SMB

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that found Microsoft unlawfully infringed on i4i's document-editing patents by incorporating its technology in some of its Word products. The $290 million penalty is small change for Microsoft, but the verdict could have more troubling implicati...

If your company has decided that the time is right for an initial public offering, it should consider the options available to it. There are ways by which a company can become publicly traded without the lengthy and costly process that usually accompanies an IPO. A common alternative to an IPO is a ...

Businesses are constantly searching for ways to reduce costs and improve revenues. Mobile technologies can provide incredible value because they offer immediate business interactions from almost anywhere. Mobile payments can expand your sales channels by helping you meet customers where they are. Pr...

A recent study that I just read shows that the startup success rate over a period of 10 years is about 30 percent. This obviously means that about 70 percent of startups are out of business after a 10-year period! There is no doubt that the failure rate of startups is stunning and, in my opinion, wi...

As the U.S. begins to limp through another anemic year economically, we see more government regulation hampering innovation -- this time engineered by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office through its new fast-track process. A fee of $4,000 (increased from the base fee of $1,090) would expedite the ...

AOL cofounder Steve Case is teaming up with the Obama White House and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to launch Startup America, a partnership to "foster innovative high-growth firms in the United States," said Kauffman representative Benjamin Branham. It "is designed to marshal more resources ...

Amazon wants to make your cloud computing simple. The company announced Elastic Beanstalk on Wednesday. The application makes it easier to use Amazon's cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services. The new application lets developers quickly deploy and manage Web services such as storage, computing...

Having an actively engaged, independent board is a must for the long-term viability of any corporation. Unfortunately, there are still many management teams that feel that their prospects for long-term employment, as well as generous salaries and perks, are dependent upon a "friendly" board of direc...

According to the Small Business Administration, fewer than 30 percent of startups are still in business after 10 years. This is a pretty startling failure rate -- over 70 percent. Let's take a look at some of the causes of startup failure and what can be done to improve your chances of making your n...

Previously in this space, I've discussed the collapse of the venture industry since the bloodbath began with the collapse of two Bear Stearns funds. While publicly traded stocks have been hammered, the private market is undergoing its own painful restructuring. As of the first quarter of this year,...

Venture capital group Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has launched a $250 million fund aimed specifically at startups that are developing social applications and services. Other investors in the "sFund," as it's called, include Facebook, Amazon, Zynga, Comcast and Liberty Media. In addition t...

Google has rolled out a new service that allows Gmail account holders to make voice calls to any traditional phone number from their Gmail account. It will require the installation of a voice and video plug-in, but users won't need to have a special phone number assigned to them. Google already has ...

Zuora, a provider of on-demand subscription billing and payment services, was cofounded in March 2008 jointly by Tien Tzuo, who serves as its CEO; Cheng Zou and K.V. Rao. It received $6.5 million in Series A funding later that month and $15 million in Series B funding in October of 2008. It has been...

Zuora, a provider of on-demand subscription billing and payment services, was cofounded in March 2008 jointly by Tien Tzuo, who serves as its CEO; Cheng Zou and K.V. Rao. It received $6.5 million in Series A funding later that month and $15 million in Series B funding in October of 2008. It has been...

Zuora, a provider of on-demand subscription billing and payment services, was cofounded in March 2008 jointly by Tien Tzuo, who serves as its CEO; Cheng Zou and K.V. Rao. It received $6.5 million in Series A funding later that month and $15 million in Series B funding in October of 2008. It has been...