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

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 »
Immigrants Fill Top Ranks of Venture-Backed Tech Startups

Immigrant entrepreneurs are playing important roles at U.S. technology startups, with immigrants serving in key management and product development positions at 37 of the top 50 venture-backed companies—or roughly three out... Read more »
Qualcomm Co-Founder Irwin Jacobs Plans to Retire from Board

San Diego’s Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) says founding CEO Irwin Jacobs plans to retire from the board this spring, marking his final separation from the San Diego wireless technology giant.

Jacobs,... Read more »
Zogenix Sets Timetable for New Painkiller Drug

San Diego-based Zogenix (NASDAQ: ZGNX) has an update today on its development of an extended-release and acetaminophen-free formulation of the painkiller, hydrocodone bitartrate, which the company plans to market as... Read more »
Under Generic Pressure, San Diego’s Somaxon Looks for New Options

Business hasn’t gotten any easier over the past six months for San Diego’s Somaxon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SOMX), which says it has hired the investment banking firm Stifel Nicolaus Weisel to... Read more »
In Search of Next Killer App, SweetLabs Partners with Kabam on Games

SweetLabs co-founder Chester Ng tells me a new class of intense social network games are threatening to disrupt some of the established players in the desktop gaming business, such as Activision Blizzard’s... Read more »
Tech Roundup of the Week: Ford Focus EV, Flud, Legend3D, Sotera

—Quest Software (NASDAQ: QSFT), the IT software provider on the border between San Diego and Orange Counties, said today it acquired BitKOO, a North Hollywood, CA-based specialist in identity and... Read more »
EnVerv Raises $12 Million to Advance Power Line Communications Chips

EnVerv, a chip design firm based in San Jose, CA, says this morning it has raised $12 million in a Series B round for its “system-on-a-chip” technology, which enables a utility to use its own... Read more »
San Diego Life Sciences Roundup: BeneChill, Sotera, Imthera, & More

—After naming former Boston Scientific executive Fred Colen as CEO last month, San Diego’s BeneChill raised nearly $15 million in a round that’s targeting a total of $25.6 million, according to a recent regulatory... Read more »
Ford Plugs Focus Electric in SD Stop of Fuel-Efficiency Road Trip

There are about 25 million cars registered in California, and probably about 2 million of those are motoring around the roads of San Diego County. So it was statistically insignificant when I stepped... Read more »
VMIX Extends Video Streaming Technology with Invitation-Only Service

San Diego-based VMIX has been revising its strategy, which was originally focused on providing a technology platform that enables TV stations and other media companies to stream online video. Earlier this year,... Read more »
Xconomist of the Week: Stefan Savage on Computer Security

The evolution of computer security is not merely some dark mirror, passively reflecting advances in technology. While technology provides new opportunities for threats, these become true dangers only when there is... Read more »
Anticipating FDA Clearance in 2012, Sotera Wireless Raises $12.2M

San Diego’s Sotera Wireless says it has raised $12.2 million in a Series D round of financing led by the Singapore-based global fund EDB Investments.

Sotera says it also signed a commercial agreement with... Read more »
With New Post-Production 3D Initiative, Legend3D Secures $19 Million

San Diego-based Legend3D, a private digital media and visual effects company, says it has closed on a $19 million Series E preferred stock offering.

The company, which ranks as the largest studio providing 3D... Read more »
San Diego BizTech Roundup: News from Mingle, Qualcomm, & More

Some of San Diego’s biggest tech news last week came out of the mHealth Summit near Washington, D.C. But we’ve rounded up all the other tech news too.

—San Diego-based Mingle,... Read more »
Bill Walton Hails Spirit of Entrepreneurship at San Diego Awards

Connect, the non-profit group that supports innovation and entrepreneurship, named San Diego’s eight most-innovative products of 2011—and bestowed its highest honor on Gen-Probe (NASDAQ: GPRO) for its nucleic acid test... Read more »
SF’s Prescience Sharpens New Biotech Business Model in San Diego

[Updated 12/12/11 11:20 am to clarify terms for startups. See below.] After spending much of her career in the tech sector, Melinda Richter has been pondering a provocative question for... Read more »
Lpath Looks to Raise $10 Million Through Secondary Offering

San Diego’s Lpath (OTC: LPTN), a biotech developing specialized monoclonal antibodies for cancer and other diseases, intends to raise about $10 million through a secondary offering of stock and warrants, according to... Read more »
Qualcomm Puts $100M into Life Fund, & More San Diego Life Sciences News

There seemed to be a paucity of news from San Diego’s life sciences sector over the past week, which makes our briefing especially brief.

—San Diego-based Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) established a... Read more »
ViaSat’s High-Capacity Satellite Nears Start of Commercial Operations

A new kind of countdown has begun. Carlsbad, CA-based ViaSat (NASDAQ: VSAT) says it recently transmitted the first test data to ViaSat-1, the highest capacity communications satellite ever launched into... Read more »