Monday, March 23, 2009


Adventrx Reaches End Of Line, Looks For Buyer
San Diego-based Adventrx Pharmaceuticals, which was developing pharmaceuticals to improve existing cancer treatments, said late Friday that it will discontinue "substantially all" of its development activities and business operations. The firm said it has reduced its workforce to five employees, while it looks for a "strategic transaction" or financing. The firm did not say how many employees were affected by the move, but said the move would give it more cash while it looks for a buyer.
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Printronix Buys Assets From Bankrupt Firm
Irvine-based Printronix, a developer of industrial printers, said Monday that the firm has purchased certain assets of bankrupt TallyGenicom LP. According to Printronix, it purchase the intellectual property, inventory and equipment necessary to support TallyGenicom's line-matrix and portions of its serial-matrix and laser printer lines. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Printronix acquired the assets out of a bankruptcy sale of TallyGenicom in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for (More info...)
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Total Beauty Acquires BeautyRiot, Gets Series C Funding
Santa Monica-based Total Beauty Media, which operates a user-generated beauty product reviews web site, said today that it has acquired competitor BeautyRiot, and scored a Series C funding round. The financial details behind the acquisition and funding were not disclosed. According to Total Beauty, the Series C funding round was led by US Venture Partners, and also included existing investors Wallington Partners. BeautyRiot is a beauty website focused on women under 35, and also provides user-ge (More info...)
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SmartReply Buys mSnap
Irvine-based SmartReply, a provider of mobile marketing and SMS messaging services, said today that it has acquired mSnap, a SMS mobile advertising network. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. mSnap was founded in 2006, and is based in San Francisco. mSnap was venture backed by First Round Capital and Partech International. According to SmartReply, the acquisition will combine its technology with mSnap's network, which includes over 1,150 radio stations, newspapers, and cable (More info...)
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Teledyne Subsidiary Wins $6.2M Navy Contract
Thousand Oaks-based Teledyne Technologies revealed this morning that a subsidiary has won a U.S. Navy contract worth $6.2 million. According to Teledyne, Huntsville, Ala.-based Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc. will design, engineer, build, test and deliver ocean Littoral Battlespace Sensing-Gliders and associated support equipment to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. Teledyne said it expects the contract to be completed by July 2010 but noted that it could run through November 2014 if (More info...)
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Relsys International Acquired By Oracle
Irvine-based Relsys International, a developer of drug safety and risk management software for the health care industry, has been acquired by software giant Oracle. Oracle said this morning that it has agreed to acquire Relsys, which will become part of its Health Sciences Global Business Unit. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Relsys' products are used for adverse event reporting, risk management, and data analysis for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, contract research organi (More info...)
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Citysearch Launches Food Site
West Hollywood-based Citysearch said this morning that it has launched a new, online blog site called 3BuckBites, focused on "cheap eats" costing less than $3.99. The firm said that the site will feature content from its own editors, bloggers, and users. The new blog site is part of an expansion of the firm into stand-alone, vertical sites, all of which push users to Citysearch information and search pages. 3BuckBites mostly features short review snippets from Citysearch editors pointing to "mor (More info...)
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SAIC Nabs $41M Defense Contract
San Diego-based Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) reports today that the firm has won a $41M contract from the U.S. Army, for information and analysis services for the government. According to SAIC, the contract covers information and analysis concerning counter-IED systems in war zones, and was awarded by the U.S. Army Evaluation Center (AEC).
posted on Monday, March 23, 2009(Full story)

X1 Gains Third Patent
Pasadena-based X1 Technologies, a developer of enterprise and PC search software, has scored a new patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, the firm said today. X1 said the patent covers technology for the incremental searching used in its user interface. According to the firm, the patent, No. 7,496,559, is the third for the company. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office filing shows that the patent was granted to Idealab's Bill Gross, along with Steven Lee Colwell on February 24th;the p (More info...)
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Activision Names Rosensweig CEO of RedOctane
Santa Monica-based video games developer Activision has tapped former Yahoo! COO Dan Rosensweig as CEO of the firms's RedOctane business unit--the unit which is in charge of its Guitar Hero franchise. According to Activision, Rosensweig will oversee game development, hardware manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, and marketing for RedOctane. Rosensweig was most recently COO of Yahoo from 2002 to 2006. Rosensweig has also served at Ziff Davis, in a variety of roles, including President and CEO (More info...)
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Irvine Sensors Gains $9.5M In Patent Sale
Costa Mesa-based Irvine Sensors reports this morning that it will gain $9.5M in cash in a deal to sell most of its patents and patent applications. According to Irvine Sensors, the deal--originally announced in December--calls for its to sell the patents to Aprolase Development Co., which will also license the patented technology back to Irvine Sensors. The firm said it has royalty-free, worldwide use of the patents sold to Aprolase. Irvine Sensors develops miniaturized cameras, image processors (More info...)
posted on Monday, March 23, 2009(Full story)

ValueClick Personalizes Banner Ads
Westlake Village-based ValueClick Media announced today that the firm has rolled out a new service to allow advertisers to personalize banners ads for consumers. According to the firm, its new ActiveAds offering allows advertisers to create customized messages in their banners, based on anonymous information from the client or ValueClick. The firm said the new service will use such things as a consumer's geographic location, or context based on the category of the site a user is currently visiti (More info...)
posted on Monday, March 23, 2009(Full story)