Friday, September 26, 2014Los Angeles DA Takes Legal Action Against Uber, Lyft, and SidecarIn the neverending saga of smartphone-driven ridesharing services in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles District Attorney has sent a letter to Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar, warning the firms that they are misleading consumers, due to their failure to complete background checks on their buyers. The letters threaten injunctive relief and civil penalties against the companies, if they do not make major changes to their services. The DA apparently said the business practices of the three are a "a continuing th (More info...)
posted on Friday, September 26, 2014(Full story)
Former AMO CEO Jim Mazzo Indicted Over Insider TradingJim Mazzo, the former CEO of Advanced Medical Optics, has been indicted on allegations of insider trading, according to federal prosecutors this week. According to the United States Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, Mazzo allegedly shared non-public information with former professional baseball player Douglas DeCinces and two associates, which was used to trade stock of AMO before the company's acquisition by Abbott Laboratories. Federal prosecutors charged Mazzo with 41 (More info...)
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Workpop: Using UX And Design To Power The Next Career SiteOnline job and career sites still seem to be in another decade, when it comes to both design--and user friendliness. Can a startup gain a foothold in the competitive market by designing the right UX and user experience to make a job and career site for everyone? Los Angeles-based Workpop (www.workpop.com) thinks so. The startup was co-founded by former Zynga GM Reed Shafnner and Viddy co-founder Chris Ovitz, who spoke to us about how their prior experience in the social gaming and consumer Inter (More info...)
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Brighter Turns To Employers With Brighter PROLos Angeles-based dental care marketplace Brighter--which is led by startup veteran Jake Winebaum--said Thursday that it has launched a new platform called Brighter PRO. The new platform is aimed specifically at employers, helping them to gain control of their dental costs and claims. Brighter said the new product helps lower health costs for self-insured employers, and includes things as plan design, actuarial analysis, claims adjudication, wellness outreach, member services, and other features (More info...)
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Transphorm Partners With ON SemiconductorGoleta-based power conversion technology developer Transphorm--which is venture backed by such investors as Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., Bright Capital, Foundation Capital, Google Ventures, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan. Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Lux Capital, and Nihon Inter Electronics Company--has inked a big co-development deal with ON Semiconductor, the two said Thursday. According to the two, they are in a partnership to co-develop and co-market gallium nitride (GaN) bas (More info...)
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Activision Blizzard Gets Patent WinSanta Monica-based Activision Blizzard reported a win in court late Thursday, saying that the United States District Court, Central District of California has invalidated all patent claims asserted by McRO, Inc. dba Planet Blue. McRO had sued Activision over the use of lip synchronization and facial expression technology in Call of Duty, Skylanders, and StarCraft II. Activision said it will "aggressively defend" its investments in its franchises from "entities whose sole purpose is to use patent (More info...)
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Pulse Electronics Pulls Listing From NYSESan Diego-based electronics components developer Pulse Electronics said this morning that it is voluntarily delisting itself from the NYSE, in order to reduce its cost of business. The company said it decided the savings from delisting from the NYSE outweigh the disadvantages of the move, due to the significant annual accounting and legal costs and administrative burdens associated with SEC reporting obligations and compliance. Pulse Electronics said it will voluntarily ally to delist its common (More info...)
posted on Friday, September 26, 2014(Full story)