Today was probably a good day for Robert Ackerman, managing director and co-founder of Allegis Capital. Less than a year after Allegis led the $10 million second venture round for Ribbit, "Silicon Valley's first phone company," BT announced that it has acquired Ribbit for $105 million. That's supposedly a return [...]

Zubican, a new business search site, recently launched, and has announced investors including Athenaeum Capital, Pasadena Angels, Tech Coast Angels, along with founders and executives of JAMDAT Mobile, mp3.com, NTI Group, Overture Services Rent.com, Tickets.com and Vivendi (EPA: VIV) Universal Net USA. The LA-based startup bears similarity to Hoovers or [...]

Work in progress. After standing above its peers for so long, Viacom (NYSE: VIA) has come back to earth in 2008, with its share now sitting close to its 52-week low. Kicking off the call, Chairman Sumner Redstone acknowledged the frustration of shareholders, stating that media was not immune to [...]

Richard Wolpert and Mike Maples are seed-stage investors and friends who speak at least once a month. But the two disagree about whether the consumer Internet has grown too bubbilicious. Maples thinks it has, as he told me last week; Wolpert, managing director of the seed-stage Mail Room Fund - [...]

Semiconductors Voltaix Branchburg, N.J.-based Voltaix, a provider of materials to enhance the performance of semiconductor chips and solar cells, has received $12.5 million in financing from Intel Capital of Santa Clara,[...]

High-speed server and storage chip developer Diablo Technologies Inc. turned to insiders for a final cash infusion before commercially introducing its products, announcing Tuesday the closing of a $15 million[...]