Tuesday, December 15, 2015Pinkberry, Backed By Venture Investors, Acquired By Kahala BrandsLos Angeles-based frozen yogurt chain Pinkberry--which is backed by venture investors--has been sold to Arizona quick serve restaurant operator Kahala Brands. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Pinkberry is one of the few, unusual retailers backed by venture capitalists, having previously raised funding from Maveron (the venture firm co-founded by Starbucks founder Howard Schultz), along with Ram Shiram of Sherpalo Ventures and Highland Consumer Partners. The yogurt chain is led b (More info...)
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GameSalad Rolls Out New Tools To Help Aspiring Game DevelopersWish you could design and develop your own mobile games, but don't know how to write software? No problem! Los Angeles- and Austin-based GameSalad, a developer of tools which make it easy to create real, world class mobile apps and desktop games, said it is looking to help aspiring hobbyists to become full fledged game developers, with a new effort called GameSalad Academy. GameSalad Academy features a long lineup of tutorials and learning tools specifically aimed at helping to take users from c (More info...)
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Cogent Road Acquired By Chronos SolutionsSan Diego-based Cogent Road, a developer of software used by mortgage lenders for a wide range of credit report, valuation, and underwriting tools, has been acquired by Texas-based Chronos Solutions. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Cogent Road was founded by William DiPaolo and Alan Baia in 2002. Chronos was advised by Holland & Knight LLP; Cogent Road was advised by Stinson Leonard Street LLP and Berkery Noyes. Chronos Solutions said it will use the acquisition to bolster its sui (More info...)
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Qualcomm: No Changes After Strategic ReviewSan Diego-based Qualcomm says that its board of directors has decided to stay the course, and will make no change to the company's corporate and financial structure, after a strategic review by a special committee of its board. Qualcomm said that review, where it was assisted by independent advisors, concluded that the current structure "best positions Qualcomm to maintain its technology leadership and product strength, so as to drive the greatest long-term stockholder value." Qualcomm had launc (More info...)
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XPrize Launches New $7M Ocean Prize, The Shell Ocean Discovery XPrizeThe XPrize organization, the group which runs prizes to spur big advances in technology to help advance solutions to big, world issues, has launched a brand new prize, focused on the ocean. The Culver City-based group said the new Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE will award $7M to advance ocean technologies for rapid and unmanned ocean exploration. The new, three year long effort will challenge teams to create a map of the ocean seafloor; produce high resolution images of objects underwater; and pro (More info...)
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Legend VR, Littlstar Team On Virtual Reality ToolsLos Angeles-based 3D special effects studio and virtual reality content developer
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Mojix Sets CFOLoss Angeles-based wireless RFID technology developer Mojix said this morning that it has named Carey Tokirio as its Chief Financial Officer. Tokirio was most recently CFO, SVP, and Corporate Secretary at Apriso Corporation. Tokorio previously served at Critical Path and QAD. Mojix said Tokirio served a significant role in the acquisition of Apriso by Dassault Systems.
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Velocify Names New Marketing VPLos Angeles-based sales lead management software developer Velocify has named Matt Reid as the company's new Vice President of Marketing, the firm said Monday. Reid was most recently Chief Marketing Officer at Procore Technologies, and also previously served at OpenX, Eucalyptus Systems, and Citrix, working on that firm's GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar products. Velocify said Reid will head up corporate marketing, product marketing, market research, demand generation, and sales development.
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Cornerstone OnDemand Wins HitachiSanta Monica-based talent and human resource management provider Cornerstone OnDemand has scored a win with Hitachi, Ltd., and will supply learning an development programs to Hitachi's 350,000 employees. Cornerstone OnDemand did not detail the financial impact of the big win, but said its cloud-based software will be used across nearly 1,000 group companies owned by Hitachi. Hitachi has a wide range of companies ranging from power and infrastructure systems, information and telecommunication sys (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, December 15, 2015(Full story)