Thursday, May 8, 2014Snapchat Settles With FTCVenice, California-based Snapchat has settled charges with the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC said Thursday afternoon, and has agreed to misrepresent the extent to which it maintains the privacy, security, and confidentiality of users' information--and will also be required to implement a "comprehensive privacy program" monitored for the next 20 years. The FTC charges came out both the agency's dis-satisfaction with the way Snapchat represented how difficult it was to pull screenshots and vid (More info...)
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Talenthouse Raises $10MHollywood-based Talenthouse, which operates an online community of artists and creatives, said this morning that it has raised $10M in a funding round. The funding was led by Germany company Starwatch, which is part of ProSiebenSat.1. Other investors in the round included angels First Artist Bank, Gerard Butler and Jean Pigozzi. Talenthouse operates an online community which allows artists to submit their work to possible clients, essentially helping with crowdsourcing artistic works.
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Lettuce Acquired By IntuitLos Angeles-based Lettuce, the developer of inventory and order management apps headed by Raad Mobrem, has been acquired by Intuit, the company announced this morning. According to Lettuce, the company will help Intuit provide solutions to the small business market. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. Lettuce said it will continue to offer up its products to customers, and will provide more about the company's "joint vision" and new product development efforts with Intuit afte (More info...)
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TVC Capital Backs LiquidPlannerSan Diego-based growth equity investor TVC Capital is the lead investor in LiquidPlanner, a developer of online project management software this morning. LiquidPlanenr said it raised $8M in a Series B funding from TVC Capital, the first venture funding in the company since it was founded in 2007. Steven Hamerslag of TVC Capital will join LiquidPlanner's board of directors with the funding. LiquidPlanner is based in Seattle. LiquidPlanner's project management software revolves around a "schedulin (More info...)
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Maker Studios Signs Big Advertising Deal With OmnicomLos Angeles-based Maker Studios, the YouTube network which is in the midst of being acquired by Disney, has just signed a large, eight-figure online advertising deal with Omnicom Media Group, according to AdAge. The deal is apparently the first, upfront advertising deal signed by Maker Studios. OmniCom apparently has a similar, $100M deal with Instagram. Disney announced it would buy Maker in a deal worth up to $950M back in March.
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Science Inc. To Buy Social Bookmarking Site DeliciousSanta Monica-based Science, Inc., the startup studio and incubator run by former MySpace CEO Michael Jones, has acquired longtime social bookmarking site Delicious, the company disclosed this morning. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Delicious was previously owned by Steven Chen and Chad Hurley, the founders of YouTube, who had acquired Delicious from Yahoo back in 2011 via their company, Avos Systems. Delicious provides a tool which lets users share and rate websites to their frie (More info...)
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Local Corporation Names New CEOIrvine-based Local Corporation said late Wednesday that it has named Fred Thiel as its new Chief Executive Officer. Thiel had been Chairman of Local's board of directors. In addition, Local said that its current President and Chief Operations Officer, Michael Sawtell, will be leaving the company. The reason for Sawtell's departure was not given by the company, which has been in the midst of a major executive shakeup since January, when the company's longtime CEO, Heath Clarke, resigned. Fred Thi (More info...)
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OneRoof Energy Expands In New YorkSan Diego-based solar financing company OneRoof Energy said this morning that it is expanding in the Northeast, and has entered into the New York market. According to the company, it has expanded its residential solar leasing operations to cover New York State. The expansion follows an earlier expansion to Massachusetts. OneRoof Energy said the expansion in New York comes due to growing demand in the Northeast; the firm said that the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) found that demand f (More info...)
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