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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (42887)	6/11/2008 3:27:32 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

John Gage joins Kleiner Perkins sfgate.com Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley's largest and most prominent venture capital firms, said Monday that it has made former Sun Microsystems executive John Gage a partner. There he will help expand Kleiner Perkins' investments in green technology. "Everything we built at Sun sucks power," said Gage, Sun's former chief researcher, in an interview. "We've got to make a difference in where power comes from and how it's used." Gage retired from Sun on June 1. He was Sun's fifth employee, and he joins his old boss, Bill Joy, a Sun co-founder who is also a Kleiner Perkins partner. Joy has said Gage was the first person to show him a Web browser and one of the first people to understand what it meant. Gage's last job was chief researcher and vice president of Sun's Science Office. He was also the host of Sun's JavaOne conference in San Francisco. But his job at Kleiner Perkins will be very different. He said he plans to learn everything he can "about the physics and chemistry and biology of our most critical crisis, the global climate crisis. It's everything now." Gage is the second executive to leave Sun this month. Sun's former head of global sales, Donald Grantham, joined Sun's archrival Hewlett-Packard last week after Sun, which reported a loss in May, said it was reorganizing its sales force to focus on emerging markets.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (42887)	6/11/2008 12:03:47 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 57684

Madrona raises $250 million seattlepi.nwsource.com By JOHN COOK SEATTLE P-I REPORTER Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Madrona Venture Group has raised a $250 million venture fund, the largest in the 13-year history of the Seattle venture capital firm. The speed at which the firm raised the new cash -- less than four months -- and the commitment from existing investors -- Kauffman Foundation, University of Washington and others reupped -- speaks to Madrona's recent success. Over the past 18 months, five of Madrona's portfolio companies have been sold or completed initial public offerings at positive valuations. Those deals -- from Isilon Systems' December 2006 IPO to Microsoft Corp.'s purchase of Farecast for $115 million in April -- have returned, on average, more than five times the capital invested. "It never hurts to have good exits," said Matt McIlwain, Madrona's managing director, when asked how the recent successes affected the fundraising efforts. The positive results also attracted a new group of investors, including the University of North Carolina, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the YMCA Retirement Fund and Oxford and Cambridge universities. Madrona, which got its start in 1995 as a loose confederation of Seattle angel investors, originally was looking to raise $225 million when it hit the fundraising trail in February. But demand drove the amount higher. Even though the new fund is 50 percent larger than the previous one, partners say little will change in terms of strategy, team or focus. After all, McIlwain said the concept is working rather well. Madrona capped the fundraising at $250 million, partly because it didn't want to disrupt its regional and industry focus. Nearly all of the firm's bets are in early-stage Pacific Northwest companies operating in the consumer Internet, software, networking and wireless sectors. At the current investment pace of about four to eight new companies each year, McIlwain said there was a "logical limit to the size of the fund." As is the case in the venture business, not everything the firm touches turns to gold. Because of its focus on consumer Internet companies, Madrona took a beating during the dot-com bust on investments such as HomeGrocer.com, Nimble Technology and YardConnect.com. However, some of the firm's recent successes -- including Farecast and World Wide Packets -- were funded during the last economic downturn. Madrona also took advantage of the uncertainty of that period to increase its stake in ShareBuilder, buying out the shares of another investor that had lost confidence. Last fall, ING bought the online brokerage firm for $220 million. Madrona's success lately has come through acquisitions. And although the returns have been solid, it has not scored the type of home run that venture firms typically count on. Partners at the firm are aggressively looking for those deals. And despite the sluggishness in the IPO market, McIlwain says it is just a matter of time before they have a portfolio company that returns 10 times or more of the capital invested. "The reality is, for any number of reasons, you can have a terrific exit for less than 10 times your capital," McIlwain said. "By and large, I think you have to make a set of judgments over time. And the harder decision is knowing when to sell in a positive scenario." Over the past 13 years, Madrona has invested in about 75 companies. Of those, about 30 -- including AdReady, Redfin and Bag Borrow or Steal -- are still active. Another 30 have produced positive outcomes. That leaves 15 or so that were shut down or sold at a loss. McIlwain said many of those occurred in the 2000 and 2001 time period. Despite today's challenging economic conditions, McIlwain and other partners at the firm believe there are good opportunities in the Northwest. They point to Google's growth in the Seattle area, new entrepreneurial projects spinning out of the UW and the emergence of repeat entrepreneurs who have built successful businesses before. McIlwain described the current venture market as "balanced" -- meaning there is a steady investment pace and new entrepreneurial ventures continue to be formed. And he noted that big public technology companies -- the Microsofts, Ciscos and Intels of the world -- are sitting on $300 billion of cash. Given that the large technology companies are not growing as fast as they once did, McIlwain believes some of that cash will be used to acquire emerging startups. Greg Gottesman, a partner at Madrona, admits that the IPO market is slow. And he said that could eventually affect mergers and acquisitions. "We are not Pollyanna about the market," he said. "But we do believe, if you look at when great companies are formed, some of the best companies that exited in (Madrona) fund two were companies that we invested in during the heart of the downturn. You can build good companies at an early stage even in tougher economic times." © 1998-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (42887)	6/12/2008 7:40:04 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57684

The iPhone Eyes BlackBerry's Turf businessweek.com But Apple still has a ways to go to catch up with RIM in the lucrative corporate market by Arik Hesseldahl When he unveiled the next-generation iPhone on June 9 in San Francisco, CEO Steve Jobs made it clear that he's determined to turn Apple (AAPL) into a much bigger player in the mobile-phone market. Among other things, he slashed the price for the entry-level iPhone to $199, half that of the previous edition and right in line with what competitors' high-end phones cost. The move seems certain to attract new customers, especially consumers who had been turned off by the higher price. "Everyone wants an iPhone," Jobs said. "But we need to make it more affordable." Jobs is serious about winning over corporate customers, too. Besides the lower price, Apple is boosting the speed at which the iPhone can pull in e-mail and other corporate data and making sure the device works with popular corporate e-mail programs, such as Microsoft's (MSFT) Exchange. The company has even opened up the iPhone so that outside software developers can create their own programs for the device. "We sort of checked the boxes on everything [that corporations] wanted," says Timothy D. Cook, Apple's chief operating officer. But the company still has work to do to become a serious contender in the lucrative corporate market. Apple is going up against Research In Motion (RIM), the company behind the BlackBerry wireless devices so popular in executive suites today. RIM, which already has a huge lead in the market, offers corporate customers several capabilities that Apple can't yet match. "RIM is really the gold standard," says Ken Dulaney, an analyst at the market research firm Gartner (IT). Particularly important to corporate users is RIM's reliability and flexibility. The Waterloo (Ont.) company runs its own wireless network so that it can make sure e-mails are delivered in a timely fashion. Apple will rely on partners, including AT&T (T) in the U.S., to handle such services. RIM also has spent years developing capabilities that corporate tech managers want. "Apple doesn't have all the tools that RIM has built up over the years," says Shiv Bakhshi, an analyst at market researcher IDC. For example, tech managers can remotely disable the camera or Bluetooth on a BlackBerry if they choose or delete everything on the device should it ever get lost. Apple says the iPhone can be wiped clean by tech managers, but it doesn't offer the more sophisticated features available from RIM. RIM also has a head start in getting the critical software for corporate operations to run on its devices. Apple says that 250,000 programmers have downloaded the software developers' kit that can be used to create applications for the iPhone. But most of the software so far is for consumers, including the Super Monkey Ball game from Sega that Apple showed off at its San Francisco event. SAP and Oracle, both partners of RIM, haven't yet developed for the iPhone versions of their software for inventory management and other corporate operations, although SAP is planning do so. Can Apple catch up? Ralph de la Vega, chief executive at AT&T's wireless unit, which sells both iPhones and BlackBerrys, says the iPhone will offer strong competition for RIM, Microsoft, and other rivals. "It's probably the best device we have to develop corporate [software] specific to [each] company," he says. "It's the wave of the future."

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (42887)	6/13/2008 11:54:45 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57684

06-13-2008 -- WooMe, the world's largest live introductions platform, today announced the closing of a Series B, totaling $12.5 million. The round was led by Index Ventures with existing investors Atomico and Mangrove Capital Partners also participating. The new capital will go toward supporting user growth, expanding internationally and introducing new functionality to the site. "WooMe is pleased to be working with such established and well-regarded investors in its mission to evolve social networking and bring real time introductions to the world," said Stephen Stokols, co-founder and CEO of WooMe. "Users are signing on to meet new friends, travel partners and even soul mates; we are certainly well-positioned to succeed in this market by establishing a strong first mover advantage and reaching a critical mass of users. With these strategic investments and partner relationships, WooMe is expanding its reach rapidly. Within the first six months of launch WooMe has demonstrated significant user traction. "WooMe is changing the way people interact online in very innovative ways," said Danny Rimer of Index Ventures. "We believe there are tremendous opportunities to use WooMe's technology to increase the proliferation of social networking beyond the traditional sites that exist today. We look forward to working with WooMe's experienced management team to expand the Company's leading market position." About WooMe WooMe is the world's largest live introductions platform and extends the concept of speed dating online to allow users to meet live in timed sessions via webcam. There are no questionnaires, lengthy profile descriptions or software to download, users can simply find a speed session that interests them, join and meet five people in five minutes. WooMe is easy, fast and free allowing users to meet new people around any shared interest for fun, to hook up, or for pure entertainment. With WooMe, meeting people online is transformed into a face-to-face experience that makes sifting through static profiles a thing of the past. Founded in 2006, WooMe is an international company with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and London. Investors of the company include: Atomico Investments (founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis), Mangrove Capital Partners, Klaus Hommels and Oliver Jung. For more information, please visit: woome.com.