UberMedia, the Idealab-backed startup best known for its Twitter client software, has recast itself as a mobile advertising firm, saying yesterday that it has launched a new mobile advertising product called UberAds. According to UberMedi...

One of the largest concentrations of technical talent in Los Angeles is in Glendale, at YP -- staffed with a surprising number of Los Angeles startup vets. How did what was a staid publisher of phone books become a hotbed of online talent? ...

Los Angeles-based GumGum has snagged a media agency network executive as an advisor, the firm is announcing today, for its in-image advertising platform. GumGum said it has appointed Carl Fremont, the Global Chief Digital Officer at MEC, wh...

Santa Monica-based startup VIRURL said Thursday that it has launched its technology, which automatically publishes sponsored content into blogs. According to the firm, its product allows bloggers to insert sponsored posts that match a blogg...

Online dating and matchmaking site eHarmony is looking to update the company's image, and has gotten a makeover--looking to prove that it's still in the dating game. The Santa Monica-based company said that it has launched a next generation...

Peter Csathy, the CEO of San Diego's Sorenson Media, and digital media veteran, has departed the company, and will head up a new legal and investment group formed by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. According to Manatt, Csathy will head up a new ...

Newport Beach-based digital advertising firm MediaShift has snagged the former CFO of Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, as its CFO, according to the company. MediaShift, which provides digital advertising for private Wi-Fi networking ...

Video publishing software developer Beachfront Media is expanding into the mobile ad market today, saying that it has launched a new platform called Beachfront.io, which will help developers monetize their mobile apps with video advertising...

Los Angeles-based Greentoe.com, which operates an online marketplace which lets people name their own price for electronics and other items, has raised a round of angel funding, the firm said today. The funding came from Parker Thompson f...

Los Angeles-based Triton Digital, the Oaktree Capital-backed provider of digital advertising services to the traditional and online radio market, said today that it has named Jean-Francois ("Jeff") Gadoury as its Chief Technology Officer. G...

Four years ago, Los Angeles-based Adly (www.adly.com) launched to much fanfare as one of the first local startups to tie into the brand-new, Twitter micro messaging platform. We caught up with CEO Walter Delph to hear how the promise of ...

Los Angeles-based TenFarms, the mobile application development startup headed by Nils Forsblom, announced this morning that it has raised $2.7M in an angel funding round, to launch a new mobile advertising product called Adtile to the marke...

Los Angeles-based online advertising firm SocialVibe has a new CEO this morning: co-founder Joe Marchese. Marchese had been President of the company from 2006 until 2011, when he departed to become Senior Vice President of Marketing and Dig...

Ventura-based advertising exchange The Trade Desk is moving into real time, video advertising, the company announced this morning. The Trade Desk said it has launched full RTB video advertising capabilities on its platform, so that it now s...

It seems like a "no-brainer" -- young girls are among the biggest audiences for mobile games, and there's a huge subculture of games targeted at iPhone-carrying girls. Yet, it seems like there's no easy way to specifically advertise on th...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project says today that it is one of the "fastest growing ad technology companies in history". The startup says it added more than 200 new publishers and 100 new buyer channels for the six months ended March 31, ...

Venice, California-based ZEFR, formerly known as MovieClips, is expanding out its partnerships today, saying that it has added Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Ultra Music, and NASCAR as partners for the company. ZEFR--which helps content...

GumGum, the in-image advertising technology developer led by Ophir Tanz, has promoted Phil Schraeder, the firm's VP of Finance, to Chief Operating Officer, to head up the firm's internal operations, business development, and finance. Schr...

Fandango, the movie ticketing service and mobile app provider, said Wednesday that it is powering a new, mobile ticket app feature specifically for customers of Visa. Los Angeles-based Fandango said that it has launched TIXPRESS, a new mobi...

Los Angeles-based Nativo, the online advertising technology firm led by Justin Choi, has raised $3.5M in a Series A funding round, the firm announced Tuesday. The funding was led by Greycroft Partners, and also included e.ventures and Signi...

The world of media is in the midst of a major transition, where radio and television are no longer the powers they used to be--and there's a clear shift towards some unknown future online. One of the folks in media who has been helping to d...

If you're the developer of a mobile application targeted at young girls, how do you monetize that application? A new, Los Angeles ad network, MobiGirl Media recently launched its niche, mobile ad network, specifically aimed at advertisers a...

Los Angeles-based digital advertising technology developer OpenX has launched a new service today, which it says will combine content optimization and ad monetization for publishers. The firm said its new Revenue Intelligence service--aimed...

Los Angeles-based online advertising technology provider OpenX announced this morning that it has named Matthew Reid as its new Vice President of Marketing. Reid previously was SVP of Marketing for Gehry Technologies, and also served at Euc...

Santa Monica-based online matchmaking site eHarmony is planning a big advertising push, as the firm said it has revamped its management team under founder Dr. Neil Clark Warren. According to eHarmony, it is launching a brand new, marketing ...

Irvine-based online local advertising firm Local Corporation said today that it has launched a new, premium ad network it is calling "Fusion by Local". The firm said the new ad network will let advertisers reach customers in local markets, ...

Los Angeles-based online entertainment, music, and advertising firm BuzzMedia is no more: it's just rebranded itself SpinMedia. The publisher, which owns such brands as Celebuzz, Sterogeom, Idolator, JustJared, and many other music-related ...

How is the changing demographic of web visitors changing how local companies operate? We recently chatted with Debra Domeyer, CEO of Oversee.net (www.oversee.net), a Los Angeles company which provides both domain monetization and runs verti...

El Segundo-based video advertising network AdExcite has merged with online display ad firm Q1 Media, the two companies said Wednesday. Financial details of the merger were not disclosed. The firm said the new company will operate as Q1Media...

Nils Forsblom is not new to the startup world -- in fact, his last startup, Fruugo, raised an astounding $48M in funding, and became one of the most heralded--and controversial--startups in Finland. Forsblom is now in Los Angeles and San D...

Westlake Village-based ValueClick announced this morning that it has named Scott G. Eagle as its new Chief Marketing Officer. According to ValueClick, Eagle has previously served at such companies as Empowered Careers, eHarmony, Claria Corp...

Los Angeles-based Myspace has a new design, and a new brand sponsor, the first since its redesign and relaunch over the last few months. MySpace said that Chevrolet is sponsoring its Myspace Secret Shows at the South by Southwest music fest...

Are you trying to figure out where your competitors and running in-app advertising on Android? San Diego-based WhatRunsWhere said today that it has launched a brand new service, which helps advertisers track what ads competitors are running...

UberMedia, the Pasadena-based startup developing third party, Twitter clients and other mobile apps, said yesterday that it has launched a new mobile ad campaign product called Appvertise. The Idealab startup said the app lets developers cr...

Irvine-based Specific Media, the online advertising firm which now owns Myspace, said late Tuesday that it has named entertainment industry executive Larry Madden as its Chief Financial Officer. Madden was most recently CFO of SFX Entertain...

Selectable Media, a digital advertising firm which lets users unlock digital content in exchange for interacting with brand advertising, said today that it has expanded to Los Angeles, as part of a growth in its footprint. The expansion cam...

Los Angeles-based OpenX Software has a new investor, the firm said today, Japanese company cyber communications, inc. According to OpenX, cyber communications, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dentsu Inc., joined in providing additiona...

Los Angeles-based online advertising technology provider DataPop, the startup led by Jason Lehmbeck, announced this morning that it has launched a new semantic advertising product specifically aimed at Google Product Listing Ads (PLA). Goog...

One of the biggest issues facing mobile application developers today, is finding new users among a gigantic sea of applications. A Los Angeles-based startup, PaeDae, is looking to change that with a new platform it is calling BARTR, which i...

Mission Viejo-based Lifescript, which operates an online women's health site, claimed that it saw strong growth in 2012. The firm says it now has more than 28 million registered users, and saw a 38 percent increase in advertising and sponso...

Irvine-based Broadcom has announced a brand new, geolocation chip, which supports the GPS, GLONASS, QZSS and SBAS satellite systems, and also features new geofencing capabilities, the company said today. The company said its Global Navigati...

It's a new world out there for online marketers--users aren't just on their PC anymore, they're surfing the web, buying products, and using services across their tablet(s), desktops, and smartphone. So, how do marketers figure out if you'...

Verve Mobile, a developer of location-based, mobile advertising services, said today that it has raised $14M in a Series C funding. The firm--which has an office in Carlsbad, but is based in New York--said that Qualcomm and Nokia are new in...

Glendale-based MediaShift, a newly formed online advertising company, said today that it has acquired travel advertising network Travora Media. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company said it will be enhancing Travora's ...

Gradient X, the online mobile marketing and advertising technology developer backed by GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, Crosscut Ventures, Founder Collective, Double M Capital, Baroda Ventures, Siemer Ventures, and others, has snapped...

Interested in getting some help in getting your startup off the ground and funded? Launchpad LA, the Los Angeles startup accelerator program which is run by Sam Teller, and was founded by venture capitalist Mark Suster, is gearing up for ...

When is shopping a sport? When it's all about trading, swapping, lucky finds, and more--explains Dan Murillo, who is CEO and Founder of Little Black Bag (www.littleblackbag.com), an online e-commerce community based in Los Angeles. Little B...

Glow Digital Media, a developer of a Facebook advertising platform, said Thursday that it has raised $1.3M in a seed funding round, and set up its U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles. The UK-based company did not disclose the source of the fun...

It's not far from the kickoff of the Super Bowl--and best of all, the many advertisements expected to debut during the sporting event. However, fans of those advertisements can start getting their Super Bowl advertising fix now, according t...

It was standing room only at StartEngine's Demo Day Wednesday afternoon, held at Santa Monica's Cross Campus, as the startup accelerator launched eight of its latest startups into the world, after a 90 day process of mentoring, honing the...

Los Angeles-based OpenX Software, the provider of Internet advertising technology, said Wednesday that it has connected with AdTruth to provide mobile targeting capabilities to its OpenX Market. OpenX Market is the company's real-time-biddi...

StartEngine, the startup accelerator headed by Howard Marks, is launching its newest class of startups today in a private event in Santa Monica. StartEngine said that the companies--who have all gone through the 90 day mentorship process at...

YouMail, the enhanced voicemail service provider headed by Alex Quilici, has launched a brand new, business oriented premium service, as it reports it also has just passed four million registered users. The firm said its new, business focus...

Is your iPhone the answer to your romantic life? Tinder, a brand new iPhone dating app created by Sean Rad and Justin Mateen of Hatch Labs, has just launched, in a quest to help users better connect with others via their iPhone. The new app...

Rubicon Project, the online advertising technology firm headed by serial entrepreneur Frank Addante, looks like it may just be the next Southern California company to file for an IPO, based on a number of executive appointments made Tuesday...

Los Angeles-based SteelHouse, the developer of advertising targeting and behavioral marketing technology, is showing off some of its conversion rates, saying today that its clients are seeing 21 percent click through rates by using its tech...

GumGum, the developer of in-image advertising technology headed by Ophir Tanz, is bolstering its sales efforts, and has hired an Amazon veteran to head up western sales. According to GumGum, Matt Weisbecker has been appointed Vice President...

Los Angeles-based investor Siemer Ventures has backed social media advertising and analytics firm Optimal, Optimal said Monday. San Francisco-based Optimal said it raised $7M in a Series B funding, which included DoubleRock, The Social Inte...

Ventura- and New York-based online advertising firm The Trade Desk announced Thursday that it has named Rob Perdue as its new Chief Operating Officer. Perdue was most recently COO at EyeWonder, a rich media and video ad serving firm, and al...

Fans of the advertising which rolls out with the Super Bowl will be happy to see that Hulu has once again rolled out its Hulu AdZone, to highlight all of the Super Bowl advertising which will debut again this year at Super Bowl XLVII. Los A...

Pasadena-based advertising technology firm OpenX has raised $22.5M more in a round of funding, the company announced today, via a Series E funding round. The firm, headed by Tim Cadogan, said this morning that the new funding brings its t...

Irvine-based local search site operator Local Corporation said this morning that it has launched a new, local search site in the U.K., the first U.K. version of its flagship local search site. As part of the launch, Local.com said it has in...

Mojave-based commercial spaceflight firm XCOR Aerospace has booked a new customer for its yet-to-be-launched suborbital spacecraft, after Unilever Group and Space Expedition Corporation (SXC) said that Unilever is purchasing 22 flights on X...

Convertro, the online advertising targeting and optimization technology developer headed by serial entrepreneur Jeff Zwelling, has raised $5M in a Series B funding round, the company said this morning. The firm said the funding came from Be...

Los Angeles-based Tongal, an online platform which helps brands crowdsource video for their advertising, said this morning that it has raised $15M in a Series B funding. The funding came from Insight Venture Partners. Tongal, which was foun...

Online advertising firm YieldMetrics said Thursday morning that it has raised $1.7M in funding, which was led by GRP Partners, and also included Baroda Ventures, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Daher Capital, Double M Capital, Karlin...

Southern California is the center of the entertainment industry, which not only includes the world of Hollywood, movies and film, and television, but is also the home of the music industry. Combine that with the growing startup community he...

Triton Digital, the provider of digital advertising services to the online and traditional radio market, said today that it has partnered with eXelate, a provider of data and analytics engines for digital advertisers. According to the two, ...

Irvine, California-based TapIt Media Group, the operator of a mobile advertising network, has been acquired by mobile apps infrastructure developer Phunware, the two firms announced Wednesday. Phunware said it paid $23M for TapIt, in a deal...

Los Angeles-based VIRURL, the provider of online advertising technology, said Thursday that it has added a new feature called RSS Ads. The firm said its new feature allows publishers to use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to automatic...

For the last week of the year, we're featuring the thoughts and reflections of some of the movers and shakers of Southern California's high tech community. We asked the same four questions of a variety of top technology entrepreneurs, inv...

For the last week of the year, we're featuring the thoughts and reflections of some of the movers and shakers of Southern California's high tech community. We asked the same four questions of a variety of top technology entrepreneurs, inv...

What's the key to success in the video game market today? We sat down earlier this month to talk with Josh Yguado, President of SGN (www.sgn.com), to learn more about the importance of being nimble in the game market, the company's platfo...

It looks like all of the flap over Instagram's change in its terms of service--which some had interpreted as giving Instagram the right to sell users' photos--has missed impacting a number of Southern California's startups. Instagram clarif...

SocialVibe, the online advertising provider provided engagement advertising technology to brands, said today that it has tapped Placecast for geofencing technology. Geofencing is the use of a consumer's location to target and tune specific ...

Online local business advertising firm Local Corporation announced this morning that it has launched a new, industry-specific website focused on the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) market. The new site offers educational a...

SocialVibe, the online advertising technology provider headed by Todd Tappin, said this morning that it has launched a new, Open RTB-compliant rich media and video ad server. The company said the ad server will provide customers with access...

Los Angeles-based social game developer Scopely announced today that it has launched a new, developer program called LeveUp, which looks to help top independent game studios co-develop titles with Scopely. The firm said it will tape a small...

Los Angeles-based Evolve Media Corp, which operates such sites as CraveOnline, totallyher Media, GameRevolution, and LiveOutdoors, said today that it has launched a new online advertising product. The company said its INgage product semanti...

A new report issued today, detailing technology jobs employment concentration in the United States, shines some light on where the highest concentrations of tech jobs are in the region. According to the report, issued by the Bay Area Counci...

Irvine-based Brand Affinity Technologies, the startup led by Ryan and Chad Steelberg focused on the fan and celebrity market, said Thursday that its Printroom fan photography division has been selected by CBS Interactive. BAT said that Prin...

SocialVibe, the online advertising firm backed by Norwest Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Jafco Ventures and Pinnacle Ventures, said today that it has launched a new, rich media targeting product called TrueTargeting. The firm said the...

Online advertising firm ValueClick said late Wednesday that it has named John Giuliani as its new President and CEO, replacing former CEO James R. Zarley. Zarley becomes Executive Chairman of ValueClick's board of directors. No reason for t...

What's the hardest part of running a freemium business? When you've got to pull back your free features, in order to make sure those free accounts don't overwhelm your resources. That's the lesson being learned by YouMail this week, as the ...

Los Angeles-based Trigon Digital, the provider of digital advertising anf other services to both the traditional and online radio market, is powering a number of features of the new, free music streaming service from Microsoft, Xbox Music, ...

Los Angeles-based online advertising firm SocialVibe said Thursday that it has partnered with secure web browsing app provider AnchorFree. SocialVibe said AnchorFree becomes a premium partner of the firm. Details of the partnership and link...

Irvine-based Local Corporation, the operator of online local advertising websites, said today that it has been granted a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark office. The firm said the new patent, number 8,306,208, covers pay-per-call t...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal is continuing its international expansion, saying today that it has opened up its first, South American office, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The firm said the new office expands the company into its eleventh country...

Santa Barbara-based RingRevenue, which develops call marketing automation technology, said Wednesday that it has raised $3.25M in a funding round. The round was led by GRP Partners and Rincon Venture Partners. RingReveue said the new fundin...

Glendale-based LegalZoom, the online service which provides legal documents to consumers and small businesses, said late Tuesday that it has filed a lawsuit against competitor RocketLawyer. LegalZoom said that the suit alleges false and mis...

Los Angeles-based online advertising provider SocialVibe is powering a new, web-based public service campaign to benefit Hurricane Sandy victimes, the company said yesterday afternoon. SocialVibe said the effort comes as part of a partnersh...

Santa Monica-based Rubicon Project, the online advertising exchange operator, is powering female content network Glam Media, Glam Media said Tuesday. Glam Media said it is using REVV Connect, Rubicon Project's real time advertising trading ...

In a major launch, Santa Monica-based TrueCar, the online new and used car pricing website, said it has launched a redesigned website and new ad campaign. TrueCar, which is headed by Scott Painter, said it has launched a $7.7M advertising c...

Southern California is often criticized for having too many startups which only revolve around brand, celebrity, ecommerce, and marketing, and not enough of the traditional, software-and-algorithm intensive startups you'd expect to see in...

Los Angeles-based Central Desktop, the provider of cloud-based collaboration tools, is targeting creative agencies with a new product today. The company said it has launched a new online idea board it calls a "Moodboard", as part of its Soc...

Who are the top tech companies to work for in Los Angeles? Despite a huge number of companies, we found there are a number which popped up consistently in an informal (and highly non-scientific poll) of a number of readers, executive re...

Santa Monica-based VIRURL, which is headed by Francisco Diaz-Mitoma, said today that it has launched a new widget aimed at web publishers. The firm said its new "Slideout" widget helps provide unobtrusive advertising to help publishers mone...

The second Silicon Beach Fest, the celebration of all things Silicon Beach, kicks off tomorrow, for a full day of speakers and startup itches. The event--the brainchild of DigitalLA's Kevin Winston--is being held this time at accelerator io...

One of the major growth areas along Silicon Beach has been in the whole area of creating content for digital platforms. But, how do you figure out what actual content will resonate with online consumers? And in particular, if you're develop...

Irvine-based Local Corporation, which provides online local advertising for small businesses, said Friday that it has sold off its Rovion unit to Gannett Co., Inc.. The deal was worth $3.9M in cash. Local Corp. said the deal would enhance i...

San Diego-based venture investor Avalon Ventures has backed a developer of video advertising products, Selectable Media, to the tune of $2M. Selectable Media, which is based in New York, lets users opt into branded video advertising in exch...

The acquisition Tuesday of ThinkNear, the mobile advertising firm headed by Eli Portnoy, looks to be among the first accelerator-incubated companies in Southern California. The catch? ThinkNear was accelerated via TechStars New York, and mo...

Los Angeles-based ThinkNear, the developer of hyper-local mobile advertising technology headed by Eli Portnoy, has been acquired by TeleNav, TeleNav said this morning. TeleNav said it would pay $22.5M, consisting of $18.5M in cash plus rest...

Convertro, the new advertising analytics and optimization technology firm headed by Jeff Zwelling, has released a new product today, saying it has launched a product which helps figure out attribution of such things as Twitter streams, YouT...

Moviepilot, which operates an online movie discovery site, said last week that it has opened up an office on Abbot Kinney in Venice, California, as part of its expansion into Los Angeles. The firm--which has been booting up operations in LA...

You've got a great idea for a web video series, but how do you learn about how to make that happen, to get distribution, and monetize that video? Los Angeles-based CreatorUp (www.creatorup.com) wants to help aspiring online video producers ...

Irvine-based local online advertising firm Local Corporation claims this morning that it has hit a record in total, mobile, and organic search traffic on it sites. The company said it reached 101 million total monthly unique visitors during...

Irvine-based Local Corporation, the online local search and marketing firm, said today that it has launched a new set of mobile apps. The firm said its new iOS and Android apps lets users search for information on local businesses. Both app...

Los Angeles-based online advertising technology provider OpenX announced this morning that it has appointed Douglas McPherson, the former General Counsel of Idealab, as its new Chief Legal Officer. OpenX said that McPherson will oversee its...

Los Angeles-based SteelHouse, a promising ad technology company backed by Qualcomm Ventures, Daher Capital, Baroda Ventures, Greycroft Partners, and Rincon Venture Partners, has rolled out a new advertising technology today. The firm said t...

Los Angeles-based online advertising technology firm OpenX has opened up a new office in Tokyo, as the firm continues it international expansion. The firm said that it has named Nick Kovac as General Manager, OpenX Japan, to oversee busines...

Los Angeles-based RGM Group, which provides online media services for premium advertisers, said today that it has raised $21M in a funding round. The round came from Riordan, Lewis & Haden (RLH) Equity Partners. As part of the funding, the ...

Online advertising provider Real Media Group, which is part of 24/7 Media, said today that it has launched three new video formats. The video group--which is run out of Los Angeles, and is made up of the former team of Panache--said it has ...

San Diego-based WhatRunsWhere, a startup which develops advertising tracking technology, said this morning that it has acquired Mobile Ad Spy, a UK-based mobile ad tracking startup. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. WhatRunsWhe...

Continuing its international expansion, Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, which helps local businesses market themselves online through paid search marketing and other advertising, said it has opened up new offices in Canada and Germany. The...

Los Angeles-based online advertising technology firm OpenX and Japanese firm CyberWing Corporation announced this morning that the two have launched a new, private advertising exchange aimed at the Japanese mobile market. The two said they ...

West Hollywood-based CityGrid, the unit of IAC which operates CitySearch, Insider Pages, and Urbanspoon, said this morning that it has acquired Felix, a performance-based, local advertising service for small and medium-sized businesses. Fin...

Huntington Beach-based AnyMeeting, which develops free web conferencing and online meeting software, reported this morning that it has released a new feature which lets users share any YouTube video into their meeting, and has also hit a mi...

Los Angeles-based GumGum, the provider of in-image advertising technology, said this morning that it has named Tony Winders as its Senior Vice President of Marketing. Winders was most recently running his own consulting practice, serving su...

Los Angeles-based Pagewoo, the mobile advertising startup founded by Holden Steinberg and Jason Crilly, has quietly scored a round of funding, which was disclosed by the Tech Coast Angels this morning. Financial details of the angel funding...

What's the best way to plan and coordinate things to do with your friends, especially long term lists of what you'd like to do to together? Unbucket (www.unbucket.com) thinks it has one way, which is to create online, collaborative lists ...

It's a warm summer night in Westwood and 35 entrepreneurs are mingling with a collection of the new SoCal silicon-set. StartEngine, the startup accelerator, which launched earlier this year with ten hopeful businesses, is now in the middle ...

Los Angeles-based Poptent, the startup which is using crowdsourcing to help companies create advertising for their brands, has inked a deal with public relations company Edelman, the two said today. The companies said that Edelman will use ...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal is looking to make search retargeting -- the targeting of consumers based on their prior Internet history -- available to the SMB market this morning, with the launch of a new product. The firm said its new R...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project said today that it has passed Google in the latest, comScore Media Metrix monthly ranking of Ad Focus properties. Rubicon reports that the the July 2012 comScore ranking found that Rubicon Project now reach...

Boingo Wireless, the Wi-Fi access point and network operator, is expanding out its services today, saying it has acquired Cloud Nine Media, a provider of Wi-Fi sponsorship and location-based advertising. Financial terms of the acquisition w...

Santa Monica-based Fundable (www.fundable.com) is a newly launched, crowdfunding site which is headed by local entrepreneur Wil Shroter. Recently, an interesting project popped up on the site--a a 2D to 3D conversion project, from the inven...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal said this morning that it has named Josh Claman as its new Chief Revenue Officer. Claman joins the company from Dell, where he was most recently Dell's Vice President and General Manager of the Public and Lar...

Santa Monica-based Demand Media (www.demandmedia.com) has seen its share of ups and downs as one of the highest visibility technology and media companies to come out of Southern California's technology ecosystem in recent years. The compa...

One of the big questions in the content world has been: what's the right formula to make content creation profitable on the Internet? And, how do programs like YouTube's recent push to help fund original content channels on the site helping...

Connexity the online advertising startup headed by former Fastclick co-founder Dave Gross, announced this morning that it has raised $3M in a seed funding round. The round was led by Rincon Venture Partners, and also included Siemer Venture...

Los Angeles-based Nami, which provides pay-per-click advertising software and is run by Alex Cory, said that it has released a new product today, Nami AdManager. The new software is a white label bid engine used for pay-per-click bidding. T...

Burbank-based Magic Ruby, a new service aimed at the social television segment, said today that it has launched to help provide revenue for advertisers, content creators, distributors, and app developers. The firm said it will offer up its ...

Los Angeles-based content delivery network (CDN) provider NetDNA reported today that it has been selected by online tag management company Ubertags. NetDNA said the customer deployment and co-marketing agreement will allow UberTags to distr...

A new, Los Angeles startup, AtomicMe, said this week that it is looking to tie together social networking activity with the interests users are passionate about--by sharing advertising revenues with those users. AtomicMe said it will pay 30...

Users of the Instagram mobile application--which runs on iPhone and Android--are familiar with how that app has become one of the key ways people socialize and share their life with others, all via the service's photo sharing and comments...

Los Angeles-based online advertising technology firm OpenX has opened up its fifth data center, the company announced this morning, to help support its online advertising marketplace. OpenX said the new data center will be located in Chicag...

In a mobile world, what's a unique way to reach out to your friends and others? One way is to create your own, custom video clip which you can share via email, text message, or through a social networking site like Facebook. Los Angeles-bas...

Los Angeles-based online marketing and domain firm Oversee.net has named Gene Chuang as its new Chief Technology Officer, the company said today. Chuang was most recently Director of Engineering at online college textbook firm Chegg. He als...

Los Angeles-based Mogreet, the mobile marketing and mobile video technology firm headed by James Citron, has launched a new product today, aimed at providing monetization of MMS messages. The firm said its new AdStitch mobile advertising se...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, the online advertising optimization firm headed by Frank Addante, has launched an offering for the mobile advertising market, the company said this morning. Rubicon said its new REVV for Mobile product hel...

Los Angeles-based SodaHead has tapped a digital advertising and marketing agency to represent its inventory on a real time bidding platform. According to engage:BDR, which operates the First Impression real-time bidding platform, SodaHead i...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, the online advertising optimization technology firm headed by Frank Addante, said that it has been ranked second in terms of unique visitors in online advertising reach, second only to Google. Rubicon said...

Los Angeles-based FastPay, which provides receivables financing for digital media businesses, said this morning that it has raised $25M in funding. The funding included a senior credit facility from Wells Fargo Capital Finance and a subord...

Irvine-based Fisker Automotive is hoping to spur more interest in its electric vehicles, via a big advertising push in the Wall Street Journal, the automaker announced Friday. Fisker said it will be running its ads over the "next several mo...

It appears that it's exit season in Southern California, as Internet advertising firm Adconion appears to be on the brink of an IPO filing. A report this morning says that Adconion's paperwork is ready, and that the firm is poised to file i...

Los Angeles-based SocialVibe, the online advertising firm headed by Todd Tappin, has bolstered its exec team today, saying it has named three senior executives at the company. SocialVibe said it has named John Capano as CMO, Brett Lofgren a...

A trio of online advertising vets are heading up a new, mobile advertising firm, Gradient X, which said this morning that it has raised $3.75M in a seed financing round. GradientX, led by Brian Baumgart and co-founded by Julie Mattern and M...

San Diego-based SmartDrive Systems said Monday that it has named Steve Mitgang as its new CEO. Mitgang was previously CEO of Veoh, and also had served at Senior Vice President of Yahoo!'s advertising products, platforms, and services. Smart...

Santa Monica-based Activision, via its subsidiary Activision Publishing, said today that it is in a strategic relationship with Flurry, a provider of mobile application, advertising, and analytics software. According to Activision, Flurry w...

Cracked.com, the online humor site which is owned by Santa Monica-based Demand Media, said this morning that it has launched a new advertising product which it says connects advertisers with content "the moment it goes viral." Cracked.com s...

El Segundo-based Dedicated Media, a provider of targeted online advertising, media services and lead generation technology, said Tuesday that it has secured $5M in a credit facility, from Wells Fargo's Technology and Venture Banking Group. ...

How do you take the fashion tastes and preferences of consumers, and harness that to create your own, collaborative fashion brand? Allison Beal and Brian Garrett are trying to figure that out with their new, Los Angeles startup, StyleSaint ...

Los Angeles-based online advertising technology developer OpenX reported this morning that it has named Jason C. White as its General Manager, Publisher Business - West. White, who has been advising OpenX since 2010, was previously a VP at ...

Pasadena-based LeisureLink, the venture-backed provider of a vacation rental marketing system and operator of online booking travel site ABetterStay.com, has made a trio of new hires this week. The company said it has named Tom Lamb as Pres...

Pasadena-based Punchcard, the Idealab startup working on mobile loyalty applications, reported this morning that it is in a joint partnership with KDA Group, a local marketing agency, and mobile-local ad network xAd. According to the compan...

In our Insights and Opinions section, we feature opinions, advice, and more from notable people in the local technology industry. Today, we have a piece from Frank Addante, serial entrepreneur and the CEO and founder of Rubicon Project, t...

Ace Metrix, a provider of technology for television advertising analytics, said today that it has raised $8M in a funding round from WPP, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Leapfrog Ventures, and Palomar Ventures. The firm, which is headquart...

Los Angeles-based ShareSquare, the developer of mobile marketing services founded by Matthias Galica, said today that it is targeting the restaurant industry with a new service called TacoGrid. The firm said that TacoGrid will automatically...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, the online advertising optimization company run by Frank Addante, has made another acquisition this morning. The firm said it has acquired Mobsmith, a provider of mobile advertising products. Details and s...

Online advertising network Adconion is tapping a Los Angeles technology vet as its Global Chief Technology Officer, the company said Monday. Adconion said that it has appointed Scott Sullivan to the CTO position, recruiting him away from Ev...

It's an election year in the United States, and the screens and airwaves are full of provocative sound bites, pundits, scandals, and the latest political gossip of the day. However, do you really know which political candidate you most agre...

Los Angeles-based Prime Focus World, a provider of technical services to the film, broadcast, and advertising industry, said this week that it has named Massoud Entekhabi as its Global Chief Financial Officer. Entekhabi was previously found...

Los Angeles-based online advertising firm Rubicon Project is significantly boosting its executive ranks today, saying that it has named a new CTO, General Counsel, and SVP of Product Management to the firm. The company said it has tapped Br...

How do you help aspiring actors and actresses break into the film industry? Gary Beer is a longtime film industry insider, having been Managing Director of the Sundance Film Festival from its beginnings until 1999 , and founder documentar...

GumGum, the provider of in-image advertising services which is backed by GRP Partners, First Round Capital, New Enterprise Associates and Crosscut Ventures, has signed a deal with a Canadian firm, in its first deal out of the country, accor...

Adconion Media Group, the online advertising network which has major operations in Los Angeles, said this morning that it has rebranded Joost Media into a its smartclip video advertising division. Smartclip, which Adconion acquired in Novem...

If you're a photographer or artist, what's the easiest way to display, print, frame, and sell your photos or artwork to customers? You could handle all the details of printing, framing things, collecting payments, dealing with shipping,...

Los Angeles-based DataPop, the developer of advertising targeting technology headed byJason Lehmbeck, has raised $7M in a Series B funding round, the firm said today. The funding was led by MK Capital, and also included prior investors Rinc...

Los Angeles-based video streaming site Hulu reports this morning that it has now surpassed 2 million paid subscribers to its Hulu Plus service, as of Q1 this year. The company announced the milestone as it announced anew, advertising struct...

San Diego-based Verve Wireless, which develops mobile publishing and advertising tools, reported today that it has hired Chris Nicotra, the former Chief Technology Officer of comScore, as its new Executive Vice President of Product and Tech...

Los Angeles-based GraphEffect said Tuesday that it has launched a new product which will allow brands to run advertising campaigns on Twitter. The firm said its new AudienceBoost product, which is being tested by American Express and Digita...

Pasadena-based OpenX, the provider of digital advertising servers and technology run by Tim Cadogan, has inked a deal to power a new, mobile ad network being started by Samsung, one of the biggest providers of smartphones and tablets. Accor...

El Segundo-based Vantage Media, the provider of performance-based marketing and advertising services, is expanding the offerings it has in the education market. The firm said it has launched a new, post-secondary school marketplace today, c...

Desktop application environment maker Pokki, which is run by San Diego-based SweetLabs, said yesterday that it has added the popular Galaxy Life social game on its environment. The firm said that Galaxy LIfe, which is developed by Digital C...

Los Angeles-based Burstly, the mobile advertising technology firm headed by Evan Rifkin, said today that it has acquired TestFlight,. a developer of a real-time dashboard which provides mobile advertising and revenue analytics for iOS apps....

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal has set a new, Chief Product Officer, the firm announced this morning. The provider of services to help small businesses place Internet advertising said it named Kris Barton to the position. Barton was previo...

Los Angeles-based Oversee.net said Friday that it has named Debra Domeyer as its CEO. Domeyer, who was Co-CEO, takes over the position after fellow Co-CEO Scott Morrow leaves the firm. According to Oversee.net, Morrow is leaving to "pursue ...

Have you every clicked on a mobile ad on your iPhone or Android phone, and found that the ad you clicked into wasn't usable on your mobile phone? It's not an uncommon experience, and one which drove Holden Steinberg and Jason Crilly to star...

Last week, Pasadena-based Punchcard (www.punchcard.com) launched its mobile apps, which help local retailers provide rewards to loyal customers. The firm is backed by Idealab, and is headed by Internet veteran Andy Steuer. We caught up wit...

Los Angeles-based OpenX, the developer of ad serving software and an ad marketplace, said it is adopting the new advertising units from the Interactive Advertising Bureau. The firm said its product, OpenX Enterprise, will support the new IA...

Looking to enhance the advertising units on its network of sites, Santa Monica-based Demand Media said today that it has launched a new set of "social feed ads" to its advertisers. Demand Media said its new Social Feed ad management tools a...

Santa Monica-based GraphEffect, the developer of social marketing software which helps advertiser manage their advertising on Facebook, said this morning that it has launched a significant update to its platform. The firm--which is headed b...

Los Angeles-based Total Immersion, the developer of augmented reality technology, is looking to apply its technology to the game development market, the firm said Monday. According to the firm, it is enabling game developers using game tool...

Irvine-based Local Corporation, the provider of local business directory websites and related products, said today that its Rovion ad management system now includes the ability to add real-time polling on its rich media ads. The firm said t...

Los Angeles-based SocialVibe, which provides online, social advertising to brands, said today that it has named Todd Tapping as its Chief Executive Officer. Tappin was previously COO and CFO at the company. Tappin has previously served as C...

In a move which significantly broadens its market focus, Santa Ana-based RealPractice said Tuesday that it has launched a new, automated marketing software called ReplyWise. The company said the new software is aimed at all types of small b...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, the provider of local online marketing services to small and medium sized businesses, reported strong growth in its international revenues, in addition to continued revenue growth at the company. ReachLocal ...

Los Angeles-based OpenX, the developer of online advertising serving software, reported today that it has achieved its first full quarter of profitability, and is has exceeded an annual run rate of $100M. OpenX develops online ad serving so...

Southern California has had its share of new startup accelerators launch in the last few months, however, few people here have actually experienced an accelerator firsthand. One of the few who has is Alex Benzer,the co-founder of Silverlake...

What do you get when you mix the desert around Mojave, two months in a Van Nuys warehouse, an MIT engineer, and a band which has risen to prominence as a YouTube phenomenon? Not a tech startup, but one of the more intriguing ads debuted dur...

Los Angeles-based Fandango is getting a spot in its first SuperBowl ad this weekend, the firm said Friday, as part of a promotion for Universal Pictures' new action movie, Battleship. Fandango said that the SuperBowl advertisment will featu...

Los Angeles-based Hulu said Tuesday that it is planning a big push of its Hulu Plus subscription service, with a Super Bowl XLVI advertising campaign. The new campaign--a spin on its 2009 Alec Baldwin ad--features actor Will Arnett and the ...

Los Angeles-based Hulu said this morning that it is again kicking off its Hulu AdZone, ahead of Super Bowl XLVI, to allow users to view and vote on Super Bowl ads. The section of the Hulu site will feature both this year's Super Bowl ads, a...

Los Angeles-based Break Media, the online content publisher which runs Break.com as well as a number of other sites, said it has launched a new advertising unit it is calling "Social Video Accelerator". The firm said that the unit provides ...

Westlake Village-based ValueClick Media, the ad network division of ValueClick, is taking advantage of the runup to the Presidential elections with a new product. ValueClick said it has launched GoVote, a new advertising product aimed at po...

Santa Monica-based Convertro, the venture backed, advertising analytics and optimization firm run by Jeff Zwelling, said today that it has hired Armen Avedissian as its Chief Operating Officer. Avedissian was most recently Chief Revenue Off...

Santa Monica-based TrueCar, the online auto buying site led by Scott Painter, said Monday that it is addressing compliance issues and concerns with its service with a change to its billing model. The firm said it will offer up a new, flat f...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, the online advertising optimization technology provider headed by Frank Addante, said this morning that it has named Brian Barnum as its Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, as well as appo...

Culver City-based PK4 Media, an online video advertising network operator, said Thursday that it has acquired JSFour, a fellow video ad technology firm. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. The companies said the two have been wor...

Los Angeles-based Hulu CEO Jason Kilar said Thursday afternoon that the company brought in approximately $420M in revenues in 2011, up 60 percent from 2010, and now has more than 1.5 million paying subscribers to Hulu Plus. According to Kil...

Los Angeles-based Mobile Roadie, the mobile app developer, is powering a new mobile app from hotel and nightlife operator Sbe, the firm reported today. Sbe--which is owned by Sam Nazarian and operates hotels and nighclubs in Los Angeles, Pa...

Irvine-based Brand Affinity Technologies, the online advertising and celebrity sports endorsements startup headed by Ryan and Chad Steelberg, has raised $4.5M as part of an ongoing, $7.0M funding round, according to a filing from the firm t...

Irvine-based Local Corporation, the online local advertising and directory publisher, said this morning that it has promoted Chief Operating Officer Michael Sawtell, to President and COO. Sawtell has been COO since May. Sawtell rejoined Loc...

Irvine-based online advertising firm WebVisible has shut down, according to a report Wednesday. Former WebVisible employees had been telling socalTECH over the last few months that the firm was looking for a buyer. The company has not yet c...

San Diego-based SweetLabs, the developer of the Pokki desktop app environment, said yesterday that it has linked with social games developer Kabam, to bring that firm's social games to the desktop. The two said that Kabam's popular social g...

Last week, San Diego-based Kidzui --the kid's website and kid-friendly browser developer, announced another round of funding, and also launched Zui Studios, a new effort to create original content for the portal. We thought it would be inte...

Auto maker Honda is taking direct aim at Santa Monica-based TrueCar, with threats to pull advertising allowances from dealers who list below invoice on the site, according to a report from the LA Times. The Times says that Honda believes th...

Woodland Hills-based Yowza, the developer of a mobile coupon application for both the iPhone and Android, disclosed today that it has closed on a Series A funding round. The round came from the Tech Coast Angels and the Pasadena Angels. The...

Santa Monica-based Double Fusion, which operates an in-game advertising network, said Wednesday that it has acquired NeoEdge Networks, a social and casual in-game advertising firm. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. Doub...

Santa Monica-based out of home advertising network operator Outcast and electric vehicle charging station company ECOtality said this morning that the two have teamed to launch a digital ad network tied to ECOtality's EV charging stations. ...

Irvine-basd Specific Media, the online advertising network which also owns MySpace, said Monday that it has tied with Nielsen Catalina Solutions, which measures advertising performance. The firms said they have launched a new product called...

Los Angeles-based Panache, a provider of online advertising software and services, has been acquired by 24/7 Real Media, 24/7 Real Media said this morning. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. 24/7, which is part of WPP, said it w...

Los Angeles-based Burstly, the mobile advertising startup headed by Evan Rifkin, has raised $5.5M in a Series B round, according to the company. The round came from GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, and SoftBank. Rifkin is the former f...

Los Angeles-based Nami Media, a provider of online advertising technology, has been acquired by Providence, Rhode Island-based LIN TV Corp., a publicly traded operator of 32 broadcast television systems. According to LIN TV, it has acquired...

Los Angeles- and Austin-based GameSalad, the developer of iOS and iPhone game creation software, said last night that it has partnered with in-game advertising provider Kiip. Kiip provides rewards-based, in-game advertising tools and SDKS. ...

Santa Monica-based Outcast Media, the operator of out-of-home advertising and content networks, reported today that it has partnered with the U.S. Department of Transportation, on a distracted driving campaign. Outcast said it will include ...

Irvine-based Solarflare is bolstering its marketing expertise, the company said this week, and has hired Scott Woolsey as Director of Brand Development. The developer of 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapters said that Woolsey has worked on marketing...

Santa Monica-based Gumgum, the celebrity image licensing and advertising startup headed by Ophir Tanz, has appointed a new VP of Sales, the firm told socalTECH today. The company said it has appointed Brennan Beyer as its new Vice President...

Santa Monica-based Outcast, the operator of those ubiquitous, video advertising screens at gas stations, reported today that it has inked a deal with the NFL Network. Outcast did not details financials of the deal, but said that NFL Network...

Despite the proximity to Hollywood and the entertainment world, in the world of Southern California startups, actually combining the two world is quite difficult. NowLive is trying to do just that, leveraging both technology and the enterta...

Are you an entrepreneur hoping to startup a company in the Los Angeles area? In what has been an unprecedented surge in interest in helping entrepreneurs, there have been more than a half dozen accelerators--most patterned after the success...

Adconion Media Group, the European advertising network firm which as significant operations in Los Angeles, said today that it has acquired smartclip, a European digital video advertising firm. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed....

As automotive web sites go, there are lots of review and information sites giving you information about new and used cars, magazines and information sites for auto enthusiasts, and discussion sites and groups for all kinds of cars. But, it ...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, the firm which helps small and medium sized businesses place online advertising, said today that it has approved a $20M, share repurchase program. The publicly traded firm said that the effort reflects the "...

Los Angeles-based Gorilla Nation, the online advertising representation firm which is a part of Evolve Media Corp., reported this morning that it has added a new suite of "Urban" and "Latina lifestyle" sites to its network of web sites. The...

El Segundo-based Vantage Media, the provider of performance marketing and online advertising services, was backed by BIA Digital Partners II LP, a private equity investment firm, as part of its acquisition of BrokersWeb, BIA announced Thurs...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, the online marketing firm which helps small and medium sized business place Internet advertising, is shutting down its Bizzy local business recommendations site, according to a blog post from the site. The s...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, which helps small and medium sized businesses place online advertising, released its results Tuesday afternoon, reporting a net loss of $4.6M on revenues of $98.6M. The firm saw an overall, 28 percent growth...

Santa Monica-based Lumeo, a new startup aimed at helping members learn how to shoot professional videos, said today that it has launched its service. The new site allows users to watch videos and learn from professionals, via short video tu...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, the online marketing firm which helps small and medium sized businesses place online ads, has strengthened its ties into Google AdWords today, saying it has been added to the Google AdWords Premier SMB Partn...

Irvine-based BlueCava, a developer of device identification technology used for both online advertising tracking, as well as fraud prevention, said Tuesday that it has raised $9.5M in a funding round. The round was led by S3 Ventures, and a...

Los Angeles-based the Rubicon Project, the online ad optimization service for online publishers, said today that it has named Jay Sears as SVP Marketplace Development, and Jeremy Fain as Vice President Client Services. Sears was most recent...

Santa Monica-based Gumgum, the celebrity image licensing and advertising firm led by Ophir Tanz, has finally disclosed its funding round. The firm has raised $7M in funding from New Enterprise Associates, GRP Partners, and First Round Capit...

Westlake Village-based ValueClick Media, the ad targeting division of ValueClick, said today that it has opened up two new offices. The firm said it has opened up an office in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Phoenix, Arizona. The firm said the ...

One of Southern California's biggest assets are the number of world class, local universities researching and developing technology and knowledge across a large number of disciplines. Investors and universities are often very eager to figur...

Irvine-based Local.com is extending out its products aimed at small and medium sized businesses today, saying it has launched a new product called Exact Match. the firm said the new product adds geo-targeted and optimized keyword advertisin...

Los Angeles-based Gorilla Nation, the provider of online advertising representation services, said today that its Canadian arm has inked a partnership with Spil Games. Gorilla Nation Media Canada said it will provide online advertising sale...

Los Angeles-based Hulu said Monday that it has rolled out a new feature which will let users pick their own commercials mid-stream, flipping any commercial to another advertising choice on its site. According to Hulu, its new Hulu Ad Swap f...

Ventura-based Connexity, a developer of Internet advertising and targeting technology, announced today that it has secured $2M in a debt financing. The financing came from Silicon Valley Bank. Connexity said the line will go towards additio...

San Diego-based SweetLabs, the company headed by Darrius Thompson, and which runs both the OpenCandy advertising network and the desktop Pokki app platform, said today that it has raised $13M in a Series C funding round. The round was led b...

Sherman Oaks-based Ebyline, a startup developing an online marketplace to connect professional journalists with online publishers, has raised $5.0M in a new equity funding round, according to a regulatory filing from the firm today. Accordi...

Lousy economy? No one hiring? Don't tell that to Sherman Oaks-based Advertise.com, the online advertising network run by Daniel Yomtobian. The firm said today that it is planning to grow its workforce by as much as 30 percent over the next ...

El Segundo-based Vantage Media, the provider of performance marketing and online advertising services, announced today that it has merged with Miami-based BrokersWeb, a provider of pay-per-click advertising. Financial details of the deal we...

Los Angeles-based Marketshare, the developer of marketing and advertising optimization software, has raised $5.0M in a debt funding round, according to a regulatory filing form the firm. The funding has not yet been announced. According to ...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, the provider of local online marketing services to small and medium sized businesses run by Zorik Gordon, said this morning that it continues to expand its presence with the opening of three new offices. Rea...

Los Angeles-based MediaTrust, the operator of a performance-based marketing and online advertising exchange, said this morning that it has named Keith Cohn as its new Chief Executive Officer. Cohn was most recently President and member of t...

Los Angeles-based MindJolt, the online and mobile games developer headed by former MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe, reports today that it is now seeing about a third of the company's total revenues coming from the sale of virtual goods. The f...

Venice, California-based Mogreet, the mobile marketing firm headed by James Citron, has raised $2.0M in an ongoing funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm today. According to the filing, the new equity funding has a targ...

Irvine-based Local.com, the operator of a network of local online business guides, said today that it has become a "preferred supplier" to PAGE Cooperative, a member-owned, cooperative buying association representing regional media publishe...

Westlake Village-based ValueClick said Wednesday that it has completed its acquisition of Dotomi, the provider of dynamic display advertising technology. ValueClick said it paid 7.1 million in share so fits common stock, assumption of 0.5 m...

La Jolla-based private equity firm JMI Equity has made a big investment in online advertising verification firm DoubleVerify, leading a $33M funding round in the New York company. According to DoubleVerify, the investment funding for the co...

Santa Monica-based Joost Media, the video advertising arm of Adconion Media Group, said Wednesday that it has launched a new, interactive pre-roll video product it calls j-Roll. The company said the new ad format provides all the features a...

Santa Monica-based GraphEffect, the Facebook marketing and advertising technology firm headed by James Borow, said this morning that it has launched its Facebook targeting system from beta. GraphEffect is venture backed by CrossCut Ventures...

Irvine-based Local.com announced this morning that it has appointed Lori Chavez as its new Vice President of Marketing. Chavez joins the company from Westfield, the shopping mall developer. Chavez also has served at Jones Lang LaSalle, Elem...

Towards the end of last month, Culver City-based ThinkNear (www.thinknear.com) announced a seed round of funding for its location-based mobile advertising service, with notable inclusion of such firms as IA Ventures, Google Ventures, Qual...

The last time we spent much time chatting with Chris Lyman and Corey Brundage, they were at Los Angeles telephony software firm Fonality, busy getting their employees set up in a full blown, mixed-martial arts (MMA) "fight club". Since the...

Santa Monica-based Demand Media, the online publishing empire run by Richard Rosenblatt, said Tuesday afternoon that it has acquired two companies, plus renewed a deal with Google. According to Demand Media, it acquired IndieClick, a Los An...

Westlake Village-based ValueClick Media, the behavioral targeting and online advertising data arm of ValueClick, said today that it has opened up an office in Atlanta. According to the firm, the new office will help to support its clients a...

Los Angeles-based SocialVibe, the online advertising firm run by Jay Samit, said today that it has launched a new, political advertising solution ahead of the 2012 elections. The firm--which sells online ads based on engagement metrics, rat...

Westlake Village-based online advertising firm ValueClick said Tuesday afternoon that it is acquiring Dotomi, a provider of real-time, dynamic display advertising technology, in a deal worth $295M. The deal is split between 55 percent cash ...

Santa Monica-based Adconion Direct, the performance-based advertising unit of Adconion Media Group, said yesterday that it has linked with TRUSTe on an ad-privacy effort. Adconion Direct said it will use TRUSTe's OBA compliance platform to ...

Los Angeles-based Diversion Inc., a developer of social games, said today that it has scored a Series B strategic funding round. Size of the round was not announced. The firm said the investment was led by TomorrowVentures, hearts Corporati...

Torrance-based PixelFish, which provides online video marketing products to local businesses, announced Thursday that it has raised $4M in a funding round. The round was led by Bullpen Capital, and also included Floodgate, Mack Capital, Tom...

Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based HitFix (www.hitfix.com) an online news site focused on entertainment, announced it had raised $2M in a funding round. The firm's CEO and co-founder, Jennifer Sargent, has an interesting background, mos...

Irvine-based Local.com, the online publisher of local business guides and advertising sites, has acquired San Juan Capistrano-based Screamin' Daily Deals, the local daily deals site. The deal was worth $12.5M in cash, stock, and debt, with ...

Beverly Hills-based Adly, the online Twitter advertising site headed by Arnie Gullov-Singh, said Friday that it has rolled out a new, analytics offering for celebrities and brands. The firm said its new Adly Analytics product provides celeb...

Pasadena-based OpenX, which develops Internet advertising server software and related services, said this morning that it has made a major, European expansion. According to the firm, it has appointed Vincent Pelillo as Managing Director, Eu...

Los Angeles-based Hulu, the online video streaming site headed by Jason Kilar, released some detailed subscriber numbers Wednesday, as the firm continued to be . According to the firm, it is approaching 1 million paying subscribers to its H...

In a sign that demand for employees from Southern California technology firms is on the rise, two, separate announcements Wednesday from local companies indicates that hiring demand at local companies is up, and companies are again scrambli...

Irvine-based Specific Media, the Internet advertising network run by Tim Vanderhook, has released further details on the company's acquisition of Myspace, saying that Justin Timberlake is taking an ownership stake and major role in the acqu...

Los Angeles-based MySpace, the once dominant social networking website, has been sold to Irvine-based Specific Media, the online advertising network, in a deal reportedly worth $35M. According to Specific Media, News Corporation will take a...

Multiple reports today say that once lofty social networking site MySpace is now being set to be sold by News Corp. for as little as $20M to $30M. Irvine-based Internet advertising network Specific Media and Golden Gate Capital are among th...

Are you constantly battling creditors, dealing with debt, late credit cards, and finance fees? Well, you shouldn't have to be -- or at least, that's the premise behind Payoff.com (www.payoff.com), a new startup launching today. Scott Saunde...

West Hollywood-based CityGrid Media, the unit of IAC which operates CitySearch, Insider Pages, and Urbanspoon, said Thursday that it has rolled out three new advertising APIs for developers. The firm said its new Mobile Ads API, Web Ads API...

One trend in the Southern California high tech startup market has been an increasing number of startups--and executives--who have been looking to combine their interests in business with their enthusiasm for giving back through nonprofits...

Santa Monica-based W4, an online advertising marketplace founded by former Hydra Network executives, said this morning that it has raised $10M in debt funding. The firm said the funding came from Silicon Valley Bank. W4 is headed by Jason D...

Irvine-based Local.com, the local directory and advertising firm, said today that it has rolled out its first advertising product from its Krillion and Rovion acquisitions. Local.com acquired Krillion in May, and Rovion in February. Local.c...

Last week, Los Angeles-based StarGreetz (www.stargreetz.com) debuted its celebrity-powered, personalized message service to the public, allowing both brands and artists to send highly personalized messages to their fans. We caught up with C...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, the provider of online advertising and marketing services to small and medium-sized businesses, said today that it has opened up several new local sales offices, bringing its total to 54 offices. The firm sa...

Los Angeles-based OpenX, the developer of ad serving software and operator of an online advertising marketplace, has expanded into Japan, the firm said today. OpenX said it has launched the OpenX Market Japan, in a deal with Japanese media ...

Aliso Viejo-based CitizenHawk, a provider of brand and online reputation protection services, said this morning that it has named Jeffrey A. Pullen as Chairman of its Board. Pullen is the CEO of AudienceScience, a provider of audience targe...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, the online marketing and advertising firm headed by Zorik Gordon, said Thursday afternoon that it has launched ReachDeals, a daily deals syndication platform. ReachDeals is a relaunch of the deal commerce so...

Los Angeles-based WebVisible, which helps small and medium sized businesses place online advertising, said this week that it has inked a deal with newspaper and television publisher Media General. According to WebVisible, the partnership wi...

In the rush toward the daily deals space, it seems like there is at least one, new, daily deals site created every day. It's an incredibly crowded industry, which not only includes giants like Groupon and LivingSocial, but countless smaller...

Los Angeles-based OpenX Technologies, the developer of online advertising serving software, announced this morning that it has raised $20M in a Series D funding round. The round was led by SAP Ventures, and also included new investors AOL V...

Pasadena-based online advertising software firm OpenX has just raised a big, $20M funding round, according to a regulatory filing from the firm late Friday. The funding has not yet been announced by the company. Source of the new funding wa...

Ever since the huge success of Monrovia-based Green Dot in its IPO last year, netting a huge return for local angels, investors here have taken a second look at financial startups . Among the local startups is Los Angeles-based ATMCASH (www...

Two Southern California venture capital firms have benefited from an acquisition yesterday of Mountain View-based MerchantCircle, an online local business advertising and networking site, by fellow online advertising firm Reply! Inc.. Both ...

WebVisible, which helps small and medium sized businesses place online advertising, announced Wednesday afternoon that it has moved its headquarters from Irvine, to Los Angeles. WebVisible said it is moving to a new, creative space in Playa...

Los Angeles-based ShareSquare, the QR code firm headed by Matthias Galica, has inked a partnership with popular mobile barcode scanning firm ShopSavvy, the two said this morning. According to the two companies, ShopSavvy will recommend Shar...

Southern California--and particularly, Los Angeles--has always been a center of the music business, which makes it unsurprising that there are many, music-focused startups which end up starting here. One of them is online music events site ...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, the provider of local online marketing services for small and medium sized businesses, announced this morning that it has been recognized by the British Government for its efforts in the UK. ReachLocal said ...

Earlier this week, Los Angeles-based Anti-AgingGames (www.Anti-AgingGames.com), a new online game startup, announced a new service to help users improve their memory and concentration, as well as improve brain function. The firm notably has...

Adconion, which operates an Internet advertising network and related businesses, said earlier this week that it has raised £21 ($34M) in financing from Silicon Valley Bank. Adconion has major operations in Los Angeles. The firm said th...

Carlsbad-based Scentsa, a developer of an out-of-home advertising network, has scored a Series A funding from San Diego private equity fund Huntington Capital, Huntington said Tuesday. Size of the equity funding deal was not disclosed. Acco...

San Diego-based Stocktwits, the stock-focused, online social media site headed by Howard Lindzon, has inked a new content deal with CNNMoney, the firm said today. Financial detail fo the deal were not disclosed. According to StockTwits, the...

Irvine-based Local.com, which operates a network of local search sites, said today that it has completed its acquisition of Rovion, a provider of rich media advertising. The deal was worth $2.3M in cash, and was originally announced on Apri...

Los Angeles-based SocialVibe, the social advertising firm headed by Jay Samit, said Thursday afternoon that it has linked into the Facebook platform, and will allow people to earn Facebook Credits through engaging with its video engagements...

Santa Monica-based Demand Media reported its results Thursday, saying that it had a net loss of $5.6 million on revenues of $79.5M. Revenues were up 48 percent compared to the $53.6M in revenues the firm reported in Q1 of 2010. Demand Media...

One of the stealthiest Los Angeles startups to emerge in the last few months has been Namesake (www.namesake.com), headed by Brian Norgard and co-founded by Dan Gould. Norgard has been keeping Namesake close to the vest, but we were able to...

Los Angeles-based Gorilla Nation Media, the division of Evolve Media which provides advertising representation services to websites, said this morning that it has launched a new kids, tweens, and teens vertical. The firm said the new "Youth...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, the provider of local online marketing services to small and medium sized businesses, said Tuesday that it has become a global premier Google AdWords partner. The firm said the strategic partnership with Goo...

Westlake Village-based online advertising firm ValueClick announced this morning that it has acquired Greystripe, an operator of a brand-focused mobile advertising network. The deal was worth $70M in cash. According to ValueClick, it has hi...

Venice, California-based Briabe Media, a mobile marketing firm targeting Hispanic, African, and Asian American consumers, said today that it has raised more than $2M in funding. The firm came from Stochasto Holdings AS of Norway. According...

Howard Lindzon is CEO and Co-founder of StockTwits (www.stocktwits.com), the financial micro-messaging service. He was also the founder of Wallstrip, which he sold to CBS back in 2007, is an investor in a significant number of web and socia...

Adconion Media Group, the online advertising network firm which has its North American headquarters in Santa Monica, said today that it has named Bruce Wiseman as Chief Operating Officer for North America. Wiseman was most recently EVP and ...

Los Angeles-based Mogreet, the mobile video advertising firm headed by James Citron, announced today that it has launched a new, Facebook marketing service via Facebook Connect. The firm said it has added a new feature allowing consumers to...

San Diego-based Verve Wireless, the developer of mobile publishing and advertising applications, announced today that it has hired two executives. Verve said that it has appoint Dan Hodges as Chief Revenue Officer, and Aimee Irwin as SVP Bu...

Derek Norton is head of Los Angeles-based Watertower Group (www.watertowergroup.com), a firm which helps companies raise funding, one of the rare companies which has a track record and good reputation helping companies with fundraising, and...

Irvine-based Specific Media, the online advertising network headed by Tim Vanderhook, said today that it has received the new IAB Quality Assurance certification. The Interactive Advertising Bureau certification covers training, audit, and ...

El Segundo-based AKMG, a performance-based online advertising agency, has been acquired by Victoria, BC-based Neverblue. AKMG becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Neverblue. AKGM was founded by Kimberlee White and Steven Patton. According t...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, the provider of online marketing services for small and medium sized businesses, said Wednesday that it has expanded into New Zealand, via a strategic alliance. ReachLocal said it has partnered with SureFire...

Santa Monica-based TrueCar, the online car pricing site headed by Scott Painter, has scored a new, equity investment and partnership with direct marketing firm Guthy-Renker, the firm announced today. Financial terms of the investment were n...

For today's interview, we caught up with Clark Landry, the chairman of GraphEffect (www.grapheffect.com), a Santa Monica company which is helping other companies to hone their advertising on Facebook. Landry is a serial entrepreneur, and ac...

Westlake Village-based ValueClick, the online advertising firm, said today that it has named David A. Yovanno as its new General Manager for its Mediaplex division. Yovanno was most recently CEO of Gigya. Yovanna had previously been at Valu...

Irvine-based Specific Media, the online advertising network run by Tim Vanderhook, announced today that it has named Drew Bordages as Senior Vice President and General Counsel. Bordages joins the company from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Sp...

El Segundo-based Zadspace, the developer of on-package advertising products, announced this week that it has raised $3.2M in a funding round. The round came from Connecticut Innovation and DFJ Frontier, along with Crosscut Ventures, LaunchC...

Woodland Hills-based United Online is launching a big push of its newly renamed Memory Lane business. According to the firm and Santa Monica-based production firm Optimus, United Online is launching a national advertising spot focused on th...

Irvine-based Specific Media, the online advertising network operator, appears to be on a privacy push, saying this morning that it has gained TRUSTe certification. The firm said it is the first digital media company to be certified under th...

Irvine-based YouMail, the enhanced voicemail provider headed by Alex Quilici, said today that a number of third party developers have released applications that connect to the service from Windows Phone 7 and Windows 6.5, and Android. Accor...

Santa Monica-based Demand Media, the Internet content publishing company run by Richard Rosenblatt, is applying its crowdsourced content model to eNom, the domain name registrar it owns. According to eNom, it has put up a new content portal...

Los Angeles-based Total Immersion, the developer of augmented reality software and technology, announced this morning that it has raised $5.5M in a funding round. The round was led by Intel Capital, and also included prior investors Partech...

Los Angeles-based online advertising firm Rubicon Project announced this morning that it has hired three new executives. According to the company, it has named Nick Hulse as Chief Revenue Officer, Bill Harries as Vice President of Sales Ope...

Los Angeles-based SocialVibe, the provider of social advertising software and technology, announced today that it has raised $20M in additional equity funding. The funding was led by Norwest Venture Partners, and also included Redpoint Vent...

Pasadena-based Central Desktop, the online provider of project management and collaboration tools, announced today that it has launched a new product targeted at marketing agencies. Central Desktop, whichi s headed by Isaac Garcia, said its...

Yesterday, Kevin Covert, formerly one of the co-founders of Montgomery & Co., announced he had formally launched Los Angeles-based Covert & Co. (www.covertandco.com). Montgomery & Co. has had a fairly significant connection to the market ...

Irvine-based Specific Media, which operates an Internet advertising network, said Monday that it has expanded its UK office staff. According to the company, it has added Daniel Stephenson as Senior Director of Category Development. Stephens...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, the provider of Internet advertising services to small and medium sized businesses, said Wednesday afternoon that it will participate in Facebook's Deals test in San Diego. Facebook said this week that it wo...

Los Angeles-based Evolve Media Corp., the parent firm of Gorilla Nation and AtomicOnline, said today that it has launched sales efforts for its new video advertising division, SpringBoard Video. The online advertising firm said it has devel...

Irvine-based Specific Media, the Internet advertising network operator, said Tuesday that it has opened up a new regional office in Seattle. According to the company, the office will serve Washington and Oregon, and will be based in downtow...

Los Angeles-based MarketShare, the marketing analytics firm headed by Wes Nichols, and software firm TRA, Inc., said today that the two will jointly marketing their solutions to each other's clients. Financial details of the deal were not d...

Pasadena-based OpenX Technologies announced this morning that it has named Raj Chauhan as its General Manager of its Publisher Business. Chauhan comes from the Rubicon Project, and was co-founder of ad networks Banner Brokers and ClickAgent...

E-commerce giant Amazon.com has told the California Board of Equalization that it would cut ties to its California affiliates, if any of four bills looking to force Internet retailers to collect sales tax are passed. According to Amazon it ...

Los Angeles-based Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies have tied into social gaming giant Zynga, in a cross promotion with the new Rango film, the firms said this morning. According to the firms, they will integrate into a new quest fo...

In the world of online conversations, one of the oldest is that of community forums. As part of those forums, users are now regularly posting links, videos, and other information to others. To try to take advantage of those links, Los Angel...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project and advertising agency software firm Donovan Data Systems (DDS) said this morning that the two are in a new partnership. According to the firm, they have partnered to automate display advertising transactio...

Los Angeles-based MediaTrust, which develops an online advertising and marketing platform, announced Thursday that it has raised $3M in a new funding round. According to the firm, the round was led by Ropart Asset Management Funds. The fund...

Irvine-based WebVisible.com, which helps small and medium sized businesses place online advertising, announced this morning that it has expanded into the Japanese market. WebVisible said it has linked with Recruit Co. Ltd., a Japanese adver...

Taking aim at Pasadena-based UberMedia, the Twitter client firm headed by Bill Gross, Twitter has shut down access to the firm's API for two of UberMedia's clients, including Twidroyd and UberTwitter. According to a statement on Twitter's b...

Last week, we ran into Deena Varshavskaya, the founder of Los Angeles-based Wanelo (www.wanelo.com), a social shopping site focused on allowing women to share and follow others as they shop online. We talked to Deena about her startup and...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal said this week that it has expanded into Germany, and has opened up a new office in Berlin. The firm, which helps small and medium sized businesses place search and online advertising, said the new office wil...

San Diego-based KidZui said this week that it has launched a new advertising platform focused on family-friendly brands. The firm said its new platform, KidClicks, allows brands to reach kids through the KidZui browser. As part of the launc...

Irvine-based Specific Media, which operates an Internet advertising network, announced today that it has added three new members to its advisory board. The firm said it has added Larry Goodman, Bill Burke, and Ed McCarrick as advisors to it...

Los Angeles-based SVnetwork (SocialVibe) said today that it has named Larry Lieberman as Chief Marketing Officer at the social advertising firm. Lieberman has previously served at firms Aniboom, Virgin Comics, Virgin Animation, Comedy Centr...

Irvine-based Local.com said this morning that it has acquired the assets of Rovion, a developer of ad serving tools, from DigitalPost Interactive. Local.com said it will pay $1.5M in cash plus up to $7M in earnout for Rovion. The company al...

Last week, Los Angeles-based FastPay (www.fastpaypartners.com) announced a round of funding and its services for providing advanced payment to online publishers, application developers, and game developers. We spoke with Jed Simon the firm'...

Irvine-based Internet advertising network operator Specific Media is continuing to bolster its executive staff, saying today that it has named Fabrizio Blanco as its Chief Technology Officer, and Jason Knapp as Executive Vice President of P...

Irvine-based Specific Media, the Internet advertising network, said yesterday that it has promoted John Chung to VP of Sales for the Grat Lakes Region. Chung has been at Specific Media since 2007, and was most recently Director of Sales and...

Rumors of an IPO filing for Internet radio service Pandora heated up last week, after the firm's appointment of Peter Chernin and Barry McCarthy to its board. Pandora has some Southern California connections--beyond its relationships with m...

Irvine-based WebVisible, which provides local online marketing services and software, and chainsaw maker Husqvarna said this morning that the two are in an online search advertising partnership. According to the two, Husqvarna will make Web...

Santa Monica-based Focused Labs, which provides social media marketing services, said Thursday that it has renamed itself GraphEffect, and raised $2M in funding. The round came from CrossCut Ventures, Rincon Venture Partners, Founder Collec...

Encinitas-based Verve Wireless, which develops mobile applications for local publishers, said today that it has acquired Deconstruct Media, a mobile advertising technology firm. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Verve s...

In the quest to own the world of Internet content, there has been a huge amount of focus given to the world of consumer Internet content. However, one area has mostly been ignored, which is vertically focus, business-to-business information...

Last week, Adconion (www.adconion.com) announced that it had spun out Joost (www.joost.com), its online video service, into a separate company, which is going to be based out of Santa Monica. We thought it would be interesting to talk to th...

Santa Monica-based online publisher Bestofmedia Group, the parent firm of Tom's Hardware, said today that it has partnered with ad serving firm Madison Logic. Financial details of the partnership were not disclosed. Bestofmedia said the dea...

Pasadena-based UberMedia, the newly renamed Twitter advertising and application provider, announced today that it has acquired Mixx. Mixx operates an online site which allows users to find social content. Financial terms of the acquisition ...

For this morning's company profile, we thought we'd connect with ShareSquare (www.getsharesquare.com), a newly funded Los Angeles startup focused on QR barcodes -- 3D barcodes -- focused on musicians and entertainers. ShareSquare recently r...

El Segundo-based Zadspace, a provider of technology which prints advertising on mailing labels and packaging, has raised $4.2M in a funding round, according to details released via last week's PricewaterhouseCoopers and NVCA MoneyTree repor...

Jeremy Helfand, the President of United Online's Media Group, has departed the Woodland Hills-based firm and ended up at a Palo Alto startup. According to Palo Alto-based Auditude this morning, Helfand has joined the company as CEO. Auditud...

Pasadena-based PostUp, the Internet advertising firm spawned out of Idealab, said Friday afternoon that it has acquired UberTwitter, developer of a Twitter client that runs on the BlackBerry Platform. Financial terms of the deal were not di...

Adconion Media Group, the Internet advertising firm which has been ramping up its operations in Santa Monica, said today that it is spinning out its video product, Joost Video Network, into a new, standalone business, also based in Santa Mo...

This morning, Pasadena-based Perfect Market (www.perfectmarket.com) announced a new, $9M round of funding for the firm's technology, which is used to help publishers monetize their content. We caught up with Julie Schoenfeld, the firm's CEO...

For our Friday interview, we thought we'd catch up with Los Angeles-based MarketShare, the Elevation Partners-backed software provider, to hear where the firm is nowadays. MarketShare recently launched a rebranding effort for the company,...

For today's Insights and Opinions section today, we have a post from Jim Armstrong, Managing Director at Clearstone Venture Partners, who talks about some of the issues behind the super angel trend. There is a lot of talk these days ab...

San Diego-based private equity firm JMI Equity has backed Internet advertising firm Adknowledge, as lead on a $200M debt and equity financing round for that firm. Adknowledge, which is based in Kansas City, MO, said today that it raised $20...

Irvine-based WebVisible, the local Internet advertising firm, said today that it has rolled out a new technology focused on keyword identification. According to the company, it has launched a "keyword performance engine" called KPEye, to he...

Los Angeles-based MarketShare, a provider of advertising optimization and decision making software, said this week that it has named Steve Tobias as the firm's Senior Vice President and Managing Director. Tobias joins from Marketing Managem...

Access 360 Media, a New York-based digital advertising firm with operations in Los Angeles, said Wednesday that it has raised $12M more in a Series C funding round. The round was led by Columbia Capital, and also included prior investor Mis...

Irvine-based Specific Media, the online advertising network run by Tim Vanderhook, said today that it is implementing the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Advertising Option Icon, across all of its online display ads. Specific Media cla...

In the world of Internet devices, there are PCs, mobile phones, iPhone and Android smart phones, tablets like the Apple iPad… and then, there is the Chumby. The device is an alarm-clock like, Internet connected electronic product developed...

Pasadena-based PostUp, the Twitter advertising startup out of Idealab, said today that it has acquired Echofon, the developer of a number of Twitter applications. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Echofon develops applications ...

All this week, we are sharing the opinions of some of the top influencers in Southern California's high tech community. We asked the same five questions of a variety of top technology entrepreneurs, investors, and others, to hear what they'...

Adconian, which operates an Internet advertising network, has moved into new 40,000 square foot offices in Santa Monica, the firm said this week. The firm said it moved out of an 15,000 square foot space on the Third Street Promenade, after...

This week, we are sharing the opinions of some of the top influencers in Southern California's high tech community. We asked the same five questions of a variety of top technology entrepreneurs, investors, and others, to hear what they're t...

Coull, a video advertising firm based in the UK, said Friday that it is setting up a new office in Santa Barbara, as part of a link with performance marketing firm RevUpNet. RevUpNet is based in Santa Barbara. Coull said its new Santa Barba...

Venice, California-based Mogreet, the mobile video and advertising firm headed by James Citron, reports today that its analysis finds that users on Verizon Wireless, and those using iPhones, are the top mobile video users. The firm found th...

Los Angeles-based MySpace and search engine giant Google announced today that the two have renewed their search and advertising deal. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to the two, Google will continue to power MySpac...

Among one of the fastest growing industries--despite what has been a stagnant economy--is Internet advertising, which has continued to grow strongly over the past two years. One of the firms poised to take advantage of that growth is Pasade...

San Diego-based Frontline Direct, which is owned by Adconian Media Group, said today that it has acquired Objective Loyalty, a provider of data management and direct marketing solutions. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Frontl...

Los Angeles-based Gorilla Nation, which provides online advertising sales for website publishers, said today that it has expanded in Canada, and has opened up a new office in Montreal. According to Gorilla Nation, it has appointed Jean-Seba...

Pasadena-based PostUp, the Twitter advertising startup created by Idealab, said last night that it has launched Twidroyd Factory, a new customization product for the Twidroyd Twitter client for Android. According to PostUp, the new Twidroyd...

Irvine-based Specific Media, which operates an online advertising network, said today that it has gained three new exclusive publishing partners. The firm said it has signed a deal to gain sole, third party advertising placement access to C...

Los Angeles-based SVnetwork, which operates SocialVibe and other pay-for-performance advertising sites, said Monday that it has named Anna Seibert as its SVP of Sales Development. Seibert was most recently at AOL, where she was VP of Agency...

Last night, Amazon.com jumped into the movie business, with its own, online film submission site, Amazon Studios, backed by the help of a number of notable USC Film School advisors. Amazon is not the only company looking to make a business ...

Last week, Los Angeles-based MOVIECLIPS.COM (www.movieclips.com) announced the firm's Series A funding round, worth $3M, from Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital, and a number of Silicon Valley angels. We caught up with Zach James and Rich...

Last week, Los Angeles-based Datapop (www.datapop.com) announced a Series A funding for the startup, which is developing search advertising products which better tune ads to improve click throughs. The company's founders are previously from...

Los Angeles-based DataPop, a new paid search ad management firm started by a pair of Overture/Yahoo Search Marketing veterans, has raised $1.7M in a Series A funding round, the company said this morning. The round was led by Rincon Ventures...

Los Angeles- and San Francisco-based RealGravity, a newly launched firm focused on online video distribution and syndication, announced today that it has raised $3.2M in a funding round. The Series A round was led by Kohlberg Ventures, and ...

Los Angeles-based Bid4Spots, which operates an online reverse auction site for radio advertising, has extended into display media advertising, the firm said Tuesday. According to Bid4Spots, which is headed by Dave Newmark, it will offer up ...

Irvine-based Specific Media, which operates an Internet advertising network, said today that it is one of the first memebers of the IAB to adopt a new "Advertising Options Icon", a new tool to provide web surfers with information about what...

Santa Monica-based Geodelic, the developer of mobile location information applications headed by Rahul Sonnad, has rolled a new mobile application from Clear Channel. According to Clear Channel Airports, the airport advertising arm of adver...

Irvine-based WebVisible, the provider of local search advertising services for small businesses, said this morning that it has named Geoff Stevens as its Executive Vice President and General Manager of GLobal Business Development, and Natal...

Irvine-based Specific Media, which operates an Internet advertising network, has issued $5.3M in equity, according to a regulatory filing by the firm this week. According to the filing, the new equity came on October 27th. It's unclear if t...

Santa Monica-based Rubicon Project said this morning that it has raised $18M in additional funding, and acquired the Fox Audience Network (FAN) from New Corporation. Rubicon said that the new funding round came from News Corporation, Clears...

Internet portal Yahoo confirmed Wednesday afternoon that it has hired Ross Levinsohn, former head of Fox Interactive Media, and current venture capitalist at Fuse Capital, as its new Executive Vice President of Americas. According to Yahoo,...

Ventura-based The Trade Desk, the newest Internet advertising startup of Jeff Green, former co-founder of AdECN, said today that it has tapped an eBay vet for its new Director of Platform Solutions. The Trade Desk said that Adrienne Buhmann...

Irvine-based WebVisible, which provides local search marketing and ad placement for small businesses, reports that its latest quarterly advertising report shows that search advertising spending by small business is increasing, but is doing ...

Irvine-based Local.com, the online operator of local search advertising sites, said today that it has suspended its acquisition of LEC-billed subscribers, and will focus on providing its own, credit-card local business product, Exact Match....

Camarillo-based Connexity, a new Internet advertising firm headed by former Fastclick CEO Dave Gross, said today that it has raised a seed funding round. Amount of the round was not announced. The funding round came from Persistence Partner...

San Clemente-based Poptent, an online site for crowdsourced video content for advertisers, has raised $3M in a Series A investment round, it new investor has confirmed. According to Los Angeles-based MK Capital, it made the investment in Po...

Irvine-based Specific Media, which operates its own Internet advertising network, said this morning that it has acquired Broadband Enterprise (BBE), an online video advertising company. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. BBE wor...

Westlake Village-based ValueClick said today that it has launched a new, vertical advertising network focused on the Home and Garden sector. ValueClick said its new Modern Living Media network will deliver targeted consumer audiences for ho...

Santa Monica-based CODA Automotive, the maker of electric cars, said late Tuesday evening that its Vice President of Global Sales, Marketing and Distribution, Michael A. Jackson, has resigned. Reason for the departure was not given. CODA sa...

Los Angeles-based SVnetwork, the online advertising network which runs SocialVibe, reports this morning that it has launched its 100th brand advertising campaign. The firm said the 100th campaign is for Toyota, focused on allow users to vie...

Los Angeles-based GumGum, which helps web publishers license celebrity and other photos, has rolled out a new Image Toolbar feature for the firm's service, the firm said today. According to Ophir Tanz, the firm's CEO, the tool allows users ...

El Segundo-based Vantage Media, the provider of cost-per-action (CPA) advertising, said this morning that it has named Patrick Quigley as the firm's new CEO. Current CEO Steve Jillings becomes Chairman of the firm. According to Vantage Medi...

Los Angeles-based Burstly, the mobile advertising tools firm run by Evan Rifkin, said this week that it has opened up a new way for mobile application developers to sell their own advertising space. According to Burstly, its new Storefront ...

Irvine-based WebVisible, which provides online advertising to small and medium sized businesses, has made a major change in its organization today, saying that it has made a fifteen percent reduction in its headcount, and shuffled its CEO. ...

Irvine-based Autobytel, the operator of online auto information websites and a related, Internet leads business for auto dealers, reported today that it has partnered with another firm on better advertising analytics and optimization. Autob...

According to a report today from Paidcontent.org, Santa Monica-based Rubicon Project, the online advertising firm founded by Frank Addante, is in talks with News Corp. to fold the firm in with the Fox Audience Network (FAN). The report cite...

San Diego-based Verve Wireless, the developer of mobile publishing tools for the Associated Press, McClatchy, Belo Interactive, and other publishers, said this morning that it has raised $7M more in additional funding. The round was led by ...

Last week, Santa Monica-based Tecca (www.tecca.com) launched a consumer electronics, consumer information service, backed by Fuse Capital and Best Buy. The service--currently only available on iPhone and Android--allows users to find review...

Santa Monica-based Demand Media, the online content publishing empire of Richard Rosenblatt, announced this morning that it has launched a new, specialized offering for food advertisers. The firm said it has combined part of Demand Media's ...

Los Angeles-based SVnetwork, the brand advertising network and operator of SocialVibe, said this morning that it has named Chris Rooke as SVP of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships. Rooke was most recently SVP of Interactive Med...

Irvine-based Specific Media, a provider of contextual, online advertising services, announced today that it has promoted Jon Schluz to Executive Vice President. Schulz was most recently SVP Global Category development for the firm, and had ...

Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based SVnetwork (www.svnetwork.com) announced the launch of a new, Internet advertising network. The firm was was formerly known as SocialVibe, and is backed by Redpoint Ventures, Jafco Ventures, and Pinnacle...

Pasadena-based PostUp, the Twiiter advertising firm backed by Idealab, Index Ventures, betaworks, Revolution LLC, First Round Capital, Jason Calacanis and Jeff Jarvis, said Tuesday that it has launched a new version of its Twidroyd Twitter ...

Los Angeles-based Internet Brands, which operates a suite of online, advertising driven websites across a wide range of verticals, said Monday that it would go private in a $640M, private equity deal, bucking the trend of Southern Californi...

Los Angeles-based Ad.ly, the Twitter advertising startup, is further looking to diversify its service from Twitter, saying this week that it has added support for Facebook. The firm--which originally started as a way for celebrities, athlet...

Irvine-based WebVisible, the provider of local advertising services for the small and medium sized business market, said today that it has linked with a provider of technology for franchise organizations and franchisees. WebVisible said it ...

Los Angeles-based SVnetwork, the firm behind SocialVibe, said today that it has named Nick Loria as the firm's Chief Revenue Officer. Loria was most recently running his own consulting firm, Third Millennium, and also has serve as SVP of Sa...

Los Angeles-based Ebyline said today that it has launched a new online marketplace targeted at news publishers and professional journalists, which helps publishers manage freelance writers. The firm said it is backed by un-named Los Angeles...

A few weeks ago, Beverly Hills-based Meteor Games, the latest startup from the founders of NeoPets, announced that it had hired Zac Brandenberg as its CEO. Brandenberg was most recently head of Hydra, and we thought we'd both get some ins...

Los Angeles-based SocialVibe, which was formerly a site focused on social media for brands and charities, has turned into SVnetwork, a new Internet advertising network. According to SVnetwork, it has launched its own, performance brand adve...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, the online advertising firm which helps web publishers optimize their ad network revenues, reported this week on the latest online ad spending, saying that ad spending tracked at its customers grew 47 perc...

Los Angeles-based Mail.com, the online media network run by Jay Penske, is being sued by The Gross Family Foundation, a New York-based charity, over its use of "FASHION ROCKS" to advertise and promote its own multimedia services. According ...

Pasadena-based TweetUp, the Twitter advertising startup started by Idealab's Bill Gross, said this morning that it has added LinkedIn and Facebook updates as part of its service, and as a consequence changed its name to PostUp. The firm all...

Los Angeles-based MarketShare Partners, a developer of software used to optimize advertising, marketing, and promotions spending by companies, said Wednesday afternoon that it has acquired JovianDATA, a developer of marketing business intel...

Irvine-based Specific Media, the operator of one of the largest Internet advertising networks, has been sued over its use of Flash to recreate tracking cookies on computer browsers. The lawsuit, filed in the California Central District cour...

Los Angeles-based Gorilla Nation, the online advertising representation firm, announced today that it has been chosen by Canadian site SouthAsianLife.com. The firm said it will represent the online advertising inventory for South Asian Life...

Los Angeles-based GoodSearch.com, the online search engine which shares its advertising revenues with charities, said Tuesday that it has received a patent on its technology. According to the firm, it has received patent number 7,769,738 fr...

For this morning's interview, we thought we'd talk with Los Angeles-based Sidebar (www.sidebar.com), a venture backed startup in the mobile space, to learn more about what they are up to. We caught up with CEO Patrick Kennedy. What is Si...

Santa Monica-based Total Beauty Media's John Hadl has joined venture capital firm U.S. Venture Partners, USVP said today, on the heels of the acquisition of USVP's LimeLife by Total Beauty. According to U.S. Venture Partners, Hadl has been ...

Westlake Village-based ValueClick said today that it has partnered with LucidMedia, a provider of contextual analysis for online advertising. According to ValueClick, it will use the partnership to enable enhanced contextualization services...

Irvine-based WebVisible, which helps small and medium sized businesses place and manage their Internet advertising, announced today that it has opened up a new facility in Mumbai, India. According to the firm, the new operation will house a...

Los Angeles-based Total Immersion, a developer of augmented reality software which superimposes computer generated graphics onto live webcam video, said today that it is powering an eco-awareness program in Los Angeles. According to the com...

Irvine-based WebVisible announced today that it has upgraded its dashboard for its online advertisers and resellers. According to the firm, its upgraded merchant Center software adds such features as call mapping, which maps where advertise...

Pasadena-based TweetUp, the Twitter advertising firm owned by Idealab, said today that it has linked its Twitter Client, Twidroyd, to the TweetPhoto media sharing service. Twitter said its client--which runs on Android devices--provides ful...

Irvine-based Local.com, which operates a network of local search sites, said today that it has upgraded the technology behind its sites. The firm said that it expects the enhancements to improve its search advertising relevance across its L...

Los Angeles-based Gorilla Nation, which provides advertising representation to mid-sized online publishers, announced today that it has been selected by Premiere.com, an online site focused on movie enthusiasts. Premiere.com is owned by Hac...

Los Angeles-based Internet Brands reported its results Thursday, saying that the firm saw record revenues in Q2. According to Internet Brands, it had net income of $4.6M on $28.1M in revenues, up from $2.5M in net income on revenues of $23....

Los Angeles-based Break Media, the online entertainment site run by Keith Richman, said today that it has launched a new, 3D video channel--and will also produce its own, original 3D series. Break said the channel, which will roll out over ...

A study released Friday by the Center for the Digital Future, at the USC Annenberg School of Communications, finds that zero percent of Twitter users polled in the study would pay for Twitter. According to the study, it found that 49 percen...

This week, Santa Monica-based ThisNext (www.thisnext.com) said it has raised another round of funding for the firm's social shopping site. We thought it would be interesting to speak to the firm--which is now headed by Matt Edelman--to hear...

Los Angeles-based tmpsocial, a provider of display advertising, in-game ad integration and virtual currency management products, has tapped cloud computing provider Joyent for its infrastructure services, the firms said this week. tmpSocial...

Los Angeles-based social shopping site ThisNext announced this morning that it has raised a new round of funding, and inked a partnership with online advertising firm Federated Media. Amount of the funding was not disclosed. ThisNext said t...

Irvine-based WebVisible, the venture-backed provider of online advertising services to small and medium businesses run by Kirsten Mangers, reports today that it is seeing a recovery in advertising spending. The firm said it has seen an incr...

Altadena-based Perfect Market, the Idealab startup which develops software which helps traditional publishers monetize their archival and current content, said today that it has unveiled a new tool it is calling The Vault. According to the ...

Pasadena-based TweetUp, the Twitter advertising firm started by Idealab's Bill Gross, is expanding out its network of sites this morning, saying that it has added four new publishers to its roster. The firm said it has signed distribution a...

Redwood City-based YuMe, a Bay Area provider of video advertising technology, announced today that it has set up shop in Santa Monica with a new sales office. The firm, which is backed by Accel Partners, BV Capital, DAG Ventures, Khosla Ven...

Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard announced today that it has named Eric Hirschberg as CEO of its Activision Publishing arm. Hirschberg joins the firm from marketing and advertising firm Deutsch LA, where he was CEO and Chief Creative ...

Los Angeles-based Ace Metrix, which operates an online service which measured the effectiveness of television advertising, has snagged a new executive from comScore, INc. According to the firm, it has named Jack Flanagan as Chief Revenue Of...

Pasadena-based TweetUp, the Twitter advertising startup out of Idealab, said today that it has acquired Twidroid, which develops its own Twitter client for Android phones. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. According to TweetUp,...

Looking to reduce its dependence on Twitter's fickle advertising policy, Los Angeles-based Ad.ly, the Twitter advertising startup backed by Greycroft Partners and GRP Partners, said earlier this week that it has extended its platform to app...

Los Angeles-based social networking site MySpace said today along with French firm Orange that they are in an advertising and content partnership. According to the companies, Orange Advertising Network will manage both premium and performan...

El Segundo-based imFORZA, an online Internet marketing agency, said today that it has been acquired and spun off from parent company The Design People. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. imFORZA provides search engine op...

Irvine-based local search firm Local.com said this morning it has acquired the assets of Los Angeles-based OCTANE360, a provider of local domain advertising products. The deal was worth $5M in cash and stock, and earnout of up to $5.9M base...

Los Angeles-based Total Immersion, the firm working on augmented reality technology, said today that it has inked a deal with digital camera manufacturer Olympus and its advertising agency Mullen, to developed an augmented reality applicati...

Last week, Los Angeles-based Stroome (www.stroome.com), a new startup originally spawned out of a project at the USC Annenberg School of Communications, won $200,000 in the 2010 Knight News Challenge. The Knight News Challenge is a contest ...

Los Angeles-based HitFix, an online web site focused on entertainment news and information, has raised $1.6M in a new funding round, according to investor the Tech Coast Angels. According to the TCA, it joined in a second round of funding w...

Gil Elbaz, one of the founders of Applied Semantics, the often unheralded Santa Monica-based creator of what is now Google's AdSense product, is one of the angel investors in San Francisco-based Triggit, a developer of a real time ad biddin...

Los Angeles-based Break Media, the online media and advertising firm run by Keith Richman, announced this morning that it is in a major expansion in its advertising network, and has added 23 new verticals to its network. The firm said the a...

Los Angeles-based Internet advertising firm Hydra, which operates a cost-per-acquisition affiliate advertising network, has been acquired by Adknowledge, Adknowledge said this morning. Adknowledge is based in Kansas City. Financial terms of...

Los Angeles-based Ace Metrix, which operates an online service which helps television advertisers gauge the effectiveness of their ads, has scored an investment from advertising giant WPP, the firms announced this morning. Financial terms o...

Santa Monica-based Demand Media, the online content publishing empire of Richard Rosenblatt, has tapped Joost--now owned by Adconian--for its pre-roll advertising inventory. According to Joost, it is in a global sales and technology partner...

Santa Monica-based Rubicon Project, the online advertising optimization firm founded by Frank Addante, is on track to do $100M in revenues this year and will reach profitability in Q4, according to a blog post by Addante Tuesday afternoon. ...

Huntington Beach-based Cosnet, a developer of web conferencing software, said this week that it has launched a new, free webinar service called Freebinar. According to the firm, it will offer free, unlimited webinars for up to 150 attendees...

Irvine-based Autobytel, which operates an online automotive site providing consumer leads to auto dealers, announced yesterday that it has named Jim Helberg as its new Executive Vice President, Product, Marketing, and Analytics. Helberg joi...

Los Angeles-based Total Immersion, the developer of augmented reality software run by Bruno Uzzan, said this week that both the U.S. Army and Air Force are using the firm's technology. According to Total Immersion, the U.S. Army is using To...

Pasadena-based TweetUp, the Twitter advertising play of Idealab's Bill Gross, said today that it has added news site Topix to its network. TweetUp allows Twitter users to bid on keywords to bring their tweets to the top when users search fo...

Los Angeles-based MySpace and startup Ad.ly, also based in LA, said today that they have linked in an in-stream advertising deal. According to MySpace, it will use Ad.ly to enable content creators to reach fans in the MySpace stream. Financ...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, the online advertising optimization firm backed by Clearstone, Mayfield, IDG, and Peacock Equity Fund, announced this morning that it has acquired SiteScout, a Seattle-based firm providing malware security...

Los Angeles-based Twitter advertising firm Ad.ly, which appears to have been caught this morning by Twitter's declaration that it would no longer allow third party advertising in Twitter streams, has responded to the announcement. Sean R...

Pasadena-based Tweetup, the Internet advertising play of Idealab's Bill Gross, said today that it has formally launched the site. The firm told its members that they are now able to login to the site, and that user profiles are eligible to ...

Micro-messaging service Twitter said this morning that it is banning third-party advertising in its stream, taking direct aim at Los Angeles-based Twitter advertising service Ad.ly. According to a post this morning from Twitter, the firm "w...

Pasadena-based TweetUp, the Twitter advertising startup backed by Idealab and headed by Bill Gross, said Thursday afternoon that the firm has now registered 75,000 keywords, and also inked a deal with Conduit. The firm said those keywords r...

Irvine-based WebVisible, which helps small and medium sized businesses place Internet advertising, said this morning that it has signed a three-year agreement with Sensis, an Australian telephone directory firm. According to the firm, it wi...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, which helps small and local businesses place Internet advertising, was up 15.2 percent after its IPO Thursday, closing at $14.98, up $1.98. The firm sold 4,166,667 shares of stock at $13.00 per share, after ...

Los Angeles-based Demand Media, the user-generated content venture of Richard Rosenblatt, has new competition this afternoon, from Yahoo, after Yahoo announced it would acquire content publishing firm Associated Content. Financial terms of ...

For our interview today, we caught up with Al Eisaian , CEO of Pasadena-based IconApps (www.iconapps.com), which is developing mobile applications for the iPhone/iPod market. Al is a repeat entrepreneur, who last founded Integrien, and was...

Los Angeles-based video site Hulu has just rolled out a number of major upgrades to the service and its video player, the firm announced this morning. Hulu said it would be releasing the updated player today, with features such as new, adap...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project is reporting today that there was a 25 percent, year-over-year growth in online ad spending, according to the firm's Q1 2010 Online Advertising Market Report. The firm, which has been analyzing Internet adv...

Los Angeles-based Spot Runner, a developer of Internet advertising technology and services, announced this morning that it has integrated its Malibu Media Platform with CoreMedia Systems product, CoreDirect. CoreMedia develops software used...

Los Angeles-based Ad.ly, the Twitter advertising firm headed by Sean Rad, is announcing today that it has raised $5M in a new round of financing. The round comes from GRP Partners, Greycroft Ventures, and Matt Coffin, the founder of LowerMy...

Irvine-based WebVisible, which helps small businesses place online advertising, said this morning it is in a big hiring push, and is immediately looking to hire over 75 employees across sales, IT, software engineering, and product design po...

A report Friday afternoon from the WSJ's Kara Swisher says that Santa Monica-based Demand Media has snagged yet another Yahoo executive, this time, Yahoo VP of Brand Packaging Erika Nardini. The move comes shortly after Demand hired former ...

Two Southern California firms have made Advertising Age's annual list of the largest search marketing agencies, released last week. Santa Monica-based The Search Agency, which is headed by David Hughes, was listed at number 12, and San Dieg...

Los Angeles-based Gorilla Nation, which provides advertising sales for web site operators, reported today that it has renewed an agreement with eBaumsWorld.com, where it will continue to represent all of the site's ad inventory. The two hav...

Hollywood-based BUZZMEDIA, the parent company of Buzznet, Celebuzz, Stereogum, and a network of other sites, is in the midst of expansion, saying this week that it has hired on four new additions to the firm's advertising team. According to...

Beverly Hills-based Hydra, which operates a cost-per-action (CPA) advertising network, said Monday that it has named Michelle Andino to Director of Campaign Management, as part of a new department focused on campaign management. Andino has ...

Los Angeles-based Ace Metrix, which operates an online service which helps television advertisers determine the effectiveness of their advertising and creative, said today it has named Peter Daboll as CEO of the company. Daboll was most rec...

Dave Waldman, CEO and Founder of Los Angeles-based Bccthis (www.Bccthis.com), a startup looking to add additional functionality and private messaging into both corporate emails and Twitter messages. Bccthis just announced a version of their...

Burbank-based venture capital firm Steamboat Ventures, which is affiliated with the Walt Disney Company, has led a new investment in a Bay area video advertising and monetization firm, FreeWheel. According to FreeWheel, Steamboat led a $16....

Ventura-based The Trade Desk, the online advertising ad exchange headed by AdECN vet Jeff Green, has added another investor to its recent funding. According to New York-based Wider Wake Networks, it invested more than a half a million dolla...

San Diego-based OpenCandy, a developer of products which software publishers can include to recommend other software products and services to their users---and which earns those software publishers advertising revenue, has raised $5M in a S...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, the developer of online advertising optimization tools funded by Clearstone Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, IDG Ventures and Peacock Equity Fund, said today that it has rolled out a new product called REV...

Santa Barbara-based RingRevenue, a developer of pay-per-call technology headed by Jason Spievak, is powering a new performance marketing firm called OfferMobi. OfferMobi said today that it has launched a new, mobile advertising firm targete...

Southern California venture capital investments totaled $686.5M for the quarter, up from both Q4 of last year as well as the comparable Q1 quarter in 2009, according to the latest numbers from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the NVCA. According ...

Irvine-based WebVisible has released its latest quarterly advertising report, saying this morning that Bing's share of the search spending market was up 10 percent in Q1 over the previous quarter, and that the average small business adverti...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project has launched an updated sales and pricing application aimed at premium advertisers, the firm said today. According to Rubicon, its Permission Control 2.0 product allows publishers using its REVV ad optimiza...

Los Angeles-based Gorilla Nation said this morning that its GN Kids division has been selected by online site Cartoon Doll Emporium, to exclusively represent the ad inventory for the site and its sister properties. Cartoon Doll Emporium of...

Irvine-based WebVisible, which helps small and medium sized businesses place online advertising, announced today that it has hired Jon Rosen as its Chief Revenue Officer. Rosen joins the firm from AOL Search, where he was Executive Director...

Los Angeles-based Break Media, which operates a network of Internet entertainment properties focused on men, said today that it has launched its own, in-house advertising server for its ad network. The firm said its new Apex proprietary ad ...

Los Angeles-based CyberDefender, the developer of PC security and antispyware/antivirus software, announced today that it has received $5M in a debt financing round from strategic investor GR Match, an affiliate of Guthy-Renker. According t...

Irvine-based WebVisible, the online small business marketing service headed by Kirsten Mangers, has inked a major deal with newspaper publisher The McClatchy Company. According to The McClatchy Company and WebVisible, they are on an "aggres...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project is expanding its executive team today, saying that it has hired Ben Trenda as VP of U.S. Demand, and Eric Matza as Director of Product Marketing. Trenda was most recently VP Global Partnerships at AOL, and ...

Earlier this week, Los Angeles-based Burstly (www.burstly.com) announced that it had raised $1.8M in a venture round from GRP Partners and Rincon Ventures, for the firm's mobile ad management platform. Mark Suster lead GRP's investment in t...

Irvine-based Local.com, an online local search site, reported today that it has renewed and expanded a local advertising distribution agreement with SuperMedia LLC, the parent firm of Superpages.com. According to the firms, SuperMedia's adv...

Pasadena-based ad serving software firm OpenX is poweriing a new, European ad marketplace being run by Orange/France Telecom, the firms announced Tuesday evening. According to the firms, Orange Ad Market is an Internet advertising marketpla...

Los Angeles-based Burstly announced Tuesday afternoon that the firm has raised $1.8M in a venture funding. The funding round came from GRP Partners and Rincon Ventures. Mark Suster at GRP lead the firm's investment, with Jim Andelman headin...

Last week, Ventura-based The Trade Desk (www.thetradedesk.com) announced a $2.5M funding round. The firm's CEO and founder, Jeff Green, was a co-founder of AdECN, the Internet advertising exchange acquired in 2007 by Microsoft. We talked wi...

Beverly Hills-based CPA advertising network operator Hydra announced today that it has signed an exclusive deal with Hollywood-based Meteor Games, to help the social gaming firm sign up new players, and to also extend out its ad inventory. ...

Los Angeles-based Break Media, which operates a number of Internet media and entertainment properties focused on men, said late Tuesday evening that it has partnered with BlueKai and exelate, two firms providing online advertising data. Bre...

Ventura-based The Trade Desk, a new online Internet advertising exchange firm headed by AdECN co-founder Jeff Green, has raised $2.5M in a venture funding round. The funding came from the Founders Collective and IA Ventures, led by Roger Eh...

Santa Barbara-based RingRevenue, the pay-per-call advertising firm headed by Jason Spievak, announced today that it has named Monty Hudson as the firm's Executive Vice President of Sales. Hudson joins the firm from AudienceScience, where he...

Santa Monica-based DocStoc, the online professional document sharing site run by Jason Nazar, today said it has launched a customized document viewer. The new viewer allows any web site or user to create their own custom logo, button, and l...

Beverly Hills-based cost-per-action (CPA) advertising network Hydra announced today that the firm has cut over 15,000 of its active publishers, as a part of a bid to increase the quality of its network. The firm said it is looking to better...

A new study of the financial outcomes for Southern California venture-backed companies in the IT sector finds that approximately $48 billion in value has been created by those companies over the period 1995-2009. The study, conducted by Jon...

Los Angeles-based online advertising firm Panache said today that it has named Cheryl Kellond as its new Executive Vice President. Panache said that Kellond joins the firm from Yahoo, where she was Vice President of Advertiser Product Marke...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project is extending into mobile advertising, the firm said today, with a new mobile ad optimization product. According to Rubicon Project, its new REVV for Mobile (RFM) product will provide mobile ad serving, camp...

West Hollywood-based Citysearch, the online local business guide owned by IAC, announced today that it has launched a new online advertising service for local businesses called CityGrid Complete. According to Citysearch, it made an investme...

Recently, Santa Monica-based Docstoc (www.docstoc.com) launched a new marketplace on its site, for anyone interested in selling professional documents. We thought we'd get the background on the new effort directly from Jason Nazar, CEO and ...

Beverly Hills-based Hydra, which operates an online, cost-per-acquisition (CPA) advertising network, said today that it has officially debuted its new campaign tracking software for its advertisers. The firm said the new software, HN 2.0, ...

Los Angeles-based Sometrics, the virtual currency startup headed by Ian Swanson, released some user and traffic numbers this morning, saying that it has now provided more than 1 trillion virtual currency credits to game users. The firm also...

Los Angeles-based Break Media said Wednesday that it is expanding the number of video advertising options the site offers. The publisher of entertainment sites aimed at men, said it has added new HD-quality options, interactive pre-roll opt...

Burbank-based Steamboat Ventures, the venture capital firm backed by Walt Disney Co., has invested in a Chinese provider of online advertising. According to Beijing-based Yoyi Media, it received a Series A investment on undisclosed size fro...

Last month, Santa Monica-based ThisNext announced that it was acquiring Stylehive, an online site focused on fashion and beauty. As part of that move, the firm created a parent firm called Curatemedia (www.curatemedia.com), to oversee ThisN...

Los Angeles-based Internet Brands revealed it spent $24.2M in acquisitions, earnout, and holdbacks during 2009, as part of its 2009 fiscal results release. The firm--which just this morning said it bought seven consumer websites for its hea...

Irvine-based WebVisible officially announced this morning that it has raised $20M in a Series C funding round. According to the firm, the round was led by Focus Ventures and Adams Street Partners, with existing investors Redpoint Ventures a...

Irvine-based WebVisible, which helps local businesses place online advertising, has scored $20M in a new funding round, according to a recent regulatory filing from the firm. The round was led by Adams Street Partners, and also included Sut...

A few weeks ago, Rahul Sonnad--a serial entrepreneur who is best known for founding and selling thePlatform to Comcast--alternately confused and dazzled attendees at Twiistup, the Los Angeles tech conference, with a fake-stilted-Indian-immi...

Los Angeles-based Ace Metrix, the online advertising rating and analytics firm run by Steve Goldman, has applied the firm's ad rating service to the Super Bowl XLIV ads. The firm, which is backed by Hummer Winblad and Palomar Ventures, said...

Los Angeles-based Oversee.net, which operates a network of businesses focused on domain name monetization and advertising, said today that it has linked with NameMedia, a developer and marketer of premium domain names. According to the firm...

Hollywood-based BUZZMEDIA, the entertainment and pop culture publishing firm founded by Anthony Batt, said today that it has hired on two new sales execs, as part of a push to expand its advertising sales. The firm said it has hired Christo...

Newport Beach-based patent licensing firm Acacia Research Corporation has scored a major patent lawsuit win, this time against Yahoo!, the firm announced this morning. According to Acacia Research, its subsidiary, Creative Internet Advertis...

Westlake Village-based web advertising firm ValueClick said late Monday that it has divested its Web Clients promotional lead generation business. According to the firm, the deal was worth $45M, in the form of a five year note with an inter...

Irvine-based Brand Affinity Technologies, founded by former dMarc founders Ryan and Chad Steelberg, said Monday that it has acquired La Jolla-based Beeyla, a developer of virtual sports collectibles. Financial terms of the buy were not disc...

San Diego-based FLO TV, the mobile television arm of Qualcomm, announced today that it is launching a Super Bowl ad campaign. The firm said that it will launch three separate advertising spots, which combines a remix of The Who's "My Genera...

West Hollywood-based Citysearch, the online business guide owned by IAC, said late Friday that it has created a new advertising network called CityGrid. According to Citysearch, the new content and advertising network aggregates advertisers...

Santa Barbara-based RingRevenue, the pay-per-call technology firm headed by Jason Spievak, is powering a new direct response marketer, As Seen Everywhere, also based in Santa Barbara, the two firms said today. According to the firms, As See...

Pasadena-based OpenX, which develops open source, ad serving software, said Tuesday that it has launched a new version of its software. Among updates to the software, the firm said that software now provides better statistics on advertising...

Beverly Hills-based Hydra, the cost-per-action (CPA) advertising network, has new funding in hand and legal issues behind it, and is now looking upmarket, the firm told socalTECH in an interview Thursday. The ad network--which announced a r...

Santa Monica-based CODA Automotive, a startup manufacturer of electric cars, announced today that it has hired on a GM vet, Michael A. Jackson, as its Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Distribution. According to CODA, Jackson was mo...

Carlsbad-based Epics3, a new startup focused on photo sharing through Twitter, Facebook, and other web sites, said today that it has launched its services. The new company, headed by Joe Moreno, said it will allow users to post photos to th...

Los Angeles-based Mogreet, the mobile video marketing firm run by James Citron, said earlier this week that it has powered a mobile marketing campaign for Hotel Casa del Mar in Santa Monica. The firm--which recently expanded its offerings f...

San Diego-based Underground Elephant, a startup focused on the CPA-based, performance based advertising market, said today that it has opened up an office in Santa Monica. The firm said it is looking to tap the talent in the Los Angeles are...

Santa Barbara-based Impact Radius, a developer of multi-channel, performance advertising technology, announced today that it has raised $6M in a venture funding round. The round was led by Redpoint Ventures. The firm said the funding went t...

Stuart Wolff, the former CEO and Chairman of the board of Homestore.com, plead guilty Tuesday to participating in a scheme to artificially inflate the firm's online advertising revenue. Wolff had agreed to plead guilty last week, in a deal ...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, a provider of Internet advertising optimization tools, said today that it has launched a new security offering called Rubicon Security. The firm said the new software fights "malvertising" and identifies m...

San Diego-based Covario, a developer of search advertising and web site optimization software and services, said today that it has acquired Netconcepts, LLC, a website search engine optimization firm based in Madison, Wisconsin. Financial t...

Santa Barbara-based Impact Radius, a new firm which includes a number of the founders of Commission Junction, said today that it has launched a new, multi-channel performance advertising company. According to Impact Radius, its founders inc...

Beverly Hills-based online advertising network Hydra is targeting the education market, saying today that it has launched a new vertical website, MyDegreeFinder.com, specifically aimed at students looking for higher education degree program...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal filed for an IPO this morning, saying that it is looking to raise up to $100M. The firm's IPO is being underwritten by J.P. Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch, citi, Piper Jaffray, Needham & Company, and Broadpoint.G...

Irvine-based WebVisible, which helps small and mid-sized businesses to place online advertising, said today that it has named Doug LaBahn as the firm's Vice President of Product. LaBahn has previously served as VP of Strategy and Innovation...

Los Angeles-based Twitter advertising startup Ad.ly has just launched a new Twitter analytics product, the firm said Thursday afternoon, which allows Twitter users to see statistics on their account. According to Ad.ly, the new Ad.ly Analyt...

One of the perpetual themes of the technology news sites and blogs this year has been fairly nonstop coverage of Twitter, the microblogging site. Aside from constant coverage of whether the service is up, or down, or somewhere in between, t...

Los Angeles-based Ace Metrix, which operates an online service which provides analytics for television ads, announced today that it has raised $6.0M in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Leapfrog Ventures, and also included prio...

The founders Los Angeles-based GumGum, a startup which offers ad-supported, celebrity and entertainment photos for blogs and other web sites, has diverged into the online ad business, saying this week that it has launched a separate, advert...

Los Angeles-based Sometrics, a developer of analytics tools for online game developers, reported recently that it has signed on gaming site Ijji.com as a customer. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Sometrics said that it is ...

Dear readers: We've got offers for two different event -- a discount to tomorrow's Digital Family Reunion, and a chance to win a ticket to digiday:APPS next week. Read more below for details. It's time again to come together for the h...

Los Angeles-based Oversee.net is planning a European expansion, the firm said this week, saying its DomainSponsor domain monetization division is planning to establish operations in Europe during the first quarter of 2010. According to Over...

Santa Monica-based Adconion Media Group, an online advertising network, announced today that it has acquired certain assets of Joost, the online video site founded by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom. Financial terms of the b...

Los Angeles-based The Rubicon Project, the online advertising optimization firm backed by Clearstone, Mayfield, IDG, and Peacock Equity, said today that it has enhanced its "Certified Inventory" program with a partnership with AdSafe Media....

Los Angeles-based Spot Runner, a developer of services which help advertisers buy TV advertising, announced today that it has launched its Malibu Media Platform, which the firm says will help improve the process of buying and selling televi...

This morning, Los Angeles-based Lottay (www.lottay.com) launched its online gifting site, announced its funding by DFJ Frontier, and also the appointment of former Evite GM Harry Lin as CEO. We spoke with Harry yesterday about the company. ...

San Diego-based Brickfish, a developer of social media and online advertising software, said today that online shoe and apparel firm Zappos.com and Steve Madden are using its social media platform. According to Brickfish, its software is be...

Woodland Hills-based FatTail, a developer of software for managing online advertising for web publishers, announced today that it has launched a new, self-serve display ad selling system called PageGage Direct. According to FatTail, the new...

Los Angeles-based Impact Radius, a firm which is developing a service to link performance advertising to TV, radio, print, and online channels, has raised $1.0M in a funding round, according to a recent regulatory filing from the firm. No d...

Pasadena-based OpenX is in a major deal with software giant Microsoft, saying today that the two are in a deal to cross-market and promote products to their publishers. OpenX said it it will become a preferred partner to publisher for enter...

This morning's interview is with Gil Elbaz, founder of Factual (www.factual.com), a new startup based here in Los Angeles focused on open data sharing and accuracy. Gil is one of the founders of Applied Semantics, the firm acquired by Googl...

Los Angeles-based Zadspace, an advertising firm backed by DFJ Frontier, Crosscut Ventures and Gideon Hixon Fund, has unveiled its advertising product, saying Tuesday that it has exited beta testing of its service. Zadspace adds full color, ...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, a provider of local search advertising services, has topped Deloitte's 2009 Technology Fast 500 list, an annual listing of companies ranked by their five year growth rates. According to the list, ReachLocal ...

Los Angeles-based Ad.ly, which is developing an in-stream, advertising platform for Twitter, has raised $500,000 in a funding round. The round came from GRP Partners. GRP's Mark Suster sits on the firm's board. "Ad.ly has performed very wel...

Westlake Village-based Move, which operates a network of online real estate-focused web sites, said late Wednesday that it is in a joint venture with Builder Homesite focused on new home builders. According to the two companies, they have c...

Gil Elbaz, one of the co-founders of Applied Semantics--the firm that developed the technology behind Google's AdSense--has launched a new startup, Factual. According to the Los Angeles-based firm, it is developing an online platform which ...

Los Angeles-based The Rubicon Project, which operates a service to optimize the selection of ads on web sites, said today that it has debuted a new technology platform is it calling REVV for Publishers. The new software expands Rubicon's pr...

Beverly Hills-based Hydra, an operator of a cost-per-action (CPA) advertising network, said today that it has linked with Aliso Viejo-based CitizenHawk, a provider of trademark protection and domain name services. According to the firms, th...

Irvine-based WebVisible has snagged former NetZero co-founder Ronald Burr as its Chief Operating Officer, the firm said Wednesday. The firm, which helps small businesses place local online advertising, said that Burr will oversee the firm's...

Los Angeles-based Crosscut Ventures (www.crosscutventures.com) is one of the newest venture capital funds in the area, and has quietly been working on funding local companies over the last year. The fund--started by Brian Garrett and Rick S...

One of the co-founders of Oversee.net, the successful Los Angeles domain name monetization firm, has surfaced in Seattle with a new startup, AppBank.com. Fred Hsu, who co-founded Oversee.net along with Lawrence Ng, has started AppBank to al...

According to a report in paidContent Monday afternoon, WPP's lawsuit against Spot Runner has been dismissed. The report cited an un-named source close to the lawsuit. Spot Runner was sued by WPP, an investor in the advertising firm, in Apri...

For our Insights and Opinions section today, we have an article from Scott Edward Walker, an attorney at Walker Corporate Law Group, who gives his list of five common mistake that entrepeneurs make in raising capital. This post discuss...

Beverly Hills-based Hydra, a pay-for-performance advertising network, said yesterday that it has named Josh Eldridge as the firm's Director of Display Media. Eldridge joins the firm from LowerMyBills.com, where he was Marketing Director. El...

Los Angeles-based Ace Metrix, which is venture backed by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Palomar Ventures, said today that it has rolled out a number of enhancements to the firm's service for the advertising market. The firm, which prov...

El Segundo-based Ripple has been acquired by TargetCast Networks, a San Ramon-based operator of a out-of-home digital advertising network. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. According to TargetCast Networks, the buy gives it 140...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, which provides Internet advertising optimization services to publishers, announced today that it has raised $9M more. The Series C funding was led by the GE/NBCU Peakcock Equity Fund, and also included Cle...

Westlake Village-based ValueClick said today that it has launched a new online advertising network, targeted at mothers and women. According to ValueClick, the new "Moms Media" vertical is the second for the firm, and will target more than ...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, a venture backed provider of online advertising optimization services, said today that it has acquired Others Online, a provider of a behavioral targeting service for the online advertising industry. Finan...

This morning's interview is with Billy Fried, co-founder and CEO of Kijubi (www.kijubi.com), a new startup which is looking to help people find travel activities. The firm is launching itself today at TechCrunch50. We talked with Billy last...

Last month, AccessDNA (www.accessdna.com) announced it had raised an angel round of funding for the firm's shopping engine for genetic tests. We sat down with Lee Essner, the firm's CEO and founder, to chat about the company. Essner was mos...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, which provides online advertising optimization for web publishers, reports this morning that its latest advertising market survey finds that CPMs are up "significantly" in Q2. The firm, which pulls pricing...

For today's interview, we thought we'd catch up with Hamet Watt, who was most recently founder of NextMedium, and is now an EIR at True Ventures (www.trueventures.com). Hamet is now helping True Ventures look at investments in Southern Cali...

In what might be some new competition for Santa Monica-based Rubicon Project, the high profile ad optimization firm headed by Frank Addante, search engine giant Google told its publishers late Wednesday that it will begin to offer similar c...

Beverly Hills-based Hydra LLC, an Internet advertising company which has been seeing major growth in the last couple of years, has apparently hit a major snag, as the company has become embroiled in lawsuits associated with the departure of...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project announced Wednesday that the firm has opened up an office in Sydney, Australia, as part of an expansion in the Asia Pacific region. According to Rubicon, which provides online advertising optimization softw...

Santa Monica-based Outcast, an operator of at-the-pump digital displays, said this morning that it has inked new content partnerships with CBS, CNET, and HGTV. Financial details of the content relationships were not disclosed. Outcast runs ...

Los Angeles-based Gorilla Nation reported Monday afternoon that it has signed on World Wrestling Entertainment as a client. The firm, which provides advertising sales representation to web publishers, said it is now the exclusive, North Ame...

Two Southern Californians are in the running for $10,000 for their entries into a user generated advertising effort from e-commerce site Amazon.com. According to Amazon.com, it has selected five finalists to compete for the $10,000 in Amazo...

One of the startup areas where we've been seeing renewed activity in the last few months is in the enterprise software space--specifically, in software-as-a-service applications targeted at corporate customers. One of the local firms attack...

San Diego-based FLO TV, the subsidiary of Qualcomm providing the FLO TV live mobile TV service, said this week that it has inked a deal with media measurement firm Rentrak to provide comprehensive viewership and advertising impression repor...

Last Week, Calabasas-based Masher Media announced it had received a round of angel funding from the Tech Coast Angels to fund its development of MyMiniPeeps (www.myminipeeps.com), a virtual world for children. We spoke with Sherry Gunther, ...

Sherman Oaks-based Advertise.com, the online search engine marketing firm run by Dan Yomtobian, has been sued by AOL over the firm's domain name, according to reports. Apparently, AOL is suing Advertise.com over its similarity to AOL proper...

Santa Monica-based DocStoc, the online document sharing site run by Jason Nazar, is announcing this afternoon that the firm has launched a new, online store which will allow people to both buy and sell professional documents. The firm said ...

Santa Monica-based Rubicon Project has signed a New York company, Katz 360 Sales, to give Katz access to its inventory of premium display ads, the firms announced today. Katz 360 Sales said it is using Rubicon Project's Internet advertising...

Los Angeles-based Spot Runner announced today that the firm has partnered with Yodle, an online advertising network, where Yodle will handle local online advertising services for Spot Runner's clients. According to the firms, Spot Runner sa...

Our interview this morning is with Babette Pepaj, CEO and founder of BakeSpace (www.bakespace.com), a local Los Angeles startup focused on social networking around food. We caught up with Babette to get the story behind the site, and how th...

Encino-based Bid4Spots, which operates a number of online reverse auction marketplaces for radio and cable television advertising, claims today that the firm has been seeing a huge amount of growth this year. The firm reported this morning ...

Google's foray into the radio automation market has finally ended this morning, as San Francisco-based WideOrbit said it has acquired Google Radio Automation and related products. No financial details of the asset sale were disclosed. The s...

Beverly Hills-based Hydra, which operates a cost-per-action (CPA) advertising network, disclosed Tuesday afternoon that the firm is in a partnership with brand monitoring firm BrandVerity. According to Hydra, the deal with BrandVerity will ...

Los Angeles-based Internet Brands reported its quarterly results Wednesday afternoon, reporting that it saw 50 million monthly unique visitors to the firm's websites in June, up 35 percent from 37 million uniques in June of last year. Howev...

In a major deal, search portal provider Yahoo and software giant Microsoft said that the two companies are in a deal where Yahoo will replace its own search engine technology with that of Microsoft--with potentially huge repercussions to Ya...

Sherman Oaks-based Advertise.com, the search engine marketing firm run by Dan Yomtobian, disclosed today that the firm is extending its offerings into the cost-per-action (CPA) category. The firm said that the new CPA services are an extens...

Los Angeles-based Spot Runner, which operates an online service to help businesses buy and sell TV and video advertising, said late Friday that it has promoted Gus Warren to General Manager of the firm's Malibu Media Platform unit. Warren h...

Los Angeles-based Spot Runner, which operates an online service to help businesses place television advertising, has filed to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the firm by one of its investors, WPP. In a legal filing, Spot Runner said that am...

This morning's interview is with Mark Suster, a venture capitalist at GRP Partners (www.grpvc.com). GRP has just recently closed on a new $200M fund, and Mark has been one of the more active venture capitalists in the Los Angeles area in re...

Irvine-based Specific Media said Friday that the firm has entered into an online advertising partnership with an automotive dealer group, MileOne Automotive. According to Specific Media, MileOne will target automotive shoppers across its ne...

El Segundo-based ZADSPACE, a stealth mode firm developing advertising related products or technology, has raised an additional $500,000 in funding, according to a regulatory filing from the firm, bringing its total fundraising to $1.91M. De...

Los Angeles-based Gorilla Nation, which represents online publishers for advertising sales, reports today that the firm has extended an agreement with The Brooklyn Company, which owns horror site Fangoria.com, FangoriaGoreZone.com, and Star...

Los Angeles-based Ace Metrix (www.acemetrix.com) launched its software-as-a-service, TV advertising rating service last month, and we spoke with the firm's CEO and co-founder, Steve Goldman, recently to learn more about the firm. In particu...

As part of our interview with local companies and executives, we always like to talk with interesting local companies. One local firm, which every surfer would be familiar with, is Huntington Beach-based Surfline/Wavetrak (www.surfline.com)...

Santa Monica-based internet advertising firm the Rubicon Project said Thursday that the firm has officially opened up its London offices, and hired on a Director to handle UK publishers. Rubicon--which appointed a International VP just last...

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has stepped into an Internet tax battle which has been brewing between online retailers Amazon.com, Overstock.com, and a number of states which have been mulling Internet taxes. The states have been working on...

Irvine-based WebVisible, the local online advertising startup backed by Redpoint Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures, says that it has "thrived," in the first half of the year, despite the current economy. The firm said today that it has "nea...

Encino-based Bid4Spots, the online radio and TV advertising firm headed by Dave Newmark, said this week that the firm has seen a 40 percent increase in ad revenues in its online marketplace for cable television advertising since its launch ...

Los Angeles-based Big Stage Entertainment, which develops avatar creation technology for turning photos into animated, 3-D likenesses, said Wednesday that the firm has launched a new effort targeted training content creators on the firm's p...

Santa Monica-based Outcast, and Irvine-based AdtekMedia, the operator of out-of-home advertising network PumpTop TV, said today that the two firms have created a new, joint venture focused on at-the-pump displays. According to the two, Outc...

San Diego-based H2O Audio, a developer of waterproof headphones and other accessories, said yesterday that the firm has inked a multi-year partnership with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. H2O Audio said that the firm and Phelps will collabo...

Los Angeles-based Ace Metrix is looking to apply analytics to the television advertising market, saying this morning that it has launched a service which helps advertisers measure persuasion and watchability of their advertising. The firm, ...

Earlier this month, Santa Barbara-based RingRevenue (www.ringrevenue.com) announced that it had raised a round of venture funding. We caught up with the firm's CEO, Jason Spievak, to learn more about the firm's technology, as well as to hea...

Santa Monica-based Tsavo, the online media company which owns Manolith, Twirlit, Kidglue, and Nibbledish, has lost its Vice President of Product and Design, Mike Macadaan. Macadaan is well known in the Los Angeles technology community for c...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project announced today that the firm has expanded into the UK, and hired on Jay Stevens as Vice President and General Manager, International. Rubicon, which provides online advertising optimization for web publish...

Woodland Hills-based FatTail, a developer of software tools for publishers to manage their advertising sales efforts, said over the weekend that the firm has launched a new product, PageGage RAFT, which will allow publishers automatically b...

Santa Barbara-based RingRevenue, which is developing technology for pay-per-call, telephone affiliate advertising, has raised $3.5M in a funding from GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, and Great Pacific Capital. The firm is headed by fo...

Santa Monica-based Mahalo, the high profile "human-powered search engine" run by Jason Calacanis, rolled out a new, revamped site late Tuesday evening, offering to split advertising revenues with users who help to create pages on the site. ...

Last week, Justin Cooper, who was one of the founders of VC-backed Passenger, launched a new company called Society6 (www.society6.com), focused on helping to get artists and art projects funding. We caught up with Justin to understand his ...

Beverly Hills-based Hydra, which operates a cost-per-action advertising network, reported Thursday that it has named Rachel Corcoran as the firm's Director of Compliance. Hydra said that Corcoran was most recently at Experian, managing comp...

Pasadena-based OpenX Technologies, a developer of ad serving software for web publishers, said this morning that it has raised $10M in a Series C funding round. According to the firm, the new round was led by DAG Ventures, and also included...

El Segundo-based out-of-home advertising firm Ripple TV said today that it has added two media executives to the firm's board of directors. Ripple, which is venture backed by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Trinity Ventures, said that Scott Hag...

Two local online advertising businesses--Westlake Village-based ValueClick, and Irvine-based Specific Media--are showing growth in the latest comScore ranking of advertising networks. According to comScore, which analyzes Internet traffic a...

Los Angeles-based Panache, a provider of Internet advertising technology, announced today that PBS is integrating Panache's platform into its video management system. According to Panache, the move will allow PBS producers to place interact...

City of Industry-based Newegg, a major online electronics and computer retailer, said today that it has sued retailer Kohl's Corporation for trademark infringement and unfair competition. Newegg said that its lawsuit, filed in the United St...

Sherman Oaks-based Bid4Spots, the online auction for radio advertising time, is branching out into cable television, saying Monday that it has launched a new, cable TV advertising marketplace. The firm said it would offer premium, local cab...

Los Angeles-based cost-per-action advertising network Hydra is staffing up, saying Thursday that it has named Mitchell Dimler as its Chief Information Officer. The ad network said that Dimler has served at companies such as DirecTV, Transam...

Los Angeles-based Hydra, which operates an online advertising network, said today that it has appointed Stephen Semprevivo to the firm's board of directors. According to Hydra, Semprevivo was most recently President of Experian Interactive ...

Irvine-based WebVisible, which provides online marketing for local businesses, said Tuesday that the firm has partnered with catalog retailer PC Mall. According to Webvisible, PC Mall will offer its web advertising programs through its onli...

Last week, Ayax Systems launched LetSimonDecide.com, a new website targeted at helping people make major decisions. We caught up with Ricardo Solar, the firm's CEO, to learn more about the site. What's the idea behind LetSimonDecide? ...

News Corporation said a few minutes ago that it has added two new executives at MySpace, and is tapping Tsavo Media's Michael Jones as Chief Operating Officer and Sling Media's Jason Hirschhorn as Chief Product Officer. Both are in Los Ange...

Sherman Oaks-based ABCSearch, a provider of pay-per-click advertising, announced Tuesday that it has acquired Advertise.com, and will rebrand all of its offerings under a new, Advertise.com, Inc. brand. ABCSearch was founded by Daniel Yomto...

Los Angeles-based the Rubicon Project, a provider of Internet advertising optimization software and services, announced today that it has rolled out a new product which will automate the buying of online ad inventory. According to Rubicon, ...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal has launched a new, online marketplace for local advertising, saying Monday that it has created a new "ReachLocal Xchange" platform which will allow websites to tap into local advertisers. According to ReachL...

Los Angeles-based Buzz Media, the online network of celebrity-focused web sites, announced today that it has inked a deal with OK! Magazine. OK! Magazine is a celebrity news magazine and website. Buzz Media--which was formerly known as Buzz...

Los Angeles-based SpotRunner, a venture-backed firm which helps businesses place television advertising, is the target of a lawsuit from investor WPP, according to a report from AdAge. According to the report and copies of the lawsuit poste...

Los Angeles-based Hydra, an online advertising network, announced this morning that the firm has partnered with OnDialog, a firm focused on marketing optimization programs. According to Hydra, the deal will give it access to landing page op...

West Hollywood-based Citysearch, the local online business guide owned by IAC, said Thursday that the firm has expanded its relationship with yellow pages publisher Idearc Media. Citysearch said it will integrate performance-based advertisi...

Pasadena-based OpenX Technologies, a provider of ad serving software for web publishers, announced this morning that the firm has launched a new, advertising marketplace it is calling OpenX Market. According to OpenX, the marketplace will i...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, which operates an online advertising optimization service, is announcing this morning that the firm has raised $13M more in a combination of equity and debt. The investment included $5M in equity funding f...

San Diego-based Brickfish, a provider of social media marketing and advertising services, said Tuesday that Nike is using the firm as part of a user-generated photo contest. Brickfish said that Nike is running a campaign called "What Do You...

Los Angeles-based Panache, a provider of advertising insertion technology for the online video market, said Monday that the firm is in a partnership with TVO, a media organization based in Ontario focused on public education. Panache said t...

San Diego-based Slacker, a venture-backed, personalized online radio service, told its users this morning that it has launched a new feature which adds complete lyrics to the firm's services. According to Slacker, its premium Slacker Radio ...

Pasadena-based OpenX Technologies, which develops ad serving software used by online publishers, is reporting this morning that it has added more than 8,000 publishers since it launched its product in October of 2008. The software developed...

Los Angeles-based GoTV Networks has launched a new mobile, social networking application focused on sharing pictures, videos, and text with their friends and family. The firm launched its new product--LiveFromYou--Tuesday, saying that the n...

El Segundo-based Ripple TV, an out-of-home advertising network, disclosed this morning that it has raised $4M in a venture capital round. The funding came from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Trinity Ventures. According to Ripple, the firm plan...

Los Angeles-based Interpolls, a provider of rich media advertising technology, announced this morning that Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is using the firm to promote the Blu-ray and DVD release of "Slumdog Millionaire." Financial...

Irvine-based SmartReply, a provider of mobile marketing and SMS messaging services, said today that it has acquired mSnap, a SMS mobile advertising network. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. mSnap was founded in 2006, a...

Dan Yomtobian is CEO and founder of Sherman Oaks-based Scour (www.scour.com), a meta-search engine which adds social features such as voting and comments to Internet search. Scour is an offshoot of a PPC advertising firm, ABCSearch, which w...

Los Angeles-based ARTISTdirect, which operates an online site focused on music and film, has signed on a group to represent the firm in advertising and sponsorship sales. According to ARTISTdirect, it has tapped Traffic Marketplace for its ...

Irvine-based Autobytel released its quarterly results Thursday, revealing that the firm saw a 35 percent plunge in its advertising revenue, and a 23 percent drop in leads referral revenues last quarter. The firm, which operates a series of ...

Burbank-based Steamboat Ventures, the venture capital arm of Disney, is one of the investors in Bay Area-based mobile games advertising firm Greystripe, which raised a $5.5M Series C funding today. Greystripe said the funding round was led ...

Los Angeles-based MarketShare Partners, a private equity-backed provider of marketing analytics, said this morning that it has tapped a former marketing exec from Procter & Gamble as an advisor. According to the firm, Jim Stengel, curently ...

Irvine-based Specific Media is reporting today that it has added a new tool focused on helping its client measure the impact of their brands. According to Specific Media, its new Brand Awareness Reports pulls data from Nielsen to measure th...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, the online advertising optimization software firm headed by Frank Addante, released new traffic and customer numbers Monday, saying that the company is now serving up ads for 8 of the top 15 newspaper publ...

San Diego-based Covario, a developer of marketing analytics and search engine optimization software, said Thursday that the firm has hired on a new VP of Business Development. Covario said that it has hired on Jeff Johnson to the position, ...

Irvine-based Local.com, which operates a local search site, said today that Idearc Media--publisher of the Verizon Yellow Pages and Superpages.com--has renewed their local advertising distribution agreement. Idearc's advertisers are current...

Carlsbad-based Adjix announced this morning that the firm is looking to help users monetize the popular Twitter micro-blogging service. Adjix said that it is creating a "new ad format" which will allow text ads to be embedded within Twitter...

Comcast Interactive Media announced Monday that it has appointed Scott Schiller as the new Senior Vice President of Advertising Sales, heading up sales for the firm's Fandango, Fancast, Movies.com and Plaxo units. Fandango, Movies.com, and ...

Cerritos-based Connect3, a developer of advertising, merchandising, and promotions software, is now officially part of DemandTec, a Bay area firm that develops promotional planning software. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. D...

Los Angeles-based MarketShare Partners, a provider of marketing analytics software said Wednesday afternoon that it has scored an investment round from Elevation Partners. Financial terms of the funding were not disclosed. According to Mark...

Los Angeles-based Tibesti (www.tibesti.com) is launching its new social shopping site this morning. To understand why the company decided to jump into this market, we spoke with the firm's Chairman and CEO, Mike Hale a few days ago. Mike ex...

San Diego-based Newsforce (www.newsforce.com) is a startup which is looking to take advantage of the hunger of the newspaper and media business for revenue, and has created a product which takes press releases and commercial content, and in...

Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project, the venture funded online advertising effort run by Frank Addante, is reporting this morning that advertising CPMs were flat in Q4, even as the firm said it had an 30 percent growth in revenue across its p...

Venice-based FlipGloss Media announced this morning that it has launched a web site targeted at the fashion, design, travel, and lifestyle photography markets. The new site--funded by Forbes Media--said it is looking to create a "new visual...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, which operates a service to help small and medium sized businesses place online advertising, said this morning that it is adding a online display advertising product to its mix. The firm said its new offerin...

Los Angeles-based CrownPeak, a developer of software-as-a-service for web site management, announced this morning that the firm has launched a new product targeted at landing page management. CrownPeak said its new product--CrownPeak Landin...

Last week, Altadena-based AdventureLink (www.adventurelink.com) announced that it raised a Series A funding round, for the firm's adventure travel reservation network. The round came from Anthem Venture Partners and the Mail Room Fund. We c...

Yesterday, Google announced that it was shutting down its Google Audio efforts--the search engine giant's efforts to try to sell radio advertising. We happened to be talking at the time with Dave Newmark, CEO of Encino-based Bid4Spots (www....

Search engine giant Google said Thursday that it is exiting from the radio advertising business, putting an end into the firm's attempt to leverage its online advertising success into other media. Google--which pulled the plug on its newspa...

Late last year, we had the chance to talk with Velocity Interactive's Ross Levinsohn about their investment in Woodland Hills-based FatTail (www.fattail.com). At the time, the firm was working on--but not talking about-- their next generati...

El Segundo-based Zadspace, a stealth mode firm developing advertising technology, has quietly raised $1.40 in Series A venture funding. The funding came from DFJ Frontier, Crosscut Ventures and Gideon Hixon Fund. The firm's founders decline...

Westlake Village-based ValueClick has added a trio of new publishers to the firm's health and wellness advertising network, the firm disclosed this morning. According to ValueClick, it has added eMedTV, HealthCastle.com, and Hearthstone Com...

For this morning's interview, we thought we'd try something different, and put together a virtual panel of venture capitalists to give us a few tips on pitching your company. We brought together Peter Cowen of Groundwork Equity, Mark Suster...

Woodland Hills-based FatTail, the online advertising firm venture backed by Velocity Interactive Group, announced this morning that the firm has rolled out PageGage, a new product which helps to optimize online ad sales operations for publi...

The convergence of the Internet and the entertainment business has made Los Angeles a hotbed of activity in the online entertainment industry, attracting companies from all over the country interested in connecting Hollywood with the Intern...

Santa Monica-based Outcast, a privately held provider of out-of-home advertising networks, said Thursday that the firm is expanding its network to New York. Outcast said its Fuelcast Network--an ad network which goes to gas stations--will e...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal, which helps small businesses buy search engine advertising, has inked a strategic alliance with Google in the United Kingdom, the firm announced today. ReachLocal said that it has become an "Authorised Resel...

Cerritos-based Connect3 Systems, a developer of advertising, merchandising, and promotions software, has been acquired by San Carlos-based DemandTec, DemandTec said Monday. According to DemandTec, it acquired Connect3 in an all-cash transac...

Irvine-based Skweezer, which operates a mobile advertising network and tools to translate web pages to mobile format, is reporting today that the firm saw its first quarter of profitability in Q4. The privately held company--which did not r...

Los Angeles-based Oversee.net is not immune to the stormy economy, and told socalTECH Thursday that is cutting 18 percent of the firm's workforce, or a total of 38 people, including some managers. The firm said it made the moves, because it...

Our startup interview this morning is with Josh Stomel, founder of ResumeBucket (www.resumebucket.com), a new web site that is focused on helping people share their resumes with the world. Stomel--who is bootstrapping the startup from his r...

Los Angeles-based video advertising technology provider Panache is reporting today that it has signed on MTV as a customer. According to Panache, MTV will use the company's platform across MTV Networks web sites, including MTV.com, VH1.com,...

Chatsworth-based Provision Interactive Technologies, which is developing 3D display technology, has snagged former Apple Computer CEO Gil Amelio for the firm's board of advisors. Provision is developing technology it says can project full-c...

San Diego-based Brickfish, an online advertising network focused on social media, announced this monring that it has hired Becky Carroll as the firm's Director of Social Media. The firm said that Carroll joins the company from Petra Consult...

Los Angeles-based RotoHog.com has snagged domain name registrar GoDaddy.com as a sponsor, the firm said last week, as part of a new Fantasy Football game on the Facebook social networking site. Financial impact of the customer win was not d...

Irvine-based Skweezer, which provides services for translating web sites to mobile phone formats, along with an advertising network, said Monday that it has partnered with JumpTap. According to the firms, Skweezer's mobile content optimizat...

Irvine-based Specific Media, which operates an online advertising network, said Monday that it has hired four for the firm's sales and client relations teams. According to Specific Media, it has hired Kathy Benigo, Jolene Ortiz, Ray Duncan,...

Los Angeles- and San Diego-based Veoh Networks, a provider of Internet video sharing services, said today that it has entered into a partnership with Axel Springer Digital TV Guide GmbH. According to Veoh, Axel Springer is in a strategic in...

Los Angeles-based PixelFish, which develops video advertising for small and medium sized businesses, said this morning that it has acquired Eyespot, a provider of video hosting services for web sites. Financial terms of the buy were not dis...

Hydra LLC reported this week that it has hired Johnny Talisman as creative director. The Los Angeles-based advertising network said Talisman will direct its in-house creative team and, as such, will oversee the development of original creat...

Anne Walls and John Singleton are co-founders of WordHustler (www.wordhustler.com), a local Hollywood startup looking to help writers connect with publishers. WordHustler launched in May of 2008 in a beta. We caught up with both Anne and Jo...

Irvine-based WebVisible said today that it has hired on a new Vice President of Sales, Bill Lupo, as the firm's industry, online advertising, continues to thrive. The firm, which provides local online advertising services for businesses, sa...

Woodland Hills-based Gumiyo, which develops mobile marketing technology, said today that it has launched an effort with the Los Angeles Times to market classifieds, online automotive, and real estate advertising via mobile phones. Gumiyo sa...

Los Angeles-based Channel M, which operates in-store TV networks for retailers, announced Monday that it has signed on Money Mart, a subsidiary of Dollar Financial, as a customer. According to Channel M, it has launched a custom in-store TV...

Los Angeles- and New York-based My Damn Channel, a producer of online, original video, has bolstered its executive ranks, hiring on a new Vice President of Advertising Strategy & Partnerships for the firm. The company said that Sahaila Suhi...

Mediaplex, the technology division of online advertising firm ValueClick, has ventured into the behavioral targeting arena, with a new product, the firm said yesterday. The division of Westlake Village-based ValueClick said that its new pro...

Los Angeles is rapidly gaining a reputation as being the center of the Internet advertising world, for good reason, with a large number of online advertising firms located within and around Los Angeles. One of those firms is Hydra (www.hydr...

San Diego-based online advertising network Brickfish said today that the firm has teamed up with Microsoft on a social media effort for Microsoft's "I'm a PC" campaign. According to Brickfish, the firm will power a social media ad effort wh...

Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment, operator of the massively multiplayer online game "World of Warcraft," has selected Microsoft's in-game advertising subsidiary Massive fors its web sites and Battle.net online game service. According to ...

Los Angeles-based Hydra, an affiliate advertising network, said Monday that it has appointed Gary Gooperman as the firm's Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration. Hydra said that Cooperman joins the firm from Helio, where Coo...

In what looks to be a challenging funding climate for entrepreneurs, we thought it would be interesting to talk to one fund which is still making investments--Saban Ventures (www.saban.com)--a new, digital media focused venture capital fund...

Woodland Hills-based FatTail, a developer of software for online advertising management, said today that it has appointed Ali Bohra as Vice President of Product Management. Fattail, which is venture backed by Velocity Interactive Group, Ted...

Calabasas-based video game publisher THQ has inked a deal with Microsoft's Massive subsidiary, to include in-game advertising from Massive, the firms said today. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to the firms, Massiv...

Pasadena-based Perfect Market, the Idealab startup which is looking to monetize dormant content from publishers, said this morning that the firm's CTO, Dr. Jay Budzik, has been appointed to the Board of Trustees for the Illinois Mathematics...

Irvine-based WebVisible announced today that it has acquired Pasadena-based Adapt Technologies, a developer of search engine marketing tools. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. WebVisible is a provider of local online ad...

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal said late Tuesday that it has expanded into the United Kingdom, and opened up a new office in London. ReachLocal, which provides services that help local businesses buy search engine advertising, said it has ...

Irvine-based Specific Media is targeting print advertisers with a new product, which it is calling Dynamic Circular. According to Specific Media, the new offering will help retailers to quickly and easily take their print circular advertise...

Santa Monica-based Gorilla Nation, which provides ad sales for web publishers, said today that it has extended its deal with Gawker Media to cover advertising sales throughout the UK. The firm had inked an earlier deal with Gawker to repres...

Last week, San Diego-based OpenCandy (www.opencandy.com) announced it had raised $3.5M in a venture round for the firm's software recommendation startup. We caught up with co-founder and CEO Darrius Thompson--who was also a co-founder at Di...

San Diego-based DivX said Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit against Yahoo! for breach of contract, after Yahoo notified the firm that it intends to breach its two-year advertising services agreement with DivX. DivX said that Yahoo has in...

Santa Monica-based online advertising rep firm Gorilla Nation has scored a win for the promotion of a new Xbox game called Fable 2. According to Gorilla Nation, it is in an international partnership to promote the Fable 2 video game, and ha...

Santa Monica-based Rubicon Project, which provides web advertising optimization software, has expanded into New York, the firm announced Thursday. Rubicon, which is venture backed by Clearstone Venture Partners, IDG Ventures, and Mayfield, ...

Los Angeles-based Channel M, which operates and develops programming for in-store and retail television networks, said Thursday that it has opened up advertising in its network at Ashley Furniture HomeStores and ecko locations. According to...

Santa Monica-based Transpera, a provider of mobile video advertising technology, announced Thursday that it has raised $8.25M in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Flybridge Capital Partners, and included new investor Labrador V...