Wednesday, December 9, 2009


Goodreads Ups Funding To $2M
Los Angeles-based Goodreads, an online social networking site focused on book readers, said today that it has raised its Series A funding to $2M. The firm said the round was led by True Ventures. Goodreads was founded by Otis Chandler, and counts MySpace COO Mike Jones as an advisor, along with Ooga Labs' James Currier and Stan Chudnovsky, as well as Bebo's Michael Birch. The firm said the new funding will go to expand the services and features of its social networking site. As part of the fundi (More info...)
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Insights and Opinions: The New Angel Paradigm
There's been a lot of controversy and debate in recent months over how angel investment groups ought to be structured, if they ought to charge entrepreneurs, and other similar issues about the role of organized groups and companies in the investment process. For today's Insights and Opinions piece, we have an article from John Dilts, founder of the Maverick Angels and one of the co-founders of The BioTech Forum, the effort to jump start biotech startup activity in Ventura County. John lays out h (More info...)
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Variety.com Puts Up Pay Wall
Los Angeles-based entertainment trade publication Variety has decided to put the firm's content behind a pay wall, telling its readers today that it will start restricting access to its articles to print and digital subscribers, starting Thursday. The publication said the move is part of a revamp of its subscription structure. Variety said it subscribers who pay the $248 for a introductory subscription to the publication will get acess to both the print and online versions of the site. Noting th (More info...)
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Goldstar Launches In Seattle
Los Angeles-based Goldstar, an online service which helps users connect with half price event, music, and other tickets, has launched in Seattle, the firm told its users today. Goldstar, which is headed by Jim McCarthy, said it is now offering tickets from more than a dozen Seattle venues. The service launched in the city last Tuesday. Goldstar offers half price tickets to upcoming events such as concerts and plays, to help venues fill their seats; the firm takes a cut of ticket sales. The compa (More info...)
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Advanced Bionics, Skinit Offer Personalized Skins--for Cochlear Implants
In an interesting twist on the popularity of personalized "skins" and covers for electronic items, Valencia-based Advanced Bionics announced today that it has partnered with San Diego-based Skinit to apply the technology to cochlear implants. Advanced Bionics said that its devices, used to help people with poor hearing, can be customized with favorite colors, sports teams, and works of art, or event a user's uploaded graphics. Financial details of the partnership between the companies was not di (More info...)
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Evolver Links With Emergent's Gamebryo
Aliso Viejo-based Evolver, a developer of a web interface for buildling 3D characters in video games, said this morning that it is in a strategic partnership with Calabasas-based Emergent Game Technologies. According to Evolver, the two will support integration of Evolver's models into Emergent's Gamebryo Lightspeed game development system. Evolver's software allows users to create 3D models and avatars, based on a collection of content from Evolver's web site. Emergent supports a number of thi (More info...)
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Calacanis Backs Mobile Social Networking Service
Jason Calacanis, the high profile founder of Santa Monica-based Mahalo, is one of the angel investors in a mobile social networking service, Gowalla, the company said today. According to Gowalla, Calacanis invested along with angels Ron Conway, Kevin Rose, Gary Varynerchuck, Shervin Pishevar and Chris Sacca, and venture firms Greylock Partners, Shasta Ventures, Maples Investments, Alsop-Louie Partners, and Founders Fund in a $8.4M Series B funding for the firm. Calacanis is also an investor in G (More info...)
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True Games Shuts Irvine Offices, Moves To Texas
Irvine-based True Games, a publisher of multiplayer online games, said this morning that it is moving its company headquarters to Austin, as part of a consolidation of its North American offices. According to True Games, it will move its headquarters away from Irvine to Austin, Texas, where it started a game development studio earlier this year. Impact on the firm's Irvine employees, and timeline for the move, was not given. The company said the move of its headquarters comes as a result of heav (More info...)
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Service-Now Gets $41.3M
Solana Beach-based Service-Now, a developer of software-as-a-service for incident and service management, has raised $41.3M out of a $66.14M funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm Tuesday. The filing indicates that the new funding came from Sequoia Capital, and that a significant part of the funding was used to purchase the stock of the firm's executives.
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MySpace Launches New Streaming API
Los Angeles-based social networking site MySpace, in a bid to connect with the "real-time" web, said early this morning at the LeWeb conference that it has launched a new, real-time API. According to MySpace COO Mike Jones, the firm is enhancing its MySpace Developer Platform to allow partners to access the firm's real-time data, including status updates, music, video, and photos. As part of the launch of the new API, the firm said Google, GroovyCorp, and OneRiot have already started using the A (More info...)
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Transaction Wireless Gets $2M More
San Diego-based Transaction Wireless, a developer of mobile gift card and other mobile marketing products, announced this morning that it has raised an additional $2M in funding. The funding came from its existing investors, Mission Ventures and Okapi Ventures. The company said the new funds will go towards ongoing technology and customer deployment and sales and marketing. Transaction Wireless develops a stored value, gift card platform which allows users to purchase products using their mobile (More info...)
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LeisureLink Signs Travel Site
Pasadena-based LeisureLink, which operates an online marketplace for vacation rentals, announced today that it has signed on site PerfectFamilyVacations.com. LeisureLink said that PerfectFamilyVacations will feature more than 1000 of the firm's properties on its site. Financial details of the win were not disclosed.
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