Latest VatorNews stories

• Ad targeting platform ChoiceStream raises $7.5M

  by Steven Loeb, July 28, 2014

  ChoiceStream is a programmatic platform that allows for deeper and more relevant ad targeting

  The Internet has forever changed the advertising space. For decades, the same ads were blasted to millions of people, in the hope that at least some portion of the audience would have some interest in the product. Is the majority of the audience young men? Then show everyone ads for Old Spice, never mind that none of the women, or probably anyone over 35, watching would have any interest. Now adver

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• App optimization solution Leanplum raises $4.8M

  by Steven Loeb, July 28, 2014

  Leanplum offers A/B testing, marketing automation and analytics for developers and marketers

  The message was targeted only to returning users, which increased the likelihood that they had had a positive first experience with StumbleUpon’s app, and would be more likely to accept the prompt. Users who were willing to rate the app could opt-in to the message and continue on to the rating screen. Users that declined the message for whatever reason would not be taken to the ratings screen.

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• Apple picks up BookLamp, aka the "Pandora for books"

  by Steven Loeb, July 26, 2014

  Deal was reportedly worth $10-$15 million, with BookLamps team and tech coming to Apple

  While Apple's foray into e-books has been far from clean, with lawsuits and price-fixing scandals but it looks like the company is doubling down on them anyway. Apple has acquired BookLamp it has been confirmed to numerous news outlets, including Venturebeat. The exact price of the deal has not been disclosed, but TechCrunch, who first reported the acquisition on Friday, has placed it between the $

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• Cellphone unlocking bill sails through Congress

  by Steven Loeb, July 26, 2014

  Once Obama signs the law, it will allow people to use their old phones on any carrier

  Maybe I watch too much cable news (though I have really started to wean myself off of that because, ugh!) but I have very, very little faith in this current government, and this Congress in particular, to actually get anything done. Especially not anything that would benefit someone who wasn't already a gazillionaire. (Tax cuts for the richest companies ever? YAY! Minimum wage hike for some of the

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• Funding roundup - week ending 7/25/14

  by Steven Loeb, July 25, 2014

  Timehop, AppDynamics, BlueStacks, Threadflip, Intent Media, Airware, Quandoo, Edgewave, SimpleReach

  Dealflicks, which offers discounted movie theater tickets, raised $1.7 million in seed funding from 500 Startups, Siemer Ventures, Archer Gray, Rubicon VC, Wefunder, Be Great Partners, Rosepaul Investments, Mogility Capital, Sierra Maya Ventures, and Warner Brothers Media Camp. Angels that participated included Ajay Narula, Richard Wolpert, Larry Braitman, Marc Berger, Hersh Narola, Jason Kothari,

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• Google's latest moonshot: a full map of the human body

  Google wants to find out what a healthy body looks like to help prevent future disease

  I was talking to a big-time CEO a few years ago who told me that, as his company got bigger, he found it harder and harder to take risks, simply because there was so much more at stake. Once a company ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Yammer founder David Sacks leaves Microsoft

  Microsoft bought enterprise social networking company Yammer for $1.2 billion two years ago

  It's been just over two years since Microsoft bought enterprise social networking company Yammer for $1.2 billion in June of 2012. It may not seem like that much time, but it has been enough for the company's ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Facebook and Uber in talks for integration on Messenger

  A deal would allow Messenger to start making money, while Uber would get access to 200M users

  For example a company like Lyft can partner with AnyPerk to help the company retain drivers. Or younity can team up with GoPro to allow users to instantly stream their videos. These partnerships make ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Facebook shares hit record high of $76 after stellar Q2

  Facebook's advertising revenue hit $2.68 billion, with 62% coming from mobile

  It seems so long ago now that analysts were fretting and worrying over Facebook's long-term monetization, and wondering if, and how, the company would ever really make money. Now that Facebook has figured ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Blogging your way to a Series A

  Content built up over time will eventually equal leads

  When I founded BlazeMeter, I decided to postpone venture funding until I had determined my initial product and market fit. I was stringent when thinking about what that meant: in the end, I would need ...
  By Alon Girmonsky
  

• Twitter has a big diversity problem: 70% men, 59% white

  How does Twitter compare to Facebook, Google and Yahoo?

  I hear all the time about Twitter being mostly white, and mostly men. Maybe that's because it took the company so long to finally appoint a woman to its board of directors, but is the company really any ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Zuckerberg: Facebook will never be a payments company

  Even though it is testing a buy button, Facebook will remain a partner to other payments companies

  In a conference call following the release of Facebook's second quarter earnings report on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg spoke about the company's future when it comes to the payments ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Facebook comes out on top, beats in Q2 earnings report

  Facebook reports $2.91B in revenue, with EPS of 42 cents, for the second quarter

  In the earnings report, Facebook posted revenue of $2.91 billion for the quarter, beating Wall Street's estimates of $2.81 billion, and up % from $ billion in the second quarter of 2013. Adjusted earnings ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• StubHub users beware! Over 1,000 accounts hacked!

  Hackers were able to gain access to StubHub through other breaches and existing malware

  This time the victim was StubHub, the ticket reselling service owned by eBay. Using data breaches at other websites, and malware on the customers' computers, hackers were able to gain access to over 1,000 ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• LinkedIn picks up marketing platform Bizo for $175M

  LinkedIn makes around 20% of revenue from advertising, but may be looking to increase that number

  That is not to say that advertising isn't important at all, though. In its last quarterly earnings report, advertising revenue was the company's second biggest revenue source. And now, perhaps, LinkedIn ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• LinkedIn experiments with a "find friends" feature

  LinkedIn would likely add the feature to its Connected app, allowing users to find contacts nearby

  The idea of finding friends nearby has always struck me as a little... creepy. Like, I get the idea behind it, and I can see how it would be cool to see that someone you know is a block away. But, at the ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Social media nostalgia app Timehop raises $10M

  Timehop shows users what they were doing on social media on this date in history

  There has been a big movement toward privacy in social media over the last couple of years, with the rise of apps like Snapchat and Whisper and Secret. I get why this is appealing: it's hard to feel secure ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• App monitoring service AppDynamics raises $120M

  With the new funding, AppDynamics is now valued at over $1 billion

  It's hard to overstate the importance of app performance management. People have very, very little patience for malfunctioning, or just downright slow, applications, which can be absolutely deadly to the ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Cloud service younity integrates with GoPro

  Younity will organize GoPro videos, and allow users to instantly playback their videos on mobile

  I've never had the opportunity to use a GoPro camera, but I have heard that they are quite amazing. That they are the kind of camera that makes people feel like they need to get out there and do something ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Tango launches $25M gaming fund to expand platform

  Tango also hires GREE's Jim Ying as VP of game publishing

  Mobile messaging is hot right now, but one of the more noteworthy apps in the space, Tango, the company that raised $280 million in March, is looking to branch out. Specifically it is looking to expand ...
  By Steven Loeb
  
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