Santa Monica-based Tsavo Media, the startup headed by former Userplane CEO Michael Jones, said today that it has acquired Better Inc, the SEO and pay-per-click marketing software firm headed by Ben Padnos. technology uses technology to help set up, manage, optimize, and report on pay-per-click campaigns for small and medium businesses. According to Tsavo, Better provides Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Better Inc.'s

Santa Monica-based Tsavo , the online media company which owns Manolith, Twirlit, Kidglue, and Nibbledish, has lost its Vice President of Product and Design, Mike Macadaan. Macadaan is well known in the Los Angeles technology community for creating and running Twiistup, the popular Los Angeles technology networking and startup showcase event. According to Macadaan, this week is his last at Tsavo. Macadaan's departure closely follows the departure of Tsavo founder and CEO Michael Jones, who recently became COO of MySpace. Tsavo develops content-focused web sites which

Santa Monica-based Tsavo Media, the new startup founded by Userplane founder Michael Jones, has launched a new division, focused on search engine marketing. The firm announced the division Tuesday afternoon, saying that its new Tsavo Agency will provide search engine marketing and content monetization services for companies. The new unit comes shortly after Tsavo Media's acquisition of Better Inc, which runs the DONE! search engine marketing business. Jones said in a statement that the new division will focus primarily on text ad placement, and makes the firm's internally

Santa Monica-based Tsavo Media , which is developing software which helps to make web sites more relevant to their visitors, announced today that it has added a new feature to match relevant stories with users on its Daymix information portal. According to Tsavo, the Daymix site will now begin delivering editorial content, based on the interests and previous click-throughs of users on the site. Tsavo said it is now running a network of more than 300 web site across the technology, finance, education, home and garden, and lifestyle areas. Tsavo has been applying personalization

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Twiistup , the popular Los Angeles technology showcase and networking event started by Mike Macadaan, is announcing today that the event has been sold to a undisclosed, private investor. In a statement, Macadaan -- whose full time gig is as a VP at Tsavo Media -- said "I'm thrilled that Twiistup will get the dedicated time and focus it needs to become bigger and even better." ...Tags: Financial details of the ownership change were not disclosed. According to Twiistup, it will expand beyond its showoff events to include a full conference agenda, and also be expanding to similar

News Corporation said a few minutes ago that it has added two new executives at MySpace , and is tapping Tsavo Media's Michael Jones as Chief Operating Officer and Sling Media's Jason Hirschhorn as Chief Product Officer. Jones is best known in Southern California's technology community for his success at Userplane, which he founded and sold to AOL. Both are in Los Angeles. He was most recently CEO of Tsavo Media, which is developing online publishing and advertising technology along with related online content.

Here are 4 companies using optimization technology to build competitive advantages in their respective spaces: Magnify360 - Landing page optimization using predictive data analysis Adisn - Display advertising optimization for advertisers Rubicon Project - Publisher ad network optimization Oversee.net – Domain parking ad network optimization Stay tuned for a list of large publisher advertising networks in Southern California that I am gathering information on: Demand Media, Gorilla Nation, Specific Media, Tsavo. ...Tags:

Most of the folks in Los Angeles will know Michael well, from his days bootstrapping Userplane (sold to AOL), as well as his recent efforts with both Tsavo , as well as his efforts (along with Peter Pham and others) to get the technology elite networking here. btw, I checked in with Mike Jones about what’s going to happen over at Tsavo Media; he said he will stay on the board there, and will assist in strategy. Michael Jones and Jason Hirschhorn have just been appointed COO and Chief Product Officer, respectively, over at MySpace. Jason was most recently at

It is really about the core technology — that’s where our value is. While fundamental, these are the hard questions, and many web and technology businesses tend to put them on the backburner. Building on the Cheap: Starting Up When the Economy is Down, Mike Jones, Tsavo Media Build it and they will come, right? Everybody is going to love this, won’t they?