May 23

Google Capital to make investments in maturing tech firms

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Google campus

Google Ventures has a reputation for backing tech winners early on — it gave a boost to this little startup called Nest, for example. It wants to exert influence every step of the way, however, and it’s launching Google Capital to make this happen. The new fund is investing in firms that aren’t quite so young, but are doing “amazing things” aligned with Google’s interests, according to general partner Mike Pearson. While Google Capital won’t make its formal debut until the summer, it has already invested in three unnamed companies; we wouldn’t be surprised if we learn a lot more about the fund a few months’ time.

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Source: PCWorld

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May 09

OUYA delaying retail launch to June 25th, altering controller to fix button sticking issue

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The OUYA game console is shifting its launch from June 4th to June 25th, the company revealed in a press release this morning. Speaking with our friends at Joystiq, CEO Julie Uhrman explained the decision to push the console’s retail launch back as a measure of keeping up with retail demand. “We’ve had incredibly positive reactions from our retail partners,” Uhrman said. The date shift, “will allow us to create more units and, basically, have more units on store shelves.”

The company also revealed that it’s altering the existing controller’s button holes to ensure that retail buyers don’t run into the same sticking issue that Kickstarter backers have been dealing with. And despite those two pieces of news sounding an awful lot like they’re connected (the delay and the controller alteration), Uhrman claims they’re not. “We made that change very early so all the units are being produced with those larger button holes,” she said. At this point, it’s not clear if OUYA will hook up early backers with a new controller upon request (or perhaps just new faceplates), but we’ve asked for more information.

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Apr 10

Google forms the Glass Collective to invest in eye technology entrepreneurs

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Google forms the Glass Collective to invest in eyewear tech entrepreneurs

Google believes that it’s naive to build a wearable technology like Google Glass and expect successful businesses to simply materialize from thin air; those firms will need a financial nudge, too. Accordingly, Google is forming the Glass Collective to invest in projects centering on its eyewear. The partnership will see Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers unite on seed funding for those US-based startups which show promise in areas like communication and navigation. The group hasn’t named any targets for its cash, but it’s obviously very early days for both Glass and the Collective — Google needs more developers in the field before it can shower companies with support.

Update: According to TechCrunch, Google mentioned during the event that it hopes to get Glass hardware into developers hands “in the next month.” Since it started preregistering folks at last year’s I/O event, we’d also hope they will arrive in time for this year’s Google I/O and inevitable skydive-to-stage live stream.

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Via: Google Official Blog

Source: Glass Collective, TechCrunch

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Oct 10

OnLive was reportedly sold for roughly $5 million to venture capital firm

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OnLive was reportedly sold for roughly $5 million to venture capital firm

Even though weeks have passed since that well-documented OnLive kerfuffle took place, where unfortunate layoffs and the formation of a “new company” were at the forefront of it all, previously unknown details are still coming out of the woodwork. According to Mercury News, the once-promising cloud gaming outfit was purchased by a venture capital group for a mere $4.8 million, which appears to be a relatively small amount of cash for an outfit once valued upwards of $1.8 billion — not to mention when compared to, say, rival Gaikai’s $380 million sale to Sony. Still, this is said to have been due to the bad shape OnLive was in at the time, with the Palo Alto-based company reportedly owing more than $18 million in debt, leaving it with no choice but to take “the best that it could get.”

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OnLive was reportedly sold for roughly $5 million to venture capital firm originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Oct 2012 21:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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