SoCal CTO
APRIL 1, 2009
I am excited to be participating in and announcing the of: Southern California Tech Central This is a community of people in Southern California who have come together to help find and organize the best content from blogs, news sources and other web sites all around technology in So Cal. The goal is to create a place where it's easy to find current and highly relevant content.
socalTECH
APRIL 23, 2009
Internet portal Yahoo is quietly shutting Geocities , the Internet home page portal it acquired in 1999. Yahoo said it is no longer accepting new customers, and will discontinue the service later this year. Geocities was one of Southern California's original, dot com successes, having both a successful IPO in August of 1998, and a $4.5 billion stock-and-option acquisition by Yahoo in 1999.
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Technology Council
APRIL 22, 2009
Join us at the 2009 TCOSC Technology Industry Awards dinner for the best companies, the brightest people, and the most fun! The Technology Industry Awards is celebrating its 15th year of recognizing individuals and companies that have made significant, superior contributions to Southern California’s technology industry. This event brings together top executives from all aspects of [.].
SoCal Tech Calendar
APRIL 9, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 -- "Hollywood 2.0 Panel" Scripped.com and the UCLA Anderson School of Management Entrepreneurs Association. Panel includes Keith Richman, Alex Albrecht and Chris Jacquemin. The panel will be moderated by Sunil Rajaraman, President and CEO of Scripped Inc. Students from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and UCLA Film School will be present.
Advertiser: Aggregage
Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.
socalTECH
APRIL 30, 2009
Most companies, when they're looking to raise company morale, might set up a company picnic, Friday night beer bash, or maybe go on a ski trip. Instead, the executives over at Culver City-based Fonality decided on something different: a full blown, mixed-martial arts (MMA) tournament between its employees. Fonality, which is a venture-backed developer of PBX software used for replacing corporate phony systems, is in the midst of its own version of an employee morale-booster: training for the "Fo
socalTECH
APRIL 29, 2009
Santa Monica-based Boingo Wireless , which operates a network of wireless access points through relationships with local Wi-Fi providers, told its users Wednesday that the firm has upgraded its customer service site. According to the firm, users can now reset their own password, and email invoices and receipts to themself. The firm said the new email invoice feature should help users who need access to receipts for expense or tax reporting.
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
socalTECH
APRIL 23, 2009
San Diego-based Sequenom , a developer of genetic analysis equipment, announced late Thursday that the firm has cut approximately 30 employees as part of a cost cutting measure. According to the firm, the cuts were a result of a "continuing weak outlook in 2009" for sales of its equipment, particularly in the U.S. The firm said the cuts were made in its Genetic Analysis business.
socalTECH
APRIL 21, 2009
Hollywood-based Katalyst Media , the content production firm of Ashton Kutcher, announced a live streaming deal with Ustream, and release of the firm's KatalystHQ season finale. According to Ustream and Katalyst Media, the two firms will use Ustream for both live streaming and for an iPhone streaming application for release in May. Separately, Katalyst and Slide said that it will release the season finale for the firm's online series KatalystHQ on Slide's FunSpace site Wednesday.
socalTECH
APRIL 20, 2009
El Segundo-based AWR , a developer of high frequency, electronic design automation software, is trumpeting its financial performance today, saying it had "record annual revenues" for its fiscal year ended March 31st. The privately held firm, which did not disclose its actual financials, said the record year came in spite of the worldwide recession. The company said the 2009 fiscal year was the twelfth consecutive year of revenue growth for the firm.
socalTECH
APRIL 20, 2009
Los Angeles-based Sodahead , the online question and answer site backed by Mission Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, and the Tech Coast Angels, said Monday that it has tied together in a strategic partnership with Technorati. According to the firm, the deal will allow its members to access Technorati content, embedded within its online community, plus feature SodaHead's polls on Technorati posts.
socalTECH
APRIL 20, 2009
Both Aliso Viejo-based QLogic and Costa Mesa-based Emulex , provider of host bus adapters and related storage networking products, have tied into a new HP blade server system, the HP BladeSystem Matrix. The firms, which both announced their tie into HP's blade servers separately, will provide 8 Gb/sec Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters which work with the new blade computing system.
socalTECH
APRIL 20, 2009
Los Angeles-base 3n Global , a provider of emergency notification and mass calling services, said Monday that the firm has renamed itself as Everbridge. According to the firm, the name change will "better reflect" the company's portfolio of solutions. The name change is actually the second for 3n, which was formerly known as National Notification Network.
socalTECH
APRIL 30, 2009
The Walt Disney Company is the latest firm to invest in online video aggregator Hulu , saying this morning that it has agreed to join NBC Universal, New Corporation, and Providence Equity Partners as a joint venture partner in the site. According to Hulu and Walt Disney, it will become an equity owner in Hulu, and also distribute its current and library primetime series and feature films through the site.
socalTECH
APRIL 28, 2009
Irvine-based Broadcom is creating a new, $50M foundation to support math and science programs, along with other community services, the firm said Monday. According to Broadcom, the new Broadcom Foundation is looking to give more than $2M annually to support mostly math and science programs, with some funding to community services where Broadcom employees live and work.
socalTECH
APRIL 27, 2009
Seed stage, venture capital fund DFJ Frontier (www.dfjfrontier.com) announced this morning that it has raised its second fund, worth $55M. We sat down with Managing Director Scott Lenet last week, ahead of the announcement, to chat about the new fund and what the firm is investing in now. Congrats on the new fund. What kind of investments are you targeting with this new fund?
socalTECH
APRIL 6, 2009
Pasadena-based Arrowhead Research disclosed this morning that the firm is increasing its ownership in Unidym, a developer of carbon nanotube technology and products. Arrowhead said that the buy comes through a stock exchange with holders of Unidym's Series A preferred stock, and will take it from 51.5% ownership in Unidym to 58.1% ownership. Arrowhead said the deal is worth 1,564,610 shares of its restricted stock.
socalTECH
APRIL 1, 2009
North Hollywood-based Disney Online , the online publishing arm of Disney Interactive Media Group, announced this morning that it has acquired a number of assets from Canadian firm Kaboose, in a deal worth approximately $18.4M. Disney said that it is acquiring Kaboose.com , Babyzone.com , AmazingMoms.com , Funschool.com , and Zeeks.com from Kaboose, to integrate into its lineup of web sites.
socalTECH
APRIL 30, 2009
San Diego-based TweetPhoto launched its services Thursday afternoon, saying it will allow users to share photos via the popular Twitter micro-messaging service. The service said that it will allow users to easily upload and automatically publish their photos to Twitter and Facebook. The site--which requires users to share their username and password to twitter--automaticaly geo-tags photos sent from GPS enabled phones, provides information on how many people have looked at photos, plus allows fo
socalTECH
APRIL 29, 2009
Los Angeles-based Internet Brands is expanding its network of vertically focused web sites, saying Wednesday that the firm has acquired two new websites in the money and finance area, and has officially targeted "Money and Business" as one of the firm's key vertical markets. Internet Brands said it has acquired Finweb.com , a site focused on personal finance, and SmallBusinessNotes.com , which provides advice to small business owners.
socalTECH
APRIL 29, 2009
Southern California's venture capital industry isn't just content and media, but is gaining a reputation for companies who "actually know how to make money,"--or so says Highland Capital's Richard de Silva. Speaking on a panel on Venture Capital in Hollywood at AlwaysOn's OnHollywood conference yesterday, de Silva said he's now seeing repeat entrepeneurs coming out of Southern California who are just as good, if not savvier about real businesses, as Silicon Valley. de Silva, who is a General Par
socalTECH
APRIL 27, 2009
Pasadena-based X1 Technologies , the document indexing and search software firm backed by Idealab, disclosed this morning that it has released two upgrades to its software. Among the updates is a new release of its X1 Profesisonal Client software, and a new versino of its connector to the Symantec Enterprise Vault product. X1 said the new update of its client adds improvements for IBM Lotus Notes and Mozilla Thunderbird; the updated connector provides faster results searching Symantec's archivin
socalTECH
APRIL 27, 2009
Los Angeles-based seed stage venture fund DFJ Frontier is announcing today that it has closed a second, $55M fund, expanded its team, and opened up new offices. According to the firm, it raised $55.4M from mostly institutional investors, with limited partners that include CalPERs, Credit Suisse, Hamilton Lane, LACERS, and the Oregon Growth Account. The new offices are in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.
socalTECH
APRIL 22, 2009
Demand Media , the well funded online media firm run by former MySpace chairman Richard Rosenblatt, has a new solution to the recent doom, gloom, and stress brought on by the economy: a new iPhone app it is calling " The Daily Puppy." According to Demand Media, the application--which is a companion to the firm's TheDailyPuppy.com web site--allows users to view pictures of a new puppy every day.
socalTECH
APRIL 21, 2009
Irvine-based Broadcom said this morning that it is offering to acquire another large, Orange County electronics manufacturer, Emulex Corporation , for approximately $764M in cash. Broadcom, which is a manufacturer of high speed networking and other semiconductors, said it was offering $9.25 per share in cash, for Costa Mesa-based Emulex, which makes storage area networking components, semiconductors, and related products.
socalTECH
APRIL 21, 2009
Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal has launched a new, online marketplace for local advertising, saying Monday that it has created a new "ReachLocal Xchange" platform which will allow websites to tap into local advertisers. According to ReachLocal, the new technology platform is targeted at both major and "long tail" Internet publishers, who want to tap into local online ads.
socalTECH
APRIL 13, 2009
Hollywood-based online family networking and family tree site Geni officially announced late last week that the firm has launched a new, Facebook application. According to Geni, the new application will allow its users to access such features as building family trees, getting family news and birthday reminders, and more. Geni is venture backed by Charles River Ventures and the Founders Fund.
socalTECH
APRIL 10, 2009
The X PRIZE Foundation , the Playa Vista-based nonprofit using multimillion dollar prizes to drive innovation, said Thursday that the firm will announce the initial prize parameters for its $10M+, Healthcare X PRIZE next week. According to the firm, the parameters for the prize--which is focused on improving health care--were developed by a group of prominent health care providers, thought-leaders, and academic and political advisors.
socalTECH
APRIL 8, 2009
Santa Monica-based TrueCar , the automotive pricing spinout of Zag, said today that it is targeting dealers with a new web site, to help dealerships price vehicles based on market data. According to the firm, it will allow dealers to see price reports and window sticker data from its service, giving those dealers information on what consumers are actually paying for their vehicles.
socalTECH
APRIL 2, 2009
Southern California Venture capital totals were up slightly in Q1 of this year from last quarter, to around $718M in deals, according to an analysis of socalTECH.com's proprietary venture database. According to numbers derived from socalTECH's venture database, there was $717.96M invested in Southern California in the first quarter, up from only $465M in Q4 of 2008.
socalTECH
APRIL 1, 2009
Monrovia-based Aerovironment , which develops unmanned aircraft systems for the defense industry, said this morning that the firm has recently conducted a 30-hour demonstration of the firm's Raven aircraft for the Pentagon. Aerovironment said the demonstration cames following an inquiry from the Pentagon on the potential of using its products for low-cost, tactically relevant persistent surveillance.
socalTECH
APRIL 30, 2009
Ontario, California-based Phoenix Motorcars , a maker of electric vehicles, has reportedly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Phoenix Motorcars was backed by Al Yousuf LLC and AES Corporation, and was developing highway-speed, all-electric vehicles the firm had said would have a range of 100 miles. Calls to Phoenix Motorcars for comments on the filing were not returned as of press time.
socalTECH
APRIL 30, 2009
Los Angeles-based private equity firm Platinum Equity said Thursday that the firm has acquired a majority stake in Canvas Systems LLC, a supplier of used and refurbished IT equipment and services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Platinum said it purchased Canvas Systems from Atlanta-based OHC, LLC, which also owns IT consulting firm Corus360.
socalTECH
APRIL 30, 2009
Los Angeles-based View2Gether.com , which is developing a product which will allow users to watch and share video content in real-time, said this week that it has raised a Series A investment round. Size of the round was not disclosed. According to the firm, the funding came from Australian investors Bruno Charlesworth, Michael Kantor and Steve Castan, along with former Sony Pictures co-President and CBS Television President Jeff Sagansky.
socalTECH
APRIL 30, 2009
Newport Beach-based Day Software , a developer of content management software, said this week that it has nominated Barry Bycoff and David Arnott to the firm's board of directors. Bycoff is currently Executive Chairman at Progress Software, and has previously served as a Venture Partner at Pequot Ventures, in addition to founding Netegrity. Arnott is CFO of TEMENOS Group AG, and also has served at Socieete Europeenne de Communication and Anglo-American plc.
socalTECH
APRIL 30, 2009
Los Angeles-based Language Weaver , which develops language translation software, has inked a new deal with a UK-based developer of enterprise software for managing content translation. According to Language Weaver, the deal is with SDL, which provides translation products for online support, technical documentation, and e-commerce customers. Language Weaver said that SDL will use its translation software within its software.
socalTECH
APRIL 30, 2009
Irvine-based Microsemi , a manufacturer of analog and mixed signal semiconductors, announced today that it has acquired the Defense & Security Business of Endwave Corporation, a developer of high frequency RF circuits. According to the firm, it will pay $28M in cash plus assume specific liabilities for Endwave's defense and security business, which supplies RF semiconductors to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and others.
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