Friday, August 2, 2013


MentorNight's Mentor List Tops 100
Are you a startup founder wishing you could find someone more experience to help meet other entrepeneurs, get some advice, and help you figure out the issues you face? One Los Angeles group, MentorNight, believes it now has the largest mentor network outside of the local accelerators and incubators, and now has over 100 mentors looking to help up and coming entrepreneurs. The group, which is headed by John Diep and Tony Karrer, said it's looking to provide a very curated way to create relationsh (More info...)
posted on Friday, August 2, 2013(Full story)

Amazon Studios Greenlights Five Kids' Pilots
Amazon Studios, the Los Angeles content production arm of Amazon.com, has given the green light on five new children's series pilots, the company said this week. According to Amazon Studios, it has given the green light to Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street, Grid Smasher, Hard-Boiled Eggheads, The Jo. B. & G. Raff Show, and Wishenpoof!. The new shows come from both newtimers and veterans of the entertainment industry. Among those are Angela Santomero (Wishenpoof!) who created Blue's Clues (More info...)
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How Yapert Puts All Your Interests In One Mobile App, With Phil Kelly
How do you keep up with everything that's happening with your favorite interests, brands, and personalities on your mobile phone? Right now, that's a jumble of different social services, websites, and more--which is the problem that Yapert (www.yapert.com) thinks it has solved. Yapert raised a funding round a few weeks ago from the Tech Coast Angels, Desert Angeles, and Pasadena Angels for its mobile apps, which consolidates news and information about your favorite interests. We caught up with C (More info...)
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PayDivvy Acquired By Higher One
Newport Beach-based PayDivvy, an online service which let groups split bills among each other, has been acquired by Higher One, a provider of student financial services company. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. PayDivvy had allowed users to split up bills--utilities, restaurant bills, other shared expenses--and handled collecting those various split bills between friends, roommates, and others. The firm was headed by Mike Melby.
posted on Friday, August 2, 2013(Full story)

Triton Digital In Ad Targeting Deal
Los Angeles-based Triton Digital said this week that it has partnered with targeting company Semcasting, to expand the targeting capabilities in its streaming audio advertisement exchange. Triton said the partnership allows the company to target listeners on any device, without using cookies. Financial details of the partnership were not announced. Semcasting provides targeting of consumers, providing demographic information, life stage, socio-economic, and other data on users.
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United Online Aims At October For FTD Split; Expands NetZero Broadband
Woodland Hills-based United Online announced Thursday that it now expects its spinoff of flower delivery service FTD by October 1st. The comany also said it has expanded its mobile broadband wholesale agreements with Verizon and Sprint, which it says will significantly expand coverage of its NetZero Mobile Broadband service. Financial details of those deals were not announced. NetZero said the deal gives its access to Sprint's 4G LTE and 3G networks. Among other details on the company's quarterl (More info...)
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ACTIVE Network Seeks Buyer
San Diego-based sports and activity registration provider Active Network appears to be looking for a buyer, or maybe an outside investment, saying yesterday that it has created a committee to evaluate "strategic transactions". The company said it has received interest from outside parties in both investment in ACTIVE Network to acquisition of the company. The disclosure came in Active Network's quarterly results. Active Network reported a net loss of $2.7M on revenues of $132.3M for the three mo (More info...)
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Life Technologies Opens Lab In India
Carlsbad-based biotechnology provider Life Technologies said Thursday that it has opened up a new lab in India. According to the company, it has opened up a new, DNA forensics laboratory in Gurgaon, India, to provide high-throughput DNA profiling services in India. The company said the lab will provide paternity testing, kinship testing, DNA profiling for database generation, and forensic DNA analysis to the Indian market.
posted on Friday, August 2, 2013(Full story)