Monday, December 14, 2009Sometrics Links Shopping, Virtual CurrencyLos Angeles-based Sometrics, which develops virtual currency products for social networking game developers, is linking holiday shopping and social games with a new product. Sometrics says it has rolled out a new "Shop & Earn Shopping Feed" service, which will allow game participants to earn virtual currency when they purchase products from e-commerce retailers. Game participants get virtual currency on social games using Sometrics' by buying products they buy on automotive, clothing, electronic (More info...)
posted on Monday, December 14, 2009(Full story)
Friendgiftr Launches Facebook Gift Card AppHollywood-based Friendgiftr, an angel funded startup developing Facebook applications, said today that it has launched a new Facebook application which allows users to send real gift cards to friends, family, and others. The startup said it is now offering over 120 U.S. merchants through its app, which allows users to send both physical and digital gift cards via the popular Facebook social networking site. Friendgiftr is backed by angel investors, including individuals from the Tech Coast Angel (More info...)
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Calixa Therapeutics Acquired By Cubist Pharmaceuticals, In Big Win For DomainSan Diego-based Calixa Therapeutics, a biopharmaceuticals firm developing antibiotics to treat multi-drug resistant organisms, has been acquired by Cubist Pharmaceuticals, a Massachusetts-based biotherapeutics firm. The deal was worth $92.5M in cash, with potential milestone payments worth up to $310M. Calixa was co-founded in 2007 by Dr. Eckard Weber and Dr. James Ge, and had acquired development rights to its primary compound from Astellas Pharma. Amount invested in Calixa Therapeutics was not (More info...)
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Rustic Canyon's Kim To Leave FirmMichael Kim, a partner at Santa Monica-based Rustic Canyon Partners, is departing the firm at the end of the year to startup up a new fund-of-funds, Cendana Capital. According to Kim, the new fund--based in San Francisco--will focus on investing in private equity, including both non-traditional private equity and venture capital investments. Kim was based in Silicon Valley. According to Kim, he will become an Advisory Partner to Rustic Canyon, and transfer his responsibilities at Rustic Canyon b (More info...)
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Quub Expands In ChinaIrvine-based Quub, the UC Irvine spinoff developing a social messaging service, said today that it has opened up new offices, in Guangdong, China. The firm said the new offices will help support international efforts for the service, particularly in China. Quub develops a service which helps users to manage and share their status via Twitter, instant messaging, and other services. The firm grew out of research at UC Irvine's Laboratory for Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction.
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LA Goes Live With GoogleThe City of Los Angeles has gone live with Google's cloud software suite, Google Apps, Google said today. Google won the a $7.2M contract with the city back in October for email service. Google said that 34,000 Los Angeles city employees will gain access to Google Apps for email and other collaboration starting today. The move to Google came after a intense battle between Google and Microsoft for the contract.
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Vuguru Nabs LivePlanet's TanzLos Angeles-based Vuguru, the digital production studio founded by Michael Eisner, has snagged former LivePlanet CEO Larry Tanz as its new President, the firm said today. Tanz was most recently co-founder and President of digital entertainment firm Agility Studios, and was also formerly President and CEO of LivePlanet, Inc. Vuguru is behind the web show "Prom Queen," and was spun out separately from Eisner's The Tornante Company in October, in a deal with Canadian firm Rogers Media.
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Insights and Opinions: Tax Extenders Bill Will Stifle Innovation In the USFor our Insights and Opinions section today, we have an editorial from Robert Kibble, who is a director of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), and Managing Partner at Mission Ventures
We are concerned in the venture capital community by the bill known as the "Tax Extenders Bill", which was passed in the House of Representatives last week. The provision on changing the tax treatment of "carried interest" was thrown in at the last moment to offset the loss of revenues that results f (More info...)
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Livestrong.com Launches Online Nutrition Tool For DiabetesSanta Monica-based LIVESTRONG.COM, the online health site run by Demand Media in conjunction with the Lance Armstrong Foundation, announced this morning that it has launched a new online tool it is calling MyPlate D, for online nutrition tracking. The site is targeted at people with diabetes, to help them control the disease. According to the site, the new product allows users to track calories, fat, protein, and carbohydrates for more than 625,000 food items. LIVESTRONG.COM said the new tool i (More info...)
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Vitesse Reports Steep Loss, Decline In Revenues For YearCamarillo-based Vitesse Semiconductor, a developer of communications ICs for the networking industry, reported its yearly results today, saying that it had a net loss of $194.0M in fiscal year 2009, and revenues of $168.2M for the year. The firm's revenues dropped from $228.5M in its fiscal 2008 year. The big loss was primarily due to non-cash expenses of $191.4M for goodwill impairment. According to Vitesse, 2009 was "a challenging year" for the firm. However, the firm pointed out that it had p (More info...)
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Ticketmaster Unveils New Web 2.0-style Seat MapsLos Angeles-based Ticketmaster, which is the biggest provider of online ticket sales services for sports, entertainment, and other events, said today that it has launched a beta of a new, interactive seat mapping tool. The new, Web 2.0-style tool allows users to view visual maps of venues, and use interactive features to narrow down the types of tickets they want to buy by location, price, and other options. Ticketmaster said the new tool is available in beta for specific venues, including the S (More info...)
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Breach Launches New Offering With AkamaiCarlsbad-based security software firm Breach Security announced today that it has launched a new product, in conjunction with Akamai, called WebDefend Global Event Manager. According to Breach, the new software, developed to work with Akamai's new Web Application Firewall service, is used to detect and block attacks, prevent unauthorized data leakage, report on web coding errors, and provide other security features for web applications. The security software specifically covers security of cloud (More info...)
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TowerJazz Wins VT SiliconNewport Beach-based TowerJazz, a provider of specialty semiconductor foundry services, has been selected by VT Silicon as a manufacturing partner, VT Silicon said today. Financial details of the win were not disclosed. VT Silicon said it is using TowerJazz's 0.18-micron SiGE process for its 4G, RF Front End IC, instead of a more expensive GaAS process. Expected shipping volumes were not announced, however, VT Silicon said it expects first silicon available in the first quarter of 2010 and produc (More info...)
posted on Monday, December 14, 2009(Full story)