News flash: Another Massachusetts software company is joining Big Blue. Armonk, NY-based IBM (NYSE: IBM) said today it is acquiring Emptoris, a Burlington, MA-based maker of supply and contract management software. Terms of the deal weren’t given, but it is expected to close in the first quarter...
Read more Category: Emptoris, IBM, XconomyBeware of CEOs who dress like their company logo. Beware of Jason Baptiste. Just kidding. Baptiste is one of the most intensely likable startup founders around (emphasis on intense). His company, New York-based OnSwipe, is trying to take the tablet publishing world by storm. And not just with its...
Read more Category: Jason Baptiste, OnSwipe, XconomyGadget girl walks in carrying a red umbrella. It’s not just any red umbrella, though. This one is a “blunt” umbrella. It has round tips, instead of pointy ones, so you don’t poke people in the eye as you walk down a crowded street. It also has what looks like a special tensioning system along the underside of its...
Read more Category: Curisma, Fatma Yalcin, XconomyHow annoying is the Web? I’m not talking about the nonstop distractions, the social-media window into human stupidity, or even the endless pop-up ads that block your view of the screen. I’m talking about the utter loss of privacy that most consumers have suffered online, yet rarely think about...
Read more Category: Abine, Andrew Sudbury, Bill Kerrigan, XconomyI read the book and found it quite enjoyable. And with all due respect to Eric Ries and all of the VCs out there chasing lean startups, I recognized one simple truth. I still like my startups Phat. A phat startup aims to solve a very big, very difficult problem that will transform an...
Read more Category: Jamie Goldstein, North Bridge Venture Partners, XconomyThe Boston ecosystem for tech startup investing just got a little more active. Boston Seed Capital said today it has hired Dave Balter, the CEO of BzzAgent, as a venture advisor (see photo, right). Balter joins Peter Blacklow from Worldwinner, now executive vice president of digital for GSN, as a top advisor to the...
Read more Category: Boston Seed Capital, Dave Balter, Nicole Stata, Peter Blacklow, XconomyBig video games studios are a bit old school, with everything from game design, production, execution, and financing done in house, says Boaz Sender, a JavaScript programmer at the Boston-based Web consulting firm Bocoup. But they’re about to go the way that the old Hollywood movie studios...
Read more Category: Atlas Venture, Bocoup, Game Lab, XconomyPhil Beauregard is hungry. His scrappy startup, Objective Logistics, is hungry, too. Good thing they are in the restaurant business. Actually, the truth is they want to turn the restaurant business upside down. But in a good way (if you believe them). OK, I’ve avoided the G-word for as long as possible...
Read more Category: Objective Logistics, Phil Beauregard, XconomySerial entrepreneur Ric Calvillo had planned to stay away from enterprise customers with his newest venture. He’s now CEO of Nanigans, a Boston-based startup that offers a Facebook advertising platform for enterprise customers with a couple thousand dollars to spend a day on online ads. Oops. “We’re scaling...
Read more Category: Nanigans, Ric Calvillo, XconomyWhat exactly is MedicalRecords.com? A health database? A doctors’ community? An encyclopedia site? Not exactly. It’s a lead generation startup for the electronic medical records sector. Sound boring or cryptic? Here’s why it’s not. The U.S. government set aside about $27 billion through 2009′s American...
Read more Category: Durjoy, MedicalRecords.com, Xconomy