Tuesday, July 15, 2008Favrille Cuts Most Employees, Looks To Sell AssetsSan Diego-based Favrille, a firm that was developing targeted immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and other diseases of the immune system, quietly announced last week that it has laid off 132 of its 144 employees, including six of its eight executive officers, as the firm's Phase 3 trial has "failed to demonstrate activity." The firm said it will cease all activities related to its programs, and will sell all of its unneeded fixed assets. The firm said in a statement that it would look a (More info...)
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Gorilla Nation Signs CrushSpot.comLos Angeles-based Gorilla Nation said Monday that it has been selected to represent the online advertising inventory for CrushSpot.com, an African-American dating site. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. CrushSpot.com will become part of Gorilla Nation's GNMulticultural vertical. CrushSpot is a web property of Anaheim-based MedMania. Gorilla Nation also reps African-American sites Mocha City, Bossip, and a number Latino sites.
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Microsemi Acquires SEMICOAIrvine-based Microsemi Corporation, a manufacturer of analog and mixed signal integrated circuits, said Tuesday that it has acquired SEMICOA, a provider of semiconductors and smart munitions optoelectronics for the military and commercial market. Microsemi said it paid approximately $25M in cash for substantially all of the assets of SEMICOA, which was based in Costa Mesa. Semicoa's products were used by the military, commercial aerospace and satellite markets.
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Fisker Automotive Taps Finnish Firm For ManufacturingIrvine-based Fisker Automotive, the Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers and Palo Alto Investors-backed plug-in hybrid vehicle maker, said today that it has inked a letter of intent with Finland-based Valmet Automotive to manufacture its cars. Valmet Automotive currently produces specialty cars like the Porsche Boxter and Cayman for Porsche AG. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Fiskery Automotive said that Valmet will start rolling off its Fisker Karma auto in the fourth quarter of 2 (More info...)
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Napster, Disney Co-Brand Music StationLos Angeles-based Napster said Monday that it has inked a partnership with Walt Disney Records, to create a Disney-themed radio station from Disney's catalog. According to the firms, the "Best of Disney" radio station will feature favorites from the Walt Disney Records catalog, including Hannah Montana, High School Musical, soundtracks from feature films, and other content. The tracks will also be available for purchase from its MP3 store. Financial details and impact of the deal were not disclo (More info...)
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DECA Launches New Game Focused SiteSanta Monica-based DECA, a venture-backed digital entertainment studio, announced today that the firm has rolled out another web video show, this time focused on massively multiplayer online games. According to DECA, Project Lore will focus on the World of Warcraft (WOW) video game, and will be hosted by Alex Albrecht. Albrecht is the former co-host of the TechTV series The Screen Savers, and hosts the popular Diggnation podcast show. According to DECA, the Project Lore site will feature Albrech (More info...)
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Avery Dennison, Stamps.com In Co-branding DealLos Angeles-based Stamps.com, and Pasadena-based Avery Dennison announced today that Avery Dennison's Office Products Group and Stamps.com are in an alliance to co-brand a postage printing service. According to the firms, small business users and consumers will have access to a co-branded, PC postage printing products to be marketed by Avery Dennisons' Office Product's group. The deal calls for Avery Dennison to exclusively promote the co-branded service within the U.S. Financial details of the (More info...)
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Xirrus Deploys In ItalyWestlake Village-based Xirrus, a provider of Wi-Fi switching hardware, disclosed today that the firm's hardware has been deployed at a number of Italian hotels. Xirrus said that SETS S.R.L., a Milan, Italy-based system integrator, has deployed its hardware with a numer of customers in Italy, including at the Sheraton Diana Majestic Hotel and the Complex of Luxury Collection on Sardinia Island. The financial impact of the deals was not disclosed. Xirrus is a venture backed developer of Wi-Fi acce (More info...)
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Ripple Hires New CEOEl Segundo-based Ripple, which operates a network of out-of-home information screens and a related advertising network, said today that John McMenamin has been appointed the company's new Chief Executive Officer. McMenamin was most recently the firm's Executive Vice President of Sales and Strategy. Before joining Ripple in February, McMenamin has previously served at Dow Jones International, where he served as its Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing. He's also served at NBCInternet, iVi (More info...)
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Big Stage Taps Ressler As CEOPasadena-based Big Stage Entertainment announced this morning that the firm has appointed former Clearstone Venture Partners VP Phil Ressler as the firm's President and CEO. Ressler replaces Chuck Heubner, who the firm said will continue as a special advisor to the company. Phil was most recently evaluating investments for Clearstone, and has also previously served at Xdrive, Callidus Software, inquiry.com, Continuus Software, Gupta Corporation, Lotus Development, and Nantucket Corporation. Big (More info...)
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