Iranian Concerns Push Translation Company to Add Persian to Mix

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Because of increasing attention on Iran, a Marina del Rey company whose main customer is the federal government has added Persian to its language-translation software.


Born from technology developed at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute, three-year old Language Weaver Inc. develops software that can monitor and translate media from Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Somali and several European languages.


For example, the U.S. government uses the Arabic product to monitor Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya news sources. “It gives them a local and regional view of what’s going on in Iraq,” said Kirti Vashee, vice president of sales and marketing.


Language Weaver is privately held and backed by venture capital investors. It debuted at 19th last year on Deloitte & Touche’s fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.


Vashee said 25 of the company’s 35 employees have Ph.D.’s in natural language processing, in which computers are used to manipulate and analyze language.


Language Weaver has begun to branch out into the commercial sector, offering its products to corporations that need to monitor and translate Web content. “We can look across 300 million Chinese Web sites and identify anything to do with selling counterfeit products,” Vashee said.


The software packages range from $5,000 to $125,000, depending on how many languages and the types of upgrades and maintenance are included in the contract.



Angels in the Outfield


Meet Brad Greenspan, angel investor and cosmetics magnate.


The former Intermix Media Inc. chief executive just provided $3 million in angel funding to Borba, a Beverly Hills cosmetics and skin care company focusing on “nutraceuticals.” Those are waters, lotions and cosmetics that emphasize vitamins and skin health.


When Intermix was sold to News Corp. over the summer, Greenspan received more than $48 million for his 11 percent stake in the Internet company (although he continues to contest the deal, claiming the purchase price was too low).


For now, he’s spreading some of his wealth to startups around Southern California largely with the aim of competing with his former company. That includes a social networking site called vidiLife that offers similar features as MySpace, but with a focus on video.


“I intend to be helping and investing in companies pretty aggressively,” Greenspan said. “Most are in the online space. A few others are not directly in the Internet space but could end up there.”


Greenspan plans to help Borba move its products online. He has some experience in that area: Intermix had a direct-marketing division that sold cosmetic-type products and supplements.



Ringtone Cameo


In a digital version of product placement, Grammy Award-winning alternative rock group Coldplay made an appearance on an episode of “CSI: New York” recently in the form of a ringtone.


The joint promotion of L.A.-based Capitol Records and CBS imbedded a clip from Coldplay’s hit single “Talk” in a scene of the crime lab drama. During the scene, an investigator’s cell phone rang to the tune of the Coldplay song.


At $2.49, the ring tone was then offered through a phone number provided by CBS during the show for the first week after the episode. After that, it will be made available through multiple outlets, including the CBS.com Web site.



*Staff Reporter Hilary Potkewitz can be reached at (323) 549-5225 ext. 226 or by e-mail at

[email protected]

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