Hi, all, happy Easter. Hope you have a terrific weekend.:)
No column today.
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Top News in the A.M.
Microsoft execs have reportedly been meeting with private equity firms mulling over bids to buy Yahoo and telling investors the company might be willing to lend significant financing to their efforts. Recode has the story here.
Netflix admits it’s been throttling its videos on AT&T’s and Verizon’s wireless networks for more than five years, saying it wanted to protect users from exceeding data caps, which could discourage viewing. The WSJ has the story here.
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New Fundings
6Fusion, an eight-year-old, Raleigh, N.C.-based end-to-end cloud management platform, has raised $6.6 million from investors, shows an SEC filing. More here.
Bromium, a 5.5-year-old, Cupertino, Ca.-based developer of endpoint protection using virtualization, has raised $40 million in funding from Silver Lake Waterman and earlier backers, including Andreessen Horowitz,Ignition Partners, Highland Capital Partners, Intel Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Meritech Capital Partners. The company has now raised $115 million altogether. More here.
CiValue, a two-year-old, Israel-based customer analytics and personalization cloud platform for grocery, health and beauty retailers, has raised $2.4 million in seed funding from Nielsen Innovate, Mac Fund and Deutsche Telekom. VentureBeat has more here.
DimensionalMechanics, a year-old, Bellevue, Wa.-based startup that says it’s making artificial intelligence scalable, has raised $4.7 million in funding, shows an SEC filing. More here.
EndoStim, a seven-year-old, St. Louis, Mo.-based company that makes a neurostimulation device to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease, has raised $11 million in new funding, shows an SEC filing that shows a $20 million target. Earlier investors include Sante Ventures and Prolog Capital.
FLYR, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based travel and data science company, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from JetBlue Technology Ventures. More here.
Hive, a 10-month-old, New York-based team collaboration platform, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding led by Tribeca Venture Partners with participation from funds and angel investors from Google and Grey Group. More here.
Iterum Therapeutics, a year-old, Dublin, Ireland-based pharmaceutical company that’s developing anti-infective therapies, has raised $40 million in Series A funding led by Frazier Healthcare Partners, with participation fromCanaan Partners, Sofinnova Ventures and New Leaf Venture Partners. FierceBiotech has more here.
June, a 2.5-year-old, San Francisco-based countertop “smart” oven designed by former Google, Apple and GoPro employees, has raised $22.5 million in Series A funding led by hardware and software investor Eclipse. Previous investors also participated in the round, including Foundry Group, First Round Capital, and Lerer Hippeau Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Lagou, a nearly three-year-old, Beijing, China-based online recrutiing platform, has reportedly raised $34 million in Series C funding led by Hongdao Capital, with participation from earlier backers Qiming Venture Partners and Rongchao Capital. DealStreetAsia has more here.
Soasta, a 10-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based performance analytics business, has raised $30 million in debt funding led by Tennenbaum Capital, with participation from earlier backers Canaan Venture Partners, Pelion Venture Partners and Formative Ventures. More here.
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New Funds
Forté Ventures, a four-year-old, Atlanta-based VC firm, is looking to raise up to $75 million for its second fund, shows an SEC filing that states the first sale has yet to occur. More here.
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Exits
Ebates, a San Francisco-based subsidiary of Rakuten, has acquired Shopular, a four-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based mobile product discovery app, for undisclosed terms. Shopular had raised $13.6 million, including from Sequoia Capital, shows CrunchBase.
Olapic, a 5.5-year-old, New York-based startup that helps brands leverage user-generated images, has acquired Piqora, a 3.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based visual marketing and visual commerce platform for marketers and publishers. Deal terms aren’t being disclosed. Olapic has raised $21 million in funding, according to CrunchBase. Its backers include Felix Capital and Fung Capital. Piqora had raised roughly $11 million, shows CrunchBase. Its backers include DFJ, Baseline Ventures and Freestyle Capital.
PriceZombie, a three-year-old, Tampa, Fla.-based price comparison site, is shutting down without investor intervention, the company announced this morning, saying it lost 90 percent of its income after its Amazon affiliate account was closed. The company appears to have been bootstrapped. More here.
Snapchat has agreed to acquire Bitstrips, an 8.5-year-old, Toronto-based company that makes customized emojis, for a reported $100 million in cash and stock (roughly). Bitstrips had raised $11 million in funding, including fromHorizons Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Fortune has thestory here.
TiVo, the digital video recorder company, is reportedly in advanced negotiations to be sold to Rovi, one of the largest owners of patents for digital entertainment devices. Dealbook has the story here.
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People
Alphabet’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, on how Google helps the government track down criminals.
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Jobs
Credit Karma is looking to hire a summer associate to join its corporate development team. The job is in San Francisco.
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Essential Reads
Snapchat has hit a notable milestone: for the first time ever, its iOS application reached the top of the iTunes App Store, where it briefly become the number one “overall” free application in the U.S. More here.
Square has jumped into the online lending business.
Dyson may be gunning for Tesla Motors. Here’s why.
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Detours
Professional rowers really seem to love economics, finance, and management.
In Tokyo, friendship is just a credit-card swipe away.
The 100 funniest Twitter jokes. (Our favorite: Hello sir, I-*briefcase full of jellybeans falls open*)
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Retail Therapy
Trax & Wax. And seriously fashionable backpacks.