Mellmo, which makes mobile software for visualizing business intelligence data, just keeps expanding the capabilities of its Roambi graphics display applications for the iPhone and iPad. The Del Mar, CA-based startup announced two weeks ago that it has integrated Roambi with Oracle’s suite of business intelligence products. So the Roambi enterprise server, which connects to … Continue reading “Mellmo’s Mobile Visualization Technology for Business Data Gets More Versatile”
Category: National
LookSmart Still Isn’t Dead; Finds New Role “Mining Diamonds from the Dirt” in the World of Second-Tier Search Engines
When a public relations group in San Francisco contacted me to see if I’d be interested in meeting with an executive at LookSmart, my first reaction was “LookSmart? They’re still in business?” I’d known people at the 13-year-old company back in the dot-com era, after it went public on the NASDAQ ([[ticker:LOOK]]), won big contracts … Continue reading “LookSmart Still Isn’t Dead; Finds New Role “Mining Diamonds from the Dirt” in the World of Second-Tier Search Engines”
Sanofi-Aventis Launches Hostile Takeover Bid For Genzyme
The French drug giant Sanofi-Aventis’s quest to buy the struggling biotech Genzyme has officially turned ugly. This morning Sanofi (NYSE:[[ticker:SNY]]) went directly to the shareholders of Cambridge, MA-based Genzyme (NASDAQ:[[ticker:GENZ]]) with a tender offer of $69 per share, or $18.5 billion total, in a bid to seize control of the biotech company’s lucrative business of … Continue reading “Sanofi-Aventis Launches Hostile Takeover Bid For Genzyme”
Entropic Raises $99M, SDSU’s VizLab Pioneers Web-Based Disaster Maps, Avalon Raises $161M for 9th Fund, & More San Diego BizTech News
The Connect Innovation Report that was released last week shows that San Diego’s innovation economy is a mix of contrary signals. We also saw a number of tech sector deals, and we’ve got it all wrapped up for you here. —San Diego’s Entropic Communications (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ENTR]], which makes semiconductors for home entertainment networks, raised $99.1 … Continue reading “Entropic Raises $99M, SDSU’s VizLab Pioneers Web-Based Disaster Maps, Avalon Raises $161M for 9th Fund, & More San Diego BizTech News”
Fifteen Green Companies Compete For Finalist Slots at the Cleantech Open Today
Today is the day many in the in the local cleantech community have been waiting for. The Cleantech Open, a national business plan competition for clean technology and energy startups, plans to announce the Pacific Northwest regional finalists at the Bell Harbor Conference Center at Pier 66 in Seattle this evening. This event will bring … Continue reading “Fifteen Green Companies Compete For Finalist Slots at the Cleantech Open Today”
One Laptop Gets $5.6M Grant From Marvell to Develop Next Generation Tablet Computer
The One Laptop per Child Foundation and Santa Clara, CA-based semiconductor maker Marvell have cemented a partnership announced last spring, with Marvell agreeing to provide OLPC with $5.6 million to fund development of its next generation tablet computer, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte tells me. Negroponte says the deal, signed in the past week or so … Continue reading “One Laptop Gets $5.6M Grant From Marvell to Develop Next Generation Tablet Computer”
Vega Therapeutics, With Roots in Michigan and San Diego, Aims High in Fight Against Diabetes
Classic elements of a big biotech story are brewing in a little startup in South San Francisco called Vega Therapeutics. There’s leading-edge science from big names at the University of Michigan and UC San Diego. A proven management team from the Bay Area. If everything comes together, there is potential to shake up the standard … Continue reading “Vega Therapeutics, With Roots in Michigan and San Diego, Aims High in Fight Against Diabetes”
The Grand Challenge of Innovation
Recently, the X Prize Foundation awarded a total of $10 million to three companies at the forefront of building the world’s most efficient cars. It was the culmination of a competition that began in 2008 with 111 teams and was pared down to nine finalists. The competition was rigorous: it demanded teams to engineer and … Continue reading “The Grand Challenge of Innovation”
Innovative Pulmonary Solutions Snags $3M to Treat Lung Diseases
Bellevue, WA-based Innovative Pulmonary Solutions has raised $3 million to pursue its vision of a new way of helping people with common lung disorders to breathe better. The company raised $3 million in new equity out of a financing round that could be worth as much as $8 million, according to a regulatory filing. The … Continue reading “Innovative Pulmonary Solutions Snags $3M to Treat Lung Diseases”
Life Technologies’ Recent Deals Reflect $100M Initiative in Synthetic Biology
Back on May 28th, Carlsbad, CA-based Life Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LIFE]]) said it had agreed to pay approximately $47 million in cash to acquire a 74 percent stake in Geneart, a German company that specializes in making synthetic genes. Less than a week later, Life announced that it had made an undisclosed investment (which later turned … Continue reading “Life Technologies’ Recent Deals Reflect $100M Initiative in Synthetic Biology”
Introducing Your High-Tech Startup: An Irreverent Guide
You shape the view that others hold of your company via either one-to-one interactions or one-to-many interactions. Of course, the one-to-one interactions in business meetings and social settings are the most potent, because you have both quantity and quality of attention. But this doesn’t scale well. Another reason that personal one-to-one contact is so effective … Continue reading “Introducing Your High-Tech Startup: An Irreverent Guide”
Boston vs. NYC vs. Silicon Valley? Forget It—The Real City of Innovation Is Everywhere
In William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk masterpiece Neuromancer, the hero Case lives in a near-future place called BAMA—the Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis, aka the Sprawl, a giant city that has spread Coruscant-like across the whole eastern seaboard. (If it had extended to Orlando, maybe Gibson could have called it OBAMA.) But while this part of Gibson’s sci-fi … Continue reading “Boston vs. NYC vs. Silicon Valley? Forget It—The Real City of Innovation Is Everywhere”
Embryonic Stem Cell Research Foe, Tracy Deisher, Seeks to Market Pro-Life Vaccines
The woman who helped bring the U.S. embryonic stem cell research enterprise to a standstill for a couple weeks this summer is also a Seattle biotech entrepreneur who wants to create what she calls the first pro-life vaccine company. Theresa “Tracy” Deisher, a Stanford-trained molecular physiologist, made national news in late August as one of … Continue reading “Embryonic Stem Cell Research Foe, Tracy Deisher, Seeks to Market Pro-Life Vaccines”
The Top 20 Tech & Biotech Stories From Xconomy San Francisco’s First Quarter
It’s hard to believe, but we have now closed the book on our first full quarter of publishing Xconomy San Francisco. It’s fair to say that a little over three months ago, Wade and I were a teensy bit fired up about this new opportunity to cover the world capital of innovation. How are we … Continue reading “The Top 20 Tech & Biotech Stories From Xconomy San Francisco’s First Quarter”
Novel Seeks to Marry Casual Games With MMOs in “Empire & State”
I have never played a massively multiplayer online (MMO) video game. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I played World of Warcraft once. In college. I was experimenting. But that was it, I never got hooked. I guess I failed to see the point of getting so invested in the virtual world, when I could barely … Continue reading “Novel Seeks to Marry Casual Games With MMOs in “Empire & State””
Xconomy Boston’s Top 20 Stories of the Third Quarter: From A123 Expansion to Zynga Acquisition
The third quarter of 2010 is going out with a monsoon in New England. It seems like a good time to hole up indoors and look back at some of the top stories we’ve done at Xconomy Boston over the past three months. These are our editors’ picks. They aren’t necessarily the ones that got … Continue reading “Xconomy Boston’s Top 20 Stories of the Third Quarter: From A123 Expansion to Zynga Acquisition”
Merck Ends Aveo Deal, Acceleron Rides Pharma Partnership Wave, Rhythmia Raises $5M, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
The birth and death of partnerships was the subject of much of this week’s news in New England’s life sciences sector. —Rhythmia Medical raised $5 million in an equity offering that could end up being worth $7 million, according to a regulatory filing, bringing the Burlington, MA-based startup’s total funding to $17 million. Rhythmia is … Continue reading “Merck Ends Aveo Deal, Acceleron Rides Pharma Partnership Wave, Rhythmia Raises $5M, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
Our Top 20 Stories of the Third Quarter: What’s Making Waves in the NW’s Tech and Biotech Sectors
Last week marked my three-month anniversary here at Xconomy, and as I reflected on my time here so far (which just happens to coincide almost perfectly with the third quarter), I realized there have been so many interesting stories—and important ones at that—that even I have forgotten about. It’s hard to keep up with news, … Continue reading “Our Top 20 Stories of the Third Quarter: What’s Making Waves in the NW’s Tech and Biotech Sectors”
TechSmith Takes Long Road to the Top in Screen Capture and Recording Software
“Why not have a high-tech company in Michigan?” This is the question Bill Hamilton asks of those incredulous of the possibilities of success of a software company based in Okemos, MI. Hamilton, an Ann Arbor native, started TechSmith in 1988, and the company, best known for its screen-capture software, has weathered the challenges of a … Continue reading “TechSmith Takes Long Road to the Top in Screen Capture and Recording Software”
NPario Shows EA How to Track and Target Consumers Across Web, Mobile, Social, Internet TV, and Game Consoles
It’s a big week for nPario. The young Redmond, WA- and Palo Alto, CA-based startup is using technology developed at Yahoo to help businesses study media consumers who hop incessantly between their PCs, tablet devices, smartphones, game consoles, and Internet-connected TVs, then target them with the right ads on the right platforms. It’s had one … Continue reading “NPario Shows EA How to Track and Target Consumers Across Web, Mobile, Social, Internet TV, and Game Consoles”
Avalon Still Raising Capital After Landing $161M for Ninth Fund
Avalon Ventures, the San Diego-based venture capital firm founded by Kevin Kinsella, has surpassed its targeted minimum fund-raising goal for its ninth venture fund. After closing on a significant investment in the fund yesterday, Avalon Ventures IX now stands at $161 million, according to Kinsella. These days, it is practically headline news when a San … Continue reading “Avalon Still Raising Capital After Landing $161M for Ninth Fund”
Cypress Rejects Ramius—Again, Federal Health Sciences Funding at 2-Year High, Opthonix Raising More Venture Capital, & More San Diego Life Sciences News
An economic report shows federal funding for medical research has become a substantial factor in fueling the innovation economy in San Diego. And as if on cue, the National Cancer Institute issued a couple of grants here. We have the rest of your life sciences news in queue here: —The board at San Diego’s Cypress … Continue reading “Cypress Rejects Ramius—Again, Federal Health Sciences Funding at 2-Year High, Opthonix Raising More Venture Capital, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
Lantos Technologies and MIT’s Doug Hart Aim for Encore to Big Exit at Brontes
Shahid Azim met me at the front door of his new 3D ear-canal imaging startup, Lantos Technologies, earlier this week. The walls were barren, and the space was mostly devoid of furniture. But when I peeked through one of the office doorways, I spotted the Cambridge, MA, startup’s academic founder, Doug Hart, who is way … Continue reading “Lantos Technologies and MIT’s Doug Hart Aim for Encore to Big Exit at Brontes”
Necessity is the Mother of Stratification: Personalized Medicine is Getting Real
Joe Stanta of eyeforpharma organized a Personalized and Translational Medicine conference last week for people who are directly involved with making personalized medicine a reality. What was especially refreshing about the conference was a healthy balance of prognosticators and practitioners—with the majority of speakers representing the latter. I came away from this conference with the … Continue reading “Necessity is the Mother of Stratification: Personalized Medicine is Getting Real”
Babson MBA Program Boldly Expands to San Francisco, Where Entrepreneurship Goes “90 Miles Per Hour”
If you’ve spent much time around Boston, you know that the name Babson College is pretty much synonymous with “entrepreneurship.” Centered in Babson Park, MA, adjacent to suburban Wellesley, Babson’s MBA programs seem to churn out startup founders at a rate that’s far out of proportion to the school’s size (1,600 graduate students) or its … Continue reading “Babson MBA Program Boldly Expands to San Francisco, Where Entrepreneurship Goes “90 Miles Per Hour””
Seattle Genetics’ Home Run, Acucela Growing Ties to Japan, Calistoga’s Wall Street Guy, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
This was the week that one of the mainstays of Seattle biotech, after a dozen years, confirmed that it has developed its first drug with real commercial legs. —Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]), the company mentioned above, released some truly remarkable data from the pivotal trial of its “empowered antibody” for Hodgkin’s disease. This drug, brentuximab … Continue reading “Seattle Genetics’ Home Run, Acucela Growing Ties to Japan, Calistoga’s Wall Street Guy, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos Talks Rock Band 3, Entrepreneur Advice, and What’s Next for the Firm
After you’ve saved rock and roll, what do you do for an encore? OK, Harmonix Music Systems’ chief executive Alex Rigopulos might disagree with that premise, but it’s a valid question for his company. The answer, for now, seems to be Rock Band 3, the newest release in the hit videogame franchise, which will roll … Continue reading “Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos Talks Rock Band 3, Entrepreneur Advice, and What’s Next for the Firm”
Opthonix Raises $5.4M
Vista, CA-based Ophthonix, which has developed a laser-based diagnostic machine to precisely measure eyes for its proprietary iZon corrective lenses, has raised almost $5.4 million of a targeted $12.1 million financing round involving equity, rights, and securities, according to a regulatory filing. Ophthonix sells its diagnostic machine, the Z-View Aberrometer, to eye doctors. It also … Continue reading “Opthonix Raises $5.4M”
Evri Expands Mobile Offerings Beyond Tech News to Sports, Music, and Celebrity Gossip
Evri is going mobile in a big way. The Seattle- and San Francisco-based information discovery website backed by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital introduced an Android app called EvriThing Tech back in May, taking advantage of the startup’s semantic search technology to help on-the-go tech news addicts track the latest developments on subtopics from gadgets to … Continue reading “Evri Expands Mobile Offerings Beyond Tech News to Sports, Music, and Celebrity Gossip”
Amazon’s Top Techie, Werner Vogels, on How Web Services Follows the Retail Playbook
Amazon.com doesn’t like being labeled simply as an e-retail company. To understand the trajectory it has taken over 15 years, and where it’s going in the future, one of the company’s senior executives says, you need to look at how it uses technology as a means to serve customers in retail and in business. “Amazon, … Continue reading “Amazon’s Top Techie, Werner Vogels, on How Web Services Follows the Retail Playbook”
Amyris Raises $85 Million in IPO
Emeryville, CA-based Amyris Biotechnologies is unusual in several respects. One of the synthetic biology company’s first big projects, back in 2005, was a non-profit venture with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to engineer microbes to produce artemisinin, an anti-malarial drug. (It handed off that work to pharmaceuticals giant Sanofi-Aventis in 2008.) Then the company … Continue reading “Amyris Raises $85 Million in IPO”
San Diego’s Wildfire Experience Provides an Edge in Disaster-Tracking Tech
Octobers have been cruel to San Diego. The infamous Cedar Fire started on a Saturday evening, Oct. 25, 2003, and raced more than 30 miles from the Cleveland National Forest into the San Diego suburbs by the next morning. The firestorm destroyed 2,232 homes and killed 15 people before it was contained nine days later. … Continue reading “San Diego’s Wildfire Experience Provides an Edge in Disaster-Tracking Tech”
ZymoGenetics Melanoma Drug Shows Survival Data, Adding More Juice to Bristol’s Pipeline
ZymoGenetics has some shareholders out there wondering if the company has agreed to be acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb for too low of a price. Today there’s a small, but potentially important piece of data that might make a few more investors pause about whether now is really the time to sell. The Seattle-based biotech company … Continue reading “ZymoGenetics Melanoma Drug Shows Survival Data, Adding More Juice to Bristol’s Pipeline”
Dana Farber Gets $33M from Sanofi, Astellas Backs DecImmune, Ironwood Sells Microbia, & More Boston-Area Deals News
The past week has kept us buzzing with news of funding rounds for startups in the cleantech, biotech, software, and Internet spaces. —Cambridge, MA-based Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IRWD]]) sold its biomanufacturing unit, Mircrobia, to Dutch chemical giant Royal DSM. The purchaser did not reveal how much it paid for Lexington, MA-based Microbia, which designs microbes … Continue reading “Dana Farber Gets $33M from Sanofi, Astellas Backs DecImmune, Ironwood Sells Microbia, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
Washington Startups Bring in $59M in August, Healthcare, Internet, and Software Sectors Dominate Deals
Every month we compile all of the deals at Washington tech and biotech companies into one story where we watch up and coming trends in local financing. Unlike our regular investment coverage and weekly deals roundups, these monthly features give us a chance to look at both the large investments that usually make news, alongside … Continue reading “Washington Startups Bring in $59M in August, Healthcare, Internet, and Software Sectors Dominate Deals”
What’s Next for Car Connectivity? Notes From the Future of GM’s OnStar
The only time I’ve visited General Motors’ OnStar operation, its bustling command center was out in Troy, MI, a long way from its current site at GM headquarters in downtown Detroit’s Renaissance Center. That was nine years and about four million subscribers ago (OnStar now has 5.7 million subscribers, compared to 1.7 million in 2001 … Continue reading “What’s Next for Car Connectivity? Notes From the Future of GM’s OnStar”
Second to Market isn’t Always Second Best
About a year ago, I had the opportunity to hear Paul English, the CTO and Co-Founder of Kayak.com, speak. In his chat, Paul focused a great deal on ruthless efficiency and excellent customer experience. He wowed the crowd with stories of answering his own customer service calls, getting feedback on Kayak’s new iPhone application from … Continue reading “Second to Market isn’t Always Second Best”
Startup Ligon Discovery Lands Bayer Schering for First Deal with Major Pharma
Ligon Discovery has its first large pharmaceutical partner, a big deal for any biotech but especially for a company that spun out of an academic lab just 16 months ago. Cambridge, MA-based Ligon is announcing today it has inked a deal with Germany-based drugmaker Bayer Schering Pharma. The deal calls for Ligon to use drug-screening … Continue reading “Startup Ligon Discovery Lands Bayer Schering for First Deal with Major Pharma”
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh on Selling to Amazon Vs. Microsoft, Fixing His Biggest Mistakes, and Why Harvard Entrepreneurs Go West
What do Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Tony Hsieh have in common? That’s right, they all went to Harvard. And they have all run billion-dollar companies. Unlike Bill G. and Zuck, though, Hsieh actually graduated, in 1995. The CEO of Zappos, the Las Vegas-based online shoe retailer now owned by Amazon.com, was in Boston yesterday … Continue reading “Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh on Selling to Amazon Vs. Microsoft, Fixing His Biggest Mistakes, and Why Harvard Entrepreneurs Go West”
Cypress Bio Rejects Buyout Again, Calls Offer Opportunistic, Undervalued
[Updated 9/28/10 2:05 pm. See below.] There’s little surprise in the announcement today by San Diego’s Cypress Bioscience (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CYPB]]), which says its board of directors has “unanimously rejected” the slightly higher buyout offer that Ramius Value and Opportunity Advisors made two weeks ago. But Cypress is doing a far better job in explaining itself, … Continue reading “Cypress Bio Rejects Buyout Again, Calls Offer Opportunistic, Undervalued”
MIT Cancer Research Star Tyler Jacks Takes Closing Keynote Role at Xconomy Forum
We like to sweeten the pot around here, adding world-class speakers to our Xconomy Forums every chance we get. And today I’m psyched to announce that Tyler Jacks, a world-renowned scientist and director of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, will be joining us as the closing keynote speaker at … Continue reading “MIT Cancer Research Star Tyler Jacks Takes Closing Keynote Role at Xconomy Forum”
San Diego Report on Innovation Economy Still Shows Mixed Picture of Economic Recovery
The Connect Innovation Report is not exactly timely—the report on San Diego’s innovation economy for the second quarter that ended June 30th was released just yesterday. But the almost 40-page report offers a more comprehensive overview than the more immediate picture we get from venture capital investments in San Diego startups during the quarter. The … Continue reading “San Diego Report on Innovation Economy Still Shows Mixed Picture of Economic Recovery”
NextBio Finds Profit at Intersection Between Public and Private Genomic Data
Bioinformatics was a buzzword at the beginning of the genomic era about a decade ago, but it has become a dirty word today. It’s sort of like shorthand for a highly fragmented cottage industry that seeks to analyze biological data, in which no one seems to make money. But whatever you want to call it, … Continue reading “NextBio Finds Profit at Intersection Between Public and Private Genomic Data”
Episend, Almost A Year Old, Enables Interactive File Sharing In The Cloud
While managing the websites for the retail giant TJX, Richard DiBona encountered the pain of missing important files because they were too big to be sent through e-mail. “With email and attachments, there’s no way of knowing that it failed most of the time,” he says. “It goes into oblivion and you hope for the … Continue reading “Episend, Almost A Year Old, Enables Interactive File Sharing In The Cloud”
Verve Wireless Gets $7M in Round Led by BlueRun Ventures
Encinitas, CA-based Verve Wireless, whose technology lets newspapers and other media companies publish their content and serve ads across a variety of mobile devices, says today it has raised $7 million in venture funding led by BlueRun Ventures of Menlo Park, CA. The Associated Press news service, a previous investor in Verve, joined in the … Continue reading “Verve Wireless Gets $7M in Round Led by BlueRun Ventures”
ProNAi Therapeutics Advances Gene-Silencing Cancer Drug, Marina Biotech Provides Delivery Package
A quiet competitor in the gene-silencing game has surfaced with good news. Kalamazoo, MI-based ProNAi Therapeutics says that it’s started to treat cancer patients with its first experimental DNA interference drug, which is essentially made to specifically silence disease at the fundamental level of DNA. And the firm is relying on molecules from Bothell, WA-based … Continue reading “ProNAi Therapeutics Advances Gene-Silencing Cancer Drug, Marina Biotech Provides Delivery Package”
Box.net Creates “News Feed” for Business Documents in the Cloud, Takes On Microsoft in Collaborative Software
If you live or work in Silicon Valley, you’ve probably driven past the Box.net billboard on U.S. 101, near the Ralston Avenue exit (aka the Oracle exit). It says “No Hardware. No Software. No SharePoint.” A brazen dig at Microsoft, the billboard makes the point that Box.net’s system for sharing business documents works in the … Continue reading “Box.net Creates “News Feed” for Business Documents in the Cloud, Takes On Microsoft in Collaborative Software”
Bonanzle Changes Name to Bonanza, Verizon Wireless Partners with Ground Truth and Urban Airship, Brammo Nabs $12.5 M, and More Seattle-Area Deals News
Though there were only a handful of actual financing deals and partnerships for Northwest companies over the last week, the technology sector definitely made some strides toward laying the groundwork for future investment. Take a look at the highlights: —Seattle-based online marketplace for rare and out of the ordinary items, Bonanzle, changed its name to … Continue reading “Bonanzle Changes Name to Bonanza, Verizon Wireless Partners with Ground Truth and Urban Airship, Brammo Nabs $12.5 M, and More Seattle-Area Deals News”
Acceleron Weans Itself Off VC, Continues its Roll with Pharma Partner Dollars
Acceleron Pharma is in an enviable position among its biotech peers. Instead of relying on venture capital in a time when the VC well has been running dry, the Cambridge, MA-based firm has been supporting its operations primarily with cash from its pharmaceutical company partners. And now Acceleron has found prospects for additional deals with … Continue reading “Acceleron Weans Itself Off VC, Continues its Roll with Pharma Partner Dollars”
Northwest Energy Angels Executive Director Margo Shiroyama on Her First Six Months, and the Future of the NW Cleantech Scene
After years in the technology industry, Margo Shiroyama recently made the transition to cleantech. As the new executive director of the Northwest Energy Angels, Margo spends her days meeting with potential investors, coordinating with local cleantech companies, and brainstorming ways to marry the financial side of the industry with the innovation side. “You’re working during … Continue reading “Northwest Energy Angels Executive Director Margo Shiroyama on Her First Six Months, and the Future of the NW Cleantech Scene”