What you need to know - 05/11/11

The winners and losers in the Microsoft-Skype deal; New funding for BranchOut, Gobble and FreeMonee

Alpine Data Labs, developer of the first solution for Big Data Predictive Insight,  received $7.5 million in Series A funding from Sierra Ventures, Mission Ventures, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, the Asian arm of Sumitomo Corporation's Strategic Venture Investment, and others.

BranchOut, a professional social network for Facebook, raised $18 million in Series B funding led by Redpoint Ventures with Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, and Floodgate.

Online gift network FreeMonee raised $11 million in initial funding from Opus Capital Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, Pinnacle Ventures and Contrarian Group.

Gobble, an online marketplace for local fresh meals, raised $1.2 million in seed financing from a select group of Silicon Valley's most successful investors, including Greylock Discovery Fund, Felicis Ventures, Founder Collective and SV Angel.

Mobile finance app Pageonce closed a $15 million round of funding led by Morgenthaler Ventures, with participation from previous investors Pitango Ventures and Chairman of the board Liron Petrushka.

Location-based game platform SCVNGR partnered with American Express to automatically reward consumers who buy daily deals through daily deals site LevelUp and redeem the deal with their AmEx card.

As you already know, Microsoft yesterday spent $8.5 billion so no one would pay attention to Google Music. Okay, okay, so they bought Skype. Here are all the winners and losers in the deal. Here's why it's all about Windows Phone 7. More details.