Thursday, March 22, 2012eBay Sells Rent.comOne of Southern California's big startup successes--Rent.com--which was sold to eBay back in 2004, has just been sold again. eBay said Thursday that it has sold Rent.com to PRIMEDIA, the publisher of apartment and rental home information and listings. Financial terms of the deal were not announced. The firms said the move would help PRIMEDIA bolster its apartment and rental home resources, which also include ApartmentGuide.com, Rentals.com and RentalHouses.com. Rent.com was one of the biggest ex (More info...)
posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012(Full story)
Interview with Michael Dubin, Dollar Shave ClubEarlier this month, Los Angeles startup Dollar Shave Club (www.dollarshaveclub.com) made a huge splash with its launch of a subscription, monthly delivery service for razor blades. The company also made quite an impression with its viral video--which you have to watch to appreciate--of CEO Michael Dubin extolling the virtues of the company's products, and panning overpriced, expensive razor brands. We talked with Dubin earlier about the company. The company is also one of the companies to recent (More info...)
posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012(Full story)
LeisureLink Says Travelocity Link Pays OffPasadena-based LeisureLink, the developer of a vacation rental marketplace and software, said that its relationship with travel site Travelocity is paying off for its clients. The firm, which announced a deal to distriute its clients' listing to Travelocity in July of 2011, said that its hotel clients are saw a 108 percent increase in number of room nights booked, and a 94 percent increase in sales since the deal was made last year. LeisureLink's platform allows hotel clients to send their room (More info...)
posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012(Full story)
SodaHead Ties With Google AnalyticsLos Angeles-based SodaHead, the online social discussion and voting site, is one of the launch partners for the new Google Analytics Social Media features, Google said this week. Google said that it is launching new, Social reports within Google Analytics which helps businesses understand traffic coming from social media sites, and how they related to conversions for advertisers. SodaHead, which was co-founded by former MySpace exec Jason Feffer, was one of nearly two dozen social sites who part (More info...)
posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012(Full story)
FundaGeek Partners With Inventors' GroupYucca Valley-based FundaGeek, an online, crowdfunding site headed by Dan Gutierrez, said this week that it has entered into a partnership with the United Inventors Association of America (UIA). According to FundaGeek, the group will use FundaGeek as a crowdfunding resource to help inventors with projects. The two firms also said they are working with home shopping channel QVC, as part of a new program called QVC Sprouts. That deal calls for inventors with retail ready products to be selected and (More info...)
posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012(Full story)
Eucalyptus Inks Deal With AmazonSanta Barbara-based Eucalpytus Systems, the developer of cloud software deployment tools, has inked a major deal today, with Amazon.com. Amazon is tapping Eucalyptus to make it easier for enterprise customers to migrate their web applications between Amazon and their own IT environments. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Eucalpytus, which is venture backed by Benchmark Capital, BV Capital, and New Enterprise Associates, makes software which helps enterprise customers deploy cloud (More info...)
posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012(Full story)
Anaphore Buys Chinese Firm, Gains $15M In FundingLa Jolla-based Anaphore, a startup biopharmaceuticals developer, said today that it has acquired a Chinese firm, RuiYi Inc., and closed on the second tranche of its Series A financing, worth $15M. Anaphore said it acquired RuiYi to gain access to the Shangai-based firm's biologics drug discovery platform, targeting G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Financial details of that buy were not disclosed. In addition, Anaphore said it has closed on $15M in new funding, which is the second tranche of (More info...)
posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012 (More)(Full story)
RFaxis Powers Chinese Wi-Fi ChipsetIrvine-based semiconductor startup RFaxis, which is headed by Mike Neshat, is powering China's first, domestic Wi-Fi chipset, the firm reported yesterday. RFaxis said its second generation, CMOS RF front-end-integrated ICs are being used to power China's first domestic WLAN chipset, which is being developed by Chinese firm SmartChip Integration (SCI). The firm's chips are being used for the RF front end of the Wi-Fi chip solution. RFaxis said the new solution is the first from China to gain Wi-F (More info...)
posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012(Full story)
Quantum Fuel Systems Scores $700K OrderIrvine-based Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, the developer of hybrid electric vehicle propulsion systems and related products, reported today that it has scored a $700,000 purchase order for one of its products. The firm said the order were for its composite, high pressure compressed natural gas storage tanks, for use in heavy duty and light duty fleet vehicles. Name of the customer for the order was not disclosed. Quantum said its tanks are used in vehicles from such firms as Gener (More info...)
posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012(Full story)
QAD Wins European ManufacturerSanta Barbara-based QAD, the developer of enterprise resource planning software, said today that it has signed a deal to upgrade its software for Korona S.A., a European candle manufacturer. Financial details of the win were not disclosed. Korona S.A., based in Wielun, Poland, supplies retailers such as Tesco, Wal-Mart, and IKEA. The firm is using QAD's software to manage sales, purchasing, logistics, manufacturing, and finance operations.
posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012(Full story)