Wednesday, January 14, 2009


Google Slashes Recruiters, Engineering Offices
Search engine giant Google made two dramatic announcements Wednesday afternoon, saying that it will lay off around 100 recruiters at the firm, as it slows its hiring, and will cut three of its remote engineering offices. The firm said that the 100 positions in recruiting were cut due to the state of the economy, and because it decided that it needed less people focused on hiring. The move comes after it had already cut contracts with external vendors and recruiters to save costs. Separately, Goo (More info...)
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Perfect Market Names Advisors
Pasadena-based Perfect Market, the Idealab-backed startup which is looking to help publishers monetize their underutilized and archive content, said Wednesday that it has created a new advisory board. The firm said that it has added Darshan Kantak, Chief Product Architect for Yahoo's Marketing Products Division; Larry Goodman, President of White Mountain Media; Jonah Schnel of the Ezralow Company; and Chris Muller, Director of Business Development of Synthasite, to its advisory group. Perfect Ma (More info...)
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WaterHealth Gets $10M In Series D
Irvine-based WaterHealth International, which is developing water purification and disinfection technology, has scored the first close of a Series D funding round, the firm said late Tuesday. The firm said the funding brings its total funding in the round to more than $10M. The round was led by Dow Venture Capital and SAIL Venture Partners. WaterHealth International said it will use the funding to accelerate its growth. The firm also said that it expects a final close of the round by March 2009, (More info...)
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Anthem Ventures North, Funds Avatar Firm
Santa Monica-based venture capital firm Anthem Ventures is the lead investor in an avatar-focused, social networking site called Meez. Meez, which is based in San Francisco, said today that it has raised a financing round from Anthem. Anthem's Brian Mesic has been added to the firm's board as part of the funding. Amount and details of the funding were not disclosed. The deal also included the merger of Meez with another avatar firm called Pulse Entertainment.
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Sequenom In Hostile Bid For Competitor
San Diego-based Sequenom, a developer of genetic analysis products, is making a hostile bid for a competitor, EXACT Sciences Corporation, shortly after an offer was rejected by Exact's board. Sequenom said this morning that it has offered to acquire all of the outstanding shares of common stock of EXACT Sciences, for $41M, or $1.50 per share in Sequenom common stock. Sequenom had been rejected by EXACT Sciences Monday in its offer to the board, with Exact saying that it believes other strategic (More info...)
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Slacker Releases iPhone App
San Diego-based digital music service Slacker released a new, iPhone version of the firm's Internet radio service this morning through Apple's App Store this morning, making the firm's Internet radio service available through the iPhone and iPod touch. Slacker said the new Slacker Mobile application will work with its free service, along with premium subscription offers. Slacker's Internet radio service automatically updates a playlist of songs to a user's PC, Slacker's own line of digital media (More info...)
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Symwave Names Manian As Advisor
Laguna Niguel-based Symwave, a venture backed firm focused on analog and mixed signal semiconductors, said Tuesday that it has added Vahid Manian as a member of the firm's Technical Advisory Board. Manian was most recently Senior Vice President of Broadcom's Global Manufacturing Operations. Symwave said that Manian joins Dell CTO Kevin Kettler, Best Buy's Brian Chubboy, and Intel VP Gil Frostig on its advisory group. Manian was at Broadcom for 13 years, and also served at Silicon Systems. Symwav (More info...)
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Panache Gets Win At MTV
Los Angeles-based video advertising technology provider Panache is reporting today that it has signed on MTV as a customer. According to Panache, MTV will use the company's platform across MTV Networks web sites, including MTV.com, VH1.com, Nick.com and CMT.com. Financial impact of the deal was not disclosed. Panache offers ad insertion technology used by publishers to insert ads into various online video formats.
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Boingo Wireless Expands In China
Los Angeles-based Boingo Wireless is expanding in China, the firm said yesterday, as it closed a deal with China Telecom to add 10,905 hotspots in Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, and Shanghai to its network. According to Boingo, the new locations are the first three of a total of 18 provinces that will be added to the firm's network in the deal with China Telecom. Financial details of the expansion were not disclosed. Boingo said the new effort adds locations in hotel chains, restaurants an (More info...)
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United Sample Raises $3M
Los Angeles-based United Sample, which operates online survey and sampling services for the market research industry, announced today that it has raised $3M in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Greycroft Partners, and also included prior investor DFJ Frontier. United Sample said that Dana Settle of Greycroft will join the firm's board along with the funding. United Sample is the latest business effort of goZing.com founders Matthew Dusig and Gregg Lavin; Dusig and Lavin successfully (More info...)
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