What’s this joyous news you hear?
Maria Bartiromo is being inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame Class of 2011! The CNBC anchor will be officially welcomed to the club in June of next year, and if you can’t make it to the ceremony for the acceptance speech, take heart– you’ll be able to visit her in the Hall of Fame’s Denver headquarters– fingers crossed for a wax statue. [ICN via BI]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Israeli firm Matomy said it has raised $1 million to launch its virtual payment widget for online games.

The Tel Aviv company has created the Engage Bar, a web-based virtual payment widget. The widget appears within an online game and can be timed to make an offer to buy virtual currency at the point when the user is just about to run out of it. Matomy’s testing has shown that the Engage Bar can result in a 43 percent increase in the acceptance of virtual currency offers, said the company’s chief executive, Erez Sadan.

Investors include Ilan Shiloah and Nir Tarlovsky. Shiloah is chairman of McCann Worldgroup, Israel, and a member of the board of McCann Erickson, Europe.

Users can choose to pay for virtual currency by accepting offers such as signing up for a Netflix subscription in exchange for virtual currency. Matomy has the ability to flag questionable offers, which is important in light of the offer scandal in social games last fall. Matomy’s users can help weed out any offers they don’t like. Matomy will have more than 3,000 offers for overseas customers. The service is targeting social network apps, online and free-to-play games, massively multiplayer online games, and online web sites. The Engage Bar can be adapted to be part of the user interface of a game or web site as needed.

There are various rivals out there, including Offerpal, Super Rewards, Sometrics and Peanut Labs.  Matomy says it is growing revenues at a rate of 60 percent per quarter.

Customers include Ambergames. The company has 15 employees and was founded in 2009. Sadan has more than a decade of experience in advertising at companies such as Adsmarket and 888 Holdings.

Companies: Matomy

People: Erez Sadan, Ilan Shiloah, Nir Tarlovsky

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

We are excited to be finishing up our first month in Los Angeles! To celebrate, we are going to throw a grand old party, with the help of Jetsetter and VeeV at the Mondrian Hotel's Skybar on Sunset Blvd and we would like to invite some of our readers to come help us.  Click below for info on how you can get invite to the party, as well as some special offers from the Mondrian, Jetsetter and more!

For your chance to get into the party:

Send your email to Stanley at Stanley@guestofaguest.com with your suggestion on what you would like to see Guest of a Guest feature on our LA site. Maybe it's a local DJ he should interview, or a fun under-radar speakeasy he should visit. A party scene he is really missing out on. Whatever.  In the subject put “LA LAUNCH PARTY” and await confirmation of your acceptance in. Then, check out these other cool offers:

$50 Gift Card to use at Jetsetter or Gilt Group:

Jetsetter, the premiere luxury travel site, is partnering with GofG for this party, and they are offering an exclusive deal to our readers $50 cash to new members of either Jetsetter.com or Gilt Groupe to use on their purchases! Go HERE to get started.

Discounted specials at The Mondrian Hotel

The Mondrian Hotel on Sunset Blvd. is one of Stanley's favorite places to stay when he visits Los Angeles. For this specific event, they are offering this special discounted rate on rooms for our readers.  If you wanna make a weekend out of it, book your room now.

Rates start $195*
Call 800.606.6090 and mention Guest of a Guest
or
Book online at www.mondrianhotel.com and use “SPGOAG” for promo code

*Based on availability
Valid through 12/30/10

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We are excited to get this party started, and hope to see you at Skybar on the 10th. Please make sure you are rsvp'd and confirmed on our list as space is limited.

Article courtesy of Los Angeles | Guest of a Guest – Los Angeles People, Places, Parties & Nightlife