What you need to know - 08/16/11

Read some analysis of the Google-Motorola deal; Airbnb $50,000 Host Guarantee arrives

Airbnb launched the $50,000 Airbnb Host Guarantee, a new addition to the accommodations network designed to offer hosts peace of mind.

Allocade, provider of technology solutions to coordinate care in hospitals, has raised $3.2 million, according to an SEC filing published this week.

With the purchase of Motorola, Google may have just gone on the offensive in the patent war with competitors like Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle.  What are the competitors to do?  Clearly, they’re going to have to make some major acquisitions of their own.

Brighter.com, an online consumer resource that makes quality dental care accessible and affordable for the millions of uninsured Americans, secured $8 million in Series B funding led by Benchmark Capital.

Social gaming company Digital Chocolate agreed to acquire Sandlot Games, a casual game developer and publisher.

Social stock market Empire Avenue locked in $1.2 million in funding led by Crosslink Capital, along with iNovia Capital and BioWare co-founders.

Foursquare released a new feature called Lists, which lets users build sets of places they’ve visited or want to visit in the future.

Hunch found that iPhone users are more likely to be female, early adopters, extroverts, politically liberal, and have higher incomes, while Android users are more likely to be male, late adopters, pessimists, politically conservative, and have incomes between $60k and $100k a year.

Interpublic Group agreed to sell about half of its holdings in Facebook for $133 million in cash. The private sale is expected to earn Interpublic a pre-tax gain of $132 million.

peerTransfer, provider of global payment solutions for international education, closed a $7.5 million Series A financing round led by Spark Capital

A new Pew survey confirms what we’ve all known: people pretend to use their phones to avoid social interactions.

Socialware, provider of social media compliance and engagement, secured $7 million in Series C funding led by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital.

Thought Equity Motion, provider of video platform and footage licensing services, closed a $25 million investment from Shamrock Capital Advisors.

Zoove closed a $15 million round of Series D funding led by new investor Panorama Capital. Existing investors also participating in the round included: Cardinal Venture Capital, Highland Capital Partners, and Worldview Technology Partners.