Monday, October 8, 2012Insights and Opinions: Co-Marketing or Joint Venture?As part of our Insights and Opinions section on our site, we regularly feature advice from entrepreneurs, investors, attorneys, and many others on a variety of topics of interest to high tech companies. Today, we have an article from Greg Akselrud of Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP, who talks about some of his thoughts on deciding between co-marketing and a joint venture.
Co-marketing arrangements present a wealth of opportunities to expand your business. They allow business owners to expand (More info...)
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World of Warcraft Hacked By PlayersWorld of Warcraft, the massively multiplayer online game run by Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment, suffered an in-game hack which resulted in a mass (virtual) bloodbath, where thousand and thousands of players and characters were slaughtered over the weekend. The hack--which apparently was quickly fixed by the firm--resulted in piles and piles of skeletons across the game due to a "kill hack". Blizzard Entertainment, which is a unit of Activision Blizzard, suffered a more serious external hack (More info...)
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Moviepilot Sets Up Office In Venice, Hires Two ExecsMoviepilot, which operates an online movie discovery site, said last week that it has opened up an office on Abbot Kinney in Venice, California, as part of its expansion into Los Angeles. The firm--which has been booting up operations in LA since May--said it has hired Amy Elkins as EVP Strategy and Advertising, and Amy Smith as Director of Advertising. Elkins joins the firm from MEC, where she had run interactive media campaigns for Paramount and Dreamworks. Smith was previously at Amazon Media (More info...)
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Green Dot Shares Hit By Amex, Walmart DealMonrovia-based prepaid card provider Green Dot was being battered in the markets this morning, after Walmart and American Express announced a deal to create a new, prepaid card called Bluebird. Walmart and Amex said the new, reloadable prepaid card will have no monthly, annual, or overdraft fees and be distributed via Walmart's stores. Green Dot--one of Southern California's startup success stories--rose to prominence via its relationship with Walmart, which has been its biggest source of custom (More info...)
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Elon Musk's SolarCity Files For IPOIt's been a big weekend for tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, after another successful launch Sunday from his commercial spaceflight firm, SpaceX--based in Hawthorne--and, it turns out, another IPO filing for Musk. SolarCity, a Bay Area provider of solar power financing, filed for an IPO Friday, saying that it is looking to raised $201.25M in an IPO on the NASDAQ Global Market as SCTY. It turns out that Musk owns 31.9 percent of SolarCity, which was founded by his cousins, Lyndon and Peter Rive. Musk (More info...)
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Boingo Inks Wi-fi Sponsorship Deal With MicrosoftLooking for free Wi-Fi in New York City or San Francisco? A new deal between Boingo Wireless, the Los Angeles Wi-Fi hotspot operator, and Microsoft will provide free Boingo Wi-Fi at locations in New York an San Francisco, Boingo said today. Boingo said the free Wi-Fi comes as part of a promotion for Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Boingo said the free access is available now, and runs through the end of the year; the deal comes thank (More info...)
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YouTube Injects $200M Into More ContentIn what can only be good news for the ecosystem of content providers and startup firms here in Southern California, Google's YouTube said Sunday that it is expanding into Europe, and adding more than 50 original channels to the 100 it introduced last year. The company is reportedly also investing another $200M in its channel efforts, on top of the $100M effort it kicked off last year. That original investment has skyrocketed a large number of Southern California, content focused startups to the (More info...)
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Cornerstone OnDemand Goes MobileSanta Monica-based Cornerstone OnDemand, the developer of cloud-based HR and talent management software, has expanded its offerings, saying it has a new set of mobile applications. Cornerstone OnDemand said it now offers up mobile applications for its enterprise and mid-seized, as well as small business customers. The new set of apps include Cornerstone Mobile aimed at its enterprise/mid-sized customers, and CSB Mobile for small businesses. The enterprise app is being targeted for release in Nov (More info...)
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Virgin Galactic Takes Full Ownership Of JVMojave-based Virgin Galactic, the commercial spaceflight firm owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, said late Friday that it has acquired 100 percent ownership of its sister company, The Spaceship Company (TSC). Virgin Galactic said it acquired the 30 percent stake in the joint venture which had been owned by partner Scaled Composites. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Virgin Galactic said the buy marks the "successful completion" of its development phase of its WhiteKnightTw (More info...)
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Rumor: Cooking.com Slashes Staff, Seeks BuyerMarina Del Rey-based Cooking.com is looking for a buyer, and has recently laid off at least sixteen staff, according to a reader tip. The anonymous tipster said that an interim management team is now seeing to sell the company after a severe layoff by its investors. Multiple phone calls and emails to the firm either bounced or were not returned by the company over the last week, and attempts to reach the firm's marketing and public relations contacts for comment have failed. Cooking.com operates (More info...)
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NeuroGeneration Opens Office In La JollaNeurogeneration, a developer of stem cell therapeutics, said Friday that it has opened up a new division in La Jolla. The firm--which is developing treatments for Parkinson's disease--said its new La Jolla laboratories will be headed by Dr. Mohamedia Kagalwala, previously at The Salk Institute. Neurogeneration said Kagalwala will head up its new Division of Biotherapeutics and Drug Discovery.
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CareFusion Buys Brazilian CompanySan Diego-based CareFusion, which develops a wide range of medical products, said today that it has acquired a Brazilian company, Intermed Equipamento Medico Hospitalar Ltda. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Intermed is based in Sao Paulo, and designs, manufactures, and markets ventilators and respiratory care products.
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