Irvine-based Allergan has acquired Serica Technologies, a developer of biomaterials for the aesthetic and reconstructive surgery market, the firm said late last week. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. According to Serica, the acquisition did not include the firm's orthopaedic or veterinary products, which were spun out to new firm Alacer Technologies. Serica was backed by Morningside Technology Ventures, Prism VentureWorks, and Ivy Capital Partners, and had raised around $24M. Serica is based in Boston.Continue →

Santa Monica-based eHow, the question and answer site owned by Demand Media, said this week that it has rolled out a new, mobile application for the Android operating system. According to eHow, the application lets users search for, retrieve, and play videos from the firm's question and answer site. The firm said the new app is available for free.Continue →

Los Angeles-based IVT, the web casting firm run by Greg Pulier, has announced that it has raised $5.5M in a Series B funding. The firm said that the new funding for the company was led by Syncom Venture Partners, and also included investors Barshop Ventures, Monitor Ventures, and Tudor Ventures. Monitor and Tudor are prior investors in the firm. The firm said the new funding will go to expands its go-to-market efforts. IVT serves clients such as Oracle, Rohm & Hass, IBM, and NEC particularly for corporate communications, investor relations, and training webcasts. IVT was formerly known as Interactive Video Technologies, and last raised funding back in 2006. This new funding brings its total raised to around $10.5M.Continue →

Monrovia-based Xencor, a developer of antibody discovery technology, said this morning that it has named Edgardo Baracchini, Ph.D., as Chief Business Officer at the company. Baracchini joins the firm from Metabasis Therapeutics, where he was Senior Vice President of Business Development. Dr. Baracchini also has served at Elitra Pharmaceuticals, Agouron Pharmaceuticals, as well as Isis Pharmaceuticals.Continue →

Redpoint Ventures, said late Monday evening that the firm has closed on Redpoint IV,a $400M, early stage venture capital fund specifically aimed at the social and mobile Internet, cloud computing, and clean technology. The firm highlighted its recent exits of LifeSize, WiChorus, Kazeon, and Irvine's Network in Motion in the announcement. The firm said it now has over $2B in management. Redpoint's efforts in Southern California are headed by Brad Jones. Redpoint is based in Menlo Park with offices in Los Angeles.Continue →

Los Angeles-based Oversee.net, which operates a network of businesses focused on domain name monetization and advertising, said today that it has linked with NameMedia, a developer and marketer of premium domain names. According to the firms, Oversee will join NameMedia's Domain Listing service, AfternicDLS.com, in order to expand Oversee.net's sales channels for its domain names. Financial details of the partnership were not disclosed. AfternicDLS runs a domain name resale business, through Afternic.com, BuyDomains.com, and a number of other sites. Oversee.net, in addition to providing advertising and other domain services, owns its own private portfolio of domain names, which it resells through its own services.Continue →

Calabasas-based Gumiyo, a developer of mobile marketing applications for auto dealers and others, has released a new Facebook application. According to Gumiyo, the new, free, Facebook application called MyShowroom will allow retail automotive dealers to show their vehicle inventory on their Facebook pages. The firm said the application is part of its mobile marketing platform, which it provides to automotive dealers and others. The new tool automatically pulls inventory from a dealers' systems, and shows them on Facebook pages. Gumiyo said it will be rolling out the app as part of the upcoming NADA show.Continue →

A spinout of San Diego's Fallbrook Technologies, Viryd Technologies, announced today that it has raised $5M in an investment from a Chinese firm. Viryd, which is applying Fallbrook's continuous variable planetary transmissions to the wind turbine and energy market, said today that it raised funding from Ningbo Shentong Auto Decorations Ltd., a Chinese supplier of parts to the auto industry. The firm said the funding comes along with a joint venture to manufacture wind turbines for world markets, including an emphasis on manufacturing and distribution of wind turbines to the Asian and specifically Chinese renewable energy market. Viryd said it is based in Cedar Park, Texas, although it previously had its headquarters in San Diego.Continue →

Irvine-based Integrien, a developer of IT analytics annd management software, announced today that former FileNet CEO Lee Roberts is joining the firm's board of directors. Roberts is currently President and CEO of BlueWater Management Consulting, and was formerly General Manager and Vice President of Content Management at IBM, which acquired FileNet in 2006. Roberts headed up FileNet as Chairman and CEO at the time of its acquisition by IBM. Integrien is a developer of IT performance management software, and is backed by Acartha Group, Clearstone Venture Partners, and the Tech Coast Angels.Continue →

San Diego-based PatientSafe Solutions, a developer of software and bar code systems used for management of patient and workflow management in hospitals, has reported raised $30M in a new round of funding. The funding was first reported by VentureWire. The new funding was led by TPG Biotechnology Partners. PatientSafe was formerly known as Intellidot, and had raised capital from American River Ventures, Integral Capital Partners, Menlo Ventures, Psilos Group Management, Shea Ventures and Shoreline Venture Management.Continue →

Laguna Beach-based OrthAlign, a developer of medical devices for computer assisted surgery, has raised $5.16M in a Series A-2 funding round. Source of the funding was not announced by the firm, however, the firm has previously raised capital from Okapi Venture Capital and Research Corporation Technologies. The new funding brings the company's total raised to just over $12.3M.Continue →

Los Angeles-based video site Hulu reports this afternoon that the firm has received more than one million votes in its Super Bowl commercial rankings on its Hulu Adzone, where the firm has posted all of the ads from Sunday's Super Bowl. The firm--which is announcing a winner on Wednesday for the most popular commercial--said so far, include commercials from Doritos, Google, Mar's, and Motorola. Hulu also said it would be providing demographic data on the most popular ads, by gender, age, and geography.
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Torrance-based LiveOffice, a provider of email archiving and compliance software-as-a-service, reported Monday that the firm has signed on magazine publisher Source Interlink. The firm said that Source Interlink, which has more than 7,000 employees and three major operating divisions, will use the firm for email archiving. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. LiveOffice said its products were selected over competitors MessageOne, Mimosa Systems NearPoint and Symantec Enterprise Vault. LiveOffice is backed by private equity firm Summit Partners.Continue →

San Diego-based Tragara Pharmaceuticals, a developer of biopharmaceuticals aimed at cancer and inflammation treatments, has raised another $5M in a funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm last week. The filing indicates the equity funding comes as part of an ongoing, $10M fundraising effort by the company. No details on the funding have been announced by the firm. The firm has previously raised funding from Domain Associates, Proquest Investments, Mitsubishi, Morgenthaler Ventures, and Oxford Bioscience Partners. The firm last raised a large, $40M funding round in 2007.Continue →

A report released today by Ernst & Young finds that Southern California was number two in the nation in terms of clean technology investments for the year. According to the analysis of 2009 venture capital, based on data from Dow Jones VentureSource, Southern California had annual investments of $329.5M in 2009 in the clean technology area, and Q4 investments of $30.5M. That compares with $1.2 billion invested in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2009, and $295.6M in Q4. Nationwide, U.S. venture capital investments dropped to $2.6 billion in 2009, a decline of 50% in terms of dollars from 2008.Continue →

For our Insights and Opinions section today, we have Jared Reitzen, CEO of Los Angeles-based MobileStorm, who gives a few opinions on how to make you and your resume stand out above the crowd, when applying for a job.


You want a job? Then stop sending crappy resumes. Being an employer for a decade now, I have seen every type of resume you can imagine. I really like to interview everyone even if it’s for 10 minutes. I like to make sure that person fits within our culture (while lowering the risk of a lawsuit because of our wonderful, politically incorrect organization).
Every time we try to fill a position, I feel that the majority of people either a.) aren’t really looking for a job but are just sending their resumes to see what is out there or, b.) don’t have any self-esteem and feel that they are one of a thousand applicants and there is no way they can get a job, so why bother to send a polished document. Here are five tips to make sure someone reads your resume and calls you in for an interview:
1. Attach a Cover Letter: Far too many people simply email you their resumes and there is nothing in the body of the email, just a Word doc attachment. It’s as if the applicants are just sending their resumes to as many people as possible, and they don’t have time to write a quick intro on themselves and why they want this job....Continue →

A firm which appears to hold the patents of now defunct Internet Machines, which was later renamed IMC Semiconductor, has filed suit against Alienware, Advanced Micro Devices, Dell Computer, IDT, Tigerdirect, Nvidia, and others over PCI Express patents, according to the docket of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. No details on the lawsuit, filed by Internet Machines LLC, have been released. Internet Machines/IMC Semiconductor was a developer of PCI Express switch and bridge chips. The firm was backed by Exar Corporation, Meritech Capital, Morgan Stanley, Redpoint Ventures, and Scale Venture Partners, and was based in Agoura Hills.Continue →

San Diego-based Novatel Wireless, a developer of wireless broadband data cards, announced this morning that the firm has completed its first data transmission using Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G technology. The firm said it is planning commercial launch of data devices with operators in late 2010. LTE is a new wireless data standard, which is expected to provide up to 100Mbps upling and 50Mbps downlink support for wireless networks.Continue →

Sony Online Entertainment, which is based in San Diego, said today that it now has over eight million players on its virtual world Free Realms. Sony's virtual world, which allows users to network with other people, and is also connected to the Free Realms trading card game, is targeted at families. The firm launched the site in April of last year.Continue →

We recently spoke with Tyler Koblasa, Founder and CEO of Mingly, a Santa Monica-based startup which is pulling together contacts from multiple sources, and adding such tools as contact reminders, to-do lists, and alerts based on those contacts. Tyler told us about his startup and what it's up to.
What is Mingly all about?

Tyler Koblasa: Mingly is a relationship management tool, kind of a personal assistant, and keeps track of all of your contacts, from multiple sources, and aggregates that into a master address book. Whether someone is in Google address book, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, they all end up in one place. Then, you have aggregated status updates and aggregated communication with all of those individual contacts. Mingly also generates alerts. The difference between Mingly and other companies, is we're event driven--it's all driven from a to-do list, essentially action-based. That can be a time-based reminder, where it analyzes your communications and determines the last time you interacted with a contact, and prompts for follow up one month, three months, or six months since you last pinged that contact, to keep the relationship alive. It also generated search alerts--like a Google alert, for mentions of that person's name, company, and also keywords. That might be for their interests--a sports team, if they are a VC, if they'd recently sold a portfolio company, things that you could reach out and tell them congratulations....Continue →

Camarillo-based Vitesse Semiconductor, a developer of high speed networking chips, is trumpeting hiring growth and its outlook, saying that it is planning a long list of new products as its customers serving the carrier and data center markets see growth. Vitesse said it has expanded its research and development staff by 15 percent in the last year, and has a plan for 30 new products for its customers. The firm did not detail how many people it hired for the positions, but did say its customers as seeing demand increases due to growth of Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and cloud computing applications. The firm develops components for the 10G optical, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet market.Continue →

Irvine-based Broadcom announced this morning that it has shipped a new, single-chip HSPA (high-speed packet access) baseband processor and radio frequency transceiver, targeted at the 3G smart phone market. According to the firm, the new chip is based on its 65 nanometer CMOS process, and is aimed at helping manufacturer build next generation 3G HSUPA phones. The firm said the new device can run such operating systems as Windows Mobile and Android. Broadcom said the BCM21553 baseband processor is available now, but did not release pricing.Continue →

Camarillo-based DEX Systems, a developer of software used for supply chain management, announced today that it has been selected by Diebold. DEX said that Diebold will purchase the firm's reverse logistics software for an Ohio facility, which is used for repair operations for DEX. Financial terms of the win were not disclosed. DEX said the software is being used for managing returns and reverse logistics, alongside Oracle's e-business suite.Continue →

El Segundo-based iRise, a developer of software used by enterprises to visualize and prototype their IT development projects, announced this morning that it has named Ralph Szygenda to its advisory board. Szygenda is the former global CIO of General Motors, and also has served at Bell Atlantic and Texas Instruments. iRise said that Szygenda will help create a "CIO advisory council" for the company. iRise is backed by Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, and Deutsche Bank.Continue →

San Diego-based Borrego Solar Systems, a developer and designer of commercial solar electric power installations, said today that it has named Bill Bush as the firm's Chief Financial Officer. The venture backed firm said that Bush joins from Solar Semiconductor, where he was also CFO, and has over 20 years of experience. Borrego is backed by Walsin Lihwa.Continue →

Irvine-based electric automobile manufacturer Fisker Automotive said Thursday that it is moving all of its design and engineering staff to its Irvine location. The firm is closing its engineering and sales center in Michigan. Fisker said the move would "expand dramatically" the number of new hires in Irvine as a result of the move.Continue →

FLIR Systems, a developer of thermal imaging and other camera systems for the surveillance, airborne observation, manufacturing, research and development, and other uses, said Thursday afternoon that it has acquired two Goleta office buildings, as part of an expansion of its Commercial Systems division. According to FLIR, it purchased 170,000 square feet in two building, so that its Commercial Systems Division can expand its central California operations. FLIR specifically said it is looking to tap into the talent coming from the University of California Santa Barbara in the expannsion. FLIR acquired the buildings from real estate developer SARES REGIS Group. The building are currently being leased to Dupont, Northrop, Raytheon, General Electric, Safe Labs and Sientra, with leases due to expire in 2014. FLIR said the new building can accomodate up to 510 workers, but the firm did not say how many new employees it intends to hire in the Santa Barbara region. FLIR is based in Portland.Continue →

San Diego-based Slacker, which operates a personalized Internet radio service, said Thursday that it has shipped a version of the firm's application for the Palm webOS. The firm said its new application--which is free--runs on Plm Pre, Palm Pre Plus, Palm Pixi, and Palm Pixi Plus smartphones. Slacker's online personalized radio service allows users to stream music to their PC, smart phone, or Slacker's own personal radio players. Slacker is venture backed by Austin Ventures, Centennial Ventures, Mission Ventures, Rho Ventures, and Sevin Rosen Funds. Continue →

San Diego-based ecoATM, a developer of in-store, electronics trade-in kiosks, said Thursday that it has installed a automated, electronics recycling station for used cell phones in Escondido. According to the startup, it installed its ecoATM Automated eCycling Station in the Westfield North County Shopping Mall, the first pilot of its products. ecoATM is headed by Tom Tullie, former COO of AMCC. The firm was also the winner of the San Diego Venture Group's annual Pitchfest last year.Continue →

Los Angeles-based video site Hulu said Thursday that it will be featuring commercials from this weekend's Super Bowl XLIV on the site, in a special section it is calling the Hulu AdZone. Hulu said that the section will feature each of the new, Super Bowl commercials after they air on the live broadcast, and also allow users to vote on their favorites. In addition to the new commercials, Hulu said it is currently featuring all of the Super Bowl ads from 2008 and 2009 on the site, as well as through an embeddable widget for Hulu fans.
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Los Angeles-based Ranker, an online web site which allows users to create their own lists, and share them with friends, said Thursday evening that the firm has raised $750,000 in a seed investment round, part of a planned $1M funding effort. According to the firm, the round was led by Siemer Venture Capital, along with un-named angel investors. Ranker said that those angels include investors in founder Clark Benson's former startup, eCrush, which was sold to Hearst Corporation in 2006. The new funding brings the company's total raised to $1.75M.Continue →

The David Bohnett Foundation, the nonprofit foundation started by Geocities founder David Bohnett, said Thursday that it has granted $500,000 to David Bohnett CyberCenters across the United States, to help update computer centers for the gay and lesbian community. According to the foundation, it grants "refresh" grants to keep computer equipment up to date in the centers, approximately every three or four years. The centers are used to help LGBT members network, communicate, and explore educational, professional and recreational opportunities. The first David Bohnett CyberCenter opened in 1998. Bohnett was the co-founder of Geocities, which was acquired by Yahoo in 1999; Bohnett also runs local venture firm Baroda Ventures, and was involved in NetZero, Stamps.com, Xdrive, Lowermybills, Wireimage, and Online Partners, among other firms. Bohnett's foundation said it has so far given over $35M to such causes as the arts, educational and civic programs; LGBT-related causes; voting rights and registration initiatives; research and public policies to reduce the toll of firearm violence; and animal research and rights.Continue →

Beverly Hills-based Hydra has launched a new, proprietary ad campaign tracking software product it is calling HNv2, the firm said Thursday. According to Hydra, the online ad tracking software is designed to help its publishing partners prevent fraud and the promotion of campaigns in unauthorized channels. According to Hydra, the software is a part of its move to eliminate fraud in its network, and employs cookie-less and pixel-tracking and other techniques to remove bot-generated traffic. The new software appears to be a part of a move to improve the quality of traffic provided to Hydra's CPA ad network, after a restructuring and buyout by a number of the firm's executives last month.
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Los Angeles-based RotoHog, the fantasy sports game development firm run by Kelly Perdew, said Thursday that the firm has entered into a strategic partnership with NASCAR.COM. According to Rotohog, it will build a fantasy exchange game for the sports brand, starting in February with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Daytona. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. RotoHog has been developing white-labeled, fantasy sports games for a number of major clients, including NBA.com, Sporting News, Military.com, The Los Angeles Times, and others.
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