Monday, May 13, 2013Lindzon Gets Exit At Lucky SortHoward Lindzon, the founder of San Diego-based stock-focused micromessaging service StockTwits, has finally sold a company to Twitter. No, it's not Stocktwits. Instead, one of his angel investments, Lucky Sort, has become part of Twitter in what looks to be an "acq-hire"--an acquisition to gain talent for the social networking service.
Lucky Sort, which develops data visualization and analytics tools for Twitter, announced the acquisition on its website Monday, saying that the firm's team wil (More info...)
posted on Monday, May 13, 2013(Full story)
Hack4LA Looks To Help Local Communities, GovernmentCan your software skills help make your local community a better place? Could doing some coding over a weekend help improve your local government? A local group, Hack4LA, thinks so, and has launched a "civic hackathon" where over $10,000 in prizes will be awarded to help use open data to address local or national challenges, aimed at helping out local communities and cities. This Hackathon--sponsored by such companies as Google, Scopely, ESRI, Factual, LA Makerspace, AT&T and others--is being he (More info...)
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Fans.lu Ties With Game Development Organization
Los Angeles-based Fans.lu, a developer of an e-commerce storefront to help game companies sell merchandise such as shirts, hats, posters, and more directly to their gamer fans, said over the weekend that it has partnered with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). According to the two, current and future members of the IGDA will receive a discount on the initial store setup fee for Fans.lu.
Fans.lu is the brainchild of David Padula, Derek Padula, and Dave Delaney, who have cr (More info...)
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MaxLinear Gets Design Win At HitronCarlsbad-based radio frequency (RF) and mixed signal IC developer MaxLinear reported a design win today, with Hitron Technologies Americas. MaxLinear said that Hitron has selected one of its digital cable front-end receivers for a family of DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems and gateways. Shipment volumes and financial impact of the deal was not disclosed. Hitron has operations in China, the Netherlands, and the USA, and sells DOCSIS products to the telecommunications industry.
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Greentoe Lands Angel Funding
Los Angeles-based Greentoe.com, which operates an online marketplace which lets people name their own price for electronics and other items, has raised a round of angel funding, the firm said today. The funding came from Parker Thompson from 500 Startups/Dave McClure. Size of the funding was not announced.
According to Greentoe, it will use the funding for marketing of the site, including a multi-platform advertising campaign across the web, television, and
mobile. The company said it is o (More info...)
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Netflix, Disney In UK, Ireland Streaming DealNetflix and the Walt Disney Company announced this morning that the two have reached a deal to bring live action and animated films from Disney to Netflix customers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. According to the two, Disney films such as Ratatouille, Wall-E, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, plus classics like Dumbo and the Aristocats will be available to watch instantly. Financial details of the deal between the companies were not announced.
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Teledyne Buys Axiom ICThousand Oaks-based Teledyne Technologies announced this morning that it has acquired Axiom IC B.V., a fabless semiconductor firm developing high performance, CMOS mixed signal integrated circuits. Financial details of the buy were not announced. Axiom IC was based in Enschede, the Netherlands, and develops analog to digital converters, signal processing, and other chips for the space systems, wireless communications, automotive, and medical technology market. Teledyne said it made the acquisiti (More info...)
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Transphorm Names New CEOGoleta-based Transphorm, the developer of Gallium Nitride (GaN) power conversion technology and devices, said today that it has named Fumihide "Humi" Esaka as its new CEO. Esaka is currently the CEO of Nihon Inter Electronics Corporation (NIEC), and also has served at International Rectifier. Current CEO Umesh Mishra will become Chairman and CTO of the company. Transphorm is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and is developing power conversion products which it says are far more efficie (More info...)
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VCheck Global Claims GrowthLos Angeles-based Vcheck Global, one of the firms founded by serial entrepreneur Shai Stern, said over the weekend that it doubled its revenues and clients in Q1. The provider of business-to-business due diligence and background check services said the growth came from the securities industry, financial services, and factoring institutions. Vcheck Global is headed by Michael Adams; its chairman is Shai Stern, who founded Vintage Filings, which he sold to PR Newswire back in 2007.
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