Wednesday, March 4, 2015


Alorica Completes $275M West Corporation Unit Buy
Irvine-based business process outsourcing provider Alorica said Wednesday that it has completed its $275M acquisition of the agent services business unit of West Corporation. Alorica had originally announced the deal back in January. Alorica said the acquisition makes it the largest business process outsourcing provider in the U.S., with a net worth of $1.2 billion. Alorica said the buy expands its product offerings and market reach, and gives it approximately 48,000 employees worldwide.
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Semtech Buys Triune Systems For Wireless Charging
Camarillo-based Semtech said late Wednesday that it has acquired Triune Systems, a developer of wireless charging and power management systems. Semtech said it paid approximately $45M, plus earn out, for Triune. Triune was based in Texas, and has 35 employees, all of whom are joining Semtech. Triune's products are aimed at the wearable, industrial, and automotive market, where the company's platform can deliver up to 100W of power. Semtech said the deal is expected to be slightly accretive for i (More info...)
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Hulu Lands Wiggles TV Series
Are your kids a fan of The Wiggles, the popular Australian kids' singing group? Los Angeles-based Hulu is continuing to build up its lineup of kids' programs, saying Wednesday that it has signed a deal with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, as the exclusive, U.S. premiere home of series 2 of the Wiggles' television program, Ready Steady Wiggle. Financial details of the deal were not announced by Hulu. The deal makes all 104 episodes of Ready, Steady, Wiggle available to Hulu's subscribers (More info...)
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Snapchat's Evan Spiegel Youngest Billionaire On Forbes List
Forbes published its ranking of all of the world's billionaires this week, with an interesting addition: the co-founders of Venice, California-based Snapchat. Evan Spiegal, the 24-year old CEO of Snapchat, was the youngest billionaire on the list, wiith an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion, ranked at #1250. Snapchat co-founder Bobby Murphy was also on the list sharing the ranking, also with an estimated $1.5 billion net worth. The two were not the only Southern California technology industry e (More info...)
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CurbStand Expands To Denver
Los Angeles-based valet parking startup CurbStand, which is offering up mobile payments and other apps aimed at valet parking operators, said today that it has expanded its network to Denver. CurbStand is led by Serge Gojkovich. According to CurbStand, it is launching with sixteen locations in Denver, with plans to expand to 50 locations in the city in the next four months. Curbstand helps direct smartphone users to nearby valet parking operations, allowing users to pay with a credit card and re (More info...)
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YouMail Raises $5.5M
Irvine-based YouMail, the cloud voicemail service led by Alex Quilici, has raised $5.5M in a Series B funding round, according to the company. YouMail said the new round brings its total raised in debt and equity to just over $20M. YouMail said the funding came as a private placement, offered up thanks ot the JOBS Act, where the company was able to market its offering through the Internet, open webcasts, and other similar means. YouMail said the new funds came from a mix of institutional investo (More info...)
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TigerText Extends Secure Messaging To Other Apps With SDK
Need secure messaging in your own app? Santa Monica-based TigerText is looking to enable secure messaging in any app--not just the company's own--with a new SDK and platform, the company said Tuesday. TigerText said it has launched the TigerConnect platform-as-a-service (PaaS), which will allow software developers to integrate secure messagign into any application. Pricing on the new offering was not announced. TigerText is looking to broaden access to its secure messaging from its core healthca (More info...)
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Rubicon Project Launches Native Ad Server
Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project announced this morning that it has launched its own, native ad server, aimed at premium publishers and app developers. According to Rubicon Project, it has tied with InMobi to offer up the ad server, which can help those developers and pubishers deliver both direct-sold and in-house native advertising, with indirect advertising. Financial details of the deal between Rubicon and InMobi were not announced. The new mobile ad server works with the new OpenRTB 2.3 sp (More info...)
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Numecent Taps Broadcom Exec As New CEO
Irvine-based Numecent, which develops a cloud-based service to help deliver applications over the web, said it has named former Broadcom executive Tom Lagatta as its new CEO. Lagatta was previously Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Broadcom. Current CEO and co-founder Osman Kent moves to Executive Chairman. The company said Lagatta will focus on scaling operations and geographical expansion of the company, including worldwide sales and marketing and business processes. Osman will fo (More info...)
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Rootstock Partners, iFinance Merge To Form Full Stack Finance
Two, Los Angeles area firms which serve the startup market, Rootstock Partners, founded by former Beachmint CFO Jordan Posell, and iFinance, founded by Ivan Ivanokovich, who has been the CFO of such companies as The Mobile Majority and Total Beauty, have merged. According to the two, they have created a new company called Full Stack Finance, which will offer up a range of financial and related service to early stage and high growth companies. The firm said will continue to have offices in both S (More info...)
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Voxox Rolls White Label Offering
San Diego-based cloud-based communications provider Voxox is rolling out a new product today, a new white-label cloud communications product aimed at operators and original equipment manufacturers. Voxox said its new Cloud Phone product allows those operators and OEMs to offer up a virtual PBX service to small business users. Pricing on the new product was not disclosed.
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TEN Names New Exec
Los Angeles-based TEN: The Enthusiast Network, the online ad network focused on the automotive and action sports areas, said today that it has named Scott Bailey as President, Automotive. Bailey previously was COO of Synacor, and also had served at Comcast Interactive Media, and also served at Turner Sports Interaction, where he managed NASCAR.com, PGA.com, and PGATour.com. The company said that Bailey is also an Emmy Award winner for his work in advanced media technology. The Enthusiast Networ (More info...)
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Ixia Gets $100M Credit Facility
Calabasas-based Ixia, the developer of network testing equipment and software, reported late Tuesday that it has secured a new, $100M credit facility. The company said the new credit line is being administered by Silicon Valley Bank, along with Regions Bank, with funds coming from Cadence Bank, N.A., Barclays Bank and Stifel Financial Corp. The company said the three year credit facility including revolving credit of up to $60M and term loan of $40M, with an option to request up to $80M in addit (More info...)
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