The government is planning to expand collaborations between large companies and startups as well. Intel Capital is committing $200 million of new investments for U.S. companies and IBM will invest $150 million in 2011 to fund entrepreneur programs. Mark Zuckerberg will be launching a new initiative called Startup Days, where the companies will host 12-15 events around the country to provide entrepreneurs with expertise and resources to accelerate their businesses.

How much did it cost AOL to distribute all those CDs back in the 1990′s?
A lot! I don’t remember the total spending but do recall in the early 1990s our target was to spend 10% of lifetime revenue to get a new subscriber. At that time I believe the average subscriber life was about 25 months and revenue was about $350 so we spent about $35 to acquire [subscribers].

It turns out that all of these marketing costs worked because:

When [AOL] went public in 1992 we had less than 200,000 subscribers; a decade later the number was in the 25 million range.

[TechCrunch via Gizmodo]

AOL co-founder and former CEO Steve Case is not too happy with the AOL AIM team because Yahoo! came out with 3G video calling first. He sent the above tweet about what he thinks about AIM not integrating the service first.

Steve Case Invests In Revitalized Vinfolio As It Expands In $3 Billion Fine Wine Market

Revolution LLC investment helps fuel expansion of Vinfolio’s wine marketplace, enabling unsurpassed convenience and efficiency for fine wine buyers and sellers

SAN FRANCISCO, May 25 /PRNewswire/ — Vinfolio, a leading source for fine wine that serves the needs of fine wine enthusiasts and collectors worldwide (www.vinfolio.com), today announced it has received funding from Revolution LLC, the investment company created by AOL co-founder Steve Case to invest in companies that are driving transformative change by shifting power to consumers. Terms were not disclosed.

Vinfolio provides fine wine enthusiasts and collectors with cutting edge technology to purchase and manage wine collections with ease and share their ratings and opinions with others. Most specifically, Vinfolio’s Marketplace offers consumers an innovative new channel to buy and sell hard-to-find wines, creating greater access and transparency in the currently fragmented collectible market.

“Revolution’s investment enables Vinfolio to fuel its growth by providing substantial financial resources as well as invaluable expertise in customer driven e-commerce initiatives,” said Vinfolio CEO Michael Jellison. “The Revolution team will help us build on the lessons from the world’s most popular recommendation engines, auction marketplaces and social media platforms, as Vinfolio seeks to simplify a fragmented, confusing market and make fine wine purchasing and exchange easier for everyone.”

New Board for Revitalized Vinfolio

To further strengthen and expand the newly-constituted Vinfolio Board of Directors, Revolution’s David Golden and Philippe Bourguignon will join current Board members N. Colin Lind, Jon Moramarco and Jean-Michel Valette.

Mr. Golden, who prior to Revolution spent 18 years at JP Morgan, focuses on finance and transactions for Revolution and its various businesses. Mr. Bourguignon is currently CEO of Miraval Arizona, Revolution’s world-class resort spa in Tucson, Ariz., and was formerly Chairman and CEO of ClubMed, Chairman and CEO of Euro Disney, co-CEO of the Davos-based World Economic Forum, and a Board member of eBay.

Mr. Lind has more than 30 years of hands-on investing experience, including Board roles. For the past 25 years he has been a principal at Blum Capital Partners. L.P., where he is currently Managing Partner of the investment firm which holds $3 billion in assets. Mr. Moramarco has been an executive in the wine business for over 20 years with extensive experience in both the domestic and international wine worlds. Mr. Valette is an independent advisor to branded consumer companies and is currently Chairman of Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Inc. and Select Comfort Corporation. He was previously Chairman of Robert Mondavi Winery and is one of 27 Americans to hold the title of Master of Wine.

“As an eBay board member for the past decade, I experienced firsthand the power of using the Internet to build bridges between buyers and sellers,” said Bourguignon. “Vinfolio’s potential to simplify the market for consumers and become the go-to marketplace for fine wine buyers and sellers is significant. We look forward to working closely with them as they capitalize on the opportunities.”

Vinfolio’s Leading Services

Vinfolio’s selection of unique and rare wines and superior customer service are cornerstones of its business. The company also offers a host of products and services that enable fine wine buyers, sellers and collectors to connect and transact, such as:

* Vinfolio Marketplace: Creates more consumer confidence by providing an efficient and transparent channel for buying and selling fine wine.
* Vinfolio Priority Program: Rewards customer loyalty with advance access to highly prized wines and free or discounted services.
* Wine buying tools: Provides customers with a suite of robust wine buying tools to customize their shopping experience.
* Extensive product content: Promotes informed wine buying decisions by providing consumers with professional scores, producer information, auction data, wine tasting videos and more.
* VinCellar: Streamlines management of a wine collection by offering a free cellar management application to input and share tasting notes, valuate a collection and more.
* Storage and transport: Provides secure temperature controlled wine storage and local free delivery in the SF Bay Area, as well as free insurance on all shipments and deliveries.
* Multiple selling options: Provides individuals with the option of selling wines via the Vinfolio Marketplace or Fixed-price Auctions.

About Vinfolio – www.vinfolio.com

Vinfolio is a leading source for fine wine, serving the needs of wine enthusiasts and collectors worldwide. Through its online wine store and Marketplace, the company offers access to thousands of unique wines. Vinfolio’s mission is to bring simplicity and transparency to the buying and selling of fine wine and provide exceptional service to its wine buying, selling and storage customers. Launched in March 2010, Vinfolio is a new company that was formed from the purchase of the assets of Vinfolio, Inc. by VF Wine, Inc. The company is headquartered in San Francisco.

SOURCE Revolution
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http://www.vinfolio.com

LivingSocial’s biggest competitor, Groupon, raised $135 million and was given a $1.35 billion valuation recently. But LivingSocial plans to expand aggressively. LivingSocial will be launching in 4 new markets today (Portland, Orange County, Charlotte and Philadelphia) and is already established in 18 markets. The company has tripled their headcount to over 100 employees since the beginning of 2010. Tim O’Shaughnessy said that the rate of hiring will increase quickly. Aside from daily deals, LivingSocial is known for designing popular Facebook applications such as LivingSocial: Books, LivingSocial: Beers, LivingSocial: Movies, and LivingSocial: Albums.

Below is the full press release:

LivingSocial Raises Series C Round Led by Lightspeed Venture Partners;

Launches in Portland, Orange County, Charlotte and Philadelphia

$14 Million Round Comes on Heels of $25 Million Series B Announcement Last Month

Company Also Begins Offering Hyperlocal Deals in Seattle Area – Users Can Now Get Deals Even Closer to their Homes

Washington D.C., April 29, 2010 – LivingSocial, the social commerce leader behind LivingSocial Deals and top Facebook applications Visual Bookshelf and Pick Your Five, today announced that it has completed a $14 million Series C round of venture funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with U.S. Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures and Steve Case’s Revolution, LLC participating. Because of the rapid growth, and high user demand, LivingSocial will use the capital infusion to expand into additional markets – bringing Deals to dozens more cities throughout the U.S. in 2010. This additional funding comes on the heels of the company’s recent $25 million Series B round announced last month.

“We’ve known and admired the LivingSocial team for a long time, and I have bought many of their terrific local offers. They’ve done an excellent job of growing their user base through smart media buying and excellent knowledge of social channels and virality,” said Jeremy Liew, managing director of Lightspeed Venture Partners. “With this financing round, LivingSocial is very well positioned to bring their great offers to even more people.”

LivingSocial is also launching its Deals program in four new markets: Portland, Orange County, Charlotte and Philadelphia. This brings LivingSocial live in 18 cities across the country with major plans to expand to dozens of markets throughout the year.

“We’re constantly receiving requests from our users to expand and launch in their markets, and this recent funding round will allow us to do just that,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial. “We’re really excited to introduce LivingSocial to Portland, Orange County, Charlotte and Philadelphia to continue generating huge savings for our users and even bigger returns for our merchants.”

LivingSocial users throughout the country saved an average of more than $32 each in March, and have saved tens of millions of dollars since the launch of Deals in 2009. By signing up for LivingSocial’s free daily online service, people are saving an average of 50-70% at their favorite places, such as the hottest local restaurants, spas, sporting events, hotels, and other local attractions.

Because LivingSocial wants to give consumers more availability to the program, the company is launching hyperlocal deals for the Seattle area. Now consumers in areas like Tacoma and Bellevue will start getting deals targeted to their location, in addition to Seattle proper. Hyperlocal deals not only help more consumers explore new things in their city, but these deals also provide merchants with a greater opportunity to reach local audiences on the LivingSocial Deals platform.

LivingSocial is now live in 18 markets including: Washington, D.C., New York City, Boston, Atlanta, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, the Twin Cities, Chicago, Raleigh Durham, Denver, San Diego, the San Fernando Valley, Portland, Orange County, Charlotte and Philadelphia. Dozens of additional cities are expected to roll out in the coming months. For more information or to sign up your city, go to http://livingsocial.com.

About LivingSocial

LivingSocial is an online community that connects more than 85 million people to all the things they care about. LivingSocial powers group buying through Deals, its new social commerce program which invites people and their friends to save 50 percent off or more each day at their favorite restaurants, spas, sporting events, hotels and other local attractions in major cities. As the creator of top Facebook applications “Visual Bookshelf” and its flagship “LivingSocial,” it’s the most comprehensive place on the Web for people to engage with others around topics like entertainment, food, fashion, technology and more. The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C. To sign up for Deals in your city, or to find out more information about LivingSocial, visit www.livingsocial.com. You can also follow LivingSocial on Twitter at www.twitter.com/livingsocial.

About Lightspeed Venture Partners

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a leading global venture capital firm with over $2 billion of committed capital under management. Lightspeed’s investment professionals and advisors are located in Silicon Valley, China, India and Israel. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed more than 150 companies, many of which have become leaders in their respective markets, including Blue Nile, Brocade, Ciena, DoubleClick, eHealth, Flixster, Informatica, Kiva Software, Kosmix, LightLogic, Openwave, Playdom, Quantum Effect Devices, Riverbed, RockYou, ShoeDazzle, The Find, Virsa Systems, and Waveset.

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