Monday, September 24, 2012MySpace Shows Off New, Sexy UIIn what looks like a plan by Specific Media to revamp the relevance of former social networking giant MySpace as a choice for social networking, the firm is showing a new video of a revamped user interface for the site. The user interface includes full screen graphics, modern styling, right left scrolling, Pinterest-style tagging and conversations, and much more. MySpace is pointing its users to the new video, but did not say when it expects to release the new user interface to users of the serv (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012(Full story)
Report: ShoeDazzle's Brian Lee Back As CEO In ShuffleLos Angeles-based ShoeDazzle, the online fashion and e-commerce site, is back in the hands of Brian Lee, according to a report from AllThingsD. According to the rpeort, CEO Bill Strauss has voluntarily resigned form the firm. No details on why Strauss has departed. Lee is Chairman of ShoeDazzle, which he founded with celebrity Kim Kardashian. Brian Lee is also head of the Honest Company, the eco-friendly products firm he runs with Jessica Alba; he's also well known for co-founding LegalZoom.
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012(Full story)
BUZZMEDIA Rises To Top In Traffic RankingLos Angeles-based BUZZMEDIA, the vast network of entertainment and music related blogs and websites, said that it is now number one in entertainment news, according to rankings from comScore. The company, which is run by Tyler Goldman, says it is now seeing more than 500 million monthly page views across its sites. The firm did not report number of monthly unique users. BUZZMEDIA has been growing out its network by buying popular blog sites that cover areas such as music and celebrities; the fir (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012(Full story)
FamilyFinds Dangles $20 Off $40 Honest Co. DealIt appears the new, subscription based deals and offers program--SuperFinds--from Los Angeles-based FamilyFinds is starting to send out special offers to its customers, with a deal to receive $40 in merchandise for only $20 from the new Jessica Alba online e-commerce venture, Honest Co.. An email sent to FamilyFinds members said that the $20 off $40 in Honest Co. offer is good only for members of the new, subscription SuperFinds service, which was announced in August. FamilyFinds is shifting it (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012(Full story)
Factual Bolsters Places DatasetLos Angeles-based Factual, the data API firm led by Gil Elbaz, has made a big enhancement to its Places dataset, the firm explained this morning, saying it has added over 80,000 landmarks (parks, memorials, historic building), 20,000 transport hubs (airports, rail stations, etc.) and 190,000 ATM location to its database. The firm said it now has over 23 million entities in the Us and 63 million places worldwide.
Factual's APIs and data set is used by mobile application developers and many othe (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012(Full story)
Hulu Plus Adds Content From WWEFans of the WWE have a new way to get content from the entertainment company--known for its professional wrestling personalities and contests--via Hulu Plus, the premium service of Los Angeles-based video site Hulu. The WWE said that it is in an exclusive, multi-year agreement to bring its content to Hulu Plus, offering unlimited instant streaming access, additional content and programming on-the-go, to all of the WWE's TV programming. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. WWE said the (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012(Full story)
Steelhouse Launches New Display Ad TechnologyLos Angeles-based SteelHouse, a promising ad technology company backed by Qualcomm Ventures, Daher Capital, Baroda Ventures, Greycroft Partners, and Rincon Venture Partners, has rolled out a new advertising technology today. The firm said that its new A2 (A-squared) product serves up interactive online advertising to Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad and Android devices, which it says brings high quality video to display ads. The firm said its new technology takes into account where people are located, pull (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012(Full story)
GroundMetrics Digs Up $1.2M For Oilfield TechnologySan Diego-based GroundMetrics announced today that it has raised $1.2M in a Series A financing round. The firm is developing electric field sensing technology used for oil field and energy geophysical survey applications. The funding came from the Tech Coast Angels; the company said the funding came earlier this year. GroundMetrics is headed by George Eiskamp. The company said the funding will go toward developing prototypes for its systems, and to help in validation at an oil field in the Middl (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012 (More)(Full story)
Tribogenics Gets $6.2MMarina Del Rey-based Tribogenics, the developer of X-ray technology being aimed at enabling handheld, ultra-miniature portable x-rays, has raised $6.2M in a Series A funding round, the firm said today. The round was led by the Founders Fund. The company, which is led by Dale Fox, said it will use the funding to hire additional engineers and scientists, and to expand its internal R&D facility. Tribogenics' technology---based on research out of UCLA--enables the generation of X-rays without need f (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012 (More)(Full story)
SocialEngine Adds Big Customers, Launches Hosted ServiceLos Angeles-based SocialEngine, the developer of discussion software headed by Alex Benzer, told its supporters this morning that it has added a number of big name customers, including MasterCard, Shell, Entrepreneur.com, and NASA. The company also said it has quietly soft-launched a new, software-as-a-service, hosted version of its service, SocialEngine Cloud. The new cloud-based service lets anyone create a community website, including discussion communities and more.
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012(Full story)
PCN Finds $5.25M For Ethernet Networking TechnologySan Diego-based PCN Technology, a developer of Ethernet and IP networking hardware, said this morning that it has raised $5.25M in a funding round. The firm said the round included its existing investors, executives, and board members, along with Enertech Capital and new individuals in San Diego. PCN's products include a managed Ethernet switch and routers.
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012 (More)(Full story)
Nirvanix Selected By IT Services Provider LogicalisSan Diego-based cloud storage firm has roped in Logicalis, a billion dollar IT solutions and managed solutions provider today, the company disclosed this morning. Nirvanix said that it will provide enterprise cloud storage services to Logicalis customers, expanding that firm's cloud solutions portfolio. Terms of the agreement were not announced. Logicalis will resell the Nirvanix cloud storage service for backup, archiving, collaboration, and disaster recovery for its customers.
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012(Full story)
Clearlake Capital Group Buys Mobile Device Management Firm MformationSanta Monica-based private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group said today that it has acquired substantially all of the assets of Mformation Software Technologies, a developer of mobile device management software. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Clearlake said the acquisition includes a "significant capital infusion" for the New Jersey company. Clearlake's Behdad Eghbali and Prashant Mehrotra are both joining Mformation's board with the acquisition and investment. Clearlake said i (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012(Full story)
Vitesse Opens New Office in ShanghaiCamarillo-based Vitesse Semiconductor is expanding in China today, saying it has opened up a new, Shanghai office. The firm said the new office will help it more closely support its customers in China. Vitsse did not say how big of an office it will be opening in the location.
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012(Full story)
Teledyne CFO Sets RetirementThousand Oaks-based Teledyne Technologies, the diversified electronics, instrumentation, aerospace, and engineered systems firm, said this morning that its Senior Vice President and CFO, Dale A. Schnittjer, is retiring. Schnittjer will step down on November 18th. Schnittjer joined Teledyne in 2004. The company said that it will be naming Wajid Ali as Corporate Vice PResident and Controller; Ali was previously at DALSA, which recently was acquired by Teledyne, and also headed up finances for a bu (More info...)
posted on Monday, September 24, 2012(Full story)