When I drill down on that term, you can see why with posts like: Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Lops A Third Of Company THQ Lays Off 100 Employees, Closes San Diego Office Citrix Cuts 10 Percent; Santa Barbara Hit And it's also interesting to see what geographies are being associated with "Layoffs" more often than others: Layoffs Woodland Hills Layoffs San Diego Layoffs Santa Monica Layoffs Los Angeles I guess this is a sign of the times. The Scott Sanfilippo Interview Media Optimization Firms Are Red Hot In Southern California in 2009

Million in funding led by GRP Partners. Tags: News funding gumgum mike jones santa monic Image licensing startup  GumGum has secured an additional 2.6 The service, which offers high quality images for publishers, stands to reinvent the image license model with an innovative offering. Instead of paying the usual ridiculous image costs, publishers can pay under an affordable CPM model or with a free ad supported option.

At the CTO Group that I organize in Santa Monica, we've had lots of discussions around this. Everything else is closed. Mark Suster Partner GRP Partners He's an ex-Salesforce.com employee. I'm blogging from the CalTech Enterprise Forum . The topic is: Betting Your Company On An Internet Platform? A very interesting topic, especially for those of us involved in developing for start-ups.

My firm GRP Partners recently funded a young LA based company named Ad.Ly that is an “in-stream advertising” company currently focused on monetizing Twitter.  When I as a 41-year old living in Santa Monica with 2 young boys type “Halloween Costume” into Google it is pretty clear that there is a highly likelihood or intent by me to shop for Halloween goods.  Advertising has driven the majority of Internet innovation This has prompted many people to question whether advertising “in stream” and on Twitter is a good thing

Santa Monica-based Zag has finally revealed the total invested in its latest, strategic round of funding, saying Thursday that it raised $37.4M. The round came from USAA, and included Capricorn Investment Group, LLC, GRP Partners and Anthem Venture Partners. USAA is an affinity group which is using Zag's automotive configuration software and services. The firm's venture round had earlier been reported to be worth $32.4M, and included USAA--however, the firm had refused to confirm those details until today.

Santa Monica-based Teleflip, which operated a service which allowed users to send and receive email using text messages, has been sold to an undisclosed buyer, according to creditor Hercules Technology Growth Capital. Teleflip was venture backed by GRP Partners, and apparently went out of business sometime in August after failing to find additional capital. HTGC said that the firm received $650,000 from the sale of Teleflip, which the firm said occurred this month. HTGC had invested $1M in debt financing in June of 2007 to Teleflip.

Santa Monica-based Zag.com , the online automotive buying firm headed by Scott Painter, announced Thursday that the company has reached an agreement with Mercedes-Benz USA to offer an additional $5000 off pricing of new Mercedes-Benz cars to members of USAA, one of the affinity groups using Zag's auto pricing and purchasing services. Zag is backed by USAA, Capricorn Investment Group, LLC, GRP Partners and Anthem Venture Partners. READ MORE>> ...Tags: The firm said the additional offer comes on top of special member prices, rebates, and dealer incentives available to members.

Santa Monica-based Zag.com , the online automobile buying service headed by Scott Painter, is reporting today that it had what is calls its "strongest sales so far this year" in June. Zag has previously received venture capital from such firms as Anthem Ventures, GRP Partners, the Tech Coast Angels, Capricorn Management, Capital One, and Arcturus Capital. The firm--which provides its car buying service as a private-label offering through affiliate groups such as the AAA and USAA--said it had 20% sales growth in June, and 15% growth on average for the previous three months.

Santa Monica-based Zag.com , the online auto buying technology firm headed by Scott Painter, said Wednesday that the firm has sold its 50,000th car through its online auto-buying affinity programs. Zag has received funding from USAA, Capricorn Investment Group, LLC, GRP Partners and Anthem Venture Partners. The firm, which develops technology that allows consumers to fully configure and price autos from affinity groups like credit unions, AAAs, and other groups, claimed that the firm has saved its buyers over $83.5M over MSRP on their autos.

Santa Monica-based Zag.com , the online car buying software firm headed by Scott Painter, announced this morning that it has inked a deal with the AAA, to power a new service called AAA Automaker. Zag is venture backed by Anthem Venture Partners, USAA, GRP Partners, Arcturus Capital, Callaway Cars and the Skoll Fund. READ MORE>> ...Tags: According to Zag, the firm will provide a turnkey, fully integrated auto buying program for the site, which will offer resources to research and compare vehicles, read AAA editorial reviews, and configure and purchase vehicles.