Wednesday, December 3, 2008Newegg Sees Sales RecordAnother Southern California-based ecommerce retailer is reporting that it had record breaking sales over the weekend, the traditional kickoff to the holiday buying season. City of Industry-based Newegg, which sells electronics and related items, said that Black Friday was the firm's biggest sales day, ever. The firm said it had a year-over-year, same day increase in dollars spent on Black Friday of more than 169 percent, and that it had triple the number of buyers compared to last year. Newegg i (More info...)
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Fisker To Show Production VehicleIrvine-based Fisker Automotive has announced that the plug-in hybrid vehicle maker will show a production vehicle from the firm in January, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the first time the company will have showed a production vehicle. Fisker, which is venture backed by the Qatar Investment Authority, Palo Alto Investors and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, showed a prototype of its KARMA vehicle in January, and is scheduled to begin delivery of its vehicles in Novem (More info...)
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DailyStrength Acquired By HSW InternationalLos Angeles-based DailyStrength, an online health-related social networking site, has been acquired by HSW International, Inc., a developer of Internet businesses. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. According to HSW, DailyStrength has 700,000 unique visitors a month, generating 20 million monthly page views. Doug Hirsch, CEO of the firm, joins HSW International as Senior Vice President. DailyStrength was venture backed by around $5M in venture capital from Redpoint Ventures. (More info...)
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Report: eCommerce Sales Up On Cyber MondayDespite the economy, it appears that online sales this year surged on Cyber Monday, according to numbers released this morning by comScore. According to the firm, Cyber Monday online spending totaled $846 million, up 15 percent from last year, as consumers flocked to ecommerce sites for their holiday shopping. The spending spree marked what comScore described as the second heaviest online spending day on record. For the four day period including Black Friday through Cyber Monday, spending jumped (More info...)
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Blizzard Taps Massive For Game AdvertisingIrvine-based Blizzard Entertainment, operator of the massively multiplayer online game "World of Warcraft," has selected Microsoft's in-game advertising subsidiary Massive fors its web sites and Battle.net online game service. According to Massive, it will be the exclusive advertising service provider to Blizzard's U.S., Canada, Europe, South Korea, and Australian online game service and Web sites. Financial terms of the ad deal were not disclosed. Battle.net is Blizzard's online game service wh (More info...)
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Interview with Phil Ressler, BigStage EntertainmentPasadena-based BigStage (www.bigstage.com) is one of those rare companies that has taken technology developed from university research, and is now bringing that technology to the commercial market. The firm's technology--which creates a 3D, virtual avatar from digital photos--was originally developed at the University of Southern California for the CIA, and was spun out into a venture funded company targeting the consumer market. We spoke with Phil Ressler--a former venture capitalist from Clear (More info...)
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MySpace Launches Mobile Video EffortLos Angeles-based social networking website MySpace said late Tuesday night that it has launched a new mobile video service, MySpace Mobile, which will allow users to view MySpace video content from mobile devices. According to MySpace, the beta service allows users to view videos users have uploaded or marked as favorites on the site. MySpace is tapping technology from video transcoding provider RipCode for the streaming capability. RipCode's transcoding hardware translates videos from any form (More info...)
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Comarco Gets Approval For Wireless Test Business SaleLake Forest-based Comarco said this week that it has received shareholder approval to sell "substantially all" of the firm's assets in its wireless test solutions business. According to Comarco, it will receive $12.75M in cash for its business, which it is selling to Ascom Holdings AG. According to Comarco, the deal is expected to close on January 5th. Comarco agreed to sell its wireless test solutions business in late September, saying that the move would dramatically reduce its operating costs (More info...)
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Arrowhead Research Raises $5.4MPasadena-based Arrowhead Research, a publicly held firm commercialization technology in the life sciences, electronics, and energy markets, said today that it has raised $5.4M for a number of the firm's subsidiaries. According to Arrowhead, it raised $2.7M for investment in its subsidiary, Unidym, from strategic investor Tokyo Electron Ventures. The firm also said it has gained $2.7M which was invested in its majority-owned subsidiary, Calando Pharmaceuticals, and redirected $1.7M from its subsi (More info...)
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Analytix On Demand Gets FundingIrvine-based Analytix On Demand, a provider of business intelligence software, said this morning that it has raised a round of mezzanine funding. Amount of the funding was not disclosed, but came from Private Equity Management Group. Analytix On Demand offers enterprise focused, business intelligence software. According to the firm, its software-as-a-service product pulls data from applications such as Salesforce, QuickBooks, Microsoft Excel, Oracle, and SAP for business intelligence reporting.
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Networks In Motion In Traffic Data DealAliso Viejo-based Networks In Motion, a provider of location based services for the wireless market, has tapped a firm for real time traffic data. According to Networks In Motion, it has inked a deal with INRIX to use INRIX's traffic data in its AtlasBook Navigator product. Networks In Motion provides its products to wireless carriers via a white-label arrangement, including operating AAA Mobile on Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, an Alltel, Verizon's VZ Navigator, Yellowpages.com MObile, Alltell Axcess M (More info...)
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