Category: National

EMC’s Iomega and Mozy Divisions Offer Combined Desktop and Cloud-Based Backup

As Bob observed in a March story, EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]), the Hopkinton, MA-based information infrastructure and content management firm, is very good at acquiring companies whose technologies fit with its existing technology architecture. But it isn’t so well known for actually melding the technologies from various acquisitions into new products. VMware (NYSE: [[ticker:VMW]]), for example, … Continue reading “EMC’s Iomega and Mozy Divisions Offer Combined Desktop and Cloud-Based Backup”

Collegium Collects $20 Million in Venture Round, Led by Frazier

Collegium Pharmaceutical just got some capital that may make it more difficult for people to abuse narcotic pain medicines. The specialty drugmaker based in Cumberland, RI, said today it raised $20 million in a fourth-round venture financing. Seattle-based Frazier Healthcare Ventures led the investment, which included previous investors Boston Millennia Partners and Westfield Capital Management. … Continue reading “Collegium Collects $20 Million in Venture Round, Led by Frazier”

Daily TIPs: Stones and Rocks and Carbon, Saltwater Farming, Cell Phone Traffic Cop, & More

EBay Case Shows Flaws in Internet Law A ruling this week that eBay isn’t responsible for ensuring that goods are not counterfeit disappointed Tiffany’s, which brought the suit, but cheered the online auction site. But as a piece in the Wall Street Journal points out, the U.S. judge’s decision comes just two weeks after a … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Stones and Rocks and Carbon, Saltwater Farming, Cell Phone Traffic Cop, & More”

Light Sciences Oncology Raises $40 Million for Cancer Trials

The show must go on at Light Sciences Oncology, with or without public investors. The privately-held company in Bellevue, WA, raised $40.1 million in a third-round financing to continue running a pair of final-stage clinical trials of its experimental cancer treatment, which uses a drug activated by light. The company has now raised $137 million … Continue reading “Light Sciences Oncology Raises $40 Million for Cancer Trials”

Even More Greenbacks for Evergreen Solar

Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ESLR]]) of Marlborough, MA, seems to have struck the right tune with its customers. Today the company announced yet another long-term order for its photovoltaic solar panels, this time from German-based IBC Solar. The order, worth $1.2 billion, brings Evergreen’s total contractual backlog to nearly $3 billion. “This contract represents the single … Continue reading “Even More Greenbacks for Evergreen Solar”

Lycos Introduces Drag-and-Drop “Web 2.0 Publishing for the Masses”

Back in May we wrote about the re-launch of Lycos Cinema, which Waltham, MA-based Lycos had tricked out with a new chat interface that lets up to 10 friends in different locations watch and comment on the same movie simultaneously. It turns out that was just the first step in a multi-part strategy to reinvent … Continue reading “Lycos Introduces Drag-and-Drop “Web 2.0 Publishing for the Masses””

T2 Biosystems Diagnostic Holds Its Own In Comparison Against Hospital Tool

T2 Biosystems is putting some punch in a very small package. The company has gotten some early validation for its 8-pound prototype medical diagnostics machine, through a paper published last week in Nature Medicine, which says the T2 instrument performed on par with hefty hospital-based diagnostic tools that are the size of a chest of … Continue reading “T2 Biosystems Diagnostic Holds Its Own In Comparison Against Hospital Tool”

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Raises Another $8.4 Million for Next-Generation RNAi

Investors apparently can’t get enough of RNA interference. Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, a privately-held developer of RNAi drugs in Cambridge, MA, has raised $8.4 million to cap off a first-round venture financing totaling $21.4 million. Dicerna attracted the newest cash from Abingworth, as well as additional funds from Oxford Bioscience Partners and Skyline Ventures, who seeded the … Continue reading “Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Raises Another $8.4 Million for Next-Generation RNAi”

Massachusetts Experts Expect Job Losses in Manufacturing Sector to Level Off, Possibly Reverse

For more than 60 years, the number of jobs in manufacturing has been on the decline in Massachusetts. But that trend is finally at an end, say the authors of a new report, Staying Power: The Future of Manufacturing in Massachusetts. The large employment losses are over because most of the firms that couldn’t survive … Continue reading “Massachusetts Experts Expect Job Losses in Manufacturing Sector to Level Off, Possibly Reverse”

Tips for Getting Acquired (and Acquiring Others), from Eddie Pasatiempo of The Clarion Group

Getting bought out. It’s the exit strategy of choice these days. With the IPO market drying up, venture-backed companies need to get acquired to provide a payout for early investors. Whether it’s Microsoft buying San Francisco-based Powerset or CafePress acquiring Seattle’s Imagekind, there is an art to doing these deals, and startups and big companies … Continue reading “Tips for Getting Acquired (and Acquiring Others), from Eddie Pasatiempo of The Clarion Group”

MediQuest Vying to Get First Drug Across FDA Goal Line, Put Raynaud’s in Your Vocabulary

Punch “Raynaud’s disease” into a simple Google search, and the first site you get is one from the Mayo Clinic that says it’s a condition of limited blood circulation that causes numbness in the fingers and toes in cold temperatures. “For most people, Raynaud’s disease is more a nuisance than a disability,” according to the … Continue reading “MediQuest Vying to Get First Drug Across FDA Goal Line, Put Raynaud’s in Your Vocabulary”

Jeff Bezos and Amazon Are Banking on the Games People Play (on Social Networks)

iPhone, schmy-Phone. While games and other applications developed for Apple’s iPhone have been all the rage for the last few days, there’s another sector worth keeping an eye on: social-network gaming, or games made for online platforms like Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo, which typically need to be played on a desktop or laptop. VentureBeat is … Continue reading “Jeff Bezos and Amazon Are Banking on the Games People Play (on Social Networks)”

With New $9.5 Million Funding Round, ThingMagic Gets a Fix on Smaller RFID Readers

The RFID business is getting hot again. A few weeks ago, Waltham, MA-based RFID software maker OATSystems was gobbled up by New Jersey’s Checkpoint Systems, and last week Greg reported that Seattle-based Impinj had sold off its memory business and bought Intel’s RFID division. Now Cambridge, MA-based ThingMagic, an MIT spinoff that makes hardware for … Continue reading “With New $9.5 Million Funding Round, ThingMagic Gets a Fix on Smaller RFID Readers”

Daily TIPs: Electric Sports Cars, Parking By Cell Phone, Throttling Throttlers, & More

Should Hybrid Cars Have Solar Roofs? Japanese news reports last week said Toyota is designing a plug-in version of its hybrid Prius that would have solar cells mounted on the body to charge the batteries. Technology Review says engineers are testing car-mounted solar arrays as electricity sources for vehicles. Unfortunately, the systems may be too … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Electric Sports Cars, Parking By Cell Phone, Throttling Throttlers, & More”

NeoSaej Collects $7 Million More for MoneyAisle

MoneyAisle.com, a reverse-auction site where lenders compete to offer potential banking customers the highest rates for certificates of deposit and high-yield savings accounts, is getting a big boost from the financial industry itself. NeoSaej, the Burlington, MA-based company behind MoneyAisle (profiled here last month), said today that it has raised over $7 million in new … Continue reading “NeoSaej Collects $7 Million More for MoneyAisle”

GT Solar Sees Brighter IPO Skies; Pfizer, Merck, and Eli Lilly Back Boston Startup; GSI Group Beams out $360M for Excel Technology & More Deals News

Last week must have been a good one, because I’ve got more than $100 million worth of venture financings, along with a couple of other deals, to tell you about. —Merrimack, NH-based GT Solar expanded its 15-month-old IPO plans. Originally targeting a $200 million offering, the manufacturer of solar-cell-making equipment is now aiming for an … Continue reading “GT Solar Sees Brighter IPO Skies; Pfizer, Merck, and Eli Lilly Back Boston Startup; GSI Group Beams out $360M for Excel Technology & More Deals News”

Lee Hood’s Proteges Strike Again: Nanostring Ships Its First Commercial Cell Analyzer

[Updated July 23, 2008, see editor’s note below.] Nanostring Technologies, a company born in the lab of biotech pioneer Leroy Hood, has grown up and is starting to sell a product in the real world. The privately-held maker of gene-analysis tools in Seattle has booked the first sale of its commercial product, and is planning … Continue reading “Lee Hood’s Proteges Strike Again: Nanostring Ships Its First Commercial Cell Analyzer”

Sand 9 Shrinks Electronic Clocks, Expands with $8 Million Round

Two local venture firms, Flybridge Capital Parners and General Catalyst Partners, have joined forces with Khosla Ventures of Menlo Park, CA, and invested in Boston University spin-off Sand 9, a start-up founded in 2006 to develop “nano-mechanical resonators” for wireless devices. Flybridge led the $8 Million A series round. A resonator can be regarded as … Continue reading “Sand 9 Shrinks Electronic Clocks, Expands with $8 Million Round”

Daily TIPs: Fins to Wind, Artificial Photosynthesis, Republicans on Facebook, & More

FDA Approves Intel Health Guide Microprocessor-maker Intel is getting into the high-tech health business: its Health Guide has won approval from the Food and Drug Administration. The device records vital signs and allows for videoconferencing with doctors or nurses in remote locations. Daily Tech says Intel is marketing the device to nursing homes and care … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Fins to Wind, Artificial Photosynthesis, Republicans on Facebook, & More”

Boeing and SkyHook’s Zeppelin-Copter Faces Safety Challenges

OK, so this isn’t technically a Seattle story. But how can we resist a bizarre new flying machine being built by Boeing to travel to the farthest reaches of the Earth? This week, Boeing announced it is teaming up with Calgary, Alberta-based SkyHook to develop a “heavy-lift rotorcraft” that can carry a 40-ton load up … Continue reading “Boeing and SkyHook’s Zeppelin-Copter Faces Safety Challenges”

Alnylam Loses RNAi Patent in Europe; Analyst Says No Worries

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALNY]]) isn’t used to losing patent cases, but it happened yesterday in Europe to one of the company’s RNA interference patents, known as Glover. The company said it plans to appeal. What does it all mean to the Cambridge, MA-based company and its quest to develop new drugs through the gene silencing … Continue reading “Alnylam Loses RNAi Patent in Europe; Analyst Says No Worries”

Momenta Gets Some Mojo As FDA Agrees To Review Application of Generic MS Drug

Shares of Cambridge, MA-based Momenta Pharmaceuticals rose more than 11 percent today after the FDA agreed to review an application filed by its partner, Sandoz, to sell a generic version of Copaxone, a billion-dollar drug for multiple sclerosis. Momenta, (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MNTA]]) doesn’t have any marketed products of its own. So, naturally, the application to market … Continue reading “Momenta Gets Some Mojo As FDA Agrees To Review Application of Generic MS Drug”

You’re Listening to Radio Lab—Or You Should Be

I drove from Boston to northern Michigan last weekend to hang out with my parents over the 4th of July. It’s a 15-hour trek—plus another two or three hours if you forget your passport and you have to go south around Lake Erie instead of straight through Canada. But I didn’t mind the drive, because … Continue reading “You’re Listening to Radio Lab—Or You Should Be”

Spilling the Beans at the Taqueria

When I visited Palo Alto earlier this year, an attorney at a big law firm specializing in intellectual property told me about a mythical eatery in Silicon Valley—Mountain View’s Taqueria La Bamba. At lunchtime, a mix of suits and engineers line up outside the small Tex-Mex restaurant. According to the story, while they are waiting … Continue reading “Spilling the Beans at the Taqueria”

Courion Automates Computer Access To Keep Data Where It’s Supposed to Be

January, 2008: French bank Societe Generale discloses that it has lost $7.1 billion, thanks to unauthorized trading by a single employee, Jerome Kerviel, who apparently breached various controls on access to the bank’s computer systems. March, 2008: UCLA Medical Center fires 13 workers and disciplines a dozen others for snooping in the confidential medical files … Continue reading “Courion Automates Computer Access To Keep Data Where It’s Supposed to Be”

Keep Your Employees Happy (and Your Company Small) and All Goodness Will Flow, Says Founder of Jackson Fish Market

I had a good chat on Monday with Hillel Cooperman, founder of Jackson Fish Market, a Seattle-based startup that builds interesting websites. I had come across Cooperman’s blog last week in which he argued in favor of “bottoms up” management as opposed to the traditional top-down approach in companies. Given Cooperman’s experience—which includes almost 10 … Continue reading “Keep Your Employees Happy (and Your Company Small) and All Goodness Will Flow, Says Founder of Jackson Fish Market”

Impinj Acquires Intel’s RFID Business, Strengthens Hold on Tracking Technologies (Especially Chips)

Last month we reported that Seattle-based Impinj, a prominent maker of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technologies, had sold off its memory business to focus on its core RFID products. Now the company has announced that it is acquiring Intel’s RFID business, which specializes in making chips for smaller-size applications like handheld readers. It’s a “huge step … Continue reading “Impinj Acquires Intel’s RFID Business, Strengthens Hold on Tracking Technologies (Especially Chips)”

Apple Launches iPhone App Store Ahead of Schedule; Boston and Seattle Startups Featured

Apple had promised to unveil the new App Store section of iTunes—where, for the first time, iPhone and iPod Touch owners will be able to get third-party applications for their devices—on July 11, the same day that the new iPhone 3G goes on sale. But in a typical bit of Apple surprise marketing, the App … Continue reading “Apple Launches iPhone App Store Ahead of Schedule; Boston and Seattle Startups Featured”

Daily TIPs: Spam Survives, Where’s Windy, Reduced Voltage, & More

Little Headway Gained Against Spam and Malware A report from Commtouch, a maker of antimalware, says the amount of spam on the Internet remains fairly constant, despite the efforts of companies to counter it. Botnets, in which viruses infect computers and allow them to be used to dispatch spam, continue unabated, says Ars Technica, with … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Spam Survives, Where’s Windy, Reduced Voltage, & More”

From Rags to Riches—Money-Paper Maker Crane Accepts First Investment

Could anything be a more secure investment than buying into the very paper that dollars and a bunch of other currencies are printed on? The over-200-year-old Crane & Co paper mill in Dalton, MA, has manufactured paper for U.S. dollar bills since 1879. Up until now, the company has been family-owned. But in order to … Continue reading “From Rags to Riches—Money-Paper Maker Crane Accepts First Investment”

Spire Aspires to Greater Things with $9 Million Infusion

Spire.com, the Boston-based social networking site for the affluent—not be confused with Bedford, MA-based photovoltaic equipment maker Spire Corporation—said this week that it has raised $9 million in Series A venture financing, in a round led by Hearst Interactive Media, Trident Capital, TL Ventures and private investors. The company, whose network is aimed at high-net-worth … Continue reading “Spire Aspires to Greater Things with $9 Million Infusion”

MIT and Harvard Profs Team with BlackBerry Lawsuit Lawyers in Patent Suit Against Affymetrix—Could MIT Get Caught in the Middle?

It’s an impressive and even intimidating group. Two world-renowned professors, one from MIT, the other from Harvard Medical School; MIT itself; and the lawyers who won a $612 million settlement from Research in Motion, the Blackberry folks. They’ve joined forces in a patent lawsuit, filed without fanfare last week in federal court, against one of … Continue reading “MIT and Harvard Profs Team with BlackBerry Lawsuit Lawyers in Patent Suit Against Affymetrix—Could MIT Get Caught in the Middle?”

Big Drugmakers Pool Resources, Creating New Company Built to Improve R&D

Three of the world’s biggest drugmakers can agree on this—the research and development model for creating new drugs needs a serious kick in the rear. Pfizer, Merck, and Eli Lilly, through a collaboration hatched by Boston-based PureTech Ventures, have agreed to put $39 million into a new Boston company called Enlight Biosciences, whose job will … Continue reading “Big Drugmakers Pool Resources, Creating New Company Built to Improve R&D”

Top-Ranked Web Startups Don’t Get the Most Funding, Says Founder of Sampa

Earlier this week I saw Marcelo Calbucci’s monthly “Seattle Startup Index” on his blog, Seattle 2.0, and I was a bit puzzled. There are 299 local websites on his list, ranked using Alexa and Compete—services that estimate Web traffic numbers by extrapolating from the browsing behavior of users of Alexa and Compete’s toolbars. The top … Continue reading “Top-Ranked Web Startups Don’t Get the Most Funding, Says Founder of Sampa”

Spiration, Uptake Medical Vying to Develop Better Emphysema Treatment

Not many innovations have come along lately for patients with emphysema, a deadly lung disease. There are inhalers, supplemental oxygen, and, if you’re in really bad shape, a risky surgery to cut out damaged lung tissue. Now two competing Seattle-area medical device companies are in the hunt to change the standard of care, with less … Continue reading “Spiration, Uptake Medical Vying to Develop Better Emphysema Treatment”

MIT-Supported Energy Institute at Center of Abu Dhabi’s Dream City

During the last academic year, the entire faculty of a brand new university has enrolled at MIT, immersing themselves in the institute’s culture, values, and way of doing research. They are the staff of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, which will admit its first post-graduate students in 2009. The institute … Continue reading “MIT-Supported Energy Institute at Center of Abu Dhabi’s Dream City”

Cell Therapeutics Gets a Win on Capitol Hill, Zevalin Reimbursement To Remain Same

Cell Therapeutics got its way in Washington DC today. The Senate voted 69-30 in favor of a Medicare bill that includes a provision extending the current reimbursement rate for doctors who prescribe Zevalin, a drug for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which happens to be the Seattle biotech company’s sole marketed product. Medicare had proposed a new reimbursement … Continue reading “Cell Therapeutics Gets a Win on Capitol Hill, Zevalin Reimbursement To Remain Same”

Daily TIPs: Bad Biofuels, Chatty Hospital Machines, Hot LEDs, A Wind-Loving Oilman, & More

Hospitals Want Machines to Talk to One Another Hospitals are taking on a vast array of new high-tech medical devices, but because the machines can’t interface, an opportunity to improve patient care is being lost. Now, Technology Review tells us, the Medical Device Interoperability Program at Massachusetts General Hospital is looking at ways devices can … Continue reading “Daily TIPs: Bad Biofuels, Chatty Hospital Machines, Hot LEDs, A Wind-Loving Oilman, & More”

The Camera is Watching You: VideoIQ Puts Smarts into Surveillance

Even before events like 9/11, the Madrid train bombings, and the London Underground bombings, governments and corporations were busy blanketing outdoor and indoor spaces with networked cameras, reasoning that video surveillance can help security professionals spot criminal activity in progress, or at least get it on tape. But there’s one big problem with the blanket … Continue reading “The Camera is Watching You: VideoIQ Puts Smarts into Surveillance”

A Tribute to Alex d’Arbeloff, Boston Innovator and Visionary

I was very sad to learn that Alex d’Arbeloff, one of the towering figures of New England innovation, passed away yesterday at the age of 80. In 1960, d’Arbeloff founded Teradyne with Nick DeWolf, a classmate from MIT. Working initially in a rented space above a downtown Boston hot dog stand, d’Arbeloff helped build the … Continue reading “A Tribute to Alex d’Arbeloff, Boston Innovator and Visionary”

Look Who’s Coming to the Investment Dinner—Diversity Increasing in Venture Capital, But Barely

The typical venture capital investor is still a white, middle-aged man. But the picture might be changing, albeit at a slow pace, according to a report released yesterday by Dow Jones and the National Venture Capital Association. In fact, the report notes, the percentage of VCs with ethnic backgrounds other than Caucasian is already slightly … Continue reading “Look Who’s Coming to the Investment Dinner—Diversity Increasing in Venture Capital, But Barely”

Genocea Teams With Nonprofit PATH on Vaccine for Children in Developing World

Genocea Biosciences is aiming to upstage the best-selling vaccine ever. The Cambridge, MA-based biotech startup, through funding from Seattle-based PATH, a nonprofit that supports global health technologies, has started pursuing a next-generation pneumococcus vaccine that may offer broader protection to infants in the developing world than Prevnar, a vaccine made by drug giant Wyeth, and … Continue reading “Genocea Teams With Nonprofit PATH on Vaccine for Children in Developing World”

Icahn and Ballmer Strengthen Case for a Microsoft Takeover of Yahoo, but Lose Some Respect

It reminds me of a playground tug-of-war between little kids. Only there’s $40 billion-plus at stake. In any case, the Microsoft-Yahoo battle is heating up again, and this time things could really get nasty. As you might have noticed, there has been a huge flurry of activity and coverage over the past day or so, … Continue reading “Icahn and Ballmer Strengthen Case for a Microsoft Takeover of Yahoo, but Lose Some Respect”

Fidelity Biosciences and Flagship Ventures Back Maker of Smaller, Cheaper Cell Analysis Machines

Accuri Cytometers sees the day coming when every biomedical research lab has a flow cytometer—a high-speed cell analyzer—as a basic tool, alongside microscopes and petri dishes. The company took a step toward its goal today, raising $13 million in a third-round venture financing led by a pair of Cambridge, MA-based venture firms, Fidelity Biosciences and … Continue reading “Fidelity Biosciences and Flagship Ventures Back Maker of Smaller, Cheaper Cell Analysis Machines”

EMC Cloud Chief Takes CEO Reins at VMware; Investors Spooked

In a surprise announcement this morning, Palo Alto, CA-based virtualization software maker VMware (NYSE: [[ticker:VMW]]) said that president and CEO Diane Greene has stepped down, and that Paul Maritz, formerly the director of the nascent cloud computing division at VMware’s parent company, Hopkinton, MA-based EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]), has been appointed to replace her. The company … Continue reading “EMC Cloud Chief Takes CEO Reins at VMware; Investors Spooked”

Private Equity Fundraising Dipped in Year’s First Half, But Still Strong: Venture and Mezzanine Segments Rise

Despite a near complete shutdown of the IPO market, U.S. private equity fundraising remained reasonably strong throughout the first half of this year—185 funds brought in $133 billion, coming in just under last year’s record pace, according to a new report from Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst. The venture capital segment performed particularly well, with … Continue reading “Private Equity Fundraising Dipped in Year’s First Half, But Still Strong: Venture and Mezzanine Segments Rise”