Football season is getting started this week, and I’m pumped. This is the time millions of people test their wits against friends (and strangers) in fantasy football. For fellow biotech nerds who aren’t familiar, this is a little bit like the stock market—you try to pick a diversified portfolio of pro football players who you … Continue reading “Fearless Fantasy Football, Uh, I Mean Biotech, Predictions for the Season Ahead”
Category: Seattle
Association for Women in Science Introduction & Scholarship Awards
The Association for Women in Science will hold its first meeting of the academic year on Sept. 21 to provide an overview of the organization, introduce board members, and present undergraduate scholarship awards. For more information, click here.
Labor Day Friday Bad News Poll Results: Government Jobs Report the Worst Biz News of the Weekend
Well, it turned out that perhaps I was too cynical. On Friday morning, I posted the Labor Day Bad News Poll, pointing out that companies often buried bad news after markets closed on a Friday—and asking readers to predict what type of bad news they expected, if any, on the extra slow Friday before Labor … Continue reading “Labor Day Friday Bad News Poll Results: Government Jobs Report the Worst Biz News of the Weekend”
The March of Radical Innovation: AT&T Buying T-Mobile is Not Just Good—It’s Necessary
In the early 1990s, few short years after I joined McCaw Cellular—then the nation’s largest mobile operator despite not possessing anything close to a national footprint—the Seattle-area company was acquired by New Jersey-headquartered grandfather of telecommunications: AT&T. It was a time of rapid and aggressive technical and business transition. While I could feel the entrepreneurial … Continue reading “The March of Radical Innovation: AT&T Buying T-Mobile is Not Just Good—It’s Necessary”
MyPad and the Coming Facebook Wars on the iPad
Why on earth isn’t there an official Facebook app for the iPad? The social networking giant has had an iPhone app ever since the launch of the iTunes App Store in 2008, and the company says that more than 250 million people access Facebook through mobile devices. Its engineers have tried to make the Facebook … Continue reading “MyPad and the Coming Facebook Wars on the iPad”
The Labor Day Friday Bad News Poll
Any savvy news hound knows that companies love to bury bad news by disclosing it after the close of markets on a Friday. The Friday before a long weekend like Labor Day is especially attractive. That got me wondering what bad news might be coming today. Is there another big CEO shuffle looming, a la … Continue reading “The Labor Day Friday Bad News Poll”
Seattle Snippets: Windows Phone, Expedia, Bungie Aerospace
Fresh Mangoes: HTC, the handset maker with North American headquarters in Bellevue, WA, has unveiled its first phones running on Microsoft’s new “Mango” version of the Windows Phone operating system. The phones are named the Titan and the Radar—guess which one is bigger—and gadget geeks can check out a thorough demo via Engadget, which features … Continue reading “Seattle Snippets: Windows Phone, Expedia, Bungie Aerospace”
Why Governments Don’t Get Startups–Or, Why There’s Only One Silicon Valley
Not understanding and agreeing what “entrepreneur” and “startup” mean can sink an entire country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. I’m getting ready to go overseas to teach, and I’ve spent the last week reviewing several countries’ ambitious attempts to kick-start entrepreneurship. After poring through stacks of reports, white papers and position papers, I’ve come to a couple of … Continue reading “Why Governments Don’t Get Startups–Or, Why There’s Only One Silicon Valley”
Xconomist of the Week: Bob Langer’s Advice for Turning Foundation and Government Money into Startup Success
Yesterday, Selecta Biosciences—one of many companies founded by MIT professor and entrepreneur Bob Langer—announced that it had received a subcontract from the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) to develop a vaccine against malaria. The financial details weren’t released, but the initiative is part of a $76.5 million contract SAIC has with the National Institutes of … Continue reading “Xconomist of the Week: Bob Langer’s Advice for Turning Foundation and Government Money into Startup Success”
Medrad Acquires Pathway Medical Technologies for Undisclosed Sum
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=fe10a821-6d6b-471f-a40e-be752d550156&Preview=1 Date 9/1/2011 Company Name Pathway Medical Technologies Mailing Address 10801 120th Ave NE Kirkland, WA 98033 Company Description Pathway Medical Technologies, Inc. (Pathway), located in Redmond, Washington was founded in 1998 to design, develop and manufacture innovative medical devices intended for the treatment of arterial disease. The company’s initial focus is … Continue reading “Medrad Acquires Pathway Medical Technologies for Undisclosed Sum”
Decoding the DOJ’s Lawsuit Against the AT&T and T-Mobile Merger
The federal government has put its foot on AT&T’s proposed $39 billion buyout of Bellevue, WA-based T-Mobile USA, filing a lawsuit today that yanks the merger away from regulators at the Federal Communications Comission and puts the whole thing in the court system. If the Justice Department has its way, that’s where the story will … Continue reading “Decoding the DOJ’s Lawsuit Against the AT&T and T-Mobile Merger”
Decide’s Hunt for New-Gadget Rumors Points to the Future of Smarter Search
Oren Etzioni is getting a little impatient. More than dozen years after Google emerged from Stanford and set up shop in a California garage, the University of Washington professor and artificial intelligence expert says Internet search still isn’t evolving fast enough. Right now, as Etzioni recently wrote in Nature, the list of links coughed up … Continue reading “Decide’s Hunt for New-Gadget Rumors Points to the Future of Smarter Search”
Viableware Enters Pay-at-Table Wars
Paying for your restaurant tab by handing a credit card over to the server is suddenly sounding so last-decade, now that startups are starting to attack the restaurant payment game with new devices and technologies. I guess it shouldn’t be much of a surprise with the spread of powerful mobile computing, novel payment devices like Square, … Continue reading “Viableware Enters Pay-at-Table Wars”
Amnis to Be Acquired by EMD Millipore of Merck KGaA
Some news from the world of life sciences equipment makers today. EMD Millipore, the Billerica, MA-based subsidiary of German pharmaceutical and chemical giant Merck KGaA, has agreed to acquire Seattle-based Amnis for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. Millipore was bought by Merck KGaA for … Continue reading “Amnis to Be Acquired by EMD Millipore of Merck KGaA”
Computing in the Age of the $1,000 Genome: Speakers from Wired, Fortune Join All-Star Lineup
Some amazing, and potentially disturbing, things could happen when scientists are able to sequence a person’s entire genome for $1,000 and in less than a day’s work. The technology is heading in that direction, fast. So I’m excited to announce today that a few more big thinkers on DNA sequencing technology and its societal implications … Continue reading “Computing in the Age of the $1,000 Genome: Speakers from Wired, Fortune Join All-Star Lineup”
SEOmoz, Jobs, Zillow: Your 1-Minute Guide to the Past Week in Seattle Tech
Rand Fishkin, the CEO of Seattle search-marketing software company SEOmoz, is known for his extensive blog posts that lift the curtain on running a startup company. But the amount of transparency he showed recently wowed even longtime observers, as Fishkin laid out an extremely open tale of a possible new round of venture capital. We … Continue reading “SEOmoz, Jobs, Zillow: Your 1-Minute Guide to the Past Week in Seattle Tech”
Tamarac Receives $1,670,000 New Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=5df676df-5c38-43cc-85ea-e3b509aca58a&Preview=1 Date 8/30/2011 Company Name Tamarac Mailing Address 811 First Avenue Seattle, WA 98104 Company Description A web-based Investment Strategy Management PlatformTM that automates portfolio rebalancing, cash management and directed trading Website http://www.tamaracinc.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $1,670,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. SEC regulatory … Continue reading “Tamarac Receives $1,670,000 New Funding Round”
EMD Millipore Acquires Amnis for Undisclosed Sum
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=1a33f3a3-1da3-418b-9ded-b2260f9d69a3&Preview=1 Date 8/30/2011 Company Name Amnis Mailing Address 2505 Third Avenue Seattle, WA 98121 Company Description Amnis Corporation has created the ImageStream Cell Analysis System, a breakthrough technology for high speed imaging and analysis of cells in flow. The system is a next generation instrument that combines the power of microscopy and … Continue reading “EMD Millipore Acquires Amnis for Undisclosed Sum”
The Startup Genome Compass
What makes startups succeed or fail? More than 90 percent of startups fail, due primarily to self-destruction rather than competition. For the less than 10 percent of startups that do succeed, most encounter several near death experiences along the way. Simply put, while we now have some good theory, we just are not very good … Continue reading “The Startup Genome Compass”
SEOmoz’s Disappearing VC Round: Transparency on Another Level
One of the most well-documented entrepreneurial sagas out there just got even more interesting. Rand Fishkin, the co-founder and CEO of Seattle search-marketing firm SEOmoz, has updated his extremely transparent journey toward a possible second venture capital round with a disappointing final note: The $24 million deal fell through at the last moment, after a … Continue reading “SEOmoz’s Disappearing VC Round: Transparency on Another Level”
Maveron Promotes Former Zynga Exec
Andrew Trader, an early executive at social-game juggernaut Zynga, has been promoted to venture partner at Maveron, the consumer-focused venture capital firm of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. Trader started working with Maveron as an entrepreneur in residence since last fall. Trader was part of what’s been called the founding team at Zynga, where he focused … Continue reading “Maveron Promotes Former Zynga Exec”
Qliance Adds 2 New Clinics
Seattle-based Qliance Medical Management, the primary care medical provider that accepts monthly fees instead of health insurance, said today it is adding two new clinics to its network in Western Washington—one in Tacoma and another in Mill Creek. The company, backed with investments by Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell, and Drew Carey, already has offices in … Continue reading “Qliance Adds 2 New Clinics”
Zymeworks Snags $187M Deal With Merck to Discover Multi-Pronged Antibodies
Merck has made plain that it needs to elevate its game in biotech drug development, and that means turning to partners for help. The latest chapter in this ongoing story is now unfolding at a little company called Zymeworks in Vancouver, BC. Zymeworks is announcing today it has secured a partnership with Whitehouse Station, NJ-based … Continue reading “Zymeworks Snags $187M Deal With Merck to Discover Multi-Pronged Antibodies”
The Fall of Pfizer: How Big is Too Big for Pharma Innovation?
There are big companies out there—Apple, Google, Amazon—that most people today would consider innovative developers of new products. But can a company that seeks to create new drugs get too big to innovate? Is there something about life sciences that requires it to stay small if it wants to create? The question has been on … Continue reading “The Fall of Pfizer: How Big is Too Big for Pharma Innovation?”
Dendreon Wins FDA OK for Atlanta Provenge Factory, Completing National Network
Seattle-based Dendreon has stumbled in early sales and marketing of its new prostate cancer drug, but the company has gone 3-for-3 in its effort to build a national network of manufacturing centers for the novel product. Dendreon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DNDN]]) said today it has received FDA clearance to start producing sipuleucel-T (Provenge) from a new factory … Continue reading “Dendreon Wins FDA OK for Atlanta Provenge Factory, Completing National Network”
What Comes After Flickr? The Future of Photos in the Cloud
It’s unclear how much damage Hurricane Irene will deal out as it travels up the Eastern Seaboard this weekend, but in the British Virgin Islands, it’s already caused one notable loss. Lightning from the storm sparked a fire that destroyed the home of Sir Richard Branson, who lost thousands of irreplaceable photographs in the blaze. … Continue reading “What Comes After Flickr? The Future of Photos in the Cloud”
Centri Technology Lands $1,502,790 Series A Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=65e1cab5-701d-43a9-8777-bd6089f7392d&Preview=1 Date 8/26/2011 Company Name Centri Technology Mailing Address 411 First Avenue South Seattle, WA 98104 Company Description Centri Technology develops a broad suite of solutions that make it possible for mobile phones to download files, access the Internet and send emails at speeds three times as fast as the current standard. … Continue reading “Centri Technology Lands $1,502,790 Series A Financing”
Steve Jobs Calling: The Stuff of Customer Service Legend
Kevin Pedraja will be the first to admit he was just spouting off. Back in 2000, after an infuriating runaround with Apple about cracks in the plastic case of his shiny new Power Mac G4 Cube, Pedraja finally lost it and faxed a letter to Steve Jobs, threatening to use his professional PR skills to … Continue reading “Steve Jobs Calling: The Stuff of Customer Service Legend”
Xconomist of the Week: Sakti3’s Sastry on How to Succeed in Cleantech
Xconomy readers are no doubt familiar with Ann Marie Sastry. She’s the co-founder of Sakti3, a next-generation lithium-ion battery development company, and a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan. Sakti3’s battery has already attracted deep-pocketed investors such as Khosla, General Motors, and Beringea. In April, the company’s solid-state batteries made the MIT Technology Review’s … Continue reading “Xconomist of the Week: Sakti3’s Sastry on How to Succeed in Cleantech”
SEOmoz’s Fishkin: The Most Transparent Fundraising Saga Ever?
Rand Fishkin is not what you’d call a shy person. As the co-founder and CEO of Seattle search-marketing firm SEOmoz, Fishkin is a near-constant presence on almost any content channel you can think of. It’s good for his company, but unlike some other Internet oversharers, Fishkin also puts a premium on high-quality content. So, when … Continue reading “SEOmoz’s Fishkin: The Most Transparent Fundraising Saga Ever?”
Seattle Genetics’ Market Debut, Pathway Gets Bought, Theraclone’s Latest Trick Against HIV, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
Seattle Genetics made waves both locally and nationally this week with an FDA approval that’s a historic step for the antibody drug business, and raises some interesting questions about the economics of cancer. —Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]) nailed down FDA approval of its first product on Friday. The drug, brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) is designed to … Continue reading “Seattle Genetics’ Market Debut, Pathway Gets Bought, Theraclone’s Latest Trick Against HIV, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
Zillow Finds Profit in First Earnings Since IPO
[Updated at 4 pm Pacific] Real-estate website operator Zillow (NASDAQ: [[ticker:Z]]), which went public in late July, reached profitability in the second quarter on revenues of $15.8 million, more than double the sales of a year earlier. The Seattle company’s net income for the quarter was $1.6 million. A year earlier, it had lost $2 million. … Continue reading “Zillow Finds Profit in First Earnings Since IPO”
Cleantech Summer Schmoozefest
The Washington Clean Technology Alliance is holding its waterfront summer schmoozefest from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm on August 25. For more information on how to register, click here.
Inrix’s $37M Led July Equity Deals in WA; Varolii, Lucid Commerce, PayScale, Yapta Follow
Traffic-data company Inrix‘s $37 million investment round easily outpaced all other deals to top July’s $93 million tally of Washington state equity financing deals in technology, cleantech and life sciences, according to data compiled by our partners at CB Insights. Two companies tied for second place with $8 million, while PayScale came in fourth and Yapta’s … Continue reading “Inrix’s $37M Led July Equity Deals in WA; Varolii, Lucid Commerce, PayScale, Yapta Follow”
How Google+ Could Transform Healthcare & Medicine
This post was co-authored by Rich Whalley, an associate at CBT Advisors. What could Google do if it had access to everyone’s health data? You’re probably already thinking a few things: 1. There’s no way I’m giving Google my personal health data. 2. Didn’t Google already try to do this with Google Health? 3. Won’t this … Continue reading “How Google+ Could Transform Healthcare & Medicine”
San Diego’s Michael Robertson, MP3tunes, Claim ’99 Percent’ Win in Fight Over Cloud Music
A federal judge in New York has largely rebuffed a request for summary judgment in a copyright infringement case that Capitol Records and its parent EMI Music Group filed in 2007 against MP3tunes, the San Diego-based provider of cloud-based music services. MP3tunes founder Michael Robertson, who previously founded San Diego’s MP3.com (and became a pariah … Continue reading “San Diego’s Michael Robertson, MP3tunes, Claim ’99 Percent’ Win in Fight Over Cloud Music”
Microsoft, Medify, Evo Media: Your 1-Minute Week in Seattle Tech Headlines
Hewlett-Packard‘s surprise exit from the mobile computing business roiled the tech world last week—and its effects will be wide-ranging for a long time. Here in the Seattle area, the change cements Microsoft (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MSFT]]) as “the vital new underdog” in mobile computing, as Xconomy’s Wade Roush wrote in the latest edition of his weekly column. … Continue reading “Microsoft, Medify, Evo Media: Your 1-Minute Week in Seattle Tech Headlines”
Motricity CEO Wuerch Out
Ryan Wuerch is out as CEO of Motricity (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MOTR]]) and is no longer on the board, the company announced today. Motricity said Wuerch’s termination was “mutually agreed,” but it gave no reason for the change. President and chief operating officer Jim Smith was named interim CEO, and is being considered for the permanent position … Continue reading “Motricity CEO Wuerch Out”
Laser Maker nLight Adds $17.5M, Mulls IPO
Semiconductor laser manufacturer nLight Corp. is heading toward a possible public stock offering after completing a $17.5 million round of venture financing from existing investors. In an interview with VentureWire, chief financial officer Dave Schaezler said nLight is “at a size where it makes sense to plan for an IPO,” although the Vancouver, WA-based company doesn’t … Continue reading “Laser Maker nLight Adds $17.5M, Mulls IPO”
Video: Seattle Genetics CEO Makes the Case for a $100K Cancer Drug
Seattle Genetics is making news all over the Web today, in the first full business day since it won FDA approval for its new targeted antibody drug for rare lymphomas. While the drug won FDA approval a little bit earlier than expected, the company kept everyone in suspense until today on one critical fact—how much … Continue reading “Video: Seattle Genetics CEO Makes the Case for a $100K Cancer Drug”
Seattle Genetics Sets Lymphoma Drug Price at $13,500 Per Dose
Seattle Genetics is now in position to start selling its first new drug, and it won’t be cheap. The Bothell, WA-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]), fresh off its FDA approval of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) on Friday, said it will charge $13,500 per dose for the new drug for Hodgkin’s lymphoma and a related disease, anaplastic … Continue reading “Seattle Genetics Sets Lymphoma Drug Price at $13,500 Per Dose”
Dendreon Adds Ex-ImClone CEO to Board
Seattle-based Dendreon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DNDN]]) said today it has named John H. Johnson, the CEO of East Brunswick, NJ-based Savient Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SVNT]]). Johnson was previously the head of Eli Lilly’s oncology business unit, and the CEO of ImClone Systems, the cancer drug developer, when it was acquired by Lilly for more than $6.5 billion in … Continue reading “Dendreon Adds Ex-ImClone CEO to Board”
Medify, Stocked with Farecast Vets, Digs Deep into Online Health Data
Saving money on a flight to visit your sick grandma is pretty easy these days. Finding out whether her doctor is using the latest treatment is another thing entirely. And piercing that veil in the healthcare delivery system is exactly what Seattle startup Medify is trying to do. The airfare comparison is no accident, by … Continue reading “Medify, Stocked with Farecast Vets, Digs Deep into Online Health Data”
Seattle Genetics: The Next Litmus Test for High Priced Cancer Drugs
[Update: 9:20 am ET] Dendreon ran into a buzz saw of opposition last year when it priced its new prostate cancer drug at $93,000 per patient. Genentech has loads of critics who say it has overreached on price with its antibody drugs for cancer, especially in cases where the data supporting the drug is controversial, … Continue reading “Seattle Genetics: The Next Litmus Test for High Priced Cancer Drugs”
Seattle Genetics Wins FDA Approval of First Drug, a New Treatment for Lymphomas
Seattle Genetics’ big day has arrived, as it has won FDA clearance to start selling its first new drug on the U.S. market after 14 years in business. The company has received FDA clearance to start marketing brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) as a new treatment for U.S. patients with a pair of rare lymphomas—Hodgkin’s disease and … Continue reading “Seattle Genetics Wins FDA Approval of First Drug, a New Treatment for Lymphomas”
Why All the Churn Around Clearwire? It’s All About the Spectrum
It’s been quite a month so far for Kirkland, WA’s Clearwire (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CLWR]]), and that would be true even if the markets weren’t riding out an anxiety-fueled funnel cloud that has hammered plenty of technology stocks. Then again, turbulence is nothing new to Clearwire overall—the company has been plowing ahead with a huge makeover in … Continue reading “Why All the Churn Around Clearwire? It’s All About the Spectrum”
And Then There Were Three: Why Microsoft Is the Vital New Underdog in Mobile Computing
Hewlett-Packard’s surprise exit from the smartphone and tablet business yesterday means that WebOS is effectively dead. That brings Palm’s long legacy to an end and leaves just four major mobile operating systems standing: Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS, and Windows Mobile/Windows Phone 7. (Symbian would have been on this list until recently, but now that Nokia … Continue reading “And Then There Were Three: Why Microsoft Is the Vital New Underdog in Mobile Computing”
Exclusive: Pathway Medical Technologies To Be Acquired by Bayer’s Medrad Unit for $125M
[Update:8:25 am PT] Pathway Medical Technologies, the Kirkland, WA-based maker of a device that clears out blood vessel blockages in the legs, has agreed to be acquired for $125 million by Medrad, a Warrendale, PA-based medical device unit of Bayer Healthcare, Xconomy has learned. The acquisition hasn’t yet been announced by either company, and the … Continue reading “Exclusive: Pathway Medical Technologies To Be Acquired by Bayer’s Medrad Unit for $125M”
Software Industry Valuations Rise, Driven by Demand for Software-as-a-Service
Global spending on information and communications technologies is fueling higher valuations for public software companies, according to a quarterly report released by the San Diego-based Software Equity Group. Much of that increased spending, however, reflects an intensifying demand for cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS), as big-company CIOs increasingly accept the notion of … Continue reading “Software Industry Valuations Rise, Driven by Demand for Software-as-a-Service”
Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine Meeting: WBBA Event
The Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association is planning a half-day conference on stem cells and regenerative medicine on Sept. 20 in Seattle. For more information on how to register, click here.