Reuters News
The co-founder of German online retailer Zalando said the firm will focus this year on getting its core markets to profitability amid mounting speculation the fashion site could be ready for a listing as early as 2014, writes Reuters. Zalando is backed by JP Morgan Asset Management and Quadrant Capital.
Tony Fadell, the designer known as the godfather of Apple Inc's iPod, is enlisting several of the country's largest power utilities to get his power-saving creation, the Nest thermostat, into more U.S. households, writes Reuters. Nest Labs, the company he co-founded in 2010 with designers and engineers from Silicon Valley firms like Apple and Google Inc, is teaming up with six utilities to provide incentives for using its thermostats.
CA Technologies is to acquire Layer7, according to VentureBeat, writes Reuters. Neither company disclosed the terms of the acquisition. Layer7, founded in 2003, had raised about $20 million from BDC Venture Capital, GrowthWorks Capital, and Shoreline Venture Management.
(Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline said on Monday it will partner with venture capital firm Avalon Ventures in a deal worth up to $495 million to fund as many as 10 drug-discovery startups over the next three years.
PowerbyProxi has raised $5 million from investors including TE Connectivity in Germany to develop applications for wireless power technology, according to VentureBeat, writes Reuters.
(Reuters) - Foursquare has raised $41 million in debt financing from Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Spark Capital, and Union Square Ventures, Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley wrote in a blog.
Demand for H1-B visas is so strong that the annual cap of 65,000 was hit last week. VCs and tech executives want to see the quota boosted to 300,000, but some U.S. tech workers and academics say the tech talent shortage is exaggerated -- and the H1-B program serves mainly as a source of cheap labor.
A popular U.S. visa program for skilled workers has hit its quota just days into the application period, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service said. The H-1B program has not reached its base cap of 65,000 so quickly since early 2008, before the economic crisis hit.
Fisker Automotive, the struggling, government-backed hybrid sports car maker, terminated most of its rank-and-file employees on Friday, in a last-ditch effort to conserve cash and stave off a potential bankruptcy filing, sources said.
Zynga Inc has named John Doerr, a general partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, to its board, the online gaming company said Friday.