bubble

Clean tech rides high on oil prices, climate change

With oil prices over $120 per barrel comes a venture capital report entitled "Cleantech Come of Age" from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The upbeat survey finds that venture capitalists put $2.2 billion into clean tech companies last year and that prospects look good.

That's because energy-related issues are hitting consumers at the gas pumps and business executives in the board room.

"There is huge enthusiasm taking place in the cleantech industry and as consumers and corporations increasingly seek new ways to become environmentally responsible, interest and funding directed towards the sector will only continue," Tim Carey, leader … Read more

Bubble 2.0 watch: Mowser withers away, founder seeks 'real job'

It's not like Pets.com closing its doors or anything, but here's another small sign that we could be nearing the beginning of the end of Bubble 2.0: Mowser.com, a start-up that "translates" Web sites into mobile-friendly versions, is dying a quiet death.

Granted, it wasn't a particularly hyped dot-com. But I'm guessing that more than a few start-ups will be commiserating soon.

"We haven't been able to raise funding, and as a site, growth has been flat or falling for the past couple months because of various search-engine tweaks … Read more

Bubble Report: LA parties like it's 1999

The night club was filling up, free drinks were flowing, and Perry Farrell stood behind the DJ table. There was something distinctively bubbly at the TechCrunch/PopSugar "Geek Goes Chic" Meetup in Los Angeles last Thursday, and it wasn't just the personalities of the PopSugar readers.

The party's organizers are only the latest members of the Web scene to bring a little bubble love to Southern California. Social media blogs Mashable and Bub.blicio.us have both hosted LA events in the last month. The move makes sense: Aside from being at the center of the … Read more

Bob Metcalfe's EnerNet embraces 'global warming bubble'

BOSTON--Bob Metcalfe thinks we'll solve global warming if we take our cue from the Internet.

Metcalfe, best known as a co-inventor of the Ethernet and now a venture capitalist at Polaris Venture Partners, on Wednesday laid out his vision of the "EnerNet," the concept of applying the lessons of building the Internet to the energy business.

Speaking at the AlwaysOn East conference here, Metcalfe said that, despite concerns of overinvestment, the growing energy technology bubble is a good thing.

"There will be many decades of bubbles ahead," he said. "There are people out there … Read more

Solar industry bubble will pop, but continue to grow

The most vexing problem facing the solar electric industry the past few years has been a shortage of silicon, the most common material used to make solar cells.

But once that silicon shortage eases, prices for products could start drop significantly--and dig into solar companies' profits.

Lux Research on Thursday published a summary of a report that predicts that the solar bubble will burst next year.

An oversupply of silicon won't be the only reason that prices will fall, according to Lux's report.

Several other solar technologies are emerging that will give incumbent solar photovoltaic providers more competition, … Read more

Green tech news harvest: will clean energy go down with the economy?

A sampling of green-tech news this week, with an emphasis on how the financial market turmoil may impact ongoing investments in clean energy.

Investor Eric Janszen Says Clean Tech Is Only Hope for the Collapsing Economy - Wired talks to Eric Janszen about his Harpers article on how a clean tech investment bubble is the best thing for the U.S. economy's pattern of credit-driven financial bubbles. SEIA - Solar Energy Industries Association - The Solar Energy Industries Association picks apart a University of California study that says solar electric panels are an economic "loser." Corporate Sponsorship for a Wind Farm - New York Times … Read more

Eliot Spitzer and the Internet bubble

Five years ago, then N.Y. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was involved in an investigation into conflicts of interest between research and investment banking at ten of the nation's top investment firms during the Internet bubble.

The landmark $1.4 billion settlement helped put Mr. Spitzer on a fast track to the governor's mansion, but that's not the whole story.… Read more

Why do we fall for bubbles?

It can happen at any time: market bubbles burst, companies crash and burn, investment portfolios become worthless overnight. The common denominator in these events is overconfidence, irrational exuberance, call it what you want, it all comes down to lots and lots of people taking risks they shouldn't take.

Why do we do this to ourselves, in spite of all logic to the contrary?

We even have age-old sayings we choose to ignore all the time: What goes up, must come down; the bigger they are, the harder they fall; don't put all your eggs in one basket. Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead sang, "'Cause when life looks like easy street there is danger at your door."

Do we listen? Nope.… Read more

Clean-tech VC investing tops $3 billion, but 'funding gap' looms

The numbers are in on clean-tech investing in 2007 and, once again, the direction is way up.

Dow Jones VentureSource on Friday said that venture capitalists plowed a record $3 billion last year in clean-tech companies, a 43 percent jump from the year before. The number of deals rose from 173 in 2006 to 221 last year.

"Our data shows that 59 percent of all U.S. investment in the sector is going toward companies in the product development phase, which suggests that funding for clean technologies is likely to continue as these companies continue to develop and start … Read more