News and Analysis

California-based technology firm Cisco will acquire Versly, the San Francisco-based maker of Microsoft Office apps. Specifics of the transaction were not publicized. Versly employees will be integrated into Cisco CSG, the company’s collaboration software group. Backers include Baseline Ventures and Accel Partners.
Where Does Steve Jobs rank among all time CEOs? It’s Over: I’m tired of earthquakes, hurricanes and crappy pageload speeds. I’m moving west. Saddening: Steve Jobs photographed in a frail state shortly after his big announcement Trouble for Google? How much did its CEO know about its advertising practices? Walloped: Jersey hit by billions in hurricane damage
Quixey, the California-based search engine for apps, has raised $3.8 million from a group of venture capital firms to fuel its growth. U.S. Venture Partners and WI Harper Group led the round, with participation from Innovation Endeavors and Webb Investment Network.
Google TV hasn’t exactly been setting the world on fire. The Motorola Mobility acquisition will help Google’s set-top television business—but it only goes so far. Even the acquisition of Hulu won’t turn the online search titan into a perennial competitor to traditional television networks. Hulu itself is facing smaller margins; its streaming entertainment business is […]
Thermo Fisher Scientific, the listed, Massachusetts-based life sciences company, completed its earlier-announced acquisition of Phadia, the blood testing and allergies diagnosis company previously owned by European private equity firm Cinven.
The verdict is in, dear readers: Y'all do expect criminal charges to come down in the Justice Department's investigation of Wall Street. The only question is how severe it will be. Goldman Sachs, whose CEO Lloyd Blankfein hired criminal defense attorney Reid Weingarten this week, actually fared worse than the Street as a whole in our survey. Roughly three-fifths of you expect at least some indictments at the bank as a result of the industry's behavior leading up to the financial crisis.
(Reuters) – A brutal 2011 has left the solar industry dazed, damaged and on the cusp of a major shakeout of weaker players who are more likely to shut down than be snapped up by their stronger rivals. Solar subsidy cuts in top markets Italy and Germany prompted a 20 percent drop in the price […]
Autodesk continued its summer shopping spree this week, buying Numenus GmbH, a software provider of high-end visualization technology used to render and review 3D datasets. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. This is the third acquisition by San Rafael, Calif.-based Autodesk in the last couple of months. The company snatched up Instructables.com earlier this month, and announced the acquisition of Pixlr in July.
Anglo Irish Bank said that it has shrank its net loss in the first half of this year, as it hopes to complete the sale of its U.S. loan portfolio, and eventually wind down, Reuters reported. The bank – which faced a slew of scandals during the property crisis – plans to wind down by 2020. Blackstone Group and distressed debt and equity investor Lone Star Funds are among the bidders for the bank’s U.S. commercial real estate loan portfolio, valued at around $9.5 billion.
Private equity shop Lovell Minnick Partners and financial services firm First Allied have teamed up to buy First Allied from its current owner, Advanced Equities Financial Corp. Terms of the deal were not released. Upon closing of the transaction, First Allied will become an independent company and continue to operate under the First Allied brand.
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