BREAKING NEWS
Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is in talks to buy online discount retailer Jet.com Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, in what would mark a disappointing end for one of the most ambitious challengers to Amazon.com Inc. A deal would give Wal-Mart’s e-commerce efforts a much-needed jolt as it seeks to grow beyond its brick-and-mortar storefronts with speedy home delivery from a network of massive suburban warehouses. For Jet, a takeover by an old-line retailer would demonstrate the challenges of attempting to go it alone in the hypercompetitive e-commerce market. The company has sought to underprice Amazon with a vast marketplace that would require billions of dollars in funding and a plan to rely more on suppliers than warehouse inventory. It isn’t clear how much Wal-Mart would pay, but a person familiar with the matter said Jet could be valued at up to $3 billion in private markets. [ WSJ ] [ Recode ]
LATEST FUNDING
Struggling Birchbox Raises $15 Million
Last Tuesday Birchbox has received $15 million from Existing Investors. Launched in 2010, New York-based Birchbox is beauty subscription retailer offers consumers a unique way to discover, sample, shop and learn about the top products and brands in the market. Birchbox ships boxes of beauty samples for $10 a month and it has not been profitable for the company so far. The company has been suffering from money shortage for quite a while. This new round of money will give them a chance to prove their potential to the investors.
[ Venture Pulse ] [ Fortune ]
Time Warner Buys 10% Stake in Hulu, Valuing It at $5.8 Billion
Time Warner Inc. has agreed to buy a 10% stake in video service Hulu, a move that comes as media companies and cable operators contend with viewers increasingly cutting the cord and as Hulu prepares to launch a new online pay-TV service. Time Warner said it paid $583 million in cash for the 10% stake, valuing Hulu at about $5.8 billion. The new valuation is triple what Hulu was worth in 2012, according to a person familiar with the matter. [ WSJ ]
Apptimize pulls in $12.4 million to help companies deploy apps faster
Apptimize, a company that helps businesses optimize, test and rapidly iterate their mobile apps, has just raised $12.4 million in a new round of Series B funding. Investor interest was strong due to the client list Apptimize has lined up, which includes notable names like Hotel Tonight, Trulia, Vevo, Hotels.com and The Wall Street Journal. In total, there are around 100 big-name businesses using its platform, among its hundreds of customers. [ Tech Crunch ]
MikMak mobile video shopping platform raises $3.2M seed led by VaynerMedia
MikMak, the service that creates and distributes short-form “mini-mercials” so users can shop via video, has today announced the close of a $3.2 million seed round, led by Vayner Media, with participation from SLOW Ventures, UTA Ventures, BRaVe Ventures and MX Investments. As part of the round, Gary Vaynerchuk will be joining MikMak’s Board. [ Tech Crunch ]
Townsquared raises $11 million Series B to expand its SMB social network
Townsquared, a private, community-based social network for small business owners, said it raised $11.05 million in Series B funding from lead investors Sierra Ventures and Intuit. The round brings Townsquared's funding total to $16.4 million. [ ZD Net ]
MORE RECENT FUNDING
CS Disco / $18.58M / Series C
BusinessWire : DISCO Raises $18.575M Series C
Zype / $2M / Seed
Tech Crunch : Video distribution startup Zype raises $2M
LATEST EXITS
Medium has acquired embedding service provider Embed.ly
Blogging platform provider Medium (A Medium Corporation) has acquired Embed.ly, Inc., a company that as its name may suggest offers a service that makes it easy for publishers to embed third party content, for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2010, Embed.ly offers a platform and suite of tools to makes embedding and previewing links simple; the service assists publishers and consumers manage embed codes from more than 100 websites and API’s including YouTube, Flickr, Ustream, Picassa, Hulu, Twitpic, and Quantcast. [ Silicon Angle ] [ Medium ]
Oracle Purchase of NetSuite Will Help It Vie With Cloud Rivals
Oracle Corp., lagging the competition in cloud-based services, is essentially buying market share with its $9.3 billion acquisition of NetSuite Inc. Oracle has been trying for years to shift from selling software installed on corporate customers’ gear the old way to delivering it over the internet. Yet in its most recent quarter, the company said the cloud division accounted for less than 10 percent of sales. Buying NetSuite, one of the first cloud-services companies, will help Oracle compete against the likes of Salesforce.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and SAP SE. [ Bloomberg ]
FUND RAISED
Anthemis Group Announces First Close of Anthemis Venture Fund I Led by European Investment Fund and UniCredit
Anthemis Group (“Anthemis”), a digital financial services venture capital and strategic advisory firm, has announced the first close of the Anthemis Venture Fund I (“the fund”). The fund will focus on early stage venture investments, providing pre-seed, seed and series A financing to digitally native financial services startups across North America and Europe. The fund is anchored by the European Investment Fund (“EIF”), as well as UniCredit, a leading European banking group. [ BusinessWire ]
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