Wednesday, February 29, 2012Report: LegalZoom Nears IPOGlendale-based LegalZoom, the online legal documents site which was co-founded by Brian Lee and lawyer Robert Shapiro, is reportedly about to file for its IPO, according to a report today. Reuters, citing sources close to the firm, said the filing is expected in coming weeks. According to industry sources, LegalZoom has been prepping its IPO since at least 2010; local industry insiders have predicting an IPO filing for the company since mid 2010. The rumor of a reported IPO filing has been circu (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 29, 2012(Full story)
Silicon Beach Heads To SXSWLos Angeles companies are looking to help get the word out next week about their companies--and the area--at SXSW, the annual technology and music festival held in Austin, Texas, a group of companies said Wednesday. In an effort to help brand the growing Los Angeles technology scene, a number of local companies said they are organizing a Silicon Beach Showcase, where local LA startup will be showing off their products and introducing people to companies. The companies presenting include BetterWo (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 29, 2012(Full story)
uSamp Aims At B2B MarketEncino-bsaed uSamp, which operates an online survey panel network used by companies to conduct market research, said Wednesday that it has launched a new service aimed at the business-to-business market. uSamp said its new service--TheWhiteboard--provides a panel specifically aimed at business-to-business decision makers. uSamp explained that the new service recruits panelists with loyalty reward programs in the hotel, airline, and travel industry. The company said the new panel helps gain acces (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 29, 2012(Full story)
StockTwits Updates iPhone AppSan Diego-based micro messaging service StockTwits, which allows fans of the financial markets to exchange stock tips, interact with others, discuss companies, and more, said this week that it has updated its iPhone app. The firm said the app includes a number of filters of its streams, based on category, plus also allows users to track what is trending on the service in real time. StockTwits is led by Howard Lindzon, who is an active angel investor and former founder of Wallstrip, which he sold (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 29, 2012(Full story)
Yammer Dwarfs Parent Geni In Fundraising RoundIn the case of the kid getting much (much) larger than its parent, Yammer, the one time spinout of Los Angeles-based genealogy and family tree website Geni, has now squarely out-raised venture capital than its parent firm, saying Wednesday that it has raised an $85M funding round. The round--rumored to be valued at $500M to $600M--brings Yammer's total raised to $142M. The corporate micro-messaging service, which started in Los Angeles as a side project of Geni engineers looking for a better way (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 29, 2012 (More)(Full story)
Websense Rolls Out New Mobile Security ProductSan Diego-based security software developer Websense reported Wednesday that it has launched a new, mobile security product aimed at mobile devices such as iPads, iPhones, and Android. The firm said its Websense TRION Mobile Security product offers up data loss protection, prevents malicious app downloads, protects against malware and also offers mobile device management to users. Pricing on the new product was not announced.
posted on Wednesday, February 29, 2012(Full story)
Blizzard Entertainment Chops 600Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of the popular World of Warcraft, massively-multiplayer online game, said this morning that it has cut 600 jobs. The firm said approximately 90 percent of the cuts would come from departments not related to game development. The firm said it had to make "difficult decisions" as the industry has evolved. The company said that the team working on World of Warcraft will not be impacted. Blizzard is a unit of Activision.
posted on Wednesday, February 29, 2012(Full story)
Nirvanix: Use Our Storage, Avoid Disk Drive ShortageSan Diego-based Nirvanix, the provider of cloud-based data storage services, is looking to address a shortage of disk drive storage on the market--by pointing enterprise users toward the firm's own, cloud-based storage services. Nirvanix is looking to take advantage of a disk drive shortage, the result of last year's widespread and devastating floods in Thailand, which managed to take out a significant percentage of the world's disk drive manufacturing capacity. Nirvanix contends that users are (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 29, 2012(Full story)
WD Divests 3.5-inch HDD Assets To ToshibaIrvine-based Western Digital, the manufacturer of hard disk drives, reported this morning that it has reached an agreement with Toshiba Corporation, to divest certain assets for manufacturing and selling 3.5-inch hard drives. WD said the move comes to address the regulatory agencies approving and reviewing its planned acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Financial details of the sale were not announced. WD said the move is conditioned on closing of WD's own acquisition of Hitachi (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, February 29, 2012(Full story)