Sequoia

IBM Brings Supercomputing Muscle to U.S. Lab

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on February 8, 2011 at 7:06 am PT

The fastest computer in the world right now is in China, a fact that irritated President Obama to such a degree that he kevtched about it in last month’s State of the Union address. Worry no more, Mr. President. Your own government and IBM are on the case.

Roll Camera! Jason Calacanis Makes a Video Push at Mahalo, and Wants You to Know About It

Peter Kafka in Media on January 25, 2011 at 3:00 am PT

But what he really wants is a billion-dollar-plus valuation, like the one that competitor Demand Media is going to get.

RockYou Acquires Playdemic for Bigger Push Into Social Games

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 13, 2011 at 6:00 am PT

RockYou has acquired Playdemic of Manchester, England, to continue its transformation from a widget-maker on Facebook to a social games developer.

News Byte

Bump Taps Into New Funding, Adds Andreessen, McAdoo to Board

Ina Fried in Mobile on January 10, 2011 at 10:45 pm PT

Mobile social firm Bump announced on Monday night that it has landed $16 million in Series B funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia. WIth the new investment, Marc Andreessen will be joining the board of Bump as will Greg McAdoo from Sequoia. In a blog post, co-founder David Lieb said the 15-person company now has more than 25 million users for its mobile-to-mobile information-sharing service, which runs on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems. “This round of financing solidifies our priorities to build a world-class engineering and product organization here in Silicon Valley,” Lieb said.

News Byte

Tumblr Counts Its Money–$30 Million of New Funding

Peter Kafka in Media on December 17, 2010 at 7:36 pm PT

Prompted by an SEC filing, Tumblr finally fesses up about its big funding round, which we noted a month ago. The final numbers: Sequoia, Spark and Union Square Ventures put in $30 million, for a post-money valuation of $155 million.

Tumblr Falls Into a Really Big Pile of Money

Peter Kafka in Media on November 19, 2010 at 10:39 am PT

Sequoia leads a giant round that could value the company at more than $140 million. Whatever the final number is, it’s a lot. So it’s either too much for a company that still doesn’t generate real revenue, or a bargain for a company that’s growing like gangbusters. Place your bets!

FTC Gives Ed Felten Freedom to Tinker

John Paczkowski in News on November 4, 2010 at 11:55 am PT

Looks like the Federal Trade Commission got its first choice of Chief Technologist, because it’s hard to think of anyone better to serve in that capacity than Princeton computer science professor Ed Felten, a guy whose CV makes everyone from Microsoft to Diebold shudder in embarrassment.

Voices

VCs Picky About Mobile Apps, But Still Willing To Take Chances

Timothy Hay, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on September 15, 2010 at 2:15 pm PT

While investors in mobile applications are getting pickier when it comes to backing companies in crowded sectors, some of the top firms in Silicon Valley are still willing to take a chance and invest in a potential game-changer even if it has no traction and no users.