VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Alison Hardacre, co-founder and managing director of HealthKit, a Melbourne-based startup and owner of both the HealthKit Twitter handle and the healthkit.com website expressed disappointment over Twitter on Apple's use of its company name in its new product.

Perth, Australia-based publicly listed firm Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Ltd secured $49.5 million in a placement of 90 million shares to its Australian and new US investors at $0.55 apiece for development of its Magnolia LNG facility.

Mining tycoon Andrew Forrest acquired Perth, Western Australia-based beef processor and exporter Harvey Beef for an undisclosed amount through his company Minderoo, and announced expansion plans for the newly-acquired firm.

Washington, US-based software giant Microsoft acquired Wellington, New Zealand-based cloud computing firm GreenButton for an undisclosed amount to incorporate it into the Azure public cloud platform to give companies remote access to software.

Elance-oDesk has launched in Australia after seeing the country with much potential for industry growth basing on its recorded adjustment per capita of 235 percent increase in online hiring.

Melbourne, Australia-based payments startup Aston Club took home $1.5 million in its seed funding round led by Chris Morris of Computershare to launch a mobile app that helps users pay their bar and restaurant bills.

New Zealand-based customer relationship management (CRM) software startup MyWave bagged NZ$2.5 million in an oversubscribed first funding round to develop its product and customer base before its 2015 listing on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

Melbourne, Australia-based animal therapeutics developer Nexvet Biopharma scored $31.5 million in a funding round from investors and shareholders to expand its product portfolio and clinical program for pets' health.

Canberra, Australia-based cloud computing services provider CloudCentral bought the intellectual property of San Mateo, US-based software firm DEY Storage Systems for an undisclosed amount in lieu of paying for third-party storage services.

Sydney, Australia-based outsourcing and service marketplace Freelancer will add US-based internet marketing forum Warrior Forum in a deal valued at $3.2 million in cash to provide an Internet business platform for its users.

Wellington, New Zealand-based tech startup Loomio launched a $100,000 crowdfunding campaign on its own website to develop a mobile version of its open-source collaborative decision making tool.

On Friday, investment bank Investec said that Bank of Queensland would acquire its Australian unit in a deal valued USD414 million, reported WSJ.

Ridgeville, US-based biotech forestry firm ArborGen purchased Southland, New Zealand-based seedling grower Edendale Nursery for an undisclosed amount to tap the markets in the North and South Islands of New Zealand.

Glebe, Australia-based business-to-business (B2B) publishing firm The Intermedia Group added beer and cider consumer publication Beer & Brewer Magazine for an undisclosed sum to beef up its liquor title portfolio.

Auckland, New Zealand-based point-of-sale software provider Vend pocketed $20 million in a funding round led by Valar Ventures and Square Peg Capital to expand to North America and Europe.