Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), one of the most respected funds in Silicon Valley, says that it’s closed NVP XI, a $1.2 billion fund that will invest in diverse sectors and geographies. NVP, which recently recorded a major hit with the $405 million sale of video conferencing equipment maker LifeSize, is one of the few venture funds to close a mega-fund. Khosla Ventures ($1 billion) and Greylock Partners ($575 million) are two other partnerships that have been able to raise mega-funds. At the same time, there have been numerous reports of many partnerships struggling to whip up interest in their second or third funds. “Track record is what that matters,” said Promod Haque, general partner with NVP, in a conversation earlier today. Continue »

This morning news broke that MySpace, the second-largest social network that’s currently reinventing itself as a music destination, was buying imeem, a free online music service that has been remixed (and remade) more times that ’90s dance anthem “Keep on Moving.” TechCrunch, which reported on the news, didn’t reveal what the deal terms were. I have been dialing sources for information, and have found an interesting backstory behind this sale. Continue »

Motorola and Verizon, thanks to their $100 million marketing efforts, are going to sell some 600,000 Droids during the fourth quarter of 2009, according to Mark McKechnie of Broadpoint AmTech, a boutique research firm. He had initially expected about 200,000 device sales following the launch, but he has upped his forecast: Motorola should sell another 200,000 Droids by Black Friday and 150,000-200,000 during the remainder of the holiday season. This would bring the total to some 600,000 Droids for 2009. Continue »

Wow…I had completely forgotten about RockYou, a Redwood City, Calif.-based startup that started out as a widget maker but then turned social app developer and now is trying out hawking virtual goods. Sort of like the company it loves to imitate: Slide. RockYou made a splash today by raising a whopping $50 million in new funding from existing investor Softbank. That brings the total funding raised by the 4-year-old company to $119 million. My view is that if the first $69 million didn’t make RockYou into a real, profitable business, what are the odds that the new $50 million will? Not very high!

Evernote, a Mountain View, Calif.-based company that makes one of my favorite cross-platform apps, called (what else) Evernote, has raised $10 million in new funding. The new round was led by Morgenthaler Ventures, a respected Sand Hill Road firm with a deep history. Evernote had previously raised $6.5 million in VC funding. Phil Libin, Evernote’s CEO, tells The New York Times that he is going to be using the money to expand to new geographic markets and add new platforms. At present the app works on Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Mac, PC and Palm’s WebOS. As you all know, I am a big fan of the application and its freemium business model. It probably is the single most useful app on my computer and my phones. (Related articles from WebWorkerDaily: Evernote Wants to Be Your Long-term Memory and How to Use Evernote for Collaboration.)

If you read the reviews, it becomes obvious that I am part of a small minority of folks who haven’t been blown away by the new Droid, a Google Android OS-based smartphone made by Motorola that Verizon Wireless launched Nov. 5 in the U.S. All the accolades are actually turning into smashing sales for the Droid, according to data collected by Flurry, a San Francisco-based mobile analytics company. How big are the sales? (Find out below the fold.) Continue »

Hulu, the online video joint venture of NBC, Fox and Disney that’s funded by Providence Equity Partners, seems to be having familial issues. No, it’s not YouTube or TV Everywhere giving the second-most popular online video service in the U.S. headaches. Instead, internal bickering is causing problems, MediaWeek reports. This is not the first time Hulu’s parents have undermined the service. But it comes as a surprise — traditional media companies have a long history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Continue reading on NewTeeVee.