Y Combinator’s Paul Graham asks companies to take the patent pledge. The concept? Big companies shouldn’t use patents to bully small startups. “The patent pledge is in effect a narrower but open source ‘Don’t be evil,” writes the venture capitalist.
Amazon.com says it will open new distribution facilities and bring 7,000 jobs to California if the state overturns its online sales tax collection law, something that TheStreet claims amounts to a “bribe.”
The Zino Society has released the names of the 25 companies that will present 5-minute pitches at its Zino Zillionaire Investment Forum on September 13th. Among the companies on the agenda are: 9Slides, bLoyal, Scayl, Bizmote, Bundled.com, PetHub, Geedra and Puralytics. Companies compete for $150,000 in startup cash.
IncrediMail has completed its acquisition of Smilebox, the Redmond-based electronic greeting card service. Israel-based IncrediMail is paying up to $40 million for Smilebox, which also announced today its first photo sharing iPhone app.
Pirq, the mobile application that’s offering coupons at Seattle area restaurants, gets featured on Q13 with CEO James Sun explaining how the upstart is different because its deals are instantaneous. More on Pirq rom this GeekWire profile.
The Windows Phone Marketplace has topped 30,000 apps, with 47 percent of them available for free, according to Windows Phone App List. Here’s the growth chart since the mobile platform was introduced:
Concur CEO Steve Singh today is unveiling a new offering called Concurforce, a travel and expense management service built on top of the Salesforce.com platform Force.com. The company says it is designed to “help the heaviest of business travelers and expense report filers save time, be more productive and stay better connected with colleagues.”
SEC filing watch. Jenu Biosciences, an ultrasound startup led by former venture capitalist Wayne Wager, has raised $500,000. Pete Higgins and Mike Slade of Second Avenue Partners are listed as directors.
Steve Lohr of The New York Times asks whether consumers will benefit if T-Mobile USA remains a standalone company. One expert isn’t so sure: “If the AT&T merger with T-Mobile fails, it will shuffle the pieces still more,” says Kevin Werbach, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Bayer HealthCare officially announced its acquisition today of Pathway Medical Technologies, whose devices help doctors remove blood clots in legs. Xconomy had the scoop on the deal last month, noting that Bayer HealthCare’s Medrad unit paid $125 million for the Kirkland medical device maker.
Fun stuff. Super Mario cruises the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
Headline of the day part I comes via The Telegraph: “Sex claims and ‘the wild ways’ of Microsoft bosses.”
Headline of the day part II comes via Peter Kafka at All Things D: “Dear Amazon: Somebody Wants to Buy a Brazilian Honey Wax. But Not Me.”
