Category: Boston

ZoomInfo Charts New World of Ads Based on “Business Demographics”

In the world of Web advertising, targeted audiences are gold. If you publish a website that attracts the type of people who drink green tea, then click-through rates for green-tea ads are probably going to be higher than average, and companies like Snapple and AriZona Beverages will happily pay you a higher rate. Likewise, if … Continue reading “ZoomInfo Charts New World of Ads Based on “Business Demographics””

Riding the Biomarker Wave: Aveo Snags Eli Lilly Deal

Until recently it seemed like the only thing big pharmaceutical companies wanted from the little guys was their drugs—as many of them as the pharmas could get their hands on. Things have changed, however, as yesterday’s deal between Cambridge, MA-based Aveo Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly demonstrates. Now, there is something else those pharmas desperately want … Continue reading “Riding the Biomarker Wave: Aveo Snags Eli Lilly Deal”

Talent Wars: How Boston-Area IT Companies Are Dealing With A Severe Staffing Crunch

The bad news in a jobs study released last week by the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth is that Massachusetts lags every state in the nation save Michigan when it comes to creating new jobs. Manufacturing in the state has been in especially bad shape since the 2001 recession, leading to worries that, as … Continue reading “Talent Wars: How Boston-Area IT Companies Are Dealing With A Severe Staffing Crunch”

Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands

Finally, a tech networking event that rocks. Musicians from Boston’s most innovative companies play their geeky hearts out—you pick the winners! Date: Tuesday, January 22, 2008. Location: Middle East Restaurant and Night Club, 472-480 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA. Time: Doors open at 7:00 pm, music starts at 7:30 sharp. Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at … Continue reading “Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands”

Group Led by Harvard’s George Church Will Bid for Genomics X Prize

A local group has finally thrown its hat into the ring for the $10 million Archon X Prize for Genomics, and it’s a biggie: the newly minted Personal Genome X-Team (PGx), led by genomics pioneer George Church. Church, a Harvard Medical School professor of genetics and co-founder of companies including Cambridge, MA’s Codon Devices and … Continue reading “Group Led by Harvard’s George Church Will Bid for Genomics X Prize”

In-Q-Tel Opens Boston Office, Plans to In-q-bate New Technology for the Intelligence Community

If you’re a budding Boston entrepreneur working on a technology such as deeper data mining, longer-lasting batteries, or faster microfluidic DNA screening, you might get a surprise phone call one day soon from the U.S. intelligence community—or at least, from its strategic investing arm. That’s because In-Q-Tel, an Arlington, VA-based private, non-profit group that funds … Continue reading “In-Q-Tel Opens Boston Office, Plans to In-q-bate New Technology for the Intelligence Community”

Meeting Offers Vision of Future U.S. Personalized Healthcare System

What if within the next decade or so the U.S. healthcare system was completely transformed? Hospitals like Boston’s Beth Israel were all replaced by retail clinics and medical centers specializing in specific procedures, such as hernia repair or hip replacement. Diagnostics companies finally started reaping the big profits while pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, and device makers … Continue reading “Meeting Offers Vision of Future U.S. Personalized Healthcare System”

Blackwave Raises $16 Million for Internet Video Delivery

Acton, MA-based Blackwave said today it has raised $16 million in Series B funding to continue development of servers that store video and stream it to consumers over the Internet. The company, formerly known as Acinion, raised $5 million last year in a funding round led by Globespan Capital Partners and IDG Ventures. Both firms … Continue reading “Blackwave Raises $16 Million for Internet Video Delivery”

Building Better Bridges Over the Valley of Death—An Optimist’s View

Almost every presentation on incubating early stage technology companies includes some reference to the “Valley of Death” or the “Funding Gap”—meaning the difficulty entrepreneurs have finding initial small investments to get their startup companies going and to complete technical viability and proof-of-concept work. Several research institutions and universities have been busy over the last five … Continue reading “Building Better Bridges Over the Valley of Death—An Optimist’s View”

Spark Capital’s Bijan Sabet Says Cross Out Those Non-Compete Clauses—An Xconomy Interview

The non-compete agreement. When people ponder the reasons for Silicon Valley’s surge as a startup haven—often leaving New England licking its wounds, as it did after student venture Facebook’s departure for Palo Alto, for example—they often point to the persistence of this little clause in many New England-area employment agreements as a major contributor. The … Continue reading “Spark Capital’s Bijan Sabet Says Cross Out Those Non-Compete Clauses—An Xconomy Interview”

Inverness Buys Again, BIND Ties Up Some Dough, TurboPower Fires Up, Passport Systems Screens New Funds, and More

Last week saw a steady stream of smallish and medium-sized deals for Greater Boston’s high-tech and life-sciences firms. The list includes many familiar faces: —Inverness Medical Innovations (AMEX: [[ticker:IMA]]), a Waltham-based diagnostics maker, announced its planned $230 million acquisition of Upper Saddle River, NJ’s ParadigmHealth. Malorye profiled Inverness a couple of weeks ago. —Voice-over-Internet device … Continue reading “Inverness Buys Again, BIND Ties Up Some Dough, TurboPower Fires Up, Passport Systems Screens New Funds, and More”

Hawk vs. Pigeon: Impromptu Lunch in Kendall Square Gives Two Lotus Legends Pause

Got this photo in an e-mail from Reed Sturtevant, who’s creating a new Microsoft advanced development lab in Kendall Square. He was walking to lunch in the square yesterday with another former Lotus legend, Bob Frankston, when an unusual sight stopped them in their tracks. As Sturtevant described it: “a hawk eating a pigeon in … Continue reading “Hawk vs. Pigeon: Impromptu Lunch in Kendall Square Gives Two Lotus Legends Pause”

MA’s Woman-Led Firms Growing, Well-Represented in Tech Industries

Woman-led businesses in Massachusetts are outpacing state and national growth averages, and are less concentrated in lifestyle or retail sectors than their national counterparts, according to a report unveiled today by Babson College and the nonprofit Commonwealth Institute. Indeed, female-helmed firms are particularly well represented in tech and life sciences industries. The report is based … Continue reading “MA’s Woman-Led Firms Growing, Well-Represented in Tech Industries”

Made in Canada: More Boston Tech Companies Poached from North of the Border

A few weeks ago I chronicled the tale of Xkoto, a database virtualization company founded in Toronto that has a brand-new headquarters in Boston and a brand-new American CEO, courtesy of GrandBanks Capital, which has made something of a specialty lately out of moving Canadian companies (or at least their administrative functions) to Massachussetts. Today … Continue reading “Made in Canada: More Boston Tech Companies Poached from North of the Border”

Resolvyx Pharmaceuticals: Fish-Oil Mystery Solved, Blockbuster Drugs to Follow?

If you haven’t considered eating more fish or taking fish-oil pills by now, you’re probably very young, just in from Mars, or both. The case for the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, the compounds of interest in fish oil, rests on thousands of studies over the past two decades, and the list of ills … Continue reading “Resolvyx Pharmaceuticals: Fish-Oil Mystery Solved, Blockbuster Drugs to Follow?”

Massachusetts Firms Rolling in a Growing Pile of Cleantech Venture Cash

Massachusetts is second only to California when it comes to raking in VC dollars for cleantech—and those dollars are evidently piling up faster than maple leaves in autumn. This according to new data from Thomson Financial and the National Venture Capital Association. The numbers, released yesterday, show that in the first three quarters of this … Continue reading “Massachusetts Firms Rolling in a Growing Pile of Cleantech Venture Cash”

Renewable Energy Business Network Happy Hour

Rob Day sends word that @Ventures, the Boston cleantech venture firm where he’s a partner, will sponsor another REBN-East networking event at Flat Top Johnny’s in Cambridge on Thursday, December 6. These networking events, the East Coast versions of a Renewable Energy Business Network happy hours that Day and a colleague initiated in the Bay … Continue reading “Renewable Energy Business Network Happy Hour”

How to Launch a Googellite: Stephen Vinter Speaks

If you were creating a satellite office for Google 3,100 miles away from the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA, yet you wanted to make it authentically Google, what would you do? The short, superficial answer would be to buy a few lava lamps, paint the walls in bright primary colors, build a great cafeteria with … Continue reading “How to Launch a Googellite: Stephen Vinter Speaks”

Microsoft Cambridge Lab Getting into Gear—Core Hires Expected Soon

Reed Sturtevant is building a Microsoft development lab and innovation group here in Cambridge, but I caught up with him in Redmond, WA. I gather the former Eons chief technology officer and local tech legend has logged a lot of miles between Seattle and Boston since being plucked away from Eons in late September. And, … Continue reading “Microsoft Cambridge Lab Getting into Gear—Core Hires Expected Soon”

Myomo: FDA Approval, Press Recognition, New CEO-Now, Customers?

Myomo, the privately held Boston-based startup, has a lot to be thankful for this holiday season. The company won FDA approval in July for its first product: the “e100 NeuroRobotic System,” an elbow brace that helps stroke victims recover use of their arms by detecting tiny electric signals from the skin’s surface. Earlier this month, … Continue reading “Myomo: FDA Approval, Press Recognition, New CEO-Now, Customers?”

Sirtris Touts Its Next Generation of Diabetes Drug Candidates, Massively More Powerful than its First

When I visited Cambridge-based Sirtris Pharmaceuticals a few weeks ago, CEO Christoph Westphal told me that the company would soon be publishing data on a new drug candidate that’s 1000 times as effective as the company’s lead compound—a diabetes drug—at activating a key gene called SIRT1. Those data are now out in this week’s issue … Continue reading “Sirtris Touts Its Next Generation of Diabetes Drug Candidates, Massively More Powerful than its First”

NSTAR, Energy Department Offer $200K Prize to Energy Entrepreneurs

The pot of prize money available to students and entrepreneurs with innovative ideas about commercializing clean-energy technologies just got a lot bigger. MIT, the U.S. Department of Energy, and local electric utility NSTAR announced today that they’re collaborating to offer a new $200,000 cash prize for the best idea for a business supporting a technology, … Continue reading “NSTAR, Energy Department Offer $200K Prize to Energy Entrepreneurs”

New IRobot Contract Unrelated to Lawsuit (and Not Actually Issued Yet)

Never let it be said that Xconomy doesn’t look out for its readers. Yesterday you asked us to look into an intriguing posting on a government website about what looked to be a new $200 million contract for iRobot—marked with a date suspiciously close to when the Army set aside the $279.9 million “xBot” contract … Continue reading “New IRobot Contract Unrelated to Lawsuit (and Not Actually Issued Yet)”

NitroMed is Feeling the Pressure but Still Betting on Marketing to Save BiDil

One of the most controversial drugs ever made could disappear if a new marketing plan can’t save it. Widely known as the “race-based” medicine, BiDil (isosorbide dinitrate and hydralazine hydrochloride) was launched in July 2005 by Lexington, MA-based NitroMed (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NTMD]]) for treatment of heart failure in black patients. The wording of that approval caused … Continue reading “NitroMed is Feeling the Pressure but Still Betting on Marketing to Save BiDil”

Warning: Reading This Article May Contribute to Global Warming. But These Young Entrepreneurs Want to Do Something About It.

Simply by breathing while you’re sitting there at your computer, you’re releasing about 40 grams of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every hour. But because you’re at that computer—which is using electricity, which was likely produced by burning some fossil fuel—you’re indirectly responsible for emitting another 60 grams of CO2 per hour. Or are you? … Continue reading “Warning: Reading This Article May Contribute to Global Warming. But These Young Entrepreneurs Want to Do Something About It.”

BIND Biosciences Raises $16 Million for Targeted, Drug-Loaded Nanoparticles

As it promised during its “public debut” a few weeks ago at MassOpps (here’s my take on that presentation and the rest of the conference) BIND Biosciences has closed a $16 million Series B financing round. Polaris Venture Partners and Flagship Ventures—founding investors of the Cambridge, MA-based startup—were joined in the deal by ARCH Ventures … Continue reading “BIND Biosciences Raises $16 Million for Targeted, Drug-Loaded Nanoparticles”

Why EMC Bought Mozy, Part 2: The Consumer As Enterprise

The home consumer is a far cry from a big corporate enterprise, but each one of us can be seen as a mini enterprise. That was the big revelation I took away from a recent interview with Jeff Nick, EMC’s chief technology officer. We spoke about many things, but I was particularly curious to ask … Continue reading “Why EMC Bought Mozy, Part 2: The Consumer As Enterprise”

Shopping Goes Virtual: Browsing Brookstone in 3-D

The “Cyber Monday” phenomenon is a baseless piece of marketing fluff crafted by the National Retail Federation—the biggest online shopping day of the holiday season actually falls somewhere between December 5 and 15 every year. But if virtual shopping floats your boat, today is a good day for it anyway: the novelty retailer Brookstone, based … Continue reading “Shopping Goes Virtual: Browsing Brookstone in 3-D”

The Little Laptop That Could…One Way or Another

Opening my weekend Wall Street Journal yesterday, I found the following headline: “A Little Laptop With Big Ambitions: How a Computer for the Poor Got Stomped by Tech Giants.” The article vividly detailed the woes of the One Laptop Per Child effort, and how far OLPC is from achieving founder Nicholas Negroponte’s 2005 vision of … Continue reading “The Little Laptop That Could…One Way or Another”

Let Your Fingers Do the Crossing: “Direct Navigation” Companies Heat Up

The statistics are hard to believe, but hundreds of thousands of Internet users are apparently so intimidated by conventional search engines that they find things on the Web by typing random, imaginary domain names into their browsers’ adddress bars and hoping against hope that the made-up URLs will lead to something useful. And sometimes, they … Continue reading “Let Your Fingers Do the Crossing: “Direct Navigation” Companies Heat Up”

Inverness Investors Go Back for Seconds, Alkermes Grabs a Slice of the GSK/Reliant Pie, Kalido Restocks the (Cash) Larder, and the Rest of Thanksgiving Week’s Deals

Even with all the roasting, basting, and digesting everybody had to do last week, Boston-area tech businesses still managed to cut a few deals: —Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) agreed to pay Swiss startup Neurimmune Therapeutics as much as $380 million for potential treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, which Biogen will develop and commercialize. —Diagnostics maker Inverness … Continue reading “Inverness Investors Go Back for Seconds, Alkermes Grabs a Slice of the GSK/Reliant Pie, Kalido Restocks the (Cash) Larder, and the Rest of Thanksgiving Week’s Deals”

Xconomy Poll: As the Holiday Shopping Season Starts, Is Kindle Must-Buying?

It’s featured on Amazon’s home page, and the star-power testimony behind it runs from Toni Morrison to Michael Lewis. But is Amazon’s new e-book reader, Kindle, produced with Cambridge company E Ink’s “electronic paper” technology, a winner? Will it really transform the way people consume literature? At $399 for the reader and $9.99 a book, … Continue reading “Xconomy Poll: As the Holiday Shopping Season Starts, Is Kindle Must-Buying?”

2007 Executive Compensation Study: Life Sciences Leads the Way, New England Pay Lagging

First, the good news: salaries and bonuses for key employees of privately held firms in life sciences and information technology went up virtually across the board in the past year. Now, the not-so-good news: New England high-tech executives are in the middle of the pack (or lower) in compensation when compared to their peers around … Continue reading “2007 Executive Compensation Study: Life Sciences Leads the Way, New England Pay Lagging”

Vertex Faces Setback in Targeted Cancer Drug Program

Cambridge, MA-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: [[ticker:VRTX]]) yesterday announced a potentially serious setback in its program to develop novel cancer drugs aimed at a family of enzymes called the Aurora kinases. Vertex and its partner Merck have one of the most advanced drug candidates (MK-0457) in this category, which is part of an emerging “targeted” approach … Continue reading “Vertex Faces Setback in Targeted Cancer Drug Program”

Just in Time for the Holidays, We Gobble Up More Filings in the iRobot-Robotic FX Case

The chances of a Pilgrims-and-Indians-style Thanksgiving detente between iRobot and Robotic FX, if they ever existed, are looking pretty slim today. The latest point of contention is a request from Robotic FX that Judge Nancy Gertner of U.S. District Court in Boston change her November 2 injunction against Robotic FX. The injunction effectively prevents the … Continue reading “Just in Time for the Holidays, We Gobble Up More Filings in the iRobot-Robotic FX Case”

ConforMIS is Reaching for a Big Piece of the Knee-Surgery Market by Taking Smaller Pieces of Bone

I pride myself on having an extraordinarily high tolerance for medical gore, but I have to admit that the phrase “bone saw” always gives me the willies. Which is probably why I was intrigued when I first heard that there was a company out in Burlington, MA, that makes a new kind of implant for … Continue reading “ConforMIS is Reaching for a Big Piece of the Knee-Surgery Market by Taking Smaller Pieces of Bone”

Amazon Kindle: One Very Small Step for E-Books

An “electronic paper” screen created by Cambridge’s E Ink is the heart of the new Amazon Kindle e-book reading device, introduced yesterday amidst grand pronouncements about the beginning of a new era of electronic book publishing and reading. “This is the future of reading. It will be everywhere,” said business writer Michael Lewis, who ought … Continue reading “Amazon Kindle: One Very Small Step for E-Books”

Mass’s $1 Billion Biotech Bill Likely Stalled for the Year, House Speaker Says

Things aren’t looking so good for Governor Deval Patrick’s $1 billion life sciences initiative, according to the Boston Globe. There’s just a day left before the state legislature closes shop for the calendar year, and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi told a Globe reporter that Patrick’s life sciences bill doesn’t have a great chance of … Continue reading “Mass’s $1 Billion Biotech Bill Likely Stalled for the Year, House Speaker Says”

Allurent Looks to Usher in the Next E-Commerce Era

It was with some nostalgia—and thirst—that I visited the Allurent headquarters in Harvard Square last week. That’s because the rapidly growing e-commerce software startup occupies two third-floor rooms off Church Street that peer down on the abandoned digs of an old haunt of mine—the Brew Moon restaurant. It’s hard for me to drop by Allurent … Continue reading “Allurent Looks to Usher in the Next E-Commerce Era”

Massachusetts Scores High in the Patent Sweepstakes (and Other Fun Insights From New Patent Office Stats)

Among the many interesting tables published in the U.S. Patent Office’s annual performance report issued on Thursday are a state-by-state breakdown of patents issued in 2007, as well as listings of patent applications filed between 2003 and 2006 (this year’s figures on patent applications won’t be published until next month). Almost any way you parse … Continue reading “Massachusetts Scores High in the Patent Sweepstakes (and Other Fun Insights From New Patent Office Stats)”

Pfizer Picks a Local Target, Sermo Meets Satellite Radio, and the Rest of the Recent Deals

Even though last week was a short one, there was so much wheeling and dealing that I wound up doing an extra roundup on Wednesday. But wait, there was more… Here are the deals that were announced since last we rounded up. —Boston-based RNAi therapeutics startup Dicerna finalized its $13M Series A financing led by … Continue reading “Pfizer Picks a Local Target, Sermo Meets Satellite Radio, and the Rest of the Recent Deals”

Sir2 Roads Diverged: Elixir Co-founder Joins Rival Sirtris

The MIT biologist who co-founded Elixir Pharmaceuticals in 1999 in a bid to turn his research on a gene called Sir2 into drugs that might extend lifespans has defected to Elixir’s primary rival, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SIRT]]). Both companies are developing drugs against aging-related diseases such as cancer and diabetes, and both are based in … Continue reading “Sir2 Roads Diverged: Elixir Co-founder Joins Rival Sirtris”