A startup that sells Internet-based software to lawyers and law firms quietly relocated to Santa Ana and tapped a local executive as its top guy.
RealPractice Inc., which has some 20 workers, moved from Los Angeles in January. Earlier this month, the company named Carey Ransom as its chief executive.
Ransom nabbed the post after RealPractice founder Rudy DeFelice stepped down a few months ago. DeFelice still has an advisory role.
Ransom most recently was vice president of business development at Irvine’s Brand Affinity Technologies Inc., an advertising startup with technology that aims to automate celebrity endorsement deals.
Before that, Ransom was vice president of marketing and corporate development at Irvine’s WebVisible Inc., a maker of software that helps small businesses buy and target online advertisements.
RealPractice is known for two software products, SmartRules and RealDealDocs, which are marketed as helping to save time and money for lawyers.
SmartRules tracks procedural rules at the biggest courts in the country. It gives litigators access to up-to-date rules for submitting documents, court deadlines and any court business.
RealDealDocs tracks court filings by public companies, among other tasks.
RealPractice’s customers include Irell & Manella LLP, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan LLP and other law firms.
RealPractice is backed by Corona del Mar’s Miramar Venture Partners, Santa Monica’s Rustic Canyon Partners and angel investors.
The company hasn’t said how much it’s raised to date and doesn’t disclose other financials.
Blizzard Sellout
Tickets to BlizzCon, Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment Inc.’s yearly fan festival, sold out within 20 minutes this year.
The yearly event is set for Oct. 22 and 23 in Anaheim.
Tickets went for $150 a pop, up from $125 each last year. Blizzard set a limit of five tickets per household.
Secondary sellers are making a killing. Some tickets, along with a goody bag of Blizzard swag, are selling for as much as $800 per pair on eBay.
A look at Craigslist.com put the average resale price for a BlizzCon ticket at roughly $250.
BlizzCon gathers fans of Blizzard’s biggest online game franchises, including “Warcraft,” “StarCraft” and “Diablo.”
Comedian and actor Jay Mohr is set to return to BlizzCon this year to serve as master of ceremonies for the live costume contest and other events.
This year marks Blizzard’s fifth BlizzCon. Last year’s event drew nearly 30,000 people.
Blizzard, part of Activision Blizzard Inc.—itself a unit of France’s Vivendi SA—is the top maker of online video games.
Green Nod
Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc., the top distributor of technology products, software and consumer electronics, got a nod for its green cred.
The company said it was the first technology company to get admitted to the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate leaders program, which helps boost companies that are making strides to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Companies in the program work closely with the EPA to develop practices that help them reduce greenhouse gas emissions through “aggressive goal-setting, ongoing measurement and regular progress reporting,” the company said.
“We are proud to join the climate leaders program and look forward to working with the EPA to continue putting in place environmentally responsible programs and procedures throughout our operations,” said Keith Bradley, Ingram’s North America president.
Ingram’s efforts to help the environment also help it reduce costs, according to Bradley.
“Our packaging reduction program recently saved more than 700 tons of corrugated cartons in 2009 compared to 2008, and all of the cartons are 100 percent recyclable,” he said.
Ingram Micro is big on ferreting out small costs that add up, a necessity for a company that operates on slim margins.
The company has had an eventful couple of weeks.
It recently said Alain Monie, president and global operations chief, is stepping down.
He’s set to take the top post at “a multinational industrial company based in Asia,” Ingram Micro said. It didn’t name the company.
No one is set to replace Monie, whose “responsibilities will be absorbed by the current organization,” Chief Executive Greg Spierkel said.
The company’s four regional presidents and top logistics executive now will report directly to Spierkel, while other executives will be given Monie’s former duties, he said.
Ingram also did a small acquisition earlier this month.
It picked up Spain’s Albora Soluciones SL, a provider of business software based in Barcelona, for undisclosed terms.
The acquisition is designed to boost Ingram Micro in security software and virtualization—or software that allows various computers running different software to appear as one.
Albora Soluciones also deals in what’s known as middleware, or software that links different applications on a network.
The deal follows Ingram’s buy last year of parts of Britain’s Computacenter Distribution Ltd., another provider of business software.
Ingram is the largest company in Orange County with yearly sales of $30 billion.
