Weekly Roundup: More layoffs, MySpace Music deals, but venture deals continue
Here’s our weekly roundup of recent Southern California technology news:
More music moves at MySpace, with a new deal to distribute music from independents. San Diego’s RoyaltyShare, the firm which tracks digital royalties for record labels, is also part of that deal.
EQAL, the firm behind the YouTube sensation LonelyGirl15, has a new deal with CBS on a new mystery series, Harper’s Island.
Economy-relate layoffs continue to pile up:
Google is axing 100 recruiters, and has closed three engineering offices, as it cuts back on hiring. Luckily, no cuts in Southern California, this time.
Oversee.net said it will lay off 18 percent of its staff, as the firm sees a “Very difficult economic environment” in 2009.
Cymber is not only cutting 100 people, but also instituting across the board pay cuts and other moves.
But, interestingly enough, venture funding continues:
SocialVibe has raised $9M, for its brand-endorsement-for-charity-contribution site. The firm lets users endorse brands, in exchange for giving the user’s favorite charity a donation.
Fallbrook Technology, a developer of tranmission technology for the automotive industry, said it has received $25.4M in a new funding round.
WaterHealth scored $10M for its water purification technology
United Sample, the latest venture of goZing founders Matthew Dusig and Gregg Lavin, has raised $3M for its survey business.
Ben – thanks for the note regarding SocialVibe. Your headline of “brand endorsement for charity contribution” has it about right. We want everyone that participates online (whether it be creating content, aggregating an audience through their profile page, developing relationships) to leverage their influence to create benefit for themselves and the causes they support. Brands are the mechanism to create this benefit as they looking for a much more valuable way to reach people within social media (versus the traditional banner ads). We allow our brand partners to reach a core set of fans who will in turn share their message through word of mouth referrals across various networks and blogging platforms.