Monday, August 27, 2012Sapphire Energy In Production In New MexicoSan Diego-based Sapphire Energy, the heavily venture backed developers of biofuels technology, reported this morning that it has completed the first phase of its facility in New Mexico, and has begun producing crude oil at the plant. The company said that so far, the facility has harvested 81 tons of biomass at the facility. Sapphire--which raised a huge, $144M venture funding round in April--said the commercial algae-to-energy facility is expected to produce 1.5 million gallons per year of crud (More info...)
posted on Monday, August 27, 2012(Full story)
Winklevoss Twins Set Up Shop In LAWho are the latest folks looking to connecting into the Los Angeles technology scene? No other than the Winklevoss Twins, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, according to a report from TMZ today, which said the two have purchased a house in the Hollywood Hills and are looking to launch an arm of their investment firm, Winklevoss Capital, thanks to the booming tech scene here. TMZ said the two purchased an $18M home -- thanks in part to $65M from a settlement with Mark Zuckerberg, over their role in th (More info...)
posted on Monday, August 27, 2012(Full story)
BUZZMEDIA Buys Four Punk Rock BlogsLos Angeles-based BUZZMEDIA, the growing online music publisher, reported this morning that it has acquired four punk rock sites, which it will use to create a new punk music group called AbsoluteVoices. BUZZMEDIA said it acquired Under The Gun Review, Alter The Press!, Punknews.org and PropertyOfZack, which it will join with its current AbsolutePunk punk rock news site under the AbsoluteVoices brand. Financial terms of the buys were not announced. Punknews.org was founded in 1998, providing onl (More info...)
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FamilyFinds Launches SuperFinds Membership ProgramLos Angeles-based FamilyFinds, the online daily deals and family-oriented coupons service backed by Matt Coffin, looks to be transitioning its model from the standard, buy-a-special-deal program that daily deals services like Groupon and LivingSocial have used, and is moving towards a membership-based program. FamilyFinds told its email subscribers today that it has launched Superfinds, a new membership program which will provide access to its deals, without requiring users to purchase those ind (More info...)
posted on Monday, August 27, 2012(Full story)
Fandango: Mobile Drives Best Summer, EverMobile consumers drove what Los Angeles-based movie ticketing and information site Fandango says is its best summer in its history today, as mobile purchases drove a 26 percent year-to-year increase in ticket sales on the service. According to Fandango, mobile ticket sales increased 116 percent over the past year, more than doubling, and now are more than 30 percent of all of its ticket sales. Fandango has been reporting that its mobile apps have been driving a big surge in its sales in the last (More info...)
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OpenX Partners On Japanese Mobile AdvertisingLos Angeles-based online advertising technology firm OpenX and Japanese firm CyberWing Corporation announced this morning that the two have launched a new, private advertising exchange aimed at the Japanese mobile market. The two said they expect to launch the advertising exchange in the second half of the year. Financial terms of the deal were not announced. CyberWing is a subsidiary of NEC BIGGLOBE, and represents a number of Japanese Internet Service Providers, including BIGGLOBE, Nifty Corpo (More info...)
posted on Monday, August 27, 2012(Full story)
Decoding the Secret of iPhone Game Popularity, With William Volk, PlayscreenIt's an intensely competitive market in developing games for the iPhone and other mobile platforms, with thousands and thousands of titles competing for attention from users. How do you figure out how to get past all of that noise, and create a popular title? We had the chance to speak with William Volk, Chief Creative Officer of Playscreen (www.playscreen.com), who talked how his company is looking to crack the code with Crickler 2: Daily Word Puzzle, which is among the most popular puzzle game (More info...)
posted on Monday, August 27, 2012(Full story)
Nasty Gal Gets $40M For Women's Fashion SiteLos Angeles-based vintage fashions firm Nasty Gal has raised $40M in a funding round, from sole investor Index Ventures, the firm disclosed over the weekend. According to Forbes, the company, headed by Sophia Amoruso, is set to hit $128M in sales this year, quadrupling it revenues from last year. Nasty Gal raised $9M in March, and offers up clothing, shoes, accessories, and other products to women.
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Nirvanix Teams With Cloud Storage Array ProviderSan Diego cloud storage provider Nirvanix has teamed up with a provider of cloud-based storage arrays, TwinStrata, to provide a "cloud storage start kit" for enterprise customers. The two companies said today that they are shipping a pre-tested, integrated cloud storage system which combines 50TB of Nirvanix cloud storage, with the TwinStrata CloudArray, a product which connects enterprises into cloud storage. The two said the product will cost $48,000 a year, providing enterprise customers with (More info...)
posted on Monday, August 27, 2012(Full story)
MaxLinear Wins Panasonic DesignCarlsbad-based MaxLinear, the developer of mixed signal and RF integrated circuits, reported a design win this morning with Panasonic Corporation. Maxlinear said that Panasonic is using its product as part of a reference design for DVB-T2 set-top boxes.
posted on Monday, August 27, 2012(Full story)