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Print Edition StoriesThursday, July 2, 2009
Tech news from around the U.S.
By Mass High Tech staff
MHT's Galen Moore: Hiring trends and opportunities
MHT's Galen Moore: Two differing web-based news business models
MHT's Efrain Viscarolasaga: How social networking is changing business
Stealthy VigLink lands Google Ventures funds
Google Ventures appears to have made its third investment, participating with San Francisco-based First Round Capital and angel investor Niel Robertson in an $800,000 first round for stealthy local firm VigLink Inc., according to regulatory documents.
The company, which lists a Boston address with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, “helps users make money from casual link sharing by creating monetizable affiliate links out of regular URLs.”
Founder and CEO Oliver Roup, formerly an associate at Founders Fund and a Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) product director, said that description is now “out of date” but declined to say anything further about the company’s current plans.
The SEC filing lists Google Ventures managing partner Rich Miner as a director of the company.
Varian buys radiotherapy software companies for $2.2M
Palo Alto, Calif. — Varian Medical Systems Inc. said it acquired the assets of IKOEmed and IKOEtech, suppliers of software used in the planning of radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatments, for about $2.2 million.
Varian (NYSE: VAR) said the acquisition of the privately held Houston companies includes an additional unspecified amount of money based on achievement of specified milestones.
The software is designed to achieve greater than 50 percent reduction in the contouring portion of the radiotherapy treatment planning process, which typically takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours.
Varian will sell the software initially in the U.S. as a standalone product that will work with most radiotherapy treatment planning software products in the industry.
ZeniMax Media buys ‘Doom’ video game creator
Baltimore — ZeniMax Media Inc. has acquired Id Software, a major video game studio known for titles such as “Doom” and “Quake.”
Rockville, Md., -based ZeniMax, which opened a Hunt Valley headquarters for its online gaming division in 2008, did not disclose terms of the deal.
The merger places another major player in the gaming industry in Maryland. Timonium’s Big Huge Games was recently acquired by Maynard-based 38 Studios LLC as it faced possible closure.
ZeniMax subsidiary Bethesda Softworks will publish upcoming Id Software titles that haven’t already been claimed by other publishers. Texas-based Id will continue to operate as its own studio.
New funding, CEO and headquarters for CloudSwitch
CloudSwitch Inc. has received $8 million in a Series B round of venture capital funding, replaced its CEO, and moved to Burlington, the cloud computing software company formerly based in Bedford announced.
Former SolidWorks Corp. CEO John McEleney will join the company along with the round of funding, which was led by new investors Commonwealth Capital Ventures, and increase the total amount invested in CloudSwitch to $15.4 million. Series A investors Matrix Partners and Atlas Venture returned to participate in the funding.
McEleney replaces founding CEO Ellen Rubin, formerly head of marketing at Netezza, who co-founded the company last year with Pirus Systems alum John Considine. Rubin will be vice president of product.
Alnylam joins suit against Whitehead, MIT, UMass
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. reports it has joined in a lawsuit with the Max Planck Society against the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, MIT and the University of Massachusetts over RNAi-related patent applications.
Filed in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, the complaint alleges that the Whitehead Institute is in breach of contract with Max Planck and Alnylam (Nasdaq: ALNY) in how it is prosecuting the Tuschl I patent applications, as well as in its fiduciary duty to the co-owners of the Tuschl I patent series.
The Tuschl I family, whose prosecution is controlled by Whitehead, has led to two patents, Alnylam said.
By comparison, Alynlam points out, the Tuschl II family have been issued or granted numerous patents in 33 countries, including the U.S., Europe and Japan.
Online game maker Zynga to open Baltimore office
Baltimore — A local video gaming veteran is opening a satellite studio in Baltimore.
Brian Reynolds, previously of both Firaxis Games and Big Huge Games in Baltimore County, is opening an East Coast office for San Francisco-based Zynga. The company makes games used on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
Popular games include Texas Hold’Em Poker, Mafia Wars, Scramble and Word Twist. The company estimates it has 12 million daily users playing its games.
A specific office site hasn’t been chosen, Zynga spokeswoman Lisa Chan said. The office will eventually hire 12 to 15 game designers, web developers, artists and producers.
New USASpending.gov launched to track tech spending
Washington — The federal government has launched a new website, USASpending.gov, to track the government’s information technology spending.
Vivek Kundra, chief information officer for the federal government, announced the new tool at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City on Tuesday.
The online dashboard provides charts and graphs to make the data on government technology spending more accessible and usable after it is submitted to the Office of Management and Budget through various federal agency reports.
The new site includes information about more than 7,000 federal information technology investments.
Comcast launches high-speed wireless out West
Portland — Comcast Corp. said that Portland, Ore., is one of a handful of cities that will launch the company’s new high-speed wireless service.
Comcast High-Speed 2go will travel at “4G” speed, or 4 megabits per second, considered a fast wireless operating speed. The company will sell the service with its Internet, phone and television products.
The company is offering two data cards and service plans, Comcast High-Speed 2go Metro and Comcast High-Speed 2go Nationwide.
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