Microsoft is close to buying business software company Yammer for more than $1 billion, according to Reuters. Backed by PayPal co-founder and Facebook investor Peter Thiel, Yammer said it counts more than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies as clients. It has raised more than $140 million in venture capital funding. Reuters – Microsoft Corp [...]

This morning’s FirstRead unveils AXA, Index and MassVentures new fundraisings, Microsoft getting closer to Yammer purchase and Peter Thiel’s controversial opinion that kids should skip college and companies should stop listing degrees as a job requirement.

The San Mateo-based venture firm Emergence Capital is in the process of raising its third fund with a target of $200 million, according to a regulatory filing. The form says that the first sale has yet to occur. VentureBeat first reported on the filing earlier this afternoon. Emergence raised its first, $125 million, fund in 2004, [...]

Foursquare Labs, Yammer, Groupon. Social mobile media is hot, especially if it targets ecommerce and the enterprise. So how does a tiny next generation startup compete with today’s more entrenched players? That seemed to be the unanswered question at the Under the Radar conference today in Mountain View, Calif. The conference brought together more than [...]

Yammer, a San Francisco-based provider of enterprise microblogging and real-time communications solutions, has raised $10 million in Series B funding. Emergence Capital led the round, and was joined by SV Angel and return backers Charles River Ventures and Goldcrest Investment.

Jason Green of Emergence and Ron Conway of SV Angel are joining the company’s board of directors. No mention of Founders Fund, which participated in Yammer’s $5 million Series A round.