Thursday, May 28, 2009Chumby Raises $3M In DebtSan Diego-based Chumby, a maker of a Internet-enabled information device, has raise $3M in a funding round, according to a regulatory filing from the firm Thursday. According to the filing, the funding came in the form of debt plus warrants; source of the funding was not disclosed. The firm has previously raised funding from Avalon Ventures, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Masthead Venture Partners, and JK&B Capital.
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Memeo Looks North For PresidentAliso Viejo-based Memeo, which operates an online media backup service, said this week that it has named George Northup as the firm's new President. The venture backed firm said that Northup will be based in San Jose. Northup joins from AuctionDrop, and has also served at LiveCapital, Online Resources Corporation, Intellicall, and SMS Data Products Group. Memeo is venture backed by G51 Capital and Foundry Group. The firm operates online photo and video sharing services, an online backup service, (More info...)
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Hydra Hires New ExecutiveBeverly Hills-based Hydra, which operates a cost-per-action advertising network, reported Thursday that it has named Rachel Corcoran as the firm's Director of Compliance. Hydra said that Corcoran was most recently at Experian, managing compliance and contracts at LowerMyBills.com. She also has served at Horn & Lusby LLP, and according to the firm has the unusual experience of coordinating "domestic and international kidnap and extortion response projects." Hydra runs performance-based advertisin (More info...)
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Goodreads Rolls Out Bestseller ListSanta Monica-based Goodreads, the site focused on social networking around books, reports today that it has rolled out a new feature which shows the most popular books for a given publishing date. The firm--which compared its lists to the New York Times Bestseller List--said the new feature allows users to select any year or month to see which books are the most popular with its users. Goodreads said the lists are generated by tracking the number of people who have added the book to their virtua (More info...)
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RightScale Nabs Former MySQL CEO For BoardSanta Barbara-based RightScale, which develops software for managing cloud computing, announced Thursday that it has added former MySQL CEO Marten Mickos to the firm's board of directors. Mickos was CEO of MySQL from 2001 until last year, when he sold the firm to Sun Microsystems. Mickos then served as Senior Vice President of Sun's Database Group until this year. RightScale is developing cloud computing software to manage and deploy servers in clouds such as Amazon web services; the firm is ven (More info...)
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Sorenson Media Snags Another Former Sightspeed ExecSan Diego- and Salt Lake City-basd Sorenson Media, a developer of video encoding software, said Wednesday that it has hired on former SightSpeed exec Eric Quanstrom as its Vice President of Marketing and Strategy. Quanstrom joins the firm shortly after the company appointed former SightSpeed CEO Peter Csathy as its new President and CEO and established executive offices in San Diego. Quanstrom was most recently VP of Consumer Marketing and Business Development at SightSpeed, and also has served (More info...)
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DivX Ships On ToshibaSan Diego-based DivX said this week that Toshiba is shipping its first line of DivX certified HDTVs. According to DivX, the new HDTVs all support playback of the firm's DivX video format. The new REGZA LCD HDTV line is shipping in the US and Europe. Toshiba is one of a number of consumer electronics manufacturers who have licensed the DivX codec for use in their HDTV products.
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Velocity Interactive, Best Buy Form Digital Media FundLos Angeles-based venture capital firm Velocity Interactive Group, the venture firm headed by Ross Levinsohn, said this morning that it has renamed itself Fuse Capital, and entered into a strategic partnership with Best Buy through a new, digital media fund. According to the firm, Best Buy will be the sole limited partner in the new venture capital fund, which will focus on investments in digital media companies. Size of the new investment fund was not disclosed. According to Velocity Interactiv (More info...)
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