Apple could buy Dell outright; Mac-maker has more cash on hand than Dell is worth
MacDailyNews — ... and is a debt-free company. In other words, Apple could basically buy Dell outright and, oh, what the heck, shut it down and keep the money since they'd be the only shareholders. (Of course, that'd be the kind of horribly-conceived deal only Steve Ballmer would pursue.) Got any snappy retorts now, Mr. Dell? AAPL and DELL quotes via NASDAQ are here . What else would $25 or so billion buy? • Research in Motion - $28.57 billion • Sony - $25.43 billlion •  Amazon - $21.39 billion • Yahoo - $16.73 billion * • Adobe - $14.65 billion •  ...

Intel slams Apple iPhone, says use of ARM processors bogs down device
MacDailyNews — ... words, Apple could basically buy Dell outright and, oh, what the heck, shut it down and keep the money since they'd be the only shareholders. (Of course, that'd be the kind of horribly-conceived deal only Steve Ballmer would pursue.) Got any snappy retorts now, Mr. Dell? AAPL and DELL quotes via NASDAQ are here . What else would $25 or so billion buy? • Research in Motion - $28.57 billion • Sony (includes Sony Music Entertainment) - $25.43 billlion •  Amazon - $21.39 billion • Activision Blizzard - $17.13 billion • Yahoo - $16.73 ...

MarketOutsider Tells Investors Who’s Up, Who’s Down in the Media
Xconomy — ... to get it to everybody,” says Baril. Given the state of information overload today (who has time to read 10 news articles?), a service like MarketOutsider’s would seem to be pretty attractive. But it will also take some pretty sophisticated search and language-processing technology to make it accurate and reliable. That’s one of the aspects that Baril and fellow co-founder Colin Meyer are busy working on now. According to their Twitter feed, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) was up in the media as of late last week—no big surprise, given its cloud ...

Amazon Takes on Akamai with CloudFront Delivery Network
Xconomy — ... Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said a couple of months ago that it was working on a way to let users of its Amazon Web Services  infrastructure speed delivery of Web graphics, software downloads, audio and video files, and other materials to Web users over its global network of servers. And today, in a direct assault on existing content distribution networks (CDNs) like Akamai, Limelight, and Voxel, it has unveiled the beta version of that service, called CloudFront. ...

Akamai to Cut 110 Workers Worldwide
Xconomy — ... in a post yesterday whether this week’s move by Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) into the content delivery network arena with its CloudFront service would bring a cold front to Akamai. For some Akamai workers—and for much of the economy—the proverbial bad weather has arrived. ...

Amazon Completes AbeBooks Acquisition
Xconomy — ... it has completed its acquisition of Victoria, BC-based AbeBooks, an online marketplace for used, rare, and out-of-print books. The deal was originally announced on August 1. With the purchase, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) also owns 40 percent of LibraryThing, a literary social site based in Cambridge, MA, which ...

Amazon Unveils iPhone Photo App
Xconomy — ... Gregory T. Huang wrote: Seattle-based Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced a new application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. The most interesting feature lets you take a picture of a product, which Amazon then tries to match with similar products available for purchase online. The broader application lets users browse for products from Amazon and other retailers like Target and Macy’s. ...

Microsoft and EMC Get Secure, PATH Puts $3M Into Bird Flu, Amazon Closes Book on Abe, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
Xconomy — ... , an online marketplace for used and rare books. The deal was originally announced August 1. With this purchase, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) also owns 40 percent of LibraryThing, a literary social site based in Cambridge, MA, ...

Topical search site Kosmix takes $20M
VC Ratings — Kosmix Corp. is preparing to make its move in the next-generation Web search category with a new $20 million fourth round of funding that includes Time Warner Investments and former Motorola CEO Ed Zander. The new backers join Accel Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and DAG Ventures in the new round, which brings Kosmix's total investment to $55 million. Amazon.com Inc. [AMZN] chief executive Jeff Bezos and Legg Mason chief investment officer Bill Miller are also stakeholders in the startup, which last raised capital in December 2007. Kosmix's algorithm is designed to detect the context of a ...

Amazon’s Kindle 2 gets prettier … but not cheaper
VentureBeat — ... Investors don’t seem to know what to make of the announcement, with Amazon’s stock falling, then rising again — as of 10am Pacific, it’s up 0.45 percent to $66.85. I guess the good news (new Kindle!) and the bad news (same price!) sort of canceled each other out. The Kindle 2 goes on sale on Feb. 24; the old one has been sold out since November. ...

Discovery Sues Amazon over Kindle
Xconomy — ... Gregory T. Huang wrote: Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA), the owner of Discovery Channel and other TV networks and websites, has filed a lawsuit against Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), alleging that the Kindle and Kindle 2 infringe on a Discovery patent issued in 2007 for e-book security and copyright protection. Discovery is seeking an unspecified amount of compensation. ...

Intel-backed Nirvanix Gets $5 Million
Xconomy — ... The company, which was previously known as Streamload, aims to compete with Amazon’s (Nasdaq: AMZN) S3 storage web service. ...

NewPath Picks Up $30M, Asemblon Raises $2.9M, Amazon Buys Lexcycle, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
Xconomy — ... Gregory T. Huang wrote: It was another busy week for deals in the Northwest, with lots of action in cloud computing software, mobile, and healthcare. Xconomy even got into the act, inking a partnership with The Seattle Times (see below). —Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) acquired Lexcycle, an e-book startup based in Portland, OR, and Austin, TX. No financial terms were given. Lexcycle makes an online bookstore application called Stanza for desktops and the iPhone. The move is viewed as part of Amazon’s effort ...

Dendreon and Cell Therapeutics Sell Stock, Microsoft Buys BigPark, Calistoga Raises $30M, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
Xconomy — ... $23 million. Dendreon will use the money to expand manufacturing and marketing of its experimental drug for prostate cancer, Provenge. —Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is acquiring BigPark, an online gaming company based in Vancouver, BC. Financial terms of the deal were not announced. BigPark, which was co-founded by Hanno Lemke and Microsoft senior vice president Don Mattrick, will become part of Microsoft Game Studios. —Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has invested in Seattle-based Foodista, an online cooking encyclopedia ...

Amazon Buys Zappos, General Fusion and Finsphere Get $9M Each, Big Fish Partners with People.com, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
Xconomy — ... encourage their employees to reach wellness goals like losing weight or quitting smoking. —Seattle-based Calypso Medical Technologies formed a partnership with Varian Medical Systems of Palo Alto, CA, to develop products that incorporate Calypso’s radiation-pinpointing technology into Varian’s software and devices for cancer treatment. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. —Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) made its biggest acquisition to date, buying Henderson, NV-based online shoe ...

Heartland Robotics Lands $7M, Gloucester Pharma Gets $29M, Biopure Auctioned Away for $4M, & More Boston Deals News
Xconomy — ... ) cofounder Rod Brooks, raised $7 million in equity capital. Our intrepid senior correspondent also confirmed that Bezos Expeditions, which manages the personal investments of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, took part in the round. ...

Amazon Plows Ahead in E-Books, Electronics, and Retail—An Update
Xconomy — ... For some reason, it has been even harder than usual to keep up with Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) this month. Here’s a quick roundup of the week’s most interesting news regarding the Internet giant’s place in the e-book and retail world. ...

Amazon Dives Into Mobile, Bringing Its Online Checkout to Wider World of App Distributors
Xconomy — ... released today. More significantly, the service also gives developers, retailers, and distributors of mobile applications a way to process mobile payments from customers using Amazon’s online checkout system—without having to ask for their credit card numbers, which Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) already has. ...

Amazon Goes Mobile, Theraclone Inks $18M Deal, Spiration Pulls In $7M, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
Xconomy — ... —Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) rolled out a new mobile payments service that lets applications developers and distributors tap into the e-commerce giant’s one-click checkout system on mobile devices. As part of the rollout, ...

Glympse and TravellingWave Step Out, Microsoft Does Voice Search, and More Mobile News
Xconomy — ... Gregory T. Huang wrote: It’s been a very busy week for news in the mobile industry. First, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) rolled out a one-click mobile payments service that promises to shake up the world of mobile-app developers and distributors. Then it seems like all hell broke loose, courtesy of the massive CTIA wireless expo going on in San Diego through this Friday. Here’s a quick summary of what’s happening in mobile-device interfaces, iPhone apps, and other mobile news from the Northwest: —In ...

Amazon Re-ups with Engine Yard
Xconomy — ... Gregory T. Huang wrote: Seattle-based Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has participated in a $19 million Series C financing for Engine Yard, a cloud computing and software automation company in San Francisco. Amazon was a previous investor, along with Benchmark Capital and New Enterprise Associates, both of whom participated in the latest round, which also included new investors DAG Ventures, Bay Partners, and Presidio Ventures. Engine Yard, which has raised more than $37 million to date, makes automation and management technologies for Ruby on Rails ...

Amazon Invests in Engine Yard, PopCap Raises $22.5M, Omeros Goes Public, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
Xconomy — ... a treatment to improve recovery from knee surgery, completed its initial public offering last week, raising $68.2 million, as Luke reported. The state’s first IPO in more than two years was underwritten by Deutsche Bank and Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences. Omeros (NASDAQ: OMER) opened trading at $10 a share and closed its first day at $8.73, giving it a market valuation of about $186 million. —Seattle-based Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) participated in a $19 million Series C investment in Engine Yard, a cloud computing and ...

Amazon, Microsoft Team Up for Kindle on PC
Xconomy — ... Gregory T. Huang wrote: Seattle-based Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced today a new “Kindle for PC” application that will let people read Kindle electronic books on Windows personal computers. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) demoed the free app at its Windows 7 release event in New York. It will be available worldwide next month. ...

Amazon Teams Up With Microsoft for E-Books, Bing Goes Real-Time, Revolution Computing Reels In $9M, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
Xconomy — ... and Vinod Khosla, is developing novel solar power systems. —Seattle-based Bezos Expeditions, the venture firm run by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, re-upped with an investment in Aviary, a design software startup based in Long Island, NY. The $7 million Series B round was led by Boston-based Spark Capital. Aviary makes cloud-based software for graphic design, audio editing, and other creative digital services. —Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is teaming up with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) to release Kindle for PC, a ...

Who’s Up, Who’s Down in Tech Company Earnings Land
Xconomy — ... Gregory T. Huang wrote: Well, we can’t all be Amazon. While the Seattle-based e-commerce giant (NASDAQ: AMZN) raked in a $199 million profit for the third quarter of 2009—a 68 percent increase in net income over the same period last year—Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) posted an 18 percent decline in its profits (still $3.57 billion, better than analysts expected). But beyond these giants of the global tech scene, Seattle has some mid-market public tech companies that we’ve been paying closer attention to ...

$1.2B Amazon-Zappos Deal Closes
Xconomy — ... Gregory T. Huang wrote: Seattle-based Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said today its acquisition of online apparel and shoe seller Zappos, based in Las Vegas, has closed. The Zappos management team will remain intact, the company said. In a blog post, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh said his board of directors has been “switched out,” and that the deal, worth about 10 million shares of Amazon stock, is valued at $1.2 billion, based on Friday’s closing price. ...

Amazon Closes Zappos Deal, RF Arrays Raises Cash, 16 Under the Radar Financings, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
Xconomy — ... Gregory T. Huang wrote: It was a quiet week for deals in the Northwest, but we dug up some important ones in business software, wireless, and biotech. —Seattle-based Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) acquisition of Zappos, the online apparel and shoe seller based in Las Vegas, has closed. The deal, first announced back in July, is valued at $1.2 billion in Amazon stock. —Bellevue, WA-based Onehub has raised $1.3 million in Series A funding from Ignition Partners and angel ...

Google Demos Chrome OS, Microsoft Links Into LinkedIn, Amazon Ramps Up for Holidays, & More Big Company News
Xconomy — ... to reorganize the management structure and/or corporate governance of the division, which might mean giving up its majority ownership stake (51 percent) in Rhapsody. Back in September, digital-media guru Bill Baxter (now at Seattle-based Cozi) wrote in Xconomy about Rhapsody’s fierce competition with Pandora, iTunes, and piracy. Message to startups: the world of digital music services is probably not where you want to be. —Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has been busy ramping up operations ahead of the holiday shopping season. Its ...

Amazon Highlights: Jeff Bezos Interview, an E-Commerce Competitor, and Nook Reviews
Xconomy — ... With the holiday shopping season here, it’s a good time to recap how Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is doing in the marketplace. No, not with a frothy piece about the company’s best sales quarter yet or its latest flashy Kindle update. In case you missed it, there have been a number of informative media stories in the last day or so that highlight Amazon’s competitive position: ...