Tuesday, December 3, 2013Upfront Re-Ups On DatasiftLos Angeles-based venture investor Upfront Ventures has re-upped its investment in San Francisco-based social data provider Datasift. Datasift said it raised $42M Tuesday morning, led by Insight Venture Partners
and also including prior investors Scale Venture Partners, Upfront Ventures, IA Ventures, Northgate Capital, Daher Capital and Cendana Capital. Upfront led Datasift's first round, back in 2011, when it was known as GRP Partners. Datasift was one of the first Twitter-themed investments m (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, December 3, 2013 (More)(Full story)
Digital Insight Acquired By NCR For $1.65 BillionDigital Insight, the developer of online banking software which has major operations in Westlake Village, has just been sold to NCR, in the second sale of the company this year. NCR Corporation said it paid $1.65 billion for Digital Insight from Thoma Bravo, which just bought Digital Insight in July from Intuit for $1.025 billion. NCR said the buy will help it form a "complete enterprise software platform" for the banking industry. Digital Insight had been acquired by Intuit back in 2007.
posted on Tuesday, December 3, 2013(Full story)
Factual Partners With Ad Exchange SmaatoLos Angeles-based Factual, which is increasingly focusing its data collection and API efforts on location data, and real-time mobile ad exchange Smaato said today that they are in a strategic partnership. The two said that Smaato will use Factual's Geopulse Audience product to enhance mobile ad inventory in its RTB exchange. Financial details of the deal were not announced. Smaato is tapping into the vast trove of data Factual is collecting on businesses, and combining that with demographic info (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, December 3, 2013(Full story)
PromoJam Powers Instagram Promotion For Carlton HotelLos Angeles-based social marketing software developer PromoJam said today that it is powering a digital, "Instagram Holiday Tree" for The Carlton Hotel in New York City, Caravan Stylist Studio, and 30 NYC fashion designers. PromoJam did not announce financial impact of the win. PromoJam said its software is being used as part of the Digital Instagram Holiday Tree, which showcases Instagram pictures taken by participating designers of their holiday ornaments--a replica of the actual ornaments bei (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, December 3, 2013(Full story)
Payoff.com Raises $7.0M For Personal Finance EffortsLong Beach-based Payoff.com, a startup which operates an online service that helps user pay off debt and save money via online rewards, social tools, and peer pressure, has raised $7.0M in a funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the company. The funding is part of an effort kicked off earlier this year by the company. Details and source of the funding have not yet been announced by the company, which is led by Scott Saunders.
posted on Tuesday, December 3, 2013(Full story)
OnAssignment Buys CyberCoders For $105MCalabasas-based temporary staffing firm OnAssignment said Monday that it has acquired technology recruiting firm CyberCoders, in a deal worth $105M. OnAssignment also acquired physician staffing firm Whitaker Medical and sold off one of its staffing businesses. According to OnAssignment, it paid $94M in cash plus earn out of $11M for CyberCoders, which will become a division of On Assignment. Heidi Golledge, President and CEO, and Matt Miller, Chief Technology Officer, will continue to oversee d (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, December 3, 2013(Full story)
M-GO Launches Gift Cards Into SupermarketsLos Angeles-based movie streaming service M-GO--the joint venture of DreamWorks Animation and Technicolor--said today that it has launched new, M-GO branded gift cards into Safeway and other national retail supermarket chains. The gift cards, which are available today, let consumers purchase films and television shows from M-Go. M-GO--unlike streaming video providers like Netflix, Amazon, and others--offers up pre-DVD availability and similarly timed releases of movies in a digital format, albei (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, December 3, 2013(Full story)
WD Ties With BaiduIrvine-based storage developer WD said this morning that it has tied with Baidu, and will tie Baidu's public cloud storage service, Baidu Yun, into its hard drive offerings. Financial details of the link were not announced. According to the two, WD's My Cloud personal cloud drives will allow Chinese consumers to transfer their content to and from Baidu Yun. The two said that Baidu Yun has more than 100 million users.
posted on Tuesday, December 3, 2013(Full story)
Xencor Prices IPOMonrovia-based biopharmaceuticals developer Xencor said this morning that it has priced its IPO, at $5.50 per share, and will start trading today on the NASDAQ Global Market as XNCR. Xencor sold 12,730,000 shares of its common stock in the IPO. Xencor was venture backed by MedImmune Ventures, HealthCare Ventures, and others.
posted on Tuesday, December 3, 2013(Full story)
Evolve Media Snags Break Media Content VetLos Angeles-based Evolve Media said late Monday that it has named Mitch Rotter as Senior Vice President of Marketing. Rotter joins the company from Break Media, where he was Execuktive Vice President of Programming, in charge of Break Media's in-house creative agency and production arm, Creative Lab. Evolve Media said that Rotter will head up its marketing efforts, plus its vertical publishing divisions CraveOnline Media and TotallyHer Media. Rotter previously also served at Universal Music Grou (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, December 3, 2013(Full story)