European VC investments hit 11-year low
Venture capital investors appear to be growing increasingly wary of European companies. In 2011, they put just E4.4bn into 1,012 start-ups in the region, a 14 per cent drop from the previous year, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.
This was the lowest annual deal count since Dow Jones began tracking investments in Europe in 2000.
Spotify hits 3m subscribers to improve conversion rate
No wonder the record labels are sounding much more positive about music subscription services. Spotify is starting to reap the benefits of its oft-doubted “freemium” business model.
After hitting 2.5m subscribers in November, the Anglo-Swedish digital music service has now reached 3m, with more than 20 per cent of its active user base paying every month to banish advertisements or listen on smartphones.
Google faces Norwegian public sector ban
Norwegian public sector organisations will be banned from using Google Apps after the Norwegian data protection authorities ruled that the service could put citizens’ personal data at risk.
The data protection authority said Google Apps did not comply with Norwegian privacy laws because there was insufficient information about where data was being kept. The decision came from a test case in Narvik, where the local council had chosen to use Google Apps for their email.
Facebook names alleged Koobface gang
Facebook has taken the unusual step of making public the names and personal details of five men it believes to be behind the Koobface computer worm that attacked hundreds of thousands of computers through the social network’s profiles.
The alleged gang appear to be living in St Petersburg and were tracked by Facebook and a team of researchers over three years.
Google Apps clocks up BBVA win
Google’s enterprise unit is jubilant after snaring its biggest customer win to date, as BBVA, the Spanish bank, said it was going to migrate all its 110,000 employees onto Google Apps.
It’s about twice the size of Google’s next biggest customer wins with Rentokil and Ahold, and there is kudos in having a security-conscious bank place its trust the company’s cloud offering.
When Acer last March unceremoniously ousted its then-chief executive Gianfranco Lanci, it was not an amicable parting, with both sides apportioning blame on the other for the split.
But if the Taiwanese company had thought they were rid of Mr Lanci by forcing his resignation, then they are sorely mistaken. Mr Lanci was this week appointed the head of Europe, Middle East and Africa by none other Lenovo, Acer’s Chinese rival.
US companies snap up Euro chip bargains
Marvell, the US semiconductor company, has bought Xelerated, the Swedish maker of networking infrastructure chips, in a deal understood to be worth around $100m.
Meanwhile, UK-based Picochip was bought by Mindspeed Technologies, a US chip vendor, in a deal valued at up to $76.8m, including a $51.8m in cash and shares and up to $25m earn-out.
Facebook prints up Moo cards to take Timeline offline
Notch another win up for London’s Silicon Roundabout. Moo, the online printing service that was one of the first tech companies to set up shop on the Old Street interchange, has beaten international competition to strike a deal with Facebook to become the go-to site for making business cards out of its new Timeline profile pictures.
Soundcloud raises $50m from Kleiner Perkins
Tech news from around the web:
Soundcloud, the Berlin-based “YouTube for audio”, has raised $50m at a $200m valuation, Mike Butcher of TechCrunch Europe reports. Silicon Valley venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led the round, giving an early boost to the European tech scene’s prospects for 2012, with Berlin in particular tipped for great things this year.
Arise, Sir Jony: Apple designer Ive is knighted
Apple’s top designer, Jonathan Ive, has been knighted in the Queen’s New Year’s honours list for raising the standards of industrial design and championing British talent abroad.
Raised in north-east London, Mr Ive – known as Jony – has been the design mastermind behind Apple hardware ranging from the iPod, iPhone and iPad to its iMac and Macbook computers.
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