Friday, September 14, 2012


Epicor Buys Solarsoft
Epicor Software, the business and manufacturing software developer, said this week that it has acquired Solarsoft Business Systems. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Solarsoft is a developer of midmarket, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and was backed by Los Angeles-based private equity firm Marlin Equity Partners. Epicor is the combination of what was Irvine-based Epicor and Dublin, California-based Activant after an acquisitoin by Apax Partners, and is now run out of (More info...)
posted on Friday, September 14, 2012(Full story)

Friday Video: Storybots' Letter N
What do get when you combine the creative sensibilities of JibJab with children's educational content? You get this: the Letter N ABC Song, from StoryBots, the new project of JibJab's Evan and Gregg Spiradellis. (More video from Southern California's startup in our new video section.
posted on Friday, September 14, 2012(Full story)

AMP Turns To Crowdfunding For Sustainable Business Networking
A new, Santa Monica-based startup, AMP, is hoping that crowdfunding will bring its bookmarking site and file exchange site for those interested in sustainability to life. The startup--started by Sarah McKinney and John Lehnert--said it turned to IndieGogo for fundraising as a way to scale its site past beta. The site--in part, inspired by sites such as Santa Monica's DocStoc--hopes to become a place where people working on environmental and social progress can connect with others and other info (More info...)
posted on Friday, September 14, 2012(Full story)

Amazon Starts Collecting Sales Taxes From Californians At Midnight
Online e-commerce giant Amazon.com will start collecting sales taxes from California residents at midnight today, as a result of a deal the firm made with the State of California last year. The move--which has been widely reported to have spurred a last minute buying binge from Californians--comes as a result of aggressive move by the legislature to recoup lost taxes from out-of-state e-commerce sales. California is just one of the states across the nation which has come to view Amazon as a pote (More info...)
posted on Friday, September 14, 2012(Full story)

Qualcomm Gets Japanese Design Win
San Diego-based Qualcomm said this morning that its Gobi 4G/LTE modem has been implemented in a mobile broadband router designed for Japan. Qualcomm said its chipset will be used in the SoftBank 102Z, a device designed by Chinese telecommunications provider ZTE. Qualcomm did not detail expected shipping volumes and impact of the win. The new device is using the Gobi MDM9215 chipset, which provides LTE connectivity, and is targeted at such applications as mobile hotspots.
posted on Friday, September 14, 2012(Full story)

Autobytel Adds Ally Financial CEO To Board
Irvine-based online automotive information site Autobytel said Thursday that it has added the CEO of automotive lending firm Ally Financial (formerly GMAC Financial Services) to its board of directors. Autobytel said that Michael A. Carpenter joins the board and also becomes a member of its audit committee. Carpenter also previously served as CEO of Citigroup Alternative Investments, founded Southgate Alternative Investments, and headed up Travelers Life & Annuity, in addition to serving at Kidd (More info...)
posted on Friday, September 14, 2012(Full story)