The recent volatility in the stock market has had strong effects on many publicly traded companies, and private firms aren’t exactly eager to join their ranks. Five of the 12 companies expected to price IPOs this week have decided to postpone their public market debuts. Read more »
Does the launch of Facebook Messenger, led by the founding team of Beluga, mean the end of Beluga as its own standalone app? Beluga is still available on its own for the time being — but from the looks of it, that may not last for long. Read more »
Facebook has already started to supplant traditional email providers as a dominant way that people communicate online. With a new standalone mobile app called Facebook Messenger with SMS-like functionality, the social networking giant is poised to delve even deeper into users’ mobile messaging activity. Read more »
The stock market’s ongoing sell-off has many people wondering whether the wave of tech company initial public offerings will soon sputter to a stop. But some financial industry experts say the current market volatility does not necessarily mean that the IPO window is closed. Read more »
It’s become clear in recent years that smartphones are going to be increasingly ubiquitous for the foreseeable future. And a recent study indicates that many people are using those devices to access Facebook more often than for, really, anything else. Read more »
Okta, a startup that makes identity and access management software for enterprises, has closed $16.5 million in new funding. Okta’s software enables multiple people within an enterprise to sign in to the company’s web-based applications, whether they’re in the cloud or behind a firewall. Read more »
It’s been a busy summer for the founders of Parse, a new startup making a software platform that adds a cloud component to any mobile app. Part of Y Combinator’s summer 2011 class, Parse has already launched in beta and is quickly gaining steam with developers. Read more »
The tech industry’s public market newcomers LinkedIn, Pandora and Zillow have become some of the hardest hit stocks in the ongoing stock market tumble. Could this halt the ongoing initial public offering wave that has been building in the tech industry for several months? Read more »
Crowdfunding, fundraising by collecting relatively small amounts of money from many different people, has become quite popular in recent years. But Kickstarter is not the only startup churning out group funding success stories: San Francisco-based startup IndieGoGo is seeing its own form of crowdfunding success. Read more »
UPDATED. LinkedIn on Thursday announced the financial results from its three months operating as a public company. The company showed off impressive user growth, but that has not started to translate into significantly higher profits. LinkedIn says it’s spending its revenue to reinvest for future growth. Read more »
Every developer who makes a popular web or mobile app is eventually faced with a decision: They can either stick with the status quo or swing for the fences. These days, many people are taking VC and going big — but is that the right choice? Read more »
Music streaming company TouchTunes is said to have secured $45 million in Series E funding at a $300 million valuation. Although those are some pretty impressive figures, the news is perhaps most notable for how it’s been made public — through an apparently accidental email address typo. Read more »
Get Satisfaction, the company that builds web-based community support tools, has closed on $10 million in series B funding. This round brings the company’s total venture capital investment to $21 million. The San Francisco-based company will put the money toward growth, CEO Wendy Lea says. Read more »
Inkling, the digital textbook software startup, has closed on $17 million in new funding to expand its software for converting college textbooks for use on the iPad. Inkling CEO Matt MacInnis says the money will be put toward meeting the “effectively unlimited demand” for its platform. Read more »
Janrain, the Portland, Oregon-based software-as-a-service company, has closed on $15.5 million in funding. Janrain, which makes a social log-in platform, plans to put the money toward general growth initiatives such as hiring and product development, CEO Larry Drebes said in an interview. Read more »
Geo-location check-in services such as Foursquare are super trendy in tech and new media circles. But will they catch on with mainstream audiences enough to make big retailers pay attention? A new market research study indicates that the answer may be no. Read more »
Facebook has acquired Push Pop Press, a San Francisco-based digital publishing platform startup in a move likely aimed at building out its forthcoming iPad app and strengthening its HTML5 development team. Read more »
It’s been a tough week for peer-to-peer home rental service Airbnb, which has come under fire for its sluggish and inconsistent response to an Airbnb user whose home was burglarized and vandalized. In a contrite blog post, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky laid out new safety initiatives. Read more »
We all know that iPads have seen major growth with consumers and in the enterprise. But many unexpected markets are just starting to be tapped. Even with the device’s current ubiquity, I have a feeling that we may just be at the tip of the iceberg. Read more »
Zynga is bringing its popular Scrabble-esque mobile game Words With Friends to Facebook, the company announced Monday. This represents the first time that Zynga has extended a mobile-only game to Facebook — showing that despite its diversification efforts, Zynga’s dependence on the social network remains strong. Read more »
Confirming weeks of speculation, Twitter announced Monday it has closed on a “significant” amount of new funding led by Russia-based venture capital firm DST Global. The specific amount raised has not been disclosed, but various reports have pegged the round at $800 million. Read more »
As millions of Americans grapple with unemployment, many technology companies are actually desperate to hire new people. Folks with skills such as software and web development are in high demand nowadays, especially in Silicon Valley. And startups are going to great lengths to lure them in. Read more »
It’s often said that the rise of mobile devices means that people are now “always on.” But it turns out there are still times when people are more “plugged in” than others. A new study about how — and when — people really use mobile apps. Read more »
Yelp has hired Rob Krolik to serve as its chief financial officer. Krolik’s resume includes time as the CFO of Shopping.com where he led the company through its IPO. Yelp CEO and co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman said Krolik’s public market savvy was key in his hiring. Read more »
TaskRabbit, the online marketplace that allows people to outsource errands and other jobs, has debuted its first iPhone app. The whole point of using TaskRabbit is to save precious time, so the iOS app is great — it allows people to get things done on the go. Read more »
Trover, the travel app aimed at sharing off-the-beaten-path discoveries, has formally launched out of limited beta. The app, which was initially available only on iPhone through Facebook Connect, is now also open as a web app on Trover.com and accessible to anyone with an email account. Read more »
It’s no secret that most college students aren’t crazy about textbooks. But will moving required reading materials to an e-book format really change all that? Recent market research indicates that it just might — and that college students are demanding to go digital more than ever before. Read more »
Pixazza, a digital ad platform that embeds e-commerce links to items within online photos, has renamed itself Luminate. The newly branded company is broadening its services, turning into a platform for apps that generate in-photo links for a wider array of categories beyond clothing and accessories. Read more »
Facebook has launched Facebook for Business, a step-by-step online guide aimed at helping small businesses use the social networking site. The timing is interesting, as it comes just a week after Google began shutting off all company profiles on its Google+ social network. Read more »
Some people just seem to have “it” — that spark that makes them seem like they have an inside track on everything and everyone worth knowing. There’s no question that, in the technology industry, Oracle co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison is one of those people. Read more »
ReadItLater, the mobile and web app that allows you to save webpages to read later, has has taken on $2.5 million. The company is using the funds to make the shift from “quiet giant” app developer to full-fledged tech startup, CEO Nate Weiner says. Read more »
For years, the world of venture capital was largely shrouded in a veil of secrecy. But in the past 18 months, AngelList has started to change that in a big way. The social network for VCs and startups has grown impressively since its February 2010 debut. Read more »
LinkedIn has launched a plug-in that allows companies to place an “Apply with LinkedIn” button on their jobs web pages, enabling people to use their LinkedIn profiles as résumés. GigaOM was the first to report on the development of the “Apply with LinkedIn” plug-in in June. Read more »
The tech industry’s movers and shakers have been saying for months now that the HTML5 mark-up language is very important. New research data released Friday indicates that HTML5 is not just going to be big, it’s going to be huge — and it’s coming fast. Read more »
If you want to reach the Millennial generation, it’s probably a good idea to use the Internet. But according to new research from MTV, companies run the risk of alienating their target audience if they go about social media marketing in the wrong way. Read more »
Despite its commercial appeal, the Xbox gaming console has historically been notoriously unprofitable for Microsoft. But according to the company’s latest earnings report, Microsoft’s gaming division has finally started to earn its keep. Has the tide finally turned for the gaming console market? Read more »
When most people think about Google and Facebook, they think about California’s Silicon Valley. But according to newly filed disclosure documents, the tech industry’s titans are spending increasing amounts of time and money making their voices heard in Washington, D.C. Are they crossing the line? Read more »
It’s been clear for years now that cloud storage technology is hot — even Amazon, Google and Apple have made big moves into the area. But judging by the latest funding news out of storage startup CX, heavyweight investors are still bullish about newcomers to the space. Read more »
Groupon has shown just how popular daily deals sites can be in the United States — but Latin American daily deals site Peixe Urbano is proving that an appetite for bargains knows no borders. Since its March 2010 launch, Peixe Urbano has attracted 11 million users. Read more »
Real estate listing site Zillow received a warm welcome from public market investors after its IPO Wednesday morning. Zillow’s stock hit the market at $57 per share, more than double its $20 IPO price. But the stock proved volatile within a few hours of trading. Read more »
