Wednesday, February 25, 2009


Cogent Systems Grows Revenues
Pasadena-based Cogent Systems, which develops biometrics systems for the government, law enforcement, and others, released its fourth quarter results Wednesday, reporting that it had an fourth quarter revenue increase of 83% year-over-year. The firm said it earned $11.5M on revenues of $40.0M for Q4, up from $7.7M earned on revenues of $21.9M in the similar period a year ago. Cogent benefited from new wins at the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Defense. Cogent's fingerprint and other bi (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009(Full story)

Move Loses President
Westlake Village-based Move, which operates a number of real estate sites, including REALTOR.com, and Move.com, announced late Wednesday that the firm's President, Lorna Borenstein, is leaving the company. Move did not give a reason for Borenstein's departure, however, did say that new CEO Steven Berkowitz will take over Borenstein's duties. Berkowitz was appointed CEO in late January by Move's board of directors, replacing Michael Long, who retired from the firm. Borenstein had served as Presi (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009(Full story)

Crave Entertainment Acquired By New York Firm
Newport Beach-based Crave Entertainment, a video game firm owned by Handleman Company, has been acquired by New York-based Fillpoint LLC, a provider of online distribution, fulfillment, and e-commerce services to the video game industry. Financial terms of the acquisition were not annnounced. According to Fillpoint, Crave will remain in Newport Beach. Crave was sold alongside another Handleman property, SVG Distribution, which is a distributor of video games. According to a regulatory filing of (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009(Full story)

Report: Online Search Terms Reflect Financial Turmoil
A study of online search terms, released this week by comScore, is finding that the turmoil in the financial market is not only taking its toll on consumer's pocketbooks, but also their online search behavior. According to the report, based on December 2008 search data, there has been a huge increase in online searches for such terms as "coupons", "unemployment", "bankruptcy", and "foreclosure". The report, which compared the total number of searches for the terms between December 2007 and Decem (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009(Full story)

MarketShare Partners Gets Investment From Elevation
Los Angeles-based MarketShare Partners, a provider of marketing analytics software said Wednesday afternoon that it has scored an investment round from Elevation Partners. Financial terms of the funding were not disclosed. According to MarketShare Partners, Elevation made a minority equity investment in the firm. MarketShare's software is used by companies such as Charles Schwab, Electronic Arts, and Mercedes-Benz, to allocate marketing, sales, and promotional dollars between various kinds of ad (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009(Full story)

LeisureLink Ties With Kayak, NexTag
Pasadena-based LeisureLink, which operates an online booking engine for vacation rentals, said this week that it has inked two deals with travel partners. The firm said that it has added travel search engine Kayak as a partner of the firm, and separately, said comparison shopping site NexTag has become an affiliate. Details of the partnerships were not disclosed by the company.
posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009(Full story)

Xifin Hires CFO, Marketing VP
San Diego-based XIFIN, a publisher of hosted revenue cycle management software for diagnostic laboratories, reported Tuesday that it has added two members to its executive staff. The company said it has hired Steve Zaniboni as chief financial officer and R. William Taylor as vice president of marketing. Most recently, XIFIN said, Zaniboni was CFO of AviaraDx, while Taylor served as vice president of marketing and corporate development for Acclerys Inc. Zaniboni was also CFO for Arcturus Bioscien (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009(Full story)

Epicor Appoints Two Directors In Deal With Elliott Associates
Irvine-based Epicor Software said this morning that it has added two new directors to the board, in an agreement with a private equity firm. According to the firm, the new representatives were appointed to the company's board as part of an agreement with private equity firm Elliott Associates, L.P., which had launched an unsolicited bid for Epicor last year. Epicor said that it would appoint Richard H. Pickup, one of its largest stockholders, and John M. Dillon, to its board, as part of a "stand (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009(Full story)

iRise Lands South African Bank
El Segundo-based iRise, a developer of software used to visualize enterprise applications, said today that it has signed on African Bank, a South African financial firm, as a customer. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. According to iRise, the firm's software was used as part of developing a new accounts receivable system at the bank, with enough success that African Bank is now mandating it use for all large projects at the firm. iRise's software is used to help define business appl (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009(Full story)

Insights and Opinions: Using the Economic Trouble to Your Advantage
Our Insights & Opinions piece this morning is from Aaron Ross, the founder of startup PebbleStorm, and Program Director for NITRO, a new program from Entretech focused on helping companies in Los Angeles get funded. Americans are dealing with the worst financial and economic trouble in decades–and, unfortunately, it’s going to get worse before it gets better (sorry!) Why then, you might ask, will this ultimately be a good and healthy thing for us, i.e., the ‘us’ that decides to take (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009(Full story)

Interview with Mike Hale, Tibesti
Los Angeles-based Tibesti (www.tibesti.com) is launching its new social shopping site this morning. To understand why the company decided to jump into this market, we spoke with the firm's Chairman and CEO, Mike Hale a few days ago. Mike explained how he went from the founding team at Starz Encore to the startup. What's the idea behind Tibesti?
posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009(Full story)

Tibesti Launches Social Shopping Site
Los Angeles-based Tibesti is launching a new social shopping site this morning, targeted at allowing users to recommend products to others, and to share in revenues from product purchases from those recommendations. Tibesti said that its new site will combine social networking with products, along with featuring product reviews from experts. The firm said it will share 50 percent of the proceeds with users from product sales generated from pages they create on the site, and will feature expert r (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009(Full story)

CallWave Sells Fax Business To j2
CallWave, a provider of internet and voice messaging services, said today that it has sold its virtual fax subscriber base and related intellectual property to Los Angeles-based j2 Global Communications for $12M. Callwave--which started in Santa Barbara, but recently moved its headquarters and executive team to San Francisco--said the move was a part of its review of strategic alternatives. The firm said that the move allows it to divest its non-core assets and focus on its "unified communicatio (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2009(Full story)