Amazon.com is the world’s largest online retailer, but its outside investments contributed more money to the company’s bottom line in the first quarter than its e-commerce operations. In the three months ended March 31, Amazon made more than half...
Read more »
Photograph by Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Amazon's outside investments contributed more to the bottom line than its e-commerce operations.
Amazon Was More Investor than Retailer in the First Quarter
Photograph by Hans Christer Ericson/Nordicphotos/Corbis
Benchmark Capital scored again after Intuit agreed to buy e-mail marketer Demandforce.
Benchmark Capital Scores With Instagram, Demandforce and IPOs
The hits keep coming for Benchmark Capital. Following Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram earlier this month, the venture firm scored again today after Intuit agreed to buy e-mail marketer Demandforce for $423.5 million. Benchmark, the Silicon Valley firm that...
Read more »Enterprise IPOs Have Done Better Than Consumer Ones, Tableau Says
For all the hype over the upcoming Facebook initial public offering, companies that serve consumers don’t give investors as good a return as companies that focus on corporate users, according to data compiled by Tableau Software Inc. Companies focused on...
Read more »
ZestCash Offers Up Technology for Identifying If You’re Credit Worthy
Douglas Merrill, Google’s former chief information officer, has spent the past two and a half years applying technology to underwriting, with the goal of offering lower-cost loans for the millions of people with poor credit scores. Now he’s ready to help...
Read more »
Photograph by Tony Avelar/Bloomberg
Ben Horowitz said the idea to donate half of profits was partly inspired by other venture capitalists who pledged half of their personal income to charity.
Andreessen’s Venture Firm Pledges Half Its Profits to Charity
Andreessen Horowitz, the venture-capital firm that has backed technology startups including Facebook, Groupon, Zynga and Skype, announced plans today to donate half of the profits made from investments. The firm, co-founded by Web pioneer Marc Andreessen, will give the money...
Read more »
Photograph by Jeffrey Coolidge
It's been a good quarter for Hercules Technology, which had four portfolio companies go public and another two get acquired.
Here’s One Way to Track and Play the Mini-Boom in IPOs
The IPO mini-boom that’s sweeping Silicon Valley means big bucks for the venture capital firms that made early bets on billion-dollar companies. How much money each firm is making is guesswork, because as private partnerships, the only people who see...
Read more »
Photograph by Dorling Kindersley
Shares of Splunk, a data mining company, nearly doubled on the first day of trading.
Splunk’s Big Data Lands Big IPO, But There’s Risk
It’s a big day for big data. Splunk more than doubled in its Nasdaq debut, giving the 8-year-old company a stock market value of about $3.3 billion. Splunk is among the pioneers of big-data technology, helping businesses take the massive amounts...
Read more »
Courtesy Tango
Tango's video calling service has grown to 45 million users since launching in 2010.
Tango Raises $40 Million to Vie With Skype in Video Calling
Tango, a startup that offers mobile video calling, has raised $40 million from investors including Qualcomm Ventures and Access Industries, the company said today in a release. The service, which lets users make video calls across Apple, Android and Windows...
Read more »
Photograph by Phillip Toledano/Trunk Archive
Instagram’s billion-dollar price tag, for some, puts an unbelievable number on the fast-inflating valuations for software makers.
What Instagram’s $1 Billion Windfall Says About Innovation, Inequality
Facebook’s $1 billion purchase of Instagram has prompted much meditation on whether we’re seeing another Internet bubble. Bloomberg View columnist Clive Crook meditates on something else: how the deal is a reflection of the forces of globalization and information technology,...
Read more »
Photograph by Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse, speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month, said today he feels 'crucified' over the iPhone. .
‘I Still Get Crucified’ Over the iPhone, Says Sprint Chief Hesse
The iPhone was supposed to stop Sprint Nextel from bleeding subscribers, but martyrdom for Dan Hesse, the carrier’s chief executive, seems to have no end. “I still get crucified for deciding to carry the Apple iPhone because the investment is...
Read more »
