Monday, February 12, 2007Sendio Raises $4M In Series AIrvine-based Sendio has raised $4M in a Series A venture capital round, socalTECH has learned, and will be announcing the round formally next week. The funding comes from KH Growth Equity Fund and Momentum Venture Management, a venture acceleration firm headquartered in Los Angeles. Sendio develops enterprise anti-spam products based on sender address verification. KH Growth Equity Fund is an investment fund run by Kline Hawkes & Company. socalTECH first uncovered the funding in November.
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HireRight Files For IPOIrvine-based HireRight has filed for an IPO, saying in an SEC filing Monday morning that it is looking to raise up to $86.25M in an initial public offering on the NASDAQ Global Market. HireRight provides web-based software for managing employment screening programs. The IPO is being underwritten by Credit Suisse, Robert W. Baird & Co., CIBC World Markets, Piper Jaffray, and William Blair & Company. HireRight is venture backed by Baird Venture Partners, DCM, Mellon Ventures, and St. Paul Venture (More info...)
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Interview with Richard Rosenblatt, Demand MediaOur interview today is with Richard Rosenblatt, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Demand Media, Inc. (www.demandmedia.com), which raised over $220M in venture funding to develop a unique new media firm. Rosenblatt is the former CEO of Intermix Media and Chairman of Myspace. Richard turned Intermix Media around and negotiated the sale of Intermix and MySpace to News Corp for $650M. Ben Kuo spoke to Richard about the company's plans and future.
Let's talk a little bit about Demand Media - - what (More info...)
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Biofuels Firms Diversa, Celunol MergeSan Diego-based Diversa Corp. and Massachusetts-based Celunol said today that the firms have merged. The deal is worth approximately $154M in Diversa stock. The two firms are developing cellulosic ethanol production capabilities. According to the companies, Diversa will issue 15,000,000 shares of its stock to acquire the outstanding equity in Celunol, and will also provide $20M in debt financing to Celunol. Celunol is venture-backed by Khosla Ventures, Rho Capital Partners, Charles River Venture (More info...)
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SimpleTech Sells Consumer Products BusinessSanta Ana-based SimpleTech has sold its consumer product business to San Mateo-based Fabrik, Inc., in a cash deal worth approximately $43M, in a deal announced this morning. SimpleTech is selling its hard disk drive and portable network storage business, along with the company's flash memory cards, USB flash drives, and memory upgrades lines. The deal also includes the name "Simpletech". According to Fabrik, the SimpleTech consumer operations will remain in Santa Ana. SimpleTech's OEM/Industrial (More info...)
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Bellrock Media Buys ModeratiSanta Monica-based Bellrock Media, a producer of entertainment content, said today that it acquired Moderati, Inc. The two firms said they will provide mobile and broadband entertainment content in the U.S. and Japan. Financial terms were not disclosed. Bellrock Media is headed by former Creative Artists Agency and The Walt Disney Company exec Peter Levin. The firm is backed by Intel, Yoshimoto Kogyo, and Faith Inc.
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MySpace Adds Video FilteringLos Angeles-based MySpace.com said today that it has implemented a pilot program to block unauthorized video from the firm's web site. MySpace said that it will use digital fingerprinting technology from Audible magic to screen out copyrighted videos. The new video filtering is an extension of the company's existing audio filtering of music files. Content producers using the audio and video filtering service include Univeral Music Group, NBC/Universal, and Fox.
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TV Guide, Brightcove Syndicate VideoLos Angeles-based TV Guide and Brightcove said today that TV Guide Broadband will use Brightcove for publishing and managing online video to its web site affiliates. TV Guide provides content from the TV Guide Chanel, including interviews and other content. The content is currently available on other Internet video services.
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eHarmony Launches Canadian Web SitePasadena-based eHarmony said today that it has launched a new, country-specific website focused on Canada. The new site specifically targets users of the firm's dating services in Canada, which the company reports ar ethe second largest group of registered users on the firm's website. eHarmony provides an online dating service based on computerized questions.
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Fulcrum Micro Gets Design Win At Continuous ComputingCalabasas-based Fulcrum Microsystems announced today that its 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch chips have been chosen by Continuous Computing for a new product. Fulcrum said that Continuous Computing chose the firm's FocalPoint 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch chips as the base of two new cards for Continuous Computing's 10GbE AdvancedTCA Traffic Management and Security solution. The traffic management product is used for switching and deep packet inspection on telecom networks.
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