The rainy season is upon us here in San Diego, but the deal landscape remains a bit parched—especially when it comes to funding new companies. But a deal’s a deal, right? So here’s our rundown on deals and other news.
—San Diego’s Pure Bioscience (NASDAQ: [[ticker:PURE]]) struck a global marketing agreement with Ciba, the Swiss specialty chemicals giant, focused on the San Diego firm’s proprietary antimicrobial agent, silver dihydrogen citrate, or SDC. Pure says SDC is a less toxic and more environmentally friendly alternative to the commonly used additives such as triclosan (itself made by Ciba) that allow some dish soaps, cleaners, lotions, and even toothpastes to be labeled as antimicrobial.
—San Diego’s Overland Storage (NASDAQ: [[ticker:OVRL]]) got a little breathing room when it closed a two-year deal with Marquette Commercial Finance to finance as much as $9 million of its accounts receivable. Amid the nation’s worst-ever credit crisis, Overland CEO Vern LoForti told me his company is far from alone in seeking such unconventional financing.
—It’s a done deal. Atlanta’s Ebix (NASDAQ: [[ticker:EBIX]]) confirmed on Monday that it has closed its acquisition of San Diego-based insurance software firm ConfirmNet. Ebix estimated the deal was worth between $10 million and $11 million. ConfirmNet develops software used for issuing insurance certificates.
—San Diego’s Cadence Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CADX]]) said Friday it had secured a long-term supply agreement for the active ingredient in its Omnigard gel for preventing catheter site infections, which is currently in Phase III clinical trials. The deal establishes an important relationship for Cadence with Belgium’s Solvay.
—At the end of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom TV series of the 1960s, host Marlin Perkins would often end the show by saying something like, “…And so we bid a fond farewell to Zambia, land of a thousand sunsets.” Likewise, we bid farewell to Symwave, a fabless chip designer of mixed signal and analog semiconductors. Symwave has relocated its headquarters from San Diego to Orange County’s Laguna Niguel and reorganized its management team—just as it got $10 million in third-round venture funding from Kodiak Venture Partners and CMEA Ventures. The company, founded four years ago with operations in San Diego, Orange County, and Shenzhen, China, also has venture backing from Jafco Ventures, Revolution Ventures, and RPM Ventures.
