Mobile technologies were the topic of the week as the wireless industry’s big enterprise & applications conference came to town. But we also had some interesting economic new, and our Xconomy week in review begins now.

—The number of wireless-connected devices around the world will double by 2010, from roughly 12 billion to about 24 billion, according to a study released by the London-based GSMA industry group on the first day of the CTIA Enterprise & Applications Conference in San Diego. About half of the 24 million devices are expected to be machine-to-machine connections, with personal mobile devices making up the other 12 billion.

—A TechCrunch report that Hewlett-Packard was laying off “around 500″ employees and rolling up its entire San Diego Software unit set off a scramble last week among local media, which knocked down much of the report. Mike Freeman of The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that HP is eliminating about 50 jobs at its suburban campus related to help desk and analytics products, which came from HP’s $425 million acquisition of Peregrine Systems in 2005.

—The Ford Motor Co. demonstrated a voice-activated system that could someday help motorists monitor their own health and chronic illnesses on the road. Ford’s prototype uses voice-recognition software to help diabetic motorists who use wireless glucose measurement technology to monitor their blood glucose while driving. K. Venkatesh Prasad, a senior technical leader at Ford Research & Innovation, told the Wireless Health 2011 technical conference that Ford’s in-car health and wellness technology is part of a broader effort to expand the capabilities of Ford’s SYNC in-car connectivity system.

—Local technology industries have had a disproportionate effect in boosting San Diego’s regional economy, according to a study from the National University System Institute for Policy Research. Counting direct, indirect, and induced employment, the study found that San Diego’s 363,000 technology-dependant jobs represent more than 29 percent of all jobs in … Next Page »

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With yesterday’s introduction of a new line of data storage products, San Diego’s Overland Data (NASDAQ: OVRL) has set out to make a name for itself in the same high-tech market where it has been operating for the past 31 years.

Since it began making IBM-compatible 9-track tape drives in 1980, Overland Storage has been a behind-the-scenes manufacturer of tape and disk-based data backup equipment. Its products are used mostly by businesses and other (distributed enterprise) institutions to meet their long-term data archiving and protection requirements. But Overland’s long history as a white-label, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) ended earlier this year, CEO Eric Kelly told me recently.

“We officially announced in our last earnings call [in September] that we had shipped our last OEM product to Hewlett-Packard,” Kelly told me. Today, all of the company’s products are sold under the Overland Storage brand.

In addition to asserting its corporate identity, Kelly contends that Overland has worked over the past year to reinvent itself—a turnaround process that culminated in yesterday’s debut of the company’s new “SnapServer DX” technology. Now it is down to a question of market acceptance for the company with roughly 200 employees.

As I’ve previously reported, Overland’s troubles began in 2005, when Hewlett-Packard said it was significantly reducing its orders for Overland’s data storage products. Kelly said HP accounted for almost 60 percent of Overland’s $235 million in fiscal 2005 revenue. In fiscal 2010, Overland’s total sales plunged to less than $78 million, with HP accounting for 22.5 percent of the total. “Now HP represents four to five percent of our revenue,” Kelly said.

Today, Kelly says losing HP as Overland’s biggest customer was one of the best things that could have happened to the company. Instead of making … Next Page »

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Qualcomm announced a series of new technology initiatives just a few weeks ago, which CEO Paul Jacobs reviewed during the wireless chipmaker’s shareholder meeting last week. And we’ve got a review of San Diego’s biztech news for you here:

—Qualcomm’s (NASDAQ: QCOM) Paul Jacobs marked his fifth anniversary as CEO of the world’s largest wireless chipmaker at a shareholder meeting last week. In an upbeat overview of Qualcomm’s technology development and business performance, Jacobs said the migration of mobile users from 2G (where Qualcomm has relatively little technology) to 3G (where Qualcomm technology is pervasive) increased 380 percent, to about 1.2 billion subscribers, from 2003 to 2010.

—I interviewed UCSD professor James Fowler, who specializes in social networks and in understanding the differences between social networks in the real world and in cyberspace. He said that online social networks are particularly well-suited for conveying information, which is a different thing than the effects that real world networks play in changing behavior, such as persuading someone to stop smoking.

—Qualcomm’s William F. Davidson talked with me about what makes the wireless chipmaker different from computer processor manufacturers that have entered the market for smartphones and other mobile devices. Davidson said that while processor chipmakers boast about peak download speeds and gigahertz, Qualcomm focuses on power requirements, spectrum capacity, and integrating functions to work efficiently.

—San Diego’s Fallbrook Technologies acquired Round Rock, TX-based Hodyon, which makes auxiliary power systems for trucks. Terms were not disclosed, but Fallbrook CEO Bill Klehm told me that buying Hodyon was “a perfect way to display our technology, save truckers money, and improve fuel economy.”

—San Diego Gas & Electric said a solar power plant now under contract to … Next Page »

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Not too long ago, I got a chance to talk with Jillian Mansolf, who joined San Diego’s Overland Storage (NASDAQ: OVRL) as vice president of global sales and marketing about 18 months ago. A few days earlier, Overland had disclosed its acquisition of Sunnyvale, CA-based MaxiScale, a three-year-old data storage startup, a deal that prompted me to seek an update from the company.

Once again, though, I was struck by the long ordeal Overland has faced since 2005, when the company lost its single biggest customer. Hewlett-Packard had decided to phase out its business with Overland, which served as the manufacturer of tape-based data storage equipment made and sold under the HP brand.

Six years ago, HP accounted for more than half of Overland’s revenue—which totaled $235 million in fiscal 2005. Filings for Overland’s fiscal 2010, which ended June 27, show that HP represented 22.5 percent of Overland’s total net revenue, which had plunged to $77.7 million. The loss of HP’s business, Mansolf said, “changed the whole perspective of the business model for the company” and required significant restructuring. “That truly has been the balancing act over the past two to four years.”

Mansolf, who previously worked at Data Robotics, Dell Computer, and Maxtor, is part of the management team that Eric Kelly assembled after he stepped in as CEO in January 2009. Kelly joined … Next Page »

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A common theme in last week’s technology news is how companies and entire industries continually remake their businesses, whether it’s the venture capital community, startup carmakers, or a San Diego company that specializes in data storage technology. Read on to see what I mean.

—As the venture capital survey data comes in from the three months that ended September 30, we’re seeing a nationwide rebound in first-time financings for startups. Data from CB Insights, the New York financial information firm, shows seed-stage deals increasing from 1 percent of the deals in the third quarter of 2009 to 11 percent of all deals during the third quarter.

—Venture capital surveys from CB Insights and the MoneyTree Report both show an increasing deal count, but a decline in the total amount of invested. In a year-over-year comparison, the MoneyTree Report showed a 7 percent decline in capital invested with a 9 percent increase in deal count during the third quarter, when venture firms invested $4.8 billion in 780 deals nationwide.

—V-Vehicle, the San Diego startup automaker, changed its name to Next Autoworks. The company, which has raised $87 million from investors that include Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, and T. Boone Pickens, also hired industry veteran Kathleen Ligocki as CEO.

—Overland Storage (NASDAQ: OVRL), the San Diego data storage technology specialist, acquired Sunnyvale, CA-based MaxiScale, which provides data protection and data management technologies. Financial terms were not disclosed.

—San Diego’s Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) acquired San Francisco-based mobile social networks software developer iSkoot Technologies. Financial terms were not disclosed.

—Biz Stone, a Twitter co-founder and the San Francisco-based company’s creative director, told The San Diego Union-Tribune last week that a new-and-improved version of the micro-blogging service should improve service worldwide. “It was re-architected to actually be snappier, faster – to deal with information faster,” said Stone, who was in San Diego to speak at the 2010 Tijuana Innovadora conference on innovation across the border.

—Predixion Software, based just across the Orange County line in Aliso Viejo, CA, said it had closed on $5 million in Series A financing, led by DFJ Frontier. Predixion, which specializes in low-cost, self-service in the cloud predictive analytics software, said it will use the funds to expand product development,increase sales and marketing initiatives, and expand its sales channel programs and strategic partnership activities.

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San Diego data storage and management provider Overland Storage (NASDAQ: OVRL) said today it has acquired MaxiScale, a Sunnyvale, CA-based provider of data management and data protection technologies. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. MaxiScale’s technology, which is being integrated into Overland’s file storage portfolio, provides infinitely scaling storage capabilities that promise to reduce capital and operational costs while improving performance. MaxiScale, founded in 2007, raised $25 million in venture capital financing from New Enterprise Associates, El Dorado Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank.

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It was a busy week for San Diego’s innovation economy, with reports on new products, new deals, and some insights into how startup companies can survive virtually. So read on!

—Zeebo, a new San Diego-based company, launched its game console, entering a multi-billion dollar industry dominated by the Wii, Xbox, and Playstation. Backed by Qualcomm, Zeebo uses a Qualcomm chipset that allows users to connect over a cellular network (instead of broadband or Wi-Fi) to purchase and download games—much like Amazon’s Kindle.

—The U.S. cleantech industry is said to be benefiting from an “Obama bounce,” based on the billions of dollars designated for renewable energy and cleantech spending in the federal economic stimulus package. So it seemed like a good time to put together a comprehensive list of San Diego cleantech companies.

—Pure Bioscience of El Cajon, CA, told Xconomy’s innovation journalism fellow, Juha-Pekka Tikka, the company expects hundreds of products based on Pure’s germ-killing agent, silver dihyrdogen citrate, to soon hit the market. Pure later announced it has found an Indian distributor to immediately begin marketing Enviroguard, a disinfectant cleaner, in India.

—A special committee of the board at San Diego’s Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker: HEPH]]) fired founding CEO and namesake Richard Hollis for cause and named the company’s chief operating officer, James Frincke, as interim chief executive.

—During my recent stopover at San Diego’s DriveCam, CEO Brandon Nixon explained how the company, which began with a dashboard-mounted video recorder, has evolved into … Next Page »

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Following on a $9 million financing of its domestic receivables in late November, San Diego’s Overland Storage said today it had reached a similar two-year deal to finance up to $5 million of the data protection company’s foreign accounts receivables. In a statement, Overland’s new CEO, Eric Kelly, said, “We believe that together these two financing arrangements will allow us to continue our recovery and execute our strategy.”

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San Diego’s Overland Storage (NASDAQ: OVRL) reported some good news today, saying Nasdaq has withdrawn a delisting notice that was issued last year when the  company’s stock slipped below Nasdaq’s minimum share price requirement of $1 a share. According to Overland, Nasdaq now says Overland now meets “alternative” standards. Shares of Overland, which specializes in data archiving and related data storage technologies, were trading at about 26 cents earlier today.

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San Diego data storage company Overland Storage (NASDAQ: OVRL) has named board member and former Snap Appliance CEO Eric Kelly as CEO. Vern LoForti, who was Overland’s president and CEO, will continue to serve as president. Kelly, a longtime computer and data storage executive, has worked closely with Overland’s management team to formulate its restructuring plan.

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Before the economic downturn deepened last September, many venture capital firms maintained that their operations were unaffected by the overall economy. They’re not saying that anymore. VCs are reacting to hard times in different ways—and so are the startups and technology companies that make up the innovation economy. Some examples of how they are coping, along with other deals and drama, can be found in our roundup of last week’s biz-tech news.

—With negligible debt and about $11.3 billion in available cash at the end of September, Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) is in a position to shop for bargains. The wireless technology giant agreed to pay $65 million to acquire mobile-graphics and multimedia technology from chipmaker AMD. (Qualcomm also is scheduled to report its fiscal first-quarter financial results this Wednesday.)

—Biofuels may be one of the next big things in the cleantech sector, and a consortium of academic and company researchers have organized SD-CAB, the San Diego Center for Algae-based Biofuels, to help advance development of the nascent industry in the region.

—San Diego’s biotech VCs say they are still doing deals, despite the economic downturn. But the message that three prominent VCs delivered to a breakfast meeting of Biocom, the life sciences industry association, is that different firms are adopting different ways to maximize their returns and minimize their risks.

—Axikin Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego life sciences startup that was spun out from Actimis Pharmaceuticals last June, got $3 million in a first round of venture funding. The investors were Sanderling Ventures, which has offices in San Diego and San Mateo, CA, and Mitsui & Co. Venture Partners in New York.

After enacting substantial cutbacks in November and December, Metabasis … Next Page »

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After slashing 17 percent of its workforce and making other cutbacks, San Diego’s Overland Storage (NASDAQ: OVRL) announced today what CEO Vern LoForti describes as a significant initiative in the company’s turnaround effort.

The longtime maker of data storage equipment has been reeling since 2005, when Hewlett-Packard said it was phasing out purchases of tape-based storage equipment that Overland made under HP’s brand name. Overland makes a variety of tape and disk-based data storage equipment, but its business continued to erode.

Now LoForti, who has been trying to turn around Overland as CEO since 2007, is announcing the creation of “a solutions engineering group” that will work with partners to develop and integrate “end-to-end” data storage systems for its customers. The move follows a $9 million financing in December and a restructuring last week that reduced Overland’s workforce by 53 employees, or 17 percent, to a total staff of 275. (An update to the Xconomy San Diego layoff tracker is here.) The company also implemented a 10 percent pay cut for all salaried employees, including LoForti and other executives.

“This new strategy fits right in to this restructuring at Overland, where we’re leaner and meaner,” LoForti says. The company plans to use its partnerships with Mobotix Vision Systems, which makes video surveillance and Internet-based archiving systems, and with a software developer to provide “plug and play” data storage systems for its customers. Using partnerships to develop such systems “means we don’t have this huge R&D cost” LoForti says.

Overland intends to provide its systems to meet customers’ data archiving and business continuity needs, and for Internet-based “network video recorder” systems. Ravi Pendekanti, Overland’s vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, is particularly encouraged by the booming demand for video surveillance technology. “What most people want,” Pendekanti says, “is to store their surveillance data—but to be able to retrieve the video in the event something happens, whether it’s a slip and fall on company property or a terrorist act.”

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The rainy season is upon us here in San Diego, but the deal landscape remains a bit parched—especially when it comes to funding new companies. But a deal’s a deal, right? So here’s our rundown on deals and other news.

—San Diego’s Pure Bioscience (NASDAQ: PURE) struck a global marketing agreement with Ciba, the Swiss specialty chemicals giant, focused on the San Diego firm’s proprietary antimicrobial agent, silver dihydrogen citrate, or SDC. Pure says SDC is a less toxic and more environmentally friendly alternative to the commonly used additives such as triclosan (itself made by Ciba) that allow some dish soaps, cleaners, lotions, and even toothpastes to be labeled as antimicrobial.

—San Diego’s Overland Storage (NASDAQ: OVRL) got a little breathing room when it closed a two-year deal with Marquette Commercial Finance to finance as much as $9 million of its accounts receivable. Amid the nation’s worst-ever credit crisis, Overland CEO Vern LoForti told me his company is far from alone in seeking such unconventional financing.

—It’s a done deal. Atlanta’s Ebix (NASDAQ: EBIX) confirmed on Monday that it has closed its acquisition of San Diego-based insurance software firm ConfirmNet. Ebix estimated the deal was worth between $10 million and $11 million. ConfirmNet develops software used for issuing insurance certificates.

—San Diego’s Cadence Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CADX) said Friday it had secured a long-term supply agreement for the active ingredient in its Omnigard gel for preventing catheter site infections, which is currently in Phase III clinical trials. The deal establishes an important relationship for Cadence with Belgium’s Solvay.

—At the end of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom TV series of the 1960s, host Marlin Perkins would often end the show by saying something like, “…And so we bid a fond farewell to Zambia, land of a thousand sunsets.” Likewise, we bid farewell to Symwave, a fabless chip designer of mixed signal and analog semiconductors. Symwave has relocated its headquarters from San Diego to Orange County’s Laguna Niguel and reorganized its management team—just as it got $10 million in third-round venture funding from Kodiak Venture Partners and CMEA Ventures. The company, founded four years ago with operations in San Diego, Orange County, and Shenzhen, China, also has venture backing from Jafco Ventures, Revolution Ventures, and RPM Ventures.

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I thought it was unusual when San Diego’s Overland Storage said Friday it had closed on a $9 million receivable financing agreement. All it means is that a finance company has agreed to lend Overland immediate cash for its customers’ IOUs—like one of those “payday loan” outfits.

So I arranged to talk with Vern LoForti, who was named as Overland’s CEO in 2007 after a two-year turnaround effort derailed. Amid the broader economic downturn, there’s little doubt that Overland Storage could be a harbinger of the painful effects the credit crisis is having on IT technology companies.

“It’s been difficult,” LoForti told me. “We’ve restructured once. We brought our expenses way down. But then we got caught in the buzz saw of this downturn.”

Overland’s available cash was down to $5.4 million at the end of September, and the company said at that time it needed about $10 million to fund its operations at current levels through next September.

Trying to raise money in what may be the nation’s worst-ever credit crisis proved exceptionally difficult, which LoForti says is what led Overland to finance its domestic accounts receivables.

“We think this is a short-term solution, rather than long-term, because it is very expensive,” LoForti says. “So, difficult times, and still a ways to go.”

But LoForti says Overland Storage is far from alone in seeking such unconventional sources of short-term credit. The finance companies he met before closing Overland’s deal told him they have been overwhelmed by requests from other companies.

I’ve known LoForti for a long time. We know a lot of the same people. He was named as Overland’s CFO in 1995, about the time I moved to the business desk at The San Diego Union-Tribune, and he played a key role in Overland’s IPO in 1997. We’ve had many discussions as the tech bubble popped and as much of the IT market bypassed the tape-based data backup and archiving machines that gave the company its start in 1981.

Overland still manufacturers tape libraries and autoloaders, along with network-attached storage servers, and fibre channel storage devices. But the company set out in a new direction in October by forming a strategic alliance with Mobotix Vision Systems, which makes high-resolution camera networks that provide Internet-based video surveillance systems equipped with data archiving capabilities.

The new strategy is intriguing, but Overland still needs cash and it must overcome a variety of problems.

The company’s last financial statement, for the three months that ended Sept. 30, lays out three years’ of recurring losses, negative cash flows and other woes that “raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.”

The company, which has about 350 employees worldwide, also says it has to get the price of its common stock to $1 a share (or higher) for 10 consecutive business days before March 30 to maintain its listing on NASDAQ. I’ll bet a lot of those notices have been going around.

Overland’s share price was unchanged yesterday at 34 cents a share. It traded as high as $1.91 earlier this year.

The company still has other options. Management put forward a proposal for a reverse stock split for shareholders to consider at the company’s annual meeting set for Tuesday at Overland’s corporate headquarters. That could increase its share price. The company could put itself up for sale. With a market value of less than $5 million, Overland’s board also could take the company private.

Asked about that, LoForti says, “I would say the board is considering various solutions.”

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San Diego’s Overland Storage (NASDAQ: OVRL) says it has closed a two-year deal with Marquette Commercial Finance that will help Overland’s liquidity by enabling it to finance as much as $9 million of its accounts receivables. The deal allows Overland to get cash more quickly from sales of its data storage hardware and software products, instead of waiting for payments from its mostly commercial customers.

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San Diego’s Overland Storage said yesterday it has formed a strategic alliance with Mobotix Vision Systems, which makes high-resolution camera networks, to provide video surveillance systems equipped with data archiving capabilities. The partnership signals a new direction for Overland, which has seen its core business in data storage erode in recent years.

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