Thursday, January 23, 2014


LA Billionaire Soon-Shiong: World Needs Medical Manhattan Project
Los Angeles-based biotech billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong said Thursday that the world needs a "medical Manhattan Project" to tackle the issues of health, surrounding issues around a divide in health treatment between the rich and the poor, the risks of inaapropriate care, and more. Soon-Shiong said he's starting a Manhattan Project of medicine via his contributions to a new publishing effort from Arianna Huffington, the World Post -- a new publishing effort aimed at global news, and featuri (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 23, 2014(Full story)

StackSocial Launches iPhone App
Los Angeles-based StackSocial, the online deals site which lets users buy gadgets, software games, and more for the Mac and other products, has debuted a new, native iOS app, the company said today. The company--which says it now has over 600,000 "early adopters and geeks" in its community, said the new app lets users discover and purchase new products. StackSocial is led by Josh Payne.
posted on Thursday, January 23, 2014(Full story)

Gravity Acquired By AOL For $83M
Santa Monica-based Gravity, the real-time, personalization software developer led by Amit Kapur, has been acquired by AOL, in a deal worth $83M, plus $7.7M in earnout. According to AOL, it will use Gravity's technology to create more engaging, relevant, and valuable experiences for its consumers, advertisers and publisher partners. Gravity was venture backed by August Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and Upfront Ventures, and had raised around $20.6M in total funding. Gravity's founders are Amit Kapu (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 23, 2014(Full story)

MuckerLab Shows Off New Class Of Startups
Santa Monica-based startup accelerator MuckerLab unveiled its latest class of startups yesterday at its Demo Day, showing off the third class of companies out of its program. MuckerLab's newest class includes BloomNation, a marketplace for florists; Emailage, a fraud detection service for retailers, financial institutions, and others; LeaseLock, a financial startup aimed at rental guarantees; Service Titan, which provides software for managing service technicians; ShopParity, customer acquisitio (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 23, 2014(Full story)

The Gores Group Buys Zmags
Los Angeles-based private equity investor The Gores Group announced this morning that it has acquired Zmags Corp., a Boston-based software developer which develops self-service, publishing tools aimed at magazine publishers, catalog publishers, and others. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. The Gores Group said it acquired Zmags through its Small Capitalization Partners investment fund. As part of the buy, Gores Group has named Brian T. Rigney as CEO of Zmags. Zmags helps those catal (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 23, 2014(Full story)

Boingo Wireless Expands In South America
Los Angeles-based wireless hotspot operator Boingo Wireless said yesterday that it has expanded its network of Wi-Fi hotspots, in a deal in Sao Paulo. According to Boingo, it has been selected to provide Wi-Fi services as Sao Paulo International Airport, and will design, install, and manage a Wi-Fi network at the airport, which serves 35 million passengers annually. Financial impact of the deal was not announced. The move also opens up the Sao Paulo airport to customers of its network partners, (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 23, 2014(Full story)

Local Corporation Expands Krillion Data
Irvine-based online local advertising provider
posted on Thursday, January 23, 2014(Full story)