Roundup: Sabio, Photobucket cont, Technorati, Choicestream, PersonalBee and more

Here’s the latest:

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Sabio Labs raises second round — Sabio is a secretive Palo Alto, Calif. start-up building a new design process for analog chips. It’s likely up to something significant, because Andy Bechtolsheim, the brilliant engineer and co-founder of Sun Microsystems has led a round of investment into the company. Investors in the earlier, first round include individuals like Art Reidel (CEO Scintera – on the board ), Bill Unger (of Mayfield), Barr Dolan (of Charter Ventures), Rajeev Madhawan (CEO Magma), Carl Showalter (of Lightspeed Ventures), Marc Friend (USVP and Summit Partners), Bobby Yazdani (CEO SABA), Amidzad (Palo Alto investors) and Harry Cheung. We plan to follow up with the company’s chief executive, Mar Hershenson.

The blog search engine Technorati has bought PersonalBee — PersonalBee (see our coverage) lets experts and others create their own news page for others to follow along. See Technorati’s statement here. Meanwhile, Technorati continues its search for a chief executive, something we’ve heard started several months ago. Technorati could have moved into providing blog and stat features, but the nimble MyBlogLog moved more quickly (our coverage). After more than $14 million in venture capital, Technorati appears still to be searching for a business model.

Is Photobucket in negotiations with Fox Interactive Media, owner of MySpace? — That’s what we’ve heard from a source, who says the two are working through Lehman Brothers in talks. Even if true, it’s another thing to speculate whether the recent scuffle between MySpace and Photobucket is related to deal jockeying. Apparently, Diller’s IAC is also interested in Photobucket. (See our update here)

Competitious has raised an angel round — Competitious is a start-up company that gives users tools to compare themselves against competing companies, using a number of variables, such as Web traffic, feature lists and news articles. Paul Colton, the founder and CEO of Aptana, which recently took over the RadRails project, is one investor. The company is still early, and has yet to release its main product. (See our earlier coverage).

Traits of successful entrepreneurs — Venture capitalist Ryan Floyd reports on the qualities of the best entrepreneurs he has funded.

Aggregate Knowledge raises cash, but ChoiceStream raises more — Following our report yesterday about Aggregate Knowledge, a behavioral search company raising $20 million, we learned competitor ChoiceStream, of Cambridge, Mass. has raised more, $25.79 million. The company hasn’t responded to requests for comment. Dan Primack has more details and speculates the company’s valuation exceeds $250 million. Rumor we’ve heard is ChoiceStream rejected a $150 million or so buyout offer, so Dan’s reasoning is sound, though SEC filings can also be misleading. Investors are General Catalyst, Sutter Hill Ventures and a family trust affiliated with ChoiceStream CEO Stephen Johnson. The company has more than 100 employees, and so is burning $1 million a month.