lifestyle

Sugar to sweeten its girly offerings with ShopStyle grab

Blog network Sugar Publishing, which operates a popular array of pastel-hued women's lifestyle and entertainment titles, has agreed to acquire social shopping start-up ShopStyle.com for an undisclosed amount.

ShopStyle, which competes with sites like ThisNext and StyleHive, aims to make it easier to search multiple retail sites at once and lets members create personal "look books" and network with other digital shopaholics.

In addition, the San Francisco-based blog network has officially changed its name from Sugar Publishing to Sugar Inc. "to better reflect its growing reach and expansion over the past year." Presumably, that'… Read more

Technology Partners to invest $300 million in clean, lifestyle

Technology Partners, one of the first VC firms to get into clean technology, announced it has raised $300 million for its eighth fund.

The firm will use the funds to invest in clean tech companies as well as life sciences and health/lifestyle companies (i.e. obesity and hair removal. It's big business.). The proceeds in the fun will be split evenly between clean companies and health companies. And who knows, it could also overlap as a handful of companies are promoting technology for purifying food and increasing crop yields for organic farming.

Among other companies, Technology Partners has … Read more

Persuasive Games takes on holiday shopping

If you've played Persuasive Games' past titles such as Bacteria Salad, Oil God, or Airport Security, chances are you'll get the idea behind its latest Flash diversion, Xtreme Xmas Shopping. On the surface, you play a shopper with a demanding wish list to satisfy. If an item on your list runs out of stock before you can purchase it, you lose, presumably having ruined Christmas. As with most of Persuasive Games' titles, though, Xtreme Xmas Shopping attempts to engage players in thinking about a broader social issue--in this case, rabid holiday consumerism--in a participatory kind of way.

While … Read more