For whatever reason, VC deals in the blogsphere have been few and far between. So it's big news when a deal actually happens. Feedster made its financing mark with a Series A private equity deal led by Selby Venture Partners, as well money from Omidyar Network (which is headed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar), members of the New York Angels , and angel investors such as Xoom co-founder Kevin Hartz, Excite co-founder Joe Kraus and About.com founder Scott Kurnit. Feedster will use the money to accelerate development and marketing and expand its server infrastructure. There were no details about how much money Feedster raised.

Judging from the bubbly reaction to Nortel's first-quarter results this week, it's easy to believe investors and analysts are willing to give the telecom equipment maker yet another chance. The stock is up and analysts are touting their "buy" ratings. It is almost as if everyone is prepared to put Nortel's accounting scandal into the past tense. As much as I hate being a party pooper, investors need to look beyond Nortel's happy-talk about being bullish and having momentum. After being distracted for nearly two years, Nortel's biggest challenge is weaknesses within its technology portfolio. As much as the company likes to talk about IP technology, it's nowhere near as vibrant a player as Cisco, Juniper and Alcatel, who have positioned themselves well with a series of strategic acquisitions. Nortelmust do more than buying a services company focused on the U.S. government - a deal described as "puzzling" by a senior executive at the Canadian Telecom Summit who spent years providing the U.S. government with telecom services. Before anyone claims Nortel has turned the corner, they should recognize there are plenty of strategic hurdles ahead.

Amid all the excitement - and hours sitting in a conference centre eating danish and drinking gallons of coffee - at the Canadian Telecom Summit, I missed a key point in my traffic posting yesterday: unique visitors in May topped 50,000 for the first time. Nothing like a little more self-promotion :)

The Canadian Telecom Summit is, in many ways, a three-day marathon given the number of speakers and presentations. Judging by attendance and the quality of speakers, it was another successful outing for Mark Goldberg and Michael Sohn. The highlights from a speaker-perspective were Telus CEO Darren Entwistle, Vonage CEO Jeff Citron, Nortel CEO Bill Owens and CRTC chair Charles Dalfen. Entwistle's speech yesterday on the recent CRTC decision to regulate ILECs was everything a conference keynote should: a focused message to high-level industry executives. This isn't to suggest there is no room from sales pitches, and no one does that better than Citron, who continues his whirlwind PR odessey to tell the entire world about Vonage. Owens' appearance was noteworthy because it was simply good to see him in public in Canada. If I had any criticism of his keynote, it was the failure to hammer home the message the Canadian government needs to do more to support R&D activity. He only went halfway by not offering any details on how Nortel would actually like to see the R&D regime changed. Charles Dalfen's spirited defense of the recent VOIP decision to close the conference made it clear the CRTC is determined to bend over backwards to encourage sustainable, local competition. You can question the statistical methodology the CRTC uses to determine market share dominance, and whether VOIP is an Internet application or a voice service, but Dalfen believes the CRTC is following its mandate.
As for the conference's shortcomings, the last-minute bail out by Nadir Mohamed, who heads up Rogers' wireless and cable divisions after a promotion last week, was disappointing. It seemed like a strange move for the the PR-savvy Rogers organization. Robert Odendaal, CEO of Bell Mobility and Bell ExpressVu, did little to wow people with a 20-year look at the Canadian wireless industry. To be honest, he seemed like the wrong choice for the assignement given Odendaal is a TV executive who had only been in Canada for a year and only been head of Bell Mobility since February.