San Mateo, California-based Internet startup AVOS Systems is laying off 80% of its workforce because of the lack of traction, according to sources familiar with the situation.

The most active venture capital investor last year is 500 Startups with 57 new deals made and 77 total deals in all, data from DJX VentureSource revealed.

Toronto, Canada-based games creator Big Viking Games seeks to buy back Yoville from Zynga in a bid to avoid the game's early death, since the latter announced it would shut the game down on March.

Tech giant Microsoft invested $15 million in location-based social networking app Foursquare and inked a licensing deal to use the latter's places database in their products and services.

According to a report on Benzinga by Tim Melvin, individual investors may want to heed to private equity firms' strategies with regard to investing assets, citing the industry's record gains it posted last year.

Sundar Pichai, a senior vice president at Google, has reportedly emerged as the leading candidate for Microsoft's chief executive officer post. Pichai is competing head-to-head with Microsoft insider Satya Nadella.

Woodbridge International, a global mergers and acquisitions firm specializing in middle-market companies, announced the opening of its new office in Santiago, Chile. Senior M&A Advisors Giorgio Olivari and Andrés Bahamondes will be leading Woodbridge's Chilean team.

ValueAct Holdings President Mason Morfit plans to influence Microsoft on how it sells Windows, the operating system that is behind most of the software giant's products, Bloomberg reported.

High-end luxury brands might be able to demand their preferred deal prices as Asian, Middle Eastern and private equity buyers scramble to acquire a share in the profitable luxury goods market.

According to Reuters, Lone Star is itching to exit from German bank IKB as European Central Bank and the European Banking Authority will begin to run mandatory health tests in banks this year.