Because of its worsening economic climate, private equity and venture capital investors have reduced fundraising for Brazil by more than 70% in the past two years, the Financial Times reported.

KKT Interactive owner and Snap-pay.com co-founder Jim Rudnick has introduced a crowdfunding site which intends to help entrepreneurs in Hamilton, Ontario, The Hamilton Spectator reported.

IBM said it can use big data to forecast when mining equipment will fail, an innovation that can potentially save companies billions of dollars annually, VentureBeat reported.

Tencent Holdings Ltd and JD.com Inc are in talks to join forces and consolidate their e-commerce operations, according to two people familiar with the matter interviewed by Bloomberg.

Even if venture capital invested a quarter of a billion euros in Ireland-based firms last year, the Irish fundraising market is already slowing, the Irish Examiner reported.

Google has rolled out its expansion plans for its high speed fiber Internet service called Google Fiber which could possibly be introduced in 34 cities, VentureBeat reported.

PhiSix Fashion Labs, a computer graphics firm in the Bay Area, has been purchased by e-commerce giant eBay to allow online customers to fit clothes virtually before buying them, VentureBeat reported.

Backed with a $20,000 convertible note from Atlanta Capital, Yik Yak is an anonymous messaging app that allows college students to share their gripes to other users within a five-mile radius, TechCrunch reported.

From the viewpoint of venture capital, the real victors of the recently-announced acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook are Sequoia Capital and Partner Jim Goetz, TechCrunch reported.

Facebook will be buying WhatsApp in a cash and stock deal worth $16 billion. The messaging giant will also be retaining its brand and will function as an independent unit, TechCrunch reported.

China-based Fosun International Ltd is the most likely acquirer of Forbes Media Llc but will be paying less than $250 million for the money management magazine, according to sources interviewed by The Deal Pipeline.

Weight loss app MyFitnessPal has acquired Sessions, a Rock Health-backed startup that has developed an app that connects individuals with fitness experts who encourage accountability in their workouts, VentureBeat reported.

Robocoin will be opening the first Bitcoin ATM in the US at the HandleBar tavern located in Austin, Texas. The machine will be operational starting Thursday, February 20 at 2 PM, TechCrunch reported.

Goodbye SkyDrive, hello OneDrive. Microsoft has officially rebranded its cloud storage service and launched a referral program to get more users to the platform, TechCrunch reported.

K-12 learning analytics company Renaissance Learning secured a $40 million investment from Google Capital, the investment arm of search giant Google that concentrates on late-stage deals, TechCrunch reported.

Brand Embassy, the UK startup that provides an SaaS platform that helps firms improve their customer service on social media, has received $1 million from two new investors, TechCrunch reported.

myTomorrows, a startup based in the Netherlands, got $2.2 million in additional funding from friends and family to give patients with critical conditions access to development-stage therapies, TechCrunch reported.

The venture capital arm of Tokyo-based Internet firm Rakuten, Rakuten Ventures, led the Series A round for Singapore-based ViSenze which raised $3.5 million, TechCrunch reported.

Tencent Holdings Ltd, the biggest Internet company in Asia, purchased a 20% stake in online review platform Dianping.com, as it steps up its location-based services, Bloomberg reported.

In response to a petition filed on the online platform WeThePeople, the White House reaffirmed its backing for net neutrality in an official blog post written by Gene Sperling and Todd Park.

FireLayers, a cloud security startup backed by YL Ventures, has taken itself out of stealth mode. The startup provides tools that allow companies to securely use cloud applications.

The Social+Capital Partnership, Mayo Clinic, Rock Health and unnamed venture capitalists from Silicon Valley invested $1.1 million to Ambient Clinical Analytics, a startup formed by a group of doctors from the Mayo Clinic, VentureBeat reported.

Aside from robbing income from original makers of content, piracy websites also make around $4.4 million annually from ads, according to a study published by Digital Citizens Alliance.

Investors in Atlanta and the State of Georgia in general are now favoring angel, seed and Series A financing rounds more than later-stage deals, TechCrunch reported citing CrunchBase data.

Safello, a Bitcoin startup based in Sweden was able to raise $600,000 in its seed funding round from Erik Vorhees, Zubair Quraishi and other unnamed backers.

InMobi has only been in business for less than a decade but it has already proven to be a worthy contender to tech giants in the mobile ad space, Voice & Data reported.

Blurtt's Jeanette Cajide traced the demise of the startup she co-founded in a TechCrunch post. Blurtt is a mobile application that enables users to craft their own digital expressions, personalize the message and send to others.

The Middle East private equity market looked promising in the past decade but investments have trickled in the past year according to Dealogic data, Financial News reported.

Switzerland-based drug manufacturer Novartis will be buying closely-held Massachusetts-based biotechnology firm so it will grow its range of immunotherapeutics products to treat cancer, Bloomberg reported.

The mobile carriers' connections for devices like cars, smart watches and thermostats are expected to increase to 250 million this year from last year's 195 million, Bloomberg reported.