Monday, May 24, 2010Ad.ly Responds To Twitter Ad BanLos Angeles-based Twitter advertising firm Ad.ly, which appears to have been caught this morning by Twitter's declaration that it would no longer allow third party advertising in Twitter streams, has responded to the announcement.
Sean Rad, the firm's founder, told socalTECH this afternoon that Ad.ly supports Twitter's effort to "create standards around in-stream advertising," explaining "Since inception, Ad.ly has, and still is operating under Twitter's approved guidelines and terms of servi (More info...)
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010(Full story)
AudioMicro Acquires AudiooAudioMicro, the Los Angeles-based online marketplace for royalty-free music and sound effects, said today that it has acquired Manhattan Beach-based Audioo, an online voicemail sharing service which was founded by Ben Padnos. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. AudioMicro, which is headed by Ryan Born and backed by DFJ Frontier, said it has relaunched Audioo as an online site where people can search, browse, and listen to "outrageous" and funny and prank voicemails. Padnos, wh (More info...)
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010(Full story)
TweetUp Formally Launches Twitter Keywords Bidding PlayPasadena-based Tweetup, the Internet advertising play of Idealab's Bill Gross, said today that it has formally launched the site. The firm told its members that they are now able to login to the site, and that user profiles are eligible to be displayed as a search result. Tweetup allows Twitter users to bid for the prominence of their tweets in search results on such sites as TechCrunch, Business Insider, and search functionality within Twitter clients such as Seesmic, Tweetdeck, and Twidroid. T (More info...)
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010(Full story)
Google Reports AdSense Revenue SplitSearch engine giant Google revealed today, for the first time, the revenue split the firm provides to publishers through its AdSense advertising program. According to Google, it pays out 68% of the revenue it collects from advertisers to publishers through AdSense, and about 51% for search advertisements. Google said that the revenue split has not changed since 2003, when it launched Google AdSense. Google acquired the AdSense technology from its buy of Santa Monica-based startup Applied Semant (More info...)
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010(Full story)
Gaikai Gets $10M MoreLos Angeles-based Gaikai, which is developing technology which allows computer gamers to play computer games online through their web browser, said today that it has raised more than $10M in a Series B funding round. The round came from TriplePoint Capital, Rustic Canyon Partners, Benchmark Capital, as well as an un-named "mystery" investor. GaiKai was founded by Andrew Gault and Rui Pereira. Gaikai had disclosed via a regulatory filing earlier this year that it had raised $5.0M; it's unclear if (More info...)
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010 (More)(Full story)
Twitter Takes Aim At Ad.ly, Bans In-Stream AdsMicro-messaging service Twitter said this morning that it is banning third-party advertising in its stream, taking direct aim at Los Angeles-based Twitter advertising service Ad.ly. According to a post this morning from Twitter, the firm "will not allow any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API," essentially blocking automated advertising through Twitter streams by companies such as Ad.ly. Twitter said that third party ad networks are not (More info...)
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010(Full story)
Epicor Wins Kuwaiti Luxury Hotel ChainIrvine-based Epicor Software, a provider of software for the enterprise market, announced today that it has scored a win with Safir Hotels & Resorts for a new hotel site in Kuwait. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. Epicor said that the Kuwaiti resort will be using Epicor for hospitality, software used for enterprise resource planning (ERP) for hospitality organizations.
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010(Full story)
Kaai Ships Blue Laser DiodeGoleta-based Kaai, the laser diode development firm whose founders include Shuji Nakamura, inventor of the blue LED, said today that it has begun shipping its new blue laser diode products. The firm's blue laser diodes are aimed at use in such things as pico-projectors, and based on InGaN technology fabricated on GaN substrates. Kaai is backed by Khosla Ventures. Kaai said it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Soraa. The firm was founded by UC Santa Barbara professors Shuji Nakamura, Steven Denbaar (More info...)
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010(Full story)
BakBone Closes ColdSpark DivisionSan Diego-based b>BakBone Software said late Friday evening that it has "realigned" its corporate strategy, and has closed ColdSpark, the email software provider it acquired in May of last year. BakBone said it will be closing its entire division, and record an impairment charge of $12.6M in Q4, plus pay out around $300,000 in personnel related expenses related to the closing. BakBone did not say how many employees were affected, but said the move would help it focus on its core storage and data (More info...)
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010(Full story)
Novatel Adds Middle Eastern DistributorSan Diego-based Novatel Wireless, a provider of broadband modems and portable hotspots for the mobile phone market, said today that it has signed Worldcom Technology LLC as a distributor of its products in the Middle East. Novatel explained that Worldcom Technology will distribute its MiFi 2352 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot in the middle East and North America, including for United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Worldcom Technology is based in Dubai.
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010(Full story)
DivX Signs Realtek, PanasonicSan Diego-based DivX, a provider of video encoding and decoding technology, announced today that it has signed both Realtek and Panasonic as customers. The deals, announced separately by the firm, included a certification of Realtek's new multimedia, RTD1283 chip, and the certification of Panasonic's new Blue Ray chip, the MN2WS0141DFF. In the Realtek deal, DivX said that that firm's chip will enable multimedia storage devices and set-top boxes to support their format directly on their TVs; the (More info...)
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010(Full story)
AP Labs Group Acquired By KontronSan Diego-based AP Labs Group, a system integrator for the defense and aerospace market, has been acquired by Kontron. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Kontron said that AP Labs Group had annual revenues of $30M, and will remain in San Diego, which is also the U.S. headquarters of Kontron. The deal was announced Friday.
posted on Monday, May 24, 2010(Full story)