TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

Financial software giant Intuit has entered into an agreement to gobble up the assets of Entellium, the troubled Seattle Internet startup whose former CEO is in federal prison awaiting trial on wire fraud charges.

The deal has not been approved, but Intuit spokeswoman Diane Carlini confirmed Sunday night in an interview with TechFlash that the company is pursuing an asset purchase. "We have made an offer for certain assets," said Carlini. She did not have any details on the purchase price, though one source who spoke to TechFlash put the figure at about $8 million.

Leif Jensen, who lost his job at Seattle-based Entellium last month, wants his severance check. And he's filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court to get it.

Jensen, who was let go just before Entellium's former top executives were charged with fraud, alleges that he was pressured by acting Chief Executive Charles Miller to sign a separation agreement on Oct. 3. Jensen says that agreement led him and other workers to surrender their rights to wages.

The former designer said he was given less than 30 minutes to review the document and was told that he would not be eligible for COBRA health insurance benefits if he didn't sign. Jensen -- whose wife is pregnant -- is the father of a 12-month-old son.

Online sales inched up just 1 percent on "Black Friday" as compared to the same day last year, according to numbers released today by comScore. It found that $534 million was spent on online purchases Friday, which compares to $531 million last year. The report also noted that $10.41 billion has been spent online during the holiday shopping season to date, which is a 4 percent decline compared to the same period last year.

In a guest post on TechCrunch, Redfin Chief Executive Glenn Kelman offers 10 tips for first-time CEOs to survive the recession. Here's #8, which Kelman titles: "Go on the attack." "Your competitors are hurting too. Be the aggressor, not the victim."

As the leader of an online real estate startup, the Seattle entrepreneur writes that he's had a year's head start trying to manage amid tough times. And he notes that the company will have to fight to reach profitability next year.  "The time we have left to succeed or fail is really just the measure of how long it took to adapt to our downturn," he writes. Redfin, which cut 20 percent of its staff last month, altered its pricing earlier this month.

Amazon.com's Web site slowed considerably Friday under the strain of holiday shoppers, but the Seattle online retailer held up better than Sears.com. The Associated Press reports that the Web site for Sears was inaccessible for two hours. Citing research from Keynote Systems, the AP says that the Web sites of Amazon.com and Target were taking about 40 seconds load versus 25 seconds last week.

We're split here at TechFlash when it comes to Black Friday. I am avoiding the shops, while colleague Todd Bishop is heading to Seattle's REI. Where are you going to shop this year?

The Pets.com sock puppet has returned just in time to poke fun at the government's proposed bail out of the Detroit automakers. The folks at reason.tv have put together a funny spoof using the iconic symbol of the dot com boom.

"Why are you talking about bailing out the auto companies when you let all of us tech companies just crash and burn?" asks the sock puppet. “I mean, I lost everything. I had to sleep on Jerry Yang’s couch for five years.”

Hat tip to VentureBeat's Eric Eldon, who writes "let’s give thanks for all the companies that didn’t get bailed out when the dot-com bubble crashed."

It's in the books. Clearwire today officially merged with Sprint Nextel's WiMax business. As part of the deal, the Kirkland provider of broadband wireless service also raised $3.2 billion in cash from Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, Google and Bright House Networks. The company, which retains the Clearwire name, will continue to be based in Kirkland.

John Chapple

Could a Seattle area technology executive be on the verge of taking the top job at Yahoo? That's some of the speculation from Kara Swisher of All Things D, who writes today that former Nextel Partners CEO and current Yahoo board member John Chapple is a strong possibility given that investor Carl Icahn has quietly increased his position in the troubled Internet company. Chapple -- who runs Kirkland private investment firm Hawkeye Investments -- is an Icahn ally who was placed on the board in August as part of a compromise between Yahoo and the billionaire investor.

DotNetNuke, whose open source platform is used to power interactive Web sites, has raised a first round of funding led by Silicon Valley venture firms August Capital and Sierra Ventures. The Seattle startup didn't say how much was raised. But, in a blog post, co-founder Shaun Walker writes that it took 18 months to pull in the capital.

Let's face it. Seattle sports are in the crapper. But -- as I pointed out to fellow passengers on the bus ride to the Seahawks ninth loss Sunday -- at least we've got Sounders FC coming next Spring.

And it appears that Seattle fans will be treated to quite the high-tech experience. As the PSBJ's Greg Lamm reports, the Sounders are incorporating all sorts of technology bells and whistles. That includes social networking tools to connect fans, including the ability to sit near like-minded supporters at Qwest Field. Keep reading to check out Greg's full report.

Indian-American entrepreneurs in Seattle's technology community expressed shock and outrage over the tense situation in Mumbai, where 119 people have been killed in terrorist attacks that have virtually shut down one of India's most important commercial cities.  Meanwhile, alerts went out to technology professionals at Microsoft and other companies doing business in India warning employees to avoid Mumbai.

Not every online service that Amazon.com touches turns to gold. TechCrunch reports today that the online retailer is shutting down Alexa Web Search, citing an email to developers which said they turned off the service yesterday for new customers with existing customers out of luck as of Jan. 26.

The reason for the closure: very few people were using it. Or, as TechCrunch succinctly puts it in this headline: "Amazon to Shut Down Web Search Service; Practically No One Affected."

What should Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Amazon.com and eBay do in 2009? That's the question that Alex Iskold of ReadWriteWeb tries to answer in this informative post on how the big Internet companies should position themselves amid the economic headwinds.

Iskold offers a couple tips for each of the tech titans, noting that Microsoft needs to "execute faster and better" while Amazon.com should "simplify and clean up the product pages."  A good read.

"Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" are just around the corner, which means shopping deals abound on all sorts of gadgets, gizmos and software. Attempting to jumpstart what could be a sluggish holiday retail season, the deals are starting early this year.

We've compiled a short list of hot products, so you don't have to. (Feel free to use the comments to point out any screaming deals you've seen.) I am in the market for a digital recorder and a headset for my phone. What are the cool tech gifts you are looking for this year? Happy shopping.

John Cook, Eric Engleman, Todd Bishop

As the news slows down a bit for the holiday week, we’ve finally been able to take a few deep breaths.

A little more than a month ago, we launched TechFlash, and our lives haven’t been the same since. We’re working harder than we’ve ever worked. And in case it’s not obvious, we’re having a ton of fun. It's great to have so many of you joining us.

Here's the latest on the site, and a glimpse of what's coming.