Silicon Valley

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IBM, Sun Break Off $7B Merger Talks

(Newser) - IBM withdrew a $7 billion offer to buy Sun Microsystems this weekend after Sun's board called the bid too low, the Wall Street Journal reports. Sun also worried that IBM sought too much leeway to walk away from the deal if antitrust regulators challenged the merger, insiders say. People expected...

Tea: Hot Drink of Geek Elite
 Tea: Hot Drink of Geek Elite 
Apr 3, 2009 1:42 PM CDT

Tea: Hot Drink of Geek Elite

(Newser) - Silicon Valley’s tastemakers are trading coffee for the soothing sensation of fine tea, reports Wired. The same tech giants who helped fuel the Starbucks craze are flocking to expensive teas, and tea lounges are popping up in the Bay Area to meet the demand. “It’s the new...

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....

Time to Give Netflix Its Dot-Com Due
 Time to Give Netflix 
 Its Dot-Com Due 
OPINION
Jan 28, 2009 4:47 PM CST

Time to Give Netflix Its Dot-Com Due

Disciplined growth has helped it through many setbacks

(Newser) - Despite plenty of naysayers, Netflix boasts success like few other dot-coms, Chris O’Brien writes in the San Jose Mercury News. The movie-rental service reported record earnings despite the recession, “a neat trick that eBay and Yahoo could only dream of emulating.” Netflix’s innovative distribution system, inventory...

Sun Micro to Cut 5,000 Jobs
 Sun Micro to Cut 5,000 Jobs
Nov 14, 2008 8:19 AM CST

Sun Micro to Cut 5,000 Jobs

Software giant slashes 15-18% of workforce

(Newser) - Sun Microsystems intends to lay off 5,000 to 6,000 employees, amounting to 15-18% of the computer maker’s workforce. The cuts should shave about $800 million off Sun’s costs, as the company struggles to compensate for swiftly declining sales. Sun lost $1.68 billion last quarter, as...

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...

Wall Street's Woes Will Breed Cheaper Gadgets
Wall Street's Woes Will
Breed Cheaper Gadgets
ANALYSIS
Oct 7, 2008 7:16 PM CDT

Wall Street's Woes Will Breed Cheaper Gadgets

Luxury brands will drop prices; digital media apt to boom in downturn

(Newser) - Wall Street's current tremors will be felt in Silicon Valley for years, "worst case, the next decade," John Biggs writes in TechCrunch, and that could be good news for gadget freaks. Though pinched consumers probably won't "be able to stomach even mild extravagances," luxury brands—Apple...

This Xoogler Might Be the Next Bill Gates
This Xoogler Might Be the
Next Bill Gates
GLOSSIES
Oct 4, 2008 2:40 AM CDT

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...

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...

Silicon Valley, Big Apple, DC Remain Top US 'Cybercities'

51 of 60 major metro areas found by industry survey to have added tech jobs

(Newser) - Silicon Valley, New York, and Washington, DC, still have the most tech workers among US metro areas, a new report shows. New York has the most techies, but when San Francisco and the greater Bay Area are combined with Silicon Valley, it tops the list, MarketWatch notes. The Valley is...

Economy Has Venture-Capital Scene Looking in Mirror

Return on investments sags with stock uncertainty, credit woes—but money still there

(Newser) - Economic troubles that have meant fewer IPOs and less-lucrative mergers have the venture-capital industry in upheaval, the San Jose Mercury News reports after last week's Silicon Valley gathering of VC players. Many believe the moneyed backers must treat entrepreneurs better for prospects to remain lively. Yet, though returns have turned...

Silicon Valley Startup Craves Chocolate

Tcho founders predict a coffee-like revolution for the sweet stuff

(Newser) - San Francisco startup Tcho has all the sweet Silicon Valley trimmings, the Economist reports; high-profile tech alums, online beta testing and stock options for all. But its product is even sweeter: top-quality chocolate. The company has developed a means to grade cocoa beans' complex nuances on a "flavor wheel,...

Cisco Develops a Lighter Touch in Acquisitions

Tech giant develops new strategy for new era in takeovers

(Newser) - Cisco, once famous for swallowing small companies whole and digesting them without leaving a trace of their former brand names (or management), is forging a new acquisition strategy. As it targets new, Internet-based technologies that it’s less familiar with, the company has developed a lighter touch, as evidenced by...

Tech Hybrids Blend Lofty Ideals With Bottom-Line Business

(Newser) - Tech companies that blend social missions with business ambitions are all the rage in Silicon Valley. Called “social enterprises,” they often generate sizable revenue (unlike most nonprofits), that’s then retained and reinvested (unlike most for-profits). Now, an ecosystem of related organizations is emerging, such as specialized legal...

Silicon Valley Welcomes Babbage Calculator

Millionaire commissioned huge device based on 19th-Century plans

(Newser) - An unusually large calculator is on display for the next six months at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The massive machine is a “difference engine,” a mechanical calculator to determine polynomial functions designed (but never built) by 19th-century inventor Charles Babbage. London’s Science Museum...

Silicon Valley Feels Economic Chill

Venture capital has dried up, stocks have sagged in tech hot spot

(Newser) - Venture capital in Silicon Valley is drying up as angel investors, wary of the fickle stock market and tightening credit markets, become more cautious with their cash, the New York Times reports. Their hesitance has slowed the pace of job growth and expansion at tech start-ups, and has dramatically cut...

Sinking Market Forces New Venture-Capital Strategies

Analysts don't see money drying up, just more scrutiny on where it's spent

(Newser) - Venture capitalists are watching economic indicators carefully, trying to find safer places to put their mountains of money, CNET reports. The stats on first-quarter VC activity will land soon, and though experts don't expect dollar totals to have waned, players are “under pressure to invest in quality companies that...

Chat Rooms Return&mdash;in 3-D
 Chat Rooms Return—in 3-D 
Mar 31, 2008 11:11 AM CDT

Chat Rooms Return—in 3-D

New companies try to bring real-time socializing back to web

(Newser) - A group of Silicon Valley startups is looking to bring the "social" back into social-networking and other popular websites, the New York Times reports. Vivaty is developing 3-D virtual chat rooms users can embed in web pages—including social-networking profiles—and will begin Facebook testing this week. And Meebo’...

Solar Panels Trump Trees
 Solar Panels Trump Trees 
Mar 26, 2008 5:43 PM CDT

Solar Panels Trump Trees

Calif. man forced to cut down redwoods so neighbor can tap sun's energy

(Newser) - A dispute between California neighbors pitting trees against solar panels has gone to the panels, KGO-TV reports. Following a seven-year battle over whether one should have to cut down trees in his backyard that shade the other’s solar panels, Richard Treanor today chopped two redwoods after he was found...

Silicon Valley's Prodigal Son Comes Home

Frank Quattrone seeks to repair his rep with new investment bank

(Newser) - Silicon Valley prodigal son Frank Quattrone is staging a comeback, poised to debut his new tech-centered investment bank Qatalyst—after years recovering from federal obstruction-of-justice charges. But now that he's back, the question is whether the industry will welcome home an errant child with open arms. Probably, BusinessWeek writes—if...

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