In This Update:
•Acer to Produce Netbook Using Google Operating System
•Google’s eBook Business Will Create Standards War
•Murdoch Said to Be Wooing DirecTV Chief to Be His No. 2
•Sugar Inc. Adds New Capital and Video Shopping
•Dayak Launches Marketplace for Contract, Temp Jobs
•Mediabrands Latest Agency Firm to Get into Ad Tech
•MashLogic Raises $500K for Semantic Search Ad-on
•Poll: Business People Say Twitter More Important Than LinkedIn
•Cloudera, a Hadoop-focused Startup, Gets $6 Million in New Funding
•Javelin Launches with $70 Million Fund for Early-Stage Startups
Sponsored by:
SVM Public Relations & Marketing Communications
The public relations and branding agency for innovation-driven companies, SVM is headquartered in Providence, R.I., with representation in Boston and San Diego. SVM develops and executes compelling public relations and branding programs that utilize a complete range of communication disciplines (from traditional to emerging social media techniques) to achieve bottom-line results for our clients. SVM focuses on serving companies that are innovators in their fields and offers specialized practice expertise in green technology, mobile broadband and life sciences. For more information please contact Bob Vetromile vet@svmpr.com
Acer to Produce Netbook Using Google Operating System
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Acer said it will launch a low-cost computer that runs on Google Inc.’s Android operating software, a victory for the U.S. Internet-search giant in its battle with Microsoft Corp. Taiwan-based Acer, the world’s third-largest personal-computer maker by revenue, on Tuesday said it will start shipping the new netbook PCs in the third quarter. The move comes as Acer and other companies, including larger rivals Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc., try to diversify their offerings of netbooks — small, inexpensive laptop computers that are increasingly popular.
Source>
Google’s eBook Business Will Create Standards War
SF GATE
Healthy competition is the bread and butter of capitalism, and Google is no stranger to stirring the money pot in its favor. But Google’s latest decision to try its hand selling eBooks threatens to create a standards war that may prove destructive to many consumers. Google’s eBook store will pit it directly against Amazon and Amazon’s Kindle — an enormously popular eBook reader. Amazon sells 280,000 fixed-price titles that can only be read on the Kindle or its iPhone app. Google, on the other hand, stated that it will allow publishers to set eBook prices, which will likely result in a price increase across many titles. But this is what publishers want, and will therefore inspire them to make more titles available via an electronic format.
Source>
Murdoch Said to Be Wooing DirecTV Chief to Be His No. 2
NEW YORK TIMES
Rupert Murdoch, the media baron who controls the News Corporation, is trying to lure Charles G. Carey, the president and chief executive of DirecTV, to be his top lieutenant, according to a person briefed on the matter. Mr. Carey, who is known as Chase, previously held several posts at News Corporation, He is being sought to succeed Peter A. Chernin, the longtime president of News Corporation who is leaving at the end of June, the person briefed said. While Mr. Carey has indicated interest in returning to News Corporation, his contract at DirecTV does not expire until the end of 2010, according to the person briefed on the matter.
Source>
Sugar Inc. Adds New Capital and Video Shopping
NEW YORK TIMES
Sugar Inc., the blog network for women, is growing, with new money and a new video shopping site. Sugar announced Monday that it raised $16 million from Sequoia Capital, in addition to the $15 million it has previously raised. It also acquired a video shopping site called Shopflick . The site will be part of a new division of Sugar, called Sugar Digital Entertainment, that will produce videos, television and video games. Brian and Lisa Sugar, Sugar Inc.’s husband-and-wife founders, started the company in 2006 after seeing the popularity of Lisa’s celebrity gossip blog, PopSugar. They quickly expanded to other blogs aimed at women and today the network has 15 blogs, including FabSugar on fashion, LilSugar on parenting and YumSugar on food.
Source>
Dayak Launches Marketplace for Contract, Temp Jobs
SOCAL TECH
Carlsbad-based Dayak, a VC-funded online site focused on recruiting, said recently that it has launched a new marketplace focused on temporary and contract labor. According to Dayak, the new marketplace comes as companies are starting to look more than temporary and contract workers, in response to the “economic meltdown.” Dayak allows staffing firms to post temp and contract openings to its new marketplace, allowing independent recruiters to help fill those positions. The new staffing marketplace is an expansion of the firm’s existing service for matching employers with recruiters. Dayak is venture backed by First Round Capital, NextStage Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and the Tech Coast Angels.
Source>
Mediabrands Latest Agency Firm to Get into Ad Tech
CLICKZ
People guiding the new firm, dubbed Cadreon, believe they have a leg up on ad networks or exchanges, in part because they’re able to apply advertiser client data to the ad targeting process, something missing in common ad network buys. “The biggest [difference] would be our use of data to craft audiences around exactly what our clients know their audiences to be,” said Michael Brunick, VP, media technology director at Mediabrands agency UM. He argues that the typical ad network “shoehorns” advertiser target audiences into predetermined segments.
Source>
MashLogic Raises $500K for Semantic Search Ad-on
ALARM CLOCK
Menlo Park-based MashLogic has raised $500K in angel funding. The startup was incubated by Bessemer Venture Partners. Backers include Scott Kurnit, Reid Hoffman, Gil Penchina and Jeff Clavier. MashLogic is a Semantic web startup that has developed an add-on for IE and Firefox that allows users to indicate which search results sources they prefer – be it Twitter, Wikipedia, or LinkedIn. The company had folded in DashNote which was building a platform for “User-Driven Contextual Advertising.” The idea was to enable consumers to interact directly with web pages and invoke relevant services and resources, ranging from utilitarian (e.g. person lookup, driving directions) to commercial (price comparison, Financial Services). Based on the Context of the web page, DashNote said they could derive consumer intent, which they hoped to be able to package to advertisers.
Source>
Poll: Business People Say Twitter More Important Than LinkedIn
READ WRITE WEB
A month-long poll conducted on business social network LinkedIn has uncovered some fascinating numbers concerning social media platforms and brand presence. The biggest surprise was that Twitter was deemed more important to brands than LinkedIn, and the poll was performed on LinkedIn. With more than 3,600 respondents so far, each well understood in terms of job titles, company size, age and gender – this is a high-quality data set worth paying attention to. The question asked was simply: “What is the most important new platform for brands to master?” Options were Twitter, Facebook, the iPhone, Digg and LinkedIn. Some of the conclusions were a real surprise. Others confirmed our suspicions.
Source>
Cloudera, a Hadoop-focused Startup, Gets $6 Million in New Funding
GIGAOM
Cloudera, a Burlingame, Calif.-based startup that is building commercial services around open-source software framework Hadoop, has closed $6 million in Series B funding, bringing the total raised by the company to $11 million. The latest round of funding was led by Greylock Partners. Current investor Accel Partners also participated in this round. Cloudera’s other investors include Diane Greene and Marten Mickos (former CEO of MySQL). Cloudera was started in 2008 by Mike Olson; Christophe Bisciglia, who created and led Google’s academic cloud computing initiative; Dr. Amr Awadallah, Yahoo’s VP of engineering; and Jeff Hammerbacher, formerly with Facebook.
Source>
Javelin Launches with $70 Million Fund for Early-Stage Startups
VENTURE BEAT
Javelin Venture Partners, a small firm based in San Francisco, just launched after raising a $70 million fund to back early-stage startups specializing in internet, mobile and health care applications, reports VentureWire. The most promising aspect of the firm may be its leadership. Founded by two graduates of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, Noah Doyle and Jed Katz, Javelin benefits from combined experience at Google, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and several successful startups. Doyle had a hand in developing both Google Maps and Google Earth, while Katz served as managng director at DFJ Gotham in New York. He is also the co-founder of acquired startups Rent Net and Move.com, both sites that help users relocate to other parts of the country.
Source>
Tags: Accel Partners, Cloud, Greylock Partners, Murdoch
