Monday, June 4, 2012


Conexant Names GM
Newport Beach-based Conexant said Monday that it has named Saleel Awsare as its new Vice President and General Manager for its audio, embedded modem, and fax business. The semiconductor maker said Saleel has over 25 years of experience, and was most recently at Nuvoton, a spinoff of Winbond Electronics. He also served at Winbond Electronics Corporation and information Storage Devices.
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Represent.LA Looks To Map LA Startups
A new, grassroots effort by Alex Benzer, Tara Tiger Brown and Sean Bonner, Represent.LA, is looking to map out the Los Angeles startup community, by plotting out the list of startups, incubators, accelerators, and others in the community. Brown says that the site is a way to "promote the LA tech scene and strengthen the community bonds that span across a wide distance and many freeways." The map is similar to a map of the Los Angeles technology ecosystem provided by this publication, although (More info...)
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Awarepoint Raises $14M More
San Diego-based Awarepoint, which develops real-time, location systems used for tracking patents and assets in a healthcare environment, said today that it has raised $14M in an additional financing round. The firm said the round was led by Heritage Healthcare Innovation Fund (HHIF),a limited partnership operated by Heritage Group, a Nashville, Tenn.-based private healthcare investment firm, and also included Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Cardinal Partners, Venrock, Jafco Ventures,Avalon Ven (More info...)
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Fandango Claims Record Sales In May
Los Angeles-based Fandango, the movie ticketing and information service, said today that it has had the best ever number in May for traffic and ticket sales, for the company's entire 12-year history. The company said it saw a 47 percent, year-over-year increase in its ticket sales, plus a 29 percent year-over-year increase in monthly visitors, totaling 34 million in May of 2012. The company attributed the growth to both its large network of theater screens--it recently added AMC Theaters, Regenc (More info...)
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Ixia Completes Anue Systems Buy
Calabasas-based Ixia, which develops Ip network and wireless testing equipment and software, said this morning that it has completed its acquisition of Anue Systems, a developer of network visibility and analysis products. The deal had been announced May 7th, and was worth $145M in cash. Ixia said the deal would bolster its offers in the network visibility market, which helps network engineers monitor data center and cloud traffic.
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OpenX Names GM
Los Angeles-based online advertising technology developer OpenX reported this morning that it has named Jason C. White as its General Manager, Publisher Business - West. White, who has been advising OpenX since 2010, was previously a VP at Adknowledge, and also served at FOX Audience Network's MyAds. The company said the newly created position will be responsible for increasing adoption of the company's products, and growing its publisher focused team. OpenX developers advertising serving softwa (More info...)
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Insights and Opinions: The LA Discount
For this morning's Insights and Opinions, section, where we feature the voices of Southern California's technology industry, we have an article from Howard Marks, the co-founder of Los Angeles startup accelerator StartEngine and co-founder of gaming giant Activision. Howard asks why there is a discount for Los Angeles tech startups, in terms of valuation. Why are Los Angeles tech startups valued at a discount in comparison to startups in Silicon Valley, New York, and other cities? For (More info...)
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Hulu In Promotion With Roku
Los Angeles-based Hulu is looking to get more of its users connected with its content directly from television sets, saying Friday that it is in a special promotion with Roku to offer up a bundled Hulu Plus, its premium streaming service, with Roku's video streaming hard, the Roku HD. Hulu said the offer provides a $35 discount to users, allowing users to view Hulu Plus directly on their televisions. Hulu's service has been available on the Roku devices since September of 2010.
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EventUp Raises $1.8M From Groupon Founders, Others
Santa Monica-based Eventup, the online marketplace run by Tony Adam and backed by Mike Jones' Science Inc., is announcing today that it has raised $1.8M in a seed funding round. The funding round comes from Lightbank, the Chicago-based investment fund of Groupon founder Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, along with Crosscut Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, New World Ventures, as well as angels. According to the company, it is using the funding to xpand nationally, launching in Chicago today an (More info...)
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The Gores Group Buys Touchscreen Interface Company
Los Angeles-based The Gores Group, the private equity investment firm, reported this morning that it has completed its acquisition of the Elo Touch Solutions business of TE Connectivity. The deal was worth $380M in cash. Elo Touch was based in Menlo Park, California. Gores said that Elo Touch Solutions had sales of $413M in fiscal 2011. Gores had originally announced the buy in April.
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Kurion Names Japanese Country Manager
Irvine-based Kurion, the venture backed developer of radioactive waste management technology, said over the weekend that it has named a Country Manager for Japan. The firm said it has named Yohei Iwasaki to the position, to head up business strategy in the country. Iwasaki was most recently co-founder, CEO, and Chief Strategy of mOasis, a developer of technology to improve the productivity of agricultural land. Kurion's technology is being used for the cleanup of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Pl (More info...)
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AeroVironment Gets $15.8M Order
Monrovia, California-based Aerovironment, the developer of unmanned aircraft systems, reported Friday that it has received a $15.8M order for its Raven small unmanned aircraft systems. The firm said the order cam from the U.S. Army. The company said the order is part of a contract it says has a total projected value of over $65.8M. Aerovironment's Raven is a small, hand launched unmanned aircraft used for reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition.
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