1 min read · 27 May 2010
The headline couldn’t have been worse for then-27-year-old Nick Desai, in the June 8, 1998 Los Angeles Times business page: “Buyers Howl as Computer Maker Signs Off, Vanishes." The story proceeded to outline the story of Nimantics, started in 1996 when Desai began selling high-end laptops by mail order. By the time Desai abruptly shut down the company two years later, dozens of tech-savvy customers were claiming that they’d either received nothing from Nimantics, or broken equipment. Now he's back with a new startup, and already has plenty of high-profile backers.
4 min read · 25 May 2010
I hate myself for laughing at Second City's take on BP's gruesome gift to the cleantech industry; I also think that if I were a clean tech investor, I'd embed it somewhere on my site. Get it after the jump...
1 min read · 25 May 2010
In the late ‘90s, when national healthcare reform was still but a glint in the eye of Illinois state legislator Barack Obama, primary care physician Garrison Bliss was experimenting with his own brand of healthcare reform in Seattle. Earlier in his career, Bliss had co-founded a practice that had sold to an HMO, which expected its doctors to see so many patients that neither Bliss nor his partners were spending enough time with the individuals they treated, or enjoying their work. Two of those partners left the practice to form MD2, a “concierge” medical practice that eschews health insurance and instead treats wealthy individuals who pay roughly $1,200 per month to receive personalized medical attention at their homes and offices (and private jets). Bliss didn’t believe in medicine for the rich versus everyone else, but he recognized the general idea's merit. When the HMO contract expired in 1997, Bliss converted the partners’ old firm, Seattle Medical Associates, into a primary care practice whose patients paid it $65 a month for checkups, vaccinations, as well as care for chronic illnesses and minor fractures and cuts.
4 min read · 25 May 2010
Yesterday, Dan reported that the Silver Spring Networks has delayed its much-anticipated IPO until Q4 of this year. The smart grid company had been expected to file its S-1 last month and to price sometime this summer. If, as widely believed, Silver Spring postponed its plans owing to PG&E, which has encountered various sets of troubles during its wide-scale deployment of smart metering technologies, the delay looks smart, particularly considering the recent woes of A123 Systems. The lithium-ion battery maker enjoyed a splashy IPO last September, when its shares, offered at $13.50, jumped 50% in their stock market debut to close at roughly $20 a piece. But the news wasn’t so rosy last week, when A123 disclosed that it had missed analysts’ first-quarter expectations, which sent its share price price down $9.60. Today, the company’s $1.04 billion market cap is roughly half what it was back in September.
3 min read · 20 May 2010
There are so many reasons to love the humor site The Onion. Here is the latest, hot from its breaking news desk: NEW YORK—While millions of young, tech-savvy professionals already use services like Facebook and Twitter to keep in constant touch with friends, a new social networking platform called Foursquare has recently taken the oh, fucking hell, can't some other desperate news outlet cover this crap instead? Hip city-dwellers nationwide are embracing the new, come to think of it, haven't we used this photo for some other tech piece?
1 min read · 20 May 2010
Israeli furniture designer Ronan Kadushin has created a tool so simple that it rivals in elegance was it was created to crush: iPhones. Better yet, the CAD design, involving 3.5 lbs. of laser-cut steel and a wood ax handle, is open source and downloadable at Kadushin's Website. Ah, if only Gizmodo's Jason Chen had had one of these. (HT: Dezeen)
1 min read · 19 May 2010
3 min read · 19 May 2010
You win some, you lose some. The question is how many Tim Armstrong is willing to lose before saying sayonara to AOL. Yahoo today will announce that it has acquired VC-backed “open content” platform Associated Content for what reports are pegging at around $100 million. It had raised $21 million from Armstrong, Softbank Capital and Canaan Partners. Associated Content, which pays an enormous army freelancers to generate search-engine optimized content on the cheap, has held talks with various acquirers for years -- including with Armstrong on behalf of AOL. But, according to Silicon Alley Insider, in which Armstrong is also an investor, he was shut down by Time Warner when talk of buying Associated Content picked up late last year.
3 min read · 18 May 2010
After a highly publicized spat that had many questioning the future value of social gaming giant Zynga in particular, Zynga and Facebook are announcing a five-year-long strategic partnership, wherein both keep their mouths shut and presumably continue to rake in many hundreds of millions of dollars together.
2 min read · 18 May 2010
