Tuesday, August 18, 2009


DivX In Licensing Deal With NEC
San Diego-based DivX is continuing to extend the firm's license deals with consumer electronics firm, saying Tuesday that it has signed a multi-year license deal covering its DivX Plus HD technology with NEC Electronics. The firm's technology will be included in NEC's Enhanced Multi-Media Architecture (EMMA) chips, which will be used in set-top boxes, Blue-ray players, and digital televisions. Financial details of the license were not disclosed.
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New Wolfenstein Title Hits Market
Santa Monica-based Activision Publishing announced Tuesday that it is shipping a new Wolfenstein title, for the Xbox 360, PLAYSTATIOn 3, and PC. The game, a military combat game set in Nazi Germany, is a sequel to 2001 title Return to Castle Wolfenstein, itself a sequel to a series of similarly themed video game titles which evolved from an Apple II software title, Castle Wolfenstein, released in 1981. The title was developed by Raven Software, and is being published by id Software and Activisi (More info...)
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AppFolio Gets $8M
Santa Barbara-based AppFolio, a developer of software-as-a-service for property management, is announcing today that it has raised $8M in additional funding for the firm. The funding comes from the Investment Group of Santa Barbara (IGSB). Appfolio said the funding round brings the company's total raised to $30M. the firm has previously also raised capital from Cisco Systems and BV Capital, in addition to the Investment Group of Santa Barbara. The company said the new funding will go to accelera (More info...)
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Tibesti Takes Aim At Students
Los Angeles-based social shopping site Tibesti is setting its sights on students, saying today that it will give 100 percent of its sales commissions from student products to users, as part of a back-to-school promotion. The site--which allows users to recommend, review, and sell products through a social networking-centric site--already was offering fifty percent of product sales to its users. The firm said the promotion runs through October 15th. Tibesti was co-founded by Mike Hale--one of the (More info...)
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TrueCar Hires Away Edmunds Evangelist
Santa Monica-based TrueCar, the automotive pricing spinout of Zag Automotive, annoucned today that it has hired the Chief Evangelist from Edmunds. The firm said that Jesse Toprak will serve as the firm's Vice President of Industry (Tresnds & Insights) at the company, and will analyze and report on automotive related topics, trends and insights. Toprak spent nine years at Edmunds, in addition to earlier experience at automotive franchises. TrueCar is using real-world sales data from automotive de (More info...)
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Dot Hill Gets Two Patents
Carlsbad-based Dot Hill Systems, a developer of enterprise storage systems, disclosed today that the firm has landed two patents covering its products. The firm said the patent include U.S. Patent 7,558,897 and U.S. Patent 7,558,981, both of which were granted to the firm by the USPTO on July 7th. The firm said the two patents brings the company's total patent portfolio to 53 patents. Both cover technology used for redundant storage controllers, key parts of ensuring reliability in its data stor (More info...)
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CyberDefender Links With "Dummies" Book Publisher
Los Angeles-based CyberDefender, a developer of antivirus, antispyware, and other security tools, said this morning that it has inked an agreement with Wiley Publishing, Inc., to market a line of Internet security products using Wiley's popular "For Dummies" brand. Financial details of the licensing deal were not disclosed. CyberDefender said that the agreement gives it the exclusive rights to market, in North America, a full line of Internet security products and services using "For Dummies". T (More info...)
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Interview with Woolas Hsieh and Dina Lozofsky, Solarmer Energy
In the recent surge in interest in the clean technology and energy investment area, we're constantly surprised by the number of startups in the area focused on some aspect of the industry. Recently, we learned about Solarmer Energy, a spinout of UCLA, which is developing flexible solar panels, and caught up with Woolas Hsieh, President and Founder of the firm and Dina Lozofsky, VP, Corporate Development at the firm to hear more about its emerging technology. Let's start on the technology side (More info...)
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Demand Media Invests In CoveritLive
Santa Monica-based Demand Media, the social media firm headed by former MySpace Chairman Richard Rosenblatt, said this morning that it has made a minority investment in Toronto-based CoveritLive. CoveritLive develops live blogging tools and related products for creating live, online events. Amount of the investment and other financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Demand Media said that the investment is part of a strategic partnership with CoveritLive, whre Demand Media will market, res (More info...)
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