Tuesday, May 7, 2013Viddy In Recap, To Return Some Funds, Says ReportA report Tuesday from AllthingsD says that once-hot Los Angeles startup Viddy is recapitalizing, and will return $18M of the $30M it raised a year ago. The report says that investors New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures, and Goldman Sachs will receive much of the money they invested in the company. The move comes as Viddy has refocused the company after a massive drop in traffic seen last year after a switchup in the way Facebook was delivering users to social video startups like Viddy. In (More info...)
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DFJ Frontier Bolsters Team With Media VetLos Angeles-based venture capital investment firm DFJ Frontier has significantly bolstered the company's team, saying Tuesday that it has added Merrill Brown--former founder of MSNBC--as a Venture Partner. DFJ Frontier said that Brown will be based in New York, and will work both on the East Coast and the Northwest. Brown is curerntly at the Montclair State University School of Communication and Media, where he also continue to serve, and prior to that also had served at Journalism Online (acqui (More info...)
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Demand Media Gets Second $100M+ QuarterSanta Monica-based online digital media publisher Demand Media keeps on getting bigger and bigger. The firm reported its latest quarterly results Tuesday, reporting $100.6M in total revenues, its second $100M plus quarter. The company also reported net income of $0.7M for its quarter, which ended March 31, 2013. The company said the growth in revenues came from "strong growth" on its owned & operated content and media properties, plus its acquisition of Creativebug, the arts and crafts instructi (More info...)
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Lynda.com's New Workplace Perk: Electric Car Charging StationTired of fighting for that extension cord in the parking lot? Carpinteria-based Lynda.com, the online video learning and instruction company, has added a new perk for its employees: the addition of an electric car charging station at its office. According to Lynda.com, it has become a partner in the Department of Energy's Workplace Charging Challenge, an effort to increase the number of employes who offer charging for plug-in electric vehicles. Lynda.com said it installed a charging station as (More info...)
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WD Partners With SanDisk On Solid State DrivesWD, the Irvine-based storage giant, is finally getting into the solid state disk drive market, via a new partnership with SanDisk, the two said today. According to the companies, they are collaborating on a new line of hybrid storage devices, which bundle together flash memory from SanDisk with hard drive technology from WD. Financial details of the link were not announced by the companies. According to WD and SanDisk, the new line of WD Black Solid State Hybrid Drives (SSHDs) fit into a 2.5 inc (More info...)
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TenFarms Gets $2.7M For Smartphone Advertising SoftwareLos Angeles-based TenFarms, the mobile application development startup headed by Nils Forsblom, announced this morning that it has raised $2.7M in an angel funding round, to launch a new mobile advertising product called Adtile to the market. TenFarms did not disclose the names of those angel investors. According to TenFarms, its new Adtile mobile advertising product is aimed at making it easy and simple to integrate apps into mobihle apps and websites; the firm says its product allows mobile ap (More info...)
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Quarterly Bolsters Contributors With Art, Design BloggerHollywood-based gifts-by-subscription service Quarterly Co. has added another contributor to its service, and art and design blogger named Christopher Jobson. Quaterly said that Jobson, which creates and edits the blog Colossal, has joined the service, letting subscribers receive a package every three months with personally curated gifts of things Jobson finds inspiring. Jobson's blog is focused on art, sculpture, photography, and design. Quarterly is venture backed by True Ventures, SV Angel, I (More info...)
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SendUs Debuts Crowdsourced Video PlatformAre you a company looking to find and promote user-generated videos around your brand? A new, Los Angeles startup, SendUs, launched its services to help brands manage user-generated video content this morning, saying that its platform helps companies leverage that user-generated content and turn it into videos for companies. According to SendUs, brands and companies can use its video platform to request specific videos from their audiences, and promote that through social networks. The platform (More info...)
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ProFlowers Connects Into eBaySan Diego-based online flower retailer ProFlowers said today that it is looking to make it easier for consumers to order fresh flowers, by connecting its services to online auction site eBay.com. Proflowers said it launched a new, online storefront on eBay, which will feature an assortment of fresh flower, plants, and other products. ProFlowers said it will also be including specially priced bouquets every week on its eBay store.
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Qualcomm Adds Silicon Valley Vet To BoardSan Diego-based Qualcomm said late Monday that it has added a Silicon Valley veteran, Jonathan Rubinstein, to its board of directors. Rubinstein was most recently SVP of Product Innovation for Hewlett-Packard, and headed up HP's Palm Global Business Unit; Rubinstein was Exec Chairman at Palm, Inc., until it was acquired by HP, and he also ran Apple's iPod division. Rubinstein also headed up Apple's iMac engineering teams, and served at Stardent Computer, NeXT Computer, and Firepower Systems. Rub (More info...)
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CraveOnline Snags Former Spin Media, Break Media ExecLos Angeles-based online men's publisher CraveOnline, which is part of Evolve Media, said today that it has named Mike Bender its Senior Vice President of Sales. Bender was formerly the VP of East Coast Sales for Spin Media (Buzz Media), and also served in a similar position for Break Media. Bender is based in New York. CraveOnline said that Bender also has served at ABC Television and Univision.
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