Tuesday, November 27, 2012JibJab Debuts Gangnam Style Christmas CardJibJab, the online humor and greeting card service run by Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, has scored a major coup, releasing a new card out of its "Starring You" line of personalized video greeting cards based on Gangnam Style. The new Gangnam Style Video Card features a user's head inserted directly into the original, viral Gangnam Style video, which can be sent to your friends and family (for free, in the case of this video). JibJab's "Starring You" cards were just tapped earlier this month by Ama (More info...)
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At The Pool Sets LaunchAt The Pool, the startup headed by Alex Capecelatro, is getting set for a big launch event Tuesday evening, as the firm launches its service to connect like-minded people in real life. The startup--formerly known as Hyphos--also disclosed that it has scored venture backing from Clearstone Venture Partners, Canyon Creek Capital, along with others. At The Pool said it now has members in every major U.S. city, and in more than 50 countries outside the US. At The Pool's founders are all out of UCLA.
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AnyMeeting Hits 250,000 Users, Adds FundingWeb conferencing serivce AnyMeeting said today that it has reached over 250,000 registered users for its service, which is aimed at small businesses, and also added additional funding. The firm, which is based in Huntington Beach, said that it has added addtional funding from the Sand Hill Angels and Keiretsu Forum, in addition to support from current Southern California investors. Size of that new funding round was not announced by the company. AnyMeeting offers up an online, web meeting servic (More info...)
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Nomadix, HP Settle Patent SuitAgoura Hills-based Nomadix said today that it has settled a patent infringement case it had filed against HP, covering the Nomadix patent portfolio. Financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed. According to Nomadix, the settlement includes a license to HP for key portions of its patent portfolio. Nomadix, which develops Internet gateway products, is now owned by DOCOMO interTouch. Nomadix had filed its original patent suit against HP in 2009, and had also named Wayport, Inc., iBAHN Corp (More info...)
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Insights and Opinions: What's In It For Me?
This morning in our Insights and Opinions section, we're featuring another article from Dave Berkus, an early stage investor here who has been sharing his advice via both his blog, Berkonomics.com, as well as through a new book, BASIC BERKONOMICS. Today, Dave talks about how to think like your employees, shareholders, customers, and others:
If you want to best describe the motivation behind the action, think "What's in it for me"? Your employees, your shareholders, your customers, and yo (More info...)
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Elon Musk's SolarCity Sets IPO Pricing RangeSouthern California entrepreneur Elon Musk has huge success this year, in (literally) getting commercial spaceflight firm SpaceX--based in Hawthorne--off the ground and into space, with a hugely successful set of flights to the International Space Station (ISS). However, it looks like Musk is not just happy with those successes, but is hoping to score another win before the end of the year: the IPO of one of his other companies--solar power financing firm SolarCity. SolarCity said Tuesday in a f (More info...)
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Fresh Dish Launches Dinner Delivery Service, Backed by ScienceDon't know what to make for dinner? The latest startup out of Santa Monica-based technology incubator Science, Inc., Fresh Dish, launched this morning, saying that it will solve that problem, by providing meal delivery service to families every week. The new service is aimed at helping consumers prepare fresh, healthy meals at home. The new company has raised $500K from Battery Ventures. Fresh Dish said its meals--which cost as low as $8 per meal per person--provides pre-prepped ingredients and (More info...)
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The Gores Group Buys UK FirmLos Angeles-based private equity firm The Gores Group said yesterday that it has acquired DMN Ltd., a mobile communications network engineering support and staffing provider, based in Swindon, UK. Financial terms of the buy were not announced. The acquisition came via Gores' Small Capitalization Partners fund. Gores said that DMN provides engineering and project management services to the mobile communications industry in the UK.
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Local Corporation Gets PatentIrvine-based Local Corporation, the operator of online local advertising websites, said today that it has been granted a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark office. The firm said the new patent, number 8,306,208, covers pay-per-call technology. The firm said its patent covers Enahnced Directory Assistance inquiries from mobile devices. According to the USPTO, the patent was granted on November 6th, and names William A. Montemer as inventor; the patent was originally filed way back in Augus (More info...)
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Quest Software Updates Email Analytics SoftwareAliso Viejo-based Quest Software, the enterprise software developer which is now owned by Dell, said it has upgraded its email analytics software, MessageStats. The firm said the upgraded software includes such features as an HTML5 front end, ability to detect, analyze, and investigate inappropriate use of corporate email, and more. Quest was acquired by Dell in a $2.4 billion acquisition in September.
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