Monday, January 9, 2006Fonality Raises $5MLos Angeles-based Fonality is announcing today that it has raised $5M in a Series B funding from Azure Capital Partners. Fonality said that it will use the funding to expand its management team, R&D, and channel. As part of the funding, Paul Weinstein of Azure will join the company's board of directors. Fonality is developing an IP-PBX softswitch based on standard PC hardware. The company's software provides enterprise-class PBX phone system features for small businesses.
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Mpex Adds Chief Medical OfficerSan Diego-based Mpex Pharmaceuticals has named Dr. Matthew A. Wikler as Chief Medical Officer. The company said that Wikler will be responsible for its clinical development and regulatory activities. Wikler was most recently Chief Medical Officer and EVP at Peninsula Pharmaceuticals. Wikler has also served at SmithKline Beecham, Burroughs Wellcome, Ortho-McNeil, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Mpex is developing biopharmaceuticals in the antibacterial area, targeted at the control of drug-resistant ba (More info...)
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MaintenanceNet Expands Advisory BoardCarlsbad-based MaintenanceNet, a provider of contract management software, said that it has expanded its board of advisors. The company said that Carmelo Santoro and Bob Frankenberg have joined its advisory board. Santoro has served at Attensity, AST Research, Silicon Systems, Ashton-Tate, and Platinum Software. Frankenberg is chairman of Kinzan, was chairman of PowerQuest, and has served at Encanto, Avaya, and was Chairman, President, and CEO of Novell.
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Favrille Raises Funding For ExpansionSan Diego-based biopharmaceuticals firm Favrille said Friday that the company has raised $20M in a line of credit from GE Capital and Oxford Financial. Favrille said that the debt financing will be used to expand its facilities for the commercial-scale manufacturing of its Phase 3 product candidate, targeted at treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The company said that its expanded facilitiy will include 80,000 square feet dedicated to manufacturing. Favrille is developing immunotherapies for th (More info...)
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Acacia Looks To Spin Out CombiMatrixNewport Beach-based patent licensing firm Acacia Research announced this morning that its board has approved a plan to spin out its wholly-owned subsidiary, CombiMatrix, as an independent public company. Acacia, which is listed on the Nasdaq as ACTG, said that CombiMatrix will trade on the Nasdaq as CBMX, subject to tax opinion from legal counsel and required filings with the SEC. Acacia has been aggressively licensing patents and pursuing companies with patent infringement lawsuits. CombiMatrix (More info...)
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PeopleSupport Buys Transcription and Captioning FirmLos Angeles-based business process outsourcing firm PeopleSupport has acquired Newport Beach-based Rapidtext, a provider of transcription and captioning services. PeopleSupport said this morning that it is acquiring the company to enter a new market and diversity its offers. Rapidtext and its subsidiary The Transcription Company provide voice-to-text services for insurance, law enforcement, entertainment, education, and medical markets. PeopleSupport said that it intends to offer additional serv (More info...)
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Interview with August Kleimo, RentSlicer.comMy interview this morning is with August Kleimo, one of the creators of RentSlicer.com (www.rentslicer.com), a Los Angeles-based web site project that is a Web 2.0 "mashup" of CraigsList rental data and Google Maps. BK: For those who aren't familiar with RentSlicer, what does it do? AK: RentSlicer is a web site where landlords and tenants can view average prices for rental units in different areas that meet very specific criteria. We import rental listings into a database and use a parsing e (More info...)
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