Tuesday roundup: Google 101, changes at Talisma, STARBURCKS.COM, etc.

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Tuesday roundup: Google 101, changes at Talisma, STARBURCKS.COM, etc.

What does it take to create computer applications the Google way? A University of Washington computer science class created by Google engineer Christophe Bisciglia is the subject of a story in the P-I this morning.

Bob Hart, the former chief executive of Tegic Communications and TeleSym, has joined Seattle-based Cequint as chairman. The 3-year-old startup, which has developed a caller identification technology for mobile phones, was the subject of a short profile I did last Spring after Cequint raised $1.5 million from Benaroya Capital and angel investors.

Talisma, whose products help corporations such as Citibank, Ford and Sony improve customer service, today announced several changes to its executive team. Chief Financial Officer Wade Pfeiffer has taken on the added responsibility of chief operating officer, while Vice President Brad Birnbaum has been promoted to the role of chief technology officer. The Bellevue company also recently hired Dan Mason -- a former consultant at Par3 Communications -- as vice president of development and Sharon Thompson -- formerly of Microsoft -- as vice president of human resources.

Seattle's Widevine Technologies says that it has received a patent for encrypting multimedia content. Red Herring reports that the technology could create "an alternative digital rights management system that isn't tied to any specific device or software" -- a possible alternative to systems from Apple and Microsoft. Here's more of my coverage of Widevine after it scored $16 million in funding last spring.

Inrix, the Kirkland traffic analysis startup backed with more than $16 million from Bain Capital, Venrock and August Capital, today announced deals to work with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and TeleCommunication Systems.

Ventures West, a Vancouver, B.C.-based venture capital firm, said that it has named Kenneth Galbraith as its latest venture partner. Galbraith will be a part of the life science team, which participated in the $16 million funding for Bothell's Alder Biopharmaceuticals last summer.

Blogger David Kesmodel takes a close look at dozens of domain names that Internet REIT owns, reporting that the Houston company operates sites that are misspellings of major consumer brands. Among the domains in its portfolio are names such as DISNEYTORE.COM, ABERACROMBIEANDFITCH.COM, ANHAUSER-BUSCH.COM and MICRORSOFT.COM.

Internet Reit is backed by Perot Investments and Maveron, the Seattle venture capital firm operated by Dan Levitan and Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz. Interestingly, Kesmodel also reports that Internet Reit owns variations of the Starbucks name, such as STARBUCKSCOFEE.COM and STARBURCKS.COM. Executives at Internet Reit tell Kesmodel that they are working on a better system to identify and remove "legally sensitive" domain names from the portfolio.

Clearwire, which is waiting to go public, has gobbled up wireless spectrum in the southeastern U.S. from AT&T for $300 million. Selling off the spectrum was a requirement for the merger between AT&T and BellSouth. Just last week, Clearwire indicated that it could raise more than $500 million through its IPO. In an amended filing today, Clearwire indicated that it plans to continue acquiring spectrum in new markets -- a plan that could create even more losses. "If demand increases for spectrum rights, our spectrum acquisition costs may increase, which may place competitors with greater capital resources at an advantage over us," the company said.

Posted by at February 20, 2007 10:31 a.m.
Categories: People on the move, Software, Wireless

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