I'm happy to announce the launch of the Los Angeles Tech Content Community . The goal is to create a place where it's relatively easy to find current content and highly relevant content surrounding Los Angeles Technology. To be clear Los Angeles Tech is a jump off point. This is the beginning of a content community that collects and organizes the best content from blogs and web sites. The content comes from other places.

Last month we Launched Los Angeles Tech and in the announcement we provide the Hot List for the first half of January 2009. 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

Los Angeles-based RotoHog , developer of online fantasy sports games headed by Kelly Perdew, has confirmed that the firm's recently $2M funding came from Mission Ventures. In an open letter to customers earlier this week, Perdew said the funding from Mission will help the company grow as a brand. RotoHog currently has deals to provide white-labeled fantasy football games This publication had reported on the funding last Wednesday. READ MORE>> ...Tags:

Los Angeles-based Rotohog , a developer of online fantasy sports games, has raised $2.0M RotoHog has previously raised funding from Allen & Company, DFJ DragonFund, Mission Ventures, and SCP Worldwide. Tags: rotohog venture capital online fantasy sports softwar in a new round of funding, according to a regulatory filing from the firm today. According to the filing, the round target is $2.62M.

Los Angeles-based Big Stage Entertainment is announcing this morning that it has raised an additional $2.7M According to the company, the funding came from Mission Ventures, Selby Ventures, and the Tech Coast Angels. Tags: capital venture entertainment stag in a Series B funding for the firm. The company said the new funding will go to accelerate research and development, along with sales and marketing.

Los Angeles-based Rotohog , which develops fantasy sports games for sports leagues and others, has raised $2M in an inside round led by Mission Ventures and DFJ DragonFund. Tags: sports rotohog venture capital fantas Rotohog's CEO, Kelly Perdew, told socalTECH that the idea behind the round is that it will take the firm to profitability. Rotohog powers fantasy sports for the NBA, the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour, and others.

Los Angeles-based online social question and answer site Sodahead.com said today that the firm has reached more than 1 million registered users at the site. SodaHead is venture backed by Mohr, Davidow Ventures, Mission Ventures, the Tech Coast Angels, and angel investor Ron Conway, and has raised $12.7M in venture funding since its launch in September of 2007. Sodahead.com, which operates a web site where users can ask and answer questions, share opinions, and network with other users, said that it has now recorded more than 5 million votes and 8 million comments on the site.

Los Angeles-based RotoHog , the online fantasy game developer run by Kelly Perdew , said this week that it is in a strategic partnership with US Weekly. RotoHog is powering fantasy sports and other games for such partners as Disney/ABC, BA.com, NASCAR.com, LG Electronics, and others; the firm is venture backed by Allen & Co, Mission Ventures, DFJ Dragon and Sports Capital Partners Worldwide. The firm said it is launching a "Celebrity Fantasy League" game on US Weekly's web site. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed.

Los Angeles-based Webtide , which develops the popular Jetty Application Server for the Java programming language, has been acquired by Intalio. Webtide was self-funded, and was headed by Adam Lieber, who has previously been at Gluecode and Mission Ventures. Intalio announced the buy Tuesday morning, but did not disclose financial terms of the buy. According to Intalio, Webtide will be managed as a fully-owned subsidiary of the company, with Lieber joing the firm as Chief Open Source Officer.

Los Angeles-based Big Stage Entertainment , which develops avatar creation technology for turning photos into animated, 3-D likenesses, said Wednesday that the firm has launched a new effort targeted training content creators on the firm's products. Big Stage is venture backed by Mission Ventures, Selby Ventures and the Tech Coast Angels. BigStage said its new online effort--Big Stage Studio--is aimed at production studios, advertising, marketing agencies, and others. The firm said it will teach content partners how to use 3D graphics and animation