Monday, June 3, 2013Zynga's Loss, SGN's Gain
The announcement Monday that Zynga is cutting 18 percent of its workforce is throwing a lot of talent onto the market, to the benefit of the company's competitors. One of those companies, Los Angeles-based SGN, is already benefiting from the turmoil over at Zynga, saying Monday afternoon that it has hired a new pool of talent from Zynga, including a number of artists, an executive, game designer, and UI/AX artist. SGN put out a list of hires today from Zynga's FarmVille and other teams, saying (More info...)
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Surf Air Gets New Funding, FAA Clearance
Los Angeles-based membership-based airline Surf Air said today that it has raised a Series B round of funding, and also received its FAA Operating Certificate -- a huge step in getting the company's services off the ground. The startup, led by Wade Eyerly, has been working for the last year working on all the paperwork involved with FAA certification. Size of the funding round was not disclosed. Surf Air said the new funding came from Velos Partners and Base Ventures.
According to Surf Air (More info...)
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Zynga Details Job CutsSan Francisco-based Zynga has detailed the cuts at the company, saying it has laid off approximately 520 employees, or 18 percent of its global workforce. Those cuts have resulted in the shutdown of Zynga's Los Angeles office. Zynga is also cutting its Dallas and New York operations as part of the move. Zynga said the moves will save it an estimated $70M to $80M in pre-tax, annualized cash expenses. The move comes as Zynga said it expects a net loss in the range of
$39 million to $28.5 million (More info...)
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SpaceX Test Fires New RocketHawthorne-based SpaceX, the commercial rocket and spacecraft firm headed by tech mogul Elon Musk, has just fired off a test on a new, Falcon 9 rocket. According to Musk, in a tweet, the firm just had its first firing of its Falcon 9-R advanced prototype rocket, which has over 1 million pounds of thrust, enough to "life a skyscraper". The firing this morning by SpaceX is part of a series of tests SpaceX has been running on its rockets on its new, more powerful Merlin 1D engines--for use on the up (More info...)
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Zynga Layoffs Hit LA OfficeA widespread layoff at social games maker Zynga has hit Los Angeles, with around 55 employees being let go from the location, according to tweets from the company's employees. It appears that Zynga is closing its entire LA operation, according to reports. Overall, it appears Zynga is laying off 20 percent of its worldwide staff. The move is not surprising, given the wholesale departure of Zynga executives who have jumped ship to Los Angeles based videogame developer Scopely, to cloud storage fi (More info...)
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PublishThis Ties Into WordPressPublishThis, the developer of content management and publishing tools for online publishers and businesses, has tied into WordPress.com with a new WordPress Plugin, the company announced this morning. PublishThis, which is based in Los Angeles and headed by Matt Kumin, said it has launched a new plugin which allows businesses to discover, curate, and distribute content via WordPress, and in particular WordPress.com's "VIP" clients. As part of the release of the plugin, PublishThis has become a " (More info...)
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Siemer Ventures Backs Southeast Asian Startup IncubatorLos Angeles-based technology investor Siemer Ventures has funded an investment firm in Southeast Asia, which is looking to invest in and create e-commerce and digital media companies in the Southeast Asia region. According to Ardent Capital, it received its first, external round of funding, which came from Siemer Ventures, Recruit Strategic Partners, and GMO Venture Partners. Financial details of that investment were not disclosed. Ardent Capital incubates and invests in companies, saying that i (More info...)
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How OneRoof Energy's Solar Leases Save Money, Not Just The Planet
There's been a subtle--but very significant shift--in the solar power market in recent years, particularly in California, where it's actually cheaper in many cases to lease solar panels on your roof, than to pay the power company. One of the companies that has taken advantage of that is OneRoof Energy (www.oneroofenergy.com), a San Diego company headed by David Field. OneRoof--which is backed by Black Coral Capital and others--has been supplying solar leases, financing and installing solar pan (More info...)
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Hulu Bidding Hits $1B, DirecTV Among Top BiddersBidding for Los Angeles-based video streaming site Hulu is heating up, with the latest numbers being leaked on a deal saying that the company has received three bids worth at least $1 billion. According to multiple reports, Hulu has received bids from DirecTV and two other bidders, who offered up at least $1 billion for the company over the weekend. Hulu is being advised by Guggenheim Partners in an auction of the company.
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Brighter Relaunches Up Front Dental Discounts ProgramBrighter.com, the online, upfront dental pricing and referral service based in Santa Monica, and headed by longtime Silicon Beach entrepreneur Jake Winebaum, has relaunched, swizzling its model away from a monthly membership program and towards direct, upfront pricing and referrals to local dentists. The startup, which had begun by offering up access to its network of dentists and discounted dental plans via a monthly subscription plan, now lets users directly find and book appointments with den (More info...)
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Arcturus Therapeutics Gets $1.3MSan Diego-based Arcturus Therapeutics, which is developing RNAi therapeutics to treat disease, said this morning that it has raised $1.3M in a seed fudning round. The company said the round came from multiple, high net-worth private investors from the U.S. and Canada. Names of those investors were not announced. Arcturus Therapeutics is headed by Joseph E. Payne.
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Mindspeed, Sequans Tie On LTE Reference DesignNewport Beach-based Mindspeed and LTE chipmaker Sequans Communications are in a collaboration this morning, saying that the two are working together on a Category-4 LTE fixed wireless gateway reference design. The companies said that Sequans is supplying an LTE base band chip, and Mindspeed is providing its Comcerto 2000 communications processor in the design. The companies are targeting equipment and device manufacturers looking to build fixed wireless gateways in the home and small business ma (More info...)
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Acacia Names VP From Energy IndustryNewport Beach-based patent licensing firm Acacia Research Corporation announced this morning that it has named an energy industry executive as a Senior Vice President at the company. Acacia said it named Charlotte Rutherford to the position, to focus on monetizing energy technologies. Rutherford was most recently at Schlumberger Limited, and also has served at Colgate-Palmolive and Conoco; she also has served at Honeywell International, Gibbons, and Minerals Technologies (Pfizer), in addition to (More info...)
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