The pace of wireless innovation can get bewildering at times, and a spate of recent announcements from San Diego-based Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) has seemed more like a blur of racing machines in the Indy 500 than anything else. Since Qualcomm also happens to be hosting its annual shareholders meeting today, it seemed like an ideal … Continue reading “Why Computing Guys Don’t Get Mobile: Qualcomm’s Bill Davidson on Modems, Power Constraints, and Scarce Spectrum Resources”
Author: Bruce V. Bigelow
Rising Diesel Prices Helped to Spark Fallbrook’s Hodyon Acquisition
San Diego’s Fallbrook Technologies, which has spent more than a decade developing technology for a more fuel-efficient, continuously variable transmission, says today it has acquired Hodyon, a Texas-based maker of auxillary power systems for trucks. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Fallbrook CEO Bill Klehm called me from Europe to explain the logic of the … Continue reading “Rising Diesel Prices Helped to Spark Fallbrook’s Hodyon Acquisition”
Teradata Acquires Aster Data Systems, Mad Catz Picks Up V Max Technology, & More San Diego Area BizTech News
San Diego’s analytics software cluster pulled another company into its orbit with Teradata’s acquisition of Silicon Valley’s Aster Data Systems. We have that and the rest of San Diego’s biztech news wrapped up here. —Teradata, based in Dayton, OH, acquired San Carlos, CA-based Aster Data Systems for $263 million. The deal combines Teradata’s expertise in … Continue reading “Teradata Acquires Aster Data Systems, Mad Catz Picks Up V Max Technology, & More San Diego Area BizTech News”
Teradata Combines Aster Data with its San Diego Labs in $263M Deal
Ohio-based Teradata (NYSE: [[ticker:TDC]]) says it’s buying Aster Data Systems of San Carlos, CA, in a $263 million deal that combines Aster Data’s breakthrough technology in a hot area of massively parallel processing architecture with its conventional relational database technology. Aster Data will remain in Silicon Valley, and will be folded into Teradata Labs, the … Continue reading “Teradata Combines Aster Data with its San Diego Labs in $263M Deal”
Verenium Returning to San Diego, Entra Health Systems Expands Use of Wireless Blood Sugar Test, Genomatica Raises $45M, & More San Diego Life Sciences News
The news was short and sweet out of San Diego’s life sciences sector over the past week, but it was still news you can use. My wrap-up is here. —I profiled Entra Health Systems, a San Diego-based mobile health technology startup founded in 2007. In the company’s first two years, co-founders Richard Strobridge, John Hendel, … Continue reading “Verenium Returning to San Diego, Entra Health Systems Expands Use of Wireless Blood Sugar Test, Genomatica Raises $45M, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
After Assimilating Symyx, San Diego’s Accelrys Sets Ambitious Course for Scientific Software
Eight months after San Diego’s Accelrys (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ACCL]]) completed its merger with Santa Clara, CA-based Symyx Technologies, the scientific software developer is today lifting the curtain on a new strategy based on the company’s broader and deeper resources. The merger, valued last year at about $175 million, combined Accelrys’ flagship software for simulating and modeling … Continue reading “After Assimilating Symyx, San Diego’s Accelrys Sets Ambitious Course for Scientific Software”
EDSA Rebrands Itself ‘Power Analytics’
San Diego-based EDSA, which specializes in software analytics for complex electrical power systems, is changing its name to Power Analytics Corp. In a statement from the company, chairman and CEO Mark Acolese says, “the name Power Analytics reflects the enormous technological revolution that has occurred with the advent of our Paladin Live and Paladin SmartGrid … Continue reading “EDSA Rebrands Itself ‘Power Analytics’”
Experience Helped San Diego’s EHS Get First FDA-Approved Wireless Blood Glucose Meter
“I describe Entra Health Systems mainly as a medical device company,” CEO Richard Strobridge said when we met recently at his company’s San Diego headquarters. “We’re under the jurisdiction of the FDA, and we have to have all kinds of certifications and qualifications [as a medical device company.] But a lot of our expertise, and … Continue reading “Experience Helped San Diego’s EHS Get First FDA-Approved Wireless Blood Glucose Meter”
San Diego’s Bump.com Ready to Hit the Road With Auto-Based Social Networking
With less than two weeks to go before one of the big tech meetings of the year, the countdown has begun at the Bump network’s headquarters in the scenic San Diego coastal community of La Jolla. After unveiling a beta version of its Bump.com social network technology at the Demo Fall conference almost six months … Continue reading “San Diego’s Bump.com Ready to Hit the Road With Auto-Based Social Networking”
Genomatica Raises $45M as it Moves to Higher Production Volumes
San Diego-based Genomatica has raised $45 million in a Series C round of venture funding that will allow the company to scale up production of its sustainable chemical technology to 15,000 liters a day, according to an item today in VentureWire. Genomatica said last summer it had successfully scaled up technology that uses genetically engineered … Continue reading “Genomatica Raises $45M as it Moves to Higher Production Volumes”
Mad Catz Gets V Max Assets
Mad Catz Interactive (AMEX: [[ticker:MCZ]]), a San Diego maker of video game accessories and related equipment, says it purchased flight simulation software and related assets from privately owned V Max Simulation. The deal is valued at a total of $638,000 in cash and shares of Mad Catz stock, which does not include a commission to … Continue reading “Mad Catz Gets V Max Assets”
EcoATM Unveils Production-Ready Kiosk
San Diego-based EcoATM unveiled its latest-generation kiosk today at the Demo Spring 2011 conference in Palm Desert. The company, which recently raised $14.4 million to begin manufacturing its electronics-recycling kiosk, says its new, fully automated “eCycling Station” includes an ATM-like cash dispenser for immediate payment of recycled devices.
Verenium Names New CEO as it Consolidates in San Diego
Verenium (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VRNM]]), the biofuels developer that sold its cellulosic biofuels business to BP last summer, says CEO Carlos Riva plans to retire at the end of March, as the Cambridge, MA-based company consolidates its operations in San Diego. In a statement today, Verenium says Executive VP and CFO James Levine will succeed Riva as … Continue reading “Verenium Names New CEO as it Consolidates in San Diego”
Enterproid Wins QPrize
San Diego Wireless Giant Qualcomm (Nasdaq: [[ticker:QCOM]]) today named New York-based Enterproid as the winner of its second Qualcomm Ventures QPrize international venture investment competition. Enterproid, which won $100,000 as a finalist, has been developing Android-based technology to enable professionals to consolidate their work and personal life onto a single enterprise-grade device. As the QPrize … Continue reading “Enterproid Wins QPrize”
Software Company Valuations Are Rising, Michael Robertson Launches DAR.fm, & More San Diego BizTech News
What started as a quiet week for San Diego technology news got busy at the end. We wrapped it all up for you here. —San Diego’s Software Equity Group released its annual software industry equity report, showing the annual median valuation of 161 companies in its main index at the highest valuation since 2007—2.3 times … Continue reading “Software Company Valuations Are Rising, Michael Robertson Launches DAR.fm, & More San Diego BizTech News”
San Diego’s Software Equity Group Sees Software M&A Deals Ramping Up in 2011
The way some people talk, the annual report from the Software Equity Group is the software industry’s equivalent to “The Baseball Abstract,” the wildly popular report on hitting, pitching, and fielding statistics that Bill James began publishing in Kansas 34 years ago. “Nobody else comes close to capturing the trends and transactions in the software … Continue reading “San Diego’s Software Equity Group Sees Software M&A Deals Ramping Up in 2011”
Avalon’s Kinsella Upbraids Big Pharma, Scripps Names Marletta to Succeed Lerner, CalciMedica Scores $6M, & More San Diego Life Science News
We had some big names and big news out of San Diego’s life sciences community over the past week. Our roundup is here. —Avalon Ventures founder Kevin Kinsella unleashed a scathing critique of some shortsighted and mercenary business tactics he says he’s encountered in dealing with pharmaceutical companies, which have him questioning the longtime partnership … Continue reading “Avalon’s Kinsella Upbraids Big Pharma, Scripps Names Marletta to Succeed Lerner, CalciMedica Scores $6M, & More San Diego Life Science News”
New “Halo Report” to Track Angel Deals
A new quarterly research report on angel investment activity and trends in the United States and Canada is being launched later this year, providing a comprehensive overview of deals funded by angels and angel groups that was not previously available. “The Halo Report” is intended to raise awareness of early stage investment activities, according to … Continue reading “New “Halo Report” to Track Angel Deals”
Tech Coast Angels’ Deals Increased, Dollars Decreased, in 2010
Adding up the deals and dollars invested during 2010, Southern California’s Tech Coast Angels says it funded 31 startups last year, nearly 30 percent more than the 24 deals the network of individual investors did in 2009. But the amount of total invested capital the group raised for startups dropped by more than a third, … Continue reading “Tech Coast Angels’ Deals Increased, Dollars Decreased, in 2010”
Health Care VC Thomas, McNerney Moving San Francisco Office to San Diego
Thomas, McNerney and Partners plans to relocate its West Coast office from San Francisco to San Diego later this year, according to partner Pratik Shah, who left San Diego-based Kalypsys in 2004 to join the health care venture capital firm. The timing depends on finding the right office space, Shah told me by telephone this … Continue reading “Health Care VC Thomas, McNerney Moving San Francisco Office to San Diego”
Ecotality Begins Charger Installations
San Francisco-based Ecotality (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ECTY]]) took the first step in creating an infrastructure for charging electric vehicles today, installing its Blink Level 2 residential charging stations at homes in Los Angeles and the San Diego area. The company says it plans to do similar installations at homes in Portland, OR, tomorrow; in Seattle, WA, Thursday; … Continue reading “Ecotality Begins Charger Installations”
Otonomy Drug Could Have Broader Potential Application for Hearing Loss
Would Pete Townshend get an injection into his inner ears to save his hearing? After at least 50 years in Rock n’ Roll, it’s probably too late to save the legendary songwriter’s hearing, but San Diego-based Otonomy today announced data that suggests its lead drug candidate could help people recover from hearing loss caused by … Continue reading “Otonomy Drug Could Have Broader Potential Application for Hearing Loss”
The Active Network Files for IPO, EcoATM Banks $14M, Qualcomm Issues Augmented Reality Awards, & More San Diego BizTech News
Capital isn’t exactly flowing freely, but it’s flowing better now than it was two years ago, if last week’s San Diego tech deals are any guide. We’ve got that wrapped up for you here, along with the rest of the biztech report. —San Diego-based EcoATM, a startup developing automated kiosks for recycling cell phones and … Continue reading “The Active Network Files for IPO, EcoATM Banks $14M, Qualcomm Issues Augmented Reality Awards, & More San Diego BizTech News”
Avalon’s Kinsella Calls Out Big Pharma for “Bad Behavior” That’s Pushing Biotech Ventures “Almost to Point of Extinction”
San Diego’s Avalon Ventures has had some noteworthy success in the past couple of months. The 28-year-old firm raised $200 million for its ninth fund, which was oversubscribed by 33 percent. Avalon, which invests in both life sciences and Web technologies, also took some winnings off the table with the recent sale of a portfolio … Continue reading “Avalon’s Kinsella Calls Out Big Pharma for “Bad Behavior” That’s Pushing Biotech Ventures “Almost to Point of Extinction””
Optimer Raises $77.6M, Former Sequenom Patent Agent Pleads Guilty, IPO Lineup Includes San Diego’s Ambit and IASO Pharma, & More San Diego Life Sciences News
With San Diego’s Optimer and Conatus Pharmaceuticals successfully raising capital, and Sanderling Ventures reportedly planning to raise a new fund, it would be easy to think that the capital markets are opening a little for the life sciences sector. You decide. —San Diego’s Optimer Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:OPTR]]) completed a secondary public offering of 7.8 million … Continue reading “Optimer Raises $77.6M, Former Sequenom Patent Agent Pleads Guilty, IPO Lineup Includes San Diego’s Ambit and IASO Pharma, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
EcoATM Raises $14.4M for Mass Production of Electronics Recycling Kiosks
EcoATM, the San Diego startup developing automated kiosks for recycling cell phones and other devices, says it has raised a total of $14.4 million in preferred equity and venture debt financing, which the company plans to use to fund commercial manufacturing of its final kiosk design. The Series A venture round was led by Bellevue, … Continue reading “EcoATM Raises $14.4M for Mass Production of Electronics Recycling Kiosks”
Blue Sky Network Finds Markets Beyond Aviation for Satellite-Based Technology
Jon Gilbert says when he started the Blue Sky Network in 2001, he saw an opportunity to combine his passion for aviation (he’s a pilot) with his experience in telematics—technology that combines communications, GPS tracking, and informatics. Gilbert had gained his experience as the CEO at Boatracs, a small San Diego company that had licensed … Continue reading “Blue Sky Network Finds Markets Beyond Aviation for Satellite-Based Technology”
Qualcomm Announces AR Awards
Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]), the San Diego wireless technology giant, said today it awarded its top prize to two developers from Lithuania in its 2010 Augmented Reality Developer Challenge. The company awarded $125,000 to Lithuanians Paulius Liekis and Arminas Didžiokas for Paparazzi, an interactive game where the player becomes a virtual paparazzo who tries to photograph … Continue reading “Qualcomm Announces AR Awards”
The Active Network Files for IPO
San Diego’s Active Network, which operates a Web-based network that provides online registrations for everything from campsite reservations to tee times, filed for an IPO yesterday, proposing to raise $150 million. The company, founded in 1998 to provide online registrations for marathons and triathlons, has expanded its services through acquisitions and organic growth. It now … Continue reading “The Active Network Files for IPO”
Undead Sanderling Ventures Plans to Raise Seventh Fund
At the beginning of the year, Forbes included San Diego’s Sanderling Ventures on its latest list of venture capital’s walking dead “zombie funds,” saying the firm hasn’t been able to raise a new fund since it raised $421 million for its last fund in 2004. But wouldn’t you know, Sanderling has sprung back to life, … Continue reading “Undead Sanderling Ventures Plans to Raise Seventh Fund”
Tech Coast Angels Makes First Investment From New Fund
Southern California’s Tech Coast Angels said today its new Angel Capital Entrepreneurial (ACE) Fund 1, which was formed last year as an alternative investment vehicle for early stage startups, has made its first investment—in Vokle, an Internet startup in the Los Angeles area. The fund is not announcing how much capital it has raised so … Continue reading “Tech Coast Angels Makes First Investment From New Fund”
Slacker Raises $3M
San Diego-based Slacker has raised an additional $3 million in debt, rights to acquire securities, and securities, according to a recent regulatory filing. Before this financing, the streaming radio service has raised at least $23.2 million since it was founded in 2006. The company offers a free, ad-supported radio service that features music and news.
Conatus Raises $20M for Hepatitis C Studies
San Diego’s Conatus Pharmaceuticals, which specializes in developing drugs for liver disease and cancers, said it closed on a $20 million block of equity funding, which was led by a new investor, AgeChem Venture Fund of Montreal. Existing investors Aberdare Ventures, Advent Venture Partners, Bay City Capital, Gilde Healthcare Partners, and the Roche Venture Fund … Continue reading “Conatus Raises $20M for Hepatitis C Studies”
Peregrine Semi and Fallbrook in IPO Lineup, Qualcomm Unveils FlashLinq in Barcelona, Algebraix Raises $7.5M, & More San Diego BizTech News
With the Mobile World Congress underway this week in Barcelona, you can expect a cacophony of wireless news this week. San Diego’s Qualcomm was among the companies that issued some news ahead of the conference, and we’ve got it wrapped up for you here. —Two San Diego technology companies, Peregrine Semiconductor and Fallbrook Technologies, were … Continue reading “Peregrine Semi and Fallbrook in IPO Lineup, Qualcomm Unveils FlashLinq in Barcelona, Algebraix Raises $7.5M, & More San Diego BizTech News”
Algebraix Data Raises $7.5M for Unstructured Analytics Technology
San Diego analytics startup Algebraix Data, which moved its headquarters to San Diego from Austin, TX, at the end of 2009, has raised about $7.5 million in a combination of debt, securities, and rights to acquire securities, according to a regulatory filing this week. As I reported in 2009, Algebraix has developed analytics software that … Continue reading “Algebraix Data Raises $7.5M for Unstructured Analytics Technology”
Illumina Rides Business Surge, IntegenX Acquires GenValult, Orexigen Cuts Payroll, & More San Diego Life Science News
There was good news and bad news from San Diego’s life sciences community over the past week. Here’s our recap for you. —San Diego-based Illumina (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ILMN]]) said it shipped a record number of DNA mapping systems during the fourth quarter that ended Jan. 2. With demand for its genetic equipment soaring, Illumina said its … Continue reading “Illumina Rides Business Surge, IntegenX Acquires GenValult, Orexigen Cuts Payroll, & More San Diego Life Science News”
Genomatica, Waste Mangement Sign Pact
San Diego-based Genomatica, which has been developing technology to produce basic chemicals from renewable feedstocks, has signed a strategic agreement with Houston’s Waste Management to develop ways of making basic chemicals from landfill gas and other sources. Genomatica says it will create proprietary organisms and manufacturing processes that use syngas as the raw material for … Continue reading “Genomatica, Waste Mangement Sign Pact”
Illumina Moving to Biogen Idec Campus
In reporting strong financial results yesterday, San Diego-based Illumina (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ILMN]]) said it will move its 1,100 San Diego employees into buildings that are being vacated by Cambridge, MA-based Biogen Idec. Illumina, which said its fourth-quarter revenue leaped by 45 percent, from $180.6 million in 2009 to $261.3 million in 2010, said there will be … Continue reading “Illumina Moving to Biogen Idec Campus”
Active Network Gets Religion
The San Diego-based Active Network, which helps people locate and register for activities online, said it has acquired Fellowship Technologies, an Irving, TX-based company that provides software as a service (SaaS) for church management and ministry. Financial terms were not disclosed. Fellowship Technologies counts more than 1,700 churches as customers, including more than a third … Continue reading “Active Network Gets Religion”
Qualcomm Ventures’ Kashyap Sees QPrize Drawing Better Entries, Especially Overseas
Qualcomm Ventures’ Nagraj Kashyap told me back in 2009 that the economic slowdown was a key factor when San Diego-based Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) decided to set aside $550,000 and to launch its first “QPrize” competition. Qualcomm designed the incentive prize to provide seed money to very early stage mobile technology startups. When I sat down … Continue reading “Qualcomm Ventures’ Kashyap Sees QPrize Drawing Better Entries, Especially Overseas”
San Diego’s Leading Ventures Takes on Commercialization of Bioengineering Breakthroughs
[Corrected 2/9/11, 2:15 pm. See below.] Their histories are so entwined, it’s hard to say which were sowed first—the seeds of San Diego’s Leading Ventures or those of InflammaGen, an early stage biotech founded to commercialize technology conceived by Geert Schmid-Schönbein, a professor of bioengineering at UC San Diego. Leading Ventures revealed last month that … Continue reading “San Diego’s Leading Ventures Takes on Commercialization of Bioengineering Breakthroughs”
Ernst & Young Says IPOs Continue to Gain Steam in 2011
The IPO pipeline, which slowed to a trickle in 2008 (when just six companies went public), rebounded significantly during the last three months of 2010, as 57 companies went public and 56 others registered for IPOs, according to a report from the Ernst & Young accounting firm. The rate of replenishment represents a healthy balance … Continue reading “Ernst & Young Says IPOs Continue to Gain Steam in 2011”
Cymer Sees Growth in Chip-Making, Northrop Grumman Combat Drone Takes First Flight, TurboTax Launches Mobile Tax-Filing App, & More San Diego BizTech News
The innovation economy took center stage last week in San Diego, where new innovations were announced in mobile apps, unmanned aircraft, and new technology platforms developed for smart grid operating systems. We’ve got it wrapped for you here. —Diego-based Cymer (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CYMI]]), which is considered a bellwether for the semiconductor industry, said during a fourth-quarter … Continue reading “Cymer Sees Growth in Chip-Making, Northrop Grumman Combat Drone Takes First Flight, TurboTax Launches Mobile Tax-Filing App, & More San Diego BizTech News”
The Super Bowl of Marketing: Quantifying the Impact and Online Afterlife of TV Ads
San Diego’s Covario, a five-year-old startup that provides analytics and services for digital marketing, convened its annual users conference in downtown San Diego yesterday. The event draws top marketing executives from companies like Intel, Procter & Gamble, and Research In Motion (RIM), which led Covario to develop a movie theme around the “Top Guns” of … Continue reading “The Super Bowl of Marketing: Quantifying the Impact and Online Afterlife of TV Ads”
CareFusion Sells Unit for $130M
CareFusion (NYSE: [[ticker:CFN]]), the San Diego medical equipment manufacturer, says it has agreed to sell its International Surgical Products distribution business, which is based in Rolle, Switzerland, to privately held Medline Industries for $130 million. The business sells consumable medical products, such as drapes and gowns, examination gloves, and custom procedure trays, with sales of … Continue reading “CareFusion Sells Unit for $130M”
FDA Rejects Orexigen’s Weight-Loss Drug, Arena Lays Off 66, ResMed CEO Jumps to CareFusion, & More San Diego Life Sciences News
A series of private announcements and public policy changes in recent days put a spotlight on entrepreneurs nationwide. As Wade wrote in a thoughtful analysis, we seem to have placed a much bigger bet as a nation on early stage startups—and the life sciences news out of San Diego this past week seemed to reflect … Continue reading “FDA Rejects Orexigen’s Weight-Loss Drug, Arena Lays Off 66, ResMed CEO Jumps to CareFusion, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
Pacira Raises $42M in IPO
Pacira Pharmaceuticals, which is based in Parsippany, NJ, and San Diego, lowered its expected IPO price to $7 a share, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. Pacira is awaiting FDA approvaly for its injectable, extended-release analgesic drug, which was originally developed by San Diego-based DepoTech. The company raised a total of $42 million in its … Continue reading “Pacira Raises $42M in IPO”
Fluorotronics Sees a Spike in Business Opportunities for Use of Carbon-Fluorine Bond
Olga Sharts has worked as a Russian-English translator, but the Russian immigrant who came to San Diego in the 1990s can be difficult to understand when she’s excited. And when I met with her, she was very, very excited. Sharts is the founding CEO of Fluorotronics, an 11-year-old startup based in Vista, CA, launched to … Continue reading “Fluorotronics Sees a Spike in Business Opportunities for Use of Carbon-Fluorine Bond”
Verve Buys Deconstruct Media
Verve Wireless, which is based in Encinitas, CA, and Bethesda, MD, says it has acquired Deconstruct Media, a Washington D.C. mobile advertising technology company founded by a team of former Advertising.com product and engineering executives. No financial terms were disclosed. Deconstruct’s self-service advertising system will be integrated into Verve’s ad manager platform. Deconstruct’s three employees … Continue reading “Verve Buys Deconstruct Media”
Qualcomm Partner Launches Smart Grid Technology
A Jackson, MS, technology company is today launching a wireless communications platform for utility smart grids, giving San Diego’s Qualcomm a fresh opportunity to develop a vast new market for its Brew MP mobile operating system. As I reported last June, mobile applications developers have preferred other types of mobile operating systems (including Android, iPhone, … Continue reading “Qualcomm Partner Launches Smart Grid Technology”