Tuesday, July 17, 2012Telogis Buys NavtrakAliso Viejo-based Telogis, the developer of location intelligence software, said this evening that it has acquired Navtrak, a provider of mobile resource and fleet management products. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. Telogis said the buy will help it gain greater reach into small- and mid-sized markets.
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SpaceX Launches Dragon Music VideoYou've just spent millions developing your own rocket to launch to space, created your own space capsule, convinced NASA to let you launch it into space, and have astronauts connect it to the International Space Station. What do you do next? Create a highlights video, set to music -- of course. SpaceX sent out a link to its music video on Tuesday afternoon, highlighting the launch of its last mission, the first time a privately developed, commercial vehicle docked with the ISS. SpaceX has arguab (More info...)
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VIZIO Signs Another Patent LicenseeIrvine-based VIZIO, the maker of HDTVs, has signed another patent license deal, this time with Seiki Digital, the company said Tuesday. VIZIO said that Seiki has agreed to make royalty payments to VIZIO for sales of licensed products. Financial details of the license were not announced. VIZIO has been aggressively signing up companies as licensees to its patent portfolio, which it describes as a "substantial worldwide patent portfolio directed to digital television technology." VIZIO has not bee (More info...)
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TeleSign Launches New Fraud Detection ProductLos Angeles-based TeleSign, the provider of Internet and cloud-based authentication services, said this morning that it has launched a new product aimed at blocking fraud at online businesses. The firm said the product, part of its PhoneID suite, delivers name and address details to its customers based on a phone number. The company said the new product can help online merchants make real-time decisions on whether to flag or block transactions on their sites. TeleSign's services provide informat (More info...)
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Hulu Debuts Larry King NowFans of talk show host Larry King can now go to Hulu for their Larry King fix, thanks to a deal announced today between Los Angeles-based Hulu and Ora TV. According to the two, Larry King Now is premiering this week, starting with an interview of Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane with King, which was posted today. Hulu said the exclusive partnership with Ora TV, to bring King's new show to both Hulu and Hulu Plus. Hulu said new episodes will be posted every Monday through Thursday in the early evenin (More info...)
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Donuts Inc. Tops Generic TLD ListDonuts Inc., the domain name registration startup which has strong ties to Demand Media, looks to be the dominant applicant for ICANN's new top level domains, in a telling graphic released by law firm Loeb & Loeb today. The infographic, released via ReadWriteWeb, shows, visually, how Donuts Inc. is far and above the top applicant for those new, generic TLDs -- with 307 applications for TLDs, dwarfing even Google, which had a mere 101 applications. Donuts Inc. has raised $100M for its efforts. Th (More info...)
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Sonos Updates Android, iOS AppsSanta Barbara-based Sonos, the maker of the user-friendly, whole-house music systems, has updated the company's Android and iPad software, adding support for the iPad's Retina display, plus optimizing displays for 7-inch and 10-inch Android tablets, the company announced Tuesday. Sonos said its software, version 3.8.1, includes landscape mode for Android tablets, larger screen album art, as well as better support for the Retina displays on the iPhone and iPad. Sonos makes user-friendly music sys (More info...)
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Clearstone Backs OpenbucksSanta Monica-based venture capital firm Clearstone Ventures is backing a Bay Area gift card-based, payment network, Openbucks, as part of a Series A funding for Openbucks. According to Openbucks, it has raised $4.8M in a Series A for the company, which allows users to trade in gift cards from a number of retailers to pay for merchandise and services online. The round was led by Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, and also included Terry Semel, Greycroft Partners, BV Capital, Morado Ventures, Novel TMT (More info...)
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Oversee.net Names CTOLos Angeles-based online marketing and domain firm Oversee.net has named Gene Chuang as its new Chief Technology Officer, the company said today. Chuang was most recently Director of Engineering at online college textbook firm Chegg. He also was previously Executive Director at AT&T Interactive, and also was Director of Engineering at Yahoo Search Marketing. Oversee said that Chuang will be responsible for identifying and building technology platforms for the company. Oversee.net provides perfor (More info...)
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Report: Tech Layoffs At Highest Level In Three YearsYou may not see it here in Southern California's high tech sector--which has been booming, due to a surge of startup and accelerator activity--but apparently, the technology sector has seen its highest level of layoffs in three years, according to a report today. Challenge Gray, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm, said that there were a total of 51,529 job cuts by technology firms in the first half of 2012, a 260 percent increase from 14,308 cuts announced in the same period a year ago. Layo (More info...)
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Caltech Invests In CourseraThe California Institute of Technology is backing, Coursera, a startup in the area of online education with an equity investment, plus the promise to put some of its courses online for free, in a deal worth $3.7M, the school announced this morning with Coursera. According to Coursera, Caltech and the University of Pennsylvania have invested a combined $3.7M in investments to back its efforts to put university courses online. Coursera allows anyone to take university courses online, for free, acr (More info...)
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BioSurplus Raises $2.4MSan Diego-based BioSurplus, a provider of equipment management services and pre-owned laboratory instruments, said this morning that it has closed its Series A financing round, bringing the total raised in the oversubscribed round to $2.4M. The latest injection in the round came from SJF Ventures. BioSurplus had initially announced the round in May, with investments from KI Investments, when the round stood at $1.5M. BioSurplus said it is using the additional funding to expand its services in Bo (More info...)
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Life Technologies Buys NavigenicsCarlsbad-based life sciences equipment maker Life Technologies announced late Monday that it has acquired Navigenics, a venture-backed genetics diagnostic testing firm and lab. Navigenics was venture backed by Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers, Mohr Davidow Ventures, and The Procter & Gamble Company. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Life Technologies said the acquisition is its first step in bulidling out its molecular diagnostics business. Navigenics provided personalized genomi (More info...)
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NantWorks, JAKKS Pacific Tie On Interactive Toy VentureLos Angeles-based technology thinktank NantWorks, which is owned by Los Angeles billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, and Malibu toy manufacturer JAKKS Pacific have signed a letter of intent to create a new joint venture around next generation, interactive toys, the two said this morning. The two said the new venture, DreamPlay Toys, will develop, market, and sell toys incorporate NantWorks proprietary image recognition technology. Financial details of the LOI were not announced. The two said it (More info...)
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Mogreet Launches MMS Ad PlatformLos Angeles-based Mogreet, the mobile marketing and mobile video technology firm headed by James Citron, has launched a new product today, aimed at providing monetization of MMS messages. The firm said its new AdStitch mobile advertising service ads pre-roll and post-roll adds to MMS videos, which allows companies to combine advertisements with MMS video messages. The firm said the tool makes it simple for companies to generate advertising revenue from opt-in, MMS messaging campaigns. Mogreet sa (More info...)
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NetDNA Turns To NGINXLos Angeles-based content delivery network (CDN) provider NetDNA said late Monday evening that it has turned to the NGINX web server package for its web server software. NetDNA said it has standardized its NetDNA and MaxCDN services on NGINX, a developer of open source web servers which is being used by high volume websites such as WordPress and Hulu. Financial aspects of the deal were not announced.
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Gen-Probe Gets German Clearance On Hologic BuySan Diego-based Gen-Probe, the developer of molecular diagnostics products, and Massachusetts-based Hologic announced this morning that the two firms have received clearance from Germany's Federal Cartel Office for the acquisition of Hologic by Gen-Probe. The clearance is one of the hurdles the two firms have to complete the $3.7 billion acquisition of Hologic by Gen-Probe, announced originally in Paril.
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