Yahoo! Inc. [
YHOO] is
expected to announce at market close that its new chief will be Carol Bartz (pictured), the former CEO of Autodesk Inc. [
ADSK]
profiled last week on Behind the Money. As we wait for official word from the struggling search engine maker, here are some other tech deal items catching our attention Tuesday afternoon.
Analytic database developer Aster Data Systems has
secured a $12 million Series B -- despite
initiating fundraising the same week that Sequoia Capital (one of its backers) held its infamous "
Good Times: R.I.P." meeting. Jafco Ventures, which had previously invested in data warehousing firm DATAllegro (acquired by Microsoft Corp. [
MSFT] in 2008), led the round. Jafco managing general partner Joe Horowitz has joined Aster's board of directors. Sequoia and other existing investors, Cambrian Ventures and First Round Capital, also participated in the round. Let the good times roll.
NewsGator Technologies, which provides RSS feed aggregation services to media companies and brands including
CBS, CNN, Discovery, National Geographic, Procter & Gamble and USA Today, has
raised $10 million in its sixth round of funding. The financing comes from existing investors
including Masthead
Venture Partners, Mobius Venture Capital and Vista Ventures.
Casual-gaming site Cafe.com is selling its Boonty downloadable games label to Nexway for undisclosed terms. "From now on, our team will focus 100% on growing our
social casual game web sites,"
blogs CEO Roman Nouzareth (pictured). Cafe.com
hosts social games such as "Temple of Mahjong," "Absolute Solitaire" and "Wordox: Word Snatcher." The company has raised $30 million since it was founded in 2001, with its most recent funding a $15 million Series C in 2007.
Backers include Rothschild & Cie. Gestion, Spef Venture, OTC Asset
Management and Entrepreneur Venture, all of Paris.
Joshua Schachter, founder of social bookmarking site del.ici.ous, which was backed by Union Square Ventures and was sold to Yahoo! Inc. for $30 million in 2005, has a new job. A spokesperson for Google Inc. confirms Schachter has joined the company but declines to divulge details.
Blake Krikorian and other founders of Sling Media Inc. including his brother are
leaving the company, which was sold to EchoStar Communications Corp. for $380 million in September of 2007. Sling Media makes boxes that liberate viewers from their TVs so they can watch
programming streamed onto Internet-connected devices, such as laptops
and cell phones. At the time of the sale, Krikorian
said he chose selling to EchoStar over accepting a new round of venture funding in part because he felt a strong sense of kinship with
EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen, whom he credited with launching the
satellite dish TV industry. Perhaps the entrepreneurial itch is even stronger.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy is featuring an interesting
audio interview with Jeff Raikes, the new head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Raikes (pictured with Bill Gates) is a former Microsoft executive, as is the foundation's first CEO Patty Stonesifer, who takes up her new
role as chair of the Smithsonian Board of Regents this month. -
Mary Kathleen Flynn
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