Recent posts and comments

• Pfizer, Celldex Deal Ends

  Pfizer has terminated an agreement with Needham, MA-based Celldex Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CLDX), in which it licensed the experimental cancer vaccine rindopepimut, because it says the drug is no longer one... Read more »

• PerkinElmer Sells Unit for $500M, Aveo Stock Climbs, Pfizer Buys FoldRx, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News

  This week we saw news of acquisitions from drug giants, and got updates on several New England biotechs.

  —The FDA alerted South San Francisco-based Genentech that it was not going to... Read more »

• Buzzient Makes Social Media Analytics Software, Attracting Business Customers From Gaming to Financial Services

  You’ve been sleeping under a rock if you haven’t realized yet that what’s being said on Twitter, Facebook, user forums, wikis, YouTube videos, and personal blogs has a big impact on... Read more »

• Salary.com Acquired by Kenexa

  Salary.com (NASDAQ: SLRY), a Needham, MA-based maker of on-demand software for managing employee pay and performance, will be acquired by Wayne, PA-based Kenexa (NASDAQ: KNXA) for $4.07 per share... Read more »

• VMware Adds Integrien and TriCipher to Up Its Cloud Computing Power

  [Updated, 9/1/10 at 12:00pm. See below.] VMware (NYSE: VMW), the Silicon Valley virtualization unit of Hopkinton, MA-based storage giant EMC (NYSE: EMC), announced at its annual conference in San... Read more »

• Cisco Acquires ExtendMedia, Genzyme Rejects Sanofi Bid, Yottaa Grabs $4M, & More Boston-Area Deals News

  We saw news of acquisitions and financing rounds for New England’s tech, life sciences, and energy firms—including some developments in what could be one of the biggest buyouts in some time... Read more »

• HubCast, an Amazon.com for Commercial Print Jobs, Takes a Traditional Process to the Cloud

  It’s no surprise that many traditionally brick-and-mortar industries and activities are being improved or even replaced by Internet technologies. Wakefield, MA-based HubCast is looking to do the same thing for commercial... Read more »

• Yottaa Gets $4M, Releases Website Performance Monitoring Service

  Cambridge, MA-based Internet startup Yottaa announced today that it has wrapped up a $4 million Series A financing round and has launched a free, beta version of its tool for analyzing... Read more »

• MassChallenge Company FitVirtual Uses Social Media to Crowdsource Customized Exercise Programs that Really Work

  Thanks to sites like YouTube and online fitness publications, it seems like tutorials on virtually any form of exercise—from yoga to barefoot running—are at your fingertips. But personally, I’ve found that... Read more »

• ImmunoGen and Genentech “Empowered Antibody” Cancer Drug Fails to Garner Accelerated Approval from FDA

  [Updated, 8/27/10 at 5:00pm] The FDA has refused to review an application for accelerated approval of the breast cancer drug T-DM1, developed by Genentech, the South San Francisco unit... Read more »

• New CEO for Desktone

  Chelmsford, MA-based Desktone, a maker of desktop virtualization software, announced yesterday that it had added Peter McKay as president, CEO, and a member of the company’s board. McKay has held executive... Read more »

• MedNetworks Partners with Healthways, NKT Gets $4M, Aileron Lands Deal With Roche, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News

  We saw news from drugmakers, device companies, and health IT firms this week.

  —Anchor Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA-based biotech formerly named Ascent Therapeutics, brought in $10 million in a Series B... Read more »

• Wavemark Gets $3.9

  Littleton, MA-based Wavemark, a maker of radio-frequency identification technologies for tracking hospital inventory, raised $3.9 million in an equity funding round, an SEC filing reveals. The filing indicates that the financing... Read more »

• SocialSci Releases Beta Version of Online Scientific Survey Platform, With Rewards for Participants

  Spit was Leon Noel’s inspiration for the startup, SocialSci, that caused him and co-founder Harley Trung to leave Yale University just months before graduating.

  Well, more broadly, it was the... Read more »

• NKT Brings In $4M

  Newton, MA-based NKT Therapeutics, a developer of drugs targeting lesser-known immune cells potentially linked to a number of major illnesses, raised $4 million in an equity round from three unnamed investors,... Read more »

• MedNetworks Partners With Healthways

  Newton, MA-based MedNetworks, a provider of social network analytics software for the healthcare sector, has partnered with Tennessee-based Healthways, a maker of personalized health management programs. Healthways will use the MedNetworks... Read more »

• Taking a VC Approach to Charity, Greylock Veteran’s Alzheimer’s Research Foundation “Dares to Be Great”

  When Henry McCance started at Greylock Partners in 1969, the venture capital industry had less than $100 million of capital flowing into it each year, he approximates. Now, it’s roughly a... Read more »

• Anchor Sinks $10M Series B, Aileron Lands Deal with Roche, C Change Launches Fund With Vanterra, & More Boston-Area Deals News

  A flurry of tech and life sciences startup financings has kept us busy on the deals news front.

  —Andover, MA-based NewRiver, a maker of investor disclosure software, said it will be... Read more »

• C Change Partners on $100M Fund With Vanterra

  Fund manager C Change Investments, with offices in Cambridge, MA and San Francisco, has partnered with New York-based private equity firm Vanterra Capital to launch a new fund, with a $100... Read more »

• AmberWave Systems Shut Down After Raising $91M in Venture Backing—New Company Formed With Its Assets

  Earlier this year, Salem, NH-based semiconductor company AmberWave Systems Corp quietly shut its doors, and a new company called AmberWave, Inc. has been formed with its assets, according to multiple sources... Read more »