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Luisa Beltran

I've been a business reporter for a while. I've covered Wall Street, venture capital and now private equity. I'm always looking for a scoop or something to talk about. I'm the eternal optimist and am still waiting for the Chicago Cubs to win the World Series. Yes, I believe.
Chegg, an online textbook rental company, has bought Cramster, which provides online homework help. Financial terms weren't disclsoed. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Chegg has raised around $144 million in private equity and debt, from groups that include Kleiner Perkins, Foundation Capital and Insight Venture Partners.
NetProspex has secured $5.5 million in VC funding led by Edison Ventures. Previous investors also participated, a statement said. NetProspex, of Waltham, Mass., provides business to business software.
ViKi said Wednesday that it has received $4.3 million in series A funding from investors including Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures, and Neoteny Labs. Viki, based in Palo Alto and Singapore, provides subtitled TV and movies in over 100 languages.
Small Bone Innovations Inc. said Tuesday that it's sold its shoulder-related assets to Fx Solutions, a French company. Financial terms weren't announced. Small Bone Innovations, of New York, will focus on its small bone & joint product portfolio, including its ankle replacement system, STAR ankle. Fx Solutiosn is focused solely on products to treat shoulder fractures and trauma. Earlier this year, SBi closed on $12 million in Series E funding from Olympus Corp. and earlier secured a $30 million debt facility from Fortress Investment Group. Last year, SBi received $144 millionin Series D and C funding from investors.
M/C Venture Partners said Tuesday that it has completed the sale of Cavalier Telephone to PAETEC for $460 million. Cavalier, of Richmond, Va., provides telecom services to residential and business customers. PAETEC is a telecom company based in Perinton, N.Y. M/C Ventures is a VC firm focused on communications, media, and information technology sectors.
Gazzang said Monday that it has secured $3.5 million in Series A funding led by Austin Ventures. Larry Warnock, who led the acquisition of Phurnace Software by BMC Software earlier this year, has joined Gazzang as CEO. Gazzang, with offices in Houston and Austin, Texas, is a cloud infrastructure software company.
More than 300 peHUB readers took over Connolly’s Thursday  night for a festive night of drinks, conversation and rumor mongering. OK, maybe that was just me. Thanks to the generosity of peHUB readers, we raised $3,933.90 for City Harvest, which helps feed  hungry New Yorkers and delivers free food to nearly 600 emergency food programs […]
I just got back from the Ignition conference and I must say I was quite impressed. This is the first conference for the Business Insider and Henry Blodget et al. showed they know how to give these sorts of media forums with style. There was a lot of food, plenty of room for laptops and gizmos, and all the staff was nice. My only critique is that the segments--while delightfully short and fast paced--didn't allow for any questions from the audience or journalists. Unfortunately, I didn't get to hear all of the segments. And I missed Steve Case, the former CEO of AOL, who spoke this morning.
Every day, it seems there's a tech company being sold or rumored to be on the block. With so many deals, I thought I should reach out to someone with deep background in the sector. Ron Pillar joined i-bank Sagent Advisors on Wednesday as an MD in the tech group. Before Sagent, Pillar was at Ladenburg Thalmann where he was vice chairman and co-head of investment banking. Prior to that, he spent nine years at J.P. Morgan where he was head of technology investment banking. It was at J.P. Morgan that Pillar headed up the advisory team in the 2006 merger of Lucent Technologies and Alcatel of France. He also directed the $700 million IPO of Neustar as well as the $8 billion spin-off of Teradata from NCR Corp.
TOTSY said Tuesday that it has closed a $5 million financing round led by DFJ Gotham and Rho Ventures. New York-based TOTSY offers deals on products for moms and kids. DFJ Gotham is a New York early-stage VC firm. Rho Ventures, part of RHO Capital Markets, is a multi-stage investor.
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