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In Cash/Stock Deal, Angry Birds Developer Rovio Acquires Animation Studio Kombo
Jun 01, 3:59PM
Rovio, the Finland-based developer behind the extremely popular Angry Birds franchise, this morning announced on its blog that it has acquired a longtime partner, Finnish animation studio Kombo. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but we understand there was a mix of cash and Rovio stock involved. 
Reed Hastings: Netflix Is A Complement To The New Release Business
Jun 01, 3:48PM
Netflix CEO and founder Reed Hastings took the stage at All Things Digital's ninth conference, speaking with Kara Swisher about the company's future strategy, competition, content deals and more. When asked about whether the company is looking to add more new released, Hastings said that Netflix is actually a complement to platforms that offer new releases. One of the pain points of using Netflix is that the TV and movie platform doesn't offer a lot of new releases, the way that iTunes or Hulu does. But Hastings doesn't seem to be too concerned about this, openly stating that he feels that Netflix can be paired with sites and platforms that offer newer content. He added that he'd like to include prior-season shows from channels like HBO and Showtime. He says his 'check isn't big enough for now' but there are ongoing talks about buying this type of content. Specifically, he says he'd love to add HBO's 'The Wire.'
Apple Wants iPods.com
Jun 01, 2:59PM
On 28 April 2002, a few months after Apple launched the very first iPod (yes, it's been that long already), someone registered the domain name iPods.com. It apparently took the Cupertino company a little over 9 full years to decide that, instead, it should be the rightful owner of the domain name, which until earlier this morning took people to some shady mp3 download site (though it no longer resolves, it seems).
SolarCity Can Now Finance $1 Billion In Solar Projects
Jun 01, 2:40PM
On Wednesday, SolarCity added $158 million to the pool of funds that it uses to finance, design, develop and install commercial or residential solar power projects in the U.S. The latest fund came through a partnership with U.S. Bancorp (a subsidiary of U.S. Bank) and gives SolarCity more than $1 billion in financing capacity... 
Eric Schmidt Is a Surprisingly Worried Man
Jun 01, 2:35PM
It was a surprising way to kick off a technology conference at a moment in time where any piece of news-- big or small-- cues up the BUBBLE-OR-NOT Greek chorus of wailing and chest beating. Tech valuations, while almost universally sky-high, are nowhere near as high as the paranoia that we're in a bubble. Or worse: The fear that you aren't on the record having called this one out. A lot of tech commentary today has all the sophistication of a schoolyard game of "NOT IT!" But the man on stage opening All Things Digital's ninth conference wasn't a player in the Valley's central Web 2.0 psychological drama like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook or Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn. CEO Dick Costolo of Twitter would wait until day two. Hearing from Marc Andreessen, the puppet master behind many of those soaring valuations, would have to wait too. The man in All Things D's ergonomic red hot seat was Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google-- the last company everyone said would incite a public market tech bubble. (It didn't.) The last company Wall Street watchers claimed was insanely overvalued. (It wasn't.) The company that has been on top for much of the last decade, as the older generation of Web 1.0 giants have failed to innovate and up and comers have declined to go public. So why didn't he seem more happy? 
Blip.tv Signs Distribution Deal With Fred, iJustine, And Other Collective Video Producers
Jun 01, 2:30PM
Online video is growing up, and so are the young video stars who first found an audience on YouTube like Fred (Lucas Cruikshank) and iJustine. Both are part of the Collective Digital Studio, a talent management company of sorts for Web video stars. Today, the Collective is announcing an exclusive distribution deal with Blip.tv on behalf of its video artists, who can opt into the deal. Other Collective video producers signing up with Blip.tv include The Annoying Orange and Freddie W. The addition of the Collective's videos to Blip.tv's arsenal is significant. Blip.tv is currently serving about 300 million video views a month. The Web shows that the Collective is bringing to the table attract about 200 million views a month. There is some slight overlap, but Blip.tv CEO Michael Hudack expects the deal will help Blip cross the 500 million views per month line by the end of the year.
Former Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra Heads To MapMyFitness
Jun 01, 2:30PM
One thing former Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra has besides one of the funnest last names ever to say out loud: a new job. He's moving to from Silicon Valley to Austin and taking the CEO role at MapMyFitness, a four year old startup. MapMyFitness Founding CEO Robin Thurston will remain on the company's board of directors and will lead the company's product and development teams. Jalichandra joined Technorati in late 2007 after a stint as a Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Battery Ventures. He previously held a variety of executive positions, including at Fox Interactive Media. We first covered MapMyFitness in August 2010 when it closed a $5 million venture round from Austin Ventures. The company relocated from Colorado to Austin at that time as well. 
Alliance Health Raises $11 Million For Condition-Specific Social Networks
Jun 01, 2:10PM
Alliance Health Networks, a company that operates health condition-specific social networks, has raised $11 million in new funding led by New World Ventures with participation from Physic Ventures, Highway 12 Ventures and Epic Ventures. This brings Alliance's total funding to $18 million. Launched in 2006, Alliance Health builds and operates health-related social networks, each focused on specific conditions. The company owns and operates 37 social networks and has more than 750,000 registered members. For example, Diabetic Connect is one of the largest social networks for people affected with the disease. 
Tippr Acquires WhitePages' Group Buying Site DealPop
Jun 01, 2:08PM
Launched less than a year ago, daily deals site and WhitePages subsidiary DealPop has been acquired by another company riding the group buying wave, Tippr. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but this appears to be mostly a talent acquisition.
Polycom Acquires HP's Videoconferencing Unit For $89 Million In Cash
Jun 01, 1:43PM
Video conferencing company Polycom is acquiring the assets of HP's Visual Collaboration business, including the Halo Products and Managed Services business according to a release issued by both companies this morning. The acquisition, which is valued at $89 million, is expected to close in Q3 2011. Part of the deal, HP and Polycom have established a strategic relationship in which Polycom will be an exclusive provider to HP for telepresence, including both resale and internal HP deployments. The two companies have also agreed to make Polycom's video applications available for HP's WebOS platform and TouchPad line. 
RockYou Buys Studio 3 Blokes To Build Social Combat Games On Facebook
Jun 01, 1:16PM
RockYou is continuing its acquisition strategy today with the purchase of Australian social game developer 3 Blokes. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2006, 3 Blokes has developed four social games for Facebook, including their most recent title, Galactic Trader, a space trading and combat game with 200,000 monthly active users. The acquisition also bring RockYou a number of talented and seasoned casual game developers. The studio is led by George Fidler, a former COO of EA's Asia Pacific Studio. John Passfield, formerly CEO of 3 Blokes and now VP of Creative for the studio, was previously Creative Director at Pandemic's Australia studio and co-founded Krome Studios. 
Quipster Throws Its Hat Into The Mobile Check-In Ring
Jun 01, 1:02PM
Do we really need another mobile check-in app? Newly launched startup Quipster seems to think so. The startup is launching a location based social network for the iPhone that allows users to share their experiences and comments by checking into both locations and icons on the go. Users can post their quips on Facebook, Twitter, and check in on Foursquare. The focus of the app is to share check-ins but also see recommendations of what to do in a city or town, and access contextual information about locations. Via the app, you can see live 'quips' from people around you, access other locations that people have quipped about, and more. You can also select an icon when you check-into a location that represents where you are checking into, i.e. 'House Party,' 'Five Star Restaurant.' 'Cheap Eat.'
The HP Touchpad Gets A Video Demo Thanks To SanDisk
Jun 01, 12:53PM
HP! SanDisk just crashed your party! Deep in the seedy show that is Computex Taipei, SanDisk is showing off one of its latest partner devices. Yep, they have a fully functional HP Touchpad The SanDisk booth rep seems rather excited to show it off in front of the camera and runs through nearly all its functions in the 4:49 video. Overall the device seems to have changed very little since we played with it at its launch back in February. The biggest improvement seems to be the response time. It wasn't exactly slow before, but it seems downright snappy now.
Act-On Raises $10 Million For Online Marketing Automation Platform
Jun 01, 11:18AM
Act-On Software, which offers a cloud-based online marketing platform, this morning announced it has closed $10 million in Series C funding from Trinity Ventures, roughly half a year after securing $4 million. The company says will use the funding to ramp up product development , sales and marketing efforts and to expand internationally, having recently opened a UK sales office in tandem with Pipedream Marketing to service the European market.
Mixcloud Brings Its 'YouTube-For-Radio' To iPhone
Jun 01, 10:58AM
Mixcloud, the 'YouTube of radio' (see our recent TechCrunch TV interview), has finally brought its offering to the iPhone in the form of a native app. The Mixcloud iPhone app gives on-the-go access to the London startup's library of on-demand radio - DJ mixes, radio shows and podcasts, along with 100s of thousands of other "Cloudcasts" that have been uploaded to the service. The app is in Beta and thus is currently being offered for free.
Fixmo Scores $6.5M For Infrastucture Management Solutions For Mobile Devices
Jun 01, 10:52AM
Fixmo, which offers solutions to protect and manage enterprise mobile devices, has raised $6.5 million in financing, the company announced this morning. The Series B funding round was led by new investor Panorama Capital, with existing investors Rho Ventures Canada, iNovia Capital, Extreme Venture Partners and management participating.
Austin-based Portalarium Secures Funds From London-based m8 Capital For Mobile Social Games
Jun 01, 10:16AM
London-based VC focused on mobile, m8 Capital, is to invest in Austin, US mobile and social games publisher, Portalarium. m8 led the funding round with San Francisco-based Founders Fund. Today's investment is undisclosed but we understand that it takes the total funding raised to date by Portalarium to $3.6 million. This is m8 Capital's first investment in a US-based business after a year of European investments. 
We Happy? Miramax Deal Brings Hundreds Of Movies To Hulu Plus (And To Hulu)
Jun 01, 10:11AM
Two weeks after Miramax announced a major content deal with Netflix, the studio this morning announced that it has also struck a multi-year agreement with Hulu to bring hundreds of films, including Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, Scream and The English Patient to Hulu Plus subscribers. Hulu will offer select films via the advertising-supported Hulu.com service to boot. Launching today, Hulu Plus subscribers will be able to watch Miramax movies in HD (when available), with no advertising interruption. 
Fight My Monster Wants To Be 'Moshi Monsters For Boys', Dylan Collins Joins As Angel
Jun 01, 10:08AM
Seen as a "last throw of the dice" in 2008 by Michael Acton Smith's Mind Candy, Moshi Monsters has grown into a phenomenal success. The educational social game for kids is said to be signing up a new player every second and when your online brand is shifting merchandise in the physical world too, you must be doing something right. It's no wonder then that a new UK startup would want to pitch itself on the back of Moshi Monsters' success and Fight My Monster is doing just that, aiming to be a "Moshi Monsters for boys".
iGlue Challenges Users To Wikify-The-Web With $40K In Cash Prizes
Jun 01, 9:55AM
Designed to mark the company's full launch after four years of development, iGlue, in partnership with one of its backers, Power of the Dream Ventures (PDV), is launching "The iGlue Summer Annotation Challenge" with cash prizes totaling $40k. Putting to one side the question as to whether this is money well spent compared to other forms of marketing, the competition, which kicks off today and will last through to August 31st, asks users to download iGlue's browser add-on or install the bookmarklet and help Wikify the Web.
Airbnb Buys German Clone Accoleo, Opens First European Office In Hamburg
Jun 01, 9:53AM
Airbnb just raised $100 million at a $1 billion valuation, and it's using some of that cash (and/or stock) to acquire a German 'equivalent' dubbed Accoleo. This move signals Airbnb's willingness to expand worldwide - the startup will establish its first European office in Hamburg, Germany. Coincidentally, one of its main rivals in Europe, venture-backed 9flats - started by Qype founder Stephan Uhrenbacher - is also based in Germany (Berlin, to be more precise).
Airbnb's Soaring Valuation Should Be A Wake-Up Call To Independent Hotels
Jun 01, 6:03AM
Some months ago, before the company was worth a billion dollars, I shared some thoughts on Airbnb. Specifically, in what some mischaracterized as an attack on the company, I criticized those whose worship at the altar of Disruption is so unconditional that they don't think Disruptive companies should be hidebound by the law. If Disruptive entrepreneurs are so clever, I argued, they'll find a way to either work within the law, or to lobby to have it changed, rather than simply flouting it.
On iCloud, Baby
Jun 01, 4:03AM
Apple did something really odd today. Something they almost never do. They pre-announced the agenda for the keynote of one of their events, WWDC, taking place next week. Yes, they probably did this in an attempt to set expectations — read: no new iPhone coming — but in doing so, they also managed to do something even stranger: they outed a completely unreleased product. iCloud. So what is iCloud? Apple only states that it's their "upcoming cloud services offering." Of course, a number of other details have been rumored for months now. I figured it was a good time to break down what we know — or what we think we know about what's coming. Erick did a bit earlier. I'll do a bit more.
Signs Of Twimg, Twitter's Photo Hosting, In The Wild
Jun 01, 3:19AM
More details have emerged since we originally reported on Twitter's photo-sharing service, namely that Apple's new iOS 5 will probably come with a baked in Twitter image sharing feature. A tipster informs us that one trigger happy Apple iOS designer has already released a test link into the wild (which we've seen but are not replicating here). The tipster clued us into a http://a0.twimg.com/status_photos/ URL that appeared in his timeline, and then quickly disappeared.
Eric Schmidt's Gang Of Four: Google, Apple, Amazon, And Facebook
Jun 01, 2:19AM
Every technology era has its four horsemen driving growth and innovation. In the 1990s it was Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, and Dell. Today, there is anew "gang of four," as Google chairman Eric Schmidt puts it. They are Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Google (of course), and they are behind the consumer revolution on the Internet today. Not only are all four companies "growing at incredible rates." Schmidt notes that all four are together worth about half a trillion dollars, they are all platforms in their own right, and they are all basically spreading their power where before there was only one company who had such influence: namely, Microsoft. But "Microsoft is not driving the consumer revolution," Schmidt notes (although they still do well in the enterprise). 
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