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Will Adobe Social Blow Hootsuite Out of the Water? Yes… and No

Most social media management platforms like Pinerly or CoTweet focus on the management of a single social media platform. But Adobe Social, part of the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite, will allow you to manage multiple social media platforms and do so much more.

Vancouver-based HootSuite, a social media dashboard, hasn't been shy to include Adobe in their efforts. They've entered in a partnership to help quantify social media ROI.

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Startup Canada Tour Kicks off in Halifax

l to r: Tanya Shaw, Andrew Doyle, Rustum Southwell, Adam Chowaniec, and Thomas Hayes

Startup Canada, an organization dedicated to helping and promoting entrepreneurship across Canada, officially kicked off their national tour in Halifax on Monday. Over the next six months, the tour will stop for 30 town hall events across Canada.

To give you a scale as to exactly how large the tour will be, there are 100 fringe events planned in coordination with the town hall stops, 180 people make up 12 steering committees to plan and execute the events, and there are over 250 volunteers helping to make it a reality.

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$3.38 Billion Bell-Astral Deal Includes Astral Advertising For Cross-Media Sync Mix

The Bell-Astral $3.38 billion dollar proposed merger dominated headlines last week and I was even asked to appear on CBC Radio. However, it's an extremely complicated deal- so complicated that the producers at CBC decided to speak with lawyers instead on whether or not the deal should be approved by the CRTC!

Regardless, the proposed merger also includes Astral Advertising which brings into question whether Bell Media would now be able to compete with part of Google's strategy in mobile advertising known as synchronized cross-media advertising.

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Government of Canada Invests $5 Million in Jobs, Growth and Innovation in Southern Ontario

The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), today announced a contribution of up to $5 million for the Research Innovation Commercialization Centre that will provide graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) with the skills and support they need to start their own businesses.

With this funding, the Research Innovation Commercialization Centre will provide mentoring and financial support for 160 innovative new start-up businesses in southern Ontario.

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Bell Acquires Astral Media for $3.38 Billion: Premium Content Monopoly

According to several media sources including the Toronto Star, Bell Canada Enterprises has acquired Astral Media for $3.38 billion. The deal is pending CRTC approval, but has some observers worried about the potential monopoly that Bell will control when the deal is completed in six months. 

Astral owns The Movie Network, has the rights for HBO in Canada, and the deal will allow Bell ownership of a couple dozen Canadian specialty channels. This comes at a time when Bell recently announced their entry into Mobile TV.

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Calgary Has Tons of Entrepreneurs and Startups. But Where's the Money?

Calgary is famous—and infamous—for its oil. But few outsiders realize that technology and entrepreneurship are also prominent elements in the city of 1.2 million.

In fact, Calgary boasts the largest concentration of entrepreneurs per capita in Canada, according to the Canadian government. And Calgary also boasts the largest number of tech startups per capita.

Cybera even went so far as to call Calgary "Canada's startup capital." Of course, they're from Alberta, so there is bias. But still.

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Toronto's InGamer Secures Investment and Scores Rick Wolf as EVP

Toronto's InGamer announced this morning that it has secured an investment round from a group of strategic investors.

The funding round will be used to enhance InGamer’s product offering and expand sales and distribution in preparation for their U.S. launch in September. 

Upon closing, InGamer promptly partnered with Full Moon Sports Solutions and named Rick Wolf Executive Vice President of Strategic Partnerships.

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Kevin O'Leary: Cementing a Legacy with the Cold Hard Truth

There's no question that Canadian entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary is an asshole. But he's earned the right to be one. 

Kevin O'Leary was a benefactor of the $3.8 billion exit for The Learning Company (also known as SoftKey) in 1999. While in retrospect the acquisition was called one of the worst business deals of all time—Mattel lost hundreds of millions—O'Leary had cashed out just before the dot-com bubble imploded.

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Toronto Non-Profit and Millipore Collaborate to Design Stem Cell Bioreactor

Photo: The GuardianStem cells are all the rage these days, and it’s not just a medical fad. With the ability to differentiate themselves into just about any other type of cell in the human body, they can be used to combat cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and many conditions.

The problem with stem cell research, however, is that stem cells are notoriously difficult to harvest.  While there are many locations in the body that they can be harvested from, it is quantity that matters, and quantity is hard to get. It is no surprise then that stem cell bioreactors, machines capable of producing large batches of stem cells, could have a huge impact in the way we fight disease.

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Alarm Bells Sounding Over Rumoured SR&ED Changes

It's widely assumed that Prime Minister Harper and his Conservative government will announce changes to the long-standing Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Incentive Program (SR&ED) as part of their March 29 budget.

Harper has received recommendations from an expert panel’s report—known as the Jenkins Report after its chair Tom Jenkins—which made six broad recommendations to streamline a bewildering array of programs and produce more marketable business products from R&D funds.

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