Monday, July 28, 2014Hulu In Deal With 'Manhattan'Los Angeles-based Hulu said Monday that it has signed a deal for subscription, video-on-demand rights to the new television show "Manhattan." Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Hulu said it will make new episodes of season one of the series following the Sunday night airing on WGN America. The deal also will provide the five, most recently broadcast episodes of the series available for free on Hulu.com. Manhattan is a drama set in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in the age of the atomic b (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 28, 2014(Full story)
Eventure Interactive Finds $4.1 MillionCosta Mesa-based Eventure Interactive, a developer of social, photo sharing applications, said last week that it has raised $4.1M in funding from Kodiak Capital Group as well as angels. The funding said $3M of the funding came from private equity group Kodiak Capital Group, with the remainder from family offices and high net worth individuals. Eventure is led by Gannon Giguiere. The firm is OTCBB listed.
posted on Monday, July 28, 2014(Full story)
European Commission Gives Nod To Beats DealThe European Commission said today that it has given approval to Apple Computer's acquisition of Santa Monica-based Beats Electronics. The European Commission said that the move did not raise any competition concerns for the regulator. Apple agreed to pay $3 billion for Beats back in May. The deal includes both the headphone electronics business and streaming music business of Beats.
posted on Monday, July 28, 2014(Full story)
Fonality: More Than A Business Phone System, with David Scult
In an intensely competitive area, how do you differentiate yourself and grow a company?
With around a hundred employees in Los Angeles, and $40M in revenues, Fonality (www.fonality.com) --a developer of voice-over-IP phone software and systems--has managed to rise above the crowd of commodity voice-over-IP and PBX service providers. We spoke with David Scult, the company's CEO, to learn more about what the company is doing nowdays. Editor's note: we're cross posting this on our Texas site, as (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 28, 2014(Full story)
Slacker Rolls Out Amazon Fire Phone AppSan Diego-based streaming music and radio company Slacker was one of the companies rolling out a new, Amazon Fire Phone app last week, as Amazon.com launched its own smartphone on AT&T. Slacker said last week that it has released a new version of its music app, specifically aimed to take advantage of Amazon's new smartphone platform. The new app is free. Slacker offers us a large number of radio-style channels and songs, including news stations, sports and talk shows, plus curated music channels (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 28, 2014(Full story)
Ceres Gets Funding From BrazilThousand Oaks-based agricultural biotech developer Ceres said this morning that its product development programs in Brazil are now being funded in part by that country. Ceres said it is expanding its product development programs in the country for sorghum and sugarcane, under funding from the Brazilian government's PAISS Agricola initiative. Ceres said the effort makes it eligible for approximately $34M in government subsidized loans. Ceres is developing seeds using biotechnology, aimed at energ (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 28, 2014(Full story)
Newport Corporation Buys V-Gen Ltd.Irvine-basd Newport Corporation, which develops optical components, lasers, photonics, and other equipment, said last week that it has acquired Israeli laser company V-Gen Ltd.. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Newport Corporation said that V-Gen Ltd. is a developer of fiber lasers, and has approximately 50 employees worldwide. The deal is expected to add $15M to $20M in sales over the next twelve months.
posted on Monday, July 28, 2014(Full story)
MRV Expands BoardChatsworth-based optical network hardware maker MRV Communicaitons has expanded its board of directors, saying this morning that it has added Jeannie H. Diefenderfer to its board of directors. Diefenderfer is Chief Procurement Officer for Verizon Communications, and also serves as Senior Vice President of Global Engineering and Planning. She also is a trustee at Tufts University.
posted on Monday, July 28, 2014(Full story)
Broadcom Gets Design Win In IndiaIrvine-based Broadcom reports this morning that it has signed up a set top box manufacturer in India. Acccording to Broadcom, Tata Sky will be using its systems-on-a-chip in its first general of HD set top boxes, for a mass deployment through 2015. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. Braodcom said Tata Sky is using its BCM7252 high efficiency, video codec H.265 systems-on-a-chip as part of that set-top box. Financial impact of the win was not announced, and Broadcom did not say how ma (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 28, 2014(Full story)