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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: venture capital

venture capital stories: 43 news summaries

1 - 20 of 43 Stories | 1 2 3 Next >>

 Critics Lash 
 Gore's Green 
 'Profiteering' 

Investment profits go back into his nonprofit, counters ex-VP

(Newser) - Al Gore is going to become the world's first "carbon billionaire" thanks to investments in firms that will profit from policies he advocates, his critics say. The ex-VP is a partner in a venture capital firm that stands to make huge profits from investments in green technology, causing accusations... More »

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climate change environment Al Gore venture capital green technology Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

 Twitter Hits $1B Valuation 

Company will raise $50 million this round

(Newser) - Twitter soared to $1 billion in valuation in its most recent round of venture capital funding, TechCrunch reports—up from $250 million in a round earlier this year. CEO Evan Williams shared the results with Twitter employees during a recent meeting. Sources say the company will raise about $50 million;... More »

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(Newser) - A Silicon Valley couple has forsaken a traditional wedding registry for venture capital, Gawker reports. “The World's First Start-up Wedding Registry” doesn’t ask guests for appliances or candlesticks; instead, they can give enough to “feed an outsourced engineer for a day” or pay a month’s worth... More »

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Internet marriage wedding funding venture capital startup gift registry Aboomba

(Newser) - Facebook’s recent deal to let employees sell some of their stock to private investors has sent Silicon Valley scrambling, as workers at other start-ups ask for similar deals, the Wall Street Journal reports. Start-ups rely on the promise of future stock sales to lure and retain talent, but... More »

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Silicon Valley Facebook venture capital Internet startups startup private companies

(Newser) - Marc Andreessen, the tech pioneer who co-founded Netscape, launched a boutique venture capital firm today, intent on investing in “anything that involves chips and computers.” Though Andreessen and business partner Ben Horowitz have been dropping angel investments around Silicon Valley for years, they’ll now have much more... More »

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Silicon Valley venture capital venture capitalists Netscape Marc Andreessen

(Newser) - Some conservatives see recent investments by Al Gore’s venture-capital group into stem-cell research involving a non-embryonic variety as a tacit denial of that more invasive method, the New Scientist reports. Gore’s company has put $20 million into a project researching treatment with induced pluripotent stem cells, which do... More »

Venture Capitalists Start to Regain Their Nerve

Confidence gradually rebounding with stimulus plan

(Newser) - Venture capitalists are starting to get their confidence back after an exceptionally timid year, the New York Times reports. A key index shows the administration's efforts to stabilize the economy have given investors glimmers of hope. "There is some degree of stability in the financial markets and that allows... More »

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investors venture capital investment startup economic stimulus package financial crisis

Google Launches $100M Venture Capital Fund

Investments will be in non-Internet fields

(Newser) - Google will launch a venture capital fund next year with an initial capitalization of about $100 million, reports the Wall Street Journal. Unlike other corporate funds that back companies in their own industries, Google Ventures will look beyond the Internet to also invest in biotech, health care, and environmental technology.... More »

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Twitter Snags $35M in
Venture Capital

Site will keep growing as it figures out how
to make money

(Newser) - Venture capital partners have poured another $35 million into Twitter, reports Bloomberg. The microblogging site said it still has money in the bank from its last round of financing, but the offer was too good to turn down. Twitter—which has grown ninefold in the last year but still lacks... More »

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Bjork Banks on Girl Power
to Save Iceland

Singer promotes venture-capital fund run by women

(Newser) - Quirky Icelandic singer Bjork is promoting a venture-capital fund run by women that will invest in socially and environmentally sustainable companies and, she hopes, help rebuild her economically stricken country. "Instead of talking about the problems we have, she is on a mission to build a sustainable Iceland that's... More »

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venture capital Iceland green business Bjork sustainability financial crisis financial meltdown

Glossies

 Biotech Boom Finally Fizzles 

Riskiest sector hit by downturn

(Newser) - In the bullish market, biotechnology was flush with investment, even though one drug might take many as 15 years and as much as a billion dollars to produce—but those days are over for the riskiest technology sector. Portfolio reports that 45% of publicly traded biotech companies will run out... More »

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biotechnology venture capital investment venture capitalists JPMorgan Chase economic downturn

OPINION

HuffPo Worth $200M?
Em, More Like $2M

Comparing site to Salon's performance deflates the hype

(Newser) - The Huffington Post stunned the media world when it scooped up $25 million last month from Oak Investment Partners for an undisclosed stake, but industry tongue-waggers who put the uberblog's value between $100 million and $200 million are full of it, writes Simon Dumenco in AdAge. To "anybody... More »

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media journalism venture capital American media new media visitors Huffington Post Salon

Startups Seek Ways Around Venture Capital

Twitter, others explore other revenue streams to avoid investors' raised demands

(Newser) - While Wall Street investors have taken advantage of the tanking economy to nab low-priced stocks, Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists have likewise enjoyed a buyer’s market, demanding larger ownership stakes in startup outfits in exchange for their coveted funds. Companies like Twitter—initially funded with $22 million in venture... More »

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Silicon Valley investors recession venture capital startup venture capitalists economy Twitter financial crisis

OPINION

Green Venture Capitalists Need No Bailout

Far from Wall Street, investors embrace eco-friendly ideas

(Newser) - The canyons of Wall Street have been swept clean of liquidity, but the valleys of northern California are still flush with environmentally and financially green ideas, Jon Gertner writes in the New York Times' Sunday magazine. Despite market madness, venture capitalists have seen little slowdown in their businesses, which are... More »

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environment California venture capital solar energy

GLOSSIES

This Xoogler Might Be the
Next Bill Gates

Former Googlers make ever-widening waves
across Silicon Valley

(Newser) - In the past few years, Google has lost some serious firepower to the startup frontier, Luke Dittrich writes in Esquire. With self-styled Xooglers  providing the brain power not only for two dozen or so startups, but for the venture-capital firms that fund them, it’s likely “the next big... More »

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Google YouTube Silicon Valley Gmail venture capital Internet startups venture capitalists Esquire

ANALYSIS

Wall Street Woes Will
Wallop Tech Sector

Drying up of IPOs expected to hit tech ventures especially hard

(Newser) - Troubles hitting the Wall Street giants promise particularly dark days ahead for the tech business world, analysts tell CNET News. The problems are bound to stifle mergers and acquisitions in the tech industry and further dampen the market for initial public offerings. IPOs have already slowed to a trickle—and... More »

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technology Wall Street IPO venture capital investment venture capitalists


 Google Weighs
 New Venture
 Capital Arm


Search engine giant may look to seed start ups

(Newser) - Google is planning to launch a venture capital arm, the Wall Street Journal reports, and has hired an entrepreneur who's also been an investor to head the project. Other tech firms, including Intel, Motorola, and Comcast, already have VC units. Just how big a commitment Google will make and what... More »

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Google Walt Disney Co. venture capital Motorola Intel Corp

 Start-Ups
 Hungry for Cash
 in IPO Drought 

Private funding hunt under way in Silicon Valley

(Newser) - Silicon Valley IPOs are suddenly an extremely rare beast, driven nearly to extinction by the sputtering economy, the Wall Street Journal reports. The first quarter has seen just five venture-backed offerings, compared to 31 last quarter. “The economics have been destroyed for small-cap IPOs,” says the co-founder of... More »

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entrepreneurs Silicon Valley IPO recession venture capital

For Venture Capitalists,
Wells Run Dry

None of investors' gambles go public
in second quarter

(Newser) - Wall Street has not been kind to venture capitalists in the second quarter. For the first time since 1978, not one company they backed went public, taking away their source of big paydays, the New York Times  reports. Observers cite a number of reasons, including lousy market conditions, a shift... More »

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stock market Wall Street investors venture capital economy

For Web 'Game,' Everything
New Is Old

In classic fashion, company has cool idea, needs users, cash

(Newser) - Won’t these Internet startups ever learn about business plans? That's backward thinking, says prolific venture capitalist Joi Ito, who has a stake in the new website PMOG. “People make fun of the idea," he told Portfolio. “There are few sites, however, that have a critical... More »

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Internet Web 2.0 venture capital Internet startups multiplayer games Internet advertising PMOG

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