Wednesday, July 28, 2010


Helixis' Founders Other Startup: Rockoco
On the heels of the successful exit of Carlsbad-based Helixis this week, it turns out the founders of the firm--Caltech professor Axel Scherer and Caltech Ph.D. George Maltezos, are also behind Rockoco, which said this week it had raised $1.5M in funding from the Pasadena Angels and other investors. Rockoco is applying semiconductor processing technology to create more brilliance and fire in diamonds, in essence "super" polishing the stones. The firm's nano-cutting techniques have been vetted by (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2010(Full story)

Entropic Communications Sees Jump In Revenues In Q2
San Diego-based Entropic Communications, a publicly held developer of semiconductors used in home entertainment and consumer electronics products, reported today that it had an increase of 56 percent in its second quarter net revenues, compared with last year. The firm said it earned $3.1M on $40.7M in net revenues in Q2, up by 56 percent in terms of revenues compared with the $26.1M it had in Q2 of 2009, when it lost $4.3M. Quarter to quarter, revenues were up by 9 percent, compared with the $3 (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2010(Full story)

Insights and Opinions: The 3 Ways to Get Traffic to Your Website
Our Insights and Opinions article today comes from Ryan Born, who is CEO of both AudioMicro and Audioo, both Los Angeles area startups. Ryan gives us The 3 Ways To Get Traffic To Your Website. I'm often asked about how to get website traffic, users, and customers on the web. It's almost always in the context of another entrepreneur that starting a new web endeavor. I almost always give the same response – from a high level perspective, there are only 3 ways to generate website traffic. (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2010(Full story)

Okapi Ventures Gets First Portfolio Exit In Helixis
Laguna Beach-based venture capital firm Okapi Ventures, which is run by Sharon Stevenson and Marc Averitt, has seen its first portfolio exit, in Carlsbad-based Helixis. Okapi said that the first exit represented a return of more than six times the invseted capital in the firm, which it first invested in less than three years ago. San Diego-based Illumina announced its acquisition of Helixis yesterday, saying it would pay $105M for the firm. Helixis is a developer of real time, DNA analysis hardw (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2010(Full story)

More Women Than Men Using Social Networking Sites, Says Report
The latest report out of Internet traffic analysis firm comScore finds that there's a higher percentage of women than men using social networking sites. According to comScore's new report "Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet," 75.8 percent of women globally used social networking sites in May, versus only 69.7 percent of men. The report also found women were spending "significantly more" time on social networking sites than men, at 5.5 hours per month on average compared with on (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2010(Full story)

Boingo Inks Deal With South Korean Carrier
Los Angeles-based Boingo Wireless, which operates a worldwide network of Wi-Fi hotspots, said today that it has inked a deal with KT, the largest telephony carrier in South Korea. According to the firm, Boingo will provide global Wi-Fi roaming services to customer of KT, through its network of 125,000 plus Wi-Fi hotspots. Boingo said that it will also provide a rebranded version of its Wi-Fi software to KT. Boingo has created a global Wi-Fi network via agreements with local Wi-Fi hotspot provide (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2010(Full story)

Interview with Peter Diamandis, the X Prize Foundation, On The 100MPG Auto
Yesterday, the X Prize Foundation (www.xprize.org) announced the finalists in the Progressive Automotive X Prize, a $10M competition geared at advancing automotive technology and developing 100 MPG automobiles. We spoke with Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, and Progressive Insurance CMO Brian Silva, as the foundation kicked off its testing at the Michigan International Speedway, to get the firsthand story on the prize and what the foundation is hoping to achieve throu (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2010(Full story)

Day Software Acquired By Adobe
Day Software, a Swiss developer of enterprise content management software which has operations in Newport Beach, has been acquired by Adobe Systems. Adobe and Day said that Adobe will pay approximately $240M, or CHF255 million, for Day. Day Software develops web content management and digital asset management tools. The firms did not say how the acquisition will affect Day's employees based in Newport Beach.
posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2010(Full story)

Discovery Launches On FLO TV
Discovery Communications, the firm behind the Discovery Channel, said today that it has launched a new, dedicated mobile channel on Qualcomm's FLO TV. According to Discovery, its new Discovery Mobile Channel allows users to watch the channel live, with full length programming from series such as Cash Cab, Deadliest Catch, Dirty Jobs and Man vs. Wild and more. Discovery also said the channel will feature series from its other networks, including Animal Planet and the Science Channel. Cost of the (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2010(Full story)

Sorenson Media Wins LG
San Diego-based Sorenson Media, which develops video encoding and decoding products, reported today that LG Electronics has licensed its Sorenson Spark video codec. The firm said the license will enable LG to support access to video on the Internet via its mobile devices. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. Sorenson Media claims that its video codec, Sorenson Spark, is the most widely deployed video codec on the Internet.
posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2010(Full story)