The Forge restaurant lands in Oakland

Oakland's Jack London Square has landed The Forge, a top-flight pizza and artisan beer establishment.

The Forge has agreed to lease 4,700 square feet at 66 Franklin St. in Oakland, according to Jack London Square Ventures, one of the principal owners of the waterfront retail and office complex.

Jeffrey Amber is the new executive chef of the restaurant. Amber was Hotel Chef of the Year from the American Tasting Institute. The new establishment should open in early 2013.

The Forge, which will also serve cocktails and an extensive wine list, is part of a restaurant group called Les Bon Temps, a partnership of Bob Burke, whose establishments include Gordon Biersch in downtown San Jose; Michael Karp, owner of Barbacoa and Table 24 in Orinda; and architect Andy Byrnes.

Livermore research complex bought

Livermore's Pacific Corporate Center, a 208,000-square-foot research and office complex, has been bought by affiliates of Vertical Ventures Capital and an equity partner.

The complex is located at 7005 Southfront Road, and also has addresses on Longard and Lawrence roads in Livermore. The deal was arranged through commercial realty brokerage Colliers International.

The buyer, Vertical Ventures, is a realty development and management firm. An affiliate of Pacific Union Holdings, a real estate investment company, was

Nimble Storage grabs $40.7M in funding

San Jose-based Nimble Storage has landed $40.7 million in venture capital financing to help propel further expansion for the fast-growing -- although money-losing -- data storage firm.

Nimble provides data storage, backup and disaster recovery.

The company recently announced a massive expansion of its sales operation.

Although Nimble has yet to turn a profit, the company expects to stage an initial public offering of its stock between mid-2013 and mid-2014.

AMD invests in game company CiiNow

Sunnyvale-based Advanced Micro Devices said Tuesday that it has invested in CiiNow, a provider of cloud-based video game technology.

AMD, a maker of chips used in personal computers, did not say how much it invested.

Cloud-based gaming lets people stream video games over the Internet. One of the most prominent startups in this area, OnLive, recently reorganized its business amid financial difficulties so it could keep operating.

AMD and CiiNow will work jointly to enable new kinds of online gaming experiences. "The cloud gaming industry, which was once thought of as technologically impossible, is now disrupting the gaming market for both consumers and game publishers," AMD said in a prepared release.

-- Staff