[at Reuters] - Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen s venture capital firm is starting its second fund and targeting $650 million to invest, peHUB, a unit of Thomson Reuters, reported on Wednesday.

[at New York Times] - Elevation Partners, which counts U2 s Bono among its principals, has reportedly signed a letter of intent to pick up a significant amount of shares in a leading online music company from an early investor.

[at New York Times] - Y Combinator recently held its Demo Day, where the current class of startups gave demonstrations to investors and journalists. VentureBeat selected five companies from among the 36 startups in the current class that deserve a closer look.

[at Forbes] - A partnership with a U.S.-based startup could help the Chinese telecom provider land contracts with U.S. carriers worth billions.

[at New York Times] - VSS Monitoring, a network traffic monitoring company, has taken $20 million in growth equity from Battery Ventures.

[paidContent.org] - Facebook has confirmed that it has bought up Hot Potato, a startup behind a service that lets users communicate about activities they are doing at a given moment. On Hot Potato, users list what activity they are doing and then see others who are doing the same thing and can ask questions or share photos and videos with them.

[at Reuters] - Warner Chilcott Plc lowered the extent of the hit it expects to take to its 2010 and 2011 profit forecast arising from a planned debt recapitalization. The specialty pharmaceutical company said it completed an amendment to its existing credit facilities and took on an additional $1.5 billion in new term loans.

[at CNBC] - As online breaches continue to rise, new companies aiming to guarantee that customers data is secure are springing up, thanks to the investments of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who are pouring tens of millions of dollars into tech startups.

[at New York Times] - Ever since New York City began incorporating the 646 area code, the coveted, and traditional, 212 area code changed from an afterthought to a status symbol. Tech start-ups, too, are not immune to 212 lust.

[at Reuters] - Sterling Financial Corp : * Sterling Financial - THL And WP Would Purchase 68.4 Mln Shares Of Common Stock And 1,709,150 Shares Of Series B Preferred Stock * Announces agreements to raise $730 million in new capital * Says entered into agreements with about 30 accredited investors for private placement of 155,268,000 shares * Upon closing, THL and WP would each own an aggregate of 22.6 percent of sterling s pro forma common stock * Thomas H.

[at Reuters] - China s Everbright Securities has offered to sell a 12 percent stake in its fund management joint venture with U.S. financial group Pramerica Financial.

[at New York Times] - CloudCrowd, an on-demand labor platform start-up, has raised $5.1 million in a Series B funding round, the company said in a statement.

[AP] - Achillion Pharmaceuticals said it will raise $50 million by selling stock to a group of four venture capital firms and company shares slid more than 5 percent in electronic trading early Thursday.

[at The Wall Street Journal] - NDTV: In Talks for Alliance in Lifestyle Business Indian media company New Delhi Television said it is in talks for a strategic alliance for its lifestyle business.

[at MarketWatch] - General Motors Co. filed its long-awaited initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday. Under the offering, certain GM shareholders will sell their common shares and GM will issue Series B mandatory convertible junior preferred stock.

[at Forbes] - Forget about technology, market size and products. VCs should invest in the entrepreneur.

A venture capital firm just gave that value, and it is more than triple the worth of the social networking company a year ago.

The costs of starting an Internet company have fallen sharply. The “lean start-up” formula adds management practices tailored to exploit the Web environment.

Industrial construction firm Fluor forms a joint venture with United Rentals to get into oil and gas services.

Why Elizabeth Charnock decided not to take venture capital.