Xconomy National

Bruce V. Bigelow

Bruce Bigelow joins Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.

Recent posts and comments

Commenting on: SOPA-PIPA Protests Blossom Across the Country

Bruce said: Here’s a related FYI: Network security researcher Aryeh Gorestky of San Diego-based ESET suggests that cyber criminals could manipulate search engine... Read more »
SG Biofuels Raises $17M in Move Toward Agricultural Production

San Diego’s SG Biofuels, an agricultural biotech developing the Jatropha plant to produce biofuels, says today it has raised $17 million in a Series B round of financing led by Thomas, McNerney... Read more »
San Diego Life Sciences News: AnaptysBio, Life, NeuroGenetic & More

There was a whole lot of life sciences news over the past week. Here’s my roundup.

—Carlsbad-based Life Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE) said it’s taking orders for a benchtop genome sequencer that can to... Read more »
Q4 Venture Deals, Dollars Stayed Strong, Making 2011 Best in a Decade

Venture capital deals backed off just a tad during the last three months of 2011, but remained strong enough to carry VC activity during the year to a new high-water mark, according to... Read more »
Slain Biotech Investor Leaves $1 Million to Support Entrepreneurship

The San Diego members of Southern California’s Tech Coast Angels (TCA) have established a $1 million nonprofit foundation in the name of John G. Watson, the late San Diego life sciences... Read more »
Prescription Skin-Care Specialist SkinMedica Acquires Colorescience

Carlsbad, CA-based SkinMedica says it has acquired Dana Point, CA-based Colorescience, a mineral makeup company that provides cosmetics to remedy and camouflage skin discolorations and other defects while also protecting skin... Read more »
Motorola Venture Arm Puts $6.5 Million Into MicroPower Technologies

San Diego’s MicroPower Technologies, founded in 2008 to develop ultra-low power wireless video surveillance products, said it has landed the first installment of a $6.5 million round of funding from... Read more »
Cebix to Raise $20 Million for Pivotal Trial of Diabetes Supplement

San Diego’s Cebix, founded in 2008 to develop a new supplemental treatment for complications arising from type 1 diabetes, intends to raise more than $20 million in a Series B round needed to fund... Read more »
San Diego BizTech Roundup: Active Network, Accelrys, Entropic, & More

—San Diego’s Active Network (NYSE ACTV), which provides online event registration and related services, acquired Philadelphia-based StarCite for about $51 million in stock and cash. StarCite, which provides Web-based event... Read more »
San Diego Life Sciences Roundup: Isis, Elevation, Proacta, and More

As the time draws near for the annual J.P. Morgan Global Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, it seems as if there has been a surge in deals for local life sciences companies.... Read more »
With StarCite Deal, Active Network Deepens Focus on Business Events

[Updated 1/5/12 8:05 am. See below.] San Diego’s Active Network (NYSE: ACTV) made roughly 50 acquisitions since it was founded (in 1998), but the company has become more... Read more »
As Internet TV Soars, Verimatrix Software Keeps the “Pay” in Pay-TV

Since it was founded in 2000, San Diego-based Verimatrix has raised about $50 million in institutional venture funding and spent untold hours of software programming to address a relatively simple problem nagging... Read more »
Novo Leads New $30M Round for San Diego’s Elevation Pharmaceuticals

San Diego’s Elevation Pharmaceuticals says today it’s raised $30 million in Series B funding, which is expected to carry the startup through its mid-stage trials for a new aerosol drug for treating chronic... Read more »
SD BizTech Roundup: Qualcomm, Razer, Avalon’s Zynga Windfall, & More

Been on vacation? Get back up to speed with our end-of-the-holidays roundup of San Diego tech news.

—Almost half of the top 50 venture-backed startups had at least one founder who was... Read more »
Counting Coups: Better, Fewer Deals in 2011 for Venture-Backed Cos.

2011 was a year of bigger deals and fewer exits for venture-backed companies, according to data being released today by Dow Jones VentureSource.

VentureSource says that venture-backed companies netted $53.2 billion through... Read more »
The Top 10 Traffic-Getting Stories at Xconomy San Diego

A decade ago, when newspaper and magazine editors prepared their rundown of the year’s most important news stories, they really were just choosing the articles that they thought had the most... Read more »
A Sweet Deal: How Amira Reinvented Itself as a Drug Discovery Engine

The sale of Amira Pharmaceuticals will likely go down as one of the standout life sciences deals of 2011—it certainly ranks as one of the biggest payouts in San Diego, where... Read more »
Avalon’s Kinsella Toasts Debut Vintage of Another Venture

Avalon Ventures founder Kevin Kinsella has demonstrated his prowess in biotech deals, and even in backing an occasional Broadway musical. Now, just in time for the holidays, he’s uncorking the... Read more »
San Diego Life Sciences Roundup: Intellikine, Somaxon, and More

—Merry Christmas, Troy Wilson! Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical agreed to pay $190 million upfront, plus another $120 million in future milestone payments, to acquire Intellikine, the San Diego biotech that CEO... Read more »
Game Peripheral Maker Razer Raises $50M in First Round

Carlsbad, CA-based Razer bills itself as a maker of “professional gaming” hardware, which always struck me as an oxymoron, like “jumbo shrimp.”

Nevertheless, Razer just demonstrated how serious it is, raising $50 million... Read more »