The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- Soocial Hassels The Hoff
- Clear Channel Radio Debuts Android Version of iheartradio App
- Zealous Desperately Trying To Sell Interactive Subsidiary
- Indiagames To Launch New Cricket Gaming iPhone App
- Skout Studies What Happens When Dating Goes Mobile
- The Great Location Land Rush Of 2010
- WePay’s Group Payments Get Some Big-Name Backers, Including Max Levchin
- CrunchBase Funding Digest: Where.com, MarketArt, Cafegive, Whaleback Systems
- Chegg Founder Raises Another $7.5 Million For Stealth Startup Kakai
- Amazon Takes A Holiday Vacation, Takes Customers With It (Update)
- Introducing… The 27-inch iLemon
- 23AndMe Completes $27.8 Million Series B Round
- Twitter Acquires Mixer Labs To Step Up Geo-Location
- ChaCha Raises Another $7 Million
- Barnes & Noble Will Ship Around 60,000 Nooks This Year
- First Release of Crunchies Awards Ceremony Tickets. Grab Em Fast.
- UFC Targets Online Piracy. Let’s Just Hope It Doesn’t Go All RIAA On Us
- Blippy Already Showing Off $1 Million Worth Of Your Credit Card Purchases (More Invites)
- AOL’s Deteriorating Fundamentals Not A Hit With Analysts
- Confirmed: Jajah Sold For $207 Million
| Posted: 24 Dec 2009 05:52 AM PST
Here’s how the story started: Soocial, an angel investor-backed startup that provides a simple but powerful contact synchronization service for both the Web and mobile phones, figured ‘hassle-free address book management’ fit its core product perfectly as a description when it was founded about two years ago. As a gimmick, they associated the baseline with the freedom-looking Knight Rider and Baywatch actor and started using images and footage of the Hoff as part of their marketing message (see video below). Turns out Hasselhoff wasn’t all too pleased with the unauthorized use of his image, prompting him to have his lawyers send a cease and desist letter to the fledgling company. The message was clear: Soocial was to remove all images of David Hasselhoff from its website, videos and business cards or legal action would ensue. First, the startup tried to stall the process by delaying any response to letters or e-mail that was sent to them, and (unsuccessfully) attempted to make personal contact with the celebrity more than once. They ended up getting Hasselhoff’s agent excited by planting the idea of producing official endorsement videos for Soocial, featuring the actor, in his head. The initial excitement ebbed away rather swiftly when the agent learned that Soocial wasn’t able to actually pay for those videos: he wanted $250,000, close to the total of capital that has been injected into the startup by angel investors to date. Soocial didn’t give up and instead took it up a notch: they offered Hasselhoff equity in the company in exchange for a potential endorsement, and tried to sweeten the deal by playing the card of much-needed positive publicity that would ensue should the actor support a small, innovative company. The Hoff didn’t bite, and Soocial stopped using unlicensed material for marketing purposes. Guess it just wasn’t worth the hassle. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| Clear Channel Radio Debuts Android Version of iheartradio App Posted: 24 Dec 2009 04:40 AM PST
Not that there’s a lack of decent radio streaming applications on well, any platform these days, but here goes: Clear Channel Radio’s iheartradio app gives users free access to some 350 American radio stations, including a couple of artist-hosted stations from the likes of Christina Aguilera, Megadeth, Eagles and Weezer. The app also enables you to get ‘frequently updated’ traffic reports for large markets including New York, L.A., Chicago, San Francisco and Houston. Like its iPhone / iPod Touch sister, the iheartradio app for Android can be configured to automatically start playing a specific station upon launch, includes artwork and lyrics and also enables users to tag songs for purchase on iTunes. To download the free app, simply log on to Android Market from your handset (Android v1.5 or higher). Update: the app seems to have disappeared from Android Market. Kinda puts a downer on the drum-banging efforts. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Zealous Desperately Trying To Sell Interactive Subsidiary Posted: 24 Dec 2009 01:17 AM PST
Zealous Holdings, the financial services arm of the company formerly known as Adult Entertainment Capital, was recently discontinued and is currently involved in Chapter 7 dissolution. In addition, the company is now desperately trying to sell off its Interactive unit to anyone who cares to take a look, in order to reduce the legacy debt that stems from the Holdings’ demise. It’s so desperate, even, that it put out a press release this morning to announce that it is currently ‘in detailed talks with a major creditor and other parties’ about the sale of its online, media and marketing assets. The kind of thing a company would do if they were vying for attention from other suitors. The assets of the Interactive unit include, according to the announcement, an adult portal and social network as well as its print and online publications and over 700 URLs and websites. I was unable to retrieve any names of these ventures, but I most certainly hope this isn’t Zealous Interactive’s official website. And I also hope potential buyers know how to search the Web for more information about the company. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
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| Indiagames To Launch New Cricket Gaming iPhone App Posted: 23 Dec 2009 11:46 PM PST One of India’s most popular gaming platforms Indiagames is launching a nifty new Cricket iPhone app, called Cricket T20 Fever. Cricket is hugely popular in India and the new app will be a feature rich gaming app that will aim to simulate the experience of playing the sport and competing against other players. The game will launch first on the iPhone and as a PC browser based game and within a few months be available on additional platforms like Symbian, Symbian, Maemo, PSP, Xbox Live Arcade and Nintendo DSi. And the app will feature Facebook Connect. Indiagames has already released a number of mobile cricket apps, including its Cricket T20 World Championship app. Initially Indiagames plans to launch a free version of the game on App Store and a Paid Premium version but will also be experimenting with microtransactions with the app. While cricket doesn’t have a significant fan base in the U.S., the sport has a huge following in other parts of the world, such as India. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| Skout Studies What Happens When Dating Goes Mobile Posted: 23 Dec 2009 10:00 PM PST
The company surveyed 1000 of its users 20-30 years old, with an even gender split. While everyone surveyed was a Skout user, the questions pertained to any mobile dating service. Now, obviously these stats don’t readily apply to the general public — everyone surveyed is already a Skout user, so they’re more likely than average to be inclined to use a mobile dating site. Here are some of the conclusions Skout came up with:
The company also concluded that most people would rather be dating than hanging out with their families during the holidays (which is kind of sad):
Finally, in a strange twist, 20% of those surveyed already had a significant other. Half of them were participating on these social dating sites with their partner’s consent (huh?) and the other half were doing it behind their back. Of course, there are probably a good number of folks who lied on this question — I suspect the number of people who are secretly using these services is actually higher. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| The Great Location Land Rush Of 2010 Posted: 23 Dec 2009 08:56 PM PST
I’m sure some of them would counter that because location data is fairly standard right now, and moving easily between services, all of them will win. But that’s not true either. While location, as a whole, will win, there will be individual companies that end up ahead of others in the space. More to the point, there will be one or two services that people will go to for their social location data. That’s what we’re moving towards. And the bigger companies are starting to realize it. That’s why today we saw what may be the first maneuver in an upcoming rush to secure the location landscape, with Twitter snatching up Mixer Labs, the team behind GeoAPI. Twitter co-founder Evan Williams writes today that “We will be looking at how to integrate the work Mixer Labs has done with the Twitter API in useful ways…” and notes that they’ll be working on adding contextual local relevancy to tweets. But those vague statements don’t mean a whole lot. Here’s what likely really went down, based on what we’re hearing: Twitter scooped up some solid talent in the location space, on the cheap (in the mid-seven figure range, we’re hearing from multiple sources). Mixer Labs CEO, Elad Gil, for example, was the original product manager for Google Mobile Maps. Four of the other six Mixer Labs employees are also former Googlers, including co-founder Othman Laraki. What Twitter likely won’t be doing is getting into the core location platform business anytime soon. Though GeoAPI says it has “no plans to retire the current GeoAPI” that seems quite likely to happen as Twitter will just cherry-pick whatever they want from it and merge those elements into its own location APIs. But again, this was mainly a talent acquisition. Twitter is unlikely to compete with what a company like SimpleGeo is doing (and what GeoAPI was doing) because their main goal is to attach location to tweets, for now. SimpleGeo wants to provide general location information to startups, tweets or not. “Unless Twitter was to change their policies regarding distribution of location tagged tweets (or there was a disparity in the availability of aggregated location data), the acquisition doesn’t change our approach at all. We’re still going to continue working with SimpleGeo,” Hot Potato’s Justin Shaffer tells us. Going forward, however, Twitter is likely to try and position itself as the main syndicator of location. That’s likely to put them up against Foursquare, Gowalla, and yes, eventually, Facebook and Google. Again, right now Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, and many of the other smaller players in this field play very nicely with one another. That’s because they all have a common goal: Getting location to take off. And it’s working. But the problem that the Foursquares and the Gowallas have is that their core product is based around location. If people decide that they’re getting sick of the gaming elements, or someone like Twitter or Google moves in to secure better local coupons based on location, the location-only players could feel the heat. Of course, both are also likely to be very pretty acquisition targets in their own right next year. And guess who will be buying? Twitter, Google, and Facebook.
Meanwhile, Facebook has been dragging its feet (to say the least) getting into the location game. We’ve been hearing for months that they’ve been at work on their location solution, and at one point were even racing Twitter to beat them to it. Obviously, that didn’t happen. And last we heard, they were still a few months out mainly because of the privacy implications. But you can bet Facebook will enter the location space in a meaningful way in 2010. And if whatever they’re working on doesn’t get traction. Look for them to start making acquisitions in the field quickly. The third big player, Google, has Latitude, but they may be too far ahead of the curve with their thinking there. So far, the check-in model has proven to be the one people are gravitating towards. Latitude employs the “always updating” model. That may be the future, but we’re not ready for it yet, and it’s hurting Google in the location space. Again, a quick aquisition could solve that. Of course, Google had a perfect chance to be way ahead of the game when it bought Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley’s previous startup, Dodgeball, in 2006. But it badly dropped the ball (pardon the pun) with that one, letting the service die, as Crowley left in a huff. Because of that, a Google/Foursquare marriage may look to be out of the picture — but money heals all wounds, so never say never. Location, as a trend, remains on fire. Startups are getting funding from big name investors left and right. And you can expect that to continue into 2010. And you can expect the big players to step up their game in the space as well, as they all look to connect the social online world with the real world — a real world that has also has a lot of money potentially tied to location. I asked SimpleGeo co-founder Matt Galligan for his thoughts on Twitter’s move today. “I think it validates the Geo space in a very, very big way. One of the hottest companies just made a major bet on it,” he says. As he went on, his sentiments echoed mine, “I don’t think it’s far behind that we see similar plays from other big companies.” With its biggest rival now neutralized, that could include SimpleGeo down the road. Consider every location player now on acquisition watch. Game on. [photos: flickr/Serge Melki] Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| WePay’s Group Payments Get Some Big-Name Backers, Including Max Levchin Posted: 23 Dec 2009 08:35 PM PST
So what exactly does WePay do that PayPal can’t? The difference stems from the way payment accounts are set up. With PayPal, your account is tied to your name, without any way to separate the payments associated with your soccer team from those of your fraternity or your own personal transactions. On WePay, you can create a unique, FDIC insured account for each of these. The account is still associated with your name, but you can keep each group account totally separate. This gives you much more freedom than you’d have otherwise. If you want to share your fraternity’s transaction history with the entire group, you can do that without having to worry about a personal transaction ever popping up. The site comes with controls for specifying who can have access to these histories. There’s much more to WePay, of course. The site can also fully manage the payments to and from each of these accounts. If you need to collect money from your soccer team, you can automatically shoot an Email to each player informing them how much they owe. They can pay immediately through the website using a credit card or direct account transfer, or they can submit a check. If they don’t pay soon, the site will automatically remind them a few days later. If you’re managing a WePay account, you can also sign up to receive a special WePay credit card that draws directly from the shared account. WePay makes money by charging a 3.5% transaction fee (there’s also a different plan that charges 50 cents per transaction and limits you on the methods of payment you can accept). WePay looks like it could be a winner. The company is solving a problem that nearly everyone has had to deal with, and they’ve got a proven way to make money doing it. Look for their launch early next year. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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| CrunchBase Funding Digest: Where.com, MarketArt, Cafegive, Whaleback Systems Posted: 23 Dec 2009 06:58 PM PST  Everyday I troll SEC Form D Filings to discover new startups, fundings and investments. I put everything I find into CrunchBase. For everyone else I give you the daily digest, a quick hit of the latest and greatest SEC Form D filings in the TechCrunch sphere:
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| Chegg Founder Raises Another $7.5 Million For Stealth Startup Kakai Posted: 23 Dec 2009 05:25 PM PST
Very little is known about Kakai at this point. It was cofounded by Rashid and engineer Babur Habib, who has spent time working on both semiconductors and software at Intel, Philips, and Exponent. The company has been rumored to have something to do with electronic readers, but all reports are vague. I did manage to dig up the following from an old job listing, which seems to be in line with those rumors:
Rashid isn’t talking. He does say, though, that we’ll likely be hearing much more from the company come late March. He also says the 40 person company is actively hiring top technical talent. Don’t bother looking at Kakai’s homepage for more information. It has no details, and appears to have been designed to look as drab as possible.  Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
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| Amazon Takes A Holiday Vacation, Takes Customers With It (Update) Posted: 23 Dec 2009 05:15 PM PST Looks like Amazon has decided to go on holiday vacation early, and invited all of its customers to go along with it. Amazon and Amazon Web Services seem to be down, and people are noticing it. This is bad news for any companies relying on Amazon’s cloud services. Many startups use Amazon Web Services to host files in the cloud including images and other key content. And it isn’t the first time this has happened (though its competition isn’t much better). And, of course, those looking for extremely last minute holiday gifts are out of luck. We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment, and we’ll update you on the status of Amazon. Update: Amazon looks to be back up from here. Is it up for you? Update 2 CNET is reporting that the problem stemmed from a large denial of service attack on Amazon’s DNS provider UltraDNS, which also affected other sites such as Salesforce and Walmart.  Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
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| Introducing… The 27-inch iLemon Posted: 23 Dec 2009 04:20 PM PST
In case you haven’t heard yet, the screens on these massive things are failing left and right. Granted, not all of them seem to be affected, but 110 pages worth of support questions/rants on Apple’s Support page for the issue tells me the problem is pretty widespread. That’s 1,640 replies, so far. And that thread has been viewed an incredible 264,630 times. The next closest recent page with that many views has 26,852 — and guess what? It’s also about a problem with the 27-inch iMac screen. Two days ago, Apple issued a fix for the issue. The only problem? The fix doesn’t appear to work. It did look like the fix was working for a little while, but today I’m back with the same constant flickering and random screen shutoffs that have plagued many of us. It basically makes the machine unusable. The support board is already filling up with users who applied the fix and still have the same problem. And, in fact, the only other TechCrunch writer with the new 27-inch iMac also has had the same issue and the fix hasn’t worked for him either. Earlier this month, it was reported that Apple was delaying further shipments of the 27-inch iMacs until it could get to the bottom of the screen issue. Many believed the fix two days ago was the solution, but it’s not. And so Apple appears to have a very big problem on its hands, literally. If I have to send this bad boy back, it will be the second time I’ve done so. The first time, it shipped to me with a crack in the screen. A problem which is also not an isolated one. Perhaps you read about how the FDA delayed the replacement one because it thought it was a piece of fruit. I was mad, but I shouldn’t have been. The truth is, these new iMacs are a piece of fruit. They’re lemons. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| 23AndMe Completes $27.8 Million Series B Round Posted: 23 Dec 2009 03:08 PM PST
The last few months have been rocky for the company. In September, co-founder Linda Avey left 23andMe to start a foundation dedicated to studying Alzheimer's disease. In late October, the company laid off a substantial chunk of its workforce, but declined to comment on how many people were affected. 23andMe is one of the first personal genomics companies, allowing customers to have portions of their DNA analyzed for around $400 (there are a few different products available). After completing a test, customers can log into the site to get reports on their genetic makeup, including a listing of some diseases they may be at risk for. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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| Twitter Acquires Mixer Labs To Step Up Geo-Location Posted: 23 Dec 2009 02:14 PM PST Twitter CEO Evan Williams just announced on the company blog that they have acquired Mixer Labs, creators of GeoAPI. In a nutshell, GeoAPI provides developers with the ability to query the world through services which include a reverse geocoder; deep data about 16 million businesses and tens of thousands of points of interest; a writable layer for developers to annotate the world and do complex geo-queries; and location-enabled media layers (e.g., Twitter and Flickr). Just recently, they added an iPhone SDK to speed up mobile development as well. GeoAPI will be integrated directly into the Twitter API, speeding up Twitter’s efforts in the geo-location space. In August 2009, Twitter first announced that they’re getting into the geo-location game as well. And, in September, a lot of you started seeing the Geo API in action through apps like Tweetie, Birdfeed, etc. Twitter formally turned on the functionality in November, but only through its API (not on the site itself). Geo-location has been a hot topic these last few months with contenders including Foursquare, Gowalla (which recently took a hefty amount of funding in), Stalqer, Seesmic Web, and many more applications. Loopt and Whrrl have both pivoted their companies recently to stay relevant in the space too. It’ll be interesting to see how companies like SimpleGeo will thrive in the space now, especially since a lot of SimpleGeo’s data is Twitter and social network-based. Mixer Labs actually started out as TownMe, a site that is a comprehensive guide to pretty much everything that's relevant at the local level, from restaurant reviews to the best schools and hospitals in town. It’s worth noting that Mixer Labs largely ex-Google employees. Also worth noting is that Mixer Labs CEO Elad Gil and Twitter’s Director of Platform Ryan Sarver were both on the Geo panel at our Real Time Crunchup in November. That was clearly the start of a very good friendship. GeoAPI has more details on their blog too. The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| ChaCha Raises Another $7 Million Posted: 23 Dec 2009 01:03 PM PST Human-powered mobile answers service ChaCha has raised $7 million funding, according to an SEC filing. The company has confirmed the funding but declines to name investors. This brings ChaCha’s total funding to nearly $70 million. ChaCha has been the subject of a little bit of ridicule at TechCrunch since its launch, thanks to its entertaining snafus and some issues with its business model. Despite its various problems over the years, the company has been able to raise a boatload of money adding $4 million to the pot earlier this year. While ChaCha’s service currently attracts about 9 million unique users per month through mobile devices and its website, the model has had some problems ChaCha has cut guides’ payments quite a few times since its inception and was forced to lay off a significant part of its staff earlier this year. The startup recently branched out from the answers engine by launching a digital coupon service. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Barnes & Noble Will Ship Around 60,000 Nooks This Year Posted: 23 Dec 2009 12:37 PM PST
The original plan was to ship pre-orders by November 30 but that date was pushed back to December 7. It took a mere month for the entire order process to break down. Now a small number of pre-orders still haven’t arrived and most brick and mortar stores are sold out and even then they were only available in “higher volume” stores on December 7. B&N is assuaging those customers whose pre-orders and early orders haven’t shipped with a $100 B&N gift certificate if the device doesn’t ship by December 23. The company wrote: “With our sincerest apologies, we will send you an e-mail notification on December 23rd with a $100 Barnes&Noble.com Online Gift Certificate.” B&N reports that a “small number” of pre-order customers are facing difficulties and there are some conspiracy theories that state that B&N keeps pushing back ship dates to ensure purchasers don’t cancel their orders. For example one customer wasn’t happy with the wait and requested a cancellation. The result? A refusal to cancel the order because the “device has entered the shipping process” even though he still had three days to wait before it even hit the truck to his home. According to B&N most pre-orders have shipped although it is currently impossible to purchase a Nook right now in time for Christmas or, presumably, Easter. The Nook, for better or worse, is this year’s Wii. So how many will ship this year? Our Asian sources tell us around 60,000, which is more than B&N expected people to buy (only about 400,000 Kindles sold in the first year it was offered). But B&N has Foxconn geared up to build a whole lot more Nooks right away. Between online and brick and mortar demand, the company is expecting to sell half a million Nooks in the first three months of 2010, way beyond their initial projections. The biggest problem with the device was on the software side, which is slow and glitchy. Once that’s worked out the device will be a serious threat to the Kindle. And the fact that people can buy it in the offline world is a competitive advantage, too. One place you probably will never see the Nook sold, though, is Amazon. I’d bet on that. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| First Release of Crunchies Awards Ceremony Tickets. Grab Em Fast. Posted: 23 Dec 2009 12:00 PM PST The first batch of 150 tickets to attend the Crunchies Awards celebrating the best tech accomplishments of 2009 are on sale now, courtesy of Eventbrite. The Crunchies Awards will be held at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco on Friday, January 8, 2010 at 7:30 pm PST. Orchestra seats are $75 and Balcony seats are $45. Along with our co-hosts, GigaOm and VentureBeat, we will announce the winners from 18 different award categories live on stage. We welcome back the Richter Scales as part of our evening’s festivities. Year one, the Richter Scales delighted us with a live version of Here Comes Another Bubble… turns out they were right because last year the acapella group had to console us with You Gotta Have Heart. Lets hope they can predict a promising 2010. Other special guest appearances and surprises are in the works for ceremony guests. Orchestra and balcony tickets include access to the after party hosted across the street in City Hall’s Grand Rotunda through midnight. There will be a sponsor-hosted bar, savory nibbles and desserts, music and a game room, featuring a mix of traditional and online games to play. Check out more party photos from 2008 and 2007.
There are plenty of ways to sponsor and support the after-party energy. Contact Jeanne Logozzo or Heather Harde if you'd like to sponsor: card-game tables, demo tables, photo booths or walls, drinks or food, giveaways and prizes and the like. We have creative packages available in all shapes and sizes. Room for award benefactors and entertainment sponsors for the ceremony too. We could also use some volunteer help. First, we’d love some official event photographers, both for the ceremony and after party. Please contact us if you have high energy, a sharp eye and would like to volunteer to support the community. We also need a handful of student volunteers to help with set-up and admissions. Please contact contact Gene if you’d like to be a volunteer. Thank you. Remember that voting is open through midnight PST, Wednesday, January 6. Everyone is eligible and encouraged to vote daily for their favorite people, products and companies of the year. Hope to see you there. FINALISTS: Please contact us asap so we can get you set up with your two complimentary passes to attend. UPDATE: The first batch of tickets sold out quickly. Our final ticket releases will be Monday, December 28 and Wednesday, December 30 at 12 pm PST. Additional details here. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| UFC Targets Online Piracy. Let’s Just Hope It Doesn’t Go All RIAA On Us Posted: 23 Dec 2009 11:55 AM PST  It's been a running theme for the past few years, and as more and more people get faster Internet connections, and as video compression technology continues to improve, we're going to be hearing a lot more about it. I refer, of course (of course!), to illegal streams of live sporting events. Whether you're firing up TVAnts on Sunday to watch Arsenal take on Aston Villa, or trolling USTREAM for a live feed of WWE's Royal Rumble, or looking for MMA-TV to watch this month's UFC pay-per-view, you are, in fact, breaking the law. Not only are you breaking the law, but you may even be taking money away from the companies/teams/sports you purport to support. But is that all there is to it?
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| Blippy Already Showing Off $1 Million Worth Of Your Credit Card Purchases (More Invites) Posted: 23 Dec 2009 10:56 AM PST
Obviously, that’s a big difference from Blippy actually making $1 million, but eventually, that’s the idea. Still, the fact that users are willing to show off about 25,000 different purchases on the service shows that not everyone is so opposed to the idea. “We are blown away! Yesterday was the first day that we invited people — who we didn’t personally know — into the site. We never imagined that we would hit $1 million in purchases in the first few months, much less the first day,” co-founder Philip Kaplan tells us. He also tells us that the average purchase price being shared on the site is just over $46, but this figure is dropping as more purchases are being shared. The invites Blippy gave us yesterday were gone within 20 minutes, so the company has given us 100 more. Simply use the code 1MILLION at signup. [photo: flickr/moacirpdsp] Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| AOL’s Deteriorating Fundamentals Not A Hit With Analysts Posted: 23 Dec 2009 09:55 AM PST
Mahaney also notes that Aol was the only top 5 web property in the U.S. to have year over year declines in visitors. On the upside, Aol’s management team is prohibited from large cash acquisitions: “Per the terms of an existing credit facility, AOL can use no more than $100MM a year in cash for the purpose of an acquisition. Given the relatively unsuccessful large acquisitions of AOL in recent years (e.g., Bebo for approximately $700MM), we interpret this M&A cash constraint as something of a good thing near-term for AOL.” Barclays analyst Douglas Anmuth was similarly bearish on AOL a couple of weeks ago. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
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| Confirmed: Jajah Sold For $207 Million Posted: 23 Dec 2009 09:38 AM PST The reports from a few days ago that the Jajah deal with O2 closed at $200 million were correct. Telefónica Europe (aka O2) just announced that it bought Jajah for 145 million Euros ($207 million) in an all-cash deal. Jajah, which provides Internet calling services and thus competes with Skype, was on the block since at least November (which TechCrunch was first to report on), following Google’s purchase of much-smaller Gizmo5. Jajah has 15 million subscribers and has served up more than 1 billion VoIP calls. Jajah will continue to operate under its own brand. The sale was not a happy affair for everyone involved, however. The deal was largely driven by Jajah’s investors, particularly Sequoia. We hear CTO Amichay Oren has left the company because he and his engineering team in Israel didn’t get treated the same as their counterparts in the U.S. In these types of deals, not everyone ends up winning. Jajah turned out not to be the next $1 billion company in Sequoia’s portfolio. Given the fact that it raised $33 million in total capital, a $200 million exit is a decent outcome. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
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Funny story on Dutch business blog 
Publicly traded 
Over the last decade or so, the public perception of online dating has shifted from being a bit odd to something that’s pretty normal. But even as people get used to surfing the web as they look for a potential date, there’s a new trend emerging: location aware, mobile dating services. 
Back in November, at our Realtime CrunchUp event, I sat on the 
In my mind, this is how this is shaping up. The companies with the clout (because they do other things) are going to start scooping up the smaller location-only services. Of those bigger players, Twitter is by far the smallest and weakest, but they’re smart to get started in the buying spree early with the GeoAPI purchase. Don’t be surprised if they scoop up another location service sooner rather than later.
It’s not often that you hear about a startup still in deep stealth that has over 40 employees and backing from some of the biggest names in the valley. But that’s exactly the case for Santa Clara-based 
Regular readers will know my affinity for Apple products. In general, they’re high quality, and I’m willing to pay a bit more for that. But a lemon is a lemon, regardless of who it’s made by, and must be labeled as such. These new 27-inch 
Personal genomics startup 
A lot more people have ordered the Barnes & Noble 
Yesterday, 
Aol is 
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