Venture capital investments fell 15 percent last year, according to numbers from Dow Jones VentureSource, released today. VCs poured $29.7 billion into 3,363 financings in the US. Deal volume fell by four percent. [Source: Venture Capital Dispatch]
“Compared to other products, we’re much more long-term. Most of the stuff that people look at on Quora today was not written in the last month. You write something really good, and maybe it’s the definitive answer on the Internet for the next 10 years. Maybe it’s only a year, but not like a tweet, where it’s only relevant for a day or a week”
Dell is changing its public cloud strategy, and no longer plans to use OpenStack as its basis. Instead, it has decided to rely on third parties, making its recent acquisition Enstratius a new spotlight of the company’s cloud strategy. [Source: GigaOm]
News discover startup Newsle has raised $1.65 million in its first round of funding. Funding was led by American City Business Journals. [Source: AllThingsD]
After a successful IPO last week, Tableau’s shares continue to grow. Right now, Monday morning’s trading shows the shares are up more than 13%. [Source: GeekWire]
Google and Motorola’s upcoming unit the “X” Phone is slated to support AT&T’s LTE and HSPA+ networks. Now a leak makes reference to a possible CDMA model in the works, making it available to both Sprint and Verizon. [Source: BGR]
Haven’t heard enough news about Tumblr today? Today it unveiled an updated iOS app, with a brand new “path-like” interface. [Source: TechCrunch]
How many Tumblr pages contain porn? According to an analysis by web measurement firm Similar Group, out of the 200,000 most-visited domains on Tumblr 22,775 of them are considered “adult”. So now you know. [Source: TechCrunch]
Luke Wroblewski is the first recorded case of person losing his/her Google Glass. To make matters worse, Wroblewski was using it to develop Glassware and had many accounts synced to the piece of hardware. [Source: VentureBeat]
Fast Company reports that Not Another Bill, a subscription e-commerce service that, like so many others, promises to “bring a bit of magic back to the postal service,” has launched. So if you have yet to find joy in getting the mail from Dollar Shave Club, or Birchbox, or any other “you subscribe, we ship” service, well, your options have just expanded.
[Source: Fast Company]
Samsung has announced new display technologies that it promises will offer better color reproduction and pixel density than displays currently available. In addition to offering a better picture, Samsung claims that the displays are more power-efficient than other tech.
[Source: Samsung]
Features from Google Voice, the telephony service from Google, will be making their way to the company’s new messaging platform, Hangouts. Users will soon be able to make calls from their Web browser via the Hangouts application.
[Source: Google]
“After 3 and a half years of fusing my self-worth with the success of the company in the crucible of startup survival, it was impossible to tear them apart without pain. But while my first reaction was disappointment and failure, it was almost immediately washed away by a wave of relief. I knew change was inevitable, but I had no idea how stressful and exhausting maintaining my internal reality distortion field had been until they gave me permission to turn it off.”
— Awe.Sm founder Jonathan Strauss on replacing yourself as CEO
Nokia descendent Jolla is accepting pre-orders its first smartphone running the Sailfish OS today. The €399 smartphone has 4.5-inch “Estrade” display, an unspecified dual-core processor, 16GB of internal storage plus a microSD slot, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and can run Android apps. Orders will be fulfilled at the end of 2013. [Source: Jolla]
Educational market focused computer maintenance startup Neverware has raised $1 million from Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Collaborative Fund, and Nihal Mehta. The company charges schools a monthly fee to maintain the performance of aging computers with the goal of extending their usefulness and saving costs. [Source: TechCrunch]
The two largest forces in mobile food ordering, Seamless and GrubHub, have announced their merger. The combined companies cover 20,000 restaurants in more than 500 cities, and collectively processed $875 million in food sales last year. The deal is still subject to regulator approval. GrubHub CEO Matt Maloney will lead the combined company, which could see a dramatic reduction in its customer and merchant acquisition costs. [Source: GrubHub]
Carrier billing platform-maker payvia has acquired Los Angeles-based mobile marketing startup Mogreet. Payvia has 120 million clients and processed more than $2 billion in payments in its lifetime. Mogreet had raised $14 million in three rounds of venture financing. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. [Source: payvia]
“Tumblr may not drive revenue (today), but it’ll increase Yahoo’s traffic by an enormous multiplier. Tumblr may not be directly rebranded as a Yahoo property, but it’ll increase the brand-value and mindshare of Yahoo exponentially. And Tumblr may not be the blogging platform of choice for professionals, but it’s veritably filled with young, taste-making people.”
Hulu, which had been talked about as an acquisition target for Yahoo, has received acquisition interest from DirecTV as well, reports the Wall Street Journal. [Source: WSJ]
Websense, which makes security software, has agreed to go private with the help of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners for around $1 billion. [Source: Wall Street Journal]
FusionStorm Global, an enterprise IT company focused on public sector customers, withdrew plans for a $175 million IPO, which it filed for in late 2011. [Source: Renaissance Capital]
Zyme Solutions, which provides channel data tools, raised $5 million from Susquehanna Growth Equity. The company offers managed services for multi-tier channel visibility, which integrate Salesforce.com, SAP and Oracle. [Source: Zyme Solutions]
“Commerce has become marketing and marketing has become commerce”
Lessons from a rare $2 billion LA tech win: “I was competing with both hands tied behind my back”
Skift’s approach to building a new media company: It’s as much about data as it is about news
RelayRides suspends New York service after cease and desist
The future of search: Answer, converse, anticipate
US authorities launch their first attack on bitcoin
Google is keeping iCloud’s promises
For startups with university roots, an exit is priority number one
Give me that old bitcoin religion
Chartbeat crosses the Chinese wall with ad sales tools, focusing on quality over clicks
IPO candidate Plex Systems grabs Eloqua CMO Heidi Melin to grow its cloud ERP platform
Vessel launches its “command center” to help mobile developers kill faulty software
Ticketfly adds Fanbase customer analytics platform to help venue owners pack events
With Thirst’s Droplet, the vision for news on Google Glass becomes a little clearer
For Chris Dixon the next big thing might be bitcoin
The center of tech is shifting from Silicon Valley to “application towns” like New York and LA
Chris Dixon: The consumer Web has gotten too good, enterprise companies are cutthroat
Portland startup launches transit mobile ticketing service. Is this the future?
We are real people trying to do real things
With 2 million users, “secrets app” Whisper launches on Android
As venture capital becomes a commodity, it’s all about community
What CEOs could learn from comedians
How Microsoft, Google, and Square use hardware to market their software and services
A federal shield law for journalists would be virtually useless
San Francisco: Get your ticket to see John Doerr at PandoMonthly now!
Scroll down: The future of online media is in the cards
Marqeta now powers Facebook Card loyalty and payments tech, announces $14M Series B round
Berg Cloud Sandbox: A tool to unite connected devices and the companies that make them
Two years of stealth and $11M in VC later, EdgeSpring launches a data analytics platform for the average man
Bitcoin is legal, but mainstream adoption will mandate playing by the rules
For the Internet of things, will it be verticals or horizontals?
A bitcoin bubble could be good for everyone
New Zealand-based Vend raises $8M without turning to the Valley
Hotseat: Gravity’s Amit Kapur defends the integrity of the MySpace mafia
PandoHouse Rock: A history of 3D printing, from prototypes to pistols
With the bleeding stopped, ShoeDazzle is in the market for a strategic acquisition or investment
Bitcoin’s consumerization continues with Perk, a rewards platform and Web browser for normal people
How to become a VC without leaving home
Gliph joins Boost.vc, launches bitcoin messaging and payments app
Zinio’s new subscription product only solves half a problem
Facebook ponders its place in the Internet of Things
The Apathy Epidemic: Why your startup will suck you dry
