Amit Chowdhry | April 26, 2011 | 509 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Gracenote, Peter Kellogg-Smith, RealNetworks, RealNetworks Rinse

RealNetworks, Inc. (NASDAQ:RNWK) has announced a new software called Rinse. Rinse software takes your iTunes music collection and cleans it up. It cleans up song duplicates, fixes misspellings, and adds missing album art.

Amit Chowdhry | April 26, 2011 | 503 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Google, Wael Ghonim
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) executive Wael Ghonim has stepped down from the search engine giant company. Ghonim is best known for being the face of the recent revolution in Egypt that involved Hosni Mubarak stepping down as the President of the Middle Eastern country. Ghonim was temporarily arrested by government forces in Egypt and beaten. Now Ghonim will be taking along sabbatical from Google to start a technology nongovernmental organization to help fight poverty and spread education to those who need it. [Wired]
Amit Chowdhry | April 26, 2011 | 944 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Google, Michael Ma, Qasar Younis, Sunny Dhillon, TalkBin, Y Combinator

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has acquired TalkBin. TalkBin started less than 5 months ago. TalkBin was incubated at Y Combinator and was acquired on the same day as another Y Combinator company called Wufoo. TalkBin’s platform allows customers to give feedback immediately to local businesses. TalkBin has Android and iOS applications. TalkBin was founded in December 2010 by Qasar Younis, Sunny Dhillon, and Michael Ma. TalkBin will be shut down temporarily, but will be reopened again in the near future. [TechCrunch]
Amit Chowdhry | April 26, 2011 | 529 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Battery Ventures, ExactTarget, Greenspring Associates, Scale Venture Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures

ExactTarget has raised $30 million in a new round of funding to fund acquisitions and to expand operations. ExactTarget is an e-mail marketing company that acquired CoTweet in 2009. ExactTarget raised $70 million in May 2009. ExactTarget’s revenues increased 41% to $134 million in 2010. ExactTarget was initially planning on going IPO in late 2007, but decided to raise funding instead. The latest round of funding was led by Technology Crossover Ventures. Battery Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Greenspring Associates also participated in this round. [paidContent]
Amit Chowdhry | April 26, 2011 | 519 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Amazon Fresh, Peapod, Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) has started testing out an online grocery delivery service in San Jose, California over the weekend. The new service is called “Walmart To Go.” The Walmart To Go service allows customers to order groceries and other goods through Walmart.com and have them delivered to their house. If Walmart decides to stay in the grocery delivery business, they will compete directly with Amazon Fresh and Peapod. [Reuters]
Amit Chowdhry | April 25, 2011 | 859 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Comcast, Comcast Corporation, Netflix

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) has announced that they have hit 23.6 million subscribers. They had a major first-quarter growth spurt that pushed them ahead of Showtime and Comcast in terms of the subscriber number. About 3.59 million new subscribers joined for the quarter ending in March.

Amit Chowdhry | April 25, 2011 | 385 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under

Sohu.com Inc. (NASDAQ:SOHU) is a Chinese Internet portal company that has acquired $100 million worth of equity in online gaming company Shenzhen 7Road Technology (7Road). Sohu.com’s subsidiary Changyou.com made the acquisition. Changyou.com will initially get 68.26% ownership by paying $68.26 million in cash. 7Road will get $32.76 million based on performance-based earn-outs.

Amit Chowdhry | April 25, 2011 | 574 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Emily White, Facebook, Facebook Deals

Facebook’s director for local Emily White said that the social network is introducing Deals as part of a test in five cities starting tomorrow. This move directly rivals daily e-mail deals companies Groupon and LivingSocial. The five test cities include Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco.
