Struggling electric car maker Fisker Automotive has received a bid from a group of investors, to purchase the company for a mere $20M, according to a report today. Reuters reported that a group led by former General Motors exec Bob Lutz has offered to buy Fisker Automotive for only $20M, which is a mere fraction of both the company's recent valuation--not to mention the amount invested in the company, which totals more than $1.2 billion in a combination of equity and Department of Energy funds. Fisker has been on the brink of bankruptcy in the last few months, having laid off most of its staff, hired a bankruptcy lawyer, is fending off its vendors in court over unpaid bills, and missed a federal loan payment.

UberMedia, the Idealab-backed startup best known for its Twitter client software, has recast itself as a mobile advertising firm, saying yesterday that it has launched a new mobile advertising product called UberAds. According to UberMedia, its new UberAds product analyzes social media signals to figure out consumer intent, and combines that with geo-location and dynamic ads to increase ad performance.

The new move towards mobile ads comes represents a rebirth, of sorts, for UberMedia, which has been uncharacteristically quiet over the last year, as it has sorted out its strategy after a long running battle with Twitter over its third party, Twitter client applications. UberMedia had been aggressively developing a rich set of third party apps which tied into Twitter, until those moves were shut down by the popular social messaging service.

UberMedia's social messaging and Twitter clients still exist--albeit, tucked away behind the company's new mobile ad focus--and the firm still lists UberSocial, Echofon, Plume, and a few other apps in its product list--but clearly, the mobile ads are the future for the company. UberMedia said that so far, brands such as Nike, Universal, and Lancome, among others, are using the firm's mobile ad products.

Calabasas-based surround sound and audio technology firm DTS has scored a design win with Chinese auto manufacturer BYD, the company said this morning. According to DTS, BYD will implement its DTS Digital Surround into four models of its vehicles. The four models of vehicles will launch in China in Q2. Financial impact of the win was not announced.

San Diego-based music service Slacker has hired on a new, Chief Product Officer, according to the streaming music company. Slacker said that John Hayase, who was most recently at ElasticPath, has joined the firm in the position, to oversee development of its digital music service. Hayase also served at EA, including heading up development of EA's Origin digital download service, and serving as General Manager of EA China. Slacker also said that Hayase once worked at Boeing designing life support systems for the International Space Station.

San Diego-based electronics protective case and accessory maker LifeProof (TreeFrog Development Inc.) has been acquired by protective case maker Otterbox, the two companies announced late Wednesday. Financial terms of the buy were not announced by the companies. According to the two companies, OtterBox will incorporate LifeProof's brand into OtterBox's family of products, and will also add the approximately 250 employees of LifeProof to the company. OtterBox said that LifeProof's employes will remain in their San Diego location. LifeProof was founded in 2009.

Los Angeles-based YouTube network Fullscreen has bolstered its team--and media credibility--with a new hire, the company said Wednesday. Fullscreen said it has hired Tim Mohn, the co-creator of the HBO GO app, and former Vice President of Technology for NBCUniversal/Comcast as its new Senior Vice President of Engineering. Fullscreen, which is headed by George Strompolos, said that the move will help it push Fullscreen's technological innovation to the "next level". Fullscreen's Strompolos has been hiring a significant number of industry insiders as part of its growth, most recently hiring CAA vet Larry Shapiro last month as head of its talent operations.

Search engine technology provider SRCH2 has bolstered its enterprise search tools with the addition support for 40 languages, the company said today. The company, which is headed by Dev Bhatia and backed by such investors as TenOneTen Ventures, Data Collective, and others, said its latest release even supports both simplified and traditional Chinese.

SRCH2 is looking to bring much of the search sophistication and features of Google to enterprise users, particularly in the area of "instant search"--that feature which pulls up results as you type, making it much faster to get to information.

The startup said the new release also reduced the size of its index, improved the speed of saving and loading indexes. The software which works with web sites, apps, and mobile devices. In addition to the instant search features, SRCH2 also includes geo-search, handling of typos, and customization of ranking of results. The firm is based in Irvine.

Qualaroo, a developer of website conversion and analytics software which helps web businesses improve the experience and conversion of their visitors, has launched a new product. The company--founded by Sean Ellis, Eugene Mandel, Alex Sherstinsky, and Jason Meresman--said today that it has launched a new "Convert" product which helps website owners convert a higher percentage of their website visitors to customers. The company--which is backed by $5.5M in funding from Polaris Ventures, True Ventures, Index Ventures, First Round Capital, and 500Startups--uses on-site surveys to collect feedback from users, and helps improve the experience of those users based on the data form those surveys. Qualaroo's CEO, Sean Ellis, has been involved in such startups as Eventbrite, Dropbox, Xobni, LogMeIn, among other companies.

Los Angeles-based Nimble has made a major update to its social, customer relationship management software, adding a pile of new features and enhancements to the software. The startup--headed by Jon Ferrara, who also founded one of the original leaders in the CRM software space, Goldmine--said that its new Nimble 3.0 release includes a new dashboard feature called the "Today Page" with key dates and milestones (birthdays, job changes) with contacts; better search tools; automated contact reminders; streamlined contact records, an dmuch more. Nimble said it has been working on what calls the "Nimble Rules Engine", which helps users with creating more targeted engagement opportunities and helping users to learn more about their network automatically.

Online business resource site Docstoc is in a big expansion of its services today, with the launch of a brand new service to help businesses connect with products and vendors. The Santa Monica site, which is led by Jason Nazar, said it has launched ExpertCircle, an online platform which lets businesses find recommended products and vendors, based on endorsements, critiques, and reviews around everything from business insurance to productivity software.

The new service is a big expansion for Docstoc, which has been slowly growing out its small business resource tools, which range from online legal and other documents to business licenses, from online education courses to e-books.

A key part of ExpertCircle is the peer reviews, from both other users and experts, on different vendors and products in a category. Docstoc said it is leveraging authenticated experts in each of the areas to help review those products and vendors, and also lets users search and view those endorsements and critiques. Docstoc said it is looking to provide a similar functionality for businesses that Yelp and Angie's List do for consumer reviews and services.

For today's Insights and Opinions section this morning, we have an interesting piece from Michael Terpin, who asks--is Bitcoin the next wave?



It's
not often that you run across something that Bill Gates calls "a
techno tour de force" and Warren Buffet's partner Charley
Munger calls "rat poison" -- in the same interview.
Imagine a financial service that blows away Paypal for speed and
efficiency in transferring funds (at a third of the fees if exchanged
into dollars -- and generally no fees if purchasing goods or
services directly). Imagine a technology that solves the
long-standing ecommerce problem of micro-transactions by being
divisible down to eight decimal points, and that has no problems with
chargebacks or fraud (like cash, it can be stolen, but unlike cash
it's then rendered worthless). Imagine an asset that's
at once currency and commodity, that even though it's digital
can be mined like gold, and that has risen in value more than 10x
since January and is up more than two million percent (this is not a
typo -- it went from half a penny to today's valuation of
$122.93) in the past three years. To say these early numbers are
reminiscent of the early growth of the Internet, Napster, YouTube and
Facebook is not hyperbole. Of course, only three of those became
successes in the end, but they were among the biggest successes in
business history.
Welcome
to the exciting, bizarre and intriguing world of bitcoin (More......

In a move to attract e-commerce companies to its content delivery network, Santa Monica-based EdgeCast announced today that it has launched a new, PCI-compliant product specifically aimed at online retailers. EdgeCast said its new, Commerce Acceleration Network, EdgeCast Transact, is specifically designed for e-commerce sites, and is a separate network based on its existing CDN technology. Among special features of the CDN include secure session establishment; PCI compliance; redundancy and failover; elastic provisioning for holiday traffic and demand spikes; credit card detection and security; and more. The company said it's the first to offer up a CDN specifically built for e-commerce providers.

Thousand Oaks-based wireless equipment provider Xirrus said Tuesday that it has scored a win with American Addition Centers, a provider of a national network of treatment centers. Xirrus said the treatment center has equipped its 70,000 square foot facility in Las Vegas with its Wi-Fi arrays. Xirrus said its products are being used to provide wireless Internet service to patients, as well as access to electronic medical records for its clinical staff. Financial impact of the win was not announced. Xirrus develops high speed, Wi-Fi equipment designed specifically for deployment in environments like campuses, schools, and conference centers.

Two, Southern California markets--San Diego and Irvine--are among the top ares for engineering job demand, according to a report today. According to jobs listings site Monster.com, San Diego was number four in the nation (behind Houston, San Jose, and Chicago), and Irvine was number eight, for the number of job listing for engineers posted over the last 120 days. Monster ranked the top engineering job opportunities by location and type of engineering positions. Top on the national list was Houston, Texas. A survey conducted by Monster.com shows that, nationally, employers face a similar list of issues that Southern California does: its survey found that 74% of employers feel they have a challenge of a small talent pool with lack of qualified candidates; and only 39% believe they will be able to staff all their engineering job opportunities.

It's always a challenge with freemium services--how much do you give away, and how much do you charge for? For online web conferencing provider AnyMeeting, it looks like it's moving one of its features--the ability to record webinars--into the charge category. AnyMeeting told its free users today that, starting June 1st, the recording feature of its service will only be available to its "Pro" plan users. AnyMeeting, which is based in Huntington Beach, has slowly been ramping its premium offerings, ever since adding a premium account offering back in 2011. The firm's pro accounts start at $17.99 a month. AnyMeeting is backed by the Tech Coast Angels, Keiretsu Forum, Pasadena Angels, and Sand Hill Angels.

Santa Monica-based Enervee, the online energy-efficiency and product shopping service, which makes it easy for consumers to compare the energy usage of consumer electronics products and household appliances while shopping, has started integrating Amazon product offers. The company said it has started with televisions, but will be integrating the Amazon product API into the rest of its categories over the next few weeks. The tie into Amazon expands the depth of information on the site, and also allows Enervee to include Amazon customer reviews and sales information. Enervee, founded by Matthias Kurwig, is hoping to help consumers make better energy decisions when shopping for different products online.

Santa Monica-based app testing and anlytics developer Burstly has opened up access to its mobile monetization platform, extending access to its SkyRocket product via a self-serve offering. Burstly announced the move this morning, in addition to reorganizing its corporate structure around its multiple mobile app services.

SkyRocket--formerly known as the Burstly monetization platform--helps application developers cross promote their new applications, encourage in-app purchases, and other related tools. As part of the new structure, Burstly said that it will become the parent company for mobile app testing platform TestFlight, app analytics tool FlightPath and the app monetization solution SkyRocket. Burstly formerly only referred to the company's app monetization tools.

Burstly is led by Evan Rifkin, and is backed by GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, and SoftBank. Rifkin is the former founder of Tagworld.

Los Angeles-based online sports site WePlay has been acquired by online amateur sports team management provider TeamSnap, TeamSnap announced this morning. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. WePlay, which had raised $15M in funding, offered up online sports community, team management, and social components aimed at amateur youth sports teams. TeamSnap said it has acquired Weplay's customers, technology, and online coaching resources and extensive video content as part of the buy. The company said that WePlay had 2.25 million customers.

One of the largest concentrations of technical talent in Los Angeles is in Glendale, at YP -- staffed with a surprising number of Los Angeles startup vets. How did what was a staid publisher of phone books become a hotbed of online talent? We caught up with Darren Clark, the CTO of YP--and a veteran of Spotrunner, Overture, and Yahoo--to hear the story of how the company spun out of AT&T last year, and has now become one of the biggest, online advertising companies out there, and how it's been growing its tech team by tapping into the rich base of Internet talent here in the region.

What's your background and how did you end up at YP?

Darren Clark: I've been at YP for four and a half years. Before that, I was running product at Spotrunner. I had also spent five years at Overture and Yahoo, going back to the Goto.com days. I was recruited for the role when we were still at AT&T Interactive in October of 2008, by some of my former coworkers at Yahoo, who had already landed here. I was pretty skeptical about the firm at first, but then I started talking with folks and getting to know the team, and saw how much revenue they were driving, and decided to make the leap. I've grown from driving part of the technology within the company, to driving all of the product development side, and also picking up product management and business development, around traffic acquisition and third party products.

We were quite surprised to learn about the extent of your operations here....

Santa Monica-based parking information app developer ParkMe has officially released its Android application, allowing users to tap into the company's wealth of parking information. The app, which is free, allows users to find nearby parking spaces, get details on parking availability, pricing, and more. The new app requires Android 2.2 and up. ParkMe had launched an early version of the app in April.

Los Angeles-based Uncovet, the online fashion deals and discovery site backed by Science, Inc., said it has raised $1.3M this morning. The new funding came from Javelin Venture Partners, Siemer Ventures, and Paige Craig. Uncovet, which was started by Heather Lipner, offers up fashion accessories, home decor, and more, and recommends and offers up products to users based on their Facebook activity.

Los Angeles-based content delivery network provider NetDNA announced this morning that its MaxCDN content delivery network has started to accept Bitcoin as payment. Bitcoin is an electronic currency which it not governed by any nation or central authority, and which is based off a open source exchange protocol. According to NetDNA, it starts accepting payment via Bitcoin today to meet the needs of developers. Bitcoin has suddenly risen into prominence, as the currency has caught the imagination of technology startups and financiers alike. Bitcoin's value originally derived from "units of work" of processing done by software, but recently exchanges have now allowed that currency to be exchanged into real dollars and other traditional currency.

San Diego-based enterprise IT software developer ServiceNow reported a win today with Tommy Bahama. According to ServiceNow, Tommy Bahama is using its software-as-a-service to consolidate multiple IT systems. Financial impact of the customer win was not announced. Tommy Bahama is a men's and women's sportswear, swimwear, accessories, footwear, and home furnishing retailer, with over 100 stores.

Los Angeles-based GumGum has snagged a media agency network executive as an advisor, the firm is announcing today, for its in-image advertising platform. GumGum said it has appointed Carl Fremont, the Global Chief Digital Officer at MEC, which it says is one of the world's largest media agency networks, to its advisory board. GumGum's advisory board also include David Sacks, the CEO of Yammer; Michael Jones, the former CEO of MySpace, and Vince Thompson, the Managing partner at Middleshift. The cmpany said the board helps provide it with strategic counsel on various company endeavors.

San Diego-based biotechnology developer Ignyta has acquired fellow, San Diego biotechnology developer Actagene, a developer of personalized medicines based on cancer genome mining and sequencing. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. Ignyta said that Actagene Oncology had been founded in February of this year. The company has brought on a significant base of talent with the acquisition, including hiring Patrick O'Connor, CEO of Actagene, who becomes Chief Scientific Officer and SVP, Head of Research. O'Connor was previously at Pfizer, and Actagene's other executives had served as such companies as Halozyme, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Merck Research, Agouron PHarmaceuticals, Pfizer, and Warner-Lambert/Parke Davis.

Encino-based uSamp, which develops online survey and sampling technology, is courting mobile app developers with a new software development kit. The firm said it is looking to help app developers to monetize their apps, by integrating the company's mobile survey tools into their software. uSamp said integrating the SDK will help app developers add an additional revenue stream to their apps, and also learn more about their members.

Over the last few years, the various social networking services out there have started to carve out a better definition of their userbase. For example, Facebook (mostly) being for friends and social acqaintances, and LinkedIn (mostly) for work related contacts. However, on the work side, LinkedIn isn't for everyone, according to a new, Irvine-based startup, Kaleio.

According to Kaleio, its service is targeted at users who are not in the "C-Suite" and don't see LinkedIn as a place to network professionally, and has created its own platform aimed at folks like auto mechanics, nurses, construction workers, teachers, restaurant managers, and others. The startup, led by Jim Riley, said today that it has officially launched its free networking platform for the "other" workforce communities who don't have a place to connect with their peers professionally.

The service offers up everything from allowing users to create their own profiles; to post and answer questions; send messages to others; post jobs; list events; and much more.

There has long been a disparity between the number of startups founded and started by women, and those founded by men. Plus--with a majority of venture investors being men--it's often difficult to break through the invisible curtain between that "old boys" network and women founders.

However, a new effort, ChicksStarter, is trying something new, to help one lucky startup--with a female founder--avoid all of that. The crowdfunding effort is pooling together, event-by-event and contribution-by-contribution, enough money to help out one female founder with their startup efforts. According to Kim Christensen, a director of the Broads Circle, the group which created the effort, entrepreneurial women actively engaged in a business (past idea stage), can apply to win the dollars raised through the effort. The best idea will be selected by a panel in October.

Broads Circle is donating $5 from every event ticket sold through October 24, 2013 towards the funding pool for ChickStarter. As a part of ChicksStarter effort, Broads Circle is letting female founders who appy for ChicksStarter.com to attend the group's event this week--focused on The Women of Silicon Beach--at a discounted rate of $20. According to Darya Allen-Attar, founder of the Broads Circle, the groups wants more female founders at that event.

Los Angeles-based Prevoty, a developer of security tools for preventing cross-site scripting (XSS), a security issue for websites, has raised $700,000 in seed funding, the firm disclosed today. The funding came from Plus Capital, MM Capital, Paige Craig, Eric Hann (Netscape), and other angels. The firm is part of Launchpad LA.

Fans of YouMail, the advanced voicemail application and service, will be happy with the latest change in the company's Android app: the firm now supports a "unread count" on its homepage widget. YouMail added the new count as part of a batch of changes, including better notifications, easier contact setup, and a bunch of bug fixes. YouMail--which is based in Irvine--offers up an enhanced voicemail service which includes connections into mobile apps, voice transcription, personalized answering mailboxes, and much more.

San Diego-based security software developer Websense announced this morning that it has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. The deal is worth approximately $1 billion. Websense said Vista Equity Partners will pay $24.75 per share in cash for the company. Websense said the deal is an approximate premium of 29 percent over the firm's Friday closing price. Websense said it will remain in San Diego, under its current senior management.

Irvine-based Alteryx, a developer of "big data" analytics software, announced today that it has raised $12M more for its efforts. The new funding came from Toba Capital, the venture capital fund recently founded by Quest Software founder Vinny Smith, plus SAP Ventures, an existing investor in the company.

Alteryx develops mapping and analytics software aimed at the big data market, allowing business analysts to create visual reports and analysis of their data. The firm said the new funds will go towards sales, marketing and product investment, as well as international expansion. Alteryx is led by Dean Stoecker.

Los Angeles-based mobile carrier billing service Payvia has acquired fellow Los Angeles firm Mogreet, the two companies said this morning. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. According to payvia, the deal will allow it to offer a solution which includes mobile payments, user targeting and mobile marketing.

Payvia is venture backed by Silver Lake Sumeru, Montgomery & Co., and Trinity Ventures. Mogreet was venture backed by Ascend Venture Group, Black Diamond Ventures, DFJ Frontier, Draper Associates, and Spyglass Ventures.

As part of the acquisition, the companies said that Mogreet's full team will join payvia, and Mogreet founder and CEO James Citron will become its Chief Marketing Officer. payvia is headed by Darcy Wedd.

San Diego-based eFFECTOR Therapeutics said today that it has raised $45M to go towards the development and invention of small molecule drugs, specifically aimed at treating cancer. According to the firm, the Series A investment included U.S. Venture Partners, Abingworth, Novartis Venture Funds, SR One, Astellas Venture Management, Osage University Partners and Mission Bay Capital. eFFECTOR said the new funds will go towards multiple discovery programs, plus acquisition of data on patients for its lead drug candidate. The firm's founding team comes from the University of California San Francisco.