Burlington, MA-based iRobot (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IRBT]]) has made two announcements in as many days, touching on both sides of its business, military robots and home robots. On the military side, iRobot said Monday that it has received an award to design and develop robots for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s LANdroids program. LANdroids (the LAN … Continue reading “Latest Signals from iRobot: One If By Land, Two If By Pool”
Angel Groups Give a Tentative Thumbs Up to 2008 Outlook
Greater Boston ranks as a startup haven. And there are few, if any, places in the country where more and better-organized angel investor groups exist. So the news that even with a recession looming (or already here), angels around the country are expressing cautious optimism about the startup scene for 2008 should perk up some … Continue reading “Angel Groups Give a Tentative Thumbs Up to 2008 Outlook”
EveryScape Obtains $7,000,000 Series B Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=02a7cdd3-a7dc-4001-8e7f-22b1551946e1&Preview=1 Date 3/4/2008 Company Name EveryScape Mailing Address 716 Main Street, 2nd Floor Waltham, MA 02451 Company Description EveryScape, Inc. is creating The Real World Online through a visual platform for local search that creates a virtual experience of all metropolitan, suburban and rural areas. EveryScape will ultimately let users share their … Continue reading “EveryScape Obtains $7,000,000 Series B Round”
Bottomline Buys Optio for $45M
Portsmouth, NH-based Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ:[[ticker:EPAY]]), a provider of invoice, payment, and document automation software for banks and other financial institutions, announced today that it has reached a deal to add Alpharetta, GA-based Optio Software to its own bottom line for $44.9 million. Optio makes software to improve “the efficiency of document-intensive processes,” according to a … Continue reading “Bottomline Buys Optio for $45M”
Boston’s Compete Bought by UK Market Research Firm for Up to $150 Million
With more and more users, transactions, and advertising dollars moving to the Web, the ability to understand exactly what people do online is at an unprecedented premium. Which probably played no small part in U.K.-based market research behemoth Taylor Nelson Sofres’s (TNS) decision, announced today, to acquire Boston’s Compete for up to $150 million. Compete … Continue reading “Boston’s Compete Bought by UK Market Research Firm for Up to $150 Million”
Acquia Previews Drupal’s Commercial Twin
As we reported in December, the popular open-source Web publishing system Drupal has a new corporate home, Boston-based Acquia, where Drupal originator Dries Buytaert has joined as CTO. Today at the Drupalcon conference at Boston’s Convention and Expo Center, the company unveiled more details about its promised plans for a commercially-supported version of Drupal. Code-named … Continue reading “Acquia Previews Drupal’s Commercial Twin”
Mzinga’s Tempest of Growth Sweeps Up Prospero
Mzinga, the Burlington, MA, online community management company we profiled in December, announced today that it has raised $32.5 million in new venture financing and acquired Littleton, MA-based Prospero. Like Mzinga, Prospero sells online community applications such as message boards, blogs, wikis, polls, and chat interfaces that are used by a growing number of companies … Continue reading “Mzinga’s Tempest of Growth Sweeps Up Prospero”
Driving Innovation in Greater Boston: It’s All About the Bump and Connect
In studying why Boston has been a center of innovation for nearly four centuries, the Boston History & Innovation Collaborative has identified a set of drivers which came up in all eras, in all types of innovation (technical, medical, and social). Deep historical research on more than 60 cases, conducted with funding from the Massachusetts … Continue reading “Driving Innovation in Greater Boston: It’s All About the Bump and Connect”
With Kalido’s Drag-and-Drop Data Warehouse Customization, “Business Intelligence” Is No Longer an Oxymoron
I’d like to explain what’s cool about Kalido, a Burlington, MA, software company spun off five years ago by Royal Dutch Shell, but let’s start with a story about beer. Labatt Breweries is Canada’s largest beer producer, brewing 60 brands of ale and distributing them in stores, bars, and restaurants across the great North. Because … Continue reading “With Kalido’s Drag-and-Drop Data Warehouse Customization, “Business Intelligence” Is No Longer an Oxymoron”
Novell Gets Into Virtualization, 38 Studios Gets Into Virtual Worlds, Mascoma Raises Some Real Money, & More
Things have been eerily quiet on the venture front lately—and then there was the Mascoma deal. Dare we dream that that, combined with Clarus Venture’s juicy new life sciences fund, bodes better for the coming months? More on those, and the rest of last week’s deals, below. —East Coast/West Coast Life sciences venture firm Clarus … Continue reading “Novell Gets Into Virtualization, 38 Studios Gets Into Virtual Worlds, Mascoma Raises Some Real Money, & More”
Mzinga Obtains $32,500,000 New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=0dd80802-0f1e-4a3e-b969-62542a902cba&Preview=1 Date 3/3/2008 Company Name Mzinga Mailing Address 154 Middlesex Turnpike Burlington, ME 01803 Company Description Mzinga is the leading provider of business social media solutions to drive growth, innovation, and learning. Its combination of highly scalable technology, rich domain expertise, and moderation services enables businesses to harness the collective intelligence of … Continue reading “Mzinga Obtains $32,500,000 New Financing Round”
Taylor Nelson Sofres Acquires Compete Inc. for $75,000,000
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=aecffd02-d180-498e-9c85-c15972c4d2df&Preview=1 Date 3/3/2008 Company Name Compete Inc. Mailing Address Four Copley Place Boston, MA 02116 Company Description Compete extends online market research to transform the way consumers and brands communicate. Website http://www.compete.com/ Transaction Type M&A Transaction Amount $75,000,000 Transaction Round Proceeds Purposes M&A Terms The acquisition will be paid for with all … Continue reading “Taylor Nelson Sofres Acquires Compete Inc. for $75,000,000”
Mzinga Acquires Prospero Technologies, LLC for Undisclosed Sum
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=1b2382aa-a403-46f6-a117-fbcf5db99cbe&Preview=1 Date 3/3/2008 Company Name Prospero Technologies, LLC Mailing Address 25 Porter Road Littleton, MA 01460 Company Description ProsperoTechnologies is the leading provider of community content management solutions for the online publishing industry. We enable organizations to easily, quickly, and cost-effectively develop branded, integrated communities and social networks comprised of message boards, … Continue reading “Mzinga Acquires Prospero Technologies, LLC for Undisclosed Sum”
Akamai Wins $45 Million in Patent Fight Against Limelight—Had Hoped for Much Bigger Award
A federal jury in Boston ruled today that Limelight Networks of Tempe, AZ, infringed on a key MIT patent licensed to Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AKAM]]) of Cambridge, MA. Akamai also won a damage award totaling more than $45 million. But the verdict was not the huge win Akamai hoped it would be, as much of … Continue reading “Akamai Wins $45 Million in Patent Fight Against Limelight—Had Hoped for Much Bigger Award”
Biotech Bill Headed for Senate
The Massachusetts House has passed its version of the 10-year, $1 billion life sciences bill by a vote of 134 to 13. The provisions of the bill, which largely mirror Governor Deval Patrick’s original plans for the biotech initiative, include $250 million for tax credits, $250 million for research grants, and $500 million in bonds … Continue reading “Biotech Bill Headed for Senate”
Axcelis Hit With Class Action Suits
On Monday, Beverly, MA-based semiconductor manufacturing firm Axcelis Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ACLS]]) rejected an unsolicited $532 million takeover offer from Sumitomo, saying it substantially undervalued the company. Yesterday, Reuters and others report, Axcelis shareholders filed class-action lawsuits against the company in Delaware and Massachusetts, saying the firm and its board breached their fiduciary responsibilities by declining … Continue reading “Axcelis Hit With Class Action Suits”
Alnylam Touts Early Evidence of RNAi Drug Efficacy
In 2006, the Nobel Prize in medicine went to two American biologists, Stanford’s Andrew Fire and UMass Medical School’s Craig Mello, who had discovered a way to shut off individual genes by blocking key RNA molecules in the cell. But while the technique, called RNA interference or RNAi, immediately became a powerful research tool, it … Continue reading “Alnylam Touts Early Evidence of RNAi Drug Efficacy”
Google Supporting George Church’s Personal Genome Project
The Personal Genome Project, led by Harvard Medical School professor George Church, got a boost from Google late last year, according to a report today from Bloomberg. One of several academic and commercial efforts that Church, an Xconomist, is leading to develop tools and practices for sequencing and interpreting individual people’s DNA, the PGP is … Continue reading “Google Supporting George Church’s Personal Genome Project”
Who Knew? Xconomy Uncovers the Strange-But-True Details of Boston’s Innovation Leaders
Sure, they might be technological visionaries, multi-millionaire entrepreneurs, imposing CEOs, legendary venture capitalists, and the like. Everyone around them knows what they do professionally. But did you know one of them was also a Top Gun fighter pilot? Or that another accompanied Yo-Yo Ma on piano at the wedding of Bill Nye the Science Guy? … Continue reading “Who Knew? Xconomy Uncovers the Strange-But-True Details of Boston’s Innovation Leaders”
Arthrosurface Scopes out $4M in Funding
Franklin, MA-based Arthrosurface, a developer of less-invasive joint resurfacing systems with some 7,000 of its devices now implanted in patients, announced today that is has taken in roughly $4 million in Series F funding. With the new round, the company has raised approximately $31 million in equity from repeat investor Boston Millennia Partners and private … Continue reading “Arthrosurface Scopes out $4M in Funding”
Cleantech Venture Investment Soared in 2007—Bay State a Distant Second to California
Even as the economy slowed in the second half of 2007, U.S. venture capital firms continued to pump money into clean technology deals—bringing the total invested in cleantech for the year to $2.5 billion, up 79 percent from 2006. Deal volume also skyrocketed some 54 percent, and overall the field accounted for more than 8 … Continue reading “Cleantech Venture Investment Soared in 2007—Bay State a Distant Second to California”
Arthrosurface, Inc. Secures $3,000,000 Series F Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=ec2aebbf-5d85-40da-a8c3-86c53ecf2312&Preview=1 Date 2/29/2008 Company Name Arthrosurface, Inc. Mailing Address 28 Forge Parkway Franklin, MA 02038 Company Description Arthrosurface, headquartered in Franklin, MA, develops minimally invasive joint resurfacing systems. The company’s HemiCAP™ system is a platform technology providing a surgical alternative to conventional treatment methods. Website http://www.arthrosurface.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount … Continue reading “Arthrosurface, Inc. Secures $3,000,000 Series F Funding Round”
Naverus Secures $10,000,000 Series C Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=6bb88dc5-03b4-4086-9023-0690954346d4&Preview=1 Date 2/29/2008 Company Name Naverus Mailing Address 20415 72nd Ave S Kent, WA 98032 Company Description Our mission is to harness emerging navigation technologies to make air transportation operations around the world run better by making them more efficient and predictable, giving them better access to more airports through higher capacity … Continue reading “Naverus Secures $10,000,000 Series C Funding Round”
Biogen Idec Sells $1B in Notes, Converting Bridge Loan to Permanent Debt
In order to convert a bridge loan taken out to help finance last year’s $3 billion stock buyback program to permanent debt, Cambridge, MA-based biotechnology company Biogen Idec has sold $1 billion of senior notes, according to a company spokesperson and an SEC filing made today. The sale consisted of two parts, one involving 10-year … Continue reading “Biogen Idec Sells $1B in Notes, Converting Bridge Loan to Permanent Debt”
Mascoma Reportedly Raises $50 Million for Ethanol Production
(Updated, Feb. 28—This report now confirmed) According to an unconfirmed report this morning from Private Equity Hub, Boston-based Mascoma has arranged a sizable funding round that could help the company accelerate its research on genetically engineered bacteria that speed up the conversion of cellulosic biomass such as wood chips into ethanol. According to Private Equity … Continue reading “Mascoma Reportedly Raises $50 Million for Ethanol Production”
DOJ Investigates Boston Scientific Marketing
Boston Scientific (NYSE: [[ticker:BSX]]) disclosed in an annual report filed today with the SEC that the Department of Justice is conducting a civil investigation of allegations that the Natick, MA firm and other manufacturers promoted off-label uses of biliary stents. The company indicated it plants to cooperate with the investigation, though none of its documents … Continue reading “DOJ Investigates Boston Scientific Marketing”
Biogen Bouncing Back From Tysabri Warning News
Shares of Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) are climbing back up today after taking a dip yesterday on news that Tysabri, which Biogen markets in partnership with Ireland’s Elan, may cause liver damage. The stock closed down a couple of percent yesterday, at $60.13, but was trading back up around $61 at noon. To be clear—and … Continue reading “Biogen Bouncing Back From Tysabri Warning News”
Brennan to Replace Reese as Iron Mountain CEO
Boston-based information protection and storage company Iron Mountain announced today that Richard Reese, CEO since 1981, will step down in June. Taking Reese’s place will be Bob Brennan, who joined the company in 2004 with Iron Mountain’s acquisition of Connected Corporation and has been its president and chief operating officer since 2005. Under Reese’s leadership, … Continue reading “Brennan to Replace Reese as Iron Mountain CEO”
SoundBite Acquires Mobile Collect
Mobile Collect, a Rochester Hills, MI, company that makes software for text-message-based marketing and debt collection (yikes!), will merge with SoundBite Communications of Bedford, MA, in a deal valued at $500,000 plus up to $2 million in payments contingent on text-messaging revenue, SoundBite announced today. “Mobile Collect’s customer base and domain expertise in text messaging … Continue reading “SoundBite Acquires Mobile Collect”
Skyhook and Locr Collaborate on Easier Geotagging for Digital Photos
Say you’re looking at somebody’s vacation pictures. Chances are you have three questions right off the bat about each photograph: When was it taken? Where was it taken? And who’s in it? Digital cameras automatically handle the first question, embedding a time code for every photograph in the so-called “EXIF header” that prefaces the actual … Continue reading “Skyhook and Locr Collaborate on Easier Geotagging for Digital Photos”
PhaseRx Lands $19,000,000 Series A Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=458faa8f-6580-4e7f-918d-f9140d4bb298&Preview=1 Date 2/28/2008 Company Name PhaseRx Mailing Address Undisclosed Seattle, WA 98104 Company Description The company is developing therapies via sIRNA technologies. Website Undisclosed Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $19,000,000 Transaction Round Series A Proceeds Purposes The first tranche of $4 million will be used for initial research milestones. M&A Terms … Continue reading “PhaseRx Lands $19,000,000 Series A Financing Round”
EveryZing’s Platform Opens Search-Friendly Side Doors to Multimedia Websites
Xconomy is reaching a milestone of sorts: some of the startups we profiled last summer when we were just getting started have now had time to evolve through at least one major generation of their technology, giving us the opportunity to come back and see where things stand. That’s definitely the case with Cambridge, MA-based … Continue reading “EveryZing’s Platform Opens Search-Friendly Side Doors to Multimedia Websites”
Renewable Energy Happy Hour
Advanced Technology Ventures and the Renewable Energy Business Network—East sponsor another in REBN’s regular series of informal happy hours. This time the festivities are at John Harvard’s Brew House at 33 Dunster Street in Harvard Square.
Caliper and Anticancer Bench Attorneys to End Patent Suit, Strike Cross Licensing Deal
Caliper Life Sciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CALP]]) of Hopkinton, MA, yesterday announced it had ended a long-standing patent dispute with San Diego’s AntiCancer. As part of the agreement, each firm will get a royalty-free license to various of the other’s optical imaging patents, as well as certain rights to sublicense the technology to third parties. The companies … Continue reading “Caliper and Anticancer Bench Attorneys to End Patent Suit, Strike Cross Licensing Deal”
38 Studios Licenses Australian Virtual-Worlds Technology
38 Studios, the Maynard, MA-based game development studio founded by Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, has decided not to reinvent the world. The virtual world, that is—the one it’s creating as part of the massively multiplayer online-gaming experience it plans to debut in late 2010. The company said yesterday it will license a suite of … Continue reading “38 Studios Licenses Australian Virtual-Worlds Technology”
Are You Someone Else’s Intellectual Property?
Bijan Sabet is continuing his crusade against non-compete clauses. Sabet, a partner at Boston’s Spark Capital, caused a stir back in December, when he wrote on his blog that Spark would no longer require its portfolio companies to include non-compete clauses in their employee contracts. “The non-compete clause is a significant barrier to startups and … Continue reading “Are You Someone Else’s Intellectual Property?”
VMware Flaw Shows Virtualized Systems Aren’t Necessarily More Secure, Boston Firm Argues
Companies rushing to adopt virtualization technology have been eager to spread computing loads across fewer machines and thereby reduce IT costs. But many have also been drawn by the widely held belief that virtualization makes IT systems more secure, by isolating a physical host from the virtualized or “guest” operating systems and applications running on … Continue reading “VMware Flaw Shows Virtualized Systems Aren’t Necessarily More Secure, Boston Firm Argues”
Lionbridge to Buy Back Another $12 Million In Common Stock
Lionbridge (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LIOX]]), a Waltham, MA, “localization” company that translates English-language software, software manuals, online support materials, websites, and other product documentation into other languages, said today that it plans to buy back $12 million worth of its own common stock in 2008. That’s on top of $12 million in stock already purchased since the … Continue reading “Lionbridge to Buy Back Another $12 Million In Common Stock”
New CEO for Metabolix
Metabolix (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MBLX]])—a Cambridge, MA developer of sustainable plastics, energy, and other cleantech products—has announced that it will have a new president and CEO as of March 17. Richard P. Eno, who was previously a chemicals and energy executive at CRA International, Arthur D. Little, and Chevron, will replace Jay Kouba, who has helmed Metabolix … Continue reading “New CEO for Metabolix”
Was Alexander Graham Bell an Idea Thief? This Afternoon’s a Good Time to Find Out
There’s nothing like a good detective story to brighten up a gray day, and boy does Xconomy contributing writer Seth Shulman have a good detective story to tell. The central mystery: Did Alexander Graham Bell steal the idea for the telephone from rival inventor Elisha Gray? Seth spent several years poring over Bell’s notebooks and … Continue reading “Was Alexander Graham Bell an Idea Thief? This Afternoon’s a Good Time to Find Out”
Clean Energy for High Tech
The Massachusetts High Technology Council and the New England Clean Energy Council co-sponsor a conference designed to help high-tech CFOs, facilities executives, and sustainability officers understand and manage the energy challenges confronting their organizations. Philip Giudice, commissioner of the Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources, will be the opening speaker. Attendance is free but space is … Continue reading “Clean Energy for High Tech”
$4.25 Million for Proficiency
Marlborough, MA-based Proficiency, which makes software that allows product designers to transfer product models between various types of computer-aided design programs, said today that it has raised $4.25 million in new venture funding. Catalyst Investments of Israel led the round, joined by Carmel Ventures and Pitango Venture Capital. Catalyst said its network of connections in … Continue reading “$4.25 Million for Proficiency”
Mapping CleanTech Startups
Earth2Tech, a Giga Omni Media site tracking energy technology news (from what I can gather), has posted an interesting map of 101 cleantech startups around the globe, with key stats—investors, year formed, technology sector—broken out for each firm. The map is heavily Valley-oriented, as Earth2Tech admits. Indeed, only a handful of New England firms are … Continue reading “Mapping CleanTech Startups”
Automattic Connection: How an East Coast VC Got Behind WordPress, the West Coast’s Hottest Blog Platform
The party was pretty geeky—people were actually sitting around writing code. Mike Hirshland, who’d played football at Harvard (earning him an Honorable Mention on Xconomy’s VC Varsity roster), was having a hard time finding a beer. That’s when he gazed around the small San Francisco apartment and saw the laptop sitting on a counter—and on … Continue reading “Automattic Connection: How an East Coast VC Got Behind WordPress, the West Coast’s Hottest Blog Platform”
Proficiency, Inc. Receives $4,250,000 New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=5e8496b0-fffb-4c31-b116-dc7a8774dc8c&Preview=1 Date 2/26/2008 Company Name Proficiency, Inc. Mailing Address 33 Boston Post Road West Marlborough, MA 01752 Company Description Computer-aided design firm Proficiency, which helps manufacturers and their suppliers to collaborate during the product development process Website http://www.proficiency.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $4,250,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proficiency, with … Continue reading “Proficiency, Inc. Receives $4,250,000 New Financing Round”
Axcelis Rejects Sumitomo Takeover Offer
Semiconductor manufacturing firm Axcelis (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ACLS]]) of Beverly, MA, today announced that its board has unanimously rejected an unsolicited takeover offer from Sumitomo Heavy Industries of Japan. Axcelis said the $5.20 per share offer undervalued the company.
Zappos Will Try Kiva’s Robots
Zappos.com, the Las Vegas-based online purveyor of shoes, handbags, and other fashion accessories, said today that will install a “mobile fulfillment system” from Woburn, MA-based Kiva Systems at its Shephersdville, KY facility. As we wrote last October, Kiva deploys fleet of squat wheeled robots across a warehouse with barcode-based navigational cues inscribed on the floor; … Continue reading “Zappos Will Try Kiva’s Robots”
Organogenesis Acquires NanoMatrix
Canton, MA-based regenerative medicine firm Organogenesis announced today that it’s acquiring Baton Rouge’s NanoMatrix for an undisclosed sum. The Louisiana firm specializes in using a technique called electrospinning to build three-dimensional scaffolds on which new tissues can grow. Such technology fits neatly into Organogenesis’ business of producing biomaterials for surgery and engineered tissue products such … Continue reading “Organogenesis Acquires NanoMatrix”
State, UMass Ink Clean Energy Partnership
At a meeting in Boston this morning, Massachusetts energy and environmental affairs secretary Ian Bowles signed a memorandum of understanding with University of Massachusetts president Jack Wilson calling for the creation of a committee to coordinate research, education, and public service activities around clean energy. Bowles said that an “effective inter-organizational approach” like that outlined … Continue reading “State, UMass Ink Clean Energy Partnership”
Novell Coughs Up $205 Million for Canadian Virtualization Startup PlateSpin
Virtualization of server resources—allowing corporate IT managers to consolidate workloads onto fewer machines—is the big technology wave sweeping the corporate data-center market. Waltham, MA-based Novell (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NOVL]]) is an important player in that market, but its products are focused around identity management (a legacy of the company’s original focus on server operating systems and directory … Continue reading “Novell Coughs Up $205 Million for Canadian Virtualization Startup PlateSpin”