Wednesday, October 20, 2010Los Angeles Firm Sells Sex.com For $13MA Los Angeles company, Escom LLC, has sold domain name Sex.com for $13M, according to a report today from The Register. Citing documents filed in a California court, the report said that the domain was sold to Clover Holdings Ltd.--a stealthy, offshore firm--one of twelve bidders on the domain. Domain name broker Sedo had said in July that it was the exclusive brokerage firm representing the domain. Sex.com has a long history, having been purchased by Escom in 2006 for a reported $14M. Escom pur (More info...)
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Poptent Raises $3.0MSan Clemente-based Poptent, a firm which operates an online site which allows brands to source crowd-generated commercials, web videos, and other video content from users, has raised at least $3.0M in a recent funding, according to a regulatory filing by the firm Wednesday. According to the filing, the firm has raised $3.0M in an equity funding, and added two directors to its board from MK Capital. Details on the funding have not been announced by the company. Poptent features competitions from (More info...)
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Venture Firms Line Up To Oppose Prop 23A long list of California venture capital investors have joined to oppose Proposition 23, the California ballet initiative coming up in the polls, which looks to halt the state's recently passed AB32 clean energy law. The list includes Costa Mesa-based clean technology venture investor SAIL Venture Partners, as well as a number of the most active clean technology investors in Southern California firms, such as Nth Power, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Venrock, and MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures. (More info...)
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EPS Wins ButterballCosta Mesa-based Energy and Power Solutions (EPS), the provider of industrial energy management and carbon tracking software backed by Altira Group, NGEN, and Robeco, said Wednesday that it has been selected by turkey producer Butterball. EPS said that Buterball is using the firm's real-time energy management and carbon reduction products to help it achieve its energy efficiency and sustainability goals. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. EPS said its product will be deployed at Butt (More info...)
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Microsoft Donates $1M To Local Education EffortA Los Angeles area school is the beneficiary of what software giant Microsoft says is its single largest technology donation, ever, to a school. Microsoft said Wednesday that it is donating more than $1 million in a grant to purchase new software and hardware, to the Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center. Microsoft said the grant is going to the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, to create a model for the Los Angeles Unified School District to elevate teacher and student technology skil (More info...)
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LegalZoom Adds Former Yahoo President Decker To BoardLos Angeles-based LegalZoom.com, the provider of online legal documents, said today that it has added Susan L. Decker, the former President of Yahoo!, to the firm's board of directors. Decker was president of Yahoo from 2007 to 2009, and served as CFO of Yahoo from 2000 to 2007. Decker also has served at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and currently sits on the boards of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Intel Corporation and Costco Wholesale Corporation. Brian Liu, co-founder and Chairman of LegalZoom, sa (More info...)
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MaestroDev Upgrades Build SoftwareManhattan Beach-based MaestroDev, the provider of enterprise build software, said today that it has launched a new version of the firm's product, Maestro. The firm--the latest startup backed by Winston Damarillo--said the software provides enterprise build management for Apache Maven, Apache Archiva, Hudson, Apache Continuum, Sonar, Selenium, Xen, Eucalyptus, Icinga and Puppet. The firm is targeting fortune 500 customers with it software, used by enterprise customers for deploying and managing b (More info...)
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Local Firms Rank In Deloitte Fast 500Deloitte announced its national Fast 500 winners today, the firm's annual list of fastest growing technology firms in the nation. The highest ranking firm in Southern California was Tustin-based Radient Pharmaceuticals, which was number 12 nationally with 12,669% five year growth. San Diego's Halozyme Therapeutics was number 13 at 10657% growth; Irvine-based Spectrum Pharmaceuticals ranked 23, with 6490% growth; and Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, was ranked #34, with 4,489% revenue growth over (More info...)
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Brand Affinity Technologies Ties With PepsiIrvine-based Brand Affinity Technologies, the celebrity endorsement and marketing firm founded by Ryan and Chad Steelberg, said today along with Pepsi that they have tied together in a new relationship. The firms said that PepsiCo will use BAT's platform, and that Pepsi will be the first sponsor of BAT's new netBAT content experience. Financial details of the relationship were not disclosed. Netbat is a new technology that takes online editorial content--such as photos in news articles--and prov (More info...)
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Vederi Sues Google Over Google Street ViewA Pasadena-based company, founded by Caltech Ph.D's, is suing Google for patent infringement, based on its Google Street View feature, according to IP law firm Christie, Parker & Hale LLP. According to the firm, Verederi LLC, a company founded by Enrico Di Bernardo and Luis Goncalves, have sued Google saying that its Street View product infringes on four of the company's patents. Christie Parker & Hale said that Di Bernardo and Goncalves, who met at Caltech while pursuing their doctoral degrees, (More info...)
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Local.com Names Interim CFOIrvine-based Local.com, which operates a network of local search sites, said late Tuesday that it has named Ken Cragun the firm's interim Chief Financial Officer. According to the firm, Cragon is replacing Brenda Agius, who the company said is leaving the firm for personal reasons. Cragun was most recently Local.com's Vice President of Finance, having joined the firm in April of 2009. Cragan also has served at Modtech Holdings, MIVA, ImproveNet, and NetCharge.com. Local.com explained that Agius (More info...)
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