Wednesday, December 19, 2012Domain Associates, Rusnano Boost Three Firms By $93MSan Diego-based venture capital firm Domain Associates and its Russian partner, Rusnano, have put part of their $760M, late stage investment fund to work, investing a total of $93M in funding in three portfolio companies of Domain. The two said Wednesday that they have invested $21M in
Marinus Pharmaceuticals, $20.6M in Lithera, $51M in Regado Biosciences as part of the funding effort. The two firms said that, to date, they have invested more than $130M of their fund. Domain Associates put toge (More info...)
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Givit Enhances Twitter Integration, DropBox Importing ToolsGivit, the developer of mobile apps which let users create and share videos on their iPhone, has bolstered Twitter integration and importing tools for the software. The San Diego firm said that the new integration now allows users to share videos via Twitter and display video directly inside their tweets; added new importing tools which make it easy for users to migrate full video libraries from SkyDrive and Dropbox; and also improve video clipping and other features of the software. Givit, whic (More info...)
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ParkMe Competitor Finds FundingSanta Monica-based Parkme, the developer of smartphone applications which help users find real-time parking information, has a new, funded competitor: ParkWhiz.com. ParkWhiz, based in Chicago, said Wednesday that it has raised $2M in a Series A funding. The funding came from Hyde Park Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels, Amicus Capital, Alexis Ohanian, Garry Tan, Henry J. Feinberg and Amreesh Modi. ParkMe is funded by Fontinalis Partners and IDG Ventures.
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THQ Files For BankruptcyAgoura Hills-based vidoegame maker THQ has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and is now seeking a buyer, according to the company Wednesday. THQ said that it has entered into an asset purchase agreement with affiliate of Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. to acquire "substantially all" of its operating business, including all four of its studios and games in development. As part of the move, THQ said it has received commitments for debtor-in possession (DIP) financing of approximately $37.5 million, s (More info...)
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Infographic: Social Media Spurring E-Commerce Activity
A new study of social media activity and e-commerce, compiled from Los Angeles social tools developer Social Annex, shows that social media is--not surprisingly--playing a far bigger role in online shopping this year. The company analyzed social networking activity, and found that roughly 66 percent of users who made Black Friday / Cyber Monday purchases did so as a result of social media interaction, with 86 percent of social user making or receiving holiday gift recommendations via social ne (More info...)
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Allergan Completes SkinMedica BuyIrvine-based Allergan said today that it has completed its $350M acquisition of Carlsbad-based SkinMedica, the developer of aesthetic skin care products. The acquisition had been announced on November 12th. As part of the acquisition, SkinMedica said it has spun out its Colorescience aesthetic make-up business as a new company. SkinMedica was venture backed by Apax Partners, Domain Associates, EuclidSR Partners, HealthCare Ventures, Montagu Newhall Associates, Montreux Equity Partners, Perseus- (More info...)
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Focus@will Aims To Help Users Focus, Using MusicDo you have a hard time concentrating and keeping on task, particularly for concentration intensive tasks like writing, coding, and reading? A new Los Angeles Startup, focus@will, said this morning that it has launched a private beta of a service to do just that, by using music. The company--led by Will Henshall--said it is using productivity research to deliver music to help users focus on tasks, based on musical key, arrangements, intensity, and other factors. The startup said it will launch f (More info...)
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Tubular Labs Finds $2.5M MoreTubular Labs, the developer of analytics tools for YouTube networks--which is backed by a significant number of Los Angeles angel investors--has added another, $2.5M to its warchest in a new funding. The firm--which was seeded by Allen DeBevoise of Machinima, Matt Coffin of LowerMyBills, Paul Bricault of Amplify.LA, along with others--said the new funds come from FirstMark Capital, High Line Venture Partners, SVAngel, Lerer Ventures, and Bedrocket Media Ventures. Tubular Labs provides services t (More info...)
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MarkedUp Debuts Windows 8 Analytics ToolsMarkedUp, the latest startup out of Santa Monica-based MuckerLab, said this morning that it has begun offering up analytics for developers of both desktop and mobile applications for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. The startup--led by former Microsoft Developer Evangelist Aaron Stannard--said this morning that it is looking to provide app developers with actionable user insights and behavioral data, which can help them improve their user experience and maximize conversions of users from free to p (More info...)
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How Honey Offers A Shortcut To Savings, with Ryan HudsonAs an online shopper, do you wish you could instantly and automatically find and use all of those coupon codes floating out there--without having to search for and test them all out every time you're at an e-commerce site? That's exactly what the software from Honey (www.joinhoney.com) does, by automatically helping users of Google's Chrome Browser to find and try out e-commerce coupon codes. We spoke with Ryan Hudson, one of the co-founders of the Pasadena company, to learn more about the tool. (More info...)
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Newport Media Gets $10M In Venture DebtLake Forest-based Newport Media, a developer of wireless semiconductors for the broadcast media industry, has received $10M in a venture loan, according to the firms providing the financing. The loan came from Horizon Technology Finance Corporation and Bridge Bank. The two said that $7M of the loan came from Horizon, with the other $3M from Bridge Bank. Terms of the loans were not announced. The funding will go towards supporting growth at Newport Media. Newport Media is headed by Mony Abdelgany (More info...)
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Shopatron Partners With eCommerce FirmSan Luis Obispo-based Shopatron said today that it has linked with e-commerce firm Intershop as a partner. The two did not announce details of the partnership, but said the link would give Intershop clients with access to Shopatron's advanced distributed order management capabilities. Shopatron's e-commerce technology allows brands and manufacturers to take orders online, with fulfillment through their normal channel and local retailers. Intershop's clients include HP, BMW, Bosch, Otto, Deutsche (More info...)
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Evolve Media Sells SheKnows.comLos Angeles-based Evolve Media Corp. said this morning that it is selling its SheKnows.com property to a private equity firm. Financial details of the sale, and the name of the private equity buyer, were not announced. Evolve Media said that it originally acquired SheKnows.com in 2006, when it was a five person company with 600,000 unique visitors per month. The online publisher said that SheKnows.com now has more than 41 million unique visitors each month, and employs more than 100 people. Evo (More info...)
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KYTHERA Biopharmaceuticals Unlocks Shares for CEO DonationIn an unusual move, Los Angeles-based KYTHERA Biopharmaceuticals said it has released shares of ts stock ahead of lock-up restrictions for the CEO--for a charitable donation. KYTHERA, which had its IPO in October, is still well within the usual sixth month lockup period for employees. The firm said that J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Goldman, Sachs & Co. are releaing 7,563 shares of the company's common stock held by CEO KEith Leonard, to allow a charitable donation to a not-for-profit entity. N (More info...)
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