investment

SecondMarket, which facilitates equity transactions for non-public companies, said today that the typical company on its service is awfully large -- and focused on consumers.

According to the firm, the typical private company on SecondMarket has a $329 million market cap and average funding of $108 million. The company has been in operation for seven years and has about 200 employees.

Digging deeper into its data, SecondMarket found that 48.3 percent of the companies involved in so-called liquidity events, or transactions of some form, came from the gaming industry. Another 21.8 percent of those companies were involved in … Read more

Trying to stick within your budget is no easy task when you're guessing at your balance. Mint.com's free personal finance service and companion mobile apps change that.

After giving Mint.com access to your bank, credit card, and investment accounts, the password-protected Mint.com app can monitor your accounts, your budget, and even your cash flow. The app presents your money matters in summary form, with the capability to drill down to the item level of a purchase. Follow the trail to the end to edit an item's transaction details or jot down notes or tags. … Read more

Stamped, the micro-reviews service started by former Googlers, announced tonight a service revamp and a celebrity-heavy lineup of new investors.

Launched last November, Stamped lets users share reviews of things they like with their friends, including movies, music, and restaurants. Instead of ratings based on one to five stars, Stamped gives users 100 "stamps" of approval to dole out to their favorite venues or products. The company's co-founders believe the limit encourages users to make more careful decisions on what wins their stamp.

In the face of criticism that Stamped was too similar to too many other reviews services, … Read more

Square has once again raised a ton of money, closing a $200 million round of funding that will make CEO Jack Dorsey a certified paper billionaire, according to those watching the industry.

Although neither the company nor its lead investor -- little-known private equity firm Rizvi Traverse of Michigan -- would confirm the matter, news of the dollar figure has been swirling around today.

Rizvi Traverse other investments include Playboy, Facebook and Twitter, according to the company's Web site.

The funding, which is twice the amount the company raised last year, puts a valuation of $3.25 billion, an … Read more

Indonesia is the next country on Foxconn's list to get a tech-manufacturing factory. According to The Next Web, the company has confirmed it will invest at least $1 billion in opening a factory on the island nation and it could invest up to $9 billion more.

Foxconn is one of Apple's primary manufacturers and has plants in China and Brazil where it makes iPhone smartphones and iPad tablets. According to The Next Web, Indonesia's government is hoping that Foxconn's proposed factory will spur more tech companies to build factories there creating a Southeast Asian tech hub.… Read more

After some push and pull with the Texas authorities, it looks like Apple might have finally sealed the deal on its plans to expand its Austin campus. According to the Austin Business Journal, county records show that three tracts of land near its existing campus were sold to Apple on June 21.

"It's unknown how much Apple paid for the land or how many acres it bought, but officials at two real estate brokerages, which did not want to be identified, confirmed that the long awaited deal had closed," the Journal reports.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced … Read more

Venture capitalists are ready and willing to spend cash, a new study from research firm CB Insights has found.

During the second quarter, $8.1 billion in cash was doled out to 812 companies, according to CB Insights. The figure is the "highest funding and deal totals since the dot-com days," according to CB Insights. The $8.1 billion represents a 37 percent gain on the first quarter, when VCs handed out $5.9 billion in cash, and a 5 percent gain on the second quarter of 2011's $7.7 billion in spending.

CB Insights believes Facebook's $1 billion acquisition of Instagram … Read more

Daily-deals provider Groupon has watched its shares plummet as the weak European market scares investors away.

The company's shares hit an all-time low yesterday of $7.72 before eventually climbing back to end the day at $7.77. According to analysts, who spoke with Reuters recently, Groupon derives a large portion of its revenue from Europe, and continued softness in that market is driving many investors away.

Groupon went public last year at $20 per share. Soon after, the company's shares fell. However, they rebounded earlier this year, making some wonder if the worst was behind it. Since … Read more

When Facebook finally announced its initial public offering, many believed that Twitter would be close behind. But on yet another occasion, the company's chief executive, Dick Costolo, says it won't be happening.

"We are going to remain private as long as we want," Costolo told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published yesterday. "I like being private for all sorts of reasons. It allows us to think about the business and the way we want to grow it in the small boardroom as opposed to being beholden to a particular way of growing the … Read more