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Featured Post: July 22, 2009 | Dean Takahashi
Foundation 9 Entertainment cuts costs and staff in game studios
Foundation 9 Entertainment is the latest game company to cut back on its development efforts as a result of a slowdown in the core video game business, VentureBeat has learned.
The Emeryville, Calif.-based game development company is one of the biggest pure developers, with a… Continue Reading
July 22, 2009 | Annie Lin
Do you have the right to socialize on multiplayer games?
[Editor's note: As virtual worlds and other online gaming communities become more mainstream in the United States, new legal issues are cropping up. Here's one analysis of a case involving a man who claims he should not have been cut off from a gaming site... Continue Reading
July 22, 2009
Silicon Valley summit to gather 10 global telecom carriers
Editor’s note: This post is sponsored by Telecom Council.
With over 40% of US Telecom investment dollars flowing through the Silicon Valley, the Bay Area is the global hot-bed for telecom. This gravity has drawn 6 of the top 10 global wireless carriers to locate… Continue Reading
July 22, 2009 | Matt Marshall
Amazon acquires Zappos, the customer-friendly shoe company, for $807M
Amazon.com said it has agreed to acquire shoe retailer Zappos.com in a stock deal valued at $807 million.
Zappos, which was founded in San Francisco during the tail end of the last Internet boom, became famous for its radically friendly customer service. You could order… Continue Reading
Latest Wire Stories
- Danoo lands new chief executive for digital out-of-home ads
- IntraOp raises $3.6M for cancer radiation therapy
- SunLink captures $1.5M for solar integration equipment
- Narus beefs up network security with $8.7M
- HP to absorb file-serving software co. Ibrix
- Data analytics provider Truviso takes $3M bridge, preps for third round of capital
July 22, 2009 | Kim-Mai Cutler
Business cards finally useful again with augmented reality?
Like the human appendix, business cards have outlasted their actual usefulness, but they’re somehow still around, piling up and killing trees. Perhaps they have a little more life in them with the help of augmented reality, a fast-growing area that superimposes animation or information on… Continue Reading
July 22, 2009 | Matt Marshall
Adobe Wave launches — lets publishers update readers right on desktop
Adobe has launched a test version of Wave, the service that lets publishers push updates to readers directly on their desktops. It can be found at Adobe Labs.
We first wrote about the product two weeks ago when it was first announced. VentureBeat is one… Continue Reading
July 22, 2009 | Paul Boutin
New Billboard site publishes charts, sells songs
Biggest news for non-geeks today: Billboard has made its famous charts available online without requiring a subscription. The 115-year-old publication has turned its website into a music portal where you can listen to full tracks without signing up. Every single act that’s ever made Billboard’s… Continue Reading
July 22, 2009 | Anthony Ha
Report: Yahoo acquires Xoopit; will Yahoo Mail get even more social?
Yahoo is about to acquire Xoopit, a startup that brings social tools into email programs like Yahoo Mail and Gmail, for $20 million, according to multiple press reports.
The Wall Street Journal and BoomTown (both owned by Dow Jones, incidentally) have reported on the deal… Continue Reading
July 22, 2009 | Paul Boutin
AT&T to deliver data to Plastic Logic e-reader
They’ve done it again. AT&T, the company that beat Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile to land an exclusive three-year contract as the iPhone’s network provider, announced today that it’ll be the sole wireless provider for Plastic Logic’s e-reader, with which Barnes & Noble announced a partnership… Continue Reading
July 22, 2009 | Paul Boutin
Facebook story falls flat without Zuckerberg
The Wall Street Journal asked me to review The Accidental Billionaires, a tale of Facebook’s founding written by Ben Mezrich.
You can read my review here, but here’s the VentureBeat version:
The book is a hot topic for two reasons. First, West Wing producer Aaron… Continue Reading
July 22, 2009 | Paul Boutin
iControl raises $23M third round for broadband home management
iControl Networks, a Palo Alto-based startup, has closed a new round of funding that adds $23 million to bring the company’s total funding to more than $45 million. The company makes home security and energy control systems that are sold and installed by home protection… Continue Reading
July 22, 2009
DEMOfall 09: special complimentary hotel nights offer
Editor’s Note: This post is sponsored by DEMOfall.
Attend DEMOfall 09, Sept. 21 to 23, Sheraton Hotel & Marina, San Diego. You now have two great ways to save on DEMOfall 09 to see the most credible early-stage and market-ready products that hold the biggest… Continue Reading
July 22, 2009 | Dean Takahashi
Electronic Arts dives deeper into Chinese game market with Ultima Online
Electronic Arts announced a deal with Chinese game operator NetDragon Websoft to create a new version of the Ultima Online game for the Chinese market.
The deal shows that the Chinese online game market has become an attractive beachhead for the biggest video game makers… Continue Reading
July 22, 2009 | Dean Takahashi
Raptr’s instant messenger client lets gamers communicate across platforms
Social networks for gamers have been the rage lately. But Raptr seems to be separating itself from the pack by building a network that is bigger and more useful for the broadest audience of gamers.
Today, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company is announcing it has… Continue Reading
July 22, 2009 | Dean Takahashi
Synaptics moves to cell phones with 10-finger touch screens
The Apple iPhone popularized the multitouch screens that you can swipe with your hands, but the underlying technology came from Synaptics, which supplied the touch-based components that made it possible to control a phone’s features with two-finger gestures such as a swipe or a pinch…. Continue Reading
July 22, 2009 | Eric Eldon
Adknowledge buys Super Rewards, expands to virtual goods advertising
Super Rewards, an Web advertising company that offers points or other rewards to Web users who sign up for services, has been acquired by advertising conglomerate Adknowledge.
It is one of the largest acquisitions to date among companies that build services on social networking platforms…. Continue Reading
July 21, 2009 | Anthony Ha
Lofty valuations aren’t over for everyone — Ning raises $15M, valued at $750M
Ning, a startup that lets users create their own social networks, has raised $15 million in a fifth round of venture funding. The news was first reported in BoomTown, and a Ning spokeswoman confirmed the story.
The round, which comes from Lightspeed Venture Partners, doesn’t… Continue Reading
July 21, 2009 | Kim-Mai Cutler
MeetMe iPhone app solves pesky problem of finding a meeting point
Finding an appropriate and convenient place to meet a business partner, friend or stranger can get pretty time-consuming. Ann Arbor-based iPhone application publisher Basara is trying to solve that problem with Meetme. It’s a fairly simple solution: the app combines Google Maps with Yelp recommendations… Continue Reading
July 21, 2009 | Paul Boutin
Roundup: AOL’s new boss, Google’s coming Wave
AOL’s new chief says the company needs to believe in itself — Advertising Age interviews AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, who jumped ship from Google 100 days ago and took on the task of spinning AOL off from Time Warner into a stand-alone entitity. Armstrong will… Continue Reading
July 21, 2009 | Paul Boutin
Tech sector flying low but gunning for takeoff
Valley companies’ quarterly results have made it hard to plot a trend this week. Apple reported a quarter that the company’s PR pros have dubbed “the best non-holiday quarter in Apple’s history.” By contrast, Yahoo’s revenue headed down for the third straight quarter. Google hung in… Continue Reading
VentureBeat Writers
- Matt Marshall, Editor-in-Chief
- Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer, DigitalBeat
- Eric Eldon, Editor, DigitalBeat
- Anthony Ha, Writer, VentureBeat
- Camille Ricketts, Writer, GreenBeat
- Paul Boutin, Writer, VentureBeat
- Matthaus Krzykowski, Mobile Consultant & Coordinator
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