Online review site Yelp Inc. updated its initial public offering filing on Friday, showing it has a bigger loss than the year before as marketing and development costs rose.
The San Francisco company co-founded by former PayPal executive Jeremy Stoppelman said its loss in 2011 was $16.9 million loss last year, compared with a loss of $9.74 million in 2010. The loss attributable to shareholders was $1.10 a share vs. 71 cents a year earlier.
Revenue rose by 74 percent to $83.3 million.
The company said the number of unique visitors to the site was up 67 percent to 65…
02/04/2012
Yelp shows wider 2011 loss on new IPO filing
Online review site Yelp Inc. updated its initial public offering filing on Friday, showing it has a bigger loss than the year before as marketing and development costs rose.
The San Francisco company co-founded by former PayPal executive Jeremy Stoppelman said its loss in 2011 was $16.9 million loss last year, compared with a loss of $9.74 million in 2010. The loss attributable to shareholders was $1.10 a share vs. 71 cents a year earlier.
Revenue rose by 74 percent to $83.3 million.
The company said the number of unique visitors to the site was up 67 percent to 65…
02/04/2012
SRP to join Chevy Volt test project
Salt River Project will be part of a research effort with the Electric Power Research Institute to test electric vehicles and how they use power.
The utility will use a single Chevrolet Volt as part of its fleet to test driving distances, charging times and user habits.
Information will be collected through the car’s OnStar system and transmitted back to EPRI. SRP will not have direct access to the information but will share in the analysis of the vehicle, said spokesman Scott Harleson.
“We are hoping to understand how the cars are used, develop an understanding of charging behavior, state of charge, length of trips and reliance on gas back up,” he said…
02/04/2012
Which top Silicon Valley stocks are most popular in Congress?
The stocks that members of Congress own has come under the microscope lately, with some complaining that politicians have capitalized on inside information that members of the general public would face charges on.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown this week called for a ban on members of his branch of Congress from owning individual stocks, saying git creates conflicts of interest.
On Thursday, the Senate approved a bill that prohibits legislators and their family members, as well as staffers, from trading stocks if they have non-public information…
02/04/2012
Facebook revs up political funding ahead of IPO
Facebook Inc. formed a political action committee that raised $170,000 late last year as the company prepared to file for an initial public offering.
The Center for Responsive Politics reports that a lot of the money came from Facebook executives and employees, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, both giving the maximum allowable $5,000.
Other top execs who gave the max $5,000 were Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s policy chief in Washington, D.C., and was President George W…
02/03/2012
SEC agrees to settlement deal with last ex-Qwest civil defendants
The Securities and Exchange Commission has reached plea agreements with an ex-Qwest CFO and another former company official — the two last defendants sued by the agency over the Denver-based telecom’s financial irregularities prior to 2001.
The Associated Press reports that the SEC filed notice of a plea deal with the federal court under which Robert Woodruff, former CFO of Denver-based Qwest Communications International, would admit no wrongdoing and agree to pay $2.7 million to the government…
02/03/2012
Winklevoss twins to gain $300M from Facebook IPO?
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss could receive as much as $300 million in Facebook shares, when the Menlo Park-based social networking company’s IPO goes through, according to an NPR story Friday.
Cameron said on his Twitter feed: “We r excited 4the #FacebookIPO.”
The twins previously sued Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea to create Facebook and received $45 million in non-public Facebook stock.
Click here to read more Business Journal coverage of Facebook’s IPO.
Written by Lisa Sibley…
02/03/2012
TST Media buys sports news publisher
TST Media has bought Wisconsin Sports Network (WSN), which publishes high school sports news online and in print.
Minneapolis-based TST didn’t disclose terms of the deal. It bought the company from TDS Telecom.
TST markets website-management software primarily to youth sports leagues. The fast-growing company also owns the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships.
WSN is based in Madison, Wis.
“Over the past 10 years, WSN has grown to become one of the largest and most highly trafficked properties of its kind in the country,” said Justin Kaufenberg, TST Media CEO and co-founder, in a news statement…
02/03/2012
Apple rumors: New iPad in March, iPhone in June
Apple Inc. rumors from various blogs and Asian news sites this week suggest that there will be no big events this month but a new iPad will debut in March and a new iPhone in June.
Boy Genius Report cited an unnamed source who claimed a source with an iPad 3 prototype sent it images that show what the new iPad may have. They appear to lend credence to speculation that there will be two versions — probably one that is WiFi only and another that is WiFi plus one that would work with GSM, CDMA and LTE wireless networks…
02/03/2012
Micron Tech CEO killed in airplane accident in Idaho
Micron Technology Inc. said its CEO Steve Appleton, 51, was killed in a small plane accident on Friday morning.
The Boise-based company (NASDAQ:MU) makes advanced semiconductor technology.
The company issue a statement: “Our hearts go out to his wife, Dalynn, his children and his family during this tragic time. Steve’s passion and energy left an indelible mark on Micron, the Idaho community and the technology industry at large.”
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) issued a statement mourning the death of Appleton, who was a member of its board and was given the industry’s highest honor in November, the Robert N…
02/03/2012
Nearly 100 million in the U.S. now own smartphones
Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS both made gains in the number of mobile phones using the operating platforms in the U.S., while rivals Microsoft, RIM and Symbian slipped, according to comScore.
Overall, smartphone adoption exploded during the 2011 holiday shopping season, much of it driven by Apple’s sale of 37 million iPhones last quarter. Forty percent of all mobile subscribers now own smartphones in the U.S. That’s 97.9 million people.
Apple and Google operating systems now power 77 percent of the mobile phones in the U…
