Author Archives: Ajit Deshpande
Nimble Storage goes Public!
Flash storage has been on the upswing for the past few years. Last week, the technology got a shot in the arm, as hybrid flash-SSD storage startup Nimble Storage had a successful IPO, pricing above its original share-price range and subsequently jumping more than 60% on its first day of trading. The company is currently […]
Verizon acquires Edgecast
Last week, telecom giant Verizon announced the acquisition of CDN startup Edgecast Networks for a price that is rumored to be in the $390 million range. Edgecast is a six year old, Los Angeles based, profitable startup that has annual revenues of more than $100 million and more than 6,000 customers. From a monetization leverage […]
Point-of-Sale integrated Check-ins, from PayPal
The payments industry has seen significant evolution over the past three years. Continued rapid growth in ecommerce and online payments, the emergence of payment dongles, and increased focus on in-store shopping experiences have all resulted in significant innovation at Point of Sale for brick and mortar stores. Last week, PayPal, which is a key player […]
UnderArmour buys MapMyFitness
Last week, athletics apparel giant UnderArmour announced that it was buying fitness tracking mobile startup MapMyFitness for $150 million. Founded in 2007, MapMyFitness had raised approx. $23 million in venture capital. MapMyFitness currently has a community of 20 million users, of which 9 million are monthly active users. As a smartphone app company with no […]
Salesforce’s Private AppExchange
The CIO’s life in today’s world isn’t easy. Distributed workforces, mobile/BYOD trends, and consumerization of the enterprise are all making it more and more difficult for the CIO to manage access, authentication and security policies across the enterprise. One way to mitigate this situation is for the CIO to offer employees a custom, internal app-store, […]
Map-based intelligence for everyone!
Last week, Google launched Maps Engine Pro, a cloud-based software tool designed to let businesses organize and visualize geo-spatial data. Priced at $5 per month per user (there is also a free tier for businesses with limited usage levels), this tool allows small and medium sized businesses to create internal- and external-facing maps that utilize […]
Identity Management from Salesforce
Last week, Salesforce announced the launch of Salesforce Identity, the company’s new cloud-based identity and access management platform that will simplify for IT administrators the process of provisioning and managing companies’ collection of mobile, cloud and on-premise applications. The tool will allow IT departments to manage any app from any device, for employees, customers and […]
Login and Pay with Amazon
Last week, Amazon announced the launch of its ‘Login and Pay with Amazon’ service for ecommerce companies. Purported to be a mutually beneficial initiative for both sides, this service will enable Amazon customers to seamlessly log in and pay on partner ecommerce sites using their Amazon credentials, while giving the ecommerce companies the opportunity to […]
Pivotal’s First Acquisition
Back in May, we had discussed the launch of Pivotal, the EMC family’s take on PaaS. Well, Pivotal last week made a small but interesting acquisition of Toronto-based mobile development and strategy shop Extreme Labs for $65 million in cash. Extreme Labs has approximately 300 employees, and has built mobile apps for companies such as […]
The Creative Cloud Rises
Back in May’13, Adobe, one of the few remaining bastions for packaged enterprise software, had announced that it would stop offering its Creative Suite (which includes products such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat amongst others) by the end of this year. The company announced at the time that it was doubling down on Creative Cloud, […]