Grubbs was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for the technology in 2005. Pasadena-based Materia , the advanced chemical technology firm spun out of Caltech, said Tuesday that it has licensed its metathesis technology to specialty chemical firm BASF. Financial terms of the license were not disclosed. Materia is headed by Michael Giardello. MORE >>

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. As of near the end of September 2009, we’re up 46% since the March 9th nadir (yes, I need to find a way to use one of my SAT words ; – ).  MORE >>

Moore was a co-founder of WildBlue, and was President and CEO of the firm until 2005. Carlsbad-based ViaSat announced this morning that it has named Tom Moore as President of its new WildBlue subsidiary. ViaSat completed its $568M acquisition of WildBlue, a provider of satellite and wireless communications systems, on December 15th. MORE >>

in revenues of 2005. One of the revelations in yesterday's Inc. 500 listing was that Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal , a venture backed provider of local online marketing services, hit $147M in revenues in 2008, up significantly from $4.4M The revelation is the first public disclosure how much the firm's business has grown recently. MORE >>

According to OVP's site, it was approached in 2005 by the CFO of a former portfolio company, who had made money for the firm twice before, begging the firm to invest. OVP Venture Partners , a venture firm in Oregon and Washington, is highlighting its latest "missed deal" in Aliso Viejo-based Networks In Motion. READ MORE>>. MORE >>