Monday, April 27, 2009Autobytel Rejects Buyout OfferIrvine-based Autobytel has pointedly rejected a buyout offer it received last week, saying today in a letter from its board that the $15.8M deal to buy Autobytel by Trilogy Enterprises was "grossly inadequate." In the letter, Autobytel noted that its current cash position is "substantially in excess" of Trilogy's offer, and that it believes it has interest from other buyers. Trilogy offered to pay $0.35 per share for Autobytel on April 21st. Trilogy is a competing provider of services to the aut (More info...)
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Stamps.com Ties With Software FirmLos Angeles-based PC postage provider Stamps.com has signed a shipping software firm, TrueShip, in an integration deal, the firm said Monday. According to Stamps.com, TrueShip will integrate its PC Postage software into its ReadyShipper shipping software for small and mid-sized businesses. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Stamps.com's PC Postage software allows users to print out their own, valid U.S. postage.
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MySpace Names Jones, Hirschhorn To Exec TeamNews Corporation said a few minutes ago that it has added two new executives at MySpace, and is tapping Tsavo Media's Michael Jones as Chief Operating Officer and Sling Media's Jason Hirschhorn as Chief Product Officer. Both are in Los Angeles. Jones is best known in Southern California's technology community for his success at Userplane, which he founded and sold to AOL. He was most recently CEO of Tsavo Media, which is developing online publishing and advertising technology along with related (More info...)
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Visiogen Gains $40M In FundingIrvine-based Visiogen is reporting this morning that it has raised $40M in a financing round for its intraocular lens technology. The firm said the funding was led by Novartis Venture Fund, and also included investments from Technology Partners, Three Arch Partners, New Leaf Venture Partners, Prospect Venture Partners, CMEA Ventures and Foundation Medical Partners. Visiogen is developing a dual-optic accomodating intraocular lens. The firm last raised funding in 2007.
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TrueCar Officially Launches Car Pricing SiteSanta Monica-based TrueCar has officially launched its new car pricing site today, saying that it is now providing consumers with details on the prices paid for people on cars in their area. The firm--which is a spinout of automotive configuration software firm Zag--said it will provide consumers with a "Price Report" showing the full distribution of prices paid by other people, for the exact same vehicle, in a consumer's local area. The new service is free, and is based on automotive transactio (More info...)
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Qualcomm Pays Broadcom $891M In Patent SettlementSan Diego-based Qualcomm and Irvine-based Broadcom announced late last night that the two companies have reached a settlement and patent agreement, which will dismiss all litigation between the companies. According to the two, Qualcomm will pay Broadcom $891M over four years in the settlement. According to the firms, the settlement covers all patent infringement claims in the ITC and U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, as well as withdrawal of Broadcom complaints to the European Commission and the (More info...)
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Interview with Scott Lenet, DFJ FrontierSeed stage, venture capital fund DFJ Frontier (www.dfjfrontier.com) announced this morning that it has raised its second fund, worth $55M. We sat down with Managing Director Scott Lenet last week, ahead of the announcement, to chat about the new fund and what the firm is investing in now.
Congrats on the new fund. What kind of investments are you targeting with this new fund?
Scott Lenet: We're really excited about the new fund. It's $55 million, which is two times the size of the first fu (More info...)
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DFJ Frontier Raises $55M Venture FundLos Angeles-based seed stage venture fund DFJ Frontier is announcing today that it has closed a second, $55M fund, expanded its team, and opened up new offices. According to the firm, it raised $55.4M from mostly institutional investors, with limited partners that include CalPERs, Credit Suisse, Hamilton Lane, LACERS, and the Oregon Growth Account. The new offices are in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. As part of the firm's expanded team, DFJ Frontier has added four new venture partners at th (More info...)
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Mojix Ships Software, Inks Deal With IntegratorLos Angeles-based Mojix, a venture backed developer of RFID technology, said this morning that it has released a new, software product targeted at RFID asset and process management. Separately, the firm also said it had inked a deal with government system integrator SRA International. Mojix said its new software product ties into its hardware to provide "end-to-end" real-time location of assets and goods. The firm said the new software also ties into enterprise and other backend sysetms. In the (More info...)
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X1 Technologies Updates SoftwarePasadena-based X1 Technologies, the document indexing and search software firm backed by Idealab, disclosed this morning that it has released two upgrades to its software. Among the updates is a new release of its X1 Profesisonal Client software, and a new versino of its connector to the Symantec Enterprise Vault product. X1 said the new update of its client adds improvements for IBM Lotus Notes and Mozilla Thunderbird; the updated connector provides faster results searching Symantec's archiving (More info...)
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Semtech Gains Design WinCamarillo-based Semtech, a developer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, said today that the firm's products have been selected by ZTE Corp., as part of a family of wireless basestation products. Semtech said that ZTE Corp. will use its ToPSync ACS95xx platform for its WiMax, LTE, and other wireless basestations. Financial impact of the design win was not disclosed. Semtech's products are being used for clock synchronization and timing applications.
posted on Monday, April 27, 2009(Full story)