Wednesday, January 7, 2015


Alorica Pays $275M For BPO Business, Tops 48,000 Employees
Irvine-based customer service outsourcing provider Alorica said Wednesday afternoon that it has paid $275M for the agent services businesses of West Corporation. Alorica said that those businesses represented approximately $580M in revenues for West in 2014. Alorica said it has also hired 1,500 nearshore employees in Jamaica and Mexico, 5,400 offshore employees in the Philippines, and 18,400 domestic employees to the company--bringing the company's total employee base to over 48,000. Alorica sai (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, January 7, 2015(Full story)

Discotech Hooks You Up With Bottle Service, Hot LA Nightclubs
Do you wish you could get you and your friends into the hottest nightclubs--all from your smartphone or tablet? Los Angeles-based Discotech is looking to help you reserve bottle service, find events, and sign up for the VIP guest lists at local nightclubs, and says that it now has over 20,000 users using its app. The startup said its four founders, who all graduated from UC Berkeley, specifically moved to Los Angeles in September of 2013 to launch the app, which is now live in Los Angeles, Las V (More info...)
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Bluebeam Nets Local Angel Groups 20X Return
Local angel groups have hit the jackpot again with an investment, this time with the October acquisition of Pasadena-based Bluebeam in a $100M deal by German software company Nemetschek AG. The Tech Coast Angels and the Pasadena Angels revealed today that their return on Bluebeam was 20x for angels who participated in funding Bluebeam. The Pasadena Angels led the 2002 investment in Bluebeam, which makes PDF software for the architecture, engineering and construction, allowing users to click betw (More info...)
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General Assembly, .XYZ Tie On Registry Website Design Contest
Are you a web design wiz who would like to show off their web design chops to the world? LA's General Assembly and fellow Los Angeles company .XYZ are offering up a free domain name, website hosting, and General Assembly course credits to entrants to a new design contest, which challenges web designers to create a website based on the .xyz domain extension. According to .XYZ, General Assembly, and hosting company GoDaddy, they are offering up the chance to win a Macbook Air, Xbox One, Jawbone Ja (More info...)
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Sony Tallies $31M In Digital Sales From The Interview
Sony Pictures has made more than $31M in digital sales of its Seth Rogen comedy, "The Interview", after the film's digital debut on Christmas Eve. Sony, which released the film via Google Play, YouTube, Microsoft Xbox Movies, iTunes, and other digital outlets after terrorist threats stymied its initial plans to debut in traditional theaters, has since expanded its release to 558 real-life theaters. Sony disclosed the digital sales numbers Tuesday afternoon. Sony's release of The Interview has be (More info...)
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X1 Claims Strong Growth
Pasadena-based enterprise search software developer X1--one of the longest running offshoots of Idealab--reported today that it had a "record" sales year for the company in 2014. The company said it saw a sales increase of nearly 70 percent over 2013. Actual company financials were not announced. The company said its biggest purchase was a $1M contract from a large, US government agency for a 20,000 seat install of its software. X1 develops software which makes it easy to search across a company (More info...)
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Close5: eBay's San Diego Move Into The Mobile, Local Market
In the last few years, Southern California has been a key market in launching mobile applications and services, due to a huge, mobile-savvy consumer population. So, it's no surprise that the area--specifically, San Diego--was chosen for the pilot launch of a new service from eBay, called Close5 (www.close5.com), which offers up local, peer-to-peer sales. We spoke with Bart Molenda, Head of Market at eBay Classifieds Group and eBay's Close5 efforts, on why and how eBay is using San Diego as the (More info...)
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Beats Sued By Monster Over Headphone Designs
Monster, the consumer electronics firm which co-designed the original Beats By Dr. Dre headphones, has sued Beats Electronics, saying that Beats stole the technology behind its immensely popular headphones from the company. Monster claims it was defrauded of its share of the $3 billion that was paid for Beats by Apple last year. Monster is now seeking punitive damages in lawsuit, which was filed in the San Mateo County Superior Court.
posted on Wednesday, January 7, 2015(Full story)

SweetLabs Passes 1 Billion App Installs
San Diego-based SweetLabs, the app distribution platform for Windows and Android, led by former DivX founder Darrius Thompson, said Tuesday that it has surpassed 1 billion app installs on its platform. SweetLabs develops a platform which allows users to install apps on PCs, much as they are used to installing apps on iOS and Android, and currently has partnerships with PC OEMs like Lenovo, Toshiba, and Acer. SweetLabs says it has over 300 software developers and advertisers using its platform to (More info...)
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LegalZoom Expands In The UK
Glendale-based LegalZoom said today that it is expanding in the United Kingdom, after being approved as an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) in that country--the first step in allowing the company to provide legal services in the UK. LegalZoom said it is the first US company to be licensed as a provider of reserved legal activities in the UK. LegalZoom's efforts in the UK will be led by Craig Holt, who previously founded a network of local law firms in the UK called Quality Solicitors. The UK (More info...)
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Kingston Digital Rolls Out Ultra High Speed microSD For 4K Video
Fountain Valley-based flash memory maker Kingston Digital is targeting the new 4K and HD video capture market, with a brand new, ultra high speed microSD flash memory card. According to Kingston Digital, its newest product provides UHS-I Speed Class 3, 90MB/sec read, and 80M/sec write, which is specifically aimed at enabling the capture of 4K2K video. Kingston said it is specifically focusing on users such as sports/adventure enthusiasts with smartphones and action cameras. The new memory cards (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, January 7, 2015(Full story)