The Investor Search Engine contains profiles on over 1,000 venture capital firms and angel investment groups. It has a variety of filters similar to Web 2.0 travel search engine Kayak.com

Users can filter investment firms based on how much they invest and what terms they offer, as well as on company based criteria such as industry, location and stage. Users can sort the 450 investment firms who use Angelsoft’s Investor Tools by metrics mined from the software, like each groups average response time, number of applications received each month and investment amounts.

"Entrepreneurs have never had access to this kind of tool before, but more importantly, they’ve never had access to this kind of data," explained Angelsoft’s CEO, David S. Rose. "Investors have traditionally been very guarded about how they manage their pipeline."

Angelsoft says it is becoming more difficult for new entrepreneurs to get discovered and funded. Most venture capital firms and an increasing number of angel groups no longer consider unsolicited business proposals.

"We’ve been battling this problem for the last 5 years," said Ryan Janssen, COO, Angelsoft.

"Because our platform powers the large majority of organized angel groups, as well as an increasing number of leading venture capital firms, the system can automatically ‘black-list’ entrepreneurs who apply indiscriminately, while promoting those companies that are the right match for a particular firm."

The survey found that 65 percent of individual investors consider the Internet their most important source of investing information. This is an increase from 52 percent in 2005.

Close to half (47%) of investors spend 20 or more hours per week online and 54 percent spent more time on the Web in 2008.

Twenty-nine percent spent less time reading daily newspapers, 37 percent spent less time watching television, and 32 percent spent less time listening to the radio, compared to only 3 percent who spent less time online.

Newspapers were cited by 17 percent of respondents as the most important source of investing information, down from 20 percent in 2005.

Among financial advisors 68 percent consider the Internet as their most important source of investing information.

Half said they spent more time on the Internet in 2008 and 39 percent spend 20 hours or more per week online.

"In these turbulent times, the need for up-to-date business information is more critical than ever. These two studies further underscore the trend where more affluent investors and business decision makers are looking to the Web as their primary source of business information," said Jim Spanfeller, President and CEO of Forbes.com.
 

The proxy fight is expected to shake up CNet, whose shares have underperformed the market and its competitors, leaving investors with a 19 percent loss over the last three years while other Internet-related companies grew.

According to the article CNET has rejected the offer because it does not pay a premium above its current stock price.

Previous story….

In a common Matt Drudge move an unlinked headline appeared just after midnight on the Drudge Report suggesting investors are plotting management changes at CNET.

The text reads:

"INVESTORS MAY BE SEEKING A TAKEOVER OF CNET... DEVELOPING..."

It is likely that Drudge was tipped by a news story in progress that will appear later tonight on the web and in papers early tomorrow. Time will tell.

CNET has been the subject of rumors and speculation for months and a recent analysts stock downgrade did not help.

StreetFire.net only has six employees, but an “About Us” section reveals that StreetFire also “streams nearly 2 million videos a day to 4 million car enthusiasts a month.”  That’s quite impressive (and I assure you that StreetFire’s video archives are generally full of cool supercars, not neon Civics).

Moreover, it’s not like StreetFire was suffering before this new money came along; in an interview with NewTeeVee, Chris Jones, the company’s vice president of business development, said it was likely to receive over $1 million in ad revenues during 2007.

Which could leave onlookers wondering about the point of the funding round.  StreetFire’s not really saying, but look for continued growth, new features, and fresh partners – all the standard stuff, in other words.  Unfortunately, I don’t believe the site intends to reward users with free Ferraris.

Still, StreetFire has demonstrated an ability to succeed in one corner of the online video market, and it deserves some applause.  So, for that matter, does this video of an Aston Martin DBS.

The investors include Goldman Sachs, former Viacom and MTV Networks CEO Tom Freston’s FireFly3 LLC, and Jonathan Dolgen. Previous financial backers include Shelter Capital Partners, Spark Capital, Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company and Time Warner Investments.

"As Internet television is becoming an increasingly large part of viewers’ media experience, it’s important for traditional and new media companies to work together to deliver the most engaging content possible," said Steve Mitgang, CEO of Veoh Networks.

"These new team members, along with our existing advisors, will help us build the bridges between historic and emerging media business models that are necessary to drive even more innovation and greater variety in Internet Television."

Veoh’s Series C funding closed in August 2007, and it received $25 million in financing. The company’s user base reached 18 million unique users in August 2007, up from 4. 4 million users when Veoh launched in February 2007.

Peter Perrone, Vice President at Goldman Sachs, said,"Veoh is a clear leader in Internet television. Their rapid traffic growth reflects a unique and innovative platform that offers tremendous value to consumers, publishers, and advertisers. We look forward to helping drive this next phase of growth."

Interest has swirled around ValueClick, as companies like DoubleClick, Right Media, 24/7 Real Media, and aQuantive have been snapped up by bigger firms. Andy Beal sees that interest cooling for the moment:

While experts believe ValueClick is in fact following the CAN-SPAM law, until the investigation is complete, I doubt any suitor would want to take their hand in marriage.

Interest from the FTC has centered on “certain ValueClick websites which promise consumers a free gift of substantial value, and the manner in which the Company drives traffic to such websites, in particular through email.”

Until that little bombshell slipped into ValueClick’s inbox, the company said it had no knowledge the FTC was investigating it for any reason.

Despite the attention from the FTC, shares of ValueClick continued to enjoy a boost today. Shares were up $3.20 to $33.20 at press time.

It’s quite believable that Engadget couldn’t have known in the time allotted that their reporting would send investors, to quote Charlie Daniels, "steppin’ and fetchin’ like their heads was on fire and their asses was catchin’."

Block posts that the tip came from an internal source at Apple, pulling from an internal memo that circulated among several Apple employees – a memo so correct in form that it fooled even them. The memo stated the hotly anticipated iPhone would be delayed until 2008.

"For a reporter, this kind of thing — an internal memo to a company’s employees — is solid gold," Block said.

Unfortunately for everybody, the false information sent Apple stocks plummeting in late morning trading, knocking $4 billion of the company’s market capitalization. Shares recovered upon news that the memo was bogus.

Block notes that Engadget wasn’t the only publication reporting the news, though they may have been the first.

"Given the nature of that news," he writes, "we felt we had an obligation to inform people that Apple had sent out an internal memo in preparation of a delay in the iPhone and Leopard. And so I ran the story; I believe most people in my place would have done the same."

Yes. Yes, we would have.

It’s still unclear as to whether Apple will face an investigation from the Security and Exchange Commission for apparent stock manipulation, whether somebody’s head will roll down Apple HQ hallways, or whether the memo was just an exquisitely executed prank.

Investors Suckered By Fake Apple News

Not a single blogger out there would have been able to avoid the temptation of a red hot tip from deep inside Apple’s HQ. Engadget editor Ryan Block didn’t, and posted the scoop: delays for the wildly anticipated iPhone and Leopard would be announced.

In a twist of fate straight out of the Fake Steve Jobs blog, the email cited by Block in his post proved to be a fake. Block explained what happened in an update to the original story:

Here’s the story. A trustworthy source supplied us with an actual internal Apple email that went out to thousands of Apple employees earlier today (published after the break). The fact that this was an email sent within Apple’s internal email system to its employees is not in question. Let us reiterate: this was an ACTUAL email distributed within Apple’s internal email system to Apple employees.

A later message from Apple claimed the message was a fake. "Presumably Apple is now on the hunt for whomever was able to spoof its internal email system," Block said.

Investors bit on the news before it was corrected. Not long after Engadget published its story, trading volume jumped for shares of AAPL, and the price dropped. After the correction, shares returned to near the opening price.

As a commenter on Valleywag pointed out, the Securities and Exchange Commission is probably going to take an interest in this. Potential stock manipulation, even the hint of it on the major exchanges, tends to do that.