Wednesday, July 30, 2014Cie Games Acquired By Glu Mobile For $100MLong Beach-based Cie Games, the maker of the social and mobile game Car Town and Racing Rivals, has been acquired by Glu Mobile, the two said Wednesday afternoon, in a deal worth $100M. Glu Mobile said it would pay $30M in cash and $70M in stock for Cie Games, whose games are popular on both iOS and Android. Cie Games released Racing Rivals back in August of last year. Glu Cames said the move will bring both a high quality studio talent and a profitable operating business to the company.
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3D Robotics Buys Sifteo3D Robotics, the developer of personal drone and unmanned aerial vehicles headed by former Wired editor Chris Anderson, has acquired Sifteo, a developer of embedded computing products. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Sifteo had initially been aiming its technology at the toy market, and was based on research out of MIT. Sifteo was venture backed by True Ventures and Foundry Group; 3D Robotics is venture backed by Mayfield. 3D Robotics has its engineering facilities in San Diego.
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Report: Snapchat In Funding Talks With AlibabaVenice-based Snapchat is reportedly in talks with Alibaba for more funding, in a deal which values Snapchat at $10 billion. The report, from Bloomberg, did not say how much Snapchat is looking to raise from Alibaba. Bloomberg cited "people with knowledge of the situation." Neither of the companies have commented on the rumors.
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SoCal BitCoin Angel Brock Pierce Leads Investment In ZipZapBrock Pierce, the Southern California angel investor who is one of the most active proponents and investors in Bitcoin and its startups, has made another investment in the space, leading an AngelList syndicate funding of ZipZap. ZipZap operates an online, global transaction network focused on letting consumers buy, sell, and use digital currency like Bitcoin. ZipZap said it raised $1.1M in the funding, bringing its total funding to $2.7M. The funding included Pierce's AngelList syndicate, 500 St (More info...)
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Karlin, A-Grade Get Exit At GyftTwo, Southern California venture capital investors---A-Grade Investments, the investment company run by Ashton Kutcher, and Karlin Ventures, which is managed by TX Zhou--have scored what looks like a nice exit over at Gyft, a mobile gift card service. Credit card processing giant First Data said this morning that it has acquired Gyft, to help bolster its mobile wallet and gift card efforts. Financial details of the buy were not disclosed. Gyft's shareholders also included Social+Capital Partners (More info...)
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Beyond Meat Gets Series DEl Segundo-based Beyond Meat, a developer of plant-based, meat alternatives that look like chicken, beef strips, and ground beef, has raised a Series D funding round, according to the company. The funding came from DNS Capital (family office of Gigi Pritzker Pucker and Michael Pucker), WIT Investment (Taiwan's Tsai family office), S2G Ventures, as well as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, The Obvious Corporation (Evan Williams and Biz Stone), Bill Gates, Morgan Creek Capital and Seth Goldman (fo (More info...)
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AmazonFresh Expands To San DiegoAmazonFresh, the online grocery and product delivery service run by e-commerce giant Amazon.com, expanded into San Diego yesterday, as the company starts to expand operations nationwide. The service--which has been available in Los Angeles since last year, and also operates in Seattle and San Francisco--offers up same day deliveries of everything from grocery products to consumer electronics and books.
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XIFIN Acquired By GTCRSan Diego-based XIFIN, a developer of cloud-based software for the healthcare diagnostics market, has been acquired by private equity investor GTCR. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. GTCR said that founder and CEO Lale White will continue to lead the company. XIFIN supplies its software in the molecular diagnostics, pain management/toxicology, anatomic pathology, radiology, hospital outreach, medical device and clinical laboratory markets. GTCR said the investment came from its $3.8 (More info...)
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Qualcomm Buys EmpoweredU For Mobile Learning TechnologySan Diego-based Qualcomm is expanding its efforts in the education sector today, saying that it has acquired EmpoweredU, a developer of mobile learning technology for the K-20 market. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. EmpoweredU was headed by Steve Poizner, who has been very active in California's Charter School movement. Qualcomm said the move would help it accelerate mobile innovation and help provide 24/7 access in education with its mobile tools. EmpoweredU's flagship customer h (More info...)
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O Labs Launched To Incubate, Accelerate Enterprise Software In LAO-Labs, new Los Angeles-based accelerator/incuabtor has launched today, create as joint venture of Originate, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP and ICM Partners. According to the three, they have created O Labs as an independent company specifically to create, grow, and operate portfolio companies focused on helping large and growing enterprises. The company said it will launch three to five companies per year, and leverage the legal expertise and business consulting from Manatt, Phelps & Philips, (More info...)
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Epic Sciences Raises $30M For Cancer DiagnosticsSan Diego-based Epic Sciences, a biotech startup focusing on diagnostics for treatment and management of cancer, has raised $30M in a Series C funding. The funding came from RusnanoMedInvest (RMI) and Arcus Ventures, plus Domain Associates, Roche Venture Fund, and Pfizer Venture Investments, as well as angels. According to the company, the financing will go towards commercialization efforts. The company said its technology focuses on tracking the proteomic and genomic changes that occur over ti (More info...)
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j2 Global Buys ContactologyLos Angeles-based j2 Global said this morning that it has acquired Contactology, a provider of email marketing services. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. j2 Global said the move would help expand its business cloud services division. Contactology was based in Durham, North Carolina. j2 Global said the financial impact is not expected to be material to the company. j2 Global--which owns a vast number of business cloud-based services in the area of Internet fax, virtual phone, email, (More info...)
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Pfenex Closes IPOSan Diego-based biotechnology company Pfenex said Tuesday that it has closed its initial public offering, where the company sold 8,333,333 shares of its stock at $6.00 per share. The company is now trading on the NYSE as PFNX. Pfenex closed down at $5.62 on Tuesday. The IPO was run by William Blair & Company, L.L.C. and JMP Securities LLC, along with Mizuho Securities USA Inc. Pfenex is a spinout of Dow Chemical, and is aiming its lead product at potential treatment of patients with retinal dise (More info...)
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ViaSat Buys Gray LabsCarlsbad-based satellite and wireless networking developer ViaSat said earlier this week that it has acquired the assets of Gray Labs, a developer of high rate modem products and custom spacecraft technologies for earth observation. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Gray Labs was based in Duluth Georgia. According to ViaSat, it will continue to support Gray Labs products and customers from Georgia. ViaSat said the move would help it expand its high-speed satellite data communicati (More info...)
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McKean Defense In San Diego ExpansionMcKean Defense Group, a Philadelphia-based provider of services to the Navy, said it is expanding its facilities in San Diego. According to McKean, it is expanding its San Diego operations and relocating to a larger facility in the city. Number of new job positions at the location were not announced. The company said the new facility is colocated with Cabrillo Technologies, which is a McKean subsidiary.
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