Moore Starts a Mini VC Fund, TakeLessons Lands $6M, Chumby Partners with BestBuy, & More San Diego BizTech News

Salk Institute last week, former SKY MobileMedia CEO Naser Partovi, unveiled Wellaho, a Web-based service that provides a HIPAA-compliant social media network for the chronically ill. “You can’t just join Wellaho,” Partovi said. “It must be prescribed for you by your doctor.”

—Sony Computer Entertainment, which is based in Foster City, CA, and has ties in San Diego, has acquired Sucker Punch Productions, adding its expertise in Sony Playstation Consoles. No financial terms were disclosed, but Sony says Sucker Punch will keep its headquarters in Bellevue, WA.

—As Chumby Industries continues to shift its focus from hardware to software platforms, the San Diego-based startup unveiled a partnership with Minnesota’s Best Buy, which announced that its Ingsignia Connected TV includes popular entertainment and social media applications from the Chumby content network. Chumby CEO Derrick Oien offered his take on the latest deal in his blog here.

—In a note last week, Hookit.com CEO Scott Tilton tells me the action sports social network I profiled in June has launched a new mobile app for both iOS and Android-based mobile devices. Tilton views mobile as a key market for Hookit, with mobile ideally suited for a social networking business that is focused on linking atheletes, enthusiasts, and fans with their favorite sports.

—San Diego-based Fallbrook Technologies says today it has advanced its continuously variable transmission technology for bicycles with an intelligent drivetrain designed specifically for the electrically powered bicycle (e-Bike) market. Last week, Fallbrook named a former Ford executive, Al Kammerer, as president, a newly created position.

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.