Monday, July 23, 2007Amp'd Mobile Shutdown ApproachesAmp'd Mobile, the high-flying, venture-backed MVNO which declared bankruptcy last month after burning through than $375M in venture capital, is set to suspend its operations tomorrow, July 24th. According to Amp'd Mobile's web site, the firm is suspending its operations tomorrow, and will not provide customer service after today. Amp'd was forced into bankruptcy by Verizon, after failing to pay its bills; the company is currently in the midst of trying to find a buyer as it works through bankrup (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 23, 2007(Full story)
Internet Brands Files For IPOEl Segundo-based Internet Brands has filed for an IPO, saying in a filing with the SEC late Friday that it is looking to raise up to $100M in an IPO on either the NASDAQ Global Market or New York Stock Exchange. The IPO is being underwritten by Credit Suisse and Thomas Weisel Partners. InternetBrands operates a network of vertically focused web sits, including CarsDirect.com, Wikitravel, and ApartmentRatings.com. The firm said in its filing that it generated revenues of $84.8M in 2006. Internet (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 23, 2007(Full story)
LeadPoint Appoints General ManagerLos Angeles-based LeadPoint, a firm which operates an online marketplace for consumer leads, said Monday that it has hired Steve Horton as the firm's General Manager of its consumer lending category. Horton has served as senior vice president at LowerMyBills, and most recently was the co-founder of XSell, a consumer marketing and lead generation firm. LeadPoint is venture backed by Redpoint Ventures, Breakwater Ventures, and Estalea, among others.
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MyNextDeal Signs Deal In FloridaThousand Oaks-based MyNextDeal.com, an online search engine focused on commercial real estate listings, said Monday morning that it has signed a listing distribution agreement with the Florida Real Estate Journal. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. MyNextDeal said that it will deliver for sale and for lease commercial property listings to the Florida Real Estate Journal's web site. MyNextDeal is developing a commercial real estate focused search engine, which aggregates and pulls li (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 23, 2007(Full story)
Interview with Bryan Opfer, CTO, FamsterFamster (www.famster.com), which is based in Las Vegas but runs all of its R&D in Los Angeles, offers families a way to share photos, files, news, recipes, and even family trees through their own private web site. The company's Web 2.0-style services are available for a monthly fee, and don't carry any advertising. Interestingly enough, the firm started out in beta in August of last with a free access model subsidized by advertising, went live in February with a live version, and shortly after (More info...)
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U.S. Venture Investments Hit $7.4 BillionErnst & Young and VentureOne are reporting this morning that U.S. venture capital investments in Q2 hit $7.4 billion, an 8% increase over investments in the same quarter last year. According to the report, this is the ninth straight fiscal quarter of year-to-year growth in venture capital. According to the report, Southern California had 76 rounds of financing and more than $1 billion in financing for the quarter. For the nation, there were 717 venture capital deals, which was the highest deal v (More info...)
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CSC Inks $597M NASA ContractEl Segundo-based Computer Sciences Corporation this morning said that it has won a $597M contract with NASA. CSC, which provides IT outsourcing services to companies, said that the contract covers supercomputing support services for NASA, over a period of ten years. CSC said that it will provide supercomputing services to NASA's Advanced Supercomputing Divison, which is located at Ames Research Center, along with supercomputing support for the NASA Center for Computational Sciences at Goddard Sp (More info...)
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Newport Media Ships Japanese Media ChipLake Forest-based Newport Media, a semiconductor firm developing products for the mobile broadcast media market, announced today that it has unveiled a new single chip solution targeted at the Japanese market. The firm said its new chip supports the Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T) digital television standard. The chip is targeted at handset manufacturers, who can use the chip to support the ISDB-T standard. The firm said volume production of the chip will begin in t (More info...)
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Arkeia Enhances VMware SupportCarlsbad-based Arkeia Software, a provider of data backup software, announced this morning that it has partnered with VMware, a provider of system virtualiation software. Arkeia said that it will provide special bundled pricing for VMware customers, and that VMware's web site will feature a "virtual appliance" running its software. VMware's virtual server software is used by enterprise IT departments to consolidate the number of physical servers they run; the software supports "virtual appliance (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 23, 2007(Full story)