In the fascinating maelstrom that is Google in China, one thing is clear: this affects all of us. It’s not about whether Google’s decision to draw a line in the sand is based on ideals versus profits. It’s not about whether the Chinese government will open up its Internet policies and play ball with the … Continue reading “Google in China: Ex-Microsoft VP Kai-Fu Lee’s Past Report Might Point to What Went Wrong”
Category: Seattle
Intellectual Ventures Hires New President
Bellevue, WA-based Intellectual Ventures announced this week it has hired Adriane M. Brown as president and chief operating officer, responsible for day-to-day operations. She succeeds Edward Jung, the Intellectual Ventures co-founder, who is returning to his role as chief technology officer. Brown was most recently senior vice president of energy strategy at Honeywell International, and … Continue reading “Intellectual Ventures Hires New President”
Oneforty Opens Twitter App Store for Business, Details Funding from Boston, Seattle, and Bay Area Investors
Starting today, developers of Twitter applications who list their apps at oneforty, the burgeoning Twitter app directory based in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood, can also sell their apps directly to oneforty visitors. That makes oneforty into the first true Twitter app store—a development that could help stimulate the growth of a substantial marketplace for applications related … Continue reading “Oneforty Opens Twitter App Store for Business, Details Funding from Boston, Seattle, and Bay Area Investors”
VentiRx Nabs $25M, Gilead Deepens Seattle Roots, Sage Strikes Deal With Pfizer & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
Hope sprang eternal at this year’s JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, the annual kickoff event for the biotech industry. A few Seattle biotech companies offered some reasons for people to think a little hope may be justified. —VentiRx Pharmaceuticals said it raised $25 million to further develop its drugs that stimulate the innate immune system against … Continue reading “VentiRx Nabs $25M, Gilead Deepens Seattle Roots, Sage Strikes Deal With Pfizer & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
Going nuTsie: Melodeo Looks to Beat Apple to the Punch with New Cloud-Based Music Service
Things have been crazy busy over at Melodeo for the past month. I don’t think any of those guys took time off during the holidays this year. As I detailed in a story earlier this week, the Seattle-based company has been ramping up its long-standing efforts in cloud-based music delivery ever since Apple acquired its … Continue reading “Going nuTsie: Melodeo Looks to Beat Apple to the Punch with New Cloud-Based Music Service”
Genomic Advances of the 2000s Will Demand an Informatics Revolution in the 2010s
We have witnessed some of most striking technological and scientific innovations in humankind during the first decade of the new millennium. While such claims perhaps seem cliché in an age where the media constantly report on new findings that really do not warrant our full attention, several discoveries and innovations in the recent history of … Continue reading “Genomic Advances of the 2000s Will Demand an Informatics Revolution in the 2010s”
Avnera Corporation Garners $10,000,000 Series D Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=d5ec330b-c765-42e1-8e75-89a71319c11c&Preview=1 Date 1/14/2010 Company Name Avnera Corporation Mailing Address 16505 NW Bethany Ct Beaverton, OR 97006 Company Description Avnera is a fabless semiconductor company founded in June 2004 in Beaverton, Oregon. It has pioneered a new semiconductor technology enabling breakthrough products for wireless audio and Voice-over-IP (VoIP) applications that remove the pain-points … Continue reading “Avnera Corporation Garners $10,000,000 Series D Financing”
RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser Steps Down
Rob Glaser, the founder and chief executive of Seattle-based RealNetworks, has stepped down, according to a company statement. Glaser will remain chairman of the board. “After nearly 16 years, I’ve decided it’s time for me to step away from day-to-day operations,” Glaser said in a statement. “I’m grateful to all of our stakeholders—customers, partners, shareholders, … Continue reading “RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser Steps Down”
Visible Technologies Tracks Down $22M for Global Expansion
Things are really heating up for Visible Technologies. The Bellevue, WA-based maker of software to help companies monitor social media and manage their online reputations announced today it has raised a Series C funding round worth $22 million. The round was led by a new investor—Investor Growth Capital (IGC), the growth-stage venture arm of Investor … Continue reading “Visible Technologies Tracks Down $22M for Global Expansion”
Big Fish Expands Deal with PlayFirst
Seattle-based Big Fish Games, a developer, publisher, and distributor of casual video games, has expanded its existing strategic partnership with San Francisco-based PlayFirst. As of today, Big Fish will provide e-commerce and customer support services for PlayFirst’s game distribution portal, while PlayFirst gets access to Big Fish’s catalog of games. Financial terms weren’t given, but … Continue reading “Big Fish Expands Deal with PlayFirst”
Where the Jobs Are: PayScale Lands New Board Member, Exposes Three Trends in Human Capital
Whether you’re a startup founder, Fortune 500 executive, or average Joe on the street, everyone is wondering what 2010 will look like for jobs and compensation. Indications so far are not good. Unemployment rates are sky-high. Salary freezes are still rampant. At the same time, nobody can seem to agree on how to pay executives … Continue reading “Where the Jobs Are: PayScale Lands New Board Member, Exposes Three Trends in Human Capital”
Targeted Genetics Exits Nasdaq
Targeted Genetics, the Seattle-based developer of gene therapies that went public back in 1994, said today it has decided to allow its stock (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TGEN]]) to be delisted from the Nasdaq in order to conserve cash. The company has the equivalent of just six full-time employees, and the company is planning to further reduce costs … Continue reading “Targeted Genetics Exits Nasdaq”
Gilead Deepens Roots in Seattle, Seeks Long-Term Payoff From Lung Disease Research
Gilead Sciences spent $365 million to get a toehold in Seattle back in 2006, and so far, it has zero U.S. product sales to show for it. That’s made investors antsy, but it hasn’t deterred the world’s second-most valuable biotech company from continuing to bet big on Seattle as part of its plan to diversify … Continue reading “Gilead Deepens Roots in Seattle, Seeks Long-Term Payoff From Lung Disease Research”
Achieving New Heights in Energy Efficiency in 2010
If 2009 was the year that energy efficiency was elevated from a “nice-to-have” to a “must-have,” then 2010 will be the year that we go from talking about energy efficiency to actually doing something about it. In 2009, everyone was talking about efficiency and the impact it can have on the green economy. Remember President … Continue reading “Achieving New Heights in Energy Efficiency in 2010”
Visible Technologies Secures $22,000,000 Series C Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=5185be87-62af-413e-ac98-35c7d9785db4&Preview=1 Date 1/13/2010 Company Name Visible Technologies Mailing Address 3535 Factoria Blvd SE Bellevue, WA 98006 Company Description Visible Technologies empowers companies to track, analyze and participate in consumer-generated media to drive their business forward. Their innovative TruCast™ platform is the industry’s first complete solution for social media analysis and participation. Visible … Continue reading “Visible Technologies Secures $22,000,000 Series C Funding”
DataSphere and Halosource Get Funded, Sage Signs Up Pfizer, Zymo Raises $90M, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
2010 is off to a pretty fast start in terms of Northwest deals. We’ve already seen a lot of action in biotech, software, and cleantech. —Seattle-based InstantService, a provider of live chat services, was acquired by Art Technology Group (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ARTG]]) of Cambridge, MA, an e-commerce software firm, for $17 million in cash, as Wade … Continue reading “DataSphere and Halosource Get Funded, Sage Signs Up Pfizer, Zymo Raises $90M, & More Seattle-Area Deals News”
Melodeo, Making Big Push in Online Music, Eyes Apple in the Cloud
OK, so you’re a small, profitable tech company in the digital media sector. Your closest competitor just got acquired by Apple. Now Steve Jobs is encroaching on your territory. How do you want to play it? That’s the situation Seattle-based Melodeo faces after Apple paid a reported $85 million last month to buy online music … Continue reading “Melodeo, Making Big Push in Online Music, Eyes Apple in the Cloud”
Gearing up for a Bicoastal Smackdown: Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands 3 Coming February 4
Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands has become a welcome wintertime ritual in Cambridge: every January or February we get a bunch of loud, enthusiastic musicians together with a loud, enthusiastic crowd at the Middle East Night Club for a night of hot tunes, bravura performances, and audience voting. But this year—on February 4, to … Continue reading “Gearing up for a Bicoastal Smackdown: Xconomy’s Battle of the Tech Bands 3 Coming February 4”
Buerk Dale Victor Renamed Montlake Capital
Seattle-based venture capital and private equity firm Buerk Dale Victor announced today it has changed its name to Montlake Capital. The new name recognizes the firm’s evolution from a local partnership (founded in 1999) to a regional investment team with partners in Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Idaho. Montlake Capital has $100 million under management, and … Continue reading “Buerk Dale Victor Renamed Montlake Capital”
VentiRx Nabs $25M for Cancer, Allergy Drugs
VentiRx Pharmaceuticals has raised a venti-sized load of new cash. The San Diego and Seattle-based company that’s developing drugs to amplify the body’s innate immune system to fight cancer and allergies has pulled in $25 million through a new round of financing. The deal is technically described as an extension of a $26.6 million Series … Continue reading “VentiRx Nabs $25M for Cancer, Allergy Drugs”
Be of Good Cheer in New Year, All Ye Entrepreneurs and Startup Founders
The National Venture Capital Association recently released a member survey that predicted: —In 2010 there will be fewer VC firms —Surviving VCs will spend most of their remaining funds on existing investments, and —Leftover funding will focus investments mostly on later-stage deals It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that things are looking very grim for … Continue reading “Be of Good Cheer in New Year, All Ye Entrepreneurs and Startup Founders”
Flurry of Early Stage Internet Deals Highlight Q4 VC Activity; Investments Slip to $5.5B
Venture investing settled in a bit during the fourth quarter of 2009, but the analysts at ChubbyBrain, the New York firm providing the data, are encouraged by the overall mix, saying, “optimism, albeit of the cautious variety, seems to have found its way back.” While the total amount of venture capital investments during the quarter … Continue reading “Flurry of Early Stage Internet Deals Highlight Q4 VC Activity; Investments Slip to $5.5B”
SpectraWatt Lands $12,000,000 New Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=fc5a5747-8f25-4e2a-a3a8-9c31fad7756c&Preview=1 Date 1/12/2010 Company Name SpectraWatt Mailing Address 7175 NW Evergreen Pkwy Hillsboro, OR 97124 Company Description SpectraWatt will manufacture and supply photovoltaic cells to solar module makers. In addition to focusing on advanced solar cell technologies, SpectraWatt will concentrate development efforts on improvements in current manufacturing processes and capabilities to reduce … Continue reading “SpectraWatt Lands $12,000,000 New Financing”
ZymoGenetics Closes $90M Deal
ZymoGenetics, the Seattle-based biotech company, said today its underwriters have exercised their options to buy all the shares they were granted, bringing its net proceeds from the latest offering to $90.9 million. Investors and underwriters bought a total of 16.1 million shares at $6 apiece, ZymoGenetics said. The money will be used to support R&D, … Continue reading “ZymoGenetics Closes $90M Deal”
Sage Bionetworks Strikes Deal With Pfizer to Find Cancer Drug Targets
Sage Bionetworks, the Seattle-based nonprofit seeking to spark a movement toward open-source style sharing of biological data, is announcing today it has secured a partnership with Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. Financial terms, and the length of the collaboration, aren’t being disclosed. But the deal will bring in enough cash for Sage to add … Continue reading “Sage Bionetworks Strikes Deal With Pfizer to Find Cancer Drug Targets”
DreamBox, Gist, VholdR Among WTIA Finalists
The Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) announced today the finalists for its 15th annual Industry Achievement Awards on March 4. Among the nominees are DreamBox Learning, Gist, and VholdR (for breakthrough startup of the year); Cheezburger Network, Cozi, and Picnik (for consumer product); Apptio, Concur, and Talyst (for commercial product); and Neah Power Systems, Pathway … Continue reading “DreamBox, Gist, VholdR Among WTIA Finalists”
Jive Posts Record Revenue
Portland, OR-based Jive Software, a maker of social business software, posted an 85 percent increase in full-year revenue in 2009 as compared with the previous year, according to a blog post today from CEO Dave Hersh. That made 2009 “the most successful year in Jive’s history,” and the company was cash-flow positive for the year, … Continue reading “Jive Posts Record Revenue”
SonoSite Plans $100M Stock Buyback
SonoSite (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SONO]]), the Bothell, WA-based developer of portable ultrasound machines, said today it is planning to use $100 million of cash to buy back some of its outstanding stock through an auction process starting next week. Shareholders will have an opportunity to tender their shares at prices between $26.10 and $30 a share, the … Continue reading “SonoSite Plans $100M Stock Buyback”
Fund-Raising By U.S. Venture Capital Funds Fell 55% in 2009: We Have the Boston, San Diego, and Seattle Details, Too
It’s probably not much consolation for the entrepreneurs who tried to raise venture funding last year, but U.S. venture capital firms raised much less money from their institutional investors in 2009 than they have in recent years. New figures from Dow Jones LP Source show that fund-raising by venture firms in 2009 fell almost 55 … Continue reading “Fund-Raising By U.S. Venture Capital Funds Fell 55% in 2009: We Have the Boston, San Diego, and Seattle Details, Too”
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s Unique Take on Startup Hiring and Culture
What’s more annoying than a 24-year-old who sells his company to Microsoft for $265 million and never has to work another day in his life? Easy. When that same guy sells his next company to Amazon.com for more than $1 billion. OK, so it took 10 more years of hard work, but Tony Hsieh, now … Continue reading “Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s Unique Take on Startup Hiring and Culture”
See You at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference
It’s mid-January, and in biotech that means only one thing—it’s time for the annual industry pilgrimage known as the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference. I’m here as always, attending the meeting in San Francisco’s Union Square that draws most of this fragmented industry’s major investors, biotech executives, and pharma dealmakers in one place for a frenzy … Continue reading “See You at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference”
The Intellectual Property Century
Great technology improvements over the past decade have proven again that innovation serves as the best currency for progress against our greatest challenges. Terrific new tools and applications in information technology have been on display everywhere during the holidays; green tech ideas abound offering great promise; and even in the more prolonged R&D world of … Continue reading “The Intellectual Property Century”
Alder Rival Wins FDA Approval
[Correction: 1/11/10, 9:15 am Pacific, with distinction between IL-6 and IL-6 receptor.] Genentech, the U.S.-based unit of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, said the FDA has granted clearance to start selling a new drug for rheumatoid arthritis. The treatment, tocilizumab (Actemra), is the first approved antibody engineered to block the receptor for an inflammatory protein called … Continue reading “Alder Rival Wins FDA Approval”
UW Bioengineering Talk on New, Low Cost Diagnostics to Improve Global Health
Paul Yager, Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington, will discuss methods to improve global health through engineered technologies. This talk will focus on engineering new low-cost diagnostic technologies that can bring rapid high-quality analysis of biological fluids to people anywhere. For more information, click here.
SBRI’s Passport to Global Health: Keynote from Hans Rosling, the “Zen Master of Statistics”
Hans Rosling, a doctor and researcher dubbed the “Zen Master of Statistics” will be the featured speaker on March 25 at this year’s Passport to Global Health fundraising event for the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. For more information on the event, click here.
Zino Green Investment Forum
The 4th annual ZINO Green Investment Forum is being held on March 4. This year’s event will feature 15 entrepreneurs in the areas of clean tech, green IT, energy efficiency and sustainable products and services. Presenting companies are early-stage or are seeking expansion capital in the $250K-$5M range. For more information, click here.
State of Technology Luncheon: Clayton Christensen, Author of The Innovator’s Dilemma
Clayton Christensen, the bestselling author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, will be the featured speaker at this year’s State of Technology Luncheon organized by the Technology Alliance on May 17. For more information, click here.
Science & Technology Discovery Series: Debbie Nickerson on Genomics
Dr. Debbie Nickerson, a leader in medical sequencing of cardiovascular, blood and lung diseases, will be the featured speaker on April 9 at the Technology Alliance’s Science & Technology Discovery Series. Nickerson has been named as one of the principal investigators for the newly formed Northwest Genomics Center at the University of Washington. The Center … Continue reading “Science & Technology Discovery Series: Debbie Nickerson on Genomics”
Science & Technology Discovery Series: PNNL’s J. Michael Davis on Renewable Energy
J. Michael Davis, the associate laboratory director, in the Energy and Environment Directorate of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will be the featured speaker on March 12 at the Technology Alliance’s Science & Technology Discovery Series. Davis is known nationally as a key resource in the areas of hydrogen, power grid, renewable energy and energy … Continue reading “Science & Technology Discovery Series: PNNL’s J. Michael Davis on Renewable Energy”
Domesticating Global Health 2: “Doctor Ready” Innovations in Domestic Personalized Medicines
[Updated: 2/5/2010, 2:46 pm Pacific, with new starting time]. On February 10, the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association is organizing the second event in a four-part series on Domesticating Global Health. All sessions will be approximately 2 hours and paneled by 3 to 4 topic experts. Lisa Cohen, Director of the Global Health Alliance, a … Continue reading “Domesticating Global Health 2: “Doctor Ready” Innovations in Domestic Personalized Medicines”
From Academia to Industry: WBBA Event
The Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association is organizing an event February 24 on how scientists can make the career transition from academia to industry. Mike Gallatin of Calistoga Pharmaceuticals, Jonathan Drachman of Seattle Genetics, and Kenneth Ferguson of Imvaxyn will speak on a panel moderated by Ulrich Mueller of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. … Continue reading “From Academia to Industry: WBBA Event”
Fourth Annual Science & Technology Showcase at UW
The University of Washington’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) and the Science and Engineering Business Association (SEBA), are organizing the fourth annual Science & Technology Showcase on January 14. The goal is to bring together students from multiple disciplines on campus and businesspeople from the community. Students from science and engineering will exhibit their … Continue reading “Fourth Annual Science & Technology Showcase at UW”
Kineta Collects $942K
Kineta, a Seattle-based company developing treatments for viral infections and autoimmune diseases, has raised $942,000 in the form of equity, debt, and options from 25 investors, according to a regulatory filing. The company pulled in a bigger sum in November, garnering about half of a $13 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, in … Continue reading “Kineta Collects $942K”
Kineta Garners $942,000 New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=81717cce-eb18-4425-9bcd-2eee8d5a0b7d&Preview=1 Date 1/9/2010 Company Name Kineta Mailing Address 307 Westlake Ave North Seattle, WA 98109 Company Description Kineta Inc. was formed in December 2007 by a group of scientists who are globally recognized for several breakthrough discoveries about the human immune system and the body’s reaction to the Hepatitis C virus. Through … Continue reading “Kineta Garners $942,000 New Financing Round”
MIT MBA Students: Amazon, Google, and T-Mobile Are Hiring, Expedia Isn’t; Microsoft “Super Interesting,” Apple Is “Sterile”
[Updated 3:30pm 1/9/10 with clarification (see below)] If you want to know which companies are looking to hire top young business talent around town, just ask the group of 20 or so first-year MBA students from MIT Sloan School of Management. The students from Cambridge, MA, are in Seattle this week looking to make contacts … Continue reading “MIT MBA Students: Amazon, Google, and T-Mobile Are Hiring, Expedia Isn’t; Microsoft “Super Interesting,” Apple Is “Sterile””
Five Disruptive Biotech Ideas to Watch in the Coming Decade
It was a remarkable decade. There were so many advances in biotech during the first decade of the millennium that it is hard to choose the most important ones so I’d prefer to focus on five transformational biotechnologies coming in the future. 1. Who would have guessed that by the end of the decade, what … Continue reading “Five Disruptive Biotech Ideas to Watch in the Coming Decade”
Tablet Fever: How Apple Could Go Where No Computer Maker Has Gone Before
After a steady crescendo over the last several years, the talk in the mediasphere about a new tablet computer from Apple has reached deafening proportions. With an actual product announcement now expected on January 27 (at least, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cites “sources in a position to know”), Apple may finally be … Continue reading “Tablet Fever: How Apple Could Go Where No Computer Maker Has Gone Before”
ISB Wins Top Scientific Impact Rank
The Institute for Systems Biology, a Seattle-based research center known for its entrepreneurial activity, was ranked No. 1 among all U.S. research institutions and No. 3 worldwide in terms of the impact of its scientific publications, according to an analysis by Spain-based SCImago Research Group. The impact ranking was based on an institution’s total research … Continue reading “ISB Wins Top Scientific Impact Rank”
Of Slates, Tablets, and Kindles: The Most Important Message of CES 2010
Lost amidst the cacophony of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is a simple message. It has nothing to do with what Microsoft did or didn’t announce—for example, some upcoming “slate PCs,” but no foldable book-like tablet or other rumored gadgetry. It has nothing to do with Google’s Nexus One “superphone,” with HTC and … Continue reading “Of Slates, Tablets, and Kindles: The Most Important Message of CES 2010”
Alder Rises from Ashes, Seattle Genetics Gets Empowered, ZymoGenetics Nets $79M & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
The New Year kicked off with a lot of exclusive biotech news and features, and next week will be even busier when I’m attending next week’s JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. —Alder Biopharmaceuticals was one of the Seattle biotech companies that emerged in 2009, but few people realize what humble beginnings it had … Continue reading “Alder Rises from Ashes, Seattle Genetics Gets Empowered, ZymoGenetics Nets $79M & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”