Friday, June 28, 2013GumGum Bolsters AdvisorsLos Angeles-based GumGum, which provides an in-image advertising platform for publishers, said Friday that it has added Ryan Schinman, CEO of Platinum Rye Entertainment, to its advisory board. Platinum Rye Entertainment books celebrity talent, models, recording artists, sports figures and other celebrities for ad campaigns and PR events. GumGum said the addition of Schinman will help its strategic growth plans. GumGum is venture backed by NEA, GRP Partners (now Upfront Ventures), First Round Cap (More info...)
posted on Friday, June 28, 2013(Full story)
CampaignEQ's William Belk On Ads, Algorithms, and AttributionWilliam Belk and Dirk McGregor were both early employees at Beachmint, who saw how difficult it was to track the lifetime value and marketing attribution of their advertising spend. To figure that out, they started building tools to help them sort out Beachmint's advertising efforts. They decided to take what they learned there, to create CampaignEQ (www.campaigneq.com). We caught up with William to learn more about how his experience at Beachmint led to the creation of CampaignEQ and its ad opt (More info...)
posted on Friday, June 28, 2013(Full story)
Pro Softnet Becomes IDriveLos Angeles-based cloud storage provider Pro Softnet Corporation has renamed itself to IDrive, the name of its flagship cloud storage service. According to Pro Softnet, the renaming comes the reflect its core business, which has increasingly become focused on its IDrive cloud storage and sync software; IDrive said it is now managing over 35 petabytes of data for its clients. Pro Softnet had been founded in 1995, initially focused on software consulting. The company is led by Raghu Kulkarni. IDri (More info...)
posted on Friday, June 28, 2013(Full story)
LA Metro Buys Electric Buses From BYDThe Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Thursday afternoon that it has approved a deal to buy its first electric buses, from BYD Motors. The Metro said it will buy up to 25 new, all-electric buses as part of a $30M, clean air bus technology pilot. Chinese electric auto firm BYD recently opened up a Los Angeles area headquarters to head up its efforts in the U.S. BYD said the new buses will be assembled in Lancaster. The Metro said that its Advanced Transit Vehicle (More info...)
posted on Friday, June 28, 2013(Full story)
Clearlake Capital Completes AcquisitionSanta Monica-based private equity firm Clearlake Capital has completed the acquisition of the North American Rental and Tubular Services divisions of Archer Limited, the firm said today. The new company will be renamed IronGate Energy Services. Financial terms of the buy were not announced. IronGate provides rental of drill pipe and drilling equipment to oil and natural gas exploration and production operators in North America. Clearlake manages around $1.4 billion in capital.
posted on Friday, June 28, 2013(Full story)