Boston Globe
Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has filed for bankruptcy protection amid accusations it has lost an estimated $425 million in bitcoins due to weaknesses in its technology platform, the Associated Press reports via the Boston Globe.
Boston Globe
Marketing software provider Hubspot has reportedly hired Morgan Stanley to handle its rumored upcoming IPO. The exact timing of the offering, however, remains unclear, according to the Boston Globe.
BostInno
Today, the Hub became the home of the country's first Bitcoin ATM and Kiosk. BostInno was notified in a tweet that a kiosk for the digital currency's management had been installed in South Station. According to the tweet, one of the individuals involved with the Bitcoin ATM's installment is Siemens Venture Capital associate and Wharton MBA candidate Chris Yim. According to Yim's Twitter bio, he is also the Co-founder of Liberty Teller, which appears to be the company behind the ATM.
Boston Business Journal
Boston-based Laforge Optical has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo for Icis, a line of "fashion-friendly" prescription eyewear that includes a display with a user's smartphone notifications in their field of vision. Icis "keeps users connected to the cloud while preserving a crystal-clear view of what is going on in front of them," the startup said in a news release.
Boston Business Journal
Boston-based Wayfair.com has chosen four banks as underwriters for its planned initial public offering, which could take place as soon as this spring, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The report named Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup and Allen & Co. as the banks that have been selected to handle the IPO so far. The move "reflects Wayfair's desire to proceed quickly to a public offering," the report said, citing unnamed sources. "Based on a typical IPO timeline, the shares could start trading this spring."
Boston Business Journal
GateHouse Media returned to the public markets last week for a second chance, crash-landing onto the unhappy island of penny stocks after a brief flight following its October 2006 IPO. The reason? An ill-fated shopping spree in which the Fairport, N.Y.-based firm gobbled up local media properties at steep prices before the bottom fell out of the newspaper market, leaving GateHouse with a mountain of debt and no room to refinance.
Boston Business Journal
Blitz Media, a three-decades-old Waltham, Mass., media buying and planning shop, laid off most of its staff last week and is in the process of shutting down, former employees told the Business Journal. Blitz had about three dozen employees at the time of the closing announcement.
Boston Business Journal
Online food ordering service Foodler announced Tuesday its appointment of former Kayak.com mobile app developer Michael Vosseller, as Foodler's director of mobile development. Vosseller was previously an iOS software architect for Kayak, a travel search and booking site whose technology headquarters is based in Concord, Mass. Vosseller helped build Kayak's mobile app, rated the No. 1 travel app in the Apple App Store, according to a release. Vosseller recently worked on an update to the existing iOS app at Boston-based Foodler. In the release, he said he's "looking forward to pushing the Foodler mobile experience to the next level."
Boston.com
Local McDonald's franchisees are a debuting a new ad campaign called "Good Morning Boston," which promotes the chain's breakfast offerings. The campaign is the first local work from the franchise group's new ad agency H&L Partners of San Francisco, which just opened an eight-person office in Boston.
The Minnesota Senate's email system has been down since February 14th. The Senate's website alerts visitors to the issue. Secretary of Senate JoAnne Zoff emailed all Senators and staff Monday afternoon explaining the issue, "The (Senate staff) have been working on this with consultants since Friday and throughout the weekend. They have systematically investigated numerous possible sources of the problem, and continue to do so."