Thursday, March 5, 2009


STEC Adds Investment Banker To Board
Santa Ana-based STEC, a manufacturer of solid state disk drives, said this week that it has named investment bank Chris Colpitts as a board member. Colpitts is Managing Director and Global Head of Technology Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank, and was previously Managing Director and Global Head of Electronics Investment Banking at Lehman Brothers. According to STEC, Colpitts replaces James J. Peterson, who has resigned from the board effective today. Peterson is CEO and President of Microsemi; (More info...)
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Optimer Pharmaceuticals Raises $32.9M In PIPE
San Diego-based Optimer Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on antibiotics, said Thursday that it has raised $32.9M in a registered direct offering from institutional investors. Those investors were not disclosed. The firm said it will sell 2,794,700 newly issued shares of its common stock at a purchase price of $10.00 per share. Optimer has two lead products, a antibiotic in phase 3 trials for Clostridium difficile infection, and an antibiotic for treating 'travelers' diarrhea' (More info...)
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Pluggedin Media Looks For Buyer
Los Angeles-based Pluggedin Media, which operates a web site focused on streaming of high quality, music videos in HD and broadcast quality, is looking for a buyer. The firm's chairman, Brett O'Brien, told socalTECH that, contrary to other reports, the firm is not shutting down, but that they are in the process of selling the company. "We have built a great team and a supersite for music fans, but the company now needs to find a partner that already has established a large traffic base." O'Brien (More info...)
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Mahalo Employee Goes To Jail For Botnet Hacking
High profile entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, CEO of Los Angeles-based Mahalo, emailed an impassioned note to his mailing list Thursday, which he also posted to his personal blog, detailing how one of the firm's employees has just been sentenced to 48 months in jail for computer hacking. According to the FBI indictment, the employee, John Schiefer, infected 250,000 computers with malware to create a "botnet"--a network of hacked computers used to steal account data. Schiefer--who went by the alias (More info...)
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ManiaTV Shuts Down
Los Angeles-based ManiaTV has shut its doors, after failing to find a buyer, according to the firm. The firm was in the business of creating original web content and video shows, and had been looking to find a buyer for the firm in the last few weeks. A report in MediaWeek quoted a source saying that the shutdown came because Comerica bank pulled the firm's line of credit, in light of a "rapidly declining" ad business. A representative of the firm confirmed the shutdown. Last month, the firm's C (More info...)
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Covario Hires Bizdev VP
San Diego-based Covario, a developer of marketing analytics and search engine optimization software, said Thursday that the firm has hired on a new VP of Business Development. Covario said that it has hired on Jeff Johnson to the position, reporting to CEO Russ Mann. The firm also said it has promoted VP Products and Marketing Craig Macdonald to SVP, President, and Chief Marketing Officer. Johnson joins the firm from iCrossing, where he was a Senior Vice President. Johnson has also served at AOL (More info...)
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Buy.com: Shopping Online Is Greener
Aliso Viejo-based Buy.com is looking to convince consumers that buying stuff online is greener for the planet than driving to your local store: and is backing it up with an academic study. Buy.com provided data to a team at Carnegie Mellon University, which churned through that information to reach the conclusion that shopping online uses 35 percent less energy and carbon dioxide emissions, than traditional retail shopping. The study--which was published in December by the Green Design Institute (More info...)
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Local.com Renews With Idearc
Irvine-based Local.com, which operates a local search site, said today that Idearc Media--publisher of the Verizon Yellow Pages and Superpages.com--has renewed their local advertising distribution agreement. Idearc's advertisers are currently featured in searches on Local.com's web sites. The two companies said that they have also expanded their agreement, so that advertisers on Superpages.com will receive "preferred placement" on Local.com's website. Local.com offers local business search throu (More info...)
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Symark Creates Services Division
Agoura Hills-based Symark, a developer of identity management and access software, said Thursday that the firm is launching a new division focused on professional services. The firm said the new service will help to reduce the risks associated with new deployment of its products. Matthew S. Collier has been appointed EVP of the new practice, the firm said. Symark develops software for the UNIX and Linux market to manage user accounts and passwords.
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