SAN FRANCISCO, May 24 (Reuters) – Automattic, the company
that operates blogging service WordPress, announced a $50
million investment from hedge fund Tiger Global on Friday.

The investment comes on the heels of Yahoo’s $1.1
billion acquisition of blogging company Tumblr, showing the high
prices fast-growing services that targeting Internet users can
command. The valuation for WordPress was similar, Fortune
reported. A spokeswoman for WordPress declined to comment.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc is in talks to buy Waze, an Israeli mapping start-up that has held discussions with several large technology companies, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

Google’s discussions with Waze, which one of the sources told Reuters remained fluid and could change in tenor at any time, come amid reports Facebook is willing to pay $1 billion for the crowd-sourced service, which relies on information provided by its 47 million members to craft its mobile-oriented maps.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) is in talks to buy Waze, an Israeli mapping start-up that has held discussions with several large technology companies, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

Google’s discussions with Waze, which one of the sources told Reuters remained fluid and could change in tenor at any time, come amid reports Facebook (FB.O: Quote, Profile, Research) is willing to pay $1 billion for the crowd-sourced service, which relies on information provided by its 47 million members to craft its mobile-oriented maps.

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.