Thursday, January 27, 2011Demand Media Underwriters Buy Additional SharesSanta Monica-based Demand Media, riding high on a successful IPO debut Wednesday, said Thursday that its underwriters have exercised their option to purchase an additional 675,000 shares from Demand Media, and 660,000 shares from selling stockholders at its initial offering price. The additional shares bring the total shares of common stock up to 10.235M shares in Demand. The firms' underwriters had been granted the option just prior to the firm's debut. Demand originally had filed to offer up t (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 27, 2011(Full story)
Anthem Ventures Gets Second Exit In A WeekSanta Monica-based Anthem Venture Partners has scored two exits in the last week, as Los Angeles-based Demand Media hit a homerun with its IPO Wednesday, and San Diego-based Plixi was acquired by Lockerz Thursday. Brian Mesic, a partner at Anthem, said Thursday afternoon that Plixi is the latest in a "string of good exits" over the past 12 months, which also included Siperian (acquired by Informatica), Wavestream (acquired by Gilat), and Demand Media (IPO). Anthem is one of the more active local (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 27, 2011(Full story)
Demand Media Market Cap Huge, But Green Dot Still BiggerThe IPO this week of Santa Monica-based Demand Media has drawn widespread attention, with a number of articles yesterday talking about how the firm's market cap exceeded the New York Times Company after the IPO. However, a quick look at the recent Southern California IPOs shows that Monrovia-based Green Dot still rules, at least in terms of current market cap. In intraday trading Thursday, Green Dot (GDOT) had a market cap of approximately $2.68 billion, compared to Demand Media's (DMD) $1.4 bil (More info...)
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CoolPlanetBioFuels Gets Funding From GE Capital, NRG Energy, ConocoPhillipsCamarillo-based CoolPlanetBiofuels, a developer of non-food biofuel technology, is one of the first investments from a new venture capital fund launched Thursday by GE Capital, NRG Energy, and ConocoPhillips. According to GE, NRG, and ConocoPhillips, they have committed $300M in capital to a new joint venture, Energy Technology Ventures, to fund around 30 venture- and growth-stage companies over the next four years. The three said the first investments from the joint are in Alta Devices, Ciris E (More info...)
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Betterworks Raises $1.5MSanta Monica-based BetterWorks, a stealth mode startup headed by well known angel investor Paige Craig, has raised around $1.5M in a funding round. The funding actually occurred in late December, over the holidays. BetterWorks said that it is focused on allowing business owners to "create rewarding work environments quickly, easily and affordably". Craig has recruited the co-creater of Zynga's Farmville game, Sizhao Yang, as well as George Ishii, who was co-founder of Geni.com and Yammer, as co- (More info...)
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Nexsan Updates S-1In a sign that Thousand Oaks-based Nexsan might be ramping up its IPO efforts again, after a delay last year, the firm filed an updated S-1 this week. The provider of data storage equipment reported that it had net income of $0.5M on $68.9M in revenues for the year ended June 30, 2010, and $1.7M in net income of $19.28M in revenues for the three months ended September 30, 2010. Year to year revenues were up from the $60.89M the firm reported for its year ended June 30, 2009. Nexsan is looking to (More info...)
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Plixi Acquired By LockerzSan Diego-based Plixi, the Twitter-based photo sharing site formerly known as TweetPhoto, has been acquired by Seattle-based Lockerz, the firms said today. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Plixi provided an online site where users could post and share their photos, primarily via tweets on Twitter. Plixi was founded by Sean Callaham and Rodney Rumford, and was based in San Diego's Sorrento Valley. Lockerz is backed by Liberty Media and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Plixi (More info...)
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Former YouBet Execs Sproule, Champion Form Digital Strategy FirmChuck Champion, the former CEO of ProElite, and Gary Sproule, the former CFO of Mobile Messenger, said today that they have formed a new consulting and digital marketing strategy firm called Paladin Capital Partners. The two said the new company will help media companies monetize content. Champion was the former CEO of Youbet.com, and also has served at the LA Daily News, the Orange County Register, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Philadelphia Enquirer. Sproule was also at YouBet, and also has se (More info...)
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Interview with Nick Higgins, JoostLast week, Adconion (www.adconion.com) announced that it had spun out Joost (www.joost.com), its online video service, into a separate company, which is going to be based out of Santa Monica. We thought it would be interesting to talk to the firm, so we connected with Nick Higgins who is the EVP heading up Joost and running its Santa Monica operations, to hear more about the spinout and Adconion's aggressive hiring plans in the area.
First, describe what Joost's business is nowadays?
Nick (More info...)
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Emulex Selected By HPCosta Mesa-based Emulex Corporation, which develops server networking and storage cards, said today that it is providings its adapter technology for HP ProLiant Servers. EMulex said its Integred FlexFabric Adapter has been selected to be included in the HP ProLiant BL620c G7 server and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 server. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. The Emulex Integrated FlexFabric Adapter provides 10 Gb/s Ethernet, along with support for TCP/IP offload, Fibre Channel over Ethernet ( (More info...)
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RealD, Regal Entertainment In Expanded 3D RolloutLos Angeles-based RealD, the provider of 3D movie projection technology, and Real Entertainment Group said today that the two have made a major expansion in their 3D rollout plans. The two said that they have agreed to add up to 1,500 additional RealD, 3D-enabled screen across Regal Entertainment Group's theatre circuit. The deal doubles the number of screens under contract with Regal Entertainment, from an earlier May 2008 contract. Financial details of the expansion were not announced. Regal h (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 27, 2011(Full story)
X1 Technologies Names ExecPasadena-based X1 Technologies, the Idealab startup developing desktop search software, announced this morning that it has named John Patzakis as President of eDiscovery. Patzakis was previously a consultant providing strategic planning and product straegy for ediscovery and compliance providers, and also had served at Guidance Software as President and CEO. X1 is a developer of desktop search software, including specific versions for enterprise electronic discovery.
posted on Thursday, January 27, 2011(Full story)