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Plastic Logic receives massive $700 million Russian investment
Who can forget the Plastic Logic Que proReader -- a textbook study on the vaporous gadget. Start with an incredible (but truthful) claim to have developed plastic semiconductors that could be used to fabricate flexible e-reader displays. Then follow up the breakthrough with the all-important consumer tease: an amazing (for the time) 8.5 x 11-inch e-reader with a gesture-based UI that would launch in the first half of 2009. Unfortunately, the Que never shipped and was ultimately canceled, partly because of reliability issues associated with manufacturing those early Que displays and partly because of the launch of a rather disruptive Apple tablet you might have read about. Fast forward to today and we've got the state-owned Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (Rusnano) announcing a $700 million investment in the US-based Plastic Logic Inc. Why? Are you listening? Plastics. Here's how this "unprecedented" investment was described by Georgy Kolpachev, Rusnano's managing director: "Flexible plastic electronic displays will provide another major milestone in how people process information. Entering this new disruptive segment at the stage of its inception gives Russia a chance to win a leading position in global market of future electronics." The investment will be used to pay off Plastic Logic's debt including a $50 million loan the company took out after approaching financial collapse. The rest will be used for a second plastic electronics factory in Russia (a sister to the Dresden Germany plant) which is expected to start production in 2013 or 2014. Update: Press release added after the break offering more details on the "world's largest commercial plastic electronics factory" that will be capable of producing hundreds of thousands of "next-generation plastic electronics displays" per month.
GM invests $5 million in Powermat, says wireless charging headed to Volt in 2012
GM may have filed for bankruptcy back in 2009, but a lot has changed since then. GM's venture branch now apparently has enough cash in the bank to drop five million on a multi-year commercial deal for Powermat's wireless charging technology. The terms of the deal give GM the option to convert their investment into an equity stake within the first six months and provide GM exclusive use of Powermat's technology for one year in vehicles worldwide. Subsequently, the Volt is slotted to be one of the first vehicles receiving the new tech and a prototype version with charging mats in the front consoles and back seat will be shown this year at CES. However, the automaker is unsure as to what other models will receive Powermat upgrades. Micky Bly, leader of GM's electric car development efforts, stated though that initial tests did not reveal any significant issues with porting the technology into vehicles, leading GM to shoot for launching commercial integrations sometime in 2012. The automaker hasn't forgotten its an investor however and hopes other manufacturers will join the wireless charging bandwagon to help drive down costs after their exclusive buffer ends.
Qualcomm lays down $1 billion for new Mirasol plant in Taiwan, catering small and medium devices
Good news, digital bookworms! After months of rumoring, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs has just announced that Qualcomm will really be building a new Mirasol plant over there. Specifically, the $1 billion, seven-hectare factory will reside in the Hsinchu Longtan Science Park to mass-produce small and medium flavors of said transflective display, meaning the Snapdragon maker will, for the first time, be able to churn out something smaller than the current lone 5.7-inch model. Yep, those must be the low-power smartphone screens that Qualcomm talked about previously, which sure sound delicious. Now, what's up with our little Pixel Qi?
Hedge fund using Twitter to predict stock prices, OK Cupid to meet girls
For some reason, we weren't surprised when Derwent Capital Markets announced plans to launch a hedge fund in February that will trade based on something called "Twitter sentiment," among other things. The science behind it comes from researchers at the University of Manchester and Indiana University, which maintains that there is a correlation between public mood and the Dow Jones industrial average. Apparently, a calm public seems to indicate that the Dow will go up, while an anxious public indicates that the Dow will go down. And according to Johan Bollen, an associate professor of informatics and computing at IU, Twitter posts can be analyzed and used to judge the public mood -- with a greater than 87 percent accuracy. Hit the source link to see him state his case.
LG commits to major smartphone, tablet, and smart TV investments for New Year's resolution
LG's set aside quite a big chunk of change -- 21 trillion won (about $18 billion) -- for investments next year, almost 12 percent higher than its 2010 allowance. And a good chunk of that, 14.2 trillion won, is going to electronics: smartphones, tablets, advanced TVs and components for 3DTVs, according to the Wall Street Journal. (The rest, if you're curious, is going into medical products, electric vehicle batteries, and an assortment of other businesses.) True, LG's position in the smartphone market isn't quite what it wanted -- its now-former CEO Nam Yong claimed responsibility and retired in September -- but we'd be lying if we said we haven't been smitten with its Optimus lineup of Android handsets lately, and already we've seen some impressive future devices. Now, those tablet investments... figure out an OS yet? Can we make suggestions?
Sharp investing $1.2b in expanding smartphone LCD production, Apple fingered as the major client
Apple's practicing its self-imposed rule of supplier polygamy this week and Japan's Nikkei is telling us all about it. It started off on Monday, when we learned that Toshiba's throwing down some cash to build a new smartphone display production plant, with Apple as the key investor and subsequent consumer, and today we're hearing pretty much the same story, only with Sharp playing the role of Japanese producer to Apple's hardware whims. A "large portion" of the $1.2 billion cost -- identical to what Toshiba's said to be spending -- of expanding Sharp's Kameyama factory is expected to be shouldered by Jobs' cash-rich crew, a postulation also confirmed by Reuters, who's managed to dig up a pair of sources agreeing with the Nikkei. Our Japanese team reports that Sharp has made its expansion plans official, but obviously there's nary a peep about any Apple connection, while DigiTimes says Toshiba has outright denied any involvement with Cupertino. Guess we'll just have to wait for the iPhone 7 teardowns to find out.
Mediatonic investing 300K Euros in new Housemarque game
Housemarque's still celebrating in the afterglow of its recently released, well-received PSN title Dead Nation -- but the Finnish developer isn't resting on its zombified laurels. The studio has secured a €300 thousand investment from fellow Finnish company Mediatonic. According to Arctic Startup, the investment will bankroll development on a whole new title: A downloadable "family game of skill and wits," due out sometime next year. That sounds like a far, far cry from Housemarque's current announced project, the Ubis Outland -- though it seems bizarre that the studio's 20-some-strong development team would be working on two projects simultaneously. We've contacted Housemarque to see if they'll comment on where that sweet, sweet cashflow is going.
Trion CEO introduces MMO investing to Bloomberg TV
Have you ever wondered where to invest your savings for the future? Have you thought about the MMO market? Apparently, multimedia companies like Time Warner, NBC Universal, and Bertelsmann believe it is worth their money. These three media giants have invested over $100 million into Trion Worlds, the top-tier gaming company featuring upcoming MMOs like Rift: Planes of Telara and End of Nations. Yesterday, Trion's CEO Lars Buttler was featured on Bloomberg's CEO Sitdown. In the interview, Buttler mentioned the role that games, specifically MMO games, will play in the future economy. "This is actually one of the fastest-growing segments of the games industry. And there are markets like Korea or China where you can see what a massive potential these online premium games already have," Buttler explains in the video. As MMOs become more mainstream, the media industry is beginning to see them as a viable form of entertainment. They are not just pretend fun for teenage boys anymore. Buttler expounds later, "It's really once-a-gamer-always-a-gamer, so as people get older they stay with their favorite game types." The industry is constantly growing because the audience sticks to its favorite form of entertainment. For more on this story check out the full video on Bloomberg's website.
Intel announces plans to spend up to $8 billion on U.S. factory upgrades
Apple and Google may be sitting on their piles of cash, but Intel sure is dipping into its reserves in a big way these days -- the company has just announced that it's following up its nearly $8 billion acquisition of McAfee with a multi-billion dollar investment in upgrades to its factories in Arizona and Oregon. That investment will total between $6 billion and $8 billion, and include the development of an entirely new fabrication plant in Oregon, in addition to upgrades at the two existing facilities that will allow Intel to move forward with its 22-nanometer manufacturing process. As you can no doubt guess, the investment will also be quite a boon to both areas -- Intel says that the upgrades, which will take place over "several years," will create as many as 8,000 construction jobs and between 800 and 1,000 permanent jobs at the facilities. Head on past the break for the full press release.
Google sinks cash into Atlantic Wind Connection offshore wind project
It's been said before, but seriously -- is there anything that Google won't invest in? The company that's also looking into ISPs, voice search and Pac-Manning its home page is now sinking a few billion (give or take) into an ambitious new offshore wind project. The move comes just months after inking a score-long deal to power data centers with wind energy, and Google's involvement is helping the Atlantic Wind Connection backbone move forward. In theory, this backbone will stretch 350 miles off the coast from New Jersey to Virginia and will be able to connect 6,000MW of offshore wind turbines, and the AP reports that the initial phase of the project will be capable of "delivering 2,000 megawatts of wind energy, or enough to power about 500,000 homes." Good Energies, Marubeni and Trans-Elect are also getting in on the action, with the aforesaid first phase to be completed by early 2016. Also, it's expected that the energy created from this endeavor will cost "several times more than conventional electricity," but obviously the Big G views this as a solid long-term investment.
Comcast says additional Clearwire investment is unlikely
Clearwire isn't in the black yet, having bled about $126 million in the second quarter of 2010 -- but should the need arise for additional investment before it can turn a profit, the company shouldn't plan to knock on Comcast's door. Though it doesn't have as much visibility in the 4G marketplace as Clear and Sprint do, Comcast does actually offer WiMAX service using Clearwire's network and owns about 9 percent of it, but the cable provider's CFO says that the prospects for upping that share aren't good and that its up to Clearwire to "figure this out" -- "this" being its financial pickle. Not exactly a vote of confidence, is it? Obviously, adding (or converting to) LTE is a possible game plan for Clearwire that's going to require some serious cash to pull off, so staying tight with Sprint seems like a stellar idea right about now.
Qualcomm building a $2b Mirasol plant after winning 'major client'?
Well, if this isn't a statement of intent, we don't know what is. Those good old market sources are reporting today that Qualcomm has set aside a cool $2 billion to build a new Mirasol display production plant in Taiwan. The chipmaker already has a Mirasol facility in Longtan, a joint venture with Foxlink, but is said to be the sole investor in this new build. The whole thing has apparently been spurred on by a major client having "already started the design-in process" after seeing production samples of the 5.7-inch, low power, color display. We can't know for sure who that client may be, but Qualcomm's been doing some real heavy flirting with Amazon and all those overtures might (might!) finally have paid off. Of couse, as Jeff Bezos himself said, a color Kindle isn't likely to hit the market anytime soon, and this new factory isn't expected to begin volume production until 2012, but we'll take a slow and speculative roadmap over no roadmap at all.
EU sets aside €6.4b for research and innovation grants
For all its foibles, the European Union does fancy itself as quite the progressive supranational body and you need look no further than its gigantic €50.5 billion (to be spent between 2007 and 2013) R&D stimulus program for evidence. Over the next 14 months, the Euro bureau will distribute €6.4 billion to universities, SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and other research organizations that seek to pursue its stated goals. Those include tackling the problems of climate change, the Union's greying population, food and energy source security and sustainability, as well as more generic health and quality of life challenges. The primary goal is stated as "translating research into new technologies, products and services" -- in other words, less vaporware -- though we imagine the biggest justifier for this sizable injection de dinero will be the 165,000 new jobs that it's expected to create. Full PR after the break.
TSMC begins construction of new $9.3b foundry, wants to sate our constant hunger for chips
TSMC might not necessarily be a household name, but the product of its labors tends to be all over home electronics. Aiming to keep that trend going, the Taiwanese chipmaker has just broken ground on its third 300mm wafer plant, located in Taichung's Central Taiwan Science Park. The new Fab 15 will have a capacity of over 100,000 wafers per month -- earning it the prestige of being described as a Gigafab -- and once operational it'll create 8,000 new skilled jobs in the area. Semiconductors built there will also be suitably modern, with 40nm and 28nm production facilities being installed, and lest you worry about such trivial things as the environment, TSMC says it's doing a few things to minimize the foundry's energy usage and greenhouse gas emission. Then again, if you're going to spend nearly $10 billion on something, would you expect anything less?
Acer expects to overtake HP as world's biggest laptop vendor by year's end (updated)
Ah, the inexorable rise of a once-small Taiwanese company. Acer chairman JT Wang has told investors in a conference call this week that his company is on track to overtake HP in worldwide laptop shipments before the year is through. That assertion is backed up by Gartner's data, cited in the Wall Street Journal, which indicates that Acer shipped 9.49 million mobile computers in the first quarter of 2010, just ahead of HP's 9.47 million. Positive vibes are also being felt on the desktop front, where Acer aims to shift 10 million units this year, while a decent $15 million is being invested into "developing a smartphone platform based on Google Inc.'s Android." We'll be curious to see whether this thrifty strategy pays off against HP's ebullient $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm, but one thing's for sure: PC vendors are hungry for some of that sweet smartphone pie. Update: Gartner has corrected Acer's worldwide shipments number down to 9.12 million, placing it a close second behind HP for Q1.
AT&T considering cutting its spending on U-Verse?
AT&T could be ready to join Verizon in pulling back spending on its TV business, as the Wall Street Journal reports CEO Randall Stephenson said the company would have to "re-evaluate whether we put shovels in the ground" in the face of new regulation on broadband internet providers. Current targets see U-Verse increasing its service area from the current 24 million homes to 30 million in 2011, but that's now at risk. Beyond just digging ditches and installing new boxes to bring services to different neighborhoods we'd like to see further expansion on features (Xbox 360, c'mon AT&T, especially with the new model) while some have complained about still being restricted to only one HD channel at a time in some areas and of course, there's value in competition for local cable providers.
Tesla deal with Toyota is 'not formal,' $50m investment dependent on IPO
Tesla Motors seemed to have scored quite the coup earlier this month when it landed a deal with Toyota, but it now looks like things might be a tad more complicated than first suggested. According to Tesla, there is no formal deal with Toyota on electric car development, only an "intention to cooperate," and Toyota's proposed $50 million investment in the company isn't a done deal either. It's apparently dependent on Tesla's IPO happening before December 31st of this year -- if that falls apart or gets pushed back, the deal is off. What is officially happening, however, is Tesla's $42 million purchase of a closed Toyota plant in San Francisco that will be used to produce the Model S sedan -- which itself is apparently still set to go into production in 2012, and run about $49,900.
Gaikai up to $15 million in capital with second round of funding
Tired of what we silly game journalists have to say about the upcoming Gaikai game streaming service and thirsting for comments from the venture's latest investment partners? We were too! Thankfully this morning's announcement that several investment groups will be adding another $10 million to the already $5 million-strong coffers at Gaikai brought with it a handful of quotes from just such folks. Rustic Canyon Partners' Nate Redmond sees "interesting new growth opportunities for the industry" in the streaming service, while Benchmark Capital's Mitch Lasky envisions the business as one "poised to take advantage of sweeping changes in how games are bought, sold, and ultimately even played brought about by the industry-wide shift to digital distribution." Unfortunately for us, however none of the investment partners seem to know when Gaikai will become usable by the general public, instead offering word of upcoming announcements about "other strategic industry investments and partnerships soon." We're thinking E3 might be a good time for that. And hey, that's pretty soon!
Booyah raises $20m, aims for 6m users
I've lately been guessing that Booyah might eventually hook up with Ngmoco, since they're both iPhone gaming/app companies with somewhat similar goals that could help each other out. But it looks like Booyah doesn't need any help any more -- it's just raised a whopping $20 million from investors in a new round of funding. Booyah was originally included in the iFund investment, but that contribution pales in comparison to this one, which sets Booyah up as one of the heaviest single-brand hitters in the app market. Booyah is made up of a few ex-Blizzard developers (we interviewed CEO Keith Lee back at GDC), and the growth of its second app, MyTown, has been amazing -- a little while back, they said the app was growing by 100,000 users a week, and they're aiming to hit 6 million users by the end of the summer (presumably with a new app coming as well, not all inside just MyTown). Their user investment is huge as well -- they say that average usage of the app was over an hour a day, and they're now hitting 8.3 million virtual item impressions a day. Along with selling virtual items, they're also putting together high-profile partnerships with companies like H&M and The Travel Channel. And they've done all of this while still standing in the shadow of more well-known check-in services like Gowalla and Foursquare. There's a heck of a lot of activity and potential coming out of Booyah, and with this big chunk of funding, they're set up to do some more amazing things with their next app. We'll have to keep an eye on them.
Content company raises $2 million to develop for iPad
Thinking Screen Media is a content platform developer, putting together a content delivery system designed to bring information to "millions of connected screens worldwide." Now, it seems that many of those screens might be iPads. TechCrunch reports that they've raised a whopping $2 million just to switch their development aim to the iPad. They currently have an iPad app up and running in the store, and they've got a number of other investment sources already. However, according to the report, this money is specifically for the iPad. Of course, in the larger scheme of things, this is small potatoes. A content channel is pretty useless unless it's delivering content that people actually want, and $2 million is loose change for some of the larger content companies. This is a significant investment in terms of its scope, though. Even a smaller company like this is heavily investing in the iPad and Apple's platform as a major part of their business.
