In This Update:
• New Android Phone Debuts, Looks Like a Blackberry
• GoFish Raises $22.5 Million In Private Placement To Ease Debt
• With AT&T Job Cuts, Telco Recession is Official
• Mint Joins The World Economic Forum, Knows That You’ve Cut Back On Starbucks
• WSJ Now Offering Ad Space On Front Page
• Facebook Aims to Extend Its Reach Across the Web
• Report: Comcast Usage Monitor Coming in January
• LucidMedia Raises $8.8 Million Third Round, Launches Ad Net
• Spectrum Bridge Raises $8.1 Million for Airwave Marketplace
• JackNyfe Raises $3.8 Million for Link Social Networking
• Roc2Loc Raises $2 Million for Wireless Security

Sponsored by:
McCarter & English, LLP
The law firm of new media. Major offices in New York, Boston, Newark, Stamford, and other cities. Advising new media companies from start-up to exit. Venture capital, IP protections and disputes, employment matters, outsourcing, joint ventures, acquisitions, to name just a few.

New Android Phone Debuts, Looks Like a Blackberry
RED WRITE WEB
Starting today handset manufacturer Kogan began accepting pre-orders for the second Android phone, the Kogan Agora Pro, which makes its debut in Australia for $399 AU ($256 US). Unlike T-Mobile’s G1, this phone comes unlocked for use on any carrier. However, what’s really interesting about this second coming of the Googlephone is it’s resemblance to a Blackberry. Will the combination of the Blackberry-inspired keyboard with downloadable iPhone-esque apps be the killer combination? In addition to the Kogan Agora Pro, a toned down version called the Kogan Agora, will also be available for $299 AU ($192 US). The plain vanilla Agora won’t include a camera, Wi-Fi, or GPS. Both phones arrive unlocked phone for use on any Australian Carrier and come standard with a 624 MHz processor, 128 MB RAM, a microSD slot, 3G network, a touch-sensitive 320×240 2.5″ screen, Bluetooth, central navigation key, and a backlit full QWERTY keyboard.
Source>

GoFish Raises $22.5 Million In Private Placement To Ease Debt
PAIDCONTENT
Looking to ease its debt burden, GoFish, the OTCBB-traded kids media company, has raised $22.5 million in a private placement led by Panorama Capital, Rustic Canyon Partners and Rembrandt Venture Partners. Under the terms of the deal, GoFish’s backers have an option to invest an additional $2.5 million over the next few weeks, on top of the $22.5 million. The investors will receive Series A Preferred Stock convertible at a per common share equivalent price of $0.20 per share and warrants to purchase common stock at that same price. The company did not say what the full amount of its debt is. Aside from retiring debt, the company, which has offices in San Francisco and New York, also plans to use the proceeds to hire additional staff in sales and marketing.
Source>

With AT&T Job Cuts, Telco Recession is Official
GIGAOM
AT& T announced this morning that it is going to cut 12,000 jobs, or 4 percent of its workforce, joining a long list of companies that are making cuts in response to the economy’s growing woes. These job cuts are not a surprise, because AT&T is seeing its wireline customer base eviscerated. The cuts will be rolled out in December and through 2009, though the company might add positions in its wireless and broadband business. The company said it is going to cut its capital spending as well. With this news, there is no denying it: A full-scale recession has hit the telecom sector, as I had outlined last month.
Source>

Mint Joins The World Economic Forum, Knows That You’ve Cut Back On Starbucks
TECHCRUNCH
Mint , the personal financial site that won TechCrunch40, continues to thrive even as our economy sinks deeper into an economic decline. The company has just been selected as a TechPioneer by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland – an honor only given to 34 companies worldwide (other winners in the tech space this year include Brightcove , Etsy , Mojix , and Slide , with past winners including Google, 23andMe, Infosys, and Mozilla). The World Economic Forum is an international organization aiming to help improve the world, and each TechPioneer is chosen for its contributions towards meeting that goal.
Source>

WSJ Now Offering Ad Space On Front Page
PAIDCONTENT
The home pages at NYTimes.com and WSJ.com have a few new elements today. At NYTimes.com, the site is finally opening its Times Extra feature in beta. The feature includes links to other news sites and blogs alongside the newspaper site’s own content. NYTimes.com readers can choose to view the “regular” unaggregated page by hitting the “Switch Back” button if they don’t want to mix outside content. The paper lined up Shell as the feature’s launch sponsor.
Source>

Facebook Aims to Extend Its Reach Across the Web
NEW YORK TIMES
Facebook, the Internet’s largest social network, wants to let you take your friends with you as you travel the Web. But having been burned by privacy concerns in the last year, it plans to keep close tabs on those outings. Facebook Connect, as the company’s new feature is called, allows its members to log onto other Web sites using their Facebook identification and see their friends’ activities on those sites. Like Beacon, the controversial advertising program that Facebook introduced and then withdrew last year after it raised a hullabaloo over privacy, Connect also gives members the opportunity to broadcast their actions on those sites to their friends on Facebook. In the next few weeks, a number of prominent Web sites will weave this service into their pages, including those of the Discovery Channel and The San Francisco Chronicle, the social news site Digg, the genealogy network Geni and the online video hub Hulu.
Source>

Report: Comcast Usage Monitor Coming in January
CNET
DSL Reports has gotten word that Comcast will soon be offering its Internet subscribers a bandwidth usage meter as early as the first week of January. With the new system users would presumably be able to see how much bandwidth they’ve used, akin to cellular service providers offering estimates to keep customers from going over their allotted limit. Such a tool for Internet bandwidth would let customers adjust their usage habits accordingly.
Back in October the communications company imposed a limit on user downloads to 250 GB a month without providing any monitoring tools of its own short of installing special software. Additionally, customers are only given one verbal warning before a one-year service suspension if they go over that limit.
Source>

LucidMedia Raises $8.8 Million Third Round, Launches Ad Net
PAIDCONTENT
Contextual display ad targeting firm LucidMedia has secured $8.8 million in a third round of funding. Lake Street Capital, RLI Partners, Melton Investments and Redleaf Group all participated in the round, along with an investment from Silicon Valley vet Milan Mandaric. The Reston, VA-based company will use the funds to bolster the launch of its contextual display ad network, set up a New York office and hire a national sales team. And while there are dire predictions for ad networks (and display ads in general) for the coming year, LucidMedia’s targeting technology was compelling enough to attract Yahoo’s attention: it brokered a deal to serve contextually targeted ads on Yahoo’s Right Media exchange back in August-a capability the exchange never had. LucidMedia was founded in 1999 as Entrieva and rebranded itself in March.
Source>

Spectrum Bridge Raises $8.1 Million for Airwave Marketplace
VENTUREBEAT
Contextual display ad targeting firm LucidMedia has secured $8.8 million in a third round of funding. Lake Street Capital, RLI Partners, Melton Investments and Redleaf Group all participated in the round, along with an investment from Silicon Valley vet Milan Mandaric. The Reston, VA-based company will use the funds to bolster the launch of its contextual display ad network, set up a New York office and hire a national sales team. And while there are dire predictions for ad networks (and display ads in general) for the coming year, LucidMedia’s targeting technology was compelling enough to attract Yahoo’s attention: it brokered a deal to serve contextually targeted ads on Yahoo’s Right Media exchange back in August-a capability the exchange never had. LucidMedia was founded in 1999 as Entrieva and rebranded itself in March.
Source>

JackNyfe Raises $3.8 Million for Link Social Networking
VENTUREBEAT
JackNyfe, the developer of an application that lets users rate, search, copy and comment on links on any web site within a social-network framework, has raised $3.8 million in second-round funding from Altos Ventures and undisclosed others, reports peHub. Not much is known about the Hillsborough, Calif. company. Even its site is pretty spare, except for the careers section, which lists several engineering and design positions.
Source>

Roc2Loc Raises $2 Million for Wireless Security
VENTUREBEAT
Roc2Loc, developer of wireless security systems used on construction sites, brought in $2 million of an anticipated $5 million first round of funding. The new money will be used to continue testing sensors that will – if activated by suspicious motion or temperature change – send alert text messages or emails to site managers’ cell phones.This technology also has applications in the trucking industry, as VentureWire points out. Sensors can be placed so that drivers are immediately notified if anyone opens their trucks’ doors. The San Francisco-based company plans to launch these products by May and achieve profitability by the end of 2009. The recent tranche of funding came from Claremont Creek Ventures. The other $3 million is expected to come in over the next two weeks.
Source>

Tags: 3G, Ad Network, API, Blackberry, Boston, Brand, Brightcove, Broadband, Cisco, CNET, Comcast, Digg, eBook, Facebook, G1, GigaOM, Google, Hulu, IDG, IGA, Ike, iPhone, ISP, JackNyfe, LucidMedia, Mint, Mobile, Mozilla, New York, New York Times, NYT, Ovi, Pioneer, PRI, RIM, Roc2Loc, San Francisco, SEC, Series A, Social Networking, Spectrum, Spire, Starbucks, T-Mobile, Venture, Venture Capital, Video, Wi-Fi, WSJ, Yahoo