5 great acquisition targets for 1Q 2007
After Kristen posted today on a suggested mashup, I thought it would be interesting to look at 5 great acquisition targets for 1st quarter 2007. I do not have financials for any of these companies, so I am working from a base of technology and visability. For each company I list, I have also listed a possible buyer along with my commentary on why the purchase makes sense.
Joost: Bringing TV to the Web
Once you've sold a company for $2.6 billion, life on the beach can be tempting, particularly if you're Scandinavian. But for dotcom veterans Janus Friis, 30, and Niklas Zennstrom, 40, whose sale of Skype to eBay rocketed them toward Gatesian wealth, the lure of a Great Leap Backward has proved stronger than sun and sand.
Tribe Gets Acquired, For Real This Time
Last year was a turbulent one for Silicon Valley based Tribe.net. Founding CEO Mark Pincus was ousted, in April 2005 and then returned in August 2006. While Pincus was gone rumors swirled that the company had been acquired by NBC, but the deal was never consummated.
Bebo IPO - Possible?
You gotta love the way founders always say the company is staying independent - and even hoping for an eventual IPO - at a time when tech IPOs are still rare and companies are getting acquired all over the place.
Wizzard Media acquires Libsyn
An announcement was made by Wizzard Media that will impact thousands of podcasters like us MobileTechRoundupers. The company announced it has acquired Liberated Syndication, known to podcasters as Libsyn.
WorldFriends Networks Announces US$2 5 Million in Venture Capital Funding
Shanghai-based Meta4 Group Ltd., which operates WorldFriends Networks, the world's leading provider of private label multi-lingual online
personals announced US$2.5 million in venture capital funding from industry veterans including the co-founders of leading Internet dating service Lavalife.com
Digg Should Sue Wired
Wired Magazine seems hell bent on convincing the world that Digg is falling apart. I have a problem with that because Wired Magazine's parent company, Condé Nast, owns Digg competitor Reddit . And because Wired isn't just reporting Digg news - they are actively engaged in using Wired to undermine Digg.
Troubled Insider Pages Acquired By CitySearch
The Insider Pages acquisition rumors that we posted on last week were accurate - later today Citysearch, a division of InterActive Corp., will announce that they have acquired the company.
Wesabe Gets Money From Tim O'Reilly's OATV
Berkeley, California based Wesabe will announce a $700,000 round of financing tomorrow from O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (as well as a couple of individual investors), and Tim O'Reilly will join the company's board of directors. A good overview video of the service, which launched in December, is below.
TrustedPlaces Raises $1 Million Funding
TrustedPlaces, a local reviews site and social network that's focused mainly on the UK market, just informed Mashable that it has raised GBP £500,000 (approx $1M) from HOWZAT media LLP, a startup investment fund.
Will Facebook hold out or sell out?
As Facebook.com's mastermind, Mark Zuckerberg is sitting on a potential gold mine that could make him the next Silicon Valley whiz kid to strike it rich.
TellMe For Sale?
Take TellMe off the IPO list for this year - We have multiple sources saying that Microsoft has acquired the company. We're trying to find the price now. More details to follow. See our recent coverage of the company here .
Microsoft Acquires Health Search Engine, Medstory - The Continued Rise of Vertical Search
Microsoft has acquired Medstory , a vertical search engine for health information. This is an interesting development in a few ways - but in terms of Web tech trends, because it's another sign of the rise of vertical search engines.
ImageKind Raises $2.6 Million
We reported last month that Seattle-based ImageKind, where artists can upload their work and sell custom framed prints to others, was in acquisition discussions with Amazon . ImageKind competes with Art.com's new Sistino project - rumor had it that Art.com was also looking at the company late last year for a possible acquisition.
Koolanoo - Jewish MySpace Gets $3M
Jewish social network Koolanoo has raised funding of $3 million from Giza Venture Capital, a VC with offices in Israel, New York and Singapore. The company plans to launch social networks for other religious and ethnic groups, and already operates 360Quan.com, a Chinese social network and video site.
Amazon Invests in Shelfari
We're hearing that Amazon has invested $1 million or so in Seattle based Shelfari , beating out at least one venture firm that competed for the deal.
Why Compete doesn't work, and why Quantcast does
It sucks when your Web site's traffic isn't being measured correctly.
YouTube to start filtering for pirated video?
YouTube will start filtering videos and other content in order to stop pirated material from being posted to it site, reports the Mercury News' Elise
Aggregate Knowledge grabs interest, will raise $20M
It is about to raise $20 million, and rumors are circulating that interest by venture capitalists is pushing the company valuation north of $50 million (before the investment). This is significant because the company launched less than a year ago, and is already raking in millions of dollars.
Insider Pages Acquisition May Be Announced Next Week
Fox Interactive Acquires Ad Optimization Company
Fox Interactive Media announced this morning that it has acquired the thrillingly named Strategic Data Corporation
Google Further Tests Microsoft's Domain
The day that everyone knew was coming has arrived with the announcement that Google has launched Google Apps Premier , its subscription package of premium, hosted business applications in direct competition with Microsoft.
It's G-Day: Google Launches Apps Premier
Google Inc. today is marching further into Microsoft Corp.'s core turf with a bundle of services targeted at corporations, including Web-based word-processing and spreadsheet applications.
PBWiki Raises $2m
PBwiki closed $2 million in funding this morning from Mohr Davidow Ventures. Founder and CEO David Weekly confirmed that previous investors Ron Conway and Chris Yeh also put in an additional $100k.
Rumor: Confabb To Be Acquired By End Of Month
The company, which has created a social network around conferences, launched just three months ago. And from what we're hearing, they are very close to being acquired in the next week, for $5 million or so.
Mozes SMS Service Raises $5m
SMS call-and-response service Mozes will announce in the morning that the company has raised $5 million in series A venture funding from Northwest Venture Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners.
Trulia Launches New API with Mashery
Yesterday, Trulia , the real estate search startup, just announced their new API .
Union Square Ventures funds Adaptive Blue
Semantic web Firefox plug-in provider Adaptive Blue announced today that the company has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Union Square Ventures.
Looking for Odeo's new home
In the last few months, we here at Obvious have been increasingly focused on Twitter. As a result, our original product, Odeo , has not gotten the attention it deserves.
Odeo Put Up for Sale
Evan Williams, the man who co-founded blogger.com foundation Pyra Labs with Meg Hourihan, has put his beleaguered startup Odeo up for sale.
Odeo For Saleo
Ev Williams' Obvious Corp, which bought Ev's Odeo property back from investors in October '06, is now looking to sell the podcasting site. The site is self-sustaining he says - AdSense pays the bills - but the company wants to focus on Twitter and doesn't want to see Odeo die of neglect.
For Sale, Odeo's domain, brand, platform
Ever since founder Ev Williams decided to buy back San Francisco-based Odeo from his investors and shift his attention to fast growing SMS-alerting service, Twitter, it became clear that Odeo brand and domain might be up for grabs.
Talkr Sold - New Owners Plan To Make Money Via Audio Advertising
Talkr has just been acquired - by a company who found out it was for sale via Read/WriteWeb!
Viacom to Sign Deal with Joost
Two weeks after Viacom ordered Google to take down more than 100,000 allegedly copyrighted videos from YouTube, the media giant is about to sign a content deal with Joost, the Wall Street Journal is reporting tonight
Google to Buy Adscape for $23 Million
After some rumors of a deal earlier this month, Google has expanded it's advertising reach by moving into video game advertising with their $23 million acquisition of Adscape.
Yahoo Launches Digg-Like Suggestion Site
Yahoo is taking some criticism for launching a site that includes a Digg-like voting feature earlier today. The main criticism is coming from Digg users, who can sometimes stop fighting long enough to band together into a very angry mob. But a few bloggers are adding their own fuel as well.
Quepasa Acquires Corazones.com
A smart acquisition for the Hispanic social network Quespasa: they've just snapped up Corazones.com, a Hispanic dating site. We're not sure whether they held back the announcement for Valentine's Day, but it seems like good timing.
Text of Email to all Yahoos
This email was sent by Yahoo CFO Susan Decker to all Yahoo employees today at 9:01 AM PST and has the details of who's doing what in their new Advertiser & Publisher Group. Lots and lots of SVP and EVP promotions from the Yahoo ranks, and other peanut butter being spread around.
Aniboom Raises $4.5 Million For Cartoons
Israeli Startup Aniboom has raise $4.5 million in an initial round of financing. The round was led by Israeli venture firm Evergreen.
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