Thursday, April 15, 2010Southern California Investments On Uptick, Totals $686.5M For Q1Southern California venture capital investments totaled $686.5M for the quarter, up from both Q4 of last year as well as the comparable Q1 quarter in 2009, according to the latest numbers from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the NVCA. According to the report, released today, Southern California investments totaled $686.5M in Q1, up from $588.033M tallied by the report in Q4 of 2009, and up significantly from the $320.2M received in the region in Q1 of 2009. Southern California's investment totals buc (More info...)
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Report: Demand Selects Goldman Sachs For IPO EffortLos Angeles-based Demand Media, the online content publishing firm run by Richard Rosenblatt, has reportedly selected Goldman Sachs to run its IPO effort, according to a report this evening from the Financial Times. The report says that Demand Media has hired Goldman Sachs to explore an initial public offering for the firm. Demand Media has been rumored to be looking for an IPO for months, and Richard Rosenblatt has not been shy about the firm's interest in an IPO. Rosenblatt said in January at (More info...)
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LaunchpadLA Names Second ClassLos Angeles-based Launchpad LA, the startup mentoring effort spearheaded by GRP Partners' Mark Suster, is announcing this afternoon that it has selected 10 startups for the second season of the program. According to the group, it has selected AccessDNA, AwesomeBox, Circle Street, DataPop, Gendai Games, Gyroscope Technologies, Laughstub, MovieClips.com, Para Ti Novia, and ShopNation as participants in its six-month long program, which connects startup entrepreneurs with venture capitalists, exper (More info...)
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Munchkin Lands $45MNorth Hills, California-based Munchkin, a designer and manufacturer of infant and toddler products and toys, has raised $45M in a minority investment from the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, according to a regulatory filing from the firm today. Privately held Munchkin had announced a minority investment by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, but did not disclose financial details of that investment at the time. Munchkin said the funding would help it with potential acquisitions, and for internat (More info...)
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RightScale Rolls Out Grid Computing ProductSanta Barbara-based RightScale, the venture-backed developer of cloud computing management software backed by Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures, said yesterday that it has launched a new product specifically focused on grid processing. According to the firm, its new RIghtScale Grid Computing Solution Pack is targeted at grid processing on services such as Amazon Web Services. RightScale said the new software helps companies deploy, monitor, and manage grid processing applications in the cloud (More info...)
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WebVisible: Bing Search Spend Increases, Small Business Advertising UpIrvine-based WebVisible has released its latest quarterly advertising report, saying this morning that Bing's share of the search spending market was up 10 percent in Q1 over the previous quarter, and that the average small business advertisers spent $2,201 in search advertising in Q1. The firm--which has begun tracking trends in its U.S. advertising clients--found in its report that interest in Bing has increased from its small business advertisers, due to high click through rates and lower cos (More info...)
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Identive Group Buys Rockwest TechnologySanta Ana-based Identive Group, which was formerly known as SCM Microsystems, announced today that it has acquired Rockwest Technology Group, a provider of identification and security products. Identive said it paid 2.6 million shares of its common stock for RockWest, a deal worth approximately $4.94M. Identive said that RockWest is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the firm, and that it expects RockWest to add $5 to $6M in revenues for the year, and over $500,000 in cash to the firm's balance sh (More info...)
posted on Thursday, April 15, 2010(Full story)