Internet advertising drove $9.26 billion in spending in the third quarter of 2012, up 18 percent over the third quarter of last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Find out how to use Google Tools to manage social media content and campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp, an interactive online event starting June 6. Monica Morse (left), head of social & SMB solutions at Google, will familiarize you with a wide range of Google tools such as trends, Google+ and Hangouts. Learn more about our our twelve event speakers and register here. 
The number of venture capital deals made from July to September rose compared to the same period a year earlier, even as the total dollar amount declined. The number of investments in early-stage startups also rose by 21%, according to a report released Friday.
The total number of venture deals rose by 9% to 780 from 716 in the same period in 2009, according to the MoneyTree Report (pdf) from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. More than a quarter of them (35%) were in early stage deals. The total amount invested during that period also fell by 7% to $4.8 billion from $5.2 billion as investors turned their attention from “clean” tech startups to lower-cost tech ventures.
Software starups raked in a total of $1 billion, an increase of 25% from a year ago, the most of any industry. Clean tech investment in companies such as electric car makers and solar power fell 32% to $625 million.
Investment in early-stage deals rose to $1.29 billion from $1.17 billion a year ago, and represented 271 deals; up from 224 in 2009. However, while early-stage investment rose, the number of seed-stage investments fell by 11% to 87 from 98 a year ago. This indicates that investors are nervous about putting money behind new ideas, but are still interested in backing young companies, according to the Associated Press.
