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Spotify acquires music discovery service Tunigo

by Faith Merino, May 3, 2013 | Comments

Like Songza, Tunigo offers playlists for your mood, plans, workout, and more

Nothing beats a good music discovery app. As Apple’s App Store creeps closer to 50 billion apps downloaded altogether, Pandora remains the second most downloaded free app of all time (after Facebook). Now, one of its fiercest competitors—Spotify—is beefing up its own music discovery game with the acquisition of Tunigo. A spokesperson for Spotify said that Tunigo has been a ...

Poppin raises $11.1M to help you makeover your office

by Faith Merino, May 2, 2013 | Comments

Poppin pioneers "WorkStyle" with cute, colorful office products and supplies

A friend of mine always posts pictures on Facebook of the flowers her husband sends her at work. It’s obnoxious and really revives my resentment over last Valentine’s Day, when my husband told me he was going to get me flowers after work, but he was too tired. But beyond the obnoxious flower bragging, I always notice how cute her ...

Yelp shares soar 25% on stellar quarter

by Faith Merino, May 2, 2013 | Comments

Analysts raise price targets for Yelp after Yelp comes in with higher revenue and EBIDTA

Yelp shares soared 25% to $31.65 Thursday morning after the company revealed strong quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013. Revenue grew 68% to $46.1 million, compared to $27.4 million in Q1 2012. Adjusted EBIDTA was $3.2 million, compared to an EBIDTA loss of $1 million in the year ago quarter. That beat out Wall Street consensus, which called ...

Google leads $125M secondary round in Lending Club

by Faith Merino, May 1, 2013 | Comments

The round gives Google a minority stake in the company

A lot of big names have gathered behind Lending Club, notably those of Larry Summers, Mary Meeker, and John Mack. Now, among its list of supporters, Lending Club is adding, like, the whole Internet--also known as Google. Lending Club announced Thursday that Google has acquired a minority stake in the company via a $125 million secondary round that also saw ...

Yelp shares pop 11% on solid Q1 with $46.1M in revenue

by Faith Merino, May 1, 2013 | Comments

Yelp blasts past analysts' expectations with higher revenue and shrinking losses

Yelp has had another solid quarter, in which it topped analysts’ expectations for revenue and EBIDTA. Yelp shares popped 11% to $28 in after-hours trading after Yelp revealed its results for the first quarter. Revenue grew 68% to $46.1 million, compared to $27.4 million in Q1 2012. Adjusted EBIDTA was $3.2 million, compared to an EBIDTA loss of $1 million ...

On Deck raises additional $17M to fund Main Street

by Faith Merino, May 1, 2013 | Comments

The company adds $17M to its Series D round, bringing the round to $59M total

We all like to root for the little guy, which is why it’s easy to get behind small businesses. Small businesses account for more than 50% of the non-farm private GDP, and they make up 75% of the net new jobs in the U.S. But they’re up against steep competition from big box retailers and others who have the resources ...

BlackBerry CEO says tablets will be obsolete in 5 years

by Faith Merino, April 30, 2013 | Comments

Heins isn't worried about BlackBerry's future in tablets because he doesn't see a future for tablets

As you might recall, the PlayBook didn’t really work out for BlackBerry. The company had to take a charge of $485 million to write down unsold inventory after only selling some 150,000 devices in Q3 2012. Now it looks like CEO Thorsten Heins is playing it cool by saying, “meh, tablets are all whatever.” (That’s me paraphrasing, btw.) In an ...

Jawbone snaps up BodyMedia and opens up API

by Faith Merino, April 30, 2013 | Comments

The company beefs up its wearable health monitoring business with a key acquisition

Counting calories is for schmucks. Why count calories when you can wear a sensor that does it for you? And that old prehistoric method of manually entering your consumed calories into your favorite health and fitness apps—those days are gone! Sensors are where it’s at. And one of the major players in the sensor-based health monitoring industry—Jawbone—made two big announcements ...

When big brands use patents to crush the competition

by Faith Merino, April 29, 2013 | Comments

1-800-Contacts uses IP law to get rid of competition, and startups like Ditto are paying the price

No one likes a patent troll—an imaginary company that buys up and squats on patents until another—real—business comes along with technology that “infringes” on that patent. And then bam, the patent troll sues and bleeds the startup of cash. The harm caused by patent trolls is real and it’s felt not just by entrepreneurs and their employees, but by the ...

2015: Brand loyalty will launch iPhone ahead of Android

by Faith Merino, April 26, 2013 | Comments

Analyst predicts iPhone will eclipse Android's market share within two years

The brand loyalty consumers feel toward Apple is the stuff of legends. Countless studies have shown that people who buy one Apple product tend to buy other Apple products. And people who own one Apple product tend to upgrade to other Apple products. And that brand loyalty alone might be enough to help Apple’s iPhone eclipse Android’s market share in ...

Is Amazon slowing down?

by Faith Merino, April 26, 2013 | Comments

Amazon's 'meh' quarter shows some troubling trends, according to analysts

Amazon's quarterly results are fairly unpredictable, since the company is known for taking any and all profits and reinvesting them in the business. It's great for Amazon and its customers, but bad for analysts, whose estimates for Amazon tend to cover the entire spectrum. So Thursday's earnings report was confusing. While Amazon beat analysts' expectations for income, the company came ...

Amazon has a 'meh' quarter, but product rumors abound

by Faith Merino, April 25, 2013 | Comments

Is Amazon working on a Kindle phone? A TV set-top box? What?!

Well, Amazon surprises again. The company reported its March quarter earnings Thursday after the close, and…results are mixed. Sort of. Revenue came in at $16.07 billion for the quarter, which is up 22% from the same quarter last year, but it missed analysts’ estimates by a few million. Street consensus had Amazon’s revenue pegged at $16.16 billion, with high estimates ...

Moonfrye raises $2.5M for ideas for crafty DIY parents

by Faith Merino, April 25, 2013 | Comments

Co-founded by Punky Brewster, aka Soleil Moon Frye, the site gets support from GRP, Google Ventures

There’s this weird thing that happens to some of us when we have a kid: we suddenly become super crafty DIYers. I, for one, am the least crafty person on the planet, but I now make my own shampoo, laundry detergent, herbal tea, and cloth diapers. Yup. In my case, it’s because I have an irrational fear of BPA, phthalates, ...

How BeachMint is overcoming growing pains

by Faith Merino, April 24, 2013 | Comments

Rapid growth has CEO Josh Berman rethinking its strategy and building a new team

Updated to include input from BeachMint investor Peter Sonsini and to include growth numbers and traffic figures from comScore. These days, you can subscribe to get anything in a box on a monthly basis—shoes, clothes, food, dog toys, craft kits, condoms, tampons, etc. Subscription commerce is stepping in to fill the void left by the rapid inflation and equally rapid ...

Apple shares dip as more analysts cut price targets

by Faith Merino, April 24, 2013 | Comments

Apple's quarterly results were better than expected, but still troubling to analysts

Yet another analyst has cut his price target for Apple. JP Morgan's Mark Moskowitz said in a research note Wednesday that he has cut his price target for Apple to $545 from $725. JP Morgan is also removing Apple from its Analyst Focus List as the June quarter is expected to be even worse than the March quarter (which turned ...

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