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Source:TechCrunch
The WSJ is reporting that Google and Yahoo are negotiating with the Justice Department to remove their objections to the search deal the two companies signed in June but haven’t yet implemented.

The fact everyone’s negotiating isn’t news, but some of the details are. Concessions reportedly being discussed include “capping the volume of Google ads Yahoo would use, assurances that Yahoo would continue to compete in search ads, and a reporting mechanism to ensure compliance.” The article also says the government is looking to impose price constraints to ward off increases in advertising rates after the deal is implemented.Source:TechCrunch

BillShrink, a startup that aims to help users save money across a variety of vertical markets, has closed an $8 million Series B funding round led by Trinity Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners. The round brings BillShrink’s total funding to around $9 million, after a $1 million Series A round last year.

As part of the deal Trinity’s Gus Tai will join BillShrink’s board of directors, which also includes David Cowan (founder of VeriSign) and Matt Coffin (founder of LowerMyBills). Cowan recently launched Bessemer-incubated startup MashLogic.

BillShrink originally launched in April as a service for saving costs on mobile phone bills. In September the site expanded to helping users identify their ideal credit card. BillShrink says it will use the new funding to continue expanding into new verticals. Despite the woes facing the startup world as a whole, BillShrink seems to be positioning itself well - in the current economic climate the company shouldn’t have any problem finding users looking to save some cash.Source:TechCrunch

Mint, the personal finance startup that won last year’s TechCrunch 40, has launched a host of new features including investment tracking, 401k managment, and more flexible budget sheets. CEO Aaron Patzer says that the new features finally make Mint a one-stop place to get an overview on your entire financial portfolio, and will drop the site’s ‘Beta’ label accordingly. Patzer also notes that in the past few weeks of economic turmoil, Mint has been seeing its highest traffic ever -with registrations up 100% - as users scramble to save money wherever they can.

Mint originally released its investment tracking functionality to a small portion of its users, and will now be expanding the feature to everyone. Users can track their Brokerage, IRA, 401k and 529 accounts, and can drill down in each to see how their investments are performing relative to the market average.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 5:31 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles, Mint. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.