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

San Clemente-based MaMoCa , which develops motion capture technology for the animation and video game market, has been acquired by Motion Analysis Corporation, the firm's CEO, Gene Alexander, told socalTECH today. MaMoCa was backed by the Tech Coast Angels. Alexander said that the all-stock acquisition will also make him a VP and General Manager at Motion Analysis, which is looking to integrate MaMoCa's markerless capture technology into its existing line of real-time marker system. The acquisition closed August 1st, and the firms had been in discussion since spring.

spokesperson at the firm told socalTECH that the shutdown occurred yesterday, and that the firm is now in the process of looking for buyers of its technology. Shea, Kinship Partners, Liberty Partners, Merrill Lynch Ventures, and the Tech Coast Angels. Aliso Viejo-based High Tower Software, a venture-backed developer of security, compliance, and log management software, has shut down. A

spokesperson for Zag told socalTECH that a round had closed, but would not confirm the investors or details of the round, saying that earlier disclosures by TechCrunch were incorrect. Zag has previously received funding from Anthem Ventures, Arcturus Capital, Capital One, Capricorn Management, GRP Partners, and the Tech Coast Angels. Santa Monica-based Zag , which has developed an automobile configuration and buying service for affinity organizations like credit unions and automobile organizations, has a funding round of undisclosed size. A

spokesperson for Zag told socalTECH that a round had closed, but would not confirm the investors or details of the round. Zag is venture backed by Anthem Ventures, Arcturus Capital, Capital One, Capricorn Management, GRP Partners, and the Tech Coast Angels, along with USAA. Santa Monica-based Zag , which has developed an automobile configuration and buying service for affinity organizations like credit unions and automobile organizations, has raised around $32.4M in a funding round.

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A quick analysis by socalTECH of our tracking of venture capital deals in Southern California finds that there was around $879M in venture funding activity here in Q3. The information--gleaned from funding announcements, regulatory filings, and other sources--are not far off from socalTECH's totals from last quarter, which totaled up around $932M in investment activity. terms of venture firms, the most active The biggest are for venture activity in the quarter was Biopharmaceuticals, which was $299.13M of the quarterly total. San San Diego led investment activity in Q3, with

A study of the venture capital deal flow in Southern California conducted by socalTECH shows that venture capital deals dropped for Q3, to around $720M in deals, in a market dominated by clean technology firms. The numbers, which were drawn from venture deals tracked and reported in socalTECH's proprietary venture capital database, found that there was $719.7M The numbers--which in venture capital deals in the third quarter, down dramatically from $1.2B invested in Q3 of 2007, and down slightly from venture numbers in Q2, when there was approximately $966M in venture deals. The

Frank Peters, podcaster at the Frank Peters Show and chairman of the Tech Coast Angels, always has informative and in-depth interviews. btw, we’re now cross-posting relevant interviews from Frank’s podcast on socalTECH). ...Tags: Frank recently talked with Clearstone’s Jim Armstrong about Jim’s views on how the economy is affecting both startups and the venture capital business, and it’s well worth a listen to get an idea of the issues facing both startups and venture capitalists in the new year.  (btw, Tags: Venture Capital Economy

The event is October 26th in Marina Del Rey , at the Ritz-Carlton, and should be an excellent opportunity to hear from local investors and other influential folks here–it looks like right now Tim Draper (DFJ), John Babcock (Rustic Canyon), Mark Suster (GRP), and Scott Sangster (Tech Coast Angels), Jason Nazar (Docstoc), Jeff Tinsley (MyLife), Shawn Colo (Demand Media), and Scott Painter (Zag/TrueCar) are among the many folks speaking at the event. If you’re interested in a ticket to the Perfect Pitch, send an email to me, telling me what you like best about