Thursday, June 2, 2011As Groupon Files For IPO, What SoCal Firms Might Be Next?Interest in technology IPOs appears to have hit a new high Thursday, as daily deals firm Groupon filed for an IPO, saying that it is looking to raised up to $750M in an IPO. The firm's filing had been anticipated, and follows a huge runup in the recent IPO of LinkedIn, and widespread speculation on what firms might be next to file. Southern California has had its own share of IPOs over the last year, including Demand Media, Active Network, and Boingo Wireless. However, a number of Southern Cali (More info...)
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CauseCast Launches New Brand Philanthropy ServiceLos Angeles-based Causecast, the cause marketing firm founded by Ryan Scott, said today that it has launched a new service which will help companies show how they are supporting charities and causes. The firm's new service, Cause Integration Profiles, allows any company to create a profile showing how they are supporting corporate social responsibility initiatives, the causes they support, and grants they offer via their foundations. Those individual profiles are being showcased in a directory o (More info...)
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Insights and Opinions: Come On, Man! What Is Your Business?Has starting a business without any kind of business model become trendy again? And what does that mean? For our Insights and Opinions section today, Jeff Solomon, co-founder of Los Angeles leads software firm Leads360, explores in Come On, Man! What Is Your Business?
I'm a pretty firm believer in developing a business model as soon as possible when starting a company. When I say business model, I essentially mean, how you intend on making money. Before the late 1990's the idea of startin (More info...)
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Sonos Adds Two New Radio ServicesSanta Barbara-based Sonos, the developer of user-friendly, wireless home music systems, is continuing to build out its list of supported, Internet radio and music streaming services. The firm said this week that it has added AUPEO! Personal Radio and Stitcher SmartRadio to the list of services supported by its site. The two services are free. Sonos said existing users can register with the services, and then access them from any Sonos Controller. AUPEO provides music stations, and Stitcher provi (More info...)
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Santa Barbara Investor Puts $4M Into MindflashThe Investment Group of Santa Barbara, a venture capital investment group based in Santa Barbara, has invested $4M in funding for a developer of a web-based cloud training software firm, Mindflash, Mindflash said today. Mindflash, which is based in Palo Alto, offers a site which helps companies create online training courses. The firm said that the Investment Group of Santa Barbara also led its prior $5M funding, which closed in December 2009. The firm is led by Donna Wells, the former CMO of Mi (More info...)
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Border Stylo's Glass Hits SafariLos Angeles-bsaed Border Stylo, the developer of web content sharing software headed by Oscar Guido, said today that it has launched its Glass application on the Safari browser. Glass is the firm's browser add-on which allows users to share web content, and conduct conversations while surfing web sites. The firm's software previously ran on both Firefox and Chrome.
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Mobile Roadie Abandons BlackberryApparently, Blackberry users aren't that into Facebook and Twitter--at least, according to Beverly Hills-based Mobile Roadie, the developer of branded mobile applications for music artists, celebrities, and others. Mobile Roadie said today that it is discontinuing its Blackberry offering, after finding that less than 2 percent of Blackberry users using its apps bothered to log into Facebook or Twitter and interact with the app. That compares with over 50 percent of its iPhone and Android users. (More info...)
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UberMedia Lands $5.6MPasadena-based UberMedia, the developer of Twitter client applications, announced this morning that it has scored an additional, $5.6M in a new investment round. The new funding came from Burda Digital, the European Internet investor. UberMedia said the funding came through Burda's DLD Ventures arm. UberMedia said the funding will allow the company to further grow its relationship with partners such as 50 Cent and Ashton Kutcher, both of whom now have custom Twitter clients powered by UberMedia. (More info...)
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Sony Plans PlayStaton Network Restoration TodaySony said today that it expects to begin full restoration of its PlayStation Network services starting today, in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, excluding Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea. The firm also said it expects to resume its Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity services. Sony's services have been down for more than a month now, after a massive data breach and hack attack at the company. Sony did not say why restoration in Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea will lag, but said it will provi (More info...)
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Cie Games Names COOLong Beach-based Cie Games, the social games developer behind Car Town for Facebook, said today that it has named Carey D'Souza as its new Chief Operating Officer. D'Souza was most recently at online games maker Nexon America, and also has served at Evoco and Electronic Arts. Cie Games develops social games specifically tied to branding and advertisers; the firm's branding deals include ties with the Daytona International Speedway, NASCAr, Honda, Toyota, Regal Entertainment, Universal Pictures, (More info...)
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Kingston Digital Targets iPad, iPhone Market With Storage DeviceFountain Valley-based Kingston Digital, the flash memory unit of Kington Technology, is targeting the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch storage market today, saying it will be rolling out a new, wireless portable storage product specifically aimed at the popular devices. The firm said it has launched the new Wi-Drive, a wireless, flash-based device specifically aimed at users of the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, to store their documents, images, music, and video files. Kingston said its new device al (More info...)
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Entropic Names Two VPsSan Diego-based Entropic Communications, the developer of home networking semiconductors, said yesterday that it has named two new VPs. The firm said it has named Rick Morris as Vice President of Software, Systems, and Integration test, and Shkhar Khandekar as its Vice President of Corporate Quality. Morris has previously served at Freescale Semiconductor, McAfee, and IBM. Khandekar has previously served at Trident Microsystems, PMC-Sierra, and Intel. Both will report to Dr. Mike Farese, the fir (More info...)
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Sequenom Lands $30M In Credit FacilitySan Diego-based Sequenom, which provides molecular diagnostics and genetic analysis services, announced today that it has landed a $30M, credit facility from Silicon Valley Bank. The publicly held firm said the new funding will go towards development and commercialization of new products, as well as other near term growth initiatives. The firm said the facility includes a term loan of up to $20M, plus $10M in a revolving line of credit.
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