New Fundings:
- MontaVista Software, Inc., provider of systems software for intelligent connected devices and their associated infrastructure, has secured $7 million in financing. New investors Siemens Venture Capital, which leads the funding, as well as Samsung Ventures America, Infineon Ventures and China Development Industrial Bank joined existing investors IBM Microelectronics, Intel Capital, Panasonic (Matsushita), Sony, Toshiba America, Yamaha Corp., Alloy Ventures, RRE Ventures, US Venture Partners, and WR Hambrecht + Co. in completing this latest infusion. ** bet their board meetings get crowded.
- The FeedRoom Inc., provider of broadband marketing solutions, has secured $5 million in its Series D financing. New investor BEV Capital joined existing investors Warburg Pincus, Ridgewood Capital, Constellation Ventures, Circle-T Partners, the New York City Investment Fund.
Liquidity:
- I guess I pushed them over the edge when I begged them to just get it over with! Google filed to go public, a whopping $2.7b offering. I guess the phase "do you yahoo?" is just so 1999 now.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/29/technology/google/index.htm?cnn=yes
- Newark-based Larscom, Inc., which makes high-speed network access equipment, is being acquired by Verilink Corp., of Madison, Ala., in an all-stock deal worth about $27 million, based on Verilink's opening Nasdaq price Thursday.
- Newark-based Larscom, Inc., which makes high-speed network access equipment, is being acquired by Verilink Corp., of Madison, Ala., in an all-stock deal worth about $27 million, based on Verilink's opening Nasdaq price Thursday.
- Mountain View-based business software maker Marimba, Inc., is being bought by BMC Software, Inc., of Houston, Texas, for $239 million in cash. After adjusting for Marimba's expected net cash balance, the final purchase price is expected to be about $187 million, according to BMC. The transaction reflects a purchase price $8.25 per share, significantly above its Nasdaq close Wednesday of $4.87.
Main Dish:
- is an Oreo really an Oreo if it not chocolate cookie sandwich?
http://software.ericsink.com/20040428.html#10164
- Lessig's book "Free Culture" is available online, for free of course.
http://www.free-culture.org/freecontent/
- Mozilla and Gnome see the writing on the wall... the browser isn't going to become the OS, but the OS will most certainly become the browser. Longhorn fundamentally changes the way we interact with a desktop UI and Mozilla/Gnome are figuring that they should work together to avoid getting passed over.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5201325.html?tag=nefd.lede
- this is an interesting article, DARPA is looking to ad-hoc grid/mesh networks as the next generation, effectively bypassing IP
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=19200111
- RealNetworks president quit, effective immediately, citing personal reasons and wanting to spend more time with his family. What strikes me about this boilerplate text is that nobody believes it anymore so why not just come out and say the obvious "he's leaving for personal reasons, he just didn't want the job anymore". Note to PR professionals, you 'spin' powers are useless on me so why not just tell the truth?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/171124_realnetworks29.html
- a camcorder phone?
http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/4897.html
- JBoss to offer a services bus (ESB) as Open Source. Cool.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/04/26/HNjbossesb_1.html
- making do with less as a way of life.
http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2004/04/making_do_with_.html
- MIT's Technology Review has a whole issue on invention, it's worth reading it online but I'd recomend you pick up a hardcopy to fully take it in.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/schrage0504.asp
- Branding and topline growth. Personally, I've pretty much had it with "branding" (scroll down to see my post from yesterday, titled "Heat").
http://brand.blogs.com/mantra/2004/04/branding_and_to.html
RE: "Personally, I've pretty much had it with "branding" (scroll down to see my post from yesterday, titled "Heat")."
I understand your frustration with the identity police; it's common to confuse and associate corporate identity with your brand. Brand is EVERYTHING that the external world thinks, believes, feels about your company (or you if it's a personal brand). What impression are you making? I'm not saying that design and consistency don't matter in making impressions; but you can go overboard thinking narrowly about a brand.
I just came away with impression that SAP might be a little rigid as a corporation. That form may be valued over function.
Posted by: Evelyn Rodriguez | Apr 29, 2004 at 02:47 PM
I bet we could ask 10 people "what is a brand", and get 15 answers. At the end of the day, I suppose it's simply what is in your DNA, which is of course manifested in how you do business and what the rest of the world thinks of you.
rigid? hmmm, don't think I'll comment :)
Posted by: jn | Apr 29, 2004 at 03:01 PM