Tuesday, September 15, 2009Clicker Raises $8M, Launches Video Search EngineLos Angeles-based Clicker.com, a startup looking to index and search online television content, launched Tuesday at the TechCrunch50 conference, saying it has raised $8M in venture funding from Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures. The firm is headed by Jim Lanzone, former CEO of Ask.com.
posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009(Full story)
TCA's OC Arm Pumps Seed ProgramThe Orange County Chapter of the Tech Coast Angels is promoting a program to help jumpstart small companies, O.C. SeedTrack, building off of earlier efforts by the group's San Diego and other chapters. According to the O.C. Tech Coast Angels, the new program will provide seed funding, strategic planning, and execution of day-to-day functions of startups. The O.C. TCA said it would invest no more than $100,000 in companies applying to the program, which it said it just launched. The San Diego bra (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009(Full story)
Peregrine Semi Ships 500M ChipsSan Diego-based Peregrine Semiconductor, a supplier of RF CMOS and mixed signal ICs, announced Tuesday that the firm has shipped the 500 millionth of its UltraCMOS RFIC chips. The chips are used in RF and wireless systems. Peregrine develops chips based on silicon-on-insulator technology, which the firm says replaces Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) chips usually used for those applications. Peregrine Semi's first shipments were in 1993; the firm had said that it had shipped more than 200M of its chips i (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009(Full story)
Insights and Opinions: An Open Letter To CongressFor our Insights and Opinions section this morning, we're republishing an open letter to Congress composed by venture capitalist Marc Averitt, of Okapi Venture Capital:
I am writing to you today as a concerned citizen with a truly global perspective who also happens to be a co-founder and managing director of a small (~$30M) venture capital fund that invests in promising seed and early-stage technology and life science companies in Southern California. I want to relay to you my deep concern r (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009(Full story)
RightScale Links With WaveMakerSanta Barbara-based RightScale disclosed today that the firm has linked with WaveMaker Software, a developer of a framework for deploying web applications. WaveMaker and RightScale said that the two will integrate their products, allowing users who develop apps on WaveMaker to deploy them through RightScale's Cloud Management Platform. RightScale, which is venture backed by Index Ventures and Benchmark Capital, develops cloud computing software used to manage and deploy servers.
posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009(Full story)
Rubicon Project Buys Others OnlineLos Angeles-based Rubicon Project, a venture backed provider of online advertising optimization services, said today that it has acquired Others Online, a provider of a behavioral targeting service for the online advertising industry. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Rubicon said the buy will help it build out its platform. Jordan Mitchell, CEO and Founder of Others Online, becomes Vice President of Data Intelligence for Rubicon Project. Rubicon is venture backed by Clearst (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009(Full story)
Xirrus Enhances SecurityThousand Oaks-based Xirrus has upped the security options for the firm's wireless arrays, saying today that it has rolled out a new security product, RF Security Manager, for its Wi-Fi array systems. Xirrus said the new product improves security and minimizes risk in deploying 802.11n networks, through both hardware encryption and a security scanning feature. The firm said the new product delivers high performance encryption and decryption capabilities, and a "24/7 threat scanner" which the firm (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009(Full story)
Mota Motors Launches ServicesLos Angeles-based Mota Motors, which provides services to help consumers buy and sell used automobiles, is one of the Southern California startups which is making a push at TechCrunch50 this week. Mota launched a new site at the conference Monday. Mota is venture backed by Prism VentureWorks, and received $4.5M in funding back in April of 2008. The company is headed by Reza Bundy.
posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009(Full story)
Move Hires ExecsWestlake Village-based Move announced today that it has appointed David Story as the firm's new Chief Technology Officer, and Scott Boecker as its Chief Product Officer. The operator of online real estate sites said that both Story and Boecker will be located in Northern California, at the firm's Campbell, California offices. Story was most recently at Adobe Systems, and also served at Intuit. Boecker was most recently at Ticketmaster, and also has served at KPE Digital Services and eToys. Move (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009(Full story)