Briefs: Amadeus leads $16m financing for Secerno; Meldex CDO says he may bid for the company
Amadeus Capital Partners, the European technology investor, has led a $16m second round financing of Secerno Ltd, an Oxford company supplying software and appliances that provide a high level of protection against internal and external threats to databases. Eden Ventures and Spark Ventures, both previous investors in the company, have also participated in this round.
Secerno will use the funding for further development of its award-winning database activity monitoring and security platform and to accelerate the growth of its sales channels, principally in the US and EMEA.
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Meldex International plc, the specialty pharmaceutical and healthcare company, said that Steve Martin, Chief Development Officer and Board member, had made an approach to the Board seeking permission to explore the possibility of making an offer for the Company.
The Board said there could be no guarantee this approach would lead to an offer being made or that any transaction would be recommended by the Board or consummated.
Nevertheless, Meldex's share price gained over 20% to value at £91m.
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Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc, an RNA interference company developing novel therapeutics utilizing proprietary Dicer Substrate Technology, closed its Series A financing, receiving a total of $8.4m in additional venture capital from new investor Abingworth Management and existing investors Oxford Bioscience Partners and Skyline Ventures. With this additional capital, Dicerna has completed a $21.4m Series A financing round.
Vincent J. Miles, venture partner at Abingworth has joined Dicerna's board of directors. Prior to Abingworth, Dr. Miles was senior VP of business development at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, an Abingworth portfolio company.
In addition, Dicerna announced its strategic focus in the therapeutic areas of oncology, metabolic diseases and hepatitis C infection.
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NXT plc, a provider of unique sound solutions, best known for its flat panel loudspeaker solutions, said VIZIO, the fastest growing brand of flat panel HDTVs in North America, is to introduce two LCD TVs fitted with NXT's Balanced Radiator loudspeaker technology.
Part of VIZIO's new XVT range of full HD LCD TVs, the 42" SV420XVT and 47" SV470XVT models each use two 10w NXT drive units in a slim speaker array located under the screen. Finished in piano black with silver accents, the VIZIO SV420XVT and SV479XVT HDTVs are planned to ship in July and will be available from major retailers in the US, such as Circuit City, Sears, Costco and Sam's Club priced at $1499.99 and $1899.99 respectively.
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Telechips Inc and ARM Holdings plc said that Telechips is the first Korean licensee of the ARM Mali-200 graphics processing unit, bringing advanced 2D and 3D graphics capabilities and low memory bandwidth usage to a range of portable consumer devices, including PMPs, PNDs, home and in-car audio and mobile phones.
