Friday, April 30, 2010Los Angeles Lures Electric Vehicle Firm, Backed By Warren BuffettLos Angeles has lured BYD, a Chinese alternative-energy auto maker, to the city, as Southern California seems to have become a magnet for electric and other alternative automotive firms. According to an announcement Friday by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, BYD--which is backed by Warren Buffet--will establish its North American headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. The move is expected to bring 150 jobs to the city along Figueroa Avenue. The (More info...)
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TrueCar Settles With Edmunds.com Over TrademarkSanta Monica-based TrueCar is the un-named firm which settled with Edmunds.com yesterday over a trademark lawsuit, according to court documents obtained by socalTECH.com. Edmunds.com had announced this morning--without naming names--that it had settled with a "newly launched competitor" over the use of the phrase "True Cost" and its "True Cost to Own" trademark. According to the documents, Edmunds.com had sued TrueCar on December 15, 2009, in the California Central District Court, alleging trade (More info...)
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Mobile-XL Opens Silicon Valley OfficeLos Angeles-based Mobile-XL, the text messaging-based information service targeting the emerging world markets, said Friday that it has opened up a new Silicon Valley office. The firm said the new office will help solidify existing partnerships with digital and media partners in the Bay Area. Mobile-XL operates a service--heavily used in developing countries in Africa and elsewhere--which gives information to mobile phone users. The firm's service is particularly popular in areas with limited In (More info...)
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Altra Biofuels Spinoff EdenIQ Gets $12.4MEdenIQ, the biofuels yield enhancement technology firm that is a spinout of Los Angeles-based Altra Biofuels, has scored a $12.4M venture funding round. According to EdenIQ, the Series B funding round was led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and also included The Westly Group, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Cyrus Capital, Angeleno Group, Element Partners, Morgan Stanley & Company, Advanced equities, OmniNet, Nimes Capital, and others. EdenIQ was spun out of Altra Biofuels in April of 2008.
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Fisker Nabs $21.5M From DelawareIrvine-based electric car maker Fisker Automotive has snagged $21.5M more in loans, this time from the State of Delaware. The state's Council on Development Finance voted MOnday to approve $21.5M in a loan to Fisker, which is looking to build a hybrid car at an old General Motors plant in Newport, Delaware. According to reports from local Delaware media, the loan will become a grant if the firm spends at least $175M renovating the GM facility, and creates at least 2,495 jobs in the next five yea (More info...)
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Docstoc Adds 100K Books, 150K Docs To MarketplaceSanta Monica-based Docstoc, the online professional document sharing site run by Jason Nazar, is announcing this morning that it has added around 100,000 books and 150,000 documents to the site, as part of a deal with Overdrive.com. According to Docstoc, the books include titles from McGraw-Hill, Microsoft Press, John Wiley & Sons, Random House, Simon & Shuster, Barnes & Noble World Digital Library, Cambridge University Press, Barron's, Elsevier, Sourcebooks, Pearson, and others. The electronic (More info...)
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Interview with Curtis Staker and William Goldbach, Confident TechnologiesLast week, San Diego-based Confident Technologies (www.confidenttechnologies.com) announced that it had acquired the assets of Vidoop, and created a company focused on security and authentication of users. The firm is headed by Curtis Staker, former president of Websense, and also includes an experienced executive team of other former Websense executives. We spoke with Curtis, along with William Goldbach, Executive Vice President at the firm, about the company. (Photo: Curtis Staker, left; Willi (More info...)
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FastSoft Targets Dynamic Web Pages, VideoPasadena-based FastSoft, the Caltech spinout which develops Internet acceleration devices, said today that it has bolstered its algorithms used its product to support dynamic web pages and video. The firm said it is targeting Internet retailers, social networking sites, and content delivery network (CDN) providers with the product. FastSoft's server-side devices help accelerate TCP/IP traffic. The firm said its appliances increase speed by 30 to 500 percent without requiring client software or b (More info...)
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Edmunds.com Wins Trademark SuitSanta Monica-based Edmunds.com announced today that it has prevailed in trademark litigation against an un-named competitor, over the firm's "True Cost to Own" trademark. Edmunds.com said that the un-named competitor agreed to permanently cease using "True Cost" as a mark, and will pay the firm an undisclosed sum of money. Identity of the competitor--which Edmunds.com called "newly-formed"--was not disclosed. Edmunds.com uses "Trust Cost to Own" as part of a tool to project five-year ownership c (More info...)
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lynda.com Hires Content VPCarpinteria-based lynda.com, which operates an online training and education site for computer skills, announced Thurday that it has added Michael Ninness as the firm's Vice President of Content. Ninness re-joins the company from Adobe, where he was a Group Product Manager. Ninness was formerly Lynda.com's Director of COntent from 2005 to 2007, and has also served at Microsoft and Extensis. Lynda.com offers instructional videos, online training, and other resources on learning software, includin (More info...)
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Illumina Names Two VPsSan Diego-based Illumina, a developer of gene sequencing tools, said today that it has named Elizabeth Brady as the firm's Vice President, Global Supply Chain, and Emily S. Winn-Deen, Ph.D., as its Vice President, Diagnostics Development. Brady joins from Boston Scientific Corporation, and has also served at Tellabs Operations and 3Com. Winn-Deen joins from Rx Dx Advisors, and also has served at Cepheid, Roche Molecular Systems, Applera Corporation, Oncor, and Bayer Diagnostics.
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