investing

Clean energy blossoming despite economic headwinds

Clean energy has moved from the margin to the mainstream, with wind, solar, and biofuels topping a combined $70 billion in revenue last year.

Market research firm Clean Edge on Tuesday released its annual report on clean technology and projected continued rapid growth in spending, even though the U.S. economy is slowing down.

Revenue from biofuels, wind power, solar power, and fuel cells grew 40 percent to $77.3 billion, compared with 2006. Clean Edge projects that number will grow to $254 billion by 2017.

Global investments in energy technologies from venture capitalists, public markets, and corporate research and … Read more

Microsoft CFO: No one asked about Yahoo, but...

Will he or won't he?

Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell is speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference at 8:45 a.m. PST on Monday. Maybe some comments regarding the Yahoo bid will fall from his mouth, and then again, maybe not.

Liddell's Webcast may add to comments made Monday by Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer in Hannover, Germany.

Ballmer made the case for the existing offer.

"The deal makes sense with the price and structure we announced. We hope it becomes reality," he told reporters, according to the Associated Press.

Update 9:20 … Read more

Renewable-energy pros plead president, Congress for tax credit

Heavy hitters in the renewable-energy business have scheduled a press conference on Tuesday to publicly lobby for long-sought policies, arguing that the industry and U.S. competitiveness are at risk.

The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) organized the press conference, which will include well-known energy investors and business people from General Electric, Credit Suisse, Google, and clean-tech venture capital firm Nth Power. It will be held at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC), which is hosted by the U.S. government.

The renewable-energy industry has been thwarted at least two times in efforts to renew an existing federal … Read more

Clean-tech VC investing tops $3 billion, but 'funding gap' looms

The numbers are in on clean-tech investing in 2007 and, once again, the direction is way up.

Dow Jones VentureSource on Friday said that venture capitalists plowed a record $3 billion last year in clean-tech companies, a 43 percent jump from the year before. The number of deals rose from 173 in 2006 to 221 last year.

"Our data shows that 59 percent of all U.S. investment in the sector is going toward companies in the product development phase, which suggests that funding for clean technologies is likely to continue as these companies continue to develop and start … Read more

Electronic Arts hires Morgan Stanley to do its bidding

Morgan Stanley is the banker representing Electronic Arts in its unsolicited buyout bid for rival game publisher Take-Two, the investment bank confirmed Monday.

While that news alone is no big deal, consider this: Morgan Stanley is also representing Microsoft in its unsolicited buyout offer for Yahoo, which was announced a mere 25 days ago.

That's two megabillion-dollar buyout bids the premier investment banking firm has agreed to handle in the past month. And both have the potential to get mean and nasty, should the target companies kick and scream all the way to the altar.

So, this raises the … Read more

Credit Suisse's Jason Maynard moves from analysis to investment

Jason Maynard of Credit Suisse has been one of the most influential analysts in the software industry. Jason called for then-Novell CEO Jack Messman's head...and got it. He has been a sharp critic of Red Hat in recent years, suggesting that Red Hat underutilizes its brand assets. Jason has called out the transforming influences of SaaS and open source while still appreciating the execution of Oracle and Microsoft.

Jason Maynard has been very busy and very influential indeed.

Now he's leaving us, however. As he announced last week in an email, Jason is joining the investment side of Credit Suisse's business:… Read more

Linux Foundation rains on SCO's $100 million parade

Jim Zemlin is no fun. In an insightful blog posting, the president of the Linux Foundation does a reality check on SCO'S $100 MILLION CASH INFUSION!!!!) and finds...not much reality.

Actually let me be more clear: not only is there no $100 million dollars in cash in SCO's bank account, but if the proposal is accepted, there will only be a conditional availability of that large number. … Read more

Partners fund SCO Group's next lease on life

Stephen Norris & Co. Capital Partners said Thursday it and unnamed Middle Eastern partners will fund The SCO Group with up to $100 million to take over the financially beleaguered Unix company, move it out of bankruptcy protection, complete its controversial and unsuccessful Linux litigation, and take it private.

The SCO Group's board has approved the transaction, and the company should exit bankruptcy "in the coming year," the company said. And SNCP's reorganization plan "will also enable the company to see SCO's legal claims through to their full conclusion," it said.

The SCO … Read more

Transmeta receives $150 million payment from Intel

Microprocessor technology supplier Transmeta said it has received the initial payment of $150 million from Intel toward the $250 million settlement that the two companies agreed upon back in October. The payment was received on January 28, according to Sujan Jain, Transmeta's chief financial officer. Mr. Jain also said that Transmeta is evolving its business model to generate a more constant revenue stream.

Transmeta, previously a supplier of low-power x86 processors, now develops and licenses microprocessor technologies and related intellectual property. The company filed a lawsuit against Intel in October 2006 alleging that the latter infringed upon Transmeta's … Read more