Tuesday, April 15, 2008PluggedIn Launches, Gets FundingSanta Monica-based PluggedIn announced Tuesday evening that the firm has launched a beta of its website, and disclosed funding from Overbrook Entertainment, the entertainment firm run by Will Smith, James Lassiter and Ken Stovitz. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed, however Paidcontent reports the investment was worth approximately $2M. PluggedIn said that it will offer free streaming of high quality, music videos in HD and broadcast quality, including content from EMI Music, S (More info...)
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Mainstream Energy Gets $40MSan Luis Obispo-based Mainstream Energy Corporation has raised $40M in an equity investment from Renewable Energy Corporation ASA, a Norwegian producer of photovoltaic materials. Mainstream said last week that the deal gives Renewable Energy Corporation 20% of the firm, which provides system integration services for the photovoltaics market. Mainstream Energy owns REC Solar Inc. and AEE Solar Inc., both firms which provide solar electrical products for the residential, commercial, and government (More info...)
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Anaphore Raises $8M, Launches FirmSan Diego-based Anaphore announced Tuesday that the firm has created a new company focused on protein therapeutics, and raised $8M in funding. The funding came from 5AM Ventures and Versant Ventures. According to Anaphore, it was created through the acquisition of Borean Pharma ApS, a Danish biotechnology company. Richard Ulevitch of 5AM Ventures is co-founder of Anaphore, which has appointed Katherine Bowdish as CEO of the company. Bowdish was most recently President of Alexion Antibody Technol (More info...)
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STEC Sued By SeagateSanta Ana-based STEC, a manufacturer of solid state disk drives, said Tuesday that it has received notice of a patent infringement lawsuit against the firm filed by disk drive maker Seagate Technology. According to STEC, Seagate is alleging infringement of four of its patents by Seagate over its solid state disks (SSDs). STEC said it will aggressively pursue its defense to the lawsuits, and said in a statement that it believes Seagate's lawsuit is "completely without merit and primarily motivate (More info...)
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Spot Runner Hires Interpublic's RosenthalLos Angeles-based advertising technology firm Spot Runner has snagged Mark Rosenthal, fomer chairman and CEO of Interpublic Media, as the firm's new President of Media Platforms and Vice Chairman, the firm said Tuesday. Spot Runner said that Rosenthal will head up Spot Runner's New York operations, and report to CEO and Chairman Nick Grouf. Rosenthal was chairman and chief executive officer of Interpublic Media, part of Interpublic Group, and has also served as president and chief operating offi (More info...)
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CinemaNow Partners With TechnicolorMarina Del Rey-based online video on demand firm CinemaNow, and Technicolor, the division of Thomson which provides services to the film industry, said Tuesday that they have partnered in a deal to deliver broadband Internet delivery of movies, TV, music, and software to online retailers. According to the companies, they will provide a fully-integrated platform for electronic delivery of digital media for online retailers looking to deliver digital content. Among features the firm said they will (More info...)
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NEXT.TV Teams With FUEL TVNEXT.TV, the Internet television service run by Los Angeles-based DAVE Networks and HP, said this morning that it has added FUEL TV as a content partner for its services. NEXT.TV said that FUEL TV will provide skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, BMX, freestyle motocross, and wakeboarding content through multiple channels on NEXT.TV. Financial terms of the deal were not announced. NEXT.TV is available only on HP consumer notebooks running Microsoft Windows Vista, and is a joint effort of DAVE N (More info...)
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Fisker Automotive Sued By Tesla MotorsThe New York Times is reporting this morning that high flying electric car company Tesla Motors is suing Henrik Fisker, founder of Lake Forest-based Fisker Automotive, an Orange County firm also designing electric cars. According to the report, Tesla claims that Fisker was hired to help do body design work for the Tesla, and then founded his own competing firm. Fisker Automotive is venture backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers and Palo Alto Investors, and is developing plug-in hybrids for (More info...)
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Chumby Links Into NYTimesSan Diego-based Chumby, a manufacturer of a Linux-based, consumer Internet device for pulling information from the Web, said today that the firm has linked into the New York Times. The company's product--which is part alarm clock/wireless Internet device--now includes a number of new enhancements tied into the New York Times. Chumby said that its product now offers New York Times podcasts, which can be set as an alarm each morning or played throughout the day; pictures and photos from the New Yo (More info...)
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Interview with Jon Bischke, eduFireLast week, Los Angeles-based eduFire (www.edufire.com) gave us the details on the firm's recent angel funding. To dig in deeper on what the company is all about, as well as get a better look at the company, we sat down with Jon Bischke, the firm's CEO and Founder, to learn more.
What's the story behind the company, and how it came about?
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Nirvanix Adds EFF As InvestorSan Diego-based Internet storage firm Nirvanix has added a new investor, the European Founders Fund, the company announced today. Terms of the additional investment were not disclosed. The European Founders Found (EFF) is an investment firm run by Marc, Oliver and Alexander Samwer. Nirvanix said the new funding will go towards European expansion of its storage services. Nirvanix operates an Internet storage service which is accessible programmatically via application programming interfaces; the (More info...)
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