According to “ bizjournals.com ” Centrality Communications
Inc.said it has raised $20 million in Series D venture financing.

The Santa Clara provider of chipset technology for portable navigation devices said it will use
the funds to extend its Atlas product offering and increase its NIS market share.

Focus Ventures of Palo Alto led the round with participation
from existing investors, including Acer Venture Partners, EnspireGroup, Harbinger
Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Venture Tech Alliance  and Walden International Kevin McQuillan, general partner of Focus Ventures, has
joined Centrality’s board of directors.

This investment brings the total funding in the company to
more than $50 million.

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Accoring to " bizjournals.com " SoftBrands Inc.’s application for listing on the American Stock Exchange has been approved,
the company said Tuesday.

The Richfield-based software developer, whose stock is
currently traded on the so-called "Pink Sheets," has been exiled from
national exchanges for four years following a financial scandal.

SoftBrands (Pink Sheets: SFBD)  expects to begin
trading on the American Stock Exchange on Dec. 28 under the symbol SBN.

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Accoriding to" Boston Business Journal "Hypnion Inc. has nailed down $20 million in new venture funding thanks to favorable results
for its insomnia drug development program.

The Lexington, Mass,company said the latest round is an extension of a second round of financing.
Participating investors include MPM Capital
in Boston and San Francisco;Advanced Technology
Ventures in Waltham and Palo Alto, Calif.; Flagship Ventures in Cambridge; and Oxford Bioscience Partners in Boston.

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According to "bizjournals.com" Aging Houston baby boomers
have redefined every aspect of their lives. From jeans, to cars, to home
design, these boomers are now taking a hard look at their second homes.

The healthiest, wealthiest and largest group ever to surface
on the American landscape is borrowing more, traveling farther and purchasing
additional real estate, sooner in life. They are more adventuresome than their
parents, who comprised the pay-it-off, greatest generation. On the other hand,
boomers never met a loan they didn’t like and are proud to journey to distant
lands to buy and declare,

Boomers are buying abroad in droves, spearheaded by memories
of rediscovering their spring break Mexican jaunts, from 30 years ago. Some of
these people are the same movers and shakers who built their large homes on
small lots in the 1980s and moved to gate-guarded castles in the 1990s. Now,
armed with more home equity than they had ever dreamed, they are ready to have
fun and explore. They also are seeking the "cool factor" of dealing
with foreign laws, craftsmen and cultures.

The U.S. State Department reports approximately 4 million
non-military or embassy and military personnel U.S.citizens are living abroad, and more than 380,000 Social Security retirement
checks go to citizens outside the U.S.each month.

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Several leading commercial banks in China have decided  to
extend their business from banking to insurance services.However, this may pose a challenge to the existing
practice of legislatively prohibiting mixed operations for banks.

Asia Pulse  reported that the country’s largest bank - the Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China, and the Bank of Communications, the fifth-largest Chinese
bank will all launch insurance services. Li said the general principle for approving the
applications would be approval case by case if the requirements were met.

But China’s current Commercial Bank Law stipulates that banks may
not directly set up insurance companies in the name of initiators.

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Investment bankers are
set for record bonus payouts after one of the best years for mergers and
acquisitions(M & A)

The strong performance
on Wall Street was highlighted yesterday by Lehman Brothers as it opened the
investment bank reporting season. For 2005, the bank posted a 38pc rise in
full-year net income to $3.3billion, its second successive year of record profits.

David Litterick  reveals that Bankers are expecting
huge bonuses with several US investment banks to
start declaring payments to staff today. European-based investment banks such
as UBS, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank will follow in January.

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