VENTURE CAPITAL POST

New York, US-based online employment solutions provider Monster Worldwide acquired two recruiting startups, San Francisco's Talentbin and Boston's Gozaik, for an undisclosed sum for growth purposes.

Menlo Park, US-based social media giant Facebook will be kicking off its yearly Hacker Cup competition at the company's head office today with 25 participants from North America, Asia, and Europe.

Within just 24 hours, Zurich, Switzerland-based encrypted messaging startup Threema soared to the top of Germany's paid App Store chart due to a 200,000 subscriber addition, 80% of which are in Germany.

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.

San Francisco, US-based marketing automation firm Autopilot is releasing a new Chrome plugin that generates up to 42% reply rate on cold email prospecting and bridge the gap between sales and marketing.

Oregon Angel Fund led the $1.7 million round "Series Seed" round for Marshall Kirkpatrick's social marketing startup Little Bird, bringing the company's total funds raised to date to $2.7 million, TechCrunch reported.

In its quest to provide employees with a convenient way of getting to work, Facebook will be doing a 90-day trial run of its charter boat that will ferry workers across the San Francisco Bay.

Colorado, US-based big data firm Datalogix is acquiring Connecticut-based shopper intelligence company Spire Marketing for an undisclosed amount to expand its footprint into shopper marketing.

The "Technology and Internet Conference" of Goldman Sachs will be launched on Tuesday, February 11, 2014 with the best companies from the public and private sector as its attendees, TechCrunch reported.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan were the most generous American philanthropists in 2013 according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Associated Press reported.

New York City, US-based smart flight finding mobile app Hit List exited the beta phase and is currently raising around $500,000 in its seed funding round.

Facebook is scrambling to fix a mobile security glitch discovered this week by MyPermissions chief Olivier Amar which involves the inability to remove apps that were previously downloaded.

Yandex, a Russian internet group, announced on its website that it will be opening an office in Berlin. The new office is a sign that the Russian firm is ramping up its foreign ambitions, Reuters reported.

Facebook launched an individualized and automated "Look Back" video feature in time for its 10th anniversary, but a source said the social networking giant will be releasing an edit tool to allow users to customize the photos included in the clip.