Author: ow_admin

Social media: You at the Helm of Your Own New Starship – socalTECH.com

Posted on September 18, 2009 by - Client News

By Tracy Olmstead Williamstracywilliams
Olmstead Williams Communications
Read the full article at socalTECH.com
Social Media, like Global Warming, has now left doubters behind.
According to the brand-ranking database Engagement DB, companies embracing social media grew revenues by 18 percent in the past 12 months. They are Starbucks, Dell, eBay, Google and Microsoft. Brands lagging in new media shrank by 6 percent.
The change is wrenching and exhilarating. Each of the top 25 newspapers in the United States declined in circulation in the first quarter of 2009, except for The Wall Street Journal, which had a gain of .06 percent. Meanwhile, all of us get more news and information than ever, sliced, diced, pushed or aggregated by Web sites, email alerts, blogs, Facebook, Tweets and the socalTECH newsletter you’re reading now.
As a result, new media, and public relations in specific, is more alive with potential than ever in its history. Despite the devastation of our cherished Fourth Estate, a challenge as dire as any to our form of government, social media has brought a new universe of information tools that permit instant analysis of the world marketplace and instant feedback for our every action.
It’s like finding ourselves on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise with Captain Kirk nowhere in sight. Suddenly, like it or not, we’re in command. We must boldly go where no one’s gone before.

Recession Slams List of Small Public Companies – OC Register

Posted on September 15, 2009 by - Client News

By Jan Norman
OC Register
The index of the smallest public companies just got a lot smaller, according to an Ernst & Young analysis of the Russell 2000 Index.
The Russell 2000 Index includes approximately 2,000 of the smallest U.S. securities based on a combination of their market capitalization and current index membership. It is compiled by Russell Investments, a global group of money managers.
Russell just added 326 new companies – including 11 in Orange County – to the index, the most additions in five years, Ernst & Young says. The 2009 Orange County additions to the Russell 2000 and their May, 29, 2009 market cap are:
• Acacia Research Corp., Newport Beach, $176.8 million
• Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Aliso Viejo, $99.4 million
• California First National Bancorp, Irvine, $126.7 million
• Clarient Inc., Aliso Viejo, $212.4 million
• DDI Corp., Anaheim, $79.2 million
• Diedrich Coffee Inc., Irvine, $92.7 million
• Endologix Inc., Irvine, $97 million
• ISTA Pharmaceuticals Inc., Irvine, $83.7 million
• Primoris Services Corp., Lake Forest, $172.1 million
• Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., Irvine, $180.1 million
• SRS Labs Inc., Santa Ana, $89.5 million
See More

nFinanSe raises $12.2 million in equity transactions

Posted on September 1, 2009 by - Client News

Tampa, FL – nFinanSe Inc. (OTC BB: NFSE – www.nfinanse.com) today announced that the Company has completed aggregate equity offerings totaling $12.2 million through the $6.5 million sale of approximately 2.2 million shares of its Series D Convertible Preferred Stock and through the exchange of $5.7 million of notes and accrued interest for approximately 1.9 million shares of Series D Convertible Preferred Stock. Each share of the Series D Convertible Preferred Stock is convertible into ten shares of the Company’s common stock at $0.30 per share. Each investor received warrants to purchase 10 shares of common stock at $0.01 per share for each share of Series D Convertible Preferred Stock.

Khosla Ventures has raised $1.1 billion to invest in green tech and IT start-ups – NY TIMES

Posted on September 1, 2009 by - Client News

By Claire Cain Miller
New York Times
MENLO PARK, Calif. — Vinod Khosla, the prominent venture capitalist who has been investing hundreds of millions of his own dollars in green technology companies for the last several years, will now invest other people’s money, too.
See the rest of the article at The New York Times

How to Deal with Hearing Loss in Children – epictureperfect.net

Posted on August 21, 2009 by - Client News

There is good news for parents who have children born with hearing loss. Technological advances make it possible to treat profound deafness in children as young as 12 months of age. Approximately one in 1000 newborns in the United States, approximately 33 babies are born deaf days.
See the rest of the article at epictureperfect.net

Credit card issuers boost rates ahead of tougher rules – latimes.com

Posted on August 20, 2009 by - Client News

By Don Lee and W.J. Hennigan
The Los Angeles Times
New federal regulations include giving customers at least 45 days’ notice when making a significant change to accounts. Banks have been bracing for restrictions by raising fees and penalties.
New federal protections for credit card users go into force today, but in advance of the tougher rules, banks have been raising fees and interest rates — hoping to ensure that one of their historically most lucrative businesses remains that way.
See the rest of the article at latimes.com

Short URL Soap Opera Continues as tr.im announces open source plans- LA Times

Posted on August 20, 2009 by - Client News

Trim

By David Sarno
latimes.com
After a prolonged micro-drama about the fate of URL-shortening service tr.im (Will it die? Will it get sold?), founder Eric Woodward announced today that the service would go in a third direction: open source. Woodward will donate the tr.im domain name and the service’s source code to the public.
See the rest of the article at latimes.com

USC Viterbi School Announces M.S. Degree Program and Short Courses in Health Systems Engineering

Posted on August 19, 2009 by - Client News

Will Teach Proven Applications of Engineering Principles to Healthcare Delivery

Beginning this fall, the Viterbi School will offer a Master of Science program in Health Systems Engineering, along with short courses in special topics this summer.
“Healthcare is becoming an ever increasingly important sector of the US economy, and health care applications are expanding rapidly within industrial engineering disciplines,” said Kelly Goulis, Viterbi School Associate Dean for Master’s and Professional Programs (MAPP). “There is a national consensus on the need for more effective health management, and we are confident that these programs will help to train effective managers.”