Wednesday, April 4, 2012


OneRoof Energy Pulls In $3M More
San Diego-based
posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012 (More)(Full story)

WittleBee Raises $2.5M For Children's Clothing Subscriptions
Los Angeles-based WittleBee, the children's clothing site headed by Sean Percival, announced Wednesday afternoon that it has raised $2.5M in a seed funding round. The round was led by Rincon Ventures, and also included SoftTech, Google Ventures, Matt Coffin, CrossLink, and Morado. WittleBee offers up a monthly subscription for children's clothing, including onesies, t-shirts, leggings, socks, and other apparel. As part of the funding, Jim Andelman at Rincon joins the company's board. WittleeBe (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012(Full story)

Microsoft's Xbox-using, Dancing Senior Citizens In LA
Computer software giant Microsoft has rolled out a video of a bunch of Xbox 360-playing, dancing senior citizens in Los Angeles, as part of an effort to promote a new program with the City of Los Angeles Department of Aging. Microsoft said it has tied with the city, along with Partners in Care Foundation and St. Barnabas Senior Services, to launch a program called Exergamers Wellness Club, which will use Microsoft's technology to combine exercise, health monitoring, and health education for seni (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012(Full story)

Ceph Names VP
Los Angeles-based Ceph, the developer of an open source, scalable distributed storage system which is in the midst of spinning out from Los Angeles hosting firm DreamHost, said today that it has named Ross Turk as Vice President, Community. Turk was most recently Senior Director of Communities at Talend, and also served at Alcatel-Lucent and SourceForge. Ceph is a massively scalable, open source distributed storage sytsem which is used in the open source, cloud computing project OpenStack. Ceph (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012(Full story)

Ranker Finds More Funding
Los Angeles-based Ranker, the online rankings website where consumers can rank anything they like, has scored a new round of funding, in an inside round. Size of the round was not disclosed. The funding came from Siemer Venture Capital, Rincon Venture Partners, Draper Associates, the Tech Coast Angels, and the Pasadena Angels, according to CEO Clark Benson. Ranker's online service lets anyone create a list of their favorite things, ranking from such topics as The Best LA Food Trucks, to the top (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012 (More)(Full story)

Xencor Gets License Payment From Boehringer Ingelheim
Monrovia-based Xencor, the developer of antibody technology which is headed by Dr. Bassil Dahiyat, said today that it has received a second, milestone payment from Boehringer Ingelheim. Financial details and amount of the payment were not disclosed. The firm said the payment came due to regulatory submissions to being a Phase 1, clinical trial of a novel monoclonal antibody using Xencor's XmAb antibody engineering technology. Boehringer Ingelheim and Xencor inked their development deal in Februa (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012(Full story)

Green Dot Completes Loopt Buy
Monrovia-based Green Dot, the provider of prepaid debit card products, reports today that it has completed its acquisition of Mountain View-based mobile social networking developer Loopt. The deal was worth approximately $43M in cash. Green Dot had announced the acquisition in March. The buy gives Green Dot access to both Loopt's mobile social networking software, but also a stable of developers in Mountain View. Green Dot said that Loopt's employees will continue to report to their Mountain Vie (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012(Full story)

Mogreet Gets $4.1M More
Los Angeles-based Mogreet, the provider of mobile video marketing services which is run by James Citron, said this morning that it has raised $4.1M in a strategic investment round. The round was led by Black Diamond Ventures, and also included DFJ Frontier, Ascend Ventures, Bryant Park Ventures and Draper Associates. The company said the new round brings its total raised to $14.1M. Mogreet said the funds will go towards launching mobile sharing service moShare. Mogreet launched moShare back in J (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012 (More)(Full story)

Yardi Buys Lead Management Software Firm
Santa Barbara-based Yardi, which develops real estate investment and property management software, said today that it has acquired Lead Tracking Solutions, developer of the PopCard lead tracking and lead management software products. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Lead Tracking Solutions was based in Costa Mesa. Yardi said it will retain the currents staff at Lead Tracking Solutions, in its current location. Lead Tracking Solutions' software automates the tracking of rental prosp (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012(Full story)

Siemer Ventures Backs 3D Fashion Games Startup
Los Angeles-based Siemer Ventures, the venture capital firm linked with investment bank Siemer & Associates, has invested in a Hong Kong 3D games startup, Frenzoo. Financial details of the investment were not announced. Siemer said it invested in Frenzoo in Q1. Frenzoo's online and iPhone games revolve around online, fashionable avatars. Frenzoo also says it is backed by Ambient Sound Investments, the investment firm co-founded by four of Skype's original engineers.
posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012 (More)(Full story)

DDi Acquired By Viasystems
Anaheim-based circuit board manufacturer DDi Corp. is being acquired by a St. Louis-based competitor, Viasystems Group, the two said this morning, in a deal worth $268M net of cash plus debt assumed. According to Viasystems Group, it will pay $13.00 per share in cash for DDI's, or $282M, a 20 percent premium to the volume weighted average price of DDi over the last thee months. DDI is a provider of printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing services. The two said the combined operation will creat (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012(Full story)

CALIENT Names Engineering VP
Santa Barbara-based CALIENT Technologies has appointed a new Vice President of Engineering, the company said this morning. The firm said it has promoted Jitender K. Miglani to the position, from his existing position as Director of Software Engineering. Miglani has been at the firm since 2010, and also has previously served at Juniper Networks, 3Com, Lucent Technologies, Bay Networks/Nortel, and Essar Telecom. Miglani reports to Gregory Koss, Calient's Chief Development Officer. CALIENT is a dev (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012(Full story)