Calistoga Pharmaceuticals CEO Carol Gallagher was playing with a strong hand of cards, holding onto an emerging cancer drug she could have sold for a mint to any number of Big Pharma companies hungry for innovative new products. But she and Calistoga’s board took an unusual tack, selling the Seattle-based company for as much as … Continue reading “Calistoga Hands the Keys to Gilead, Bets It Can Make Cancer a Chronic Disease Like HIV”
Category: National
Traackr Obtains Series A Funding, Moves to San Francisco
Traackr, a three-year-old startup that helps marketers identify the most influential social media users in any given niche, has picked up an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from at least two Silicon Valley “super angels” and one early-stage startup fund, according to co-founder Pierre-Loïc Assayag. The company was born in Boston and later moved … Continue reading “Traackr Obtains Series A Funding, Moves to San Francisco”
Constant Contact Buys Bantam Live, Forest Pays $1.2B for Clinical Data, Paydiant Scores $7.6M, & More Boston-Area Deals News
Acquisitions news has stolen the show for Boston-area tech and life sciences headlines in the last week, but we’ve also seen some funding and partnership news. —The Boston area saw its biggest ever biotech acquisition, with the sale of Cambridge, MA-based Genzyme (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GENZ]]) to French drug company Sanofi-Aventis for $20.1 billion, or $74 per … Continue reading “Constant Contact Buys Bantam Live, Forest Pays $1.2B for Clinical Data, Paydiant Scores $7.6M, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
Amazon’s Netflix Challenger, Kinect’s Development Kit, PopCap’s Looming IPO
A little Tuesday catch-up following the holiday weekend (for us, anyway) in Seattle-area tech news: • Amazon made its long-rumored Netflix challenge official with this morning’s announcement of a subscription streaming video service. Amazon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMZN]]) already had an a la carte version called Instant Videos, which offers about 90,000 movie and TV titles. Today’s … Continue reading “Amazon’s Netflix Challenger, Kinect’s Development Kit, PopCap’s Looming IPO”
Microsoft and Athenahealth Join Forces on Health Software
Athenahealth (NASDAQ:[[ticker:ATHN]]) says it has formed a new alliance with Microsoft (NASDAQ:[[ticker:MSFT]]) to develop software to make their systems more compatible and easier for healthcare professionals to use together. The new collaboration, Athena says, will enable healthcare providers to use the companies’ existing products to get a single view of patient records from hospitals and … Continue reading “Microsoft and Athenahealth Join Forces on Health Software”
Crocodoc Goes HTML5, SearchReviews and GravityEight Go Live, & More Bay Area BizTech News
Last week saw the emergence of several interesting new startups like GravityEight and SearchReviews. But some 2010-vintage startups, including Crocodoc and 1000memories, also made news. —Crocodoc introduced the world’s first embeddable HTML5 document viewer. The San Francisco startup, backed by Y Combinator and angel investors, says it wants to be “the new Adobe of the Web,” … Continue reading “Crocodoc Goes HTML5, SearchReviews and GravityEight Go Live, & More Bay Area BizTech News”
Otonomy Drug Could Have Broader Potential Application for Hearing Loss
Would Pete Townshend get an injection into his inner ears to save his hearing? After at least 50 years in Rock n’ Roll, it’s probably too late to save the legendary songwriter’s hearing, but San Diego-based Otonomy today announced data that suggests its lead drug candidate could help people recover from hearing loss caused by … Continue reading “Otonomy Drug Could Have Broader Potential Application for Hearing Loss”
Forest Labs Snaps Up Clinical Data for $1.2B
Clinical Data chief executive Drew Fromkin wasn’t blowing smoke last month when he told analysts that his firm was in talks about a potential change in control. About a month after gaining FDA approval for its anti-depression drug, the Newton, MA-based company (NASDAQ:[[ticker:CLDA]]) said today that it has agreed to be acquired by the New … Continue reading “Forest Labs Snaps Up Clinical Data for $1.2B”
FaceCash’s Aaron Greenspan Is Out to Kill Plastic with Mobile Payment System
For Aaron Greenspan, president and CEO of Palo Alto, CA-based Think Computer Corporation, it’s been a long road to FaceCash. The mobile payment system, which next week launches a new feature that allows shoppers to place orders before they even arrive at a store, is the result of years of work that started when Greenspan … Continue reading “FaceCash’s Aaron Greenspan Is Out to Kill Plastic with Mobile Payment System”
A Visitor’s Guide to Silicon Valley
If you’re a visiting dignitary whose country has a Gross National Product equal to or greater than the State of California, your visit to Silicon Valley consists of a lunch/dinner with some combination of the founders of Google, Facebook, Apple, and Twitter and several brand name venture capitalists. If you have time, the president of … Continue reading “A Visitor’s Guide to Silicon Valley”
Gilead Buys Calistoga Pharma for $375M, Making Move Into Cancer Drugs
Gilead Sciences is the world’s biggest maker of HIV medications, and today it’s making a big move to diversify into the cancer drug field by acquiring Seattle-based Calistoga Pharmaceuticals. Foster City, CA-based Gilead (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GILD]]) said today it has agreed to pay $375 million to acquire Calistoga, plus another $225 million if certain milestones are … Continue reading “Gilead Buys Calistoga Pharma for $375M, Making Move Into Cancer Drugs”
Resonant Ventures Bets on Wind Power Startup Accio Energy
Resonant Venture Partners in Ann Arbor, MI, said it has invested an undisclosed amount in Accio Energy, a startup developing a new way to generate electricity from wind. The startup, which is also based in Ann Arbor, is “developing a novel…wind energy generation technology to deliver clean, sustainable energy to people around the globe,” Resonant … Continue reading “Resonant Ventures Bets on Wind Power Startup Accio Energy”
The Active Network Files for IPO, EcoATM Banks $14M, Qualcomm Issues Augmented Reality Awards, & More San Diego BizTech News
Capital isn’t exactly flowing freely, but it’s flowing better now than it was two years ago, if last week’s San Diego tech deals are any guide. We’ve got that wrapped up for you here, along with the rest of the biztech report. —San Diego-based EcoATM, a startup developing automated kiosks for recycling cell phones and … Continue reading “The Active Network Files for IPO, EcoATM Banks $14M, Qualcomm Issues Augmented Reality Awards, & More San Diego BizTech News”
Quanterix, Novartis Test Out Super-Sensitive Diagnostic Tool for Neuro Disorder
Quanterix envisions its technology could someday be a driving force in the $8 billion a year global diagnostics industry. Now it has one of the industry’s big players on board, taking a look for itself at close range to see what the Cambridge, MA-based startup can do. Novartis Diagnostics, the unit of the giant healthcare … Continue reading “Quanterix, Novartis Test Out Super-Sensitive Diagnostic Tool for Neuro Disorder”
Hydrovolts, Halopure and WaterTectonics See Big Opportunities in Water
Quite a few Seattle-area companies are tackling some ambitious projects that are all about water. I’m talking about clean drinking water, industrial water treatment, and innovative hydropower. Insights on all of that had people taking notes and asking plenty of questions at a cleantech confab Friday. The event was organized through the Washington Clean Technology … Continue reading “Hydrovolts, Halopure and WaterTectonics See Big Opportunities in Water”
Biocom Follows the Money, Revamps Local Confab to Lure Big Pharma VIPs To San Diego
San Diego’s leading life sciences trade association spent the last five years putting together a fall confab that recruited venture capitalists and institutional investors to look at the most innovative life sciences companies in town. This year, Biocom is taking a different tack, seeking to play the role of matchmaker not so much with VCs, … Continue reading “Biocom Follows the Money, Revamps Local Confab to Lure Big Pharma VIPs To San Diego”
A Focus on Energy Efficiency Will Help Keep The U.S. Competitive, and Other Cleantech Industry Predictions for 2011
Foreign competition is rising, and U.S. consumers haven’t departed from their penny-pinching mentality of The Great Recession, and behind this double whammy the cleantech industry is feeling the squeeze. That’s one of the big impressions I came away with after polling a crop of cleantech experts from Xconomy’s network of advisors and op-ed contributors for … Continue reading “A Focus on Energy Efficiency Will Help Keep The U.S. Competitive, and Other Cleantech Industry Predictions for 2011”
Scripps Names UC Berkeley Chemist Marletta as New President
The Scripps Research Institute, one of San Diego’s leading nonprofit research institutions, has officially named UC Berkeley chemistry researcher Michael Marletta as its new incoming president. Marletta, 60, will join the Scripps faculty on July 1, and formally take over from Richard Lerner as president on Jan. 1, 2012, Scripps said yesterday in a statement. … Continue reading “Scripps Names UC Berkeley Chemist Marletta as New President”
Washington’s Innovation Corridor a Key to Recovery
It’s hard to believe that the biggest recession in U.S. history officially ended almost two years ago. For many regions the road to recovery has been rocky at best. Washington State is no exception. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, our state’s unemployment has hovered around nine percent for the past six months. … Continue reading “Washington’s Innovation Corridor a Key to Recovery”
Dendreon Scopes Out Downtown Seattle Headquarters
Dendreon could soon be headed from Belltown to downtown. The Seattle-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DNDN]]), currently based in an aging lab building at 3005 First Avenue near Denny Way, appears to on its way into the 42-story Russell Investments Center, according to a Seattle Times story by commercial real estate reporter Eric Pryne. An architecture … Continue reading “Dendreon Scopes Out Downtown Seattle Headquarters”
Seven Questions That Will Decide Mobile’s Future—Part One
I always smile to think that we launched Xconomy on June 27, 2007, just two days before the original iPhone hit Apple stores in the U.S. That was a transformative moment in consumer information technology—as important as the launch of the Macintosh in 1984, Windows 3.0 in 1990, or Netscape in 1995. Thanks to Apple, … Continue reading “Seven Questions That Will Decide Mobile’s Future—Part One”
“Your Move, Creep.” Detroit Should Embrace Its Inner RoboCop
When I first saw RoboCop in 1987, I nearly puked. In other words, the movie was AWESOME. Such logic should be expected from a nine-year-old boy witnessing his first R-rated movie, an ultra-violent spectacle that spewed blood and bodies across the crime ridden streets of Detroit. (My older sister, who accompanied me, was just plain … Continue reading ““Your Move, Creep.” Detroit Should Embrace Its Inner RoboCop”
Alkermes Sees Chance to Reinvent Vivitrol For Fighting Drug Addiction, Not Just Alcoholism
If you were to poll Wall Street a few months ago for impressions of Alkermes’ naltrexone injection (Vivitrol), you’d hear a number of things. Most aren’t good. It’s a bust. They still own that? Who cares? Seeing the name Vivitrol in my inbox, I must admit, makes me think first about a drug that never … Continue reading “Alkermes Sees Chance to Reinvent Vivitrol For Fighting Drug Addiction, Not Just Alcoholism”
Sanofi Buys Genzyme for $20B, Aveo Inks Deal with Astellas, Hologix Nabs FDA Approval, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
It was a historic week in the Boston biotech field with big acquisition news, but we also saw headlines on stealthier firms and startup financings. —Ryan took a closer look at H3 Biomedicine, a cancer research house setting up shop in Cambridge, MA, with the support of Japanese drugmaker Eisai. He compared it to the … Continue reading “Sanofi Buys Genzyme for $20B, Aveo Inks Deal with Astellas, Hologix Nabs FDA Approval, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
Flagship VentureLabs, Creating and Spinning Out Cleantech and Life Sciences Startups for 10 Years, Takes the Veil Off
A number of innovative cleantech and life sciences startups we’ve written about have been funded and staffed by Cambridge, MA-based Flagship Ventures. But not all of these companies made traditional pitches to Flagship like they would any other investor. A large chunk of the firm’s portfolio includes companies that have been created, developed, and incubated … Continue reading “Flagship VentureLabs, Creating and Spinning Out Cleantech and Life Sciences Startups for 10 Years, Takes the Veil Off”
Snyder’s First Michigan Budget: One (Tax) Rate to Rule Them All
[Corrected 2/18/10, 10:04 am.] When Rick Snyder emerged victorious in last year’s gubernatorial election, Michigan’s entrepreneurial community buzzed with excitement. Snyder, a former corporate executive and venture capitalist based in Ann Arbor, MI, had the business smarts to revitalize the state’s sluggish economy, supporters said. The first test of Snyder’s leadership would be crafting a … Continue reading “Snyder’s First Michigan Budget: One (Tax) Rate to Rule Them All”
We’re On the Hunt For a Social Media Marketing Intern Here at Xconomy
We have a bunch of journalists at Xconomy who know how to report and write. Now we are looking to add some electricity on the marketing side of the house. I’m specifically looking to fill a position here in the Seattle office for a summer intern with desire to build a career in social media … Continue reading “We’re On the Hunt For a Social Media Marketing Intern Here at Xconomy”
Training Clean Energy Capitalists
[Editor’s note: This post was co-authored by Peter Rothstein, President of the New England Clean Energy Council.] Over the next 10 years, over $1.7 trillion will be invested in clean power projects across the globe, according to recent projections from the Pew Charitable Trusts. That estimate is if nothing changes to strengthen our clean energy … Continue reading “Training Clean Energy Capitalists”
It Takes Grassroots Effort to Support Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship has fueled economic growth and innovation throughout the Bay Area’s history. We applaud President Barack Obama’s call to action and the White House Startup America program to support entrepreneurs. In California’s innovation economy we have seen first hand that entrepreneurship is key to driving job creation and economic development. The Federal bureaucracy can raise … Continue reading “It Takes Grassroots Effort to Support Entrepreneurs”
CalciMedica Moves Psoriasis Drug Into Clinic, Pockets $6M
CalciMedica has been saying for a while that it is about to enter clinical trials with a novel oral treatment for autoimmune diseases, and today is the day. The San Diego-based biotech company said it has delivered the first doses to people in a clinical trial of CM2489, a once-daily pill for moderate to severe … Continue reading “CalciMedica Moves Psoriasis Drug Into Clinic, Pockets $6M”
Cleantech VC Hemant Taneja Moves to Bay Area, Talks Investment Strategy at General Catalyst
A proverbial giant has left the cleantech stage here in Boston—though he probably wouldn’t admit any part of that statement. Hemant Taneja, a managing director at General Catalyst Partners in Cambridge, MA, has moved to the San Francisco Bay Area this week. Taneja is one of the top venture capitalists in the energy sector. Beyond … Continue reading “Cleantech VC Hemant Taneja Moves to Bay Area, Talks Investment Strategy at General Catalyst”
Avalon’s Kinsella Calls Out Big Pharma for “Bad Behavior” That’s Pushing Biotech Ventures “Almost to Point of Extinction”
San Diego’s Avalon Ventures has had some noteworthy success in the past couple of months. The 28-year-old firm raised $200 million for its ninth fund, which was oversubscribed by 33 percent. Avalon, which invests in both life sciences and Web technologies, also took some winnings off the table with the recent sale of a portfolio … Continue reading “Avalon’s Kinsella Calls Out Big Pharma for “Bad Behavior” That’s Pushing Biotech Ventures “Almost to Point of Extinction””
Jennerex, Maker of Cancer-Fighting Virus, Says Early Data Shows Survival Benefit
Viruses that are genetically engineered to fight tumors, without harming healthy cells, may sound like sci-fi. But San Francisco-based Jennerex Biotherapeutics has started gathering some intriguing—albeit quite preliminary—clinical trial evidence that suggests this approach may be helping liver cancer patients live longer, Xconomy has learned. Jennerex, which I first wrote about here in September, flies … Continue reading “Jennerex, Maker of Cancer-Fighting Virus, Says Early Data Shows Survival Benefit”
Want to Create More Startups? Do More to Corral Health Insurance Costs
Starting a business has always been a risky financial undertaking. With the huge rise in health insurance costs over the last decade, I’m increasingly worried we have created an enormous new obstacle that discourages and slows down the growth trajectory of new businesses. This post is not about rehashing the debates over the federal healthcare … Continue reading “Want to Create More Startups? Do More to Corral Health Insurance Costs”
Optimer Raises $77.6M, Former Sequenom Patent Agent Pleads Guilty, IPO Lineup Includes San Diego’s Ambit and IASO Pharma, & More San Diego Life Sciences News
With San Diego’s Optimer and Conatus Pharmaceuticals successfully raising capital, and Sanderling Ventures reportedly planning to raise a new fund, it would be easy to think that the capital markets are opening a little for the life sciences sector. You decide. —San Diego’s Optimer Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:OPTR]]) completed a secondary public offering of 7.8 million … Continue reading “Optimer Raises $77.6M, Former Sequenom Patent Agent Pleads Guilty, IPO Lineup Includes San Diego’s Ambit and IASO Pharma, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
Burrill’s Bet on Seattle, Yamada Exits Gates Foundation, Stewart Parker’s New Gig, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
This week the Seattle life sciences beat was all people coming and going from high-profile jobs, which may say something about where the action is heading. —Steve Burrill, the biotech jack of all trades from San Francisco, likes to say he’s a “geographic agnostic” when it comes to looking around for the best investments in … Continue reading “Burrill’s Bet on Seattle, Yamada Exits Gates Foundation, Stewart Parker’s New Gig, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
GravityEight: A New Online Hub for Wellbeing and the “Quantified Self”
At 44, I’m starting to understand what’s meant by the old saying that aging is a battle against gravity. But it’s not just tummies, wrinkles, and joints that need more attention as we get older. Holistic health experts say it’s equally important to invest in social connections, lifelong learning, personal finances, spirituality, and other parts … Continue reading “GravityEight: A New Online Hub for Wellbeing and the “Quantified Self””
Boston’s Quiet Startups About to Make Noise: Take the Interview, Open Mile, Locately, and More
I generally hate cocktail parties, but the one at Cambridge, MA-based Performable on Tuesday night was pretty good (you can see some photos here). Not that many VCs were there, which was just as well, because I got to meet tons of entrepreneurs from Boston and beyond, all working on interesting startups. Plus, who knew … Continue reading “Boston’s Quiet Startups About to Make Noise: Take the Interview, Open Mile, Locately, and More”
Michigan’s Angel Investment Tax Credit: Take Two
Let’s do this again. This week, Michigan rolled out Angel 2.0, a three-year, $27 million effort to encourage wealthy individuals to fund promising high startups in the state. “This is a huge deal,” says Paul Brown, vice president of capital markets for the Michigan Economic Development Corp. who’s supervising the program. “Angels had been advocating … Continue reading “Michigan’s Angel Investment Tax Credit: Take Two”
Managing Research as an Investment Portfolio: Lessons from PARC
As part of its transformation from an internal research center to a commercial business, PARC has needed to innovate its business practices, as well as its research and technology. How do we balance the seemingly conflicting goals of long-term research vs. short-term profits, of creating breakthrough innovations vs. providing client services, of diversifying research into many markets vs. developing critical mass in just … Continue reading “Managing Research as an Investment Portfolio: Lessons from PARC”
Aveo Pharma Lands $1.4B Deal with Astellas, A Few Months Ahead of Cancer Trial Result
Aveo Pharmaceuticals has beefed up its cash coffers as it heads into the home stretch of a vitally important clinical test of its lead anti-cancer drug. The Cambridge, MA-based biotech company (NASDAQ:[[ticker:AVEO]]) has struck its largest deal ever with the major Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma. Tokyo-based Astellas is paying Aveo $125 million initially (composed of … Continue reading “Aveo Pharma Lands $1.4B Deal with Astellas, A Few Months Ahead of Cancer Trial Result”
Wetpaint’s Fast-Twitch TV Gossip Grabs 2M Uniques, New Ad Deal With Alloy Digital Network
Seattle-based Wetpaint Entertainment, the social media-obsessed hive of TV fansites, is boasting a big jump in traffic and a new advertising deal to help it capitalize on a coveted demographic. Founder and CEO Ben Elowitz says Wetpaint Entertainment’s sites reached more than 2 million unique users last month, better than double the traffic from December. … Continue reading “Wetpaint’s Fast-Twitch TV Gossip Grabs 2M Uniques, New Ad Deal With Alloy Digital Network”
Crocodoc Rolls Out Embeddable HTML5 Document Viewer; YC Startup Wants to Be “The New Adobe of the Web,” Sans Flash
If you’re a Web geek, you know all about the death match between Flash and HTML5. Even if you’re not, you’ve probably heard at least in passing about the controversy over Adobe’s proprietary video and animation platform, and how Apple won’t provide support for Flash videos on its mobile devices, and how Steve Jobs and … Continue reading “Crocodoc Rolls Out Embeddable HTML5 Document Viewer; YC Startup Wants to Be “The New Adobe of the Web,” Sans Flash”
Mass Customization, Mystery Developers, and Men’s Shirts: Blank Label Returns to Boston
Think you know what a virtual company is? Try having never seen your chief technology officer’s face. Now that’s a virtual company. It’s just one of the quirky things about Blank Label, a “mass customization” startup focused on letting consumers design their own dress shirts from a variety of fabrics and styles. In December 2009, … Continue reading “Mass Customization, Mystery Developers, and Men’s Shirts: Blank Label Returns to Boston”
1000memories, With $2.5M from Greylock and Big-Name Angels, Explores New Ways to Capture Online Memories of the Deceased
Most Silicon Valley startups with the good fortune to line up $2.5 million in Series A venture backing from a blue-chip venture firm like Greylock Partners and famous investors like Ron Conway and Mike Maples would immediately be shouting the news from the rooftops. But the founders at online memorial site 1000memories say they were … Continue reading “1000memories, With $2.5M from Greylock and Big-Name Angels, Explores New Ways to Capture Online Memories of the Deceased”
Genzyme, After Months of Holding Out, Agrees to be Sold to Sanofi-Aventis for $20.1B
It’s been a long time coming, but the sale of Genzyme, the Cambridge, MA-based biotech company, to pharma giant Sanofi-Aventis for $20.1 billion marks a landmark moment in the biotech industry here in Boston and beyond. The deal puts Genzyme, the largest biotech company in Massachusetts, and the fate of 10,000 employees in new hands … Continue reading “Genzyme, After Months of Holding Out, Agrees to be Sold to Sanofi-Aventis for $20.1B”
Green IT: Boston’s Mini-Cluster of Companies Using Hardware, Software, and Web Information Technology to Lower Consumer Energy Usage
The Boston area gets plenty of attention for the software, Web, hardware, and mobile firms it serves as home to. It also has a crop of companies working on renewable energy and efficient battery technology. But it turns out those IT and energy areas aren’t mutually exclusive, as there’s a growing cluster of companies who … Continue reading “Green IT: Boston’s Mini-Cluster of Companies Using Hardware, Software, and Web Information Technology to Lower Consumer Energy Usage”
EcoATM Raises $14.4M for Mass Production of Electronics Recycling Kiosks
EcoATM, the San Diego startup developing automated kiosks for recycling cell phones and other devices, says it has raised a total of $14.4 million in preferred equity and venture debt financing, which the company plans to use to fund commercial manufacturing of its final kiosk design. The Series A venture round was led by Bellevue, … Continue reading “EcoATM Raises $14.4M for Mass Production of Electronics Recycling Kiosks”
Doxo, Aspiring to Become Grand Central for Online Billing, Nabs $10M
Seattle-based “digital file cabinet” service doxo, which wants to torch that stack of paper bills you get every month, is out with a pretty nice one-two punch today. They’ve landed a significant partner in Puget Sound Energy, the largest electric and natural gas utility in the Puget Sound region, along with a $10 million venture … Continue reading “Doxo, Aspiring to Become Grand Central for Online Billing, Nabs $10M”
HP Snaps Up Vertica, TechStars Bags $500K, Skyhook Partners With Intel and Citysearch, & More Boston-Area Deals News
Software, tech, and stealth dominated the week’s deals news. —TechStars Boston, the startup incubator program, raised about a quarter of a planned $2 million funding round. If completed, the round will reportedly support the program through 2014. —Palo Alto, CA-based Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: [[ticker:HPQ]]) acquired Vertica, the Billerica, MA-based database management and analytics software firm, for … Continue reading “HP Snaps Up Vertica, TechStars Bags $500K, Skyhook Partners With Intel and Citysearch, & More Boston-Area Deals News”