We at RockyRadar would like to introduce a new feature called “What We’re Reading.” Every Friday afternoon we will publish a post containing a few bullets of blogs, journals, and opinion that comment on the different technology sectors. Perhaps you are aware of the author but haven’t read the piece; perhaps the author is new to you and you’ve found a new source of information. Either way, please enjoy.
- Jeff Nolan, of Venture Chronicles, shares his predictions for 2009. His prognostications include a more disciplined and parsimonious consumer credit market, the increasing importance of word-of-mouth marketing (and thus companies like Zuberance), and the demise of advertising as a business model for consumer web sites.
- The New York Times reported that while Software and Life Science venture capital investment fell 10% and 15%, respectively, in 2009, investment in the Clean Tech sector was up 52% for the industry overall. Yet a blog post by Neal Dikeman on CleanTech Blog suggests that investments in this sector – specifically solar – might be premature, as self described late-stage companies have been experiencing funding issues that may be resulting from causes other than the crippled economy.
- Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth begs the question of the impact on biotech companies looking for partnership or acquisition. While Amgen and Biogen shareholders who held hopes of cashing out may be singing a sad song, reactions for the impact on smaller companies have been mixed so far with FierceBiotech and the New York Times seeing limited impact and answers all over the board coming from several southern California biotech executives.
