Friday, May 21, 2010MySpace Launches Social Gaming ProgramLos Angeles-based social networking site MySpace is ramping up its efforts to attract third party developers, saying today that it has launched a new MySpace games Lab pilot program, which will better tie third party developers into the site. According to MySpace, the effort will be dedicated to bringing third party developers into its offices and help those developers increase visibility for their games on MySpace. Further details on the program were not released, however, the site said that Th (More info...)
posted on Friday, May 21, 2010(Full story)
ContentNext's Rafat Ali Steps DownRafat Ali, the founder and editor of Santa Monica-based ContentNext, which is now owned by Guardian News & Media, has stepped down, according to a statement from the firm. ContentNext--which publishes Paidcontent, mocoNews, and contentSutra--was acquired two years ago in a deal which was originally worth around $30M based on earnout. Ali, in a statement to readers, said "I have been wrestling with this for months now, and the two-year mark under the Guardian and the eight-year mark since I launc (More info...)
posted on Friday, May 21, 2010(Full story)
Report: E-Commerce Jumps 10 PercentThe latest e-commerce report from Internet measurement firm comScore finds that e-commerce sales in Q1 jumped 10 percent versus a year ago, a rapid turnaround for the industry after a year and a half of declining or flat sales. According to comScore's Q1 2010 e-commerce spending measurements, there was nearly $34 billion in online retail spending, up 10 percent from a year ago, when there was $31.0 billion in spending and zero growth. The uptick is the first, double digit growth in six quarters, (More info...)
posted on Friday, May 21, 2010(Full story)
Cocodot Gets $2.0MHollywood-based Cocodot, an online site which provides online invitations and stationery, has raised $2.0M more in funding, according to reports. The funding comes from Anthem Ventures, the Mailroom Fund, and Rincon Venture Partners. Cocodot is the latest startup of Shawn Gold, formerly SVP, Marketing & Content of MySpace.com.
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Tesla Motors Bypasses Downey In Deal With ToyotaIn a loss for Southern California's burgeoning electric car industry, Tesla Motors said Thursday evening that it has selected not Downey or Long Beach, but instead, Silicon Valley city Fremont as the location of its manufacturing facility for its Model S sedans. Tesla announced, along with Toyota Motor, that it will take over Toyota's New United Motor Manufacturing Inc (NUMMI) plant in Fremont to manufacture its Model S, selecting that location over Downey and Long Beach. Tesla had been hinting (More info...)
posted on Friday, May 21, 2010(Full story)
TweetUp Racks Up Keyword Bids, Connects With ConduitPasadena-based TweetUp, the Twitter advertising startup backed by Idealab and headed by Bill Gross, said Thursday afternoon that the firm has now registered 75,000 keywords, and also inked a deal with Conduit. The firm said those keywords represent users with over 9 million followers, although the firm did not say what that translated into actual users. TweetUp said it had also inked a deal with Conduit, a developer of web toolbar software, so that Conduit's web publishers can offer up TweetUp d (More info...)
posted on Friday, May 21, 2010(Full story)
WebVisible Wins Australian CustomerIrvine-based WebVisible, which helps small and medium sized businesses place Internet advertising, said this morning that it has signed a three-year agreement with Sensis, an Australian telephone directory firm. According to the firm, it will provide its advertising platform to Sensis to serve that firm's 600,000 Australian small business customers. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Sensis provides White Pages and Yellow Pages directories to Australian homes and businesses.
posted on Friday, May 21, 2010(Full story)
CaseStack Joins EPA Transportation EffortSanta Monica-based CaseStack, the third party logistics services firm run by Dan Sanker, said this week that it has joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new SmartWay Transport Partnership. The firm said the partnership is a collaboration between the EPA and other organizations, focused on significantly reducing greenhouse gases and air pollution. CaseStack said it will help to reduce carbom dioxide and air pollution by improving the environmental performance of the compny's freight (More info...)
posted on Friday, May 21, 2010(Full story)
DataDirect Networks Ships With HPChatsworth-based DataDirect Networks, a developer of high speed data storage devices for the high performance computing (HPC) market, said Thursday that the firm's DDN Extreme Storage platform is now available as part of a HP offering. DataDirect said its DDN S2A9900, along with the Lustre file system, is available directly from HP. Financial details of the relationship with HP were not disclosed.
posted on Friday, May 21, 2010(Full story)
Ligand Buys IP From AstraZenecaSan Diego-based biopharmaceuticals firm Ligand Pharmaceuticals said today that it has purchased certain intellectual property and royalties from AstraZeneca's subsidiary, MedImmune. According to Ligand, it paid $2.75M for the IP and interest in future milestones and royalties for MEDI-528, an IL-9 antibody program being developed by MedImmune. The compound has possible applications in treating asthma.
posted on Friday, May 21, 2010(Full story)
Tanner EDA Expands In SingaporeMonrovia-based Tanner EDA, a developer of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit design software, said this week that it has expanded its efforts in Asia, and has signed up Advinno Technologies Pte. Ltd to represent the firm in Southeast Asia. The firm said that Advinno will provide sales and support for Tanner EDA's software in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
posted on Friday, May 21, 2010(Full story)