Wednesday, November 18, 2015


Match Group Prices IPO At $12.00, Disavows Sean Rad Interview
Match Group, the parent company of Los Angeles-based dating app Tinder, has priced its IPO at $12.00 per share, selling 33,333,333 shares in its IPO, and will debut tomorrow on the NASDAQ Global Select Market as MTCH, despite a snafu when a UK tabloid published an interview with Tinder CEO Sean Rad. Match had estimated its IPO range at between $12.00 and $14.00 per share. In a SEC filing, Match.com said that the interview with Sean Rad was not approved, condoned by, and the content of the articl (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, November 18, 2015(Full story)

Tinder CEO Sean Rad Hooks Up With UK Tabloid
In an questionably timed interview, a UK tabloid the EveningStandard has published a lengthy interview with Tinder CEO Sean Rad, even as Tinder's parent company, Match Group, has recently filed for an IPO. Typically, companies in the IPO process enter a "quiet period" where executives avoid talking about their companies in public or in intereviews. The interview has Rad talking about his view on "hookup culture", dating, and the company's future plans.
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Tuition.io Gets $5M For Student Loan Management
Santa Monica-based Tuition.io, a startup that developers technology-enabled services to help millennials pay off their student loans, refinance their student loans, and pay off debt, said this morning that it has raised $5M in a funding round. The funding came from MassMutual Ventures, Wildcat Venture Partners, and Mohr Davidow Ventures. Tuition.io is led by Brendon McQueen. The company says it has now raised $8.2M for its service.
posted on Wednesday, November 18, 2015(Full story)

Card.com Raises $9M To Ramp Mobile Banking Efforts
Santa Monica-based CARD.com, the online financial services provider led by Ben Katz, is announcing this morning that it has raised $9M in a growth capital facility, from Columbia Pacific Advisors' Growth Capital Strategy and Fenway Summer Ventures. The company offers up a prepaid MasterCard which can be customized with a user's favorite brands and characters, from the Walking Dead and Family Guy, to Sesame Street, Star Trek and the Care Bears. CARD.com has used those branded cards to carved (More info...)
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Oversee.Net's Lawrence Ng Sets Up Startup Incubation Fund
Lawrence Ng, the co-founder of Oversee.net, said this morning that it has launched a new, startup fund called the OnRamp Fund, a $10M, international incubation fund that invests in early stage startups. OnRamp Fund said it will offer up access to mentoring and advisors, funding, and cross-border support for its startups, particularly with those looking to reach across the United States, Taiwan, and China. The company said one of its first investments is bridal retailer SimplyBridal. Ng started O (More info...)
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Microsemi Boosts PMC-Sierra Bid To $2.3 Billion
Aliso Viejo-based semiconductor developer Microsemi said today that it has boosted its bid for PMC-Sierra, to $12.05 per share in cash and stock, valuing the the hostile bid for the company to $2.3 billion. Microsemi said it is now proposing to pay $9.22 in cash and 0.0771x of share of its common stock for every share of PMC common stock. The new bid comes after PMC-Sierra's board rejected Microsemi's prior bid, saying that--although the total enterprise value was higher than its original buyout (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, November 18, 2015(Full story)

WellCaster Sets Up Shop In LA, Hires Jay Goss As President
WellCaster, a developer of enterprise wellness apps, has set up its operations in Los Angeles, and hired LA technology veteran Jay Goss as President of the company. The company--which originally started in New York--develops mobile apps specifically aimed at enterprise customers ofering up wellness apps to their employees. The app runs on iOS and Android. The company's apps include educational content on such topics as diet and stress. Goss hass previously been an executive at Mogreet, Numedeon (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, November 18, 2015(Full story)

Clearlake Capital Buys Syncsort
Santa Monica-based private equity investor Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. said this morning that it has acquired Syncsort Incorporated, a developer of enterprise software based in New Jersey. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. Syncsort develops Hadoop and other big data integration software for the mainframe market. Syncsort is based in Woodcliff, New Jersey, and offers up Apache Hadoop, Splunk, Apache Spark, and other analytics software for the IBM z Systems mainframe and oth (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, November 18, 2015(Full story)