Appconomy’s Steve Guengerich is not from Austin, but he says he got here as quickly as he could. He came in the 1990’s, moving his company from Houston when it was ready to go public. Now his latest venture puts him at the center of the mobile apps economy – which he has christened the appconomy. Appconomy builds [...]

Reuters | August 29, 2011 | Tarmo Virki Blyk, a pioneer in the mobile-telephone advertising business, said on Tuesday it has appointed its chief commercial officer, Eric Kip, to take over as chief executive, replacing co-founder Pekka Ala-Pietila. Read the full article here via Reuters

Andy Miller is leaving Apple Inc. (AAPL) for a job in venture capital, AllThingsD reports. The mobile advertising executive came to Apple in 2010 by way of a $275 acquisition of Quattro Wireless, a mobile advertising company he co-founded. Miller is leaving Apple to become a general partner at Highland Capital, which just so happens [...]

The Statement | August 2, 2011 | Lori Hawkins In a move that expands its network of high-profile supporters, fast-growing WhaleShark Media said it has received an investment from Google ….. Full article here via The Austin American Statement

Google has expanded its VoIP calling service beyond the US market, launching its service in 38 languages with payment options in four currencies. The software giant had launched a rather limited VoIP service last year, but has now taken a giant leap forward, allowing people across the globe to call mobiles or landlines for a [...]

Two top social apps are apparently joining forces, with news Groupon and Foursquare are teaming up with a daily deal partnership. Location based social app Foursquare has long been trying to make some sort of “deal” breaker into the industry, and how better than to team up with the king of coupon buying, local firm [...]

Mobile marketing platform company Upstream says it will be opening new offices in Redwood City, California, at the heart of Silicon Valley. The firm, whose MCS marketing technology platform boasts over one billion interactions every year to more than 500 million consumers in 40 countries already has offices in London, Athens, Rome, Singapore, Bucharest and [...]

Google Austin: A first-person, customer update Google.  They are the digital version of General Electric, but for the 21st century.   Both are classic, American-headquartered, global conglomerates, with diverse portfolios.  But, whereas GE’s goods and services have ranged from light bulbs to jet engines to TV networks, Google’s portfolio ranges from mobile operating systems to lunar [...]

Motorola Solutions Venture Capital has led a $1 million round of financing for Menlo Park based Nearbuy Systems which specializes in indoor “micro-location.” Motorola Solutions joined Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, and Metamorphic Ventures to raise the cash which should help Nearbuy Systems deploy its software into major retail stores. Knowing precisely where a shopper is [...]

San Francisco based startup Stampt today unleashed its digital loyalty reward card program across the US. The service, which aims to swap out paper coupons of the “buy-10-get-1-free” variety with a smarter, digital version has been running trials of its service in San Francisco, Cincinnati, Chicago, and New York and is now apparently ready to [...]