Tech Investing

October 10, 2008

Venture Firms Recoil from Crisis, But Not for Long

Venture firms are sounding the alarm over what this downturn might mean for their portfolio companies. While it's true that great companies are built during downturns,...

October 9, 2008

Venture Investment Likely to Fall Short in 2008

In the last few days, venture firms have begun to realize they are not immune from the credit crunch. At the end of next week, official data will arrive that will ...

October 9, 2008

What Will the Crisis Mean for Venture Capital?

In the lingo familiar to the kids toiling away at Web startups, the U.S. financial system is on the verge of an epic fail. The same may soon be said of many of the ...

September 16, 2008

Tech Stocks: No Safe Haven

Amid the rash of bad news emanating from Wall Street, investors could have yet another setback to stew over. Technology stocks, once a haven from the storms roiling ...

August 29, 2008

Multitasking Chips Point to Future Cell Phones

Many venture firms shy away from investing in semiconductor startups because of the inordinately high cost and risk involved relative to other sectors, but some firms ...

August 29, 2008

Has Dell's Comeback Hit a Roadblock?

Dell's turnaround plan veered off course during the summer. The PC maker reported on Aug. 28 that its fiscal second-quarter profits slumped 17% on aggressive price ...

August 28, 2008

Students Will Help Save Apple

Take a look around and it's hard not to get depressed by all the negative economic news. Home prices keep sliding. Credit is drying up. Inflation fears are on the ...

August 8, 2008

How Angels Are Playing a Fallen Economy

The grim economy has led not only to a drop in consumer spending and the foreclosure of more than a million homes, but to changes in the way angel capital is deployed....

August 1, 2008

VCs Eyeing Cleantech Seek Other Backing

Earlier this week, 35 venture capitalists wandered the halls of the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado. They were attending a conference focused on ...

July 22, 2008

Yahoo Saga: Microsoft Investors Weigh In

Amid Microsoft's quest to acquire all or part of Yahoo, made public a half-year ago, media attention has zeroed in on Yahoo shareholders, and how they stand to gain or...

July 17, 2008

EBay's Painful Quarter

When earlier this year John Donahoe was named eBay CEO, succeeding Meg Whitman, he indicated that planned changes would inflict some pain in the short term ...

July 15, 2008

Intel's Happy Earnings Surprise

The sky over the tech landscape isn't falling after all. Amid growing concerns that the global economic malaise is worsening, a surprisingly upbeat second-quarter ...

July 14, 2008

What Capital Crunch?

There's no capital crunch in Silicon Valley. Despite turmoil in the stock market, jitters about mortgage financiers Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), and the ...

July 1, 2008

The Worst IPO Market on Record?

When M. Benjamin Howe headed up technology investment banking for Montgomery Securities in the mid-1990s, the market for initial public offerings was a fountain of ...

June 30, 2008

What I Did at VC Camp

In the spring of 2007, Michael Sullivan was trying to figure out how to add some mojo to his startup, Affine Systems. As a graduate student in applied mathematics at ...

June 27, 2008

Yahoo Tries to Heal Itself—Again

In the latest attempt to persuade restive investors it can fix itself, Yahoo! (YHOO) is reorganizing its management ranks. The widely expected revamp, unveiled June ...

June 18, 2008

LinkedIn Joins the Billionaires' Club

LinkedIn is joining the Web 2.0 high rollers' club. The professional networking site, home to some 23 million affluent users who sign up to find jobs, hire talent, and...

June 4, 2008

Yahoo's Response to Icahn

Dear Carl: We are in receipt of your letter of June 4th and take issue with its content. Your letter seriously misrepresents and manipulates the facts regarding the ...

May 15, 2008

Icahn Begins Yahoo Board Battle

As if an abbreviated bear hug from Microsoft (MSFT) weren't enough, Yahoo (YHOO) now has a new foe: Carl Icahn. The billionaire corporate raider launched a battle to ...

May 15, 2008

Yahoo Hits Back at Icahn

Just hours after billionaire financier Carl Icahn launched a battle to replace Yahoo's board and get the Internet icon back into talks with onetime suitor Microsoft ...

May 5, 2008

Sprint Loses a Huge Customer

Qwest Communications is ditching Sprint as the provider of its cellular service and switching its mobile-phone customers over to Verizon Wireless' network, striking ...

May 3, 2008

Microsoft Drops Bid for Yahoo

Microsoft (MSFT) announced on May 3 it was dropping its unsolicited bid to buy Yahoo! (YHOO). The surprise move came after a day in which it appeared the two companies...

April 28, 2008

Satellite Is Sexy Again

Some of the biggest names in tech have tried—and failed—to win at satellite communications. Remember Teledesic, a venture begun by wireless pioneer Craig ...

April 19, 2008

Venture Capital Still Loves the Net

Venture-capital investors poured record amounts into Internet startups in the first quarter as companies sought to raise cash ahead of a possible recession. But a weak...

April 15, 2008

An Upbeat Street After Intel Report

Having come clean with the bad news about its memory chip business a month ago, Intel (INTC) turned in a surprisingly upbeat first-quarter report despite a ...