Recent posts and comments

• Amazon Shells Out For Shelfari

  Amazon will acquire Seattle-based Shelfari, a social networking site for bookworms, Shelfari’s CEO has confirmed on the company blog. John Cook broke the news yesterday and has a nice analysis... Read more »

• Announcing Xconomy’s Next Forum: How to Build A Life Sciences Company

  The Boston area is arguably the world’s greatest center of life sciences, fostering both outstanding basic research and a thriving community of companies, big and small. Two of biotech’s pioneering firms,... Read more »

• Y Combinator’s “Open Source” Legal Documents: Up, Down, Up Again—Thank the Lawyers

  It’s not easy posting legal documents: the lawyers get nervous. At least, that’s what happened to Y Combinator. Last Wednesday, August 13, the unique venture firm/incubator made a batch of boilerplate... Read more »

• Media Lab Director to My Rescue…Twice!

  I might just have figured out the worst corner in Kendall Square and the best company to have there…It’s a beautiful day here, so I was taking a leisurely after-lunch stroll... Read more »

• Nuance Snaps Up SNAPin for $180M

  Even as one firm, Canada’s Zi, is resisting its takeover bid, Burlington, MA-based Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN) reports more success with another company. The speech recognition giant announced yesterday... Read more »

• Spark Invests Big in Startup that Helps Airline Passengers Zip Through Security Lines

  Right now, if you want to zip through security lines at major airports you have three basic options: travel at weird hours when few people are in the airport; shell out... Read more »

• Ipanema Garners $7M to Fuel Expansion

  Waltham, MA-based Ipanema Technologies, which develops wide area network application traffic management systems, announced today that it has received $7 million in funding Noble Venture of London, largely to  boost R&D... Read more »

• With Clean Transportation All the Rage, Segway is Reportedly on the Road to Raising $14 Million Series D Round

  On the heels of closing the final tranche of a $35 million financing round that ranked as the fifth-largest New England venture deal of the second quarter, Segway is reportedly back... Read more »

• Demo Day at Y Combinator Offers Glimpse of Web’s Future

  The house was packed with investors big and small (only one limo was waiting outside, though), the food tasty, the mood upbeat, the rain hardly fell—and, most importantly, a score of... Read more »

• WSJ Hits Boston Scientific Stent Data

  An FDA application for a Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) coronary stent currently awaiting approval was supported by a flawed statistical equation, according to today’s Wall Street Journal. Citing its... Read more »

• Y Combinator Goes Open-Source With Legal Funding Documents

  If you’ve ever launched a startup with funding from a venture firm or angel group, you know the bank-account-draining toll those startup legal bills can take. I still feel the pain:... Read more »

• A123 Systems Co-founder Confirms Lucky 8 Influenced Timing of IPO Filing

  Turns out our hunch was correct. On Friday, Watertown, MA-based maker of advanced batteries A123 Systems filed for its long-anticipated IPO. Since the filing came on August 8, 2008—an exceedingly lucky... Read more »

• New Fundraising for Hair-Raising: Follica Takes in $11 Million for Baldness-Treatment Approach

  If only hair could grow as fast as Follica’s pot of money. Just seven months after its $5.5 million Series A financing round, the Boston-based startup today announced it has... Read more »

• CA Reaffirms that Non-Competes are Non-Starters—Will MA and WA Listen?

  Updated with additional comment, see below: The arguments have been piling up against non-compete agreements here in the Bay State (and they’re not unknown in our sister city of Seattle, either).... Read more »

• A123 Systems Files for IPO Seeking Up to $175 Million (and Betting on Lucky No. 8?)

  August 8, 2008. The Olympics Games begins in Beijing. A123 Systems, the Watertown, MA-based advanced battery maker with big operations in China, files for an IPO.

  Coincidence? Maybe not. The number... Read more »

• Y Combinator Model “Too Messy” for Microsoft, Says YC Founder

  On Wednesday, Greg highlighted the provocative suggestion of Kevin Merritt, CEO of Seattle startup Blist, that Microsoft should return to its “risk taking, entrepreneurial roots…” by investing in early-stage startups along... Read more »

• Xerox Moves R&D Headquarters to Boston (Kind Of)—Looking to Network, Develop Green Technologies, and Hit the Airport Faster

  Talk about telecommuting. As of a few weeks ago, Sophie Vandebroek has been running Xerox’s global R&D organization—comprised of the famous Palo Alto Research Center and three other centers in the... Read more »

• Forrester Orbits, Buys Jupiter for $23M

  In a merger of market research minds, Cambridge, MA-based Forrester Research (NASDAQ: FORR) announced today that it will purchase JupiterResearch and its parent company, JUPR Holdings, from MCG Capital Corporation... Read more »

• Xconomy Goes to Sweden (Anybody Got Sox Tickets for Erik?)

  Xconomy is on its way to Sweden.

  In our hearts, at least. Today marks the last day at Xconomy Boston for our Innovation Fellow, noted Swedish technology and business journalist Erik... Read more »

• Microsoft Research Lab Opens Quietly Next to MIT, Director Says Area’s Intellectual Climate Like “Dry Timber” Ready to Ignite

  A Microsoft research lab announced in February quietly opened its doors in Kendall Square earlier this month, although the company doesn’t plan an official coming out party until late September. It’s... Read more »