What you need to know - 09/07/11

Ronny Kerr · September 7, 2011 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/1ea4

Carol Bartz ousted as Yahoo! CEO; Sprint files suit against AT&T; Dell partners with Baidu

Global mobile advertising marketplace Adfonic raised an additional $7.5 million in funding from existing investors, with Gordon Shields being one of the major backers in this round.

AppFirst, an SaaS-based provider of an application problem resolution system, raised a $4 million Series A funding round led by Javelin Venture Partners, with participation from original backers FirstMark Capital and First Round Capital.

BountyJobs, an online marketplace connecting employers with national headhunters, closed $5 million from existing investors led by Greylock Partners.

chillChill, a site for VJs (video DJs), raised a $1.5 million angel round from Kleiner Perkins, Redpoint, Atlas Venture and investor Paul Kedrosky.




Major consumer technology company Dell and Baidu, the largest search site in China, have partnered to deliver smartphones and tablets running Baidu software, in an effort to challenge Apple and Lenovo in the Chinese mobile market.

Users of Google Voice can now download data from Takeout, including billing statements, voicemail, greetings and a phone book.

 

Groupon had been planning to go public after Labor Day weekend, a source told the Wall Street Journal, but stock market volatility has convinced the company to postpone its IPO. The person clarified that Groupon isn’t pulling its IPO, but simply pushing it back. Other reports are saying that the delay is indefinite.

Groupon is also trying something new: its first ever Groupon for grad school. The deal comes to you courtesy of National Louis University in Chicago, which is offering a 57% off tuition deal for one course in its Master of Arts in Teaching program.  The course, which normally costs $2,232, is being offered for $950.

Lanyrd.com, the social conference dictionary, closed a $1.4 million round of seed funding from primarily UK investors alongside some US angels. Principal contributors are Index Seed and PROfounders, along with Joi Ito, Esther Dyson, Joshua Schachter, Matt Biddulph, Blaine Cook, Matt Haughey, Tim Cederman-Haysom, William Burks Spencer, YCombinator and Start Fund.

A week after Starz announced that it will be pulling its content from Netflix’s digital streaming platform, Netflix has added Miramax as a digital content partner in its Latin American rollout, which began Monday.  It marks the first time that Miramax has licensed its films internationally.

A full 28% of all American adults now use location-based services on their mobile phones, according to a new study.  The number translates to 58% of smartphone owners.

Major mobile carrier Sprint filed suit against AT&T, Inc., AT&T Mobility, Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile as a means of blocking the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger. The reason is as little surprising as AT&T’s decision to file: antitrust violations.

 

Exercise technology startup Striiv raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Dr. Ronald Chwang with iD Ventures, with angel participation from Colin Angle of iRobot, Dado Banatao of Tallwood Ventures (private investment), along with other angel investors.

TrueCar, a resource for finding accurate prices for new and used cars in your area, raised $200 million in debt and equity financing.  Participants in the round include a long list of current investors.

Today's entrepreneur is Todd Wilkinson, CEO of WordWatch, an automated AdWords bid management platform for SMBs.

 

 

 

 

Yahoo!, which has continually struggled to define its place in today’s new Web, announced Tuesday evening that Carol Bartz has been stripped of her position as CEO of the company, ending her two-and-a-half year tenure.

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