Thursday, January 25, 2007SEMDirector Gets Investment From Voyager CapitalSan Diego-based SEMDirector has raised a round of venture capital from Voyager Capital, a Seattle area venture capital firm, the firm said this morning. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Eric Benson of Voyager will join the firm's board of directors as part of the deal. SEMDirector develops search marketing automation software, which automates the process of search engine optimization.
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Twistbox Buys Infospace's Mobile Games StudioLos Angeles-based Twistbox Entertainment today is announcing that it has acquired all of the assets of Infospace's U.S.-based mobile game studio. The studio, located in San Mateo, California, provides prize-based games and promotions for consumer and entertainment brands. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The studio was formerly known as Atlas Mobile. Twistbox develops J2ME, DoJa, BREW and Symbian titles for mobile devices.
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Virtual Worlds Firm Areae Gets FundingSan Diego-based Areae, a firm developing massively multiplayer, online worlds, has raised an unannounced round of funding from Charles River Ventures and Crescendo Ventures. The firm is headed by Raph Koster, who is known as the lead designer of the popular online game Ultima Online and creative director of Star Wars Galaxies.
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Green Dot Gets $20MMonrovia-based Green Dot, a provider of prepaid debit cards, targeted at those who are unable to quality for credit, has quietly raised $20M in funding. The firm counts Sequoia Capital as an investor. GreenDot has also previously received angel funding from the Tech Coast Angels. The recent funding was disclosed in the quarterly PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA venture capital report.
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Symark Software Raises $42MAgoura Hills-based Symark Software, which develops identity management and access control software for data centers, has quietly raised $42M in a venture round, according to numbers released in the quarterly PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA venture capital report. Symark has not announced the funding. The company is listed as a portfolio firm of Insight Venture Partners.
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Napster Launches On Japanese NetworkLos Angeles-based music download service Napster has launched on another Japanese network, saying lsat night that it has launched Napster Mobile on au/KDDI, a Japanese mobile network in Japan serving over 20 million mobile phone subscribers. Napster will offer its music download and ringtone services to au/KDDI's subscribers for a monthly fee. Napster currently offers the service through NTT DoCoMo's i-Mode platform in Japan.
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AltaSens Appoints ChairmanThousand Oaks-based AltaSens, which develops high performance CMOS sensors for the high definition video market, said today that it has appointed Patrick Quinn as Chairman. Quinn is the firm's President and CEO, and succeed's Jon Rode, COO of Teledyne Scientific & Imaging. The firm also said that it has appointed new board members, including John Miller of Rockwell Automation; Steve Belland of Rockwell International, and Takehito Jimbo of ITX International Holdings. AltaSens is a spinoff of Rock (More info...)
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The Family Post Acquired By Firm In Reverse MergerOTC listed firm Homassist said today that it has signed an agreement to acquire The Family Post, a company that provides a Web 2.0 online photo sharing website for families. Homassist will be renamed to DigitalPost Interactive in the reverse merger. The Family Post provides an online service used by families for sharing photos and information.
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Cornerstone OnDemand Expands To EuropeSanta Monica-based Cornerstone OnDemand, a provider of on-demand talent management software, said Wednesday that it has expanded into Europe with new staff and a number of localized versions of its product. CornerStone OnDemand said it has added seven new languages and hired new European-based account and product management and consulting staff. The new localized versions include Portuguese, Canadian and European French, German, Spanish, Chinese, and UK English. Cornerstone provides talent manag (More info...)
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