The former chief technology officer of Costa Mesa-based networking equipment maker Emulex Corp. has launched a storage networking company and added several of his old colleagues to the management team.
Jeda Networks in Newport Beach, founded by Stuart Berman, recently came out of stealth mode with software technology that’s billed to speed up storage delivery through virtual networks.
The company was started two years ago and has secured funding from Corona del Mar-based Miramar Venture Partners and U.S. Venture Partners in Menlo Park.
Jeda would not disclose how much funding it has raised to date.
Members of its management team with roots at his former employer include Senior Vice President of International Sales Soogil Cho, a former vice president of Asia Pacific sales at Emulex; David Crespi, vice president of Technology and Engineering; and marketing manager Scott Ruple.
Jeda is initially targeting original equipment manufacturers to imbed its software in consoles that manage blade and storage systems.
The company also is looking at various industries in need of massive bandwith, including entertainment companies, oil and gas exploration firms, and movie and video-streaming providers such as Netflix or Hulu.
“I can have a virtual machine show up anywhere on a network and make this connection to storage,” Ruple said.
The cost savings for large installations “could be in the millions,” he said, since customers won’t have to buy specialized controllers, switches and networking systems.
Jeda in the last year has held meetings with several potential customers that have provided feedback on the technology and product offerings, which is slated for release later this year.
Mad Menace to the Max
A licensing agreement with Weinstein Co. in Hollywood helped Huntington Beach-based startup Mad Menace Entertainment LLC cut through the cluttered world of video game apps.
Now the company is hoping its debut 3D game GraveStompers and its main character Max, who wields an array of weapons as he haunts down other zombies in various settings, will become a hit franchise.
The game, which went on sale in mid-January for $1.99 on Amazon, recently had its best weekend, racking up more than 2,000 downloads.
GraveStompers—which also has a “freemium” model, where players buy tools and other upgrades—has been downloaded more than 700,000 times on Apple and Android devices since its release four months ago.
“Amazon has been great,” said founder and Chapman University alum Matthew Newman. The game has “been in the top 100 new releases since we released it.”
Mad Menace, which has raised $200,000 from investors, picked up some buzz after inking a deal with Weinstein Co. a year ago to use the character Ghostface from the Scream movie franchise. Players can buy and use the character for $4.99, with the Weinstein Co. getting a cut of the sales.
The strong start for GraveStompers has Mad Menace seeing potential for more games and some licensing deals.
“I think it has legs,” Newman said.
AT&T’s Next Push
Dallas-based AT&T Inc. invested more than $1.9 billion from 2010 to 2012 in greater Orange and Los Angeles counties to improve wireless service, boost speeds and eliminate dropped calls.
The spending comes as the company expands its long-term evolution network amid fierce competition in the race for 4G supremacy against Verizon Communications Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc.
So far, so good, according to AT&T, which recently reported that 99% of all Los Angeles-area wireless calls stayed connected in the fourth quarter.
Now the company is on to another investment: a three-year initiative to expand and enhance wireless and wireline IP broadband networks. AT&T plans to deploy more than 1,000 distributed antenna systems and some 40,000 small cell stations geared for office buildings and smaller shopping centers.
AT&T plans to expand its 4G LTE network to more than 300 million by 2014 and its wired IP network to 57 million customers by 2015; the IP network will cover 74% of its coverage area.
AT&T is the nation’s second-largest mobile carrier in subscribers behind Verizon.
It ranked No. 23 last year in the Business Journal’s list of largest employers in Orange County, with 3,500 local workers.
