Friday, January 26, 2007Interview with Joel Downs, Founder, AnswerbagJoel Downs is Founder and General Manager of Answerbag (www.answerbag.com), an online service that allows anyone to post and answer questions on any topic. The site competes with Yahoo's popular Yahoo Answers service, and is now owned by Demand Media. We spoke with Joel to figure out where Answerbag sits in the market, and the story behind how he started the site. socalTECH's Ben Kuo interviewed Joel:
Describe your service for our readers, who may not be familiar with your site?
Joel Downs: (More info...)
posted on Friday, January 26, 2007(Full story)
Caltech, UCLA Researchers Create World's Densest Memory CellCaltech and UCLA researchers said this week that they have created the densest memory circuit ever fabricated. The Universities reported the achievement in the January 25th issue of the journal Nature, saying that the circuit--about the size of a white blood cell--has 160 kilobits of capacity--equivalent to the density of memory that a semiconductor firm like Intel would contemplate making in the year 2020. The memory chip has bit density of 100 gigabit per square centimeter, which is about 100 (More info...)
posted on Friday, January 26, 2007(Full story)
Inogen Raises $30.2MInogen, a Santa Barbara-firm developing a medical device targeted at Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, has quitely raised $30.2M in funding, according to the quarterly PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA venture capital report. According to Inogen's web site, the firm's investors include Versant Ventures, Accuitive Medical Ventures, Avalon Ventures, Arboretum Ventures, and Novo A/S.
posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 (More)(Full story)
Fulcrum Microsystems Finds $17MCalabasas-based Fulcrum Microsystems, which is developing clockless interconnect silicon for connecting system backplanes, raised $17M in the quarter, according to the quarterly PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA venture capital numbers released this week. Fulcrum is backed by Granite Ventures, Infinity Capital, NEA, Palomar Ventures, and Worldview Technology. Backers in this round were not disclosed.
posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 (More)(Full story)
MRV Looks to Take Luminent Public, Buys FiberxonChatsworth-based MRV Communications said this morning that it is looking to take its subsidiary, Luminent, public. The firm said it has not yet engaged an underwriter for the IPO. Separately, MRV said today that it has agreed to acquire Santa Clara-based Fiberxon, in a deal worth approximately $131M in cash and stock. MRV said it will combine Fiberxon with Luminent, which is a supplier of transceivers for metropolitan and fiber-to-the-premise telecommunications. Fiberxon employs over 700 in Sant (More info...)
posted on Friday, January 26, 2007(Full story)
Fandango Appoints CFOLos Angeles-based Fandango, the online movie ticketing service, has appointed a new CFO. Fandango has appointed Daniel V. Murray as Chief Financial Officer, where he will oversee financial management of the firm and also be involved with strategic operations and other aspects of the business. Murray was most recently CFO and SVP of Global Operations for Academy123, and has also served as Yahoo! and Overture.
posted on Friday, January 26, 2007 (More)(Full story)
MRV Updates Console ServerChatsworth-based MRV Communications has upgraded the firm's out of band management console servers, the firm said this week. MRV has upgraded the operating system software for its LX Series console servers, and added improved cluster management, user configuration, security, and added automated power control features. MRV provides network equipment and optical components for the networking market.
posted on Friday, January 26, 2007(Full story)
Inphi Looks For EmployeesWestlake Village-based Inphi, which develops high speed ICs for the telecommunications and data communications industry, announced this week that it is looking to hire nearly 60 engineering, marketing, sales, and administrative positions at its offices here in 2007, in a major expansion. The firm said that the move is due to strong growth and increasing demand for its high-performance components. Inphi is one of many local high tech firms that have been aggressively hiring in the area.
posted on Friday, January 26, 2007(Full story)