What you need to know - 05/24/11

Ronny Kerr · May 24, 2011 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/1ac0

Twitter might have closed $40 million purchase of TweetDeck; Lady Gaga album struggles on Amazon

Among many promotions for Lady Gaga's new album, Born This Way, Amazon was offering the album for just $0.99--but its servers couldn't handle the demand.

As of February 2011, consumer spending was up 0.7%. In January, spending was up 0.3%. But… not so for consumer electronics. While the average American household spent $1,179 on consumer electronics in the past 12 months, that’s actually a decrease of $201 since last year, according to the CEA.

Conversocial, a social media management system, raised a £1.5 million ($2.4 million) Series A funding round from European venture capital firm DFJ Esprit.

Crimson Hexagon, a social intelligence company providing social media monitoring and analysis, secured $5 million in Series B funding from Charles F. Dolan, founder and chairman of Cablevision Systems Corporation.

Intel Capital invested an undisclosed amount in social and mobile gaming studio Crowdstar. The venture arm actually invested a total of $24.5 million in four different startups, including Crowdstar.

Foursquare revealed that London-based mobile phone manufacturer INQ has selected the location service to be deeply integrated in its Cloud Touch device.

Greenstart is a new accelerator program that provides funding, mentorship, legal services, and office space in its 7,000 square foot digs in San Francicso. All this during a three-month period. Greenstart is similar to Y Combinator and TechStars, except it's focused solely on cleantech. Watch Bambi Francisco interview one of the founders, Mitch Lowe.

Twitter has acquired third-party developer TweetDeck for more than $40 million in a combination of cash and stock, according to sources close to the deal.

Yandex N.V. today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 52,174,088 Class A ordinary shares at $25.00 per share. The Class A ordinary shares will begin trading today on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “YNDX”.