Will Amazon Kindle Vertical Integration?

I wrote a controversial Forbes column, How Amazon Could Change Publishing, in the spring. In this column, I submitted that Amazon could disintermediate traditional publishers and agents, and free up money that they could share with authors. My hypothesis was based on the fact that since Amazon has a technology-based merchandising system capable of figuring

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Deal Radar 2008: IVT

Online Video is becoming a powerful business tool, spawning a significant number of innovative companies. My continued interest in the sector stems from the fact that I am very interested in seeing gratuitous business travel disappear. [See my Forbes column, Kill The Business Trip] On this installment of the Deal Radar, I will review IVT,

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Deal Radar 2008: Sportgenic

Sportgenic is a San Francisco-based digital media and technology company that is focused on monetizing sports sites. The company, formerly named Active Athlete Media, was founded in 2005 by Robert Tas. Sportgenic has more than 350 publisher sites in its vertical ad network and 21 million unique users. The company was ranked the #2 sports

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Deal Radar 2008: Mahalo

Mahalo, which means thank you in Hawaiian, is a human-powered search engine founded by former Weblogs co-founder, Jason Calacanis. The site launched in public alpha in mid-2007 and public beta in October 2007. Mahalo focuses on handling requests that are filtered with the help of a team based in Santa Monica, California, to avoid the spam

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Deal Radar 2008: PubMatic

I have watched Ad Networks cropping up everywhere over the last couple of years like mushrooms. How do you manage so many networks, and figure out which ones can make the most money for you if you are a publisher? Enter Pubmatic.

Deal Radar 2008: Gaia Interactive

Gaia Interactive is an online hangout where over 7 million visitors come every month to chat, meet new people, play games, and watch movies in Gaia’s virtual theater. Members can create customized online avatars and transform themselves into any kind of persona they want to be – classy, innocent, sexy, or scary, among others. An

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Deal Radar 2008: Verticals onDemand

Verticals onDemand is a leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Founded in 2007 by software industry veterans, Verticals onDemand is headquartered in Pleasanton, CA with sales offices in New Jersey and Philadelphia.

Deal Radar 2008: PrimeSense

Founded in 2005 by Aviad Maizels, Alexander Shpunt, Ophir Sharon, Tamir Berliner, and Dima Rais, PrimeSense specializes in 3D machine vision. The company has its headquarters and R&D in Israel and offices in California and Japan.