Burlington, MA’s Aspen Technology (NASDAQ [[ticker:AZPN]]) will be delisted from the NASDAQ effective February 19, the optimization software firm announced today. “The delisting comes after a series of accounting mishaps dating back several years, resulting in the firing of CEO David McQuillin in 2004,” according to the Boston Business Journal. Current CEO Mark Fusco said … Continue reading “AspenTech Delisted from NASDAQ”
Massachusetts’ Billion Dollar Biotech Plan Has Sweet Valentine’s Day; House Blows Kisses to UMass, RNAi, and Others
The Massachusetts legislature promised Governor Deval Patrick he’d get some action this month—on his long-delayed billion-dollar life sciences initiative, anyway—and it delivered right on Valentine’s Day. The House yesterday unveiled its version of the bill, which according to media reports is largely faithful to the one the Governor introduced in May. Indeed, the 10-year, $1 … Continue reading “Massachusetts’ Billion Dollar Biotech Plan Has Sweet Valentine’s Day; House Blows Kisses to UMass, RNAi, and Others”
EMC Soaring Into the Cloud (Computing)—the Question is When, Not If
Cloud computing has put the wind in the IT industry’s sails lately. It seems that there are as many interpretations of what the term means as there are clouds in the sky. But basically it’s the idea that truly large-scale computing power—from software applications to storage and information management services—will exist out there on the … Continue reading “EMC Soaring Into the Cloud (Computing)—the Question is When, Not If”
Cram for that Exam with Help from uProdigy’s Tutors in India
It’s 4:00 a.m., you’ve been up all night studying for the big linear algebra exam, and you have the sinking feeling that there’s something about eigenvectors and eigenvalues that you still just don’t understand. Your roommates are all asleep. You’d call up your friend the math whiz, who never sleeps, but you’ve already used up … Continue reading “Cram for that Exam with Help from uProdigy’s Tutors in India”
Apex Construction Systems, Inc. Lands $16,000,000 Series B Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=d625641a-5800-4364-8b13-05620f8e2c7b&Preview=1 Date 2/15/2008 Company Name Apex Construction Systems, Inc. Mailing Address 13535 SW 72nd Ave. Portland, OR 97223 Company Description APEX BLOCK is a proven construction material made of cement, recycled polystyrene foam, and polymers formed into 52 pound homogeneous recyclable blocks. Website http://www.apexconsys.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $16,000,000 Transaction … Continue reading “Apex Construction Systems, Inc. Lands $16,000,000 Series B Financing”
MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge Innovation Series: Life Sciences
The MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge hosts a keynote talk and panel discussion focused on Pervasis Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA company focused on regenerative cell therapies. Harvard chemist and local entrepreneurial legend George Whitesides will give the keynote speech, and the panel will include Stephen Bollinger, president and COO of Pervasis. Members $20, non-members $30. … Continue reading “MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge Innovation Series: Life Sciences”
Icahn Dumps Genzyme Position
Looks like Genzyme (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GENZ]]) employees who’ve maybe been watching their counterparts over at Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) squirm under the stern attention of Carl Icahn can stop wondering if their company is about to receive the same. Regulatory filings posted today show that during the fourth quarter of 2007 the activist investor dumped all … Continue reading “Icahn Dumps Genzyme Position”
Bose Tapped For Inventors Hall of Fame
Bose Corporation founder and former MIT professor Amar Bose will be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, the eponymous nonprofit group announced today. Recognized for audio inventions including the 901 Directing/Reflecting speaker system, Bose joins a group of honorees that includes the inventors of wrinkle-free cotton, light emitting diodes, the anti-fungal drug Fluconazole, … Continue reading “Bose Tapped For Inventors Hall of Fame”
Novell Buys Online Workspace Provider SiteScape
Collaborative online workspaces for business people—a fringe concept just a couple of years ago—is now a hotly contested market, with WebEx launching WebOffice, Adobe’s Acrobat gaining Web conferencing features, Yahoo integrating Zimbra, and Microsoft pushing Office Groove (the legacy of its 2005 acquisition of Beverly, MA-based Groove Networks). And that’s just the beginning of the … Continue reading “Novell Buys Online Workspace Provider SiteScape”
TripAdvisor Acquires Holiday Watchdog
Needham, MA’s TripAdvisor, which publishes a suite of sites where travelers share reviews and advice, has acquired another one, the U.K.’s Holiday Watchdog, for an undisclosed sum. Holiday Watchdog will remain an independent site, TripAdvisor said. The Needham firm is an operating company of Expedia (NASDAQ: [[ticker:EXPE]]).
ULocate’s “Buddy Beacon” Spreads to More Phones; Wherever You Go, Your Friends Will Know
ULocate’s Dan Gilmartin hinted last week that we should be on the lookout for another announcement about Buddy Beacon, the mobile-phone-based friend-finding service that uLocate built for, and recently bought back from, L.A.-based Helio. The announcement came yesterday, and the substance of it was predictable, given uLocate’s other recent announcement that its Where platform for … Continue reading “ULocate’s “Buddy Beacon” Spreads to More Phones; Wherever You Go, Your Friends Will Know”
Charles River Ventures Offers Startup Support at Game Developers Conference
Look for Boston’s video-gaming community to transplant itself en masse to San Francisco next week for CMP Media’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), which, for gaming industry professionals, is like the Consumer Electronics Show and MacWorld and the Olympics wrapped into one. This year there’s a new option on the GDC agenda for budding gaming entrepreneurs: … Continue reading “Charles River Ventures Offers Startup Support at Game Developers Conference”
Carbonite Inc. Receives $5,200,000 Series B Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=3b8fd7f2-11a9-426b-a3af-504220a78c52&Preview=1 Date 2/14/2008 Company Name Carbonite Inc. Mailing Address 334 Boylston St – 3rd floor Boston, MA 02116 Company Description Carbonite sells secure Internet-based backup for personal computer and laptop owners. Website http://www.carbonite.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $5,200,000 Transaction Round Series B Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. M&A … Continue reading “Carbonite Inc. Receives $5,200,000 Series B Round”
Akamai to Multicast NBA All-Star Game
New Englanders just want to forget the Super Bowl, but for local networking leader Akamai, it’s an experience worth repeating—or at least the live streaming Internet video aspects of it. The company said today that it will be the exclusive networking provider for Turner Sports’ live, online video coverage of the NBA All-Star game in … Continue reading “Akamai to Multicast NBA All-Star Game”
With a Whole Lot of Spending to Do, Vertex Seeks Some $400 Million in Stock and Note Offerings
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VRTX]]) is turning to the market for an infusion of new cash after a series of delays and disappointments that have nudged the Cambridge, MA-based firm’s stock steadily downward for the last several months. The biotech, whose shares were trading around $40 in September, last night priced an underwritten offering of 6 … Continue reading “With a Whole Lot of Spending to Do, Vertex Seeks Some $400 Million in Stock and Note Offerings”
Kendall Square Gets a GYM Membership: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft
On November 11, 2005, tech blogger Om Malik challenged his fellow bloggers to “Stay GYM Free” for a week. “Whether we hate them, or we love them, we do love to talk about them…Them being Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, aka GYM,” he wrote. “What would happen if the blogosphere decided that we would not talk … Continue reading “Kendall Square Gets a GYM Membership: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft”
Eons Spins Off Obits, But Insists Company is Alive and Well as It Unveils Big Redesign
The folks over at Eons, the web site for the baby boomer crowd, must have aged a lot in the last few months. Back in September, the struggling Boston company laid off a third of its staff. Then, in a pretty full-out public relations disaster, the firm early this month dropped its over-50 age limit … Continue reading “Eons Spins Off Obits, But Insists Company is Alive and Well as It Unveils Big Redesign”
Tributes.com Lands $4,300,000 New Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=ea20cc70-c8db-4101-8abc-51cba0de751d&Preview=1 Date 2/13/2008 Company Name Tributes.com Mailing Address 31 Fifth St. Boston, MA 02129 Company Description Tributes.com is the online resource for current local and national obituary news, lasting tributes celebrating the lives of loved ones, and an online community to provide support during times of loss and grieving. Website http://obits.eons.com/ Transaction … Continue reading “Tributes.com Lands $4,300,000 New Funding”
Paloma Pharmaceuticals Garners $5,000,000 Series A Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=24e14885-4fc6-4cc7-a97c-99f165e49eb0&Preview=1 Date 2/13/2008 Company Name Paloma Pharmaceuticals Mailing Address 37 Neillian Crescent Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 Company Description Paloma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an early stage drug development company focusing on pathologies with a vascular component including cancer, ocular diseases (macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy), arthritis, fibrotic diseases (pulmonary fibrosis) endometriosis, osteoporosis and … Continue reading “Paloma Pharmaceuticals Garners $5,000,000 Series A Round”
Novell, Inc. Acquires SiteScape for Undisclosed Sum
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=22563a32-38ae-48e3-b75d-a3bda36fb8e0&Preview=1 Date 2/13/2008 Company Name SiteScape Mailing Address 10 Clock Tower Place Maynard, MA 01754 Company Description SiteScape provides collaborative solutions that specifically address the communication and program management needs of large and/or distributed teams in business, government, and military organizations. The company’s integrated Web-based solutions meet enterprise requirements for knowledge management, … Continue reading “Novell, Inc. Acquires SiteScape for Undisclosed Sum”
Happy 10th Birthday, XML
The Extensible Markup Language, or XML—a way of structuring data inside semantic tags that allow it to be interpreted consistently across disparate information systems—is the key to many types of business software today, not to mention the entire Web 2.0 revolution. And on Sunday, the critical Web standard turned 10 years old. The Cambridge-based World … Continue reading “Happy 10th Birthday, XML”
Google Android Code Day
An immersive introduction, hands-on session, and “technical deep dive” for Android, the open-source mobile phone operating system under development by Google, which offers this preview: “The Android Advocates will be walking you through building an application using the Android SDK as well as lead deep dives in select topics.” Information here, registration here.
Yahoo Buys Maven Networks, Joining Google, Microsoft in Kendall Square
A rumor circulated by TechCrunch on January 31 that Yahoo intended to acquire Cambridge-based Maven Networks, whose Web video and advertising platform is used by dozens of large media organizations, seemed to go by the wayside after Microsoft launched its unsolicited bid for Yahoo the next day. But it turns out that the deal was … Continue reading “Yahoo Buys Maven Networks, Joining Google, Microsoft in Kendall Square”
Dyax Inks Potential $500M Deal With Sanofi-Aventis
Cambridge, MA-based biotech company Dyax (NASDAQ:[[ticker:DYAX]]) announced today it had signed a pair of licensing agreements with French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis potentially worth $500 million. The deals, which involve a $25 million payment this year, grant the French company an exclusive worldwide license for the development and commercialization of Dyax’s fully human monoclonal antibody DX-2240, as … Continue reading “Dyax Inks Potential $500M Deal With Sanofi-Aventis”
Tizor Raises $8.3 Million
Tizor Systems, a Maynard, MA-based provider of data auditing and protection solutions for enterprise data centers, announced today that it has closed an $8.3 million third round of financing. Longworth Venture Partners led the round, which included Masthead Venture Partners, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Navigator Technology Ventures, and CommonAngels (which led Xconomy’s Series A round … Continue reading “Tizor Raises $8.3 Million”
Can SpotScout Take the Pain out of Parking?
Finding parking in a busy urban area like Boston can feel like a high-stakes game of musical chairs—except that when the music ends and every parking spot is filled, there are still tens of thousands of people driving in circles. SpotScout, a service slated to launch this month in Boston and one to two months … Continue reading “Can SpotScout Take the Pain out of Parking?”
Boston Scientific Assessed $431M in Patent Suit
A Texas jury found against Natick, MA-based Boston Scientific (NYSE: [[ticker:BSX]]) in a patent infringement suit involving drug-eluting stent products, awarding $431 million in damages to its opponent, the company announced today. The verdict, from a U.S. District Court jury in Marshall, Texas, found that the firm’s Taxus Express and Taxus Liberte stent products infringe … Continue reading “Boston Scientific Assessed $431M in Patent Suit”
Vaultus Raises $6 Million to Bolster Sales of its Mobile Middleware
Boston-based Vaultus, which makes “mobile middleware” allowing road warriors and other workers to use their smart phones to access key enterprise systems such as customer relationship management, business intelligence, and help-desk software, announced today that it has raised $6 million in new venture funding to expand its sales and marketing operation. Point Judith Capital of … Continue reading “Vaultus Raises $6 Million to Bolster Sales of its Mobile Middleware”
Evergreen Solar Plans Offering, ThingMagic Teams With Ford, Dynogen Reverse-Merges Onto the Market, & More
There used to be a time when almost all the deals in the weekly(ish) roundup involved life sciences companies, but things have been suspiciously quiet on that front in recent weeks. Which is not to say there aren’t plenty of interesting deals to discuss. —Braving a market that has scared off several local IPOs, Marlboro, … Continue reading “Evergreen Solar Plans Offering, ThingMagic Teams With Ford, Dynogen Reverse-Merges Onto the Market, & More”
Yahoo! Acquires Maven Networks for $160,000,000
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=c1d6f86b-a41a-4775-994f-31910e10c02e&Preview=1 Date 2/12/2008 Company Name Maven Networks Mailing Address 196 Broadway, 3rd floor Cambridge, MA 02139 Company Description Maven Networks makes it easy to create and deliver unrivaled consumer experiences across broadband TV, PCs and portable devices. Website http://www.maven.net/ Transaction Type M&A Transaction Amount $160,000,000 Transaction Round Proceeds Purposes M&A Terms Under … Continue reading “Yahoo! Acquires Maven Networks for $160,000,000”
TechConnect — Four Conferences in One
Starting June 1, the Hynes Convention Center will be buzzing with four (or is it three? we can’t really figure it out) simultaneous and apparently interrelated conferences, sponsored in part by the Cambridge, MA-based Nano Science and Technology Institute: TechConnect Summit 2008: “Focused on bringing together the world’s top technology transfer offices, companies, and investment … Continue reading “TechConnect — Four Conferences in One”
Live Gamer to Take Over Everquest Exchange
Sony Online Entertainment and New York-based Live Gamer (which we profiled in December) announced last week that Station Exchange, the system Sony launched in 2005 to give citizens of the online game world Everquest a “legal” way to auction off virtual currency, characters, and objects, will be shut down on March 27 and replaced four … Continue reading “Live Gamer to Take Over Everquest Exchange”
Targanta Files for FDA Approval of Anti-MRSA Drug
Shares of Targanta Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TARG]]) got a small boost today on the news that the Cambridge, MA-based firm has submitted an application to the FDA for approval of its antibiotic oritavancin for the treatment of complicated skin infections caused by the “superbug” MRSA and other gram-positive bacteria. The stock opened at $9.08, up from … Continue reading “Targanta Files for FDA Approval of Anti-MRSA Drug”
Axcelis Evaluating Sumitomo Bid
Beverly, MA-based Axcelis, a maker of equipment for ion implantation, thermal curing, and other phases of semiconductor manufacturing—and one of the largest woman-led technology companies in Massachusetts—said in an announcement today that its board is reviewing an unsolicited takeover bid from Sumitomo Heavy Industries of Japan. It noted that the proposed takeover price of $5.20 … Continue reading “Axcelis Evaluating Sumitomo Bid”
GEO2 Wins California Grant
The California Air Resources Board, which is responsible for monitoring and reducing vehicle emissions in the state of California, has picked Woburn-based GEO2 Technologies as one of three winners of the board’s annual Innovative Clean Air Technology Grants. GEO2 Technologies, which we’ve written about here, here, and here, was one of 62 applicants for just … Continue reading “GEO2 Wins California Grant”
ByAllAccounts Closes $5 Million Series A Round
Woburn, MA-based ByAllAccounts, which provides reconciliation-ready data for advisory and investment management firms, announced today that it has closed a new account of its own—a $5 million Series A funding round led by Commonwealth Capital Ventures that was joined by members of the firm’s executive management team. The firm plans to use the funds to … Continue reading “ByAllAccounts Closes $5 Million Series A Round”
Avedro Sees Way to $8 Million Funding Round
Avedro, a Waltham, MA-based developer of vision correction technologies that bills itself as “the next wave in refractive surgery,” has closed an $8 million Series A-1 funding round led by Prism VentureWorks, PE Week reports, citing a regulatory filing. Return backers include Echelon Ventures and Borealis Ventures.
Harvard’s Opportunity to Lead
Last week, I was asked to moderate a panel of journalists (what a chance for an ex-candidate—this time it was my turn to ask them irritating, leading, and unfair questions!) in a discussion about the state of New England’s innovation economy. Lots was said that covers old ground, and Xconomy’s Bob Buderi has already posted … Continue reading “Harvard’s Opportunity to Lead”
GTC Biotherapeutics, Racing Against Time to Prove the Worth of “Pharming”
As a rule, getting a drug on the market turns a biotech startup from a buck bonfire into a cash cow—or at least a cash calf. But rules tend to get broken. Just ask GTC Biotherapeutics. In mid-2006, European drug regulators approved the Framingham, MA-based company’s first medicine, ATryn, a protein for blocking risky blood … Continue reading “GTC Biotherapeutics, Racing Against Time to Prove the Worth of “Pharming””
Dress for Success, Automatically: IDG and ATV Wrap Big Bucks Around Robotic Wound Treatment
Think R2D2 meets information kiosk meets Coke machine. That’s the way Michael Greeley, general partner at IDG Ventures Boston, describes (I’d add “photocopier” to his description myself) the roughly waist-high, customized-bandage-dispensing robot on wheels he thinks will revolutionize wound treatment. And he’s got 25 million reasons to hope the “revolutionize” part comes true. That’s because … Continue reading “Dress for Success, Automatically: IDG and ATV Wrap Big Bucks Around Robotic Wound Treatment”
Digit Wireless Secures $4,000,000 New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=55b202ac-64a8-4463-9152-817ebbd46f49&Preview=1 Date 2/11/2008 Company Name Digit Wireless Mailing Address 24 New England Executive Park Burlington, MA 01830 Company Description Digit Wireless, allow direct-entry, one-touch alphanumeric input so that mobile phone users can create text and multimedia messages quickly and intuitively on mainstream voice-centric phones. Website http://www.DigitWireless.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount … Continue reading “Digit Wireless Secures $4,000,000 New Financing Round”
Avedro, Inc. Obtains $8,000,000 Series A Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=1f433022-8ba7-465f-a0d0-949a8f4b6b1d&Preview=1 Date 2/11/2008 Company Name Avedro, Inc. Mailing Address 201 Jones Road Waltham, MA 02451 Company Description The company is developing vision correction technologies. Website http://www.avedro.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $8,000,000 Transaction Round Series A Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. M&A Terms Venture Investor Prism VentureWorks Venture Investor … Continue reading “Avedro, Inc. Obtains $8,000,000 Series A Round”
Vaultus Mobile Technologies, Inc. Obtains $6,000,000 New Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=a6c29bf0-e2bd-458e-a000-bb9f25ee92d5&Preview=1 Date 2/11/2008 Company Name Vaultus Mobile Technologies, Inc. Mailing Address 263 Summer St. Boston, MA 02210 Company Description Vaultus delivers powerful, proven mobile solutions that help companies securely mobilize business critical applications, processes and people. Website http://www.vaultus.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $6,000,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes The funding … Continue reading “Vaultus Mobile Technologies, Inc. Obtains $6,000,000 New Funding Round”
ByAllAccounts Receives $5,000,000 Series A Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=6334bc66-16ea-4019-ba9b-c1e2056c4c23&Preview=1 Date 2/11/2008 Company Name ByAllAccounts Mailing Address 10 State Street Woburn, MA 01801 Company Description ByAllAccounts delivers reconciliation-ready data to investment management and advisory firms. Using innovative expert system technology, the company provides an unparalleled access to financial account data from thousands of custodians and enables efficient and timely account reconciliation, … Continue reading “ByAllAccounts Receives $5,000,000 Series A Financing”
SDL Acquires Idiom Technologies Inc. for $21,700,000
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=660f10a8-3f4a-4c65-bc8b-55bbc6e8d6e6&Preview=1 Date 2/11/2008 Company Name Idiom Technologies Inc. Mailing Address 200 Fifth Avenue Waltham, MA 02451 Company Description Idiom Technologies, Inc. is the leading provider of globalization management systems. Idiom’s flagship product, WorldServer 6.0, enables global companies to become simultaneous enterprises – able to release content in multiple forms and many languages … Continue reading “SDL Acquires Idiom Technologies Inc. for $21,700,000”
Polaroid Closing Two Bay State Plants; Laying Off 150
Pioneering instant film company Polaroid is closing two Massachusetts film manufacturing plants—in Norwood and Waltham—as it discards the core technology that made it a household name to focus on digital photography and flat-panel TVs, the Boston Globe reports. About 150 jobs will be eliminated as part of the closures, which should be completed this quarter. … Continue reading “Polaroid Closing Two Bay State Plants; Laying Off 150”
Location, Location, Location: uLocate Acquires Zync, and Other Location-Based News
There are certain days in the news cycle where everything seems related. Today’s theme is location-based services. I started the day with some work on a piece about SpotScout, the Web- and mobile-based service that helps you find and reserve parking spaces. (Look for my story about their upcoming launch in Boston next week.) Then … Continue reading “Location, Location, Location: uLocate Acquires Zync, and Other Location-Based News”
Need a Job? Need a Staffer? We Might Be Able to Help.
We’ve always said that part of our mission in building Xconomy is helping diverse members of the local innovation community to forge new connections. And hey, if those connections come with stock options, 401k plans, and a cubicle-free workspace overlooking the Charles, who are we to judge? In other words, if you’re looking for a … Continue reading “Need a Job? Need a Staffer? We Might Be Able to Help.”
Harvard Launches New Biomedical Fund Round—Hires CombinatoRx Co-Founder to Help Run Effort
I was at the Power, Drugs, & Money conference in Boston yesterday (put on by the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge), as part of a panel discussing the New England innovation landscape, when the question of Harvard University’s tech transfer and spinoff performance came up. Our moderator—Xconomist, former gubernatorial candidate, and venture capitalist Chris Gabrieli—mentioned … Continue reading “Harvard Launches New Biomedical Fund Round—Hires CombinatoRx Co-Founder to Help Run Effort”
Dealmakers 2008 Outlook Conference
ACG Boston, the local chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth, presents an afternoon of talks and panel discussions on the prospects for corporate mergers and acquisitions in 2008. The keynote speaker will be Michael McIvor, managing director and head of healthcare, consumer, and retail M&A for Bank of America. Panelists include Josh Bekenstein, managing … Continue reading “Dealmakers 2008 Outlook Conference”