HP to Lay Off 27,000 Employees, Impact on 28 Canadian Offices Unclear

Palo Alto headquarterd Hewlett-Packard announced today plans to lay off 27,000 employees as part of its long-term restructuring plan.

The company will shed about 8% of its workforce through a combination of layoffs and retirement offers that started last October and will continue through the end of its 2014 fiscal year.

Employee reduction plans vary by country. While HP operates 28 offices across Canada, it is not clear what impact the layoffs would have in Canada yet.

Calgary Plugs into Accelerator Craze with Big Silicon Valley Partner

Calgary's Boast Capital announced today a partnership with Saeed Amidi and the Plug and Play Tech Center to launch Startup Camp Canada.

The hybrid accelerator program will provide Canadian startups acceleration time in both Calgary and Silicon Valley and access to over 180 Silicon Valley venture capital firms and angel investors such as Accel Partners and Sand Hill Angels, world class entrepreneurs from companies such as YouTube and Skype, and a community of leading universities and corporate partners.

Startup Camp Canada will be launched in two phases.

GROWtalks: a hands-on playbook for creating startup success

The organizers of the GROW Conference have announced something new for 2012.

Day one of the three-day conference has now been labelled GROWtalks and will be focused on how startups can create simple, actionable metrics, and use them to make better product and marketing decisions for long-term growth.

These 20 Companies are About to Break into Silicon Valley

2011 BC Angel of the Year Boris Wertz says being Canadian might just be the best way to break into Silicon Valley and 19 Canadian startups are about to find out if he's right.

The C100 announced the lucky startups to participate in the upcoming 48 Hours in the Valley event from June 25-27 and the companies selected span from coast-to-coast.

Hit the link to find out who is representing from your home province.

ESL Explorer: A Better Way to Study English Abroad

ESL Explorer recently emerged from stealth mode, and the Vancouver-based startup is already making waves in the ESL education market.

The ESL market is worth over $4 billion annually, with over 25% of that spend currently going to agencies who place students in schools.

ESL Explorer wants to bring a healthy dose of the Internet into an industry that operates like the travel-agency industry did 15 years ago.

Kobo welcomes Pinterest to the Rakuten family

Rakuten Inc. announced today that it is leading a $100 million investment in Pinterest, with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital, as well as a number of angel investors.

Last November Rakuten bought Canadian-made Kobofor a total of $315 million in cash. At the time Mikitani called the company "entrepreneurial, fast, and strong" and said the two companies have a "shared vision.

GrowLab Matures with Announcement of Second Cohort

Two months ago, Techvibes reported that Vancouver's newest superangel, Mike Edwards, would be taking over the helm of Vancouver accelerator GrowLab. We warned Vancouver's startup community to buckle their seatbelts and prepare for "massive action" with Edwards in the Executive Director role.

Techvibes sat down with Edwards this morning to learn more about his first big GrowLab announcement—the cohort selected for their Spring 2012 program which kicks off next week.

Now You Can Do Your TimmyRun With a Visa Card

Last month Tim Hortons launched TimmyRun, a new web-based tool that allows customers to combine beverage orders for up to groups of 20 people at once.

Twitter Launches Summify Product as Weekly Email Digests

In January, Twitter acquired Vancouver startup Summify and last month Techvibes reported that a few people started seeing Summify's Canadian-born technology in action.

Today Twitter made it official with a blog post titled The best of Twitter in your inbox. The post describes Twitter's new weekly email digest product that summarizes the most relevant Tweets and stories shared by the people you’re connected to on Twitter.

Stories feature a design similar to the recently updated Discover tab, emphasizing who shared each story beneath summaries to help you decide which ones matter most to you.