By Brian Kov
alesky, StartUp Beat Editor
It was a week that saw harrowing ups-and-downs in global markets, and talk of economic doom-and-gloom. But it was generally business-as-usual for technology startups. The theme of the week was acquisitions, led by Google’s Motorola buy…and then HP’s massive $10 billion acquisition of software firm Autonomy. But some smaller names got into the act as well, proving that (at least some) nimble tech startups may have a brighter outlook on the economy than Wall St. and the punditry.
Perhaps the most notable buy was Chegg’s acquisition of homework help site Student of Fortune (which gets this month’s “Best Name” award). But startups Evernote and HubSpot also opened up their wallets to bolster their product lines. Finally, daily deals startups continued to make news in their quest to compete with Groupon with deals site BuyWithMe’s acquisition of Scoop St. (what’s with the names of these daily deals sites?). In funding news this week, highlights included Chinese luxury brands shopping site Xiu.com’s $100 million round, and cloud-based video licensing platform Thought Equity Motion’s $25 million..it’s a tough sector to play in, but having an additional $25 million helps.
If you haven’t already, check out Jim Anderson’s guest column here on StartUp Beat about Spotify and the freemium business model for music. And check out this week’s StartUp Beat Q&As with with the CEOs of decision making and comparison engine FindTheBest, the ‘Priceline for pet service providers’—Pet It Forward, and SMB ecommerce platform BigCommerce.
Check back on Monday for a new week of featured startups and startup news!
