Tuesday, May 26, 2015


Mitek Buys IDchecker
San Diego-based Mitek, a developer of mobile capture and identification systems, said Tuesday that it has acquired Netherlands-based IDchecker, a developer of cloud-based identify and facial recognition software. Mitek said it would pay $10.6M for IDchecker, split between $5.85M in cash and $2.75M in stock, plus up to $2M more in stock in earnout. The company said the buy will expand its product portfolio. IDchecker is based in Haarlem, The Netherlands, and serves the international money transfe (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, May 26, 2015(Full story)

Classmates Pays $11M To Settle Deceptive Marketing, Billing Allegations
Classmates, the online website which is part of Woodland Hills-based United Online, has agreed to pay $11.0M to settle allegations of deceptive marketing and billing by the company--an investigation which has been running since 2010. The settlement was announced Tuesday by a group of 21 attorney generals. United Online and spinout FTD will pay $8M to the states involved in the settlement, with $5.18M paid by Classmates and $2.82M to be paid by FTD; the companies also said Classmates will create (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, May 26, 2015(Full story)

Oculus Buys Surreal Vision
Irvine-based virtual reality headset developer Oculus VR announced today that it has acquired Surreal Vision, a UK-based develops of computer vision technology. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. Surreal Vision develops real-time, 3D scene reconstruction software, which is used to create real-time, representations of the real, physical world in software. Oculus said it would hire the three founders of Surreal Vision as part of its research team in Redmond, Washington.
posted on Tuesday, May 26, 2015(Full story)

HelloTech Adds $2M, Launches In-Home Tech Support In LA
Los Angeles-based on-demand, in-home tech support and sales service HelloTech, which was founded by AmplifyLA/RealNetworks veteran Richard Wolpert, has raised another $2M, and officially launched its service in Los Aneles. According to HelloTech, the new funding came from Collaborative Fund, Baroda Ventures, Greycroft Partners, and Silicon Valley Bank along with Accel Partners, Upfront Ventures, CrossCut Ventures, Amplify.LA, and others. According to HelloTech, it is tapping a vetted and trained (More info...)
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Enervee Raises $3.7M For Energy Smart Consumer Purchases
Santa Monica-based Enervee, which provides an online platform collecting energy consumption information on appliances and other products, is announcing this morning that it has raised $3.7M in a Series A funding round. The funding was led by Obvious Ventures, the venture capital fund created by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams. Enervee, which is led by Matthias Kurwig, develops a service which lets users compare the energy consumption of products, via its "Enervee Score", which helps users evalu (More info...)
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Oculus VR Sued By Hawaiian Company
Irvine-based Oculus VR and co-founder Palmer Luckey have been sued again, this time by a company in Hawaii called Total Recall Technologies. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in California, claims breach of contract and theft of intellectual property by Luckey, who Total Recall claims they hired to help them develop immersive, head mounted displays. Total Recall says that it hired Luckey to build the company a head mounted display in 2011--information that he later used to start Ocul (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, May 26, 2015(Full story)

Amgen Parts Ways With AstraZeneca On Compound
Thousand Oaks-based Amgen said late Friday that it is terminating a program it has with AstraZeneca, to co-develop and commercialize a treatment for psoriasis. According to Amgen, the move is based on events of suicidal ideation and behavior in its clinical trails, which it says would necessitate restrictive labeling and limit the patient population for the drug.
posted on Tuesday, May 26, 2015(Full story)

Yardi Wins Deal In UAE
Santa Barbara-based real estate investment and property management software developer Yardi said over the weekend that it has been selected by a client in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai-based H&H Investment and Development said it will adopt Yardi's software for its property management efforts. Financial impact of the deal was not announced.
posted on Tuesday, May 26, 2015(Full story)