Monday, November 7, 2011Kline Hawkes Sells Portfolio Firm Vermont CompositesLos Angeles-based investment firm Vicente Capital Partners said today that it has sold Vermont Composites, a manufacturer of composite aerostructures and advanced composite medical equipment, to Kaman Aerospace Group. Financial terms of the sale were not announced. Vermont Composites was part of Vicente Capital Partners' prior fund, Kline Hawkes Pacific LP. Vicente Capital said that the sale was a "great outocme" for the fund, representing a 5X return for the 2000-vintage fund. Vermont Composite (More info...)
posted on Monday, November 7, 2011(Full story)
Platinum Equity Buys Kodak's Image Sensor BusinessLos Angeles-based private equity firm Platinum Equity has acquired the image sensor business of Kodak, Kodak said Monday. Financial details of the deal were not announced by the firms. Kodak said its Image Sensor Solutions (ISS) business will "sharpen its operational focus" and strengthen its financial position. The deal includes a 263,000 square foot facility in Rochester, New York. Kodak's image sensor group works on solid state image sensors, which are used in photography, DNA sequencing, dig (More info...)
posted on Monday, November 7, 2011(Full story)
Demand Media Increases Revenues, Posts LossSanta Monica-based Demand Media, the online publishing firm headed by Richard Rosenblatt, announced its third quarter 2011 financial results on Monday, saying that it had a loss from operations of $3.3M, with a rise in revenues to $81.5M. Revenues were up 25 percent compared with Q3 of last year, when it had revenues of $65.4M. The firm saw increases in revenues in both its content & media segment, as well as its domain registration business, reporting 27 percent increase in content and media re (More info...)
posted on Monday, November 7, 2011(Full story)
Eucalpytus Taps Red Hat For Community VPSanta Barbara-based cloud computing software developer Eucalyptus said Monday that it has named Greg DeKoenigsberg as Vice President of Commuinty. DeKoenigsberg was previously at Red Hat, heading up that the Fedora open source project, including serving as the first Fedora Board, chair of the the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee and Fedora Ambassadors Steering Committee, and founding the Fedora Cloud SIG, according to Eucalyptus. The company said DeKoenigsberg will help lead its engagement (More info...)
posted on Monday, November 7, 2011(Full story)
YouMail Adds InvestorIrvine-based YouMail, the personalized voicemail service firm headed by Alex Quilici, has raised around $355,000 in new funding, adding CrunchFund--the investment fund run by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington--as a backer. Details of the funding were leaked by TechCrunch, which also said that the Tech Coast Angels ACE Fund participated. YouMail raised a round of funding in July from VantagePoint Capital Partners, Siemer Ventures, and the Tech Coast Angels.
posted on Monday, November 7, 2011 (More)(Full story)
Warner Brothers Interactive Cuts Staff In SeattleBurbank-based Warner Brothers Interactive has chopped 60 people in its Seattle game studios, according to a report from Joystiq, which confirmed the cuts with Warner Brothers. It's unclear if Warner Brothers Interactive had cut any other positions across the company's other locations or at its Burbank headquarters.
posted on Monday, November 7, 2011(Full story)
Disney, YouTube Link In Original Video EffortGlendale-based Disney Interactive Media and online video sharing site YouTube, which is part of Google, announced today that they are spending up to $15M on developing original videos series for the web. The content will be produced by Disney and distributed via YouTube and Disney.com. The companies said that the content will be made available on both Disney.com and YouTube in early 2012, and that Disney Interactive will produce and program the co-branded video destinations for both Disney.com a (More info...)
posted on Monday, November 7, 2011(Full story)
BlackLine Names CTOLos Angeles-based BlackLine, which develops financial balance sheet and account reconciliation software-as-a-service, continued to expand out its executive team, saying today that it has named Justin Newton as its Chief Technology Officer.Newton was previously EVP, IT Operations, at Demand Media, and also was Senior Vice President, Voice and Bradband, at United Online. BlackLine said Newton will be responsible for technology direction on its software. BlackLine has been busy growing its executiv (More info...)
posted on Monday, November 7, 2011(Full story)
Interview with Tara Weingarten, VroomGirlsAs automotive web sites go, there are lots of review and information sites giving you information about new and used cars, magazines and information sites for auto enthusiasts, and discussion sites and groups for all kinds of cars. But, it turns out, there are not any automotive sites specifically geared towards women. That's something which Los Angeles-based VroomGirls (www.vroomgirls.com) is looking to change--with the backing of sponsors like Toyota, Ferrari, and Lamborghini. We spoke with fo (More info...)
posted on Monday, November 7, 2011(Full story)
Cyber-Rain Extends Smart Irrigation ControllersEncino-based Cyber-Rain, the developer of Internet-connected, smart irrigation controllers, said over the weekend that it has extended its control systems with new features. The firm said its controllers--which automatically adjust watering schedules based on local weather information--now supports Blackberry mobile devices, odd-even water scheduling, GPS information, and more. Cyber-Rain is venture backed by DeWaay Investment Partners, Athenian Venture Partners, Momentum Venture Management and (More info...)
posted on Monday, November 7, 2011(Full story)
Mindspeed Gets Win At Mitsubishi ElectricNewport Beach-based Mindspeed Technologies has scored a design win with Mitsubishi Electric, the firm reported today. The firm said that Mitsubishi is using its Comcerto 1000 customer premises equipment (CPE) processor, as part of a gateway product being used in Japan. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. Mindspeed said its chips are being used as part of the deployment of a Japanese fiber network, being used to deliver voice, high-definition (HD) video and data services.
posted on Monday, November 7, 2011(Full story)
Vitesse Adds New DistributorCamarillo-based Vitesse Semiconductor said this morning that it has added a new distributor for its products. Vitesse, which develops high speed iCs for the carrier and enterprise networking market, said WPG Americas Inc. will be handling distribution of its complete line of products in the Americas. The two firms said that WPG Americas is a unit of WPG Holdings Limited, one of the world's largest semiconductor distributors.
posted on Monday, November 7, 2011(Full story)
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Starts Phase I StudiesSan Diego-based ACADIA Pharmaceuticals reported this morning that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has completed its review of the firm's New Drug Application for AM-831, its small molecule for treatment of schizophrenia, and it is advancing to Phase I clinical development. ACADIA said it is working with Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd on the compound. Phase I studies are used by drug companies to assess the safety of drug compounds.
posted on Monday, November 7, 2011(Full story)