Thursday, April 13, 2006


JDSU Buys Test-Um
Milpitas, California-based JDSU, a broadband and optical equipment and components company, said today that it has acquired Camarillo-based Test-Um, a provider of home networking test instruments. Financial terms were not disclosed. Test-Um is a 30-person firm providing test equipment for the FTTx and digital cable market, used for maintenance and installation of home-wiring in home and small office networks. JDSU said that it would make Test-Um's products available through JDSU's direct sales an (More info...)
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Interview with Rick Lathrop, CODA Genomics
Rick Lathrop and Wesley Hatfield are co-founders of CODA Genomics, an angel-backed company based in Irvine that is developing products for the genomics industry. Frank Peters, a guest podcaster for socalTECH, talks to Rick and Wesley about their company and the genomics industry. Rick Lathrop: I think everything started about 10 years ago, whena new area of genomics hits the scene. And as biologists a number of us in the medical started getting involved in these high dimension, very data inte (More info...)
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Interview with Lance Rosenzweig, PeopleSupport
My interview today is with Lance Rosenzweig, CEO and founder of PeopleSupport (www.peoplesupport.com), a Los Angeles-based provider of business process outsourcing, and a longtime reader of this newsletter. I spoke with Lance last week. Lance took PeopleSupport (PSPT) public on the Nasdaq in 2004, and I thought it would be interesting to hear from him on his whole journey form a venture-backed startup to now being a public company CEO. Ben Kuo: Thanks for the interview. Tell me, for those who (More info...)
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Amp'd Mobile Raises $150M
Los Angeles-based MVNO Amp'd Mobile has raised a giant, $150M venture capital round. The firm said today that the new round came from Turo Investments, Intel Capital, Rho Ventures, Qualcomm, Quilvest Ventures, Polygon Investment Partners, Heights Capital Management, along with existing investors MTV, Universal Music Group, Highland Capital, Columbia Capital, and Redpoint Ventures. The Series C funding brings the company's total funding to $267M raised in three round of funding since August of la (More info...)
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Helio, Yahoo Partner On Internet Service
Los Angeles-based Helio, and portal firm Yahoo said today that the two companies have partnered to provide Yahoo's services across Helio's 3G network. Helio, an MVNO headed by Sky Dayton, is developing a mobile wireless service targeting young consumers. Helio members will have access to Yahoo's search, mail, instant messaging, news, and other services via Helio's handsets. The companies said that Yahoo's search capabilities and other tools will be available on the Helio device home screen. Yaho (More info...)
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International Rectifier Looks For Sale
El Segundo-based International Rectifier is looking to put up parts of the company for sale, according to the firm. IR said that it is looking to sell its non-focus product businesses, as it looks to improve its gross margin and revenue growth. The firm said that it has retained Goldman, Sachs & Co. as an advisor to a possible sale of those units. IR said that it is de-emphasizing its commodity business and is accelerating the transition to high-performance analog, mixed-signal, and digital ICs.
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TV Guide, Cingular In Deal
Los Angeles-based TV Guide Mobile, a unit of Gemstar-TV Guide International, said today that it is in a new deal with Cingular Wireless to deliver a mobile version of its TV viewing guides. TV Guide Mobile said that its TV Guide Channel will be available through Cingular's streaming video services. TV Guide said that the move is part of its goal to becoming a cross-platform consumer hub for video guidance. Financial terms were not disclosed.
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MIVA Appoints GM
MIVA, a provider of shopping cart and e-commerce software for online retailers, said today that it has appointed James Harrell as Vice President and General Manager of its San Diego-based Small Business division. Harrell was most recently director of software development for the division, and also served as CTO and founding partner of Copernicus Systems, a firm acquired by MIVA in 2005.
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