Thursday, February 2, 2012THQ To Cut 240 EmployeesAgoura-based THQ said Thursday that it is chopping 240 jobs as part of a "realignment" of its organization, as it exits the kids licensed video game market. The layoffs come after the firm missed Wall Street estimates, with revenues of $404.4M. THQ said the cuts would save the firm approximately $160M annually between general and administrative costs and product development. THQ also cut the salary of President and CEO, Brian J. Farrell, by 50 percent, from $718,500 to $359,250, for one year.
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StyleHaul Raises $4.4MLos Angeles-based StyleHaul, an online video network focused on fashion and beauty, said today that it has raised $4.4M in a Series A funding round. The round was led by RezVen Partners, and also included Juvo Capital, Siemer Ventures, Tamim Mourad (co-founder of Price Grabber), Allen and Aaron DeBevoise (Machinima), and other local angels. StyleHaul produces videos, distributed via YouTube, about fashion and beauty topics. The company was founded by Stephanie Horbaczewski, along with Machinima' (More info...)
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Fisker Debuts In CanadaAnaheim-based Fisker Automotive, the heavily backed, electric vehicle manufacturer, said today that it has entered into the Canadian market. The firm said the firm's EV is now available in Canada, via a partnership with a number of retailers in Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver. Those dealers include Dilawri Group, which Fisker said is Canada's largest auto dealer group, which will operate a Fisker retail location at an open air mall in Toronto.
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Steamboat Ventures Cuts US Investment EffortsIn yet more attrition from Southern California's venture capital ranks, Burbank-based Steamboat Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Walt Disney Company, looks to have sharply pulled back on its U.S. investment efforts. According to the firm's website, it has trimmed its list of Managing Directors in the U.S. to just one person, Scott Hillboe. Steamboat no longer lists Managing Directors Dan Beldy and Beau Laskey, and the two apparently left the firm sometime last year. Steamboat is just one (More info...)
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CitySourced Heads To HawaiiLos Angeles-based CitySourced, the developer of mobile software used to help citizens to communicate with cities and local government, has rolled out in Honolulu, Hawaii. The City and County of Honolulu announced Tuesday that it has launched its smartphone reporting system, "Honolulu 311", which is powered by CitySourced, to allow citizens to report things like abandoned vehicles, graffiti, potholes, and other issues. The app runs on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile. Financial det (More info...)
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TigerText Pounces On $8.2MSanta Monica-based TigerText, a startup providing secure mobile messaging services for healthcare companies, announced today that it has raised $8.2M in a second round of funding. The round was led by Easton Capital and New Science Ventures. TigerText said it will use the funding to accelerate development of its products, which provides HIPAA-compliant text messaging to doctors, nurses, and others in hospitals an dclinics. Standard text-messaging does not meet privacy requirements for healthcare (More info...)
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Will Facebook's IPO Unbottle Southern California's Pipeline?Will the filing of an IPO by Menlo Park-based Facebook unclock the pipeline of would-be Southern Calfornia IPOs? Facebook filed for its IPO Wednesday afternoon, saying that it is looking to raise up to $5 billion, in what is expected to be the biggest IPO since Google. The firm reported net income of $1 billion on revenues of $3.7 billion in 2011 in its S-1, which is being underwritten by Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs & Co., BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, and Allen & Company. (More info...)
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Little Black Bag Launches With Backing From GRP, DCMLos Angeles-based startup Little Black Bag, a new e-commerce startup backed by GRP Partners and DCM, said this week that it has launched its online shopping site--a play on the Japanese concept of "fukobukuro". The startup said it lets shoppers buy and trade "mystery" fashion shopping products, tailored to their interests. The Japanese fukobukuro concept is one where mystery bags of products--often worth many times the sales price--are offered to shoppers during New Year. In a trend among Los An (More info...)
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Numecent Raises $2MIrvine-based Numecent, a stealth-mode, cloud computing firm run by Osman Kent, said yesterday that it has raised $2M as part of a Series A financing round. The firm said the tranche is part of a $10M, Series A funding round. Names of the investors in the company were not disclosed. Numecent said the new funding comes on top of an earlier, $7.5M in seed funding received by the firm. Numecent said it is developing "cloudpaging" technology, in the area of hybrid cloud computing.
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OpenX Names Enterprise GMLos Angeles-based OpenX. the developer of online ad serving software, said today that it has named Eric Rosenthal as the firm's General Manager of its Enterprise business. Rosenthal was previously at AOL, serving as VP of National Sales. Rosenthal also has previously served at DoubleClick, Kyte, Verizon, and Panther CDN/CDNetworks OpenX is backed by Accel Partners, Index Ventures, SAP Ventures, AOL Ventures, Mitsui & Co., Presidio Ventures and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures.
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Response Genetics Gets $7.8M In PIPELos Angeles-based Response Genetics, a developer of diagnostics test for cancer, said today that it has raised $7.8M in a private placement. The publicly traded firm did not disclose the name of its new investors. The firm said it sold approximately 5.3M shares at $1.50 per share in the financing. Response Genetics is developing technology to extract and analyze genetic information from tumors, to help in cancer diagnostics; the firm's technology is based on research originally developed at USC. (More info...)
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