Thursday, October 30, 2008


SolarReserve Gets Private Equity Funding
Los Angeles-based SolarReserve, a developer of utility scale renewable energy solar power plants, has scored an investment from Argonaut Private Equity. Argonaut said Thursday it is expanding its stake in SolarReserve, but did not detail the amount of the additional investment in the firm. SolarReserve is developing thermal solar energy plants based on molten salt and heliostats. SolarReserve recently raised $140M in a funding round from Citi, Credit Suisse, Good Energies, Nimes Capital, PCG Cle (More info...)
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Southern California Leads Cleantech Funding Activity
Ernst & Young LLP released an analysis of clean technology fundings for Q3, finding that there were $363.5M in clean technology investments in Southern California for the quarter, a significant chunk of an overall $1.6 billion in fundings. According to Ernst & Young, based on data from Dow Jones VentureSource, the record $1.6B investment in Q3 of the year was up 55% from the prior quarter, and brought the year-to-date total to $3.3B. Within the clean technology industry, energy and electri (More info...)
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Ciena Solutions Acquired By NetSol Technologies
Los Angeles-based Ciena Solutions LLC, a provider of SAP integration management services, has been acquired by NetSol Technologies. NetSol, which provides business outsourcing and enterprise application development, did not disclose financial terms of the buy. According to NetSol Technologies, the buy was a combination of cash and restricted stock. NetSol said the acquisition will allow it to launch a global SAP practice; Ciena's customers include such firms as Southern California Edison and Tic (More info...)
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Interview with Sunil Rajaraman, Scripped
We're always interested in how technology is influencing the business of Hollywood, and recently ran across Los Angeles-based Scripped. Scripped (www.scripped.com) is applying the world of Web 2.0 to the business of script writing, and is looking to combine a free online tool for writing scripts with matching those scripts with content producers. We spoke with Sunil Rajaraman, CEO and co-founder of the firm, about the company. What's Scripped? Sunil Rajaraman: We provide free, web-based sc (More info...)
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QualityLogic Restructures Business
Moorpark-based QualityLogic, a provider of quality assurance tools and services, said Thursday that the firm has restructured its business. According to the firm, it has reorganized the company into two new units, the QualityLogic Services Group and QualityLogic Products Group. Impact on employment or employees was not disclosed. According to the firm, Gary James will be General Manager of its services group, and Steve Kang will be General Manager of its products group. QualityLogic is a provide (More info...)
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PriceGrabber Launches Free Shipping Site
Los Angeles-based PriceGrabber.com, the online shopping comparison site owned by Experian, announced Thursday that the firm has launched a new, free shipping site. According to PriceGrabbber, the new site allows shoppers to evaluate free shipping offers from more than 1,000 retailers. The firm said the new site is aimed at helping consumers find additional ways to save money, particularly in a challenging economic climate. Experian bought PriceGrabber.com in 2005.
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Sony Names VP For Crackle
Culver City-based Sony Pictures Entertainment said Wednesday that it has named Eric Berger as head of the firm's Crackle online video network. Berger has been at Sony since 2006, running Sony Pictures Television's mobile games division, and has also served at Time Warner Inc., where he was VP of Strategic Planning. Sony also said that Berger manages the day-to-day operations of the firm's digital networks group. Berger will be responsible for content development and programming, marketing and di (More info...)
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DivX Certifies More Broadcom Chips
San Diego-based DivX said earlier this week that it has certified three of Broadcom's new digital television systems-on-a-chip. According to the firm, the three SoC chips have been certified on the DivX 1080p profile, the DivX codec used to encode high-definition digital video. DivX said the chips involved in the certification were Broadcom's BCM3548, BCM3549 and BCM3556 chips; the firm had certified another product, Broadcom's BCM7405, in August.
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