angels

Mobile Gaming Is Hot, but Pocket Gems Won’t Sell Out

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on May 17 at 9:26 am PT

Pocket Gems says it is not for sale, even though other mobile gaming companies like OMGPOP and Funzio are cashing out at big valuations.

Woof! Rover.com Fetches $3.4 Million to Be Airbnb for Dogs.

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on April 9 at 6:00 am PT

But at a very un-Airbnb-like valuation.

T-Mobile’s New Pitch: Renting Android Tablets at Baseball Games

Ina Fried in Mobile on August 9, 2011 at 3:40 am PT

Could the ballpark be the ideal place to get people hooked on tablet computers? T-Mobile is offering $10 tablet rentals inside Angel Stadium.

Three Yahoo Vets Seek to Build New Commerce Network Called ChoozOn

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on April 26, 2011 at 12:01 am PT

There’s no limit to the number of Groupon clones and to the dozens of other loyalty and rewards programs available. What is limited is the amount of time consumers have to sift through them all. To that end, three Yahoo veterans are trying to de-clutter your inbox and organize all of the offers you may qualify for and package them up in one central location.

Bill Gross's UberMedia Raises $17.5 Million From Accel, Index and Steve Case

Kara Swisher in News on February 14, 2011 at 9:04 am PT

UberMedia, which just bought TweetDeck for $30 million in equity last week, has raised $17.5 million in a round led by Accel Partners. The valuation for the Pasadena, Calif., start-up founded by well-known entrepreneur Bill Gross–which was actually struck some month ago–is $40 million.

China's Tencent Buys Riot Games for $400 Million

Peter Kafka in Media on February 4, 2011 at 6:21 pm PT

Tencent, the giant Chinese Web holding company, has bought Los Angeles-based Riot Games for about $400 million. Yet another big-dollar deal in an industry that’s seen a lot of M&A in the last year, and one of the biggest investments by a Chinese company in an American digital property.

Voices

Early Adopter: Smartphone Not Enough Like HAL? Satarii Wants to Give It an All-Seeing-Eye

Drake Martinet, Associate Editor, All Things Digital in News on February 4, 2011 at 11:11 am PT

Today, the mark of smartphone obsession is bringing one everywhere with you–to dinner, to bed, to funerals, to the altar at your wedding. If fledgling accessory maker Satarii has its way, the bar on obsession may be raised to having your phone follow you, even when you aren’t holding on to it.

Hey Start-Ups! These Guys Have Checkbooks. Just Ask Them!

Peter Kafka in Media on December 10, 2010 at 6:19 am PT

When times are tough, you don’t get VCs in a room to convince start-ups to work with them. But that’s what’s happening Wednesday, so take the money while you can. Also: Free beer!

TicketFly Rounds Up $3 Million to Fight Ticketmaster

Peter Kafka in Media on May 12, 2010 at 8:30 am PT

Average concertgoers go to two shows a year, and there’s a very good chance some of the money they spend on those shows goes to Ticketmaster, which dominates the ticketing business. So here’s a company that wants a piece of that: TicketFly, a New York-based start-up that wants to–gasp!–use the Web to update the archaic business.

Investors Bet on Another Real-Time Start-Up. Next Up for Hot Potato: Product, Users.

Peter Kafka in Media on October 23, 2009 at 12:16 pm PT

Here’s a good way to get your hands on scarce venture capital money: Create a start-up geared around Twitter-like “real-time” sharing and conversations. The newest entrant: Hot Potato, a buzzy start-up that’s supposed to let users converse about a particular event, whether they’re attending it in person or watching from afar. When it’s up and running, that is. The five-man crew doesn’t have users or a product just yet. But it has just raised around $1 million.