TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

It's been a big month here at TechFlash HQ, the biggest on record in fact. July started with a bang -- or should we say with a spark -- when we learned of the Fisher Plaza data center fire in the early hours of July 3. It concluded with Microsoft joining forces with Yahoo, a significant move that CEO Steve Ballmer discussed in a TechFlash interview on Wednesday.

Thanks to everyone for reading and participating in the conversation. We've got some great stories and guest posts percolating for August, and we welcome your ideas too.

But without further ado, here are the most read stories for the month of July with a little bit of editorial commentary thrown in just for fun.  Enjoy Seafair weekend and try to stay cool.

Photo via Zillow.com

Seattle technology executive Martin Tobias has sold his Queen Anne home to a Florida biotech executive for $4.3 million, reports The Seattle Times.

Delve Networks has sealed a strategic partnership with Akamai Technologies, a deal that allows the Seattle online video startup to offer enhanced video management, delivery and publishing technologies to customers.

Inrix today introduced a new iPhone application that should resonate with Seattle drivers -- especially on days like today when the I-90 floating bridge will be closed. The free app predicts traffic conditions on more than 160,000 miles of roadways in North America.

The economic recession is not only having an impact on the ability of startup companies to raise venture capital financing, but also their desire to take on venture debt. A few years ago, many of the venture capital deals completed in the Seattle area included some form of debt financing. But that's changed in the past year, according to industry watchers.

Two Pacific Northwest companies are joining forces in a deal of undisclosed size. Portland-based Webtrends today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Seattle-based Widemile, a provider of Web site testing technologies.

Isilon Systems trimmed its losses and reported a three percent gain in revenues during the second quarter, a move that Chief Executive Sujal Patel said indicates "steady progress toward profitability."

It's been a rough year for Ignition Partners -- a really rough year. Between the Entellium scandal, the Sotto Wireless closure and the elimination of jobs at what was formerly known as Jobster, the Bellevue venture capital firm has suffered more bad news than most during the past 12 months.

Well, this is interesting timing. A day after I called out Entrepreneur magazine for naming Portland one of its top entrepreneurial cities, Oregon has lost one of its publicly-traded biotech companies to the Seattle area.

AVI BioPharma, a Corvalis, Oregon developer of RNA-based drugs, said today that it is moving its corporate leadership team as well as some of its scientific operations to a new 19,000 square foot facility in Bothell. The reason? AVI wants to tap into Seattle's talent pool in the biotech arena.

Andy Sack

Andy Sack: I've been surprised by how much negative commentary has been flowing in the local startup community about the role of venture capitalists. If you believe the recent comments on blogs and the chatter at startup events, Seattle venture capitalists are out of touch, slow, arrogant, and generally unsupportive of entrepreneurs. As a person who's been a serial entrepreneur -- and now an investor in early-stage companies --  I wanted to write a piece on the positives and negatives of venture capital.

Want to save a little cash on your tax bill? A new Seattle Internet startup by the name of ValueAppeal believes it has devised a mathematical formula to determine whether homeowners are paying too much in property taxes.

Better yet -- especially for you penny pinchers in the audience -- ValueAppeal creates a customized report that homeowners can print off and then send to the assessor's office in an effort to reduce their property taxes. If successful, that can save hundreds or thousands of dollars each year.

"The property tax appeal process is just a mess," said Charlie Walsh, the 31-year-old founder of ValueAppeal.  "It is totally opaque and homeowners are at a total disadvantage when it comes to finding the information they need."

Flickr photo via StuSeeger

Is Portland really a better entrepreneurial town than Seattle or Silicon Valley or Boston? Well, at least that's one magazine's take, which has named the City of Roses one of the top 10 "startup-friendly cities" in the country. Nothing against our "TrailBlazing" neighbors to the south, but come on.

I am not sure what methodology Entrepreneur magazine used to compile the list. And frankly, I have some serious doubts about some of the other choices. Youngstown, Ohio? Really?

Evoworx -- a tiny Seattle startup that's looking to help people monitor their energy use in the home -- certainly has some big competitors looming on the horizon. After all, just two months ago, Microsoft introduced Hohm -- a free online service that's also designed to help home owners track their energy consumption.

Covance said today that it plans to acquire Merck's Gene Expression Laboratory in Seattle, a move that Covance CEO Joe Herring said "brings world-class talent and technologies to Covance and further expands our capabilities in genomics testing and personalized medicine."

The good folks over at Xconomy and the Washington Technology Industry Association will be hosting their summer celebration and Battle of the Tech Bands this Thursday night at the Pyramid Alehouse in Seattle. We're looking forward to checking out the scene and hearing which Seattle geeks can truly rock out.

There's certainly some musical talent in the Seattle tech community, as noted a few months ago when we had some fun assembling our "Seattle Tech All Star Fantasy Rock Band." But rather than judge for ourselves, we're inviting a true expert to offer his opinions of the five bands that will take the stage Thursday night.