Now it looks like Vizio aims to shake up another sector: The company has just launched a new line of personal computers that have a Mac-like aesthetic, Microsoft Windows operating systems, and moderate prices, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“Our target audience is people who can’t afford a $2,000 notebook,” Vizio chief William Wang told The Journal.

Citing the “high-end components” and “slick designs” of the new Vizio machines–ultrabooks, mid-size laptops, and all-in-one desktops–CNET editor Dan Ackerman suggests that Vizio is targeting would-be Apple consumers.

He also points out that Vizio’s expertise in the home entertainment field has influenced its computer products, which have a function-key shortcut for launching entertainment hubs like Netflix, and include a remote control for the all-in-one desktop. –Jillian D’Onfro

Photo via Pierre Lecourt

Anthony Noto–co-head of telecommunications, media, and technology investment banking at Goldman Sachs–told the crowd at the F.ounders conference on Thursday that he doesn’t expect another Internet company to go public until after Labor Day, TechCrunch reports.

“If you go public now, you have to have a high quality company that doesn’t have a business model in transition.”

With Facebook shares down about 30% from their initial peak, other Internet companies appear to be postponing their own IPO plans.

Reports about Internet travel website Kayak stalling its IPO surfaced shortly after Facebook’s stock flop, and other companies–most notably, Twitter–have experienced significant decreases in company valuations recently.

Facebook cannot shoulder all of the blame, however. Groupon and Zynga have also seen large drops in share price this year.–John McDermott

Photo via Flickr user Luxorium luxury

Launched in 2008, Yammer is like a private social network for individual companies; the company has been part of a wave of growing business software start-ups. Because Yammer plugs into Microsoft products like Outlook email and SharePoint collaboration software, The Journal suggests the deal may be an attempt by Microsoft to improve its Office software.

Yammer also has the functionality to share files and create online workspaces to collaborate with outside sources, such as partners, customers, and vendors.

Representatives from Yammer and Microsoft declined to comment to The Journal.

Yammer had raised about $142 million in VC funds, and planned to go public eventually, reports The Journal. –Caitlin Berens

Photo via company

Well, now bartering-for-equity practice is back.

According to a Crain’s report, Chicago area entrepreneurs are again swapping equity for services. With little money to support a growing business, start-ups like night-club admission app Jump Rope are getting service discounts in exchange for an equity stake. Companies are making these agreements with graphic designers, Web developers, lawyers, and other service providers, Crain‘s reports.

Jump Rope founder Peter Braxton entered into a barter relationship with Ora Interactive LLC, a mobile development agency. “These guys bring very specific talents and tools and perspective to the table that I just don’t have,” he told Crain’s. Braxton says he wouldn’t have been able to hire Ora and launch Jump Rope without the partnership. “I didn’t have access to that capital when I started building it.”

More entrepreneurs are following in Braxton’s footsteps–with hopes that the freed up capital will allow them to get their companies to market with a product that will benefit all parties involved. Sometimes, however, the arrangement works out better for the service provider: Remember graffiti artist David Choe, who accepted Facebook stock (pre-IPO) rather than $60,000 for the custom art work he did at Facebook HQ?

Mostly, though, founders agree that it’s a worthwhile risk because both parties wind up working together for collective success. Solar start-up PVPower founder Dan Kuthy says the exchange is worth it because he gains an invested source of service.

“It’s much more fun to work together when someone’s thinking about the business strategically like you are and wants the business to succeed,” Kuthy told Crain’s.–Maeghan Ouimet

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock Images

“A bigger part of the immigrant business story is still the bread-and-butter grocery store, restaurant and retail shop, as well as doctors’ offices, taxi services and dry cleaners,” said David Kallick, principal author of the FPI report, wrote.

The Wall Street Journal reported that immigrant-owned small businesses (defined as a business with less than 100 employees) employeed 4.7 million people in 2010. Less deterred by a language barrier, the Journal says most immigrant small business owners are able to open businesses outside of major cities.

The report shows that immigrants tend to fall into a specific small business niche. The largest group of immigrants, Mexicans, have the largest number immigrant-owned start-ups. Indian immigrants tend to own their own private practices–helping to combat the shortage of health-care providers in the U.S.

“Only in America can you become owner of a business like this,” India-born dentist Savpreet S. Dhami told the Journal.–Maeghan Ouimet

Photo courtesy of Lynn B

Peter Grendler, Michael Hedlund, and veteran technology investor Bill Lee were recently granted a patent for virtual happy hours, which could eventually be a way for companies to make money via gaming and social networking sites such as Facebook.

For example, imagine a social site that hosts a poker game. The idea is simple: You, enterprising business owner, could sponsor a virtual chip sale for the players, and any player who took advantage of the offer got an alert that your company sponsored the sale.

“It leads to increased social interaction,” says Lee, who has invested in Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, and Yammer, and filed for the patent back in 2007. “There’s a social phenomenon now where people care about their Twitter followers, they care about how many friends they have on Facebook.”

Lee says consumers would also benefit from discounted goods and services, while the virtual host or social networking site would get the added benefit of more interaction within their space.

“It’s the perfect triangle,” Lee says. –Jillian D’Onfro

Photo via Getty

Attorneys defending venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins filed a seven-page answer to Pao’s initial legal complaint with Superior Court in San Francisco. In the document, the firm vehemently denies Pao’s allegations of misconduct and says it is not guilty of any wrongdoing in handling the situation.

Specifically, Kleiner Perkins says Pao didn’t notify any supervisors or fellow employees that she was being subjected to sexual harassment until late 2011–at which point she had already retained counsel regarding the matter. When Kleiner Perkins did finally hear of the possible abuse, the firm hired an independent investigator to look into the claims, the answer says. According to the answer, this outside investigation found that Pao’s “discrimination and retaliation complaints were without merit.”

In her complaint filed in May, Pao said that she voiced complaints about being pressured into a sexual relationship with a fellow partner at the venture capital firm, but that she was told to keep quiet about the incident. After she ended the sexual relationship, her lawsuit says, her profit share was reduced and the firm tried to transfer her to China.

In the court filing, the firm says that Pao’s relationship with her peer was consensual.

Pao also accused senior partner Raymond Lane of pressuring her to marry the man who was sexually harassing her. The answer to the complaint denies this and also says Pao received performance reviews that encouraged her to be more proactive and take on more “thought leadership” within the firm.

The court filing also includes negative aspects of Pao’s various performance reviews. According to the excerpts included in the answer, Pao was consistently viewed as being too soft-spoken, and that at times, people questioned her motivations and thought she exhibited an unearned “sense of entitlement.”

Kleiner Perkins also says that Pao has breached her contractual agreements with the firm by not asserting the claims in an arbitration forum.

The full text of the Kleiner Perkins response can be found below.–John McDermott

Photo via JD Lasica

Ellen Pao v Kleiner Perkins – June 13,2012

The social reader announced it will be temporarily banning several large websites from posting on its platform for being “spammy, malicious, or involved in cheating shenanigans,” Gizmodo reports.

The company has not specified the full list of domains being blocked, but the list appears to include The Atlantic.com, BusinessWeek.com, and GlobalPost.com, among others.–John McDermott

Photo via Jeff Keacher

Hackers that stage corporate account takeovers especially target small businesses because they often lack firewalls and monitoring systems, according to The New York Times. Losses can then be particularly devastating, because many small businesses owners don’t realize that protections on their personal bank accounts don’t apply to their business accounts.

Businesses owners need to purchase fraud insurance that covers cybercrime and fraudulent bank transfers if they want their bank to pay up after an attack, according to The Times.

“I’ve talked to brokers who tell me only one in 10 business customers ask for it, and it’s cents on the dollar,” Ann Talbot, chief financial officer of engineering and construction company Golden State Bridge, told the paper. Hackers robbed Golden State of more than $125,000 in 2010, reports The Times; Talbot says she believes they used a social networking site to infect a company computer with malicious software. Fortunately, Golden State had purchased fraud insurance after being hacked in 2006. –Jillian D’Onfro

The four-week moving average also increased, jumping 3,500 due to the recent bump.

The increase was unexpected; economists surveyed by Bloomberg had projected that claims to fall by 5,000 to 375,000.

The job market continues to be weak. Unemployment was essentially flat in May, as the economy created a modest 69,000 jobs.–John McDermott

Photo via Khalil Shah