SiliconBeat

In case you were wondering how to obtain a copy of your birth certificate in New Mexico, then you could refer to a new article posted at wikihow.com, which would be the Web sites 50,000th such article, and the occasion for a celebratory press release from the Menlo Park venture begun four years ago by Jack Herrick with the Read the rest of this entry »

This shouldn’t come as any surprise, but venture capitalists are forecasting a “difficult 2009″ for their industry and for capital markets in general, not to mention the national economy, according to a press release today from the National Venture Capital Association.

Ninety-two percent of venture capitalists surveyed by the group are predicting a Read the rest of this entry »

Remember Alien Technology, the Morgan Hill maker of radio-frequency ID technology that two years ago unsuccessfully tried to sell 9 million shares with the proposed ticker symbol of RFID at $10 to $12 a share in an initial public offering to be underwritten by its investment bankers led by Bear Stearns? (Hey, remember Bear Stearns??)

Alien has secured a significant new chunk of venture funding. “Despite challenging U.S. economic conditions,” said the company in a press release understatement Monday, it raised a $38-million round led by Read the rest of this entry »

This news won’t come as much of a surprise, but the number of initial public offerings worldwide fell in the third quarter by 82 percent from the year before to 20, while the total amount of cash invested fell 89 percent to $9.3 billion, according to a review by Renaissance Capital’s IPOhome.com.

And of the top 10 global IPOs, only one Read the rest of this entry »

“The Russian president said in a speech Thursday that the financial crisis in the United States should be taken as a sign that America’s global economic leadership is drawing to a close,” reported the International Herald Tribune, which also pointed out that investors have been fleeing Russia and depositing money in U.S. Treasury bills.

But the sentiment expressed echoed in our heads this morning when we came across an otherwise unremarkable press release announcing a venture funding in a Sunnyvale chip company: Read the rest of this entry »

Funding opportunities for early stage American companies available through a board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange will be the topic of a briefing hosted by a San Jose venture firm next month.

The Polish exchange is the fastest-growing equity market in Central Europe, according to a press release put out by Silicon Hill Ventures, which maintains offices in San Jose and Warsaw. At the end of 2007 the exchange had 345 companies listed, with a total market cap of almost Read the rest of this entry »

When thinking about biotech in the Bay Area, images of Mission Bay in S.F., or Oyster Point in South City, or even that stretch of I-80 around Emeryville come to mind. But not San Jose.

Well, a press release put out by the San Jose Redevelopment Authority Tuesday — which has spent about $19 million seeding business incubator programs, including one called the San Jose BioCenter — put an end to our ignorance. Read the rest of this entry »