According to the company, it will look for investments in companies valued between $2 million and $7 million where it can invest from $100k to $3 million for an initial investment. These investments will be lower level series A, not seed funding, and with more extended due diligence than most early stage investments.

Unlike other known systems, the Radiance’s WeaponWatch is powered by infrared sensors that can literally detect missiles or gunfire at the speed of light. It even works while under heavy attack and at longer sniper distances.

WeaponWatch is one of the major reasons Radiance has grown from only three employees six years ago to 275 now, making it one of the 500 fastest-growing small businesses in the United States. It had revenue in 2004 of $35 million, a 701% growth over the last three years, and moved up 66 places to #148 on the 2005 Inc. 500 list.

Navio sells multimedia networking software to media companies that allows subscribers to buy, share, download, store and access content while protecting the content. Their technology can be integrated into customers’ storefronts through the internet, mobile devices and peer-to-peer networks. It also allows customers access and redownload their purchased content when they lose or upgrade their devices.

Lead participants in this round were the WK Technology Fund and VantagePoint Venture Partners.

Loc-AID was founded in 2001 to add functionality and interoperability to cell phones with location based services.

The bid is being recommended by O2’s board and will complete early next year if it is accepted by shareholders. Telefonica has announced that O2 will maintain its current branding with a headquarters in the UK.

Analysts see this expansion as a great move by Telefonica, as the two companies have little overlap in operations and O2 is known for pushing mobile data technologies such as i-mode in the UK.

In addition, Player X has added SEGA veteran Nick Alexander as Chairman of its board of directors and Fox Kids Europe founder Ynon Kreiz as a non-executive board member.

“This acquisition brings to Autodesk a highly talented group of individuals, a wealth of technologies and a great set of products,” said Carl Bass, COO of Autodesk. “Alias’ technology spans several of our most important markets and augments the synergy between our design and media businesses. Our design customers are demanding more powerful visualization, animation and publishing capabilities. Our media and entertainment customers are increasingly using the data created by our design applications for broadcast, film and games projects. By combining the technology and talents of our two companies, we will be better able to continue delivering solutions that address our customers’ complex needs.”

Autodesk has said that it will continue to develop and release the Alias product lines, which generated $83 million in revenue in the 12 months prior to June 30, 2005. For those interested in more details on the product effects of the acquisition, please visit the page Autodesk setup for customers of the products.

• Autodesk and Alias Fact Sheet
• Autodesk to acquire Alias FAQ
• Autodesk to acquire Alias PowerPoint presentation

Musicwave, which provides entertainment services to mobile operators, will help to fill out Openwave’s software and service product lines. Link to full press release.

Gameloft has shown quick growth in the past year mostly due to its growth in mobile gaming, which generated 96% of the total 134% in revenue growth. The company’s total workforce also increased from 432 employees in June of 2004 to 1,375 employees in June of 2005, of which there are almost 1,200 developers.

While total revenues have grown, total operating profits have decreased from 0.8 million Euros for the first half of 2004 to 0.6 million Euros for the first half of 2005. Analysts attribute this to the companies focus on developing a solid foundation for future growth and development efficiencies. Overall, Gameloft is in a good position to target the continued growth in the mobile gaming market.

Key finds from the report include:

• China has over 360MM mobile phone users, 3.6 times more than its Internet users
• The total number of China’s mobile users is equal to the total of the next three nations (US, Japan, and Germany) combined.
• China’s mobile users use mobile data services much more than users in other countries
• ‘Click plus brick” model to dominate ecommerce
• Requirement for foreign companies to localize content and services for Chinese market; simple redistributions will likely not work
• Online gaming industry to grow quickly in scale similar to penetration of online gaming in South Korea
• Mobile value-added services are an overlooked opportunity
• Investment concerns include “economic slowdown, regulatory risks, dearth of innovation, management quality and excessive capital inflow”.

The report takes a thorough look at the market and a number of individual companies.

Downloads:

• Full 118 Page Report
• 75 Page Summary Presentation

The banking industry has been looking to expand brick-n-mortar and internet banking into Texas due to its accelerated growth in recent years. The Census Bureau says that Texas’ population grew by 23 percent from 1990 to 2000 and another 6 percent since then.

Once the deal closes regulatory checks and receives shareholder approval, Compass will have more than $31 billion in assets, making it the nation’s 28th largest bank. Analysts also see this key move to expand Compass’s swap and bond desk activities further.

Skype is expecting to receive revenues of $60 million this year and greater than $200 million in 2006, but the company has not yet reached profitability. Some analyst are predicting that Ebay will use its PayPal online payment systems and Skype to allow members to complete transactions via web phone calls. Others predict that Ebay will use Sky as a new marketing and distribution mechanism.

Ebay shares immediately rose 45 cents, or 1.17%, to $39.07.

This team will focus on design and development of future Motorola platforms and should provide Motorola much needed support to target the 3G market, which is currently dominated by Nokia. “The Rennes team offers Motorola unmatched capabilities in i-mode development and integration, as well as strong branded services and testing skills,” said Ron Garriques, president of Motorola Mobile Devices, in a statement.

• IGN.com: PC games, console games, mobile console games and wireless games, with subsites focused focused on film, music and sports
• Gamespy: PC content and provider of matchmaking and networking middleware for games
• FilePlanet: Game demos, mods and pathches

Other game entities in the IGN family include TeamXbox, 3D Gamers, GameStats and the Planet and Vault networks. Non-game related sites that were owned by IGN include Rotten Tomatoes and AskMen.

IGN Entertainment had applied for an IPO in July, but the financial community was luke-warm to the company’s history of “losses every year, including a net loss attributable to holders of common stock of $18.9 million in 2004 and $3.4 million in the three months ended March 31, 2005”. Even with an IPO, the markets were uncertain that IGN would be able to restructure itself into a profitable company.

The acquisition by News Corp offers new possibilities to revamping IGN. News Corp bring deep pockets to the table along with large a media empire which includes DirectTv, Fox television, significant film companies and a large number of other online entities. Let’s not forget about News Corp’s recent $580 million purchase of Intermix Media (MySpace.com) and an earlier purchase of Scout Media. These outlets offer tremendous cross promotional opportunities, access to new audiences and an ability to consolidate overhead.

It is also quite possible that G4TV will see a new competitor on the airwaves within the next 6 to 24 months.

One important common thread in all of these acquisitions is that they have all been cash transactions. It is possible that the owners of each company being acquired simply wanted to cash out and not risk the future of a combination on a partial stock payout. However, it is more likely that Rupert Murdoch and News Corp see possibilities for these outlets that are far from the direction of their previous owners.

The question on everyone’s mind is who will be next? Given News Corp’s growing interest in the technology and gaming industries, it may be a good idea to watch CNet, which owns Gamespot. Rupert Murdoch also mentioned last month that he was planning to purchase an online search company.

PalmSource has been struggling since the split with the hardware division Palm in 2003. With a sale of the Palm brand name to Palm a few weeks ago, the industry was put on notice that PalmSource was examining new options for the futures, but most assumed that the “two Palms” would reunite. However, with increasing discussion of Palm prepping a Microsoft OS powered version of its popular Treo, this seemed less likely.

According to a CNET interview with Access, Access is committed to supporting the Palm OS. Many analysts predict that Access will complete PalmSource’s long transition to a Linux-basd version of the Palm OS.

Nam Joong-soo, KT’s newly appointed CEO, told reporters that “contents, handsets and networks will be converged, putting the focus on customers.’. He also said that the company will invest 10.4 trillion won ($10 billion) between now and 2010, with 7.8 trillion won being used to strengthen South Korea’s telecom infrastructure and 2.6 trillion being spent on new growth areas.

These recent moves by KT Corp are in response to growing pressure from SK Telecom Corporation, South Korea’s largest mobile operator. SK Telecom has been aggressively advancing into digital content through a series of M&A transactions with broadcast and entertainment companies. The moves includes a 14.4 billion won investment into IHQ, Korea’s largest entertainment company in February, an acquisition of YTN Star (affiliate of broadcaster YTN) and an acquisition of YBM Seoul, Korea’s largest music company.

Why is this important for the rest of the world? South Korea is quickly becoming a first mover in the world of technology. South Korea has the highest density of DSL subscriber (per hundred main lines) in the world, with Taiwan a close second. While South Korea’s population is roughly 17% of the U.S. population, its penetration of high speed internet matched the U.S. in total subscriber numbers, and its adoption of mobile technologies is more impressive.

Content companies and telecoms in Europe and North America need to keep a close eye on the consolidation and developments in the content and distribution within South Korea. For good or bad, South Korea’s increased combination of content and distribution will help accelerate the market by removing discussions over pieces of the value chain. This may not be the best for the overall market, but it is sure to provide a consumer test bed for consumers’ opinions on digital content and access technologies.

For those not familiar with Realeye3D, the company creates and implements technology related to camera phones. It is best known for Phone2Fun suite of products that allows users to send handwritten messages, postcards, and fax-quality scanned documents from a standard 1 Megapixel camera phone. In essence, the user takes a picture of any document (e.g. handwritten note, article, diagram) and the “scan” can then be sent directly or embedded in other documents, such as a greeting card with a handwritten note.

Realeye3D has also demonstrated uses of its technology in improving photos and even mobile games similar to the Sony Eyetoy.

Industry analysts see the creation of the High-tech Startup Fund (High-Tech Gründerfonds) as an attempt to reform previous German federal venture capital programs begun several years ago.

This new fund will begin with 142 million Euro in initial government funding, with 120 million Euro in additional government funding over the next five years. The remaining contributions will come from KfW, BASF, Siemens and Deutsche Telekom.

Planned projects are expected to be between 500,000 Euro to 1 million Euro and to be segmented into material and life sciences, information technology, automation and optical technologies and telecommunication and new media.

The deals should close by the end of the year.