Austin-based Caringo, which provides a software solution for storage clustering, announced funding from Vodaphone Ventures and Austin Ventures. The funding from AV certainly makes sense, but why Vodaphone Ventures? Vodaphone moved their venture investing group to the Silicon Valley in mid-2006 in order to get more aggressive in Web 2.0 and emerging technology deals, and to find more opportunities to co-invest with other VC’s. According to VP of Marketing Derek Gascon, “Paul Carpentier is the [...]

Freescale announced that it will acquire SigmaTel for $3 per share, a hefty premium to it’s typical $1.60 level, but a far cry from it’s peak of $44.70 back in 2005. That makes the value of the deal approximately $110M, which is just about how much SigmaTel has left in the bank. If this company is selling for the value of its cash, then the purchase price puts absolutely no value on the company and [...]