Thursday, March 27, 2008


Interview with Jay Goss, SportsBlox
Last week, Numedeon--the virtual world company behind Whyville--launched a brand new, virtual world focused on sports, called SportsBlox (www.sportsblox.com). We spoke with the firm's COO, Jay Goss, about the new site and the firm's expansion into new virtual world's. Tell us a little bit about SportsBlox, and what it is? Jay Goss: It's a site that is basically taking a page out of the playbook of sports talk radio, and is targeted at guys and gals who like to talk, debate, and argue about (More info...)
posted on Thursday, March 27, 2008(Full story)

AVANIR Gets $40M In PIPE
Aliso Viejo-based AVANIR Pharmaceuticals said this morning that it has raised $40M in a registered direct offering from its venture investors. The funding was led by ProQuest Investments, and also included Clarus Ventures, Vivo Ventures, and OrbiMed Advisors. Piper Jaffray & Co. was the sole placement agent on the offering. AVANIR, which is developing biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of chronic disease, said the funding would go to Phase II STAR trials of its Zenvia compound. Zenvia is targe (More info...)
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Novatel Wireless Partners On In-Auto Wireless
San Diego-based Novatel Wireless said today that it has partnered with Autonet Mobile to create a wireless service focused on automobiles. Novatel will supply cellular data modules to connect Wi-Fi networking systems in cars for Autonet Mobile's Internet services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to the firms, the solution will allow multiple users to connect to the Internet to check the web, email, and to play games while connected to the Internet. Autonet Mobile will u (More info...)
posted on Thursday, March 27, 2008(Full story)

Callwave Adds To Board
Santa Barbara-based Internet FAX and messaging service CallWave said today that it has added Manny Rivelo to its board of directors. Rivelo is currently the Senior Vice President of Cisco's Development Organization Operations. Rivelo oversees Cisco's technical operations, systems engineering organization, and field process and technical operations. Rivelo has been at Cisco since 1992, and has previously served in engineering roles at JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Bell Labs.
posted on Thursday, March 27, 2008(Full story)

Blizzard Entertainment Takes World of Warcraft To Latin America
Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment said Wednesday that it has taken its popular massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft, to Latin America. The firm said it would localize the game based on its existing, European Spanish version, with entirely re-recorded in-game speech. The new version of the MMORPG is slated for release in the first half ot the year. As part of the effort to launch into Latin America, Blizzard said it is hiring a dedicated, Spanish-speaking t (More info...)
posted on Thursday, March 27, 2008(Full story)