Thursday, November 10, 2011


Activision Continues Struggles With Modern Warfare Elite
Santa Monica-based Activisoin, which launched its latest title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on Tuesday, updated its users today, saying that it is continuing to have issues with its Call of Duty Elite social gaming service. The firm said it is "having trouble scaling the service to meet demand", even though users are still able to plus Modern Warfare 3 online with other users. Activision said its registration and login systems were "crushed by gamers" after the launch, and that it is deployin (More info...)
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ReachLocal Expands in Amsterdam
Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, the provider of services to help small and medium sized businesses advertise online, said Thursday that it has opened up a new office in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The firm said the new office will serve as its European headquarters. ReachLocal said it now has over 800 consultants in North America, Australia and Europe serving over 18,000 advertisers. The company efforts in Europe are headed by John Mazur. ReachLocal relies on local representatives to help out its s (More info...)
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Miramar's Maneesh Goyal Departs Firm
Corona del Mar-based venture capital investment firm Miramar Venture Partners is losing one of its Managing Director, Maneesh Goyal, who is departing to a new early and growth stage healthcare technology investment firm. Goyal told his contacts Thursday afternoon that the "difficult yet exciting" decision came after five years at Mirarmar. Goyal is departing to establish MergerTech Capital, a new early and growth stage healthcare technology investment firm which is an arm of MergerTech Advisors, (More info...)
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Active Network Buys Ski Resort Ticketing Firm
San Diego-based Active Network, the operator of online software for sports groups, events, community activities registration, and other organizations, said Thursday afternoon that it has acquired RTP, a provider of technology for managing ski resorts and ticketing. Financial terms of the buy were not announced. RTP's technology is used by ski resorts to sell tickets, activities, and manage rentals; the firm's product was developed in 1998 for Vail and several other Rocky Mountain ski resorts.
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ZipCar Ramps In LA
Car sharing service ZipCar announced today that it is in a "significant expansion" of its car sharing network in the Los Angeles area, and has opened up a regional office in the city, the 16th for the firm. ZipCar said that it now has over 125 vehicles throughout the city, including those in Hollywood and vehicles on the campuses of Loyola Marymount University, Occidental College, the University of Southern California (USC), the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Califor (More info...)
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Clearstone Gets Exit At Apture
Santa Monica-based venture capital firm Clearstone Ventures has scored an acquisition in its portfolio today, with the acquisition of Apture by Google. Apture announced the acquisition on its website Thursday, but did not disclose any financial details of the buy. Apture had been backed by Clearstone Venture Partners, Beau Vrolyk, Paul Maritz, and Steve Taylor. Clearstone was involved in Apture's Series A in March of 2009. Apture's software was used to turn web pages into an interactive, multime (More info...)
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Evolution Robotics Debuts New Mint II At Kohl's
Pasadena-based Evolution Robotics, which develops the Mint floor cleaning robots, said Thursday that it has debuted a new model of its floor cleaner, the Mint II Automotic Floor Cleaner, at Kohl's Department Stores. The new mint is being sold exclusively through Kohl's, both at retail stores and online. Evolution Robotics said the new Mint II includes a better mopping system and liquid reserve, which can handle up to 350 square feet in a single cleaning cycle. Evolution Robotics is headed by Dr (More info...)
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BetterWorks Adds Personal Services Category
Santa Monica-based BetterWorks, the provider of a system for managing employee benefits and perks programs headed by Paige Craig, said this morning that it has updated its product, and added a new Personal Services category to its offerings. BetterWorks--which makes it easy for companies to offer employees access to perks like ordering lunch from local restaurants, handling dry cleaning, and other services--said it has added Personal Services to cover things like house cleaning services. The com (More info...)
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FindTheBest Launches Badge Program For Vendors
Santa Barbara-based FindTheBest, the online comparison engine site run by former DoubleClick founder Kevin O'Connor, said Thursday that it has launched a new "Smart Badge" program aimed at companies with products and services. The firm said its new program helps companies ranked highly in its listing to claim a special badge, which will feature products in its comparisons. The firm did not disclose further details of the new badge program, but said it would be debuting the feature in the Baby Su (More info...)
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AnyMeeting Adds Ad-Free Option
Huntington Beach-based Anymeeting, the free web conferencing and webinar service headed by Costin Tuculescu, and backed by the Tech Coast Angels, Pasadena Angels and Maverick Angels, reports today that it has added a new, ad-free version of the software aimed at small business users. The firm said the new, paid feature will cost $17.99 per month for webinars with up to 25 attendees, and $69.99 per month for up to 200 attendees. AnyMeeting said the new version comes on the request of some of its (More info...)
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GameSalad Expands To Android
Los Angeles- and Austin-based GameSalad, the developer of mobile game development software, has expanded from the iOS world into Android, the company said this morning. According to GameSalad, its latest version of its software--GameSalad 0.9.85 Beta--now supports publishing apps to the Android market. GameSalad is best known for the many games developed on the iPhone using its tools, which do not require complex programming skills to develop. GameSalad's expansion to Android follows support for (More info...)
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Kelley Blue Book Launches New State-by-State Used Car Info
Irvine-based Kelley Blue Book, the provider of used car pricing information, said today that it has launched a new effort to provide more granular used car values, with the launch of pricing specific to 51 regions in the U.S. The firm said the information will be updated weekly, allowing users to see used car values based on their region. Kelley Blue Book has been seeing some competition in that area from companies like Santa Monica-based TrueCar, which has been providing zipcode-specific car pr (More info...)
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j2 Global Hits 2M Subscribers
Los Angeles-based j2 Global Communications, the provider of online business fax and telecommunications services for businesses, reports this morning that it has just passed 2,000,000 paying subscribers to its services. j2 Global said the subscribers are split between its fax, virtual voice, unified communications, email, online backup, and email marketing services. j2 Global is headed by Hemi Zucker.
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