The sky is falling get your glasses.
Walt Disney Co.’s “Chicken Little” opens this week in 3-D, thanks to Los Angeles-based Real D Inc., the technology company behind the new 3-D digital movie projector system. The movies are still viewed with special 3-D glasses.
Real D also announced a five-year licensing deal with major and minor theater chains to provide its projection technology. The deal includes AMC Theaters (part of AMC Entertainment Inc.), Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp., Century Theatres Inc. and Regal Entertainment Group 24 chains in all. Terms were not disclosed, but the company reportedly charges about $50,000 to equip a theater with the technology, and charges a $25,000 per year fee, according to its Web site.
Founded in 2001, Real D acquired the technology in February through its purchase of StereoGraphics Corp., a San Rafael-based company that provided 3-D digital imaging for industry and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Call vs. Click
Mere days after announcing its $5 million first round of funding, local-search company Jambo jumped into a deal with search engine InfoSpace Inc. Terms were not disclosed, but Jambo will be providing its “pay-per-call” technology throughout InfoSpace’s search engine.
Jambo gives merchants who don’t have a Web site an online presence. As an example, if someone searches for those products, the company’s contact information pops up including a special phone number found only on the Web. Jambo doesn’t charge companies to be included in its search results, but it does charge every time someone calls them using that number.
“We are able to determine where people are searching for local services which region, which type of service,” said Jambo Chief Executive John Melideo.
Clicks are a tricky business in the search world, and companies are on an eternal quest to turn clicks into customers. Jambo works on the theory that customers who call a merchant are more likely to convert into a sale.
“Today when a call is generated, the merchant is not aware of where those calls came from. We have the ability to identify that,” Melideo said.
Jambo was founded three years ago by NetZero Inc. founders Ronald Burr, Stacy Haitsuka and Chris Black.
Search High
Encino-based ReachLocal Inc. has announced partnerships with TMP Directional Marketing, the largest Yellow Pages advertising agency, and Ambassador Yellow Pages, a directory publisher in New York. TMP boasts 600,000 local businesses, all of whom advertise in the Yellow Pages. It will now be offering ReachLocal’s Internet advertising service to those customers.
ReachLocal helps companies allocate their Internet advertising across different search engines, and its back-office functions allow companies to track the success of each online avenue.
The TMP partnership involved no up-front cash, according to ReachLocal founder Zorik Gordon, but includes a revenue-sharing agreement once advertisers sign up. “Their customers have been asking for Internet, and they’re not traditional tech companies, so this is the perfect solution for them to go out and get it,” Gordon said.
ReachLocal also announced partnerships with the L.E.T. Group Inc., a hotel Internet marketing firm that represents 35 hotel management companies and resorts.
*Staff reporter Hilary Potkewitz can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 226, or by e-mail at
hpotkewitz@labusinessjournal
.com.
