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Google is in acquisition discussions with telephone management startup GrandCentral, we’ve learned, and we have a high degree of confidence that the deal has actually been closed. We are trying to nail down the acquisition price.

The basic idea around GrandCentral is “one phone number for all your phones, for life.” As we change jobs, homes and cell phones, there are a lot of phone numbers to keep track of, and keeping everyone up to date with your most recent phone numbers is a real cost. If you use GrandCentral you can give out a single phone number. What happens when that person calls that number depends on his/her relationship to you, and what you are doing at the time.

The company, which has raised less than $6 million in capital from Minor Ventures (the exact amount has never been disclosed), beta launched just last September. Earlier this year mainstream press and blogger attention heated up.

The company may have received too much press attention before the product was ready, and we reported on some backlash from beta users abandoning the service in March. Still, the company pushed ahead, launching a mobile product and other features.

GrandCentral was recently pitching a second round of financing to Silicon Valley venture capitalists, but broke off discussions abruptly as the Google talks heated up.

I’m speculating on where Google will use GrandCentral, but the synergies with Gmail and GTalk are fairly obvious and could be the next step in Google’s competition with Skype and other instant messaging platforms.

Google won’t comment on this story. I have an email in to GrandCentral to see if they’ll confirm.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/127646483/

The domain after-market is nearly as old as the internet itself. From domain and typo squatting through to legitimate ownership, the market for domain names has risen and fallen in line with the overall market.

1999 was regarded by many to be the peak of Web 1.0 and likewise 1999-2000 was the previous peak of domain sales. News June 21 that Business.com is on the market for $400million shone the spotlight on the domain sales marketplace again. For domain sellers it’s a party again like 1999.

Last week some $10million changed hands at auction for domain sales, with 16 domains being sold for 6 figures. Free Credit Check.com & Credit Check.com sold together for $3million, although as the DomainTools Blog points out this was at a relatively low multiple of around 7x yearly earnings. Seniors.com sold for $1.8 million and even Blogging.com raised $135,000. The exuberance in the market even extends to the spam infested .info domain, with Houston.info selling for $17,000.

Ultimately it’s up to the market to decide the value of anything; however the domain sales market appears to be outperforming the established site marketplace. Buyers of domain names seem willing to pay much higher multiples for a domain name than the buyers in the established sites marketplace are. A good domain name may have a wealth of untapped potential yet many of these domains are used by buyers as nothing more than spammy CPC advertising front ends powered by Google Domain Parking, Sedo and other similar providers.

It would be easy to suggest that the buoyancy in the domain market is indicative of an overall market boom that may inevitably lead to a bust, however the signs in the rest of the market would not suggest that this is the case. The money flooding into domains today is sustained by advertising that wasn’t as prevalent in 1999; the same advertising that sustains much of Web 2.0. Given that internet advertising still only makes up only around 7.0% of the overall advertising spend there’s still a lot of room for growth.. Whether domain name sales rates can stay at this high level though is yet to be seen. I’d think that they are getting close to a peak; the question is will prices plateau or decline once the peak is reached? Certainly if any readers are sitting on some great domain names, there has never been a better time to sell.

(photo credit: Emilia Pochie)

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/127651118/

LinkedIn is moving to provide API’s that will open its platform to developers in response to Facebook’s rapid growth.

Dan Farber reports LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman saying that the move will occur in the next 9 months.

LinkedIn helped define the professional networking space, and yet today it faces the real risk of long term irrelevance as Facebook becomes the social networking platform of choice for professional networkers. Like Nick O’Neil, nearly all my professional networking requests lately have come through Facebook, and although in many ways LinkedIn provides a more focused business networking tool, its niche to Facebook’s broader offering has become its weakness.

LinkedIn isn’t dead yet; decent revenue and around $26million in funding means that LinkedIn will remain a formidable player for the immediate future. The problem LinkedIn faces is a market suffering from too many social networking options; Facebook offers a one stop shop that for many is becoming their main and in some cases their only choice in social networks. LinkedIn must evolve to compete, the move to open their platform is a definite step in the right direction.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/127626827/

Online video site Revision3 has raised a second round of financing totalling $8 million, according to a source close to the deal. Our understanding is that Greylock led the round. Greylock was also the primary investor in Revision3’s $1 million first round of financing. News startup Digg, which shares founders Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson with Revision3, also raised money twice from Greylock.

Revision3 now has exclusive rights to ten shows, although Diggnation is by far the largest and most popular. Revenue is generated via integrated advertising, where the show hosts discuss the advertised products directly.

This rumor has not yet been confirmed by the company…our source also says that CEO Jay Adelson may soon be stepping aside and focusing exclusively on Digg, which he also runs. The company may have already begun a new CEO search.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/127469804/