did not go to Austin, TX, for South by Southwest, the music, film, and interactive-technology festival that dominated the Twittersphere this week. But as fate would have it, I got my SXSW story anyway. It’s about a Boston startup that’s renting out the Dirty Dog Bar in … Continue reading “Surrge Travels from Boston to Austin to Launch New Music Referral Service; Taste Makers Can Earn Serious Money”

GreenFuel Snags $92 Million Deal To Build European Algae Fuel Plant

GreenFuel Technologies seems to be continuing its rebound under interim CEO Bob Metcalfe. The Cambridge, MA, alternative energy company has reached an agreement—worth up to some $92 million—to build an algae-based fuel plant in Europe, according to sources close to the firm. What makes the deal even more interesting is that it was reportedly negotiated … Continue reading “GreenFuel Snags $92 Million Deal To Build European Algae Fuel Plant”

Nantero’s Carbon-Nanotube-Based Chips Could Outdo Other Types of Computer Memory

Instant-on computers. Laptops that eat up less battery power. Cell phones that store a selection of movies. Those are the benefits Nantero hopes to bring to consumers by creating a new type of computer memory that combines the speed and density of SRAM and DRAM chips with the permanent storage capacity of flash memory. The … Continue reading “Nantero’s Carbon-Nanotube-Based Chips Could Outdo Other Types of Computer Memory”

Bain Leads $8.6 Million Investment in Internet Radio Advertising System

Boston’s Bain Capital Ventures is the lead investor in n $8.6 million Series B funding round announced today for New York, NY-based TargetSpot, which helps advertisers create and place ads on streaming Internet radio stations. The company, launched less than a year ago, gives advertisers access to over 500 Internet radio channels, including many owned … Continue reading “Bain Leads $8.6 Million Investment in Internet Radio Advertising System”

WorldWinner Helps Keep Boston in the Game of Casual Games

Poor Flo. She’s the only hostess at the diner. So she has to seat the people coming in the door, serve them coffee, take their orders, seat more people, serve the first table’s order, pour more coffee, take more orders, seat more people before they get impatient, take dessert orders, clear tables…and, if she’s lucky, … Continue reading “WorldWinner Helps Keep Boston in the Game of Casual Games”

Hydra Biosciences Feeling No Pain, Thanks to $34 Million From Advanced Technology Ventures And Others

Cambridge, MA-based Hydra Biosciences has closed a $34 million Series C funding round, the company said today. The round, led by Advanced Technology Ventures and joined by Polaris Venture Partners, BioVentures Investors, Abingworth, Lilly Ventures, and New Enterprise Associates, brings the firm’s total raised to date to over $63 million. Hydra was founded in 2001 … Continue reading “Hydra Biosciences Feeling No Pain, Thanks to $34 Million From Advanced Technology Ventures And Others”

What Recession? Region’s IT Economy is Booming

The U.S. economy’s seeming slide toward recession hasn’t affected high-tech hiring in the Massachusetts region, the Boston Globe‘s Robert Weisman is reporting this morning. That parallels what we learned back in December, when we wrote about the out-and-out talent crunch many local high-tech firms are confronting, especially when it comes to hiring experienced software engineers. … Continue reading “What Recession? Region’s IT Economy is Booming”

How Much Buzz Do You Generate? Traackr Can Tell

What makes YouTube and other sites that aggregate user-generated content such a brilliant business proposition? It’s that users upload millions of videos, photos, and other content every week, creating mountains of inventory that the sites can sell to advertisers—and the sites don’t have to pay a rupee for any of it. But there’s a company … Continue reading “How Much Buzz Do You Generate? Traackr Can Tell”

Hydra Biosciences Obtains $17,016,100 Series C Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=eef20686-50dd-4de8-abe3-8efe6e58aeba&Preview=1 Date 3/13/2008 Company Name Hydra Biosciences Mailing Address 790 Memorial Drive Cambridge, MA 02139 Company Description Hydra Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company developing molecular regeneration medicines, novel cardiovascular therapies and drugs targeting novel ion channels. Website http://www.hydrabiosciences.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $17,016,100 Transaction Round Series C Proceeds Purposes Proceeds … Continue reading “Hydra Biosciences Obtains $17,016,100 Series C Round”

Sirtris Returns to Its “Roots” in Crop Deal with Bayer

News arriving in my inbox from Cambridge, MA-based Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SIRT]]) this morning caused a double-take: the company known for researching drugs that may treat diabetes and cancer by mimicking the effects of calorie restriction is licensing a portion of its technology to Bayer CropScience AG, the German agricultural biotech giant. For a moment, … Continue reading “Sirtris Returns to Its “Roots” in Crop Deal with Bayer”

Mello RNAi Firm RXi Pharmaceuticals Has Wild Ride on First Day of Trading

Shares of Worcester, MA-based RXi Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:RXII]]) hopped on a bit of a roller coaster this morning when the company—which was spun out of Los Angeles’ CytRx to develop RNAi-based treatments for human diseases—made its debut on the NASDAQ Capital Market. After being distributed to CytRx shareholders last night, the stock began trading at … Continue reading “Mello RNAi Firm RXi Pharmaceuticals Has Wild Ride on First Day of Trading”

Afferent’s Approach to Stroke Rehab Is a Noisy One

You’ve just had a stroke. Your left arm is mostly useless. The doctors tell you to go get some physical therapy, so every day you head off to the local physical therapy office for 3 hours of strength training and stretching designed to put you back on top.Realistic story—so far. But if the 8 employees … Continue reading “Afferent’s Approach to Stroke Rehab Is a Noisy One”

Exact Sciences Makes the List, Curis and Alkermes Get Dropped, Patent Reform Sparks Debate, & More Life Sciences News

Well, it’s our second installment of Life Sciences Wednesday, and once again the week has seen a relative dearth of financings and stock offerings. Still plenty of news to report from the sector, though. —Curis (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CRIS]]) and Alkermes (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALKS]]), both of Cambridge, MA, both had pharma partners pull out of large drug-development agreements. … Continue reading “Exact Sciences Makes the List, Curis and Alkermes Get Dropped, Patent Reform Sparks Debate, & More Life Sciences News”

Skyhook’s MyLoki Bypasses GPS, Makes Location Part of Your Online Persona

For a long time, it looked like the real flowering of location-based services and geo-aware computing would have to wait until more people owned phones with Global Positioning System (GPS) chips inside. And frustratingly for fans of location technology, U.S. manufacturers and cellular carriers have been very slow to a) bring out such phones in … Continue reading “Skyhook’s MyLoki Bypasses GPS, Makes Location Part of Your Online Persona”

EyeGate Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Garners $15,000,000 Series C Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=1aa82887-8d38-4777-8df7-63de12c45cb2&Preview=1 Date 3/12/2008 Company Name EyeGate Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mailing Address 100 Beaver Street Waltham, MA 02453 Company Description EyeGate Pharma is focused on replacing ocular injections and other invasive methods of ocular disease treatment. Our goal is to build a pipeline of safer, more effective and patient friendly ocular treatments based on … Continue reading “EyeGate Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Garners $15,000,000 Series C Funding”

Invoke Raises $7 Million to Expand Web-based Market Research Platform

When was the last time you had a spare 45 minutes to sit through a telephone survey or to take part in a focus group? Finding willing participants for traditional market research studies is getting increasingly difficult, but Invoke Solutions of Waltham, MA, gets around the problem by shifting market research to the platforms where … Continue reading “Invoke Raises $7 Million to Expand Web-based Market Research Platform”

A Guide to New England Angel Groups—The List

Angel capital groups have become a vital part of the New England innovation ecosystem, investing millions each year in promising startups in fields from energy to Web 2.0 to life sciences to non-technology related areas. For an overview of what makes local groups different from their national counterparts—what they invest in, how much they invest, … Continue reading “A Guide to New England Angel Groups—The List”

A Guide to New England Angel Groups

Angel investment, as we angel-backed folks at Xconomy know firsthand, is the lifeblood of many a startup company. Angels often finance promising companies and ideas that are too small or too early in their development to attract the interest of venture firms. These seed and early-stage investments—typically of under $1 million each—help fill a vital … Continue reading “A Guide to New England Angel Groups”

Early-Stage Life Sciences Technology Conference

This conference, produced by the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center in association with the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, provides a forum and showcase for life sciences technologies developed at the state’s universities, hospitals, and other research institutions—as well as for recently formed Massachusetts companies.

Conceived as a Telecom Company, OmniGuide is Now Bringing Laser Scalpels into Endoscopic Surgery

Yoel Fink started off our phone call by apologizing for being late. He’d been tied up, he said, talking to potential investors as he worked on a Series E round of funding for OmniGuide, a medical device company in Cambridge that grew out of his materials science lab at MIT. The company’s raised close to … Continue reading “Conceived as a Telecom Company, OmniGuide is Now Bringing Laser Scalpels into Endoscopic Surgery”

Invoke Solutions, Inc. Garners $7,000,000 New Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=d9ff24ac-1c30-4fc9-95bd-5e90e49eb1ad&Preview=1 Date 3/11/2008 Company Name Invoke Solutions, Inc. Mailing Address 375 Totten Pond Road Waltham, MA 02451 Company Description Invoke Solutions has developed a revolutionary mass interaction technology that radically improves the way organizations understand and respond to their key constituencies. The Invoke software platform is driving transformation from traditional researching methods … Continue reading “Invoke Solutions, Inc. Garners $7,000,000 New Financing”

Curis, Alkermes Down on News of Failed Pharma Partnerships

Shares of two Boston-area biotechs are down today after separately losing large agreements with pharmaceutical partners. Curis (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CRIS]]) is looking for a new partner, the Cambridge, MA-based drug developer announced today, after the pharmaceutical giant Wyeth put an end to a four-year-old collaboration between the companies focused on treatments for stroke and cardiovascular disease. … Continue reading “Curis, Alkermes Down on News of Failed Pharma Partnerships”

Mobile Monday Boston—The iPhone SDK Party

Mobile Monday Boston is planning a bash at the Apple Store at the Cambridgeside Galleria celebrating the just-released software development kit for the iPhone. Jonathan Zdziarski, leading iPhone app developer and author of the in-progress O’Reilly Media volume iPhone Open Application Development, will give a keynote presentation, which will be followed by demos of iPhone … Continue reading “Mobile Monday Boston—The iPhone SDK Party”

EMC Spurned in Bid for Disk Drive Maker Iomega

San Diego-based Iomega (NYSE:[[ticker:IOM]]), a maker of storage drives and disks for consumers and small and medium-sized businesses, has rejected an unsolicited offer from EMC to buy the firm for roughly $180 million, the California company announced this morning. Iomega’s board of directors met Sunday to consider the offer and determined it undervalued the firm, … Continue reading “EMC Spurned in Bid for Disk Drive Maker Iomega”

Baseball, Steroids, and Patent Reform

If you have been following the news in the last month or so, you’ve probably watched in amazement as Congress tackles one of our country’s most pressing issues. I’m not talking about the war in Iraq or the failing economy or even high energy costs. I’m talking about steroids in baseball—a blight on our national … Continue reading “Baseball, Steroids, and Patent Reform”

A123Systems, GE, and Norwegian Carmaker Join Forces, TNS Commits to Compete, Bottomline Buys Optio, & More

Last week was a little on the quiet side, deals-wise. Here’s what we’ve got: —Online community management firm Mzinga of Burlington, MA, raised $32.5 million in new venture financing and acquired Littleton, MA-based Prospero. —Boston-based Compete, a web-traffic analysis firm, was snatched up by the U.K.’s Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) for $75 million in cash … Continue reading “A123Systems, GE, and Norwegian Carmaker Join Forces, TNS Commits to Compete, Bottomline Buys Optio, & More”

PeopleCube Says Office Scheduling Software Can Slow Global Warming

Here’s a new excuse for staying at home on a workday: You may be helping to reduce your company’s carbon footprint. Framingham, MA-based PeopleCube makes scheduling software that’s used for everything from deploying tugboats in Seattle Harbor to sending Metropolitan Life insurance agents out to meet prospects. About five years ago, according to CEO John … Continue reading “PeopleCube Says Office Scheduling Software Can Slow Global Warming”

Challenge to Boston Mobile Developers: Show Us Your iPhone Apps

The iPhone is about to morph into something much more important than a phone or an iPod. And because the next chapter in the device’s history will be all about new software applications created by developers outside Apple, there’s no reason why Boston-area programmers and entrepreneurs shouldn’t be leading characters in the story. We at … Continue reading “Challenge to Boston Mobile Developers: Show Us Your iPhone Apps”

Allegro Diagnostics Raises $4 Million in Series A; Funding Will Support Trials of Lung Cancer Test

A company developing a method for detecting lung cancer earlier, when it’s more treatable, has closed a Series A financing round of $4 million. Allegro Diagnostics, of Boston, raised the money from Kodiak Venture Partners, Catalyst Health Ventures, and Boston University, where the technology was developed. The money will go toward a second clinical study … Continue reading “Allegro Diagnostics Raises $4 Million in Series A; Funding Will Support Trials of Lung Cancer Test”

NoblePeak Collects $12 Million for Night Vision System That Exploits “Nightglow”

A Wakefield, MA, company that’s developed a new type of night-vision chip hopes to break into the security and surveillance market with a higher resolution camera that can see further into the infrared spectrum than current systems—and do it for only a fraction of the price. NoblePeak Vision makes a camera sensor than can see … Continue reading “NoblePeak Collects $12 Million for Night Vision System That Exploits “Nightglow””

Delays In Software Patch Pushed Security Firm to Disclose VMware Flaw

VMware’s five-month delay in issuing a fix for a security hole that could leave three of its workstation virtualization programs vulnerable to takeover by hackers—and its elusiveness about announcing a patch date—prompted a Boston-based security firm to break with its usual practice last week and publicly disclose the problem. Iván Arce, CTO of Core Security, … Continue reading “Delays In Software Patch Pushed Security Firm to Disclose VMware Flaw”

I-Therapeutix, Inc. Receives $6,000,000 Series B Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=89ce10be-d0df-483d-8955-785aa1cb5312&Preview=1 Date 3/7/2008 Company Name I-Therapeutix, Inc. Mailing Address 204 Second Avenue Waltham, MA 02451 Company Description I-Therapeutix™, Inc. is a privately held medical device company that is currently engaged in development of in situ formed hydrogel therapeutic products specifically for ophthalmology. I-Therapeutix, Inc.’s first product, I-Zip™ is expected to be the … Continue reading “I-Therapeutix, Inc. Receives $6,000,000 Series B Financing Round”

Allegro Diagnostics, Inc. Obtains $4,000,000 Series A Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=0a34e6e2-0f6d-4ad1-bbe8-7b7bc3291387&Preview=1 Date 3/7/2008 Company Name Allegro Diagnostics, Inc. Mailing Address 650 Albany Street Boston, MA 02118 Company Description Allegro Diagnostics is a leader in the field of gene expression molecular diagnostic testing for lung cancer and other diseases. Website http://www.allegrodx.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $4,000,000 Transaction Round Series A Proceeds … Continue reading “Allegro Diagnostics, Inc. Obtains $4,000,000 Series A Financing”

Business Development Boston Conference—SOLD OUT

The Business Development Boston Conference, a forum and networking opportunity for pharmaceutical and biotech business development leaders, is returning for its second year. The powerhouse list of hosts includes top executives of RA Capital, Genzyme, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Hoffmann-La Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Vertex, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, and Biogen Idec. Individual panels are dedicated to Pharma, … Continue reading “Business Development Boston Conference—SOLD OUT”

A123 Thinks Big about Electric Cars from Norway

Local battery powerhouse A123Systems is delving further into the automotive market, thanks to a three-way deal involving itself, Norwegian electric car company Think, and General Electric. A123 has signed a deal to put its lithium-ion rechargeable batteries into Think’s vehicles. Think is making an electric car, the City, that has a top speed of 60 … Continue reading “A123 Thinks Big about Electric Cars from Norway”

Exact’s Colon Cancer Test Included in Medical Organization Recommendations

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:EXAS]]) got some long-awaited good news yesterday afternoon when the American Cancer Society unveiled new colorectal cancer screening guidelines that recommend, among other things, the use of the Marlborough, MA firm’s noninvasive DNA-based test for the disease. Developed by the ACS in conjunction with the American College of Radiology and the U.S. … Continue reading “Exact’s Colon Cancer Test Included in Medical Organization Recommendations”

Curt Schilling on 38 Studios, Massive Multi-Player Games, and McCain for President

Curt Schilling’s known for a few things around these parts—and the country: bloody socks, great pitching, conservative politics, and a love of video gaming, as evidenced by his founding of Maynard, MA-based 38 Studios (named after his uniform number). Wade wrote a nice profile of 38 Studios and its new game-creation contest a couple months … Continue reading “Curt Schilling on 38 Studios, Massive Multi-Player Games, and McCain for President”