Monday, October 11, 2010GameSalad Appoints COOLos Angeles- and Austin-based GameSalad, the startup developer of iPhone game creation software headed by Michael Agustin, has named a new Chief Operations Officer, the firm said Friday. According to GameSalad, it has named Frank Coppersmith to the new position. Coppersmith will oversee the firm's Austin studio operations, and also lead development of GameSalad. Coppersmith has previously served as VP, Finance and Administration for Challenge Online Games, and also General Counsel of Toppan Pho (More info...)
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MaxLinear Wins HitachiCarlsbad-based MaxLinear, a provider of radio frequency (RF) and mixed-signal semiconductors, said Monday that its low-power, TV tuner ICs have been selected by Hitachi Media Electronics Co.. MaxLinear said its ICs will be used for Hitachi's multi-tuner LCD televisions. MaxLinear's chips are being used to support digital television in Japan, which is terminating its analog broadcasts in July of next year. Financial details of the win, and expected shipping volumes for the ICs, were not disclosed (More info...)
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HID Global Buys ActivIdentityIrvine-based HID Global, a provider of access card technology and systems, said today that its parent company, ASSA ABLOY, has agreed to acquire Silicon Valley's ActivIdentity. The deal was worth approximately $162M in cash. HID Global said that ActiveIdentity has over 200 employees, and revenues of $62.0M for the year ended September 2009. HID global said the buy would help it extend its capabilities in the area of physical and logical access control. ActivIdentity develops authentication and c (More info...)
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Lalawag Goes To Silicon Valley's Valley GirlLos Angeles gossip and technology blog Lalawag, run by Sean and Laurie Percival, has been sold. The blog--which the Percivals had announced on September 16th that they would shut down--has been acquired by Valley Girl Inc., a publication that is run by Jesse Draper, the daughter of venture capitalist Tim Draper. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed. According to a post on Lalawag, Sean and Laurie decided to sell to Valley Girl because they wanted someone who could "renew it with new co (More info...)
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Architects Envision LA's CleanTech CorridorEven though the plan by Los Angeles to create a Clean Technology Corridor on the banks of the LA river has yet to advance much beyond the planning stage, a competition pitting architects to create their vision for the clean technology zone has just named winners who have expressed their futuristic visions for what the area might look like.
The Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design competition asked architects, designers, engineers, students, and others to "re-im (More info...)
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Topspin Backs High Def MP3 FormatVenice-based Topspin, the music marketing and software firm headed by Ian Rogers, said today that it has inked a deal with Technicolor to distribute its music catalog in a new, high definition, MP3 format. The firms said that Topspin's artists will have the option of using mp3HD, a new, backwards-compatible MP3 format developed by Technicolor, to distribute their music. The new audio format offers lossless compressions for music, and according to Topspin offers up better quality in a smaller fil (More info...)
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Virgin Galactic Completes Test FlightVirgin Galactic, the commercial spaceflight venture of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, said over the weekend that it has completed a piloted, free flight of SpaceShipTwo, the spaceship the firm is developing in Mojave. According to Virgin Galactic, it released the VSS Enterprise, its first vehicle, from an altitude of 45,000 feet over the weekend, and successfully landed at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The firm is working on commercializing the technology developed for the Ansari X-Prize i (More info...)
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Skyline Financial Raises $8.2M From GRP, OthersLos Angeles-based venture capital firm GRP Partners--which has been very active in the local technology startup market--has made its latest investment, in an interesting industry: mortgage lending. GRP is the lead investor in Skyline Financial, a Calabasas-based provider of mortgage banking and lending. According to Skyline, the investment, $8.2M in a Series B, was led by GRP Partners and also included Chaparal Investments and Dallas Capital Management. The new funding will go towards mortgage o (More info...)
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Cyber-Rain Gets $1.8MEncino-based Cyber-Rain, the maker of smart irrigation controllers led by Diana Schulz, announced this morning that the firm has raised $1.8M in a Series B round of funding. According to the firm, the round was led by DeWaay Investment Partners, along with Athenian Venture Partners. Other investors in the firm included Momentum Venture Management and Funk Ventures. Cyber-Rain said that DeWayy's Adam Claypool joins its board, with Athenian gaining a board observation seat with the funding. Cyber- (More info...)
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Interview with Fariborz Maseeh, Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize CompetitionLast week, the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering announced that it had established a new, business plan competition, the Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition (http://maseeh.usc.edu/), specifically aimed at students in the engineering school. The competition--backed by a $1M endowment from Fariborz Maseeh--is unusual, in that it is specifically geared towards spurring engineering students towards entrepreneurial ventures. The competition is set up to award $5 (More info...)
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Google Unveils Self-Driving Car EffortSearch engine giant Google said over the weekend that the firm has been developing technology for self driving cars, driving automated cars across California, including Los Angeles and Santa Monica. According to Google, it has hired what it says were some of the very best engineers from the DARPA Grand Challenge, DARPA's robotic vehicle competition, and applied them to develop its own, automated cars. Google said the cars have driven from Google's Mountain View campus to its Santa Monica office, (More info...)
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CODA Automotive In Deal With Enterprise Rent-A-CarSanta Monica-based electric car maker CODA Automotive said this morning that it has inked a deal with Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which will offer up CODA's sedans at Enterprise car rental locations. According to CODA Automotive, Enterprise will introduce up to 100 of its CODA Sedans at rental locations throughout 2011. CODA did not say where those cars are expected to be based. CODA Automotive said the deal comes on top of a previous agreement with Enterprise, where Enterprise will provide courtesy (More info...)
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SVnetwork: 100th Brand Advertisign CampaignLos Angeles-based SVnetwork, the online advertising network which runs SocialVibe, reports this morning that it has launched its 100th brand advertising campaign. The firm said the 100th campaign is for Toyota, focused on allow users to view short stories about experiences of Toyota Camry or Corolla users. Financial details of the campaign were not disclosed by SVNetwork. SVNetwork, which is headed by Jay Samit, said that it has been running campaigns for such brands as Visa, Microsoft, Apple, S (More info...)
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Contour Energy In Technology Deal With MITAzusa-based Contour Energy, the developer of next-generation battery systems headed by Joe Fisher, said today that it has acquired carbon nanotube technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Contour said the technology can "dramatically improve" the power capabilities of lithium-ion batteries. Financial details of the licensing deal were not announced. Contour Energy--whose base technology was licensed from Caltech--said the technology from MIT produces a tenfold increase in (More info...)
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Life Technologies Licenses DNA TechnologyCarlsbad-based Life Technologies announced today that it has signed an exclusive license agreement for a DNA error-correction kit developed by Novici Biotech LLC. Financial terms of the license were not disclosed. According to Life, the technology it is licensing increases the accuracy and pace of research in the field of synthetic biology. Novici's technology is used to detect and correct errors in DNA synthesis or during PCR assembly.
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