SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies, which has a stake in the Facebook social network, and other investors have bought $180 million of securities in social game company Zynga, Zynga’s CEO said on Wednesday.

Chief Executive Mark Pincus said the investment would alleviate pressure to take the company public.

He said revenue had grown at least as quickly as the number of employees, which more than tripled this year. A source familiar with the company said revenue was running at an annualized rate of more than $300 million.

Sources have previously put that “run rate” at $100 million in April and $200 million in October.

Industry analysts have speculated that Zynga could raise $1 billion to $1.2 billion in an IPO.

Pincus would not comment on reports that put the valuation higher, and declined to endorse any figure as accurate.

Zynga makes games played by members of Internet social networks like Facebook and MySpace, and profits by selling add-on tools. The game FishVille, for example, lets players buy virtual food and goods with game cash bought with real-world dollars. Zynga has said it generates 90 percent of its revenue by selling “virtual goods”.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Fast-growing Zynga, whose games are a hit on Facebook and other social networks, plans to play alone for now, eschewing talks with suitors and holding back on any plans for going public, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Privately held Zynga makes games for social networks and then profits by selling add-on tools. The fish-raising game FishVille, for instance, lets players purchase virtual food and goods with game cash — which can be bought with real world dollars.

The tiny “micropayments” for fish food add up quickly for Zynga, one of the stars in the nascent virtual goods industry, which has attracted Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

Industry watchers speculate that Zynga could raise $1 billion to $1.2 billion in an initial public offering in the near future if it chose to go that route.

But founder and CEO Mark Pincus said at the Reuters Global Media Summit that Zynga is not thinking about going public right now and dismissed talk of a buyout.

“We have not had conversations with companies about buying us.”

“The path that makes sense to me today is to go independently, because we don’t need capital and we’re having fun,” he added

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp <NVDA.O> said on Tuesday the U.S. Patent Office has found that 17 patent claims asserted by chip designer Rambus Inc <RMBS.O> are invalid, one step in a dispute over whether Nvidia infringed Rambus technology.

Nvidia, which requested the review, will offer the findings to an International Trade Commission judge in Washington, D.C., which is weighing the validity of the Rambus claims against Nvidia.

The ITC judge, who is not bound by the Patent Office finding, is expected to make a decision in January that will serve as a recommendation to the full ITC. The ITC could bar imports from Nvidia’s overseas suppliers if it finds the imports to violate Rambus patents.

“This continues our string of victories against Rambus patents” in the U.S. Patent Office, David Shannon, NVIDIA executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.

“We believe these patents are invalid and are confident that a similar decision will be made on the patents that continue to be examined,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Rambus said, “The patents remain valid and enforceable as originally issued until the reexamination proceedings are concluded, including all appeals.”

The 17 claims arise out of three patents. Eight other claims arising from two other patents at issue in the ITC case are still being considered by the Patent Office.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, California (Reuters) – Animated 3-D movies will soon be made cheaper, faster and more vividly with a new generation of computer chips that can crunch huge amounts of data faster than ever, DreamWorks Animation SKG Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said this week.

Katzenberg, one of the first studio chiefs to embrace 3-D animation in films like “Monsters vs Aliens”, told Intel Capital’s CEO Summit in Huntington Beach, California that he is even more excited about the creative potential of this “scalable multi-core processing”.

“Ten years from now I think this will be a tipping point for how we view entertainment and how entertainment views the world,” he said of the chips, which are still in development.

Katzenberg gave attendees at the conference sneak peeks at footage from DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming 3-D films “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Shrek Forever After”.

He also screened eye-popping sports footage on 3-D-enabled television that he predicted would be in 30 percent of US households by 2013, with early adoption spurred by sports and video games.

Limited processing power for 3-D films has forced animators to work in an assembly line-type fashion, with characters’ faces, bodies, clothing and fur or hair animated by a different artist. Each film requires four years and 400 artists to make, Katzenberg said at a presentation.

BACK TO PENCIL AND PAPER

, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Chief executives of start-up companies supported by Intel Corp <INTC.O> said on Tuesday they expect to offer more jobs, after a long drought during which they laid off people.

Venture capital-backed start-ups have long held out the promise of jobs and growth, but attendees at a conference of start-ups said their offerings are not enough to ignite a sputtering economy.

The chief executives of some of the more than 400 start-ups supported by Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of the world’s largest chipmaker, gathered at a luxury hotel on the California coast to talk about their futures.

Shortly after the National Venture Capital Association in Washington said 2,500 venture-backed start-ups have nearly 11,000 jobs available, Intel Capital President Arvind Sodhani held out the hope in a welcome speech here that innovation from start-ups will help rekindle prosperity.

But his optimism is for the long-term.

Sodhani said 20 of Intel’s start-ups — most in China, India, other parts of Asia and Europe — are nearly ready for initial public offerings. He cited two recent IPOs but would not predict when over the next two years others might happen.

“Unemployment is going to be sticky for a while … growth is going to be hard to come by,” he told Reuters.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel Corp will pay rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc $1.25 billion to settle all outstanding legal disputes, in a move that can hasten the resolution of Intel’s antitrust troubles.

AMD, whose shares jumped 22 percent, agreed to withdraw essentially all its regulatory complaints and litigation against Intel, ending a global campaign that it has waged on the world’s largest chipmaker for 12 years.

Some analysts said the deal takes the steam out of a pending U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigation into Intel’s business practices.

But others said Intel has critics beyond AMD and its regulatory troubles are far from over. Among Intel’s adversaries are graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini denied any wrongdoing by the company but said it decided to settle the dispute with AMD to avoid the risk of a triple-damages finding by a jury.

“Intel got the fact that it was a major risk of a huge settlement in front of a jury,” said Broadpoint Amtech analyst Doug Freedman. “It removes the coin-flip of a jury trial.”

AMD has argued that Intel used illegal means to preserve its 80 percent share of the global market for central processing units, which are the brains of personal computers.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 11 (Reuters) – A new technology to prevent lithium-ion batteries from catching fire or exploding in laptops and mobile phones may be on the market as soon as the first quarter of 2010, its inventor said on Wednesday.

The invention, called Stoba, was developed at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan’s national research organization.

When lithium-ion batteries develop internal shorts they can quickly heat up to as much as 500 degrees centigrade (932 degrees Fahrenheit) and catch fire or explode.

Stoba sits between the positive and negative sides of the battery and when the battery hits 130 degrees centigrade (266 degrees Fahrenheit), Stoba transforms from a porous material to a film and shuts down the reaction.

“We have introduced a totally new material to the battery,” said Alex Peng, the senior researcher who led a team that developed the new material over four years.

The danger of exploding lithium batteries is so great that last month the U.S. Transportation Department issued a “hazardous materials” notice.

“Many persons who ship lithium batteries do not recognize the hazards… fires in aircraft can result in catastrophic events presenting unique challenges not encountered in other transport modes,” the government said.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Electronic Arts Inc’s <ERTS.O> purchase of Playfish shines a spotlight on an increasingly lucrative segment of the computer games market, one likely to see more deals.

Playfish, along with Zynga and Playdom, are three start-up companies that have been generating buzz because they make free social games and earn money by selling virtual goods to players. The popularity of these games has taken off because of online networks like Facebook and MySpace.

EA, a traditional publisher of videogames like “Madden NFL,” will shell out $275 million in cash for Playfish, along with other consideration that may boost the company’s valuation to $400 million over time.

EA said on Monday that the deal valued Playfish at three to four times forecast fiscal 2011 revenue — a multiple that will probably set a benchmark for Zynga, Playdom and other social game makers, should they come to market.

“It’s like a domino effect — if one falls there’s a chance the others could fall soon,” said ThinkEquity LLC analyst Atul Bagga. “I think the company that might get acquired is Playdom, and there are a host of smaller companies that could be candidates for acquisition.”

Instead, later in the day a group of venture capital firms put $43 million of new investment into Playdom, valuing it at $260 million.

“It’s such a big space you don’t want to be constrained by your cash flow,” Jeremy Liew, managing director of venture capital firm Lightspeed Partners, said of the profitable firm. Lightspeed joined New Enterprise Associates, Norwest Venture Partners and one of the original investors, Rick Thompson, in making the new investment.

, Oct 22 (Reuters) – Seagate Technology <STX.O> may exceed its targets for gross margins and capital expenditure in 2010, betting on a strong corporate spending cycle to drive demand for computers next year.

It may have to increase capital expenditure next year to beyond its stated expectation of $450 million, President Stephen Luczo told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

Luczo also said that, within a year, the company will offer a hybrid drive combining cutting-edge solid state drive technology with a more traditional disk drive’s, speeding up computers, reducing boot times — and in some cases enabling “instant on” capability according to the company.

Luczo, speaking in an office overlooking giant redwood trees in the mountains above Santa Cruz, said chances were strong that enterprises will finally start replacing aging computers after a delay caused by the recession, also getting a spur from Microsoft Corp’s <MSFT.O> new Windows 7 operating system that went on sale Thursday.

There may even be a disc drive shortage in 2010 if conditions keep improving, he said.

“If you get a huge refresh, the (hard drive) industry will be chasing demand all through 2010. The industry will not be able to put enough (units) in place,” he said.

That could improve the company’s closely watched gross margin above its stated target range of 22 percent to 26 percent next year, but would also make it necessary to increase capital expenditures beyond the planned $450 million for the fiscal year ending in June, he said.