Wednesday, April 6, 2011


Steamboat Backs Camera Maker GoPro
Burbank-based Steamboat Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Walt Disney Company, has backed Woodman Labs the parent firm of sports camera maker GoPro. Financial details of the investment were not disclosed. The WSJ first reported the investment Wednesday. GoPro recently acquired San Diego-based Cineform, a developer of video compression technology. It appears the investment was led by Steamboat's Beau Laskey. GoPro also has an office and staff in San Diego, in addition to the employees it a (More info...)
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ReachLocal Expands To New Zealand
Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, the provider of online marketing services for small and medium sized businesses, said Wednesday that it has expanded into New Zealand, via a strategic alliance. ReachLocal said it has partnered with SureFire Search Ltd, to provide its online advertising products and services to the country. ReachLocal said it will train SureFire's dedicated sales force to sell its products and services. Business details of the alliance were not announced. ReachLocal helps small a (More info...)
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Insights and Opinions: Listen to the words, but focus on the meaning
Neil Senturia is a well known San Diego serial entrepreneur and investor, who is publishing a new book, I'm There For You Baby, next month. Neil let us republish an excerpt from his book for our Insights and Opinions section today. Rule #284: Listen to the words, but more importantly, focus on the meaning behind them. I started Atcom with seven employees in a two-story funky loft space in downtown San Diego, catty-corner from a small deli called the Cheese Shop. On the first day of (More info...)
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Soraa Scaling Up For Volume Production
Goleta-based Soraa, the Khosla Ventures-backed developer of LED and laser-based lighting and projection display technology, appears to be heading for volume production on its products. The semiconductor technology startup was spun out of research at the University of California Santa Barbara, by professors Shuji Nakamura, Steve DenBaars, and Jim Speck. The news comes via one of Soraa's suppliers, Plasma-Therm Systems, which says Soraa purchased three of its plasma deposition and etch equipment s (More info...)
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MySetLife Adds Content From Hollywood Reporter, FilmContact.com
Los Angeles-based MySetLife, developer of an iPhone application that allows filmmakers to network with other industry contacts, and also manage things like invoices, timecards, and more, said Tuesday that it has partnered with the Hollywood Reporter, FilmContact.com, and Los Angeles-based Invested.in. The company said it will provide free access to breaking news feeds from The Hollywood Reporter, contact information from FilmContact.com, and access to the crowdsourced funding resources at Invest (More info...)
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Arrowhead Research Boosts Investment In Ablaris
Pasadena-based Arrowhead Research said Wednesday that it has boosted its stake in Ablaris Therapeutics, a firm developing treatments for obesity. According to Arrowhead Research, it invested $1.3M in a second close of a Series A financing round for Ablaris. The total amount of the round was $2.9M. As part of the funding, Arrowhead now owns 64 percent of Ablaris. The technology from Ablaris was licensed from the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Arrowhead launched Ablaris in December of 2010.
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AML Communications Gets Bid From Microsemi
Camarillo-based AML Communications announced today that it has received a superior offer for the firm today from Microsemi Corporation, topping an offer in February from Anaren. AML said that Microsemi has submitted a formal binding offer to pay $2.50 per share in cash for the firm, up from the $2.15 per share in cash offered by Anaren on February 13th. AML said that Anaren has until April 11th to submit a superior offer to Microsemi's bid for the company. AML is a designer and manufacturer of m (More info...)
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Demand Media Extends Pluck To Mobile
Santa Monica-based Demand Media has extended its Pluck social media platform to mobile devices, the company said today. Demand Media said that Pluck now includes new tools for software developers, to provide native experiences and creation of community features on mobile phones, including support for Objective-C on the Apple iOS, as well as Java for Google Android applications. Pluck is used by brands to create communities.
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UberMedia Launches Branded Channels
Pasadena-based UberMedia, the Twitter client software firm out of Idealab, said this morning that it has launched a new set of branded channels from a set of content providers. UberMedia said its family of Twitter client applications now feature "UberChannels" from USA TODAY, Mashable, Bleacher Report, and Duke Basketball. The branded channels filter those publisher's tweets, organized by topic. The new channels are available on UberSocial and Twidroyd. UberMedia is headed by Idealab's Bill Gros (More info...)
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Anametrix Adds Investor
San Diego-based Anametrix, a developer of business analytics and marketing intelligence software-as-a-service, announced this morning that it has added an investor. The firm said it has received an investment from Walter G. Kortschak, formerly of Summit Partners. Amount of the investment was not disclosed. Kortschak was formerly Managing Partner at Summit Partners, and VP at Crosspoint Venture Partners. As part of the funding, Kortschak joins the company's board of directors. Anametrix also said (More info...)
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