SAN FRANCISCO, May 20 (Reuters) – Two of the nation’s
biggest online food delivery businesses said they are merging in
a deal that they hope will drive more orders, in more cities,
through their platforms.

GrubHub and Seamless, which allow consumers to easily order
online from various restaurants, are part of a group of
fast-growing businesses that standardize local services under a
national umbrella. Think restaurant reservations, where
OpenTable dominates, or car services, where privately
held startups such as Uber are making significant inroads.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 17 (Reuters) – Strong debuts in the
initial public offerings of two business software companies on
Friday underscored a pattern in the market: While consumer
companies like Facebook Inc get the buzz, enterprise
companies are racking up most of the market gains.

IPOs Tableau Software Inc and Marketo Inc
both soared more than 50 percent in their first day of trading.

SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Billionaire environmentalist Elon Musk has quit a Silicon Valley advocacy group formed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg after the group funded ads for senators touting their support for an oil pipeline and oil drilling in Alaska.

Musk leads one of the world’s best known “green” companies, electric carmaker Tesla. A Tesla spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday that the South African-born entrepreneur preferred not to elaborate on his reasons for leaving FWD.us.

SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON, May 10 (Reuters) – Billionaire
environmentalist Elon Musk has quit a Silicon Valley advocacy
group formed by Facebook (FB.O: Quote, Profile, Research) founder Mark Zuckerberg after
the group funded ads for senators touting their support for an
oil pipeline and oil drilling in Alaska.

Musk leads one of the world’s best known “green” companies,
electric carmaker Tesla (TSLA.O: Quote, Profile, Research). A Tesla spokeswoman told
Reuters on Friday that the South African-born entrepreneur
preferred not to elaborate on his reasons for leaving FWD.us.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 6 (Reuters) – Silicon Valley is taking
itself a tad too seriously, and a few of its shriller residents
have taken note.

Recent weeks have seen the birth of a few new blogs poking
fun at America’s crucible of technology, among them
whitemenwearinggoogleglass.tumblr.com, a relaunched version of
the classic Valleywag.com, and, perhaps most discussed,
jesuschristsiliconvalley.tumblr.com

April 30 (Reuters) – An investor in Uber, the fast-growing
alternative taxi service, has reached out to a venture capital
firm about a potential new funding round that could value the
company at $1 billion or more, a person familiar with the
situation told Reuters.

Uber’s chief executive, Travis Kalanick, said the company
was not currently raising money.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Ride-sharing service Uber is raising a new funding round at a valuation of $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the situation.

If the company succeeds, it will join an elite group of start-ups that command 10-figure valuations. The situation underscores investors’ desire to pay premiums for any company they think might become the type of outsized success story along the lines of business network LinkedIn or software company Workday.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 30 (Reuters) – Ride-sharing service
Uber is raising a new funding round at a valuation of $1
billion, according to a person familiar with the situation.

If the company succeeds, it will join an elite group of
start-ups that command 10-figure valuations. The situation
underscores investors’ desire to pay premiums for any company
they think might become the type of outsized success story along
the lines of business network LinkedIn or software
company Workday.

By Sarah McBride

(Reuters) – As investigators searched through videos and photos for clues that ultimately led them to the suspects in this week’s bombing at the Boston Marathon, their search likely relied more on old-fashioned police work than technology, officials who work on such investigations and related technology say.

Advances in facial-recognition technology and related fields have been significant in recent years, but the technology mostly still isn’t good enough to match blurry images or those that show a face only from an angle, say people familiar with law-enforcement dealings.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Ellen Pao, a former Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers junior partner who is suing the venture capital firm for gender discrimination, has landed a new job heading up strategic partnerships at social-news website Reddit.

Pao had been working with Reddit for the last year, according to a blog post by Reddit Chief Executive Yishan Wong on Thursday. (here) Her work there gives her an operational role rather than the advisory role venture capitalists typically take.