Put a ring on it: Blue Nile sales spike 17% due to engagement ring demand, but shares down

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Engagements were a plenty for the past three months and that was good news for Seattle online jewelry retailer Blue Nile. The company saw its revenues increase 17 percent to $97.1 million during the first quarter of 2013. Profit came in at $832,000, compared with $154,000 in the first quarter of 2012. This increase is due in large part… Read More…

The top tech stocks of 2012: Shares of Expedia take off

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Super computers. Online travel. And marketing tools for real estate agents. Those were the hot segments in the Seattle tech sector in 2012 as Cray, Expedia and Market Leader each saw their stock prices more than double. Generally speaking, it was a solid year for tech stocks, with the Nasdaq up 14 percent on the… Read More…

Engagement ring designer Ritani sparkles with $15M, combines clicks with bricks

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Ritani has been in the diamond business for more than a decade. But the engagement ring designer is adding a fresh shine today, announcing $15 million from Cantor Ventures and a new strategy that combines brick-and-mortar retail with e-commerce. That’s a hot concept right now, highlighted by concepts such as Amazon.com’s locker service and efforts… Read More…

Tis the season: Sales jump at Blue Nile on engagement ring demand

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A lot of folks must have spent the Spring months popping the question. Seattle online jewelry retailer Blue Nile saw its revenues increase 13 percent to $91 million during the second quarter, largely due to an uptick in engagement ring sales. For the quarter, Blue Nile tallied $52.4 million in sales in the engagement category,… Read More…

Nasdaq closes with a loss for 2011: A look back at the top and bottom performers

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It was a tough year for most of the publicly-traded tech companies in Washington state, with just a handful posting positive overall stock performance. Even tech titans like Amazon.com, Microsoft and F5 Networks shed value in 2011, marking an overall negative year on the Nasdaq. In fact, the tech-heavy Nasdaq  dropped 1.8 percent during 2011,… Read More…

Irvine resigns as CEO of Blue Nile

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Blue Nile CEO Diane Irvine plans to resign as CEO of the Seattle online jewelry retailer effective this Friday. No reason was given for the departure, and we’ve reached out to the company for more information. She’s being replaced on an interim basis by Vijay Talwar, a former Nike executive who has worked as the company’s… Read More…

Tech Moves: Robert Pease says goodbye to Gist; lawyer defections

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Sure, it’s technically summer time. But that doesn’t mean everyone is on vacation. Some folks are shifting jobs. Here’s a look at some notable Tech Moves over the past few days. Robert Pease is moving on from Gist, the Seattle startup that was acquired by Research in Motion back in February. Pease joined the company… Read More…

Tech Earnings Roundup: Blue Nile, Bsquare, Market Leader, Marchex

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Marchex, the Seattle call advertising company, reported net income of $80,000 and revenues of $38.8 million for the second quarter. That compared to a net loss of $3.2 million and revenue of $21.4 million for the same period last year. Marchex CEO Russ Horowitz noted that the performance indicates that its bet on “Digital Call… Read More…

InfoSpace CFO David Binder to leave for new gig at Blue Nile

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David Binder, who has served as chief financial officer at InfoSpace since January 2008, plans to step down from the job in mid-August to take a new position as chief financial officer of Blue Nile. He first joined InfoSpace in 2004, joining the Internet search company from drugstore.com. “I am thrilled to be joining a… Read More…

Barack Obama becomes the proud owner of a new Blue Nile championship ring

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Barack Obama has some new bling, courtesy of the Seattle Storm and Seattle online jewelry retailer Blue Nile. In a White House ceremony on Wednesday, the Seattle Storm received congratulations from President Obama for winning the 2010 WNBA championship. As part of the ceremony, the white gold championship ring, developed by Blue Nile and valued… Read More…

Shares of Blue Nile fall after earnings report

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Seattle online jewelry retailer Blue Nile today announced first quarter results, posting net income of $2.4 million on revenue of $80.2 million. The company’s international sales drove a lot of the growth, up 34 percent to $12.9 million. “We remain focused on our key objective of building our business in the U.S. and internationally by… Read More…

Seattle Storm gets some bling, partners with Blue Nile on championship ring

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Sue Bird, Lauren Jackson and the rest of the Seattle Storm are getting some much deserved bling to celebrate their 2010 WNBA Championship. And the team didn’t have to go far to find the rings, partnering with Seattle online jeweler Blue Nile which designed the championship rings. All-Star players Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson were on… Read More…