Friday, January 20, 2012


Google Shuts Urchin, Other Services
Internet giant Google said Friday that it will be shutting down web analytics service Urchin, the onetime San Diego startup which had been acquired by Google in April of 2005. According to a post from Urchin co-founder Paul Muret, the shutdown comes as the software has been overtaken by Google Analytics, which had originally started as an online version of the Urchin software. Urchin is getting the axe along with a number of other Google services, including photo editor Picnik, Google Message Co (More info...)
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Active Network Plans Offering For Investors
The venture investors in San Diego-based sports website firm Active Network are looking to take some dollars off the table, via an offering from Active, according to an S-1 filed by the company Friday. In the filing, Active said it is planning to sell 1.5 million shares of its common stock, being sold by a long list of its current investors. Those investors include ICG Holdings, TPG Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, TL Ventures, as well as others. The sales come around (More info...)
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Rustic Canyon Gets Quick Exit At Mertado
Los Angeles-based venture capital firm Rustic Canyon Partners has scored a quick exit at Redwood City-based Mertado, after Mertado said Friday that it has been acquired by daily deals site Groupon. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, however, the acquisition comes only four months after Mertado raised $2.3M in a round from Rustic canyon, Redpoint Ventures, Y Combinator, and Blumberg Capital. Rustic Canyon had led the September 2011 investment in Mertado. Mertado develops a soc (More info...)
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DreamHost Hit By Hackers
Los Angeles-based hosting provider DreamHost, a provider of shared and dedicated hosting, reported Friday that it detected unauthorized access to its databases, requiring all of its users using FTP or shell to change their password. The firm said it did not believe customer passwords were taken, but was still requiring users to reset their passwords. Unfortunately, DreamHost is not alone among an epidemic of intrusions by hackers in recent days; shoe retailer Zappos had an intrusion issue about (More info...)
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Mobile Roadie Launches Red Hot Chili Peppers App
Los Angeles-based Mobile Roadie, the developer of branded, mobile applications, is powering another app release, this time from the band the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Mobile Roadie said that the Red Hot Chili Peppers released its free app earlier this week. The app is currently Mobile Roadie's number one app in terms of downloads this week. Mobile Roadie has not announced any details of the deal to develop the app; the company is behind a significant number of high profile apps for brands, musician (More info...)
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Evolve Media Buys RealityTea.com, WebEcoist.com
Los Angeles-based Evolve Media Corp., the parent firm of AtomicOnline, SheKnows, and a network of other digital media sites, announced this morning that it has acquired two sites--RealityTea.com, focused on reality entertainment, and WebEcoist.com, a green living site. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The company said that both will become part of its Momtastic community for moms. RealityTea.com was founded in 2009, and gets more than 550,000 unique monthly visitors. Evolve (More info...)
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HitFix Closes Funding Round
Los Angeles-based HitFix, the online film, TV, and entertainment news site founded by Gregory Ellwood and Jennifer Sargent, said today that it has closed a funding round. Size of the round was not announced. Hitfix said the round included investors Golden Seeds, Tech Coast Angels, Liquid Capital Group and a number of prominent individual angels. The company said it has nor raised a total of less than $5M in its Seed and Round a fundings, but is already EBITDA positive and had a growth in annual (More info...)
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Mogreet Expands Sales Chops
Los Angeles-based Mogreet, the video-based, mobile marketing firm headed by James Citron, reported today that it has named Jesse Silver as Senior Sales Director. SIlver was previously at OpenMarket, and also served at MX Telecom. Mogreet said it is expanding the sales team to drive new business for the company. Mogreet is venture backed by Ascend Venture Group, Black Diamond Ventures, DFJ Frontier, and Spyglass Ventures.
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XAP Names Knepper CEO
Culver City-based XAP, a developer of online college information tools and electronic college application and transcript services, announced today that it has named Peter B. Knepper as its CEO. Knepper has previously served at International Rectifier Corporation, MDI, Inc., and Key3Media Group, and was Senior Vice President and Chief FInancial Officer of Ticketmaster Group for ten years. Knepper had been serving as interim CEO of the company. XAP said more than 900 colleges and universities, and (More info...)
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