Thursday, July 23, 2009Power-One Chops Another 300 WorkersCamarillo-based Power-One, which manufactures power supplies and power conversion products, disclosed Thursday that the firm has reduced its headcount by another 300 employees. The firm said the cuts came during Q2, and were on top of an earlier cut of 900 employees it announced in May associated with the shutdown of a plant in the Dominican Republic. The firm said the cuts bring the company's reduction in headcount to 1300, or 29 percent of its staff. The revelation came as part of the firm's Q (More info...)
posted on Thursday, July 23, 2009(Full story)
RightSignature Links Into FreshbooksSanta Barbara-based RightSignature and online invoicing provider FreshBooks have integrated the two services, the companies said Thursday afternoon, allowing Freshbooks customers to use RightSignature's services to collect client signatures. According to the two firms, the link allows FreshBooks customers to get a human-readable, client signature on invoices so companies can get faster payments from accounts payable departments. RightSignature operates software-as-a-service site which allows peo (More info...)
posted on Thursday, July 23, 2009(Full story)
Fisker To Showcase Karma At Vintage Racing EventIrvine-based Fisker Automotive is rolling out its Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid at the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races in August, the firm said today, with the car making two demonstration laps and being displayed at the event. The demo is a part of the firm's marketing efforts for its sedan, which it has priced at $87,900 and hopes to start delivering in Q2 of 2010. Fisker is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Palo Alto Investors and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), and has (More info...)
posted on Thursday, July 23, 2009(Full story)
Total Immersion Technology Shows Up In Mattel Toy LineTechnology from Los Angeles-based Total Immersion, a developer of "augmented reality" products--is showing up in a new Mattel toy line, based on Twentieth Century Fox's action adventure film "Avatar." According to Mattel, the action figures and vehicles being released in conjunction with the James Cameron film will include a 3-D, web tag which will tie into special, interactive web content. That content--which is triggered via webcam--will show additional information, animated models, and intera (More info...)
posted on Thursday, July 23, 2009(Full story)
TrueCar In Deal For Vehicle DataSanta Monica-based TrueCar, the online car pricing spinout of Zag Automotive, is expanding the depth of its vehicle data today, saying that it is licensing information on new vehicles from Chrome Systems, which is a part of DealerTrack Holdings. Financial details of the license deal were not disclosed. TrueCar said it will license Chrome's new vehicle data to provide details on vehicles down to the option level, and that the deal also include an ability to distribute that data to third party web (More info...)
posted on Thursday, July 23, 2009(Full story)
Qualcomm Fined $208M In Antitrust CaseSouth Korea has fined San Diego's Qualcomm $208M in an antitrust case, the Korea Fair Trade Commission said today. The fine came out of a complaint that the firm used unfair business practices to dominant the local cell phone chip market. In a statement, Qualcomm said that it "firmly disagrees" the the KFTC decision that certain discounts and rebates it provides to its Korean customers violate Korea's competition law, and that it intends to appeal the decision and "continue vigorously to defend (More info...)
posted on Thursday, July 23, 2009(Full story)
Panda, Encore In US Publishing DealGlendale-based Panda Security and Los Angeles-based Encore, which is a subsidiary of Navarre Corporation, said this morning that the two have inked an exclusive publishing agreement. Encore will be responsible for sales, marketing, and production of Panda's Antivirus Pro 2010, Internet Security 2010, Global Protection 2010, and Antivirus for Netbooks products in the U.S. Financial details of the publishing deal were not disclosed. Encore is a publisher and distributor of retail software, includi (More info...)
posted on Thursday, July 23, 2009(Full story)
Emergent Game Technologies Links With Video Game CompetitionCalabasas-based Emergent Game Technologies, maker of the Gamebryo LightSpeed video game development engine, reports that the firm is providing support to a computer game design competition in London. According to the firm, it is providing support to four teams competing at London's Abertay University who are developing a working prototype game in a 9-10 week timeframe. Abertay's "Dare to be Digital" competition is an international competition which includes game design teams from all over the wo (More info...)
posted on Thursday, July 23, 2009(Full story)
Mobile Messenger Names New CEOLos Angeles-based Mobile Messenger, a firm which provides technology for managing mobile media distribution and billing said this week that it has named Michael Iaccarino as CEO of the firm. Current CEO and founder, Steve Taylor, becomes EVP Strategy. Iaccarino was most recently at Epison, and also served at KPMG and Price Waterhouse. Mobile Messenger provides mobile entertainment and marketing services to its clients.
posted on Thursday, July 23, 2009(Full story)
Interview Therese Tucker, BlackLine SystemsIt's somewhat unusual in this economy to find companies who are seeing strong growth, so we were intrigued recently in running into BlackLine Systems (www.blackline.com), a firm which develops software for helping in the financial reporting process. We spoke with Therese Tucker, CEO and founder of the Calabasas firm. Therese is the former CTO at SunGard Treasury Systems, and has a wealth of experience in the financial software market. We caught up with Therese to hear about her company and why i (More info...)
posted on Thursday, July 23, 2009(Full story)