General Electric announced that it will invest in a $5 million round for SynapSense, a start-up that makes wireless sensor technology and software to monitor and reduce power usage and cooling in data centers, GigaOm reported.

It s tough times for venture capital -- except on Capitol Hill.

SKS Microfinance, the Indian lender backed by Sequoia Capital and George Soros, raised its initial public offering to as much as 16.3 billion rupees after six quarters of gains by the key equity index, Bloomberg News reported.

Convoke Systems, a financial information management software firm, announced late Sunday that it has raised a $5.5 million Series B round of financing from Flybridge Capital and QED Investors.

Jason Krikorian, co-founder of video technology company Sling Media, has joined venture capital firm DCM as a general partner. In January ‘09, Krikorian, along with his brother and Sling Media co-founder Blake, left the company less than a year after it was bought by EchoStar as part of a wider executive exodus.

Walt Disney Co is in talks to acquire social gaming start-up Playdom, according to a pair of media reports. Playdom builds games that run on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

* Disney already a Playdom investor * Deal could be worth more than $500 mln - WSJ SAN FRANCISCO, July 23 - Walt Disney Co is in talks to acquire social gaming start-up Playdom, according to a pair of media reports.

Female-focused blog network Glam Media is buying ad technology startup AdPortal, in order to boost the GlamAdapt ad serving platform it launched in June.

Google, which makes the vast majority of its money selling search ads, said Wednesday that its venture capital arm has invested in Trada, a start-up that makes it easier for small businesses to buy those ads by crowdsourcing the work.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital, the venture firms that made billions of dollars backing Google, are investing $30 million in Jive Software, a maker of social-networking technology for businesses, Bloomberg News reported.

Fast-growing Jive Software, which provides social networking tools that companies use to communicate internally and to build online communities for their customers, has raised $30 million in a funding round from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins.

Nokia to Build $7 Billion U.S. Network Nokia Siemens won a $7 billion contract to deploy and maintain a new U.S. mobile broadband network for a telecom venture backed by hedge fund Harbinger Capital.

Insurer and financial-services company Genworth Financial Inc. on Tuesday declared a quarterly dividend of about 66 cents on its Series A Cumulative Preferred stock, payable Sept. 1 to shareholders of record as of Aug. 13.

Startup companies hold the key to job creation, but several factors keep them from blooming.

Infoflows, a start-up, won a judgment against Corbis, which is appealing.

A start-up struck a deal with another company. The acrimonious breakup four months later is a lesson in keeping tabs on who did the innovating.

Venture Capital Could Shrivel Away The only way to break some habits is to hit rock bottom. Such might be the solution for venture-capital firms.

Venture-capital investments are on the upswing, driven by a firmer IPO market.

KeyCorp s Board of Directors has approved third-quarter dividends for its common and preferred shares. The Cleveland-based banking and financial services company will pay 1 cent per share of common stock and $1.9375 per share on its Series A convertible preferred stock.

The market for companies looking to raise funding from venture capital firms is undoubtedly on the rebound—but it looks like the media and entertainment sector may be lagging a bit, according to a report put out by the National Venture Capital Association and Pricewaterhouse Coopers.