Pure Digital (Flip Video) In Acquisition Discussions; Cisco May Be Buying
By Michael Arrington, Techcrunch.com
San Francisco based Pure Digital Technologies, the seven year old company behind the Flip Video line of video cameras, is considering a sale of the company, multiple sources have confirmed. One interested buyer is rumored to be Cisco.
Flip cameras – dead simple and small video devices that are tailored towards users who want to upload video to the Internet – have become massively popular. One source says the company has sold more than $200 million worth of the tiny cameras in the last couple of years. Based on reviews of the recently released Flip Mino HD, we’re not surprised. The devices cost between $130 and $230 and have spawned a large group of copy cat competitors.
One potential buyer, says a source, is Cisco, which has been more active recently in acquisitions. Ned Hooper, Cisco’s chief M&A guy, is said to be actively looking to buy or invest in consumer startups that offer high-bandwith-using services. A hot startup like Flip, which is helping to fuel the explosion in user generated video (much of which makes its way online), fits in perfectly with that strategy.
The company is backed by Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, Crescendo Ventures, Focus Ventures, Morgan Stanley, AllianceBernstein and Steamboat Ventures (the venture capital arm of the Walt Disney Company) and has raised at least $68 million in venture funding.
Update: We’re getting another source that says this “is a done deal,” that Cisco is confirmed as the buyer and that the price is “north of $500 million.” Founder and CEO Jonathan Kaplan is said to be taking around $80 million off the table personally. This hasn’t been confirmed.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Cisco said to be buying Pure Digital for around $500 million
Believe us people, popularity pays off. Just ask Pure Digital CEO Jonathan Kaplan, who is reportedly scrambling for ways to spend $80 million of the $500 million Cisco Systems is about to hand over in order to acquire the company. Granted, none of this has been confirmed just yet, but TechCrunch has it that the deal is all but done. Reportedly, Cisco’s interested in bringing the firm into its portfolio in order to further push high-bandwidth using services. Obviously, user generated HD video fits pretty perfectly into that agenda. We suspect we’ll be hearing more on the subject as the work week begins in earnest, but it sure sounds like Linksys is about to get a new cousin.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Tech Layoffs Surge to 300,000
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Layoffs in the tech sector are accelerating. It took exactly three weeks for tech layoffs to surge to 300,000, according to our Layoff Tracker. Since late January, when the tracker hit 200,000 layoffs, another 100,000 job eliminations have been announced or completed. In contrast, it took five weeks for layoffs in the tech industry to hit the 200,000 mark, and four months for layoffs to hit 100,000 last December. The total number of layoffs since we began tracking since the financial crisis began in late August is 300,093.
The past few weeks have particularly brutal for the technology space, with substantial layoffs announced by Pioneer (10,000), Cisco (3,000), Panasonic (15,000), NEC (20,000), Electronic Arts (1100) and AOL (700). Even Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, who both managed to avoid layoffs in the past few months, were forced to make cuts to their workforces. And Google, who was immune to layoffs until late January, continued giving pink-slips in the past three weeks with the company’s exit from radio. Sadly, a few start-ups weren’t able to weather the storm, with eBaum’s World cutting all of its workforce.
Obviously the tech industry is not immune to the current economic climate, and if the past three weeks are any indication, things could still get worse for the tech space before they get better. Maybe that economic stimulus plan will help turn the tide.
If you know of any layoffs at a tech company, please submit a tip with the name of the company and number of layoffs. If it’s been covered, also send a link to the blog post or news article. (For who is hiring, check out our job board).
Below is a list of late January and February layoffs from our tracker:
Total Layoffs: 426
Total Employees: 300,093
Company | Date | Location | # | % | Source
|
Sapient | February 14, 2009 | BANGALORE | 300 | 8% | THE TIMES OF INDIA |
Google (Audio Ads) | February 12, 2009 | Mountain View, CA | 40 | Google Blog | |
Pioneer | February 12, 2009 | worldwide | 10,000 | 25% | Reuters |
Nokia | February 12, 2009 | Finland | 625 | Business-Standard | |
AMCC | February 12, 2009 | 100 | 17% | Yahoo | |
NetApp | February 9, 2009 | USA | 480 | 6% | U. K. Register |
Cisco | February 5, 2009 | San Jose, CA | 3,000 | 4% | BusinessWeek |
Wall Street Journal, News Corp. | February 5, 2009 | New York, NY | 14 | 2% | PaidContent.org |
LA Times, The Tribune Co. | February 5, 2009 | Los Angeles, CA | 300 | LA Times | |
About.com | February 5, 2009 | New York, NY | 19 | 10% | Rueters |
Panasonic | February 4, 2009 | Tokyo, Japan | 15,000 | 5% | Bloomberg |
THQ | February 4, 2009 | Agoura Hills, CA | 600 | 24% | SIlicon Alley Insider |
Electronic Arts | February 3, 2009 | Redwood City, CA | 1,100 | 11% | TechTrader Daily |
Bloomberg | February 3, 2009 | New York, NY | 100 | Reuters | |
The Walt Disney Co. | January 31, 2009 | New York, NY | 200 | 5% | LA Times |
eBaum’s World | January 31, 2009 | San Francisco, CA | 13 | NewTeeVee | |
Broadcom | January 30, 2009 | Worldwide | 200 | 3% | scoalTECH |
NEC | January 30, 2009 | Wordwide | 20,000 | 7% | NYT |
Zazzle | January 30, 2009 | Redwood City, CA | 40 | 15% | TechCrunch |
Freescale | January 30, 2009 | Worldwide | 2,400 | 10% | Austin American Statesman |
Hitachi | January 30, 2009 | Worldwide | 7,000 | BBC | |
Sierra Wireless | January 29, 2009 | Vancouver, BC | 56 | 10% | Fierce Wireless |
Teradyne | January 29, 2009 | North Reading, MA | 532 | 14% | Boston.com |
Toshiba | January 29, 2009 | Tokyo, Japan | 4,500 | EETimes | |
Nexon Games | January 28, 2009 | Vancouver, BC, Canada | 90 | 100% | Gamasutra |
AOL | January 28, 2009 | New York, NY | 700 | 10% | TechCrunch |
Citrix | January 28, 2009 | 10% | Reuters | ||
SAP | January 28, 2009 | Walldorf, Germany | 3,000 | 6% | SAP |
Parametric Technology Corp (PTC) | January 28, 2009 | 250 | 5% | Reuters.com | |
Skyworks | January 28, 2009 | Woburn, MA | 150 | 4% | StreetInsider.com |
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati | January 27, 2009 | Palo Alto, CA | 113 | 8% | LAw.com |
STMicroelectronics | January 27, 2009 | 4,500 | EETimes | ||
IBM | January 26, 2009 | Armonk, NY | 2,850 | 1% | WSJ |
Texas Instrument | January 26, 2009 | Dallas | 3,400 | 12% | EETimes |
Sprint Nextel | January 26, 2009 | Overland Park, Kansas | 8,000 | 14% | Bloomberg |
Philips | January 26, 2009 | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 6,000 | 5% | AP |
Fox Interactive Media | January 26, 2009 | Los Angeles, CA | 100 | 5% | TechCrunch |
Unisys | January 26, 2009 | Global | 1,300 | 4% | Computing.co.uk |
Source: techcrunch
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