Tuesday, November 3, 2015


United Online Puts StayFriends On The Block
Woodland Hills-based United Online said Tuesday that it has hired an investment banker to sell its European social networking website, StayFriends. According to United Online, StayFriends is "not aligned" with its long term objective to return the company to growth, so its has engaged ACXIT Capital Management to find a potential buyer for the unit. United Online also says that, as part of those efforts, it has also hired JMP Securities LLC to help it with M&A efforts, as it looks in the area of (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, November 3, 2015(Full story)

Surf Air Teams With Uber On Palm Springs Relaunch
Santa Monica-based subscription airline Surf Air has partnered with Uber, as part of the launch of Surf Air into Palm Springs. Uber launched in Palm Springs back in April of 2014. Surf Air says on its website that its will have its first flight to Palm Springs on Thursday, November 5th, with passengers being picked up by Uber's luxury service, UberLux, which features only high end vehicles like the Tesla Model S, Mercedes, and BMWs. Surf Air appears to have originally launched service into Palm (More info...)
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FreedomPop Gets Funding From Intel Capital
Los Angeles-based free broadband wireless and phone provider FreedomPop has received an investment from Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of Intel, as part of a set of investments announced by Intel on Tuesday. Intel--which announced the investment in San Diego as part of its Intel Capital Global Summit--also showed off Two Bit Circus, the Los Angeles STEM learning and entertainment company led by Brent Bushnell, one of its existing portfolio companies. Size of the investment in FreedomPop (More info...)
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iboss Cybersecurity Finds $35M
San Diego-based iboss, a cybersecurity software developer focused on large, distributed organizations, said it has raised $35M in a Series A funding round. The funding came from Goldman Sachs' Private Capital Investing group. As part of the funding, Stephen Kerns of Goldman Sachs' joins the company's board. iboss is led by Paul Martini. The company said its clients include Xerox, Sears, Urban Outfitters and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
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Activision Blizzard To Acquire King Digital Entertainment For $5.9 Billion
Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard has agreed to acquire King Digital Entertainment, the developer of mobile games, including Candy Crush, in a deal worth $5.9 billion. Activision said its wholly owned subsidiary, ABS Partners C.V., will pay $18.00 in cash per share for London-based King Digital. Activision said the acquisition will be highly complementary to its business. The deal is still subject to approval by King's shareholders, and the Irish High Court. King Digital said it has more th (More info...)
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Energy Power Partners Acquires Talen Renewable Energy
Santa Monica-based clean power infrastructure investor Energy Power Partners said late Monday that it has acquired Talen Renewable Energy, from Talen Energy, a developer of 25 utility-grade clean power projects in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont and New Hampshire. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. Energy Power Partners said the acquired projects have a total of 65 megawatts of generating capacity, and include gas-to-energy, solar, wind and cogeneration projects.
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Esri Ties Into Microsoft's Internet-Of-Things Effort
Redlands-based Esri and Microsoft said Monday that the two are working together to incotae Esri's location services into Microsoft's Azure IoT Suite. Financial details of the collaboration were not announced. The two specifically said they'd offer rich location and geo-spatial services within Microsoft's Internet-of-Things sotware, the Azure IoT Suite. Other details of the link were not announced.
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Alelo Wins Additional DoD Contracts
Los Angeles-based Alelo, which develops computer-aided training and simulation for the U.S. Department of Defense, says it has received a new set of contracts to provide cultural awareness training for the Levant, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Financial details of the new contracts were not announced. Alelo said its new cultural awareness training courses help the U.S. military to develop skills to trust and cooperation from local armed forces and civilian populations. The new courses cover Egypt, I (More info...)
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LogicMonitor Migrates Citrix GoToAssist Customers
Santa Barbara-based infrastructure performance monitoring software developer LogicMonitor announced this morning that it has been named the "preferred" IT performance monitoring platform by Citrix, which is decommissioning its GoToAssist Monitoring product. LogicMonitor said the move will help it offer its platform to former Citrix GoToAssist customers.
posted on Tuesday, November 3, 2015(Full story)