Friday, February 4, 2011Ecommerce Sales In Q4 Breaks RecordsA report released Friday by Internet measurement firm comScore finds that e-commerce spending reached a record of $43.4 billion for Q4 of 2010. The firm, which measures retail e-commerce sales, said the sales were up 11 percent versus a year ago. The continued growth is a welcome change from the last two years, when e-commerce sales actually dipped into the negative numbers for several quarters, after consistent, double digit sales gains every quarter. The sales numbers are the fifth consequtive (More info...)
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Power-One Revenues Surge On Solar Inverter DemandCamarillo-based Power-One, which develops both photovoltaic inverters and other poser conversion products, saw its fourth quarter results surge on demand for its photovoltaic inverter products. According to the firm Thursday, it saw net sales of $366M for its quarter ended January 2, up 157 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009. The firm said that for the full year, it had net sales of $1.05 billion, up 143 percent compared to 2009. The increase in revenues were driven by a 285 percent increas (More info...)
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Google Hiring Frenzy Skips SoCal, So FarDespite the announcement this week that Google has plans to hire more than 30,000 employees by the beginning of next year, and reports today that it was overwhelmed with over 75,000 job applications this week, those plans do not appear to have yet impacted Google's jobs listings in Southern California. A examination of Google's posted jobs in Santa Monica and Irvine on Friday show that there are only about 32 positions listed for those locations. The relatively small number of open positions in (More info...)
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SPONSOR POST: Southern California Technology Firms Are HiringSlow job market? Not in Southern California's technology market! Southern California technology companies are hiring aggressively, and the high tech job outlook is better than it has ever been, with hundreds of open positions and many companies eagerly seeking high tech talent. socalTECH's Job Board helps companies, and potential empoyees, connect. Recent job postings on the site:
LAMP/Perl Developers, Los Angeles, Oversee.net
Manager, Analytics, Los Angeles, Oversee.net
Director of Bil (More info...)
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GRP's Suster Ranks Number Two On Most Respected VC ListMark Suster of GRP Partners has ranked number two on a list of "Most Respected Venture Capitalists". The rankings came out Thursday from Seeking Omega, which said it used technology from Lithium, review of entrepreneurs on TheFunded, and individual surveys to rank the VCs. Suster, who has been one of the most visible and active venture capital bloggers in Southern California, beat such VCs as John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins, Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz, and Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capita (More info...)
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RealD Revenues Rise To $57.8MLos Angeles-based RealD, the developer of 3D movie projection technology, released its results Thursday, saying its Q3 2011 revenues rose to $57.8M, up 91 percent from Q3 of of 2010, when it reported revenues of $30.2M. The firm had a net GAAP loss of $16.6M. The firm said it has now deployed approximately 11,300 RealD enabled screens, up from the 4,300 screens it had in December of 2009. RealD said the revenues were driven by an increase in the 3D film slate, as well as consumer demand for the (More info...)
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Aptera: Still Waiting On Capital From DOEVista-based Aptera Motors, the three wheeled electric vehicle firm backed by Idealab and Google, told its supporters today that it is still looking to score funding from the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program. The firm, in an update email, said that it's challenge today is "raising sufficient capital to compete in the modern automotive market." The firm said that, "This is reality whether your name is Fisker, Tesla, Ford or Nissan." Aptera said i (More info...)
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Autobytel Launches DealershipJobs.comIrvine-based Autobytel said today, among a slew of other announcements, that it is launching a new job site called DealershipJobs.com. The new site will provide job listings for auto dealers, to help them attract employees. The firm said it has over 5,000 automotive jobs on the site already. The new site is an expansion from the firm's focus on generating sales leads for auto dealerships.
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GraphEffect Gets $2M For Facebook MarketingSanta Monica-based Focused Labs, which provides social media marketing services, said Thursday that it has renamed itself GraphEffect, and raised $2M in funding. The round came from CrossCut Ventures, Rincon Venture Partners, Founder Collective, Baroda Ventures, Lerer Ventures, Thrive Capital, and angel investors Matt Coffin and Stephano Kim. GraphEffect provides a social advertising platform which helps advertisers gain Facebook fans and Likes. The firm was founded by Clark Landry and James Bor (More info...)
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Live Nation Buys Spanish Ticketing FirmLos Angeles-based Live Nation Entertainment said today that Ticketmaster, the firm's ticking division, has agreed to acquire Spanish ticket retailer ServiCaixa. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ticketmaster is buying ServiCaixa from Spanish financial firm "la Caixa". The company said it will combine Ticketmaster Spain (formerly known as TickTackTicket) with ServiCaixa.
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Quest Updates VMware Backup SoftwareAliso Viejo-based Quest Software said earlier this week that it has rolled out an updated version of the firm's vRanger Pro backup software for VMware. According to Quest, the newly updated software now supports new backup and replication features, native cataloging of files, and ability to restore files directly using Fibre Channel SANs. Quest is a developer of enterprise IT software.
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CareFusion Names New CEOSan Diego-based CareFusion said this week that it has named Kieran T. Gallahue as the firm's new Chairman and CEO, replacing David L. Schlotterbeck. Schloterbeck had said he was retiring previously. Gallahue was most recently President and CEO of ResMed, and also previously served at Nanogen, Instrumentation Laboratory, Procter & Gamble, and GE.ca
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