Salesforce.com, Inc. is said to have hired bankers to field takeover offers after being approached by a potential acquirer, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. News of the potential acquisition of the Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM giant saw its stock surge as much as 17 percent in trade during the day, before closing up 11.6 percent with a ...

Anonymous messaging app Secret is closing down, despite having raised $35 million and a period of being praised as the next big thing. The app, originally founded in October 2013 as a way to secretly share items before pivoting later into a messaging app, boasted at its peak 15 million users, and was perhaps best known as ...

Sunshine and lollipops were in short supply Tuesday at Twitter Inc., with the microblogging platform taking a hammering on the New York Stock Exchange after revealing disappointing first quarter figures, and revising its future revenue forecast downwards. Twitter’s Q1 revenue came in at $436 million, up 74 percent over the same quarter in 2014, but ...

“Lifestyle media company” Refinery29 has raised $50 million Series D in a round that included Scripps Networks Interactive and WPP Ventures. Founded in 2004, the company describes itself as the largest independent fashion and style website in the United States, and boasts among its achievements that it was named as the fastest growing media company ...

Health diagnostics startup Scanadu Inc., best known for its “medical tricorder” campaign on Indiegogo, has raised $35 million Series B in a round led by Fosun International that included Tencent Holdings, China Broadband Capital, IGlobe Partners, Sungent BioVenture, Relay Ventures and AME Cloud Ventures. Founded in 2011, Scanadu brings the Internet of Things to medicine with ...

Do you have a spare technology patent lying around that you’d like to sell? Have we got a deal for you! That may sound like a bad sales pitch, but Google does actually have a deal for patent holders looking to sell with its new Patent Purchase Promotion. According to a post on the Google Public Policy ...

Photo app and photo plugin software maker Visual Supply Co. (VSCO) has raised $30 million Series B in a round led by Glynn Capital Management that included existing investors Accel Partners and Goldcrest Investments. Founded in 2011, VSCO makes the popular VSCO Cam, described as a “fancy photo app” that has been in the top ...

Jay Z took to Twitter over the weekend to defend his streaming music company Tidal, despite the fact that all public indicators would suggest that a month after its relaunch it’s sinking like a brick. Tidal, originally launched in 2014 by Sweedish/ Norwegian firm Aspiro, was acquired for $56 million in early 2015 by a ...

Ratan Tata, the chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, has become the first Indian investor in leading Unicorn Xiaomi Inc. The size of the investment was not disclosed. Tata Sons might not be a well-known name outside of the sub-continent, but if you think of a company like Hyundai or Samsung in South Korea, a huge conglomerate with its fingers ...

Social music app maker Smule Inc. has raised $38 million in new funding, consisting of $26 million in equity and $12 million in debt funding. According to reports, the equity round was led by Adams Street Partners which included previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Shasta Ventures. City National provided the debt financing. Founded in 2008, Smule ...