Wednesday, June 3, 2009


Insights and Opinions: Exit Outcomes
For our Insights and Opinions section today, we've posted a recent podcast by Frank Peters of the Frank Peters show: Ever wanted to hear how angels think of the terms they offer and the returns they expect? And what will happen if the outcome is less than a complete success? Frank Peters, of the Frank Peters Show, talks with Angel Capital Association Chairman John Huston.
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Networkfleet Rolls Low Cost Vehicle Tracking Product
San Diego-based Networkfleet, which is a subsidiary of Hughes Telematics, announced today that the firm has rolled out a new, lower cost offering for GPS vehicle tracking. The firm--which sells hardware used for remote engine diagnostics and vehicle tracking for fleet vehicles--said the new lower cost offering is targeted at users who need location tracking, but not remote engine diagnostics. The firm is targeting the new system to commercial and government vehicle fleets. Pricing on the new pro (More info...)
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Newport Swaps Businesses With Oclaro
Irvine-based Newport Corporation, a supplier of semiconductors and optical technology, said Wednesday that it is swapping assets and cash with Silicon Valley firm Oclaro. According to Newport, it will acquire Oclaro's New Focus business, which develops opto-electronics, high-resolution actuators, opto-mechanics, tunable lasers, vacuum and ultraclean solutions,and other producuts. In exchange, Newport will transfer its high power diode laser manufacturing operations to Oclaro. In addition to the (More info...)
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Emergent Game Technologies Scores Win With THQ
Calabasas-based Emergent Game Technologies, developer of the Gamebryo game engine, disclosed today that the firm has signed on THQ through a master licensing agreement. Emergent said that THQ will use its Gamebryo and Gamebryo LightSpeed software for internal and external development, across the Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Ninetendo Wii, and PC platforms. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. Emergent develops game engine software which helps video game developers handle common video game (More info...)
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Report: LA, OC, San Diego All Rank As Top High-Tech Centers
A new report by the Milken Institutue, attempting to rank the "top high-tech centers" in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, shows Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego areas are all within the top 10 "preeminent high-tech metros" ranked by high tech employment and wages. According to the firm's report, "North America's High-Tech Economy: The Geography of Knowledge-Based Industries," the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale metro area is now ranked number five, San Dieg-Carlsbad-San Marcos is ranked nu (More info...)
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RingRevenue Takes $3.5M
Santa Barbara-based RingRevenue, which is developing technology for pay-per-call, telephone affiliate advertising, has raised $3.5M in a funding from GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, and Great Pacific Capital. The firm is headed by former Callwave CFO Jason Spievak. The funding actually closed back in March, but the firm had declined to release details until it relaunched its web site.
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Mahalo Revamps Site
Santa Monica-based Mahalo, the high profile "human-powered search engine" run by Jason Calacanis, rolled out a new, revamped site late Tuesday evening, offering to split advertising revenues with users who help to create pages on the site. Mahalo will allow users to claim and build pages for any topic on the site, supplementing the firm's use of employees and contractors to create pages. Mahalo has received funding from Sequoia Capital, Elon Musk, and News Corp., among others.
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XCast Labs Raises $2.7M
Los Angeles-based XCast Labs is announcing this morning that it has raised $2.7M in a Series A funding round, for the firm's voice-over-IP services. According to XCast, the funding includes an investment by Siemer and Associates, as well as Frontera Capital and the Pasadena Angels. XCast said that its voice-over-IP services will be "fully interoperable" with the popular VoIP software Skype, and will also provide features such as enhanced voicemail, international calling, PBX support, and other s (More info...)
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Paragon Software Adds Mac Snapshot Offering
Irvine-based Paragon Software announced yesterday that the firm has added a new, point-in-time snapshot software tool targeted at Mac OS X users. According to Paragon, its new product, Snapshot for Mac OS X, is in beta testing, and provides data backup for Mac users. The firm said the new package is available for free via a download on the firm's web site.
posted on Wednesday, June 3, 2009(Full story)