Google and Yelp are in advanced acquisition negotiations, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. And while the deal isn’t done, we’ve heard that it’s very likely to close. The price is supposedly at least $500 million. Yelp was founded in 2004 as a way to let users leave reviews on local businesses. Comscore puts worldwide traffic at nearly 9 million monthly unique visitors, and it has been growing fast – the company says it’s real numbers are more like 25 million monthly uniques

Crispy Gamer Media said it has acquired GamerDNA for an undisclosed sum. Cambridge, Mass.-based GamerDNA was founded in 2008 and it raised $3 million in venture capital from Flybridge Capital Partners. But it is probably better off under the wing of Crispy Gamer. GamerDNA was building a social network for gamers, allowing them to take their Xbox Live achievements and share them with the rest of their friends. GamerDNA had some interesting ideas for how to get gamers to discover new friends and games.

Affiliate marketing platform Skimlinks has secured a Series A round of funding, which we’ve now confirmed as $1.5 million. The round, which was effectively a follow on, was led by Sussex Place Ventures and includes the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and The Accelerator Group, along with a number of the original angel investors involved in Skimlinks’ seed round earlier in the year. The new funding will be used by the company to expand its US operations, where it currently generates over half of its revenue, along with investing in sales and marketing initiatives, and product development.

Rummble has bought Wi-Fi finder Total Hotspots. It’s largely a talent acquisition: Total Hotspots managing director Alex Housley becomes Rummble’s vice president of business. The two companies partnered earlier this year to bring Total Hotspots’ database of Wi-Fi access points to the Rummble community. Total Hotspots is the profitable startup behind an iPhone app that tells users where the nearest paid and free hotspots are around the world. Rummble is lowering Total Hotspots’ price in the iPhone app store from £2.99 to £0.59 over Christmas. London-based Rummble is part of the wave of startups developing location-based social networks through mobile apps. There are others including Foursquare, which has about 150,000 users, and Gowalla, which raised $8.4 million in a second round of financing announced last week.

Artfact, announced that it closed on $13 million of growth capital financing provided by Boston-based Commonwealth Capital Ventures and Ascent Venture Partners. Simultaneously, Artfact merged with Auctionzip, the world’s largest directory of live auction listings. In addition to facilitating the merger, the growth capital funding will be used to expand product development, marketing, and sales efforts. Artfact and Auctionzip provide over 16,000 estate auctioneers of all sizes worldwide with a complete range of technology and marketing services including online live bidding, and integrated auction management software. Through their websites Auctionzip.com, Artfact.com, and Invaluable.com, the companies allow 2 million art, antiques, and collectible dealers and collectors unprecedented access to search over 160,000 estate auctions each year with a combined value of over $25 billion.

Smule, the company behind popular, music-based iPhone apps like Ocarina and I am T-Pain, has raised $8 million in a third round of funding. The Menlo Park, Calif. company’s apps usually take advantage of the iPhone’s capabilities in cool, innovative ways that revolve around music.

KongZhong said it is buying Shanghai Dacheng Network for $80 million. Shanghai Dacheng Network is a developer of 3-D massively multiplayer online (MMO) games where thousands of people play together in online virtual worlds. The transaction shows that online gaming, on its way to $3.8 billion in revenues in China, remains a hot market. The aim is to combine KongZhong’s mobile game business with Dacheng’s 3-D game engine and development skills to create a multi-platform digital entertainment and gaming company, focused on both PC MMOs and mobile games.

ThePort Network has raised $500k from existing investors in an extension of its Series B round. ThePort provides businesses with social network and social media services. A couple years ago we covered ThePort as part of a broader look at ways to build your own social network, which included a detailed look at a number of players in the space here.

AlikeList is applying social networking to the discovery of local businesses. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said it has raised $5 million in a first round of funding to expand its social platform for listing, referring, and discovering trusted local businesses. The company says that when looking for a local business — a restaurant, doctor, or contractor — people trust the recommendations of people they know. Based on this principle, the company created a social network where people save lists of positive recommendations for local businesses and then share them with friends. People can “like” businesses or add them to a “try list.” AlikeList thus accelerates word-of-mouth marketing. Businesses can pay subscription fees and usage fees to the company to target specific users with special offers.

Zynga, one of the stars of the Scamville drama, has raised a big round of funding – $180 million. Digital Sky Technologies, Tiger Global, Institutional Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz all participated in the round. The company has now raised $219 million in total. DST, which has invested $300 million in Facebook this year, led the round. As with Facebook, some of DST’s investment will be used to buy shares directly from employees.

As our pay-TV operations have proven more resilient than advertising financed media during the current economic downturn it has given us the possibility to move forward, with speed, in that segment of our business.

 I’m specifically thinking of our sports offerings which look dramatically different today than before we were hit by the perfect storm.

NHL Banner

Localised sports channels have been high on the agenda during the past year and a half and still are. In the summer of 2008 we had a number of pan-regional sports channels and a very few localised ones. But step by step we have changed that to the benefit of the viewers we have through our own satellite TV platform and via IPTV and cable TV networks.

It started with launch of Viasat Fotboll in Sweden and Viasat Motor in Sweden and Norway in the fall of 2008. We continued with Viasat Sport Baltic for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania early this year. We then launched Viasat Hockey for Sweden and Finland in conjunction with the season premiere of NHL earlier this fall. We recently gave Norway its own Viasat Fotball.

We have launched all these channels on our own – but that’s not always necessary.  In Denmark, we have a joint venture with TV 2, called TV 2 Sport, utilising the rights portfolio of the combined media houses.

This week we made an additional announcement in Finland, our smallest Nordic pay-TV market, were we are trying something different. We have entered into a strategic cooperation with the Finnish Sanoma Group, to launch a localised premium sports channel fully owned by them.

We are both providing the channel with content. We will have the exclusive rights for DTH, Direct-to-home via satellite and we will be the reseller of the channel for most of the cable TV networks as part of the Viasat pay-TV package.

The preference is so different when it comes to sports in each country. I think Viasat Hockey is a good example. We have the broadcasting rights to both NHL and KHL. Of course it’s a perfect channel, not for Denmark and Norway, but for Sweden and Finland where the hockey interest is huge.

Both countries have an extensive number of players both in NHL and KHL. We are bringing them to the homes of the fans on a dedicated channel. That’s entertainment at your command. 

Hans-Holger Albrecht

CloudShare has raised $10 million in a series B funding round. Participating in the round were Sequoia Capital, Gemini Israel Funds, and new investor Charles River Ventures. CloudShare has produced a cloud computing based service that allows software demos. Many large companies have internal demo centers in the cloud to allow prospective sales clients to demo software, but most small to mid-size companies don’t have this functionality, which can be used to show how a product works.

Zumodrive has raised $1.5 million in funding led by Sherpalo Ventures with Tandem Entrepreneurs and VeriFone CEO Douglas Bergeron participating. We initially reviewed Zumodrive here. While there are a plethora of syncing and storage services available to users, Zumodrive, which spawned from Y Combinator startup Zecter, has a different take on file syncing. Similar to other services, Zumodrive creates a drive on your device that is synced to the cloud. But service has a different twist-the service tricks the file system into thinking those cloud-stored files are local, and streams them from the cloud when you open or access them.

Cloud Engines, has brought in $3 of a targeted $4 million round of equity, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in San Francisco, it has now raised $6.25 million to date, including a first round raised from the Foundry Group in May totaling $3.25. VentureBeat reported on Cloud Engines last month when it launched its Pogoplug device, which makes external hard drives accessible remotely, even from smartphones.

GoWalla’spre-money valuation in their recent financing was $20 million, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. The company raised $8.4 million in that round, making their post-money valuation $28.4 million. Part of GoWalla’s valuation is based on their PackRat Facebook application that still brings in “single digit millions” in revenue. But it’s clear that Greylock, Shasta and the other investors in that round are focused on GoWalla’s mobile strategy. NYC-based competitor foursquare has just over 150,000 users, and has raised just $1.35 million in funding. Their products are similar – users “check in” to places they visit. Friends can see where they are, and vice versa.

Netformx, has brought in $12 million in venture financing, according to Private Equity Hub. Based in Santa Clara, Calif., the company is backed by Susquehanna Growth Equity and Valley Venture Capital.

Widevine has raised $15 million in funding for its business of delivering video to web-connected consumer electronics gear. New investors include Liberty Global, Samsung Ventures and a third, unnamed, strategic investor. The Seattle-based company is trying to deliver software that makes it possible to deliver entertainment over any network to any device, fulfilling a goal of “TV everywhere” for cable, satellite and phone companies. The company’s technology includes video optimization, which means it will size the video for a particular display and play it at a rate that matches the speed of its Internet connection. It lets consumers bookmark, fast forward, or rewind Internet video. The content it distributes has digital rights management to prevent piracy. The company will use the new funds to support its customers, add new products and defend its legal rights, said Widevine chief executive Brian Baker. The company has 55 patents.

Project management has become a hot segment of the enterprise software market, with many startups launching to foster collaboration, organize tasks and track progress. One such company, Clarizen, has distinguished itself by saying it gives executives real-time snapshots of projects and business operations — essentially allowing them to check their company’s pulse at any time. Now the San Mateo, Calif. company has raised $8 million in a third round of funding to expand its customer base and capture more market share — a sign that it is successfully carving out a niche for itself in an increasingly competitive space. And with players like Qtask, Plandone, Daptiv, Basecamp and even big guys like Microsoft — with Outlook and MS Project — in the mix

Microsoft said that it has purchased IT process automation vendor Opalis for an undisclosed sum. Microsoft said the acquisition, which had been rumored for nearly two months, adds to its System Center portfolio needed tools that can manage highly automated and scalable virtual environments. The tools complement Microsoft’s strategy to stretch its management tools across on-premises environments and the cloud.

The Social Times, the company behind AllFacebook.com, has been acquired by WebMediaBrands. We’ve confirmed the news with Social Times founder Nick O’Neill, who will be joining WebMediaBrands as Director of Social Times. O’Neill couldn’t comment on the acquisition price, but says that he is pleased with the deal.

Cloud Engines raised $3 million in funding according to an SEC filing. We’ve confirmed the investment with the company with existing investor Foundry Group and others participating in the round. According to the startup’s CEO, Daniel Putterman, Cloud Engines will use the money to kick start their international plans for retail, specifically in Europe. The company will also expand retail operations in the U.S.

GOGII announced that it has raised $8.2 million in a round of financing led by Matrix Partners, with existing investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers also participating in the round. The new funding is the second round of successful financing for the quickly growing mobile start-up, which raised a Series A round from Kleiner Perkins’ iFund in December 2007.

Just a few days ago we heard rumours about the imminent sale of Friendster, one of the first-generation social networks that originally kicked off the craze. Through self-reinvention the site has managed to stay relevant to a large audience in Asia, though its influence is notably diminished in the West over the years since its founding in 2002 and heydey in 2003-4. There aren’t too many details emerging yet, but Business Times is reporting that the deal is finalized with a sale to MOL Global, a Malaysian e-commerce company that Friendster() has been working with since October to power its payments platform. MOL Global CEO Ganesh Kumar Bangah took the stage at a signing ceremony today in Kuala Lumpur to announce an expected influx of $110 million yearly revenue from the acquisition.