Monday, February 24, 2014


Doremi Labs Acquired By Dolby
Burbank-based Doremi Labs, a developer of digital video playback hardare, servers, format converters, and other products, has been acquired by Dolby Laboratories, the two said late Monday, in a deal worth $112.5M after earn out. According to Dolby, it will pay $92.5M in cash plus an additional $20M in contingent consideration over the next four years. Doremi Labs--which was founded in 1985--develops media server hardware, digital cinema players, theater management systems, post production equipm (More info...)
posted on Monday, February 24, 2014(Full story)

Adform Sets Up Shop In LA
European advertising platform developer Adform said today that it has set up a new sales and support office in Los Angeles, as it looks to expand into the United States. Adform, which says it supplies technology to European media agencies, trading desks, advertisers and publishers, said the new office is part of an effort to offer U.S.-based clients access to its programmatic platform. Los Angeles and the surrounding region is both a major market for online advertising, as well as a source of t (More info...)
posted on Monday, February 24, 2014(Full story)

Burstly Acquired By Apple
Los Angeles-based Burstly, the developer of app analytics and testing software, has quietly been acquired by Apple. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. The acquisition is not a surprise to Apple app developers, who have widely adopted the company's tools. The company has said that over half the apps in the Apple App store use its tools. Burstly was venture backed by GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, SoftBank Capital, and Founder Collective, and was led by Evan Rifkin. Burstly ac (More info...)
posted on Monday, February 24, 2014(Full story)

ReachLocal Open Sources Mobile App Development Framework
Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, which offers up local, online marketing services for small and medium sized businesses, said this morning that it has released a chunk of software to the open source community, to help others develop cross-platform, mobile apps. ReachLocal said its open source framework, LigerMobile, was originally developed to power its ReachEdge mobile app for Android and iOS. The move looks to be ReachLocal's first large scale, open source effort. The company said it hoped tha (More info...)
posted on Monday, February 24, 2014(Full story)

Avalon Ventures Gets Exit At Cloudant
San Diego-based venture investor Avalon Ventures has scored an exit this morning, after IBM said it has acquired Boston-based Cloudant, a developer of a NoSQL-based, cloud-based database. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Cloudant had been backed by Avalon Ventures, Devonshire Investors, In-Q-Tel, Rackspace, Samsung, and Toba Capital, and had only raised around $14.0M in funding.
posted on Monday, February 24, 2014(Full story)

Blackstone Expands Student Entrepreneurship Program To SoCal
Private equity investment firm Blackstone said Friday that it is expanding its university entrepreneurship program, Blackstone LaunchPad, to Southern California. Blackstone's charity arm, the Blackstone Charitable Foundation, runs the program, which aims to introduce entrepreneurship as a "viable career option" to university studnts, across five other parts of the country. Blackstone said it is supplying a $3.5M grant, to be given to a partnership including UCLA, UC Irvine, USC, and the Los (More info...)
posted on Monday, February 24, 2014(Full story)

Boingo Enables Login Via iOS Passpoint
Los Angeles-based wireless network provider Boingo Wireless announced an updated wireless hotspot service today across its network of 21 airports in the US, saying that it has now tied its service into Apple's iOS Passpoint feature. Boingo said the move gives users on iOS 7 devices instant access to networks at those airports. Passpoint automatically handles login of users into wireless networks, without requiring users to log in manually. Boingo operates a large network of Wi-Fi access points, (More info...)
posted on Monday, February 24, 2014(Full story)

DTS Ties With Loudspeaker Manufacturers
Calabasas-based audio technology provider DTS said over the weekend that it has linked with two, loudspeaker manufacturers, who are rolling out Play-fi enabled wireless speakers. DTS said that AmTRAN Technology and Hansong Technology are both developing DTS-certified, reference designs using the DTS Play-Fi, wireless speaker technology. DTS has been looking to challenge competitors like Sonos and others with its own, wireless speaker design, which it is licensing to multiple partners. Play-Fi is (More info...)
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Virgin Galactic Names New CFO
Mojave-based commercial spaceflight company Virgin Galactic said Friday that it has named John S. Rego as the company's new Chief Financial Officer. Rego joins the company from AppSense, a UK-based enterprise software company, and also served as EVP, CFO, and treasurer of Vonage. Rego also has served at Petra Solar, RCN Corporation, and Winstar Communications. Virgin Galactic--ownd by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group--is developing commercial spaceflight vehicles, aimed at delivering tourists (More info...)
posted on Monday, February 24, 2014(Full story)

Lytx Adds Big Freight Operator
San Diego-based driver safety systems developer Lytx reported this morning that it has scored a big win with freight and shipping company Con-way Freight. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. Lytx--until recently known as DriveCam--develops video-based vehicle monitoring systems. Lytx said Con-way Freight has rolled out its systems to more than 8,500 vehicles. Lytx combines video with other sensors to track the driving behavior of drivers, to help improve driver safety.
posted on Monday, February 24, 2014(Full story)