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• An Elegy for the Multimedia CD-ROM Stars

  On balance, I’m a fan of all things Web. But every successful new medium disrupts or transforms the media that came before—just as the movies killed vaudeville, TV killed episodic radio,... Read more »

• Novartis Increases Stake in Alnylam

  Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALNY), a Cambridge, MA, biotech firm working on RNAi-based therapies, said today that pharmaceutical giant Novartis had exercised an option to purchase approximately $5.4 million worth of... Read more »

• From the Runway to the Road: Terrafugia Redefines the Flying Car—Make that Drivable Airplane

  Don’t call it a flying car. It’s a “roadable aircraft.”

  It’s named the Transition, and the first full-scale model is taking shape inside a former machine shop on an industrial back... Read more »

• Picture Grows by $3 Million at Frame Media

  Frame Media, the Wellesley, MA-based provider of content for digital picture frames that we profiled last September, has raised an additional $3 million in what it’s calling a Series... Read more »

• InnoCentive Raises $6.5 Million for Innovation Network: “Ready for Prime Time,” says CEO in Our Q&A

  There’s endless debate about how to encourage more innovation inside technology companies. But in Waltham, MA, there’s a startup that says, in effect, don’t bother: innovation can be outsourced to a... Read more »

• Our Mascoma Math Coma

  Here at Xconomy, tracking venture funding for local technology startups is one of our favorite pastimes. We don’t report on every single funding round we hear about, but when large amounts... Read more »

• EnerNOC Buys Baltimore Firm, Expands Energy Procurement Services

  As more states have deregulated their energy markets—giving corporations, city governments, and other organizations more choices about where to buy their electricity and gas—a new group of consulting companies has sprung... Read more »

• Social Movie Rentals Premiere at Lycos; Chat Room Has Everything But the Popcorn

  It turns out that old dogs can learn new tricks.

  For several years in the late 1990s, search company Lycos, known for its Labrador Retriever mascot, was one of the... Read more »

• Cornerstone Buys Critical Therapeutics

  Lexington, MA-based Critical Therapeutics, which owns the rights to the asthma drug Zyflo and is developing other treatments for respiratory and inflammatory diseases, said today that it will be acquired by... Read more »

• Medicare Will Cover Abiomed Heart

  Abiomed of Danvers, MA, said today that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has decided to reimburse hospitals that give patients Abiomed’s AbioCor artificial heart, reversing a 22-year-old policy... Read more »

• GM Chips In for Mascoma’s Cellulosic Biofuel Technology

  In January General Motors announced an investment in Coskata, a Warrenville, IL, company that has backing from Advanced Technology Ventures of Waltham, MA, and is developing a chemical-thermal technology for making... Read more »

• Unbuilt Boston: The Ghost Cloverleaf of Canton

  Last Halloween, a Boston startup called Untravel Media published a multimedia walking tour called “Boston’s Little Lanes and Alleyways” that guides listeners through some of the city’s oddest secret... Read more »

• Mozy Releases Mac Version of Online Backup Service

  MozyHome for Mac, a program that backs up your personal files online, went into full production today after a long period in beta testing. For several weeks now, I’ve been using... Read more »

• ZeeVee Makes Watching Your PC on Your HDTV EeZee

  It’s one of those strange ironies in consumer technology. Now that it’s possible to buy a flat-screen HDTV for under $1,000, millions of American homes boast huge, beautiful high-definition displays. But... Read more »

• “Lord of the Rings Online” Publisher Turbine Reported to Raise $40 Million

  According to a report yesterday at the financial news site PE Hub, Westwood, MA-based Turbine, publisher of graphically rich online role playing games such Lord of the Rings Online, has... Read more »

• “Celebrity Services” Startup Gets $2.5M Credit Line

  Paid, Inc., a Boston startup that provides services such as online community building, Web design, merchandising, and VIP fan ticketing to musical and sports celebrities including Patti Labele, Keith Lockhart, Doug... Read more »

• Cortera Collects $8 Million

  Cortera, a Quincy, MA-based company that helps other companies research prospective customers and score their creditworthiness, said yesterday that it has raised $8 million in new funding from CIBC Capital Partners,... Read more »

• 3Com’s New CEO Based in China

  Robert Mao, named yesterday by Marlborough, MA-based 3Com as the replacement for outgoing CEO Edgar Masri, will be based in China, where he’ll be able to oversee Internet switch and router... Read more »

• TrustPlus Out to Build Its Rep with eBay Data

  Trust is a funny thing. I first interviewed Shawn Broderick, founder and CEO of TrustPlus, last September. But I didn’t write a story about the startup, mainly because there was... Read more »

• Cox Buys Adify, Venrock Cashes Out

  Adify, a “vertical” Web advertising network based in San Bruno, CA, said in its blog today that it’s accepting a $300 million cash takeover offer from Atlanta-based media conglomerate Cox Enterprises.... Read more »