Spotlight: Italy Likes the Silicon Valley

STET Group, owner of Italy’s biggest phone company, has invested $35 million in Silicon Valley firms recently and is looking to invest more. The parent company of Telecom Italia is tapping the region’s expertise in creating Internet content to boost the number of hours Italians spend online. So far, Steam USA, STET’s San Francisco-based venture capital arm, has bought minority stakes in Net service provider Concentric Network Corp. and 3-D software animation firm Protozoa Inc.