Rising startups at Demo Fall 2012
Demo Fall 2012 is underway with more than 75 new ideas being pitched in six-minute presentations by startups at the annual event in Silicon Valley.
Hardware, software and services are being featured covering the social, entertainment, media, commerce, communications, big data, infrastructure, health and education sectors. A sample of the most impressive demonstrations – from a tabloid social-network app to an Instagram for video – is after the jump. Read more
Morgan Stanley seeks vindication with Workday
The hotly anticipated IPO of Workday could help to advance Morgan Stanley’s rehabilitation in the wake of the Facebook fiasco. But given the way other recent tech deals led by the bank have been structured, it is still too soon to pass a verdict on its performance – or to tell how much long-term damage the debacle surrounding the Facebook offering will do to its business in Silicon Valley. Read more
Deal creates UK document sharing challenger
SkyDox, the online document sharing company, has bought its larger US rival Workshare and raised £20m from venture capital groups in order to create a stronger UK challenger in the market for online work collaboration.
Anthony Foy, chief executive of Brick Lane-based SkyDox, said the combination of the two companies, which creates an entity with annual revenues of around £20m, would allow them to better challenge rivals such as Box and Dropbox in a fast-growing market. Read more
Tech M&A valuations double
Valuations in technology mergers and acquisitions nearly doubled last year and have continued to rise into 2012, even as dealmaking has waned in other areas this year, a study has found.
American Appraisal, a valuation advisory group, said that on average, the multiples of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation that technology companies paid for acquisitions in 2011 leapt from 7.7x in 2010 to 14.1x in 2011, a trend it says has continued during 2012. Read more
Interesting commentary from around the Web on the tech story that made headlines this week.
As Facebook’s lock-up period expired this week, its stock price tumbled, fueling concerns that the social networking site may crack under further pressure from investors to expand its revenue streams. Read more
Care.com, the website for finding nannies, pet sitters, and caretakers for the elderly, has raised $50m in late-stage venture capital funding, bringing the five-year old company’s total financing to $111m.
Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder and chief executive, said she would use the money to support the Massachusetts-based company’s international expansion efforts. Read more
Andreessen Horowitz drops a cool $100m on… what??
The biggest investment yet made by Silicon Valley’s most-talked about new venture capital firm is in a start-up most people have never heard of.
But if you work in open-source software development, then GitHub is quickly turning into an essential utility – which explains why this mix of social network and content management system could be a model for how to make money from distributed online communities. Read more
The guest list features Jordan’s king and queen, Italy’s prime minister, three mayors, two governors and the director of the CIA. But technology and media superpowers will be the focus of attention this week as Allen & Co hosts its annual moguls’ retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Facebook’s second full week of trading ended just as dismally as the first, and it wasn’t the only one that was ailing. Tech stocks across the board, from Zynga to Groupon, were down. While this was partly a result of a broader market decline, doubts about social media’s money-making potential have taken hold on Wall Street. Read more
The good news – and the bad news – from the mobile internet
Speaking at the D: All Things Digital conference in California on Wednesday, former Morgan Stanley internet analyst Mary Meeker summed it up succinctly: it is hard to overstate the scale of the shift to mobile access, but ways of making money lag woefully behind.
Ms Meeker, now a partner at Kleiner Perkins, laid out her analysis in the annual slideshow in which she sums up the big forces at work in the internet industry. Slides after the jump. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
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