Seeking startup funding may soon get easier. A group of venture capital firms led by Andreessen Horowitz on March 1 unveiled a Web site www.seriesseed.com designed to streamline the way startups apply for seed funds, cutting the number of documents young companies need to fill out.

The Web site, formed with the help of startup lawyer Ted Wang, contains 30 pages of free documents entrepreneurs can fill out to apply for $300,000 to $1.5 million of initial funding. Typically, such documents run about 100 pages and have to be customized by lawyers. The 30-page term sheet would have to be customized as well, but it would dispense with some sections typically unnecessary for early-stage investments, such as those dealing with prior investors. The idea behind the effort is to “save start-ups time and money,” Wang tells Bloomberg BusinessWeek. “The negotiations process will also be shorter.”

Ten well-known venture firms have committed to accepting these so-called Series Seed Documents. They include Charles River Ventures, SV Angel, Polaris Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, which is an investor into Web-calling company Skype and social games maker Zynga. “We are committed to making deals on these terms,” says general partner Ben Horowitz.

The venture firms hope others will end up supporting this effort as well. “I think this will become a new standard, and people will be able to raise money more quickly,” Wang says. Bloomberg LP or one of its subsidiaries is an investor in Andreessen Horowitz. Bloomberg LP also owns BusinessWeek.com.

VoxOx has baked a Universal Translator directly into is Web communications platform, providing foreign language messaging translation for text messages, instant messaging, e-mail and messaging communications via Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. The neat trick here is that only one person need be using VoxOx to have a conversation that is translated between two parties, making it a boon for efficiency. Such translation capabilities should help VoxOx pick up a number of users, which is important for a product competing with Skype, Google Voice (which will likely offer Web calling capabilities this year) and other VOIP solutions such as BT's Ribbit.
- VoxOx, which fancies itself as an alternative to Skype and Google Voice by letting users make phone calls via the Web, has integrated a language translation capability directly into its service. VoxOx gives users a dedicated number and lets them make calls from PC to PC, as well as from PCs to...

Skype announced that a Skype for iPhone app that can place calls over 3G networks is coming soon, now that Apple has changed its SDK. While iCall already offers one, Skype says its waiting until it can offer CD-quality sound, along with other benefits for customers.
- Skype is close to offering a solution that will let iPhone users place voice over IP calls over 3G networks, the company announced on its site on Feb. 3. Writing that Skype fans have been wondering when such a solution would arrive, Skype answered, “Well, the simple answer is soon.” Skyp...

In an effort to get Skype onto more mobile phones, on Jan. 13 Skype appointed a new chairman. Miles Flint, who has served as an advisor to one of Skype investors, Silver Lake, and used to be president of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.

The appointment likely signals Skype's increasing determination to make further inroads into mobile, where it's not had as much traction as hoped. Several years ago, Hutchison Whampoa began offering 3 Skypephone. Skype has also made the service available as an application consumers can download onto some of the most popular smartphones, such as the iPhone. But Skype is yet to conquer mobile phones in a big way.

Flint may help change that. While at Sony Ericsson, he'd overseen the launch of popular phones like the Walkman line. And he may have the industry contacts and expertise necessary to launch more Skype-branded phones, and to get the software onto more handsets directly at the factory. He may also be able help Skype to make its software and its business model more attractive to handset makers and their carrier customers.

What's more, Flint also has connections and experience with consumer electronics other than mobile phones, having worked in marketing for Sony. Those connections could come in handy now: All consumer electronics, including digital photo frames, cameras and even televisions are getting connected to the Web. And Flint may be able to help Skype get onto more consumer electronics gear, wireless (as is increasingly the case) as well as hooked onto the Internet via cables.

Skype has made Miles Flint, former president of Sony Ericsson Mobile, its new chairman, and former Thomson Reuters exec David Gurle the vice president of its business unit. The new placements arrive in time for Skype to begin deploying video calls on HDTVs.
- Skype has named Miles Flint, former president of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, its new chairman, according to reporting from Bloomberg. Flint is an adviser to the private-equity firm Silver Lake, which in September purchased 70 percent of Skype from eBay for approximately $2 billion. ...

Cisco Systems is looking to bring its telepresence capabilities into the home, a strategy Cisco officials will talk about at the Consumer Electronics Show. The move will bring Cisco into competition with Skype, which already offers such capabilities, and Polycom, which is partnering with IBM on a consumer video communications prototype that will be shown at CES.
- Cisco Systems is continuing its push into the home, with a video communications strategy using a consumer high-definition television and a broadband connection. Cisco officials are talking about their plans at the Consumer Electronics Show, which runs Jan. 7 to 10 in Las Vegas. In conjunction w...

Skype announced that high-definition video calling will be coming to televisions by the middle of this year. Partners Panasonic and LG will release HDTVs embedded with Skype software, as well as Webcams optimized for Skype video calls.
- Skype announced Jan. 5 that its popular video service will soon be making the leap from desktops to high-definition television screens. In conjunction with partners LG and Panasonic, Skype-enabled HDTVs will arrive in mid-2010 and enable users with high-speed broadband and an HD Webcam also bei...

Traditional telcos are showing healthy appetite for Web calling start-ups. On Dec. 23, European carrier Telefonica acquired Jajah for $207 million. The acquisition comes on the heels of Google's November acquisition of Gizmo5 and British Telecom's 2008 purchase of Ribbit for $105 million. So, what does this mean for Skype?

The recent slew of deals may offer insight into where the largest Web-calling outfit in the world, Skype, is heading. Earlier this fall, Skype regained its independence from eBay, and is now the largest stand-alone Web-calling provider. While its private equity investors have told me in the past that they are in no hurry to offload Skype, they'll need to exit their investment at some point, either through an Initial Public Offering, or a sale. The Jajah deal indicates that the world's traditional telecom players want in on the Web-calling game. One of these telcos may want to acquire Skype in the future.

By purchasing Skype, a telco would gain the service's 521 million registered users as well as global presence: Anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection can make Skype calls. A U.S. telco may be able to compete with carriers in Europe and Asia. It may also be able to expand its portfolio of services, and to provide them for less. Telefonica, for instance, plans to market Jajah's services under its O2 brand in the countries where Telefonica's carrier O2 sells its services, Jajah CEO Trevor Healy told me this morning. The charges will be added to O2 subscribers' wireless bills.

The new owner may help Jajah expand quicker. The start-up will be able to market its services, under O2 and Jajah brands, to more than 268 million Telefonica customer access lines worldwide. With Jajah in its holster, Telefonica may, in fact, be hoping to build up a major competitor to Skype.

Jajah expects to remain based in Silicon Valley and Israel, and to expand its 100-person staff under the new ownership, says Healy, who will continue to head Jajah as it becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telefonica.

That said, Skype's value is in the billions, so not many telcos will be able to afford to take it on. BT and Telefonica are less likely to be in the running now that they have acquired their own Web-calling businesses. Still, there are lots of other service providers out there with deep pockets.

Now that gearmaker Avaya and Web-calling service Skype share a private-equity owner, the two companies are discussing ways they can better work together. "We are having conversations with [Skype]," Avaya CEO Kevin Kennedy said in an interview today. Kennedy didn’t go into detail, but these talks most likely focus on how the companies can work together, as opposed to some sort of combination of operations.

It's not difficult to imagine Avaya helping Skype enter new markets, such as the premises of its large business clients. While Skype's Web-calling service is already widely used by small businesses, it's yet to prove that it's reliable enough to serve the needs of large enterprise customers. Perhaps Avaya, whose business is focused on the enterprise, could help Skype make its Web-calling service more attractive to such large companies.

What's more, Skype could be integrated into Avaya's products, which include certain Nortel gear (Avaya closed its Nortel acquisition today). Nortel has long helped carriers like Verizon service their corporate customers. By integrating its offerings with Skype's, Avaya could help reduce these customers' telecommunications bills.

New York and San Francisco are mulling resolutions backing Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) efforts to enact tough Internet non-discrimination rules.

In New York, for example, Council Member Gale Brewer held a hearing on Nov. 20 calling on Congress to pass Internet non-discrimination principles, called net neutrality, into law. The idea is to prevent Internet service providers from blocking or interfering with certain types of traffic, such as Web-calling service Skype.

While, following regulatory battles of the past several years, service providers like Comcast already largely comply with these net neutrality principles, there are plenty of carriers that don't. The FCC is currently considering whether to apply net neutrality principles to wireline and wireless service providers, some of which do block certain kinds of traffic. The agency is facing lots of opposition from the industry: Wireless net neutrality could prove to be the biggest regulatory battle to hit Washington in years. And every supporter -- such as some of the nation's largest cities -- counts.

On Nov. 24, Skype's chief operating officer, Scott Durchslag, announced he'll be leaving the Web-calling company. Chances are, this announcement is just the first of many executive changes to come now that new owners have taken charge of Skype.

The new owners include Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom, who likely has his own ideas about how to run the company and who should do the running, believe analysts. Some industry insiders believe Zennstrom would like to get into the driver seat himself. In the past, other Skype investors have told me they are happy with work current CEO Josh Silverman is doing, however.

But as six-year-old Skype tries to make it on its own again, instead of growing as part of the eBay conglomerate, its staff will inevitably change as will its culture. Its execs have long prided themselves on running the Web-calling enterprise as a start-up; now, however, they will have to live that start-up life for real.

Google Nov. 12 confirmed that it had acquired Gizmo5 for an undisclosed sum. Gizmo5 makes Web-based calling software for mobile phones and computers. Specifically, it provides a Web-based VOIP client that lets users make phone calls over the Internet, similar to programs such as Skype. Some speculate Gizmo5 will evolve into a new version of the Google Talk voice and video chat application, supporting Google Voice and its many voicemail management features, including automatic voicemail transcription. Many industry watchers agree this deal puts Google Voice and Skype, which Google reportedly tried to acquire earlier this year, on a collision course.
- Google Nov. 12 confirmed that it had acquired Gizmo5 for an undisclosed sum, giving the search engine technology that could help Google contend with PC-to-PC calling giant Skype. Gizmo5 makes Web-based calling software for mobile phones and computers. Specifically, it provides a W...

eBay settles lawsuits with Joltid and Joost in a $1.9 billion deal that gives Skype ownership over all software previously licensed from Joltid and paves the way for a group of investors to acquire the majority of the company. Joltid and Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, who had earlier tried to buy Skype back from eBay, will join the investor group, contributing Joltid software and making a capital investment in exchange for a 14 percent stake in Skype. Silver Lake and fellow investors Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will grab 56 percent of Skype, with eBay retaining the remaining 30 percent.
- The future of voice-over-IP service Skype looks bright again for its more than 500 million users. eBay Nov. 6 said it has settled lawsuits with Joltid and Joost in a $1.9 billion deal that gives Skype ownership over all software previously licensed from Joltid and paves the way for a group of in...

VoxOx from TelCentris lets users make calls from PC to PC, as well as from PCs to landlines and mobile phones. The Web application, geared to compete with Skype and Google Voice, also enables video, instant messaging and two-way text messaging, file sharing and social networking into one platform. Unlike Skype or Google Voice, VoxOx lets users send instant messages to other social networks, including Skype, Facebook and MySpace. Users may also reply to Twitter tweets and surface friends with a hover effect, which lets them mouse over any contact to see their Facebook status updates and learn how to contact them.
- Skype and Google Voice users who want more bells and whistles for their phone communications services have a another option from TelCentris. The startup makes VoxOx that lets users make calls from PC to PC, as well as from PCs to landlines and mobile phones, and much more. Windows...