Monday, December 19, 2011Aviir To Raise Up To $30MIrvine-based Aviir, a venture-backed biotech firm targeting cardiac disease assessment, said late Monday that it has reached an agreement to raise up to $30M in a financing round. The firm said the round includes an initial $10M, plus up to $20M on meeting certain milestones. The funding was led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, and also included prior investors Bay City Capital, Aberdare Ventures, and New Leaf Venture Partners. Aviir said the funding will go towards commercialization of (More info...)
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Amgen Inks $400M Deal With Generics Maker Watson PharmaceuticlsThousad Oaks-based Amgen said Monday that it has inked a $400M, co-development deal with Watson Pharmaceuticals, where they two will work together on oncology antibody biosimilar medicines. The two said that Amgen will assume primarily responsibility for developing, manufacturing and initially commercializing the oncology antibody products, with Watson contributing the $400M for co-development costs, receiving royalties and sales milestones from product revenues. Biosimilar medicines are copycat (More info...)
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GameFly Launches PC Client, Online SalesLos Angeles-based videogame rental service GameFly said today that it has launched a new, PC client, which allows subscribers to play free PC games from the service. GameFly said its new, PC client will provide core, casual, classic, and independent games for free to GameFly subscribers. GameFly also said it will begin selling PC games on GameFly.com, as well as on its mobile apps for iOS and Android. The videogame rental company said that it expects to have over 1,500 Windows and Mac games for (More info...)
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Xfire Connects Into YouTube ChannelsSanta Monica-based Xfire, the online social networking and chat service aimed at gamers, said this morning that it is making it easier for users to capture and share videos of their game play, and post it on a YouTube channel. Xfire already allows its users to capture and share content on their own site; the new feature makes it easier to cross post that content to YouTube. Xfire said it already has over 5.5 million videos captured using its social app. The company said the feature comes as a r (More info...)
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EnVerv Gets $12M For Smart Grid ChipsEnVerv, a developer of semiconductors used for the smart grid metering industry which has offices in San Diego, said this morning that it has raised $12M in a round of funding. The funding was led by Benchmark Capital, and also included prior investors New Enterprise Associates and Walden International. EnVerv's chips are used for communications via low voltage and medium voltage power lines. EnVerve's executive team includes a significant number of former RF Magic and Entropic Communications ex (More info...)
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Kyocera Sues KodakKyocera, the Japanese electronics firm which operates its U.S. business from San Diego, said this morning that it has sued Eastman Kodak Company, for infringement on an inkjet patent. Kyocera said its lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, alleges infringement on U.S. Patent No. 7,097,286, which covers the structure of inkjet recording heads. Kyocera claims that Kodak's injet printers are infringing on the patent. Kyocera said it is seeking monetary da (More info...)
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Skype Launches Free Airport Wi-Fi DealPeer-to-peer, voice-over-IP service Skype announced this morning that it will begin offering a free hour of Internet access, via third party wireless hotspots, in select airports across the U.S. Skype said the free access will be available from December 21st through December 27th. Skype's WiFi service works for users on PCs, Macs, and iOS. The service is powered by Santa Monica-based Boingo Wireless, which inked a deal in 2009 to allow Skype users to its hotspots.
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Interview with Cliff Boro, KidZuiLast week, San Diego-based Kidzui --the kid's website and kid-friendly browser developer, announced another round of funding, and also launched Zui Studios, a new effort to create original content for the portal. We thought it would be interesting to hear about why KidZui is investing in original content, so we spoke with Cliff Boro, KidZui's CEO.
Give us an overview on KidZui. It looks like you now have a search engine, a browser, and now a content studio?
Cliff Boro: At KidZui, our job (More info...)
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Quest Software Buys BiTKOOAliso Viejo-based Quest Software announced this morning that it has acquired BiTKOO, a developer of authorization and entitlement management for the enterprise IT market. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Quest said the buy will add BiTKOO's technology to its Quest One Identity Solutions. BiTKOO was based in North Hollywood, and was co-founded by Doron Grinstein and Eric Kotler. Grinstein and Kotler were both previously on the IT side at Walt Disney Company, where they devel (More info...)
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Somaxon Cuts Staff, Looks for BuyerSan Diego-based Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, a developer of sleep medication, said today that it has cut 60 percent of its non-field based employees, and has hired a financial advisor to help sell the company. The firm said it has hired Stifel Nicolaus Weisel to help in "strategic alternatives", and cut its staff to minimize its cash burn rate. The publicly held firm said it continues to maintain a sales force and will "protect the intellectual property position of its product", and will continue to (More info...)
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Broadcom Wins Emulex Patent LawsuitIrvine-based Broadcom Corporation reports this morning that it has scored a win in a patent infringement suit it filed against Emulex, where it had accused Emulex of infringing on two of its patents. According to Broadcom, the United States District Court for the Central District of California found that the Emulex BladeEngine 2, BladeEngine 3 and Lancer chips, and four of its Fibre Channel switch products infringed upon its two patents. Broadcom said it is now seeing a permanent injunction, pro (More info...)
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Arrowhead Expands BoardPasadena-based Arrowhead Research, the developer of nanomedicines, announced this morning that it has appointed Michael S. Perry, Hon BSc, DVM, Ph.D., to its board of directors. Perry is a venture partner at Bay City Capital, a life sciences investment fund, and also serves as President and Chief Medical Officerof Poniard Pharmaceuticals. Perry has also served at VIA Pharmaceuticals, Extropy Pharmaceuticals, Pharsight, SyStemix, Genetic Therapty, Baxter BIoScience, Novartis PHarma, and Syntex.
posted on Monday, December 19, 2011(Full story)