Tuesday, January 6, 2009DTS Buys Neural Audio, Opens Silicon Valley OfficesAgoura Hills-based DTS has acquired Neural Audio, a firm which develops music playback and creation technology, the firm said Tuesday afternoon. DTS said it will pay $7.5M in cash for certain assets and liabilities of Neural Audio, and will pay up to $7.5M in earn out over the next five years if certain conditions are met. As part of the acquisition, the firm said it has hired on Geir Skadden, the firm's CEO; Mark Seigle, President & COO, Jeff Thompson, Director of Engineering; and James "JJ" Jo (More info...)
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ContentNext Hires Sales HeadSanta Monica-based ContentNext, a publisher of online news focused on the content and publishing business, said Tuesday that it has hired on Susan Leiterstein as the firm's new head of sales. Leiterstein was most recently VP and Publisher of Incisive Media's ClickZ, SearchEngineWatch and SES Events. She has also served as Associate Publisher at The Deal, as well as in positions at DoubleClick Media, JupiterMedia, Cowles Business Media, Thomson and McGraw Hill, Inc. ContentNext's flagship publica (More info...)
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ParAccel Doubles Staff, Expands OfficesSan Diego-based ParAccel, which develops database appliances used to accelerate database queries, said today that it has doubled its workforce over the past year, and has moved into new offices. The firm--which is backed by Bay Partners, Enterprise Partners, MDV Mohr, Davidow Ventures, and Walden International--said the move was made to accommodate the firm's rapid growth. The firm also said it has added former HP executive Bill Russell to the firm's board of directors. Russell most recently ser (More info...)
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Play N Trade Names CEONewport Beach-based Play N Trade, which operates a retail video game franchise, said Tuesday that it has named Larry Plotnick as the firm's CEO. Plotnick was most recently EVP and Chief Operations Officer for Hollywood Entertainment, and has served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Game Crazy. Plotnick replaces Tom McMahon, who remains on the company's board of directors. Play N Trade has a network of 241 stores, operated as franchises, for buying, selling, and trading video games.
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Boingo Wireless Partners With Skype On Wi-Fi AccessLos Angeles-based Boingo Wireless and Internet phone service Skype said this morning that the companies have partnered on a network access deal. According to the firms, the deal will allow Skype users to access Boingo's network of Wi-Fi hotspits worldwide using Skype's payment credits. The new feature--called Skype Access--is debuting on Skype's Mac software, and will roll out to other operating systems this year, the firms said. Boingo operates a network of Wi-Fi hotspot operators, and uses a u (More info...)
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SendMeHome Gets SocialSanta Barbara-based startup SendMeHome.com, which provides a free service to help people retrieve their lost items, has launched a new social feature the firm says will help connect people through objects. The new feature--called "Stories"--lets anyone with a physical object share stories, photos, or other information about that object to SendMeHome's internet site. James Tamplin, the site's co-founder, said that the new feature has been used by its beta users to write a collaborative novel, sha (More info...)
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TV Guide Deal Gets ShuffledThe deal to sell the remaining parts of former Pasadena-based firm Gemstar-TV Guide has just been shuffled by Gemstar's buyer, Macrovision. Macrovision said yesterday that it will sell TV Guide Network and TV Guide Online, the programming guide components of the Gemstar-TV Guide business, to studio Lionsgate, rather than a consortium of private equity buyers. Macrovision had originally said in December that it would sell the TV Guide channels--which include online and interactive programming gui (More info...)
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Tetra Tech Buys Haselwood EnterprisesPasadena-based engineering and consulting firm Tetra Tech disclosed Tuesday morning that the firm has acquired Haselwood Enterprises, a provider of nuclear science and engineering services. Tetra Tech did not disclose financial terms of the deal, but said that Haselwood has annual revenues of approximately $14M. Haselwood provides services to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), commercial nuclear and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), including program management and technica (More info...)
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Networks In Motion Opens New Offices, Makes HireAliso Viejo-based Networks In Motion, a developer of location-based services for the mobile phone market, said today that it has opened up two new offices and hired a managing director in the EMEA. The firm, which develops wireless navigation and search services, said it has opened up both a Silicon Valley and a China office to tap into the respective talent base in those locations, plus hired on Johan Lindskog as the firm's Managing Director of EMEA markets. NIM said it will use the Silicon Val (More info...)
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Novatel Launches New Wireless ModuleSan Diego-based Novatel Wireless, which develops wireless cards for the broadband communications market, has announced a new embedded module targeted at OEMs and laptop manufacturers. Novatel said that it has introduced a new mini-card module in its Expedite embedded product line, the E760, which provides better power efficiency and decreased weight and cost. The firm is targeting notebook manufacturers who want to include wireless connectivity into CDMA and other broadband networks in their pro (More info...)
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Vangard Voice Signs CustomerIrvine-based Vangard Voice Systems, which develops speech recognition software for enterprise applications, has signed a partnership with Agilysys, a provider of IT solutions to the corporate and public sector. The firms said this morning that Vangard will provide its AccuSpeech Mobile Voice Platform to Agilysys to voice-enable the Agilysys web-based mobile and wireless retail software suite. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. Vangard's software is used for voice-enabling ent (More info...)
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Inphi Gets Intel ValidationWestlake Village-based Inphi Corporation, which develops high speed analog semiconductors, said Monday that the firm has scored validation from Intel. The firm said the validation for its DDR3 register silicon covers use with Intel's Core i7 processors. The semiconductors are used for DDR3 memory for servers, and are being used by Micron for building DDR3 registered DIMMs. Inphi is backed by Cadence Design Systems, Dali-Hook Partners, Flextronics, Mayfield, Tallwood Venture Capital, and Walden (More info...)
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