Monday, October 17, 2011NewEgg Wins Patent SuitCity of Industry-based Newegg, the online electronics retailer, has scored a win in a patent lawsuit after a jury invalidated a patent held by Alcatel-Lucent USA. Newegg, along with co-defendant O.co (Overstock.com), had been accused by Alcatel Lucent of infringing on patents covering basic e-commerce functionality, including the ability to search for products on their web sites. Alcatel-Lucent had filed suit in Texas over three patents, and had been lining up settlements from e-commerce retaile (More info...)
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Mindspeed Hires Broadcom Vet As CFONewport Beach-based Mindspeed reported Monday afternoon that it has hired Stephen N. Ananias as its new Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Ananias joins the company from Broadcom, where he was most recently Controller of that firm's Broadband Communications Group. Mindspeed had lost its former CFO, Bret W. Johnson, in April to SpaceX.
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Local.com Gets Patent On Local Shopping SearchIrvine-based Local.com has scored a patent out of its acquisition of Krillion, in April, the firm reported this morning, after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issues patent number 8,032,427 to the company. The patent covers a system for providing consumers with information sold by local retailers, using location-based information. Krillion's site offers up a product search service which show prices and availability of products in local stores based on a user's location. Local.com's new pate (More info...)
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UberMedia Taking Aim At Twitter With Chime.InPasadena-based UberMedia, the Twitter client apps developer headed by Idealab's Bill Gross, appears to be further moving away from its reliance on Twitter, and is getting set to launch a new service called Chime.in---a direct competitor to Twitter's service. In multiple reports, plus an early release on Apple's iTunes store, UberMedia's plans for its own, social updates service--which allows users to share text, pictures, and more in essentially the same way as Twitter--leaked out this morning. (More info...)
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GraphEffect Names PresidentSanta Monica-based GraphEffect, the provider of Facebook and social media marketing services, said over the weekend that it has hired Stephano Kim as its President and GM, New York. Kim was previously COO and President of [x+1], and was a co-founder of Blackboard. The company said that Kim will manage its newly opened New York and Chicago offices. Kim was also previously an angel investor in GraphEffect itself. GraphEffect's software is used to manage Facebook and other social ads; the firm is l (More info...)
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Betterworks Plans Expansion To OC, San Diego, Austin, and NYCSanta Monica-based BetterWorks, the provider of a technology based, employee fringe benefits programs, said today that it is planning to expand to Orange County, San Diego, Austin, and New York in the next month. The firm--which has been ramping up efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area over the last few months--said it so far has signed up private beta customers at
Booyah, Brightroll, Chegg, Evernote, Dailybooth, Formspring, Get Satisfaction, Inner Circle Labs, Klout, Miso, Nokia, Parisoma, Pl (More info...)
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DriveCam Snags CIO From SonySan Diego-based DriveCam, which develops driver monitoring systems for commercial vehicles, reported today that it has named Drew Martingas its Chief Informatoin officer. Martin was most recently Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Sony Electronics. Martin has also served at PepsiCo. DriveCam's backers include Chopra Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, Integral Capital Partners, JMI Equity, Leader Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Tech Coast Angels, and Triangle Peak Partners.
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WD's Woes Increase In ThailandIrvine-based Western Digital's woes in Thailand have gotten worse, the company reported this morning, after its primary manufacturing site flooded over the weekend. WD--which had already reported that it had halted hard drive production in the country last week--said that rising water inundated the firm's manufacturing facilities in Bang Pa-in Industrial Park, and are now threatening its facilities in the Navanakorn Industrial Park. WD said it will see a "significant impact" on its December quar (More info...)
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Spotlight Ticket Management Adds Sacramento KingsCalabasas-basedSpotlight Ticket Management, which develops software used by corporate suite and ticket management software, said today that it has been selected by the Sacramento Kings, to provide its applications to corporate suite holders. Spotlight said the Kings will offer its SaaS products to corporate suite holders as a value added feature. Financial impact of the deal were not disclosed. Spotlight's ticket management systems are used to automate the management of entertainment and sports (More info...)
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Acacia Taps Broadcom Vet As New VPNewport Beach-based Acacia Research, the patent portfolio and licensing firm, said today that it has named David Rosmann as Senior Vice President. Rosmann has previously served as Vice President, Intellectual Property Litigation at Broadcom Corporation, where he managed the firm's IP litigation efforts for over ten years. Acacia said that Rosmann managed Broadcom's litigation against Intel, ST Microelectronics, LSI corporation, National Semiconductor, Agere, and Qualcomm. Rosmann has also previo (More info...)
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Esri Ties Into IBMRedland-based Esri, the developer of geographical information systems (GIS) software, said Friday that it has linked in with IBM's Netezza analytics appliances. According to the firm, its technology will be integrated into IBM's Netezza analytics appliances in a release scheduled for early 2012. Esri said that the integration will give its federal agencies and customers in the energy, retail, telecommunications, and health care industries ability to query and analyze massive datasets. IBM's Nete (More info...)
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Anadys Acquired By RocheSan Diego-based Anadys Pharmaceuticals, the developer of treatments for hepatitis C, said this morning that it has agreed to be acquired by Roche. The firm said it signed a definitive merger agreement where Roche will pay $3.70 per share for all of its outstanding common stock, or a total of $230M. The price is a 256 percent premium over the $1.04 per share that Anadys was trading on Friday. Anadys said it was advised by Lazard and Cooley LLP in the deal.
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