Monday, July 13, 2009


ManiaTV Founder Buys Assets
Drew Massey, the founder of ManiaTV, has reportedly purchased the assets of defunct Internet web content firm ManiaTV, says the New York Times. Details on the buyback were not disclosed, but the Times says that the acquisition did not include ManiaTV's Los Angeles production studios. A source close to the firm told socalTECH in June that a deal was in the works. ManiaTV shut down in March, after Comerica bank pulled the firm's line of credit, and it was unable to find additional venture funding. (More info...)
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STEC Gets $28M Military Win
Santa Ana-based STEC, a manufacturer of solid state disk drives, said Monday that it has scored a $28M contract to supply its SSds to the U.S. military. STEC said that the win, with a "leading" defense systems contractor, will integrate its MACH8 solid state drives into a platform for the U.S. military. The company said that shipments will begin in Q3 of 2009, as part of a 12-month supply contract. STEC's Mach8 is a line of industrial/military focus SSds.
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King.com Launches iPhone, Facebook Games
Los Angeles- and London-based King.com, which develops online casual skill games, said yesterday that it has released its first games for iPhone and Facebook. The firm said that the new games, Kalorie King and Mars Lives, are the first in a series of new games designed exclusively for social networks and the iPhone. King.com has been offering casual games through its web sites, King.com and MyGame.com, since 2004. The firm also provides games for Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and others. The firm's U.S. offi (More info...)
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SharesPost: Sales In Escrow, New Research
Santa Monica-based SharesPost, which has created on online marketplace for sellers and buyers of private company stock, reported to its users late Friday that the firm now has sales of LinkedIn, Linden Lab, Tesla Motors, and SugarCRM going into escrow. The firm--which launched in early June--also said that that it now has offers to sell Facebook, Tesla, XDx, eHarmony, and LindenLab shares, as the firm's marketplace starts to gear up. The firm also bolstered its research, posting reports on all o (More info...)
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Kaai Gains $3.5M In Series B
Goleta-based Kaai, the secretive LED startup working on next generation lasers, has raised $3.5M in a Series B funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm. Details on the funding have not been released by the company. Kaai is backed by Khosla Ventures; the firm is one of the companies founded by Shuji Nakamura, the inventor of the blue LED, along with Stephen DenBaars, a professor at UC Santa Barbara. The regulatory filing indicates that a representative from Seoul Semiconductor (More info...)
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Domain Leads VC Funds, As Overall VC Fundraising Drops To $1.7B
A report on venture capital fundraising released this morning reveals that Domain Associates, which has its west coast offices located in San Diego, was the biggest venture capital fundraise in Q2, with a $371.1M early stage fund, Domain Partners VIII. However, overall venture capital fundraising in the industry dropped to only $1.7 billion in the second quarter--a 13 year low--as only 25 funds were able to find capital through their fundraising efforts. According to the report, from Thomson Reu (More info...)
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Lantronix Names Marketing Head
Irvine-based Lantronix has hired on a new Vice President of Marketing, the firm said this morning. According to Lantronix, it has appointed Paul Pisal to the position. Pishal has previously served at Capgemini, and has also served at a technical partner at HIG Ventures, a venture firm which invests in digital media, telecommunications and information technology. Pishal has also served at Cisco, Philips Electronics, Scientific-Atlanta, and Hitachi Telecom. Lantronix is a developer of remote acces (More info...)
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Interview with Mark Suster, GRP Partners
This morning's interview is with Mark Suster, a venture capitalist at GRP Partners (www.grpvc.com). GRP has just recently closed on a new $200M fund, and Mark has been one of the more active venture capitalists in the Los Angeles area in recent months. Mark has also been quite active mentoring entrepreneurs. We caught up with Mark to hear about what kinds of investments GRP is looking at nowadays, his view on the software-as-a-service market, and how best to approach him with a pitch. It look (More info...)
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SAIC Buys Cybersecurity Testing Firm
San Diego-based Science Applications International reported today that it has acquired a cybersecurity product testing firm, Atlan, Inc. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Atlan is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, and provides Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) validation and product testing, which is applied to cryptography software and hardware. SAIC said that Atlan's employees will become part of its Accredited Testing and Evaluation (AT&E) laboratories, which are un (More info...)
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Symark Launches New Automation Product
Agoura Hills-based Symark International reports this morning that it has launched a new product, focused on automation of IT lifecycle management. According to the firm, its new PowerSeries Management Console (PSMC) product ties into its existing Symark PowerBroker products, and helps to automate policy creation and approval, aggregation and review of event lots, and other features of its software. Symark's PowerBroker software is used for managing user accounts and access control on Unix and Li (More info...)
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Lieberman Software Gains Swiss Reseller
Los Angeles-based Lieberman Software, a developer of identity management and security software, said today that it has signed on a Switzerland-based reseller, IBV Informatik. Lieberman said that IBV Informatik will resell its products in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein. IBV sells IT security, IT automation, and customer relationship management software for Windows and Linux systems.
posted on Monday, July 13, 2009(Full story)