Tuesday, February 19, 2013


Demand Media Plans To Split Domain, Content Businesses
In a surprise move, Santa Monica-based Demand Media said Tuesday afternoon that it plans to explore separating its domain name and content businesses into two, independent, publicly traded companies. According to Demand, its board has has authorized a plan to spin Demand Media into a "pure play" media company focused on content creation; and a separate, pure-play domain services company providing registry services and related, aftermarket services. Richard Rosenblatt, Demand Media's CEO, sai (More info...)
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BLANKSPACES Returns To Santa Monica's 2nd Street
BLANKSPACES, one of the original, coworking facilities in Los Angeles, is returning to Santa Monica's 2nd Street, according to CEO Jerome Chang. Chang said that its 2nd St. location will again be operating as BLANKSPACES. As part of the relaunch, Chang said that it has partnered with a new, $500K investment fund focused on mobile apps and games to help provide money to members (via Vak Sambath); will be launching a series of office hours to help with in-person, one-on-one discussions (with Joh (More info...)
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Punchcard Shifts To Prizes, Promotions
Punchcard, the mobile, consumer loyalty application developer backed by Idealab, has swizzled its model significantly today, with the release of a new version of its mobile app for iPhone and Android. According to Punchcard, it is now letting users of the consumer loyalty app enter to instantly win prizes every time they take a picture of a receipt using the app--instead of earning rewards for filling out a virtual punchcard. The startup said the shift now lets users earn rewards every time t (More info...)
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Fisker Automotive Entertains Bids From Chinese Automakers
Has troubled, Anaheim-based automaker Fisker Automotive found a buyer yet? News over the weekend from Bloomberg said that Chinese car company Dongfeng Motor Group has offered $350M for an 85 percent in Fisker, and that Chinese auto firm Geely also has put in a bid for the company. Fisker--which said in January that it hoped to find a buyer for the company by the end of this month--apparently has stopped buildling cars, after its battery supplier, A123 Systems, went bankrupt and was just bought b (More info...)
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Nimble Ties Into Outlook, Apps
Los Angeles-based Nimble announced a new link into Microsoft Outlook, as well as a number of other products, via new additions to the firm's App Marketplace. Nimble--which develops web-based, social contact management software--said the Outlook connection comes via Phi-solutions, which connects Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 contacts into rich social profiles on Nimble. Nimble also said it has connected its software into ActiveCampaign, an email marketing platform, and QuoteRoller, software which (More info...)
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Spreeify.com Launches Social Shopping Site
Spreeify.com, a brand new, Los Angeles startup, said last week that it has launched a brand new, social shopping site, centered around free giveaways and shopping deals. The startup, led by Ruben Dua, said it combines product giveaways with social shopping, to help merchants gain customers. The firm lets users browse for and shop for women and men's apparel, accessories, home decor, and gadgets. According to Spreeify, customers shopping on the site earn entries into free giveaways for all kind (More info...)
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Jeda Networks Takes On Storage Networks
Newport Beach-based Jeda Networks, a new startup in the storage networking arena, said today that it has unveiled its technology, with the backing of U.S. Venture Partners and Miramar Venture Partners. The firm said it is developing software defined, storage networking techniques aimed at solving complexity, cost and scalability issues with current storage networks. The new startup is led by Stuart Berman, the former SVP and CTO of Emulex. Financial details of the funding from USVP and Mirama (More info...)
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Aviir In Middle Eastern Distribution Deal
Irvine-based Aviir, a life sciences startup developing laboratory tests for cardiovascular disease, said today that it has signed a distribution and expansion pact covering 19 Middle Eastern and North African countries. Aviir said it has inked a deal with Partners & Partners (P&P) where P&P will form the sole distributorship for its products in those countries. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. P&P was one of the investors in a $10M funding round announced by Aviir last week. Av (More info...)
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Mindspeed Debuts Small Cell Chips
Newport Beach-based Mindspeed Technologies, the developer of networking and communications semiconductors, announced a new set of chips aimed at the small cell market today. Mindspeed said it has debuted the third generation of its Transcede family of baseband processors, which are aimed at metro and small cell applications. The new chips support both LTE (LTE FDD, TD-LTE) or 3G (HSPA, TD-SCDMA) functionality. Mindspeed said that it leveraged technology from Picochip in the new chipset. Mindspe (More info...)
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DriveCam Wins Greyhound
DriveCam, the San Diego-based developer of driver monitoring systems, announced today that it has scored a win with bus operator Greyhound Lines. According to DriveCam, Greyhound LInes will deploy its driver risk management and fleet management products across its entire fleet, as part of a five year service contract. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. DriveCam's systems are used to monitor drivers, using both data and video to track fleet drivers, which is used to improve the perfor (More info...)
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Hypemarks Becomes Tint, Moves To San Francisco
Hypemarks, the social link sharing startup started by Tim Sae Koo, has failed and pivoted itself into a new service, Tint, and moved to San Francisco. According to Sae Koo, Tint is now focused on helping brands create social hubs on their website, letting companies display social media feeds on their website. Sae Koo said the pivot came due to slow growth in a crowded space and customers asking for the new product. Hypemarks had been one of the companies founded out of startup accelerator StartE (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2013(Full story)