If you haven’t heard of a fairly new twist on investing called special purpose vehicles (SPVs), you probably aren’t an institutional investor or a wealthy individual with direct ties to either a venture firm or a high-flying startup like Pinterest or Postmates. But don’t worry if you’ve missed the opportunity to invest in one. Investors […]
Joya Raises $5 Million to Make Messaging More Fun
Three years ago, Michal and Vlada Bortnik, former Microsoft employees who met on a soccer field in Seattle, had a host of problems every time they gathered up their two young daughters and tried communicating online with far-flung family members. The couple decided to do something about it, founding Joya, a mobile video communications company […]
Tyler Winklevoss on the Positive Impact of “The Social Network”
By Semil Shah Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins who remain best known for their legal fight with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg — and the ensuing depiction of that battle in “The Social Network” — have moved on from those days. Still, speaking for both men, Tyler Winklevoss recently agreed to share some thoughts about […]
StrictlyVC: October 21, 2014
Hi, happy Tuesday, everyone! (Web visitors, you can click here for an easier-to-read version of today’s email newsletter.) —– Top News in the A.M. Apple reported blow-out fourth-quarter results yesterday. Verizon, meanwhile, posted its third-quarter results, narrowly missing earnings expectations but showing strong customer growth. Yahoo is set to reports its third-quarter results today. —– […]
Oh No You Didn’t, Facebook
Yesterday, Facebook sued DLA Piper along with three other firms and nine lawyers who represented Paul Ceglia, a New York man who emerged in 2010 with claims that he was entitled to at least 50 percent of Facebook. Given that it’s nearly 2015, Facebook’s move comes as something of a surprise. Ceglia’s suit against Facebook […]
After Onavo
Earlier this week, The Information published a piece about mobile software makers who are flying blind following Facebook’s acquisition last year of Onavo, an app analytics startup, even as consumers spend more time inside apps than ever before. In fact, according to a new Comscore report, activity on smartphones and tablets has grown to 60 percent of […]
Bubba Murarka: “We’re Underinvested as an Industry in Android”
DFJ’s newest managing director, Bubba Murarka, knows a thing or two about mobile. He has numerous bets on mobile companies, both personal and professional; he blogs and closely follows the writings of top mobile analysts, including Horace Dediu; and, oh, yeah, he was the first product manager at Facebook to get behind Android. (StrictlyVC previously wrote about Murarka’s […]
So Snapchat is Worth More than $3 Billion. Got It.
Yesterday, there was lots of back and forth about Snapchat, the fast-growing messaging service, and the $3 billion all-cash offer from Facebook that it recently spurned, according to the Wall Street Journal’s sources. (Apparently, three sources also confirmed this account to the New York Times.) As the Journal reported, the “rebuff” came as Snapchat is “being wooed by other […]