squares

It's no secret that President Obama is a fan of technology.

Just this past month, he joined Instagram, visited Intel to discuss high-tech manufacturing jobs, made plans to have a Google+ video chat with voters, and his wife, Michelle Obama, joined Twitter.

Now, he is beginning to use Square mobile to process his re-election campaign donations, according to Politico.

Obama's headquarters staff, field organizers, and volunteers will all be given Square mobile credit card readers, which will let them receive campaign donations through their smartphones.

"The rollout will happen nationwide, and involve staff at all levels," … Read more

AT&T appears to be laying groundwork for a potential deal with Dish Network to get its hands on the satellite provider's newly acquired wireless spectrum.

Last week, AT&T flexed some muscle with the federal government in an attempt to make Dish's wireless spectrum--which it acquired last year for $2.8 billion via deals with two failed wireless companies, DBSD North America and TerreStar Networks--harder for Dish to use and easier for some other company to acquire.

Specifically, AT&T asked the FCC not to place any "restrictions on the transfer and/… Read more

Extended warranty service SquareTrade announced today it has secured a $238 million growth equity investment lead by Bain Capital.

Terms of the private financial transaction were not revealed.

The company, which sells warranties for consumer electronics and appliances directly and via more than 30 retailers and marketplaces, said its sales tripled in 2011 compared with 2010. It also expects to record "triple-digit" revenue growth in 2012, although the privately held company did not provide specific financial details.

"SquareTrade has been profitable and growing rapidly for several years," CEO and co-founder Steve Abernethy said in a statement. &… Read more

LightSquared, the company seeking final FCC approval to build a nationwide 4G wireless wholesale network, said that a test showing interference between its service and GPS systems was rigged by manufacturers of GPS receivers and government workers to produce bogus results.

On a conference call Wednesday with reporters, LightSquared executives Jeffrey Carlisle and Geoff Stearn, along with paid consultant Ed Thomas, a former chief engineer at the Federal Communications Commission, said that recent tests conducted by the Air Force Space Command on behalf of the Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Executive Committee (PNT EXCOM) were set up to produce negative … Read more

LightSquared today appointed Marc Montagner, a veteran of major telecommunications deals, to the role of chief financial officer.

Montagner's appointment may signal LightSquared's willingness to strike a deal or partnership. One of Montagner's prior roles was the head of merger-and-acquisition activities for Sprint, helping to usher in the $70 billion merger with Nextel back in 2005. He was also co-head of Banc of America Securities' telecom, media and technology merger group.

Montagner had been executive vice president of sales, marketing, and strategy at SkyTerra, which was absorbed by LightSquared in 2010. LightSquared plans to take advantage of … Read more

Did you know you can sell or trade your unwanted gift cards? … Read more

LightSquared is done with the government's hemming and hawing, and is pressuring for approval to use its spectrum to build a next-generation wireless network.

In the company's most aggressively worded message to the Federal Communications Commission, LightSquared argues that the GPS industry has no right to seek protection from the potential interference that LightSquared's network could cause. It said today that it has filed a petition seeking a declaratory ruling confirming its rights as a spectrum licensee. The company has been battling the perception that its network could possibly cripple critical GPS devices--hurting planes, farming equipment, and … Read more

LightSquared's wireless network will interfere with a "majority" of GPS devices, according to a report from federal officials.

The official report released late yesterday, showed that the LightSquared network still caused harmful interference in a majority of general-purpose GPS receivers, according to Anthony Russo, director of the National Coordination Office for Space-based Positioning, Navigation and Timing, an advisory committee made up of government and industry.

The Department of Transportation and the Department of Defense joined in the statement issued on Wednesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration conducted separate testing, and it also found that LightSquared's network interferes … Read more

When Greg Duffy shopped his business idea around in 2008, investor after investor told him the same thing: you're crazy.

Duffy wanted to build a gadget--an IP camera for home surveillance that's accessed via the cloud--and most startup investors didn't want anything to do with manufacturing. They wanted software, and software only.

Duffy persevered. Today, his company--Dropcam--uploads and processes more video every day than YouTube. This fall he raised $5.8 million, the first big pile of money for his San Francisco company. And while it's still in its early days, Dropcam's traction points to … Read more