Tuesday, June 8, 2010


PurePhoto Buys PhotographyMentor.com, Launches Photo Site
Westlake Village-based PurePhoto.com, a new startup headed by former NextMedium COO John Ellis, and whose exec team includes prior executives from ReachLocal, ValueClick, and YellowPages.com, said Tuesday that it has acquired the assets of Los Angeles-based PhotographyMentor, an online photography education and social networking site. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. PurePhoto said that it has added PhotographyMentor founders Robert Evans and Curt Apanovich as part of the t (More info...)
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Mogreet Powers Pretty Little Liars Mobile Campaign
Los Angeles-based Mogreet, the mobile marketing and greeting card firm headed by James Citron, said today that the firm was behind a mobile video messaging campaign with ABC Family, for its Pretty Little Liars premier this evening. Details of the win were not disclosed. Mogreet said that it worked with ABC Family to drive tune-in and interaction with viewers through the mobile video messaging campaign for the new original series, helping ABC to build its mobile database. Mogreet is venture backe (More info...)
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Rotohog Wins Baseball, World Cup Deals
Los Angeles-based RotoHog, the online fantasy sports software firm headed by Kelly Perdew, has scored a number of recent deals, the firm told its supporters recently in an email. According to Rotohog CEO Perdew, the firm recently launched a deal to develop a new Facebook game for BloombergSports, a Facebook application for Sports Illustrated based on the World Cup, and another World Cup application with hi5. Financial details of those deals was not announced by the company. Perdew said that the (More info...)
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TSi Auto Solutions Buy Software Firm AutoSoft
Manhattan Beach-based TSi Auto Solutions, a provider of web-based auto dealership management software, said today that it has acquired AutoSoft, a Seattle firm which develops financial reporting and analytics products for the automotive OEM market. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. TSi Auto Solutions said the acquisition increases its customer base by 30 percent.
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Magento Ties With Celebros
Los Angeles-based Magento, a provider of e-commerce software, and site search firm Celebros said this morning that they have linked their products. According to the firms, they have partnered in a deal to bring the Celebros site-search and merchandising software to Magento Enterprise and Magento Community customers. Financial details of the deal were not announced. Celebros operates a software-as-a-service product to help customers find products on online stores; Magento develops an open source, (More info...)
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Inspired Instruments Raises $1.25M For Digital Guitar Controller
Irvine-based Inspired Instruments announced today that it has raised $1.25M in a funding round, for its digital guitar and game controller products. Source of the funding was not disclosed. Inspired Instruments sells the You Rock Guitar, a six-stringed digital game controller and MIDI enabled guitar, which is compatible with the Wii, PS3, Mac, PC, iPod, iPhone, iPad and the popular RockBand and Guitar Hero game titles. The firm said it will use the funding to launch their platform, and also move (More info...)
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Occam Wins Phone Carrier
Santa Barbara-based Occam Networks reported today that it has been selected as a supplier for Rural Telephone/Ne-Tech, for a fiber-based broadband service deployment. Occam said its equipment will be used to bring broadband services into 21 communities and 26 rural areas, as part of a Rural Telephone/Nex-Tech deployment in Western Kansas. The deployment is being funded with $101M from Broadband Initiative Program (BIP) grants and loans. Financial impact of the deal on Occam was not announced. Oc (More info...)
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CyberDefender Heads To NASDAQ
Los Angeles-based CyberDefender, the PC security, antivirus, and antispyware firm headed by Gary Guseinov, is headed to the NASDAQ Global Market, the firm said today, after getting approval to move from the OTCBB. According to CyberDefender, it will trade under the symbol CYDE starting tomorrow, Wednesday, June 9th. Guseinov said in a statement that the move is a "key step" in taking the company to its next phase of growth. The firm said the listing will provide it with grater liquidity to its s (More info...)
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Demand Media Highlights Entertainment Personalities
Santa Monica-based Demand Media, the online content network headed by Richard Rosenblatt, said today that it has launched a new "Talent and Expert Network," which will highlight entertainment personalities through its site. Demand said it would find "authentic and entertaining" personalities which it will integrate into its original content and articles. Demand said that an example of the kind of talent it would highlight is Rolf Potts, a former Travel Channel host and author of "Vagabonding," w (More info...)
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TweetUp Adds Topix
Pasadena-based TweetUp, the Twitter advertising play of Idealab's Bill Gross, said today that it has added news site Topix to its network. TweetUp allows Twitter users to bid on keywords to bring their tweets to the top when users search for information on different web sites. Topix operates a news search site which categorizes news by topic and geography. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. TweetUp said the addition of Topix adds potentially 140 million additional monthly pageviews (More info...)
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WOWIO Acquires DrunkDuck
Los Angeles-based WOWIO, which launched last week with the acquisition of comic strip site WEvolt, said today that it has acquired web comic community DrunkDuck. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. According to WOWIO, the acquisition will expand its library of content, and add around 95,000 members to its community. DrunkDuck was owned by Platinum Studios, an entertainment firm focused on comic book characters.
posted on Tuesday, June 8, 2010(Full story)