Thursday, April 28, 2016Sienna Biopharmaceuticals Gets $34M For Aesthetic Medicine ProductsWestlake Village-based Sienna Biopharmaceuticals, a new aesthetics and medical dermatology startup, said Thursday that it has raised $34M in a Series A financing round. The funding was led by ARCH Venture Partners, and also included Altitude Life Science Ventures, Partner Fund Management, and Venvest Capital, along with angels. The company's executive team are all formerly from Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, which was recently acquired by Allergan. The new company is being led by CEO Frederick C. B (More info...)
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SpaceX Aims At 2018 Mission To MarsHawathorne-based SpaceX said Wednesday that it hopes to launch its first mission to Mars, in only two years--with a target of a launch to the red planet by 2018. SpaceX said on Twitter that it is developing the "Red Dragon" to land "anywhere in the solar system", and the Red Dragon Mars Mission will be its first test flight of the system. SpaceX recently has been testing the Dragon 2's SuperDraco propulsive landing system--which uses a coordinated set of rockets to land the space capsule--in Tex (More info...)
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Prisyna Gets $6M For Oral Health ProductsClaremont-based Prisyna, a unit of Synedgen, said this morning that it has raised $6M in a growth equity investment, to help it advance its products. The funding came from Andrew Miller. Prisyna is developing a treatment called Moistagen, which it says relieves the symptoms of dry mouth, as well as treats oral mucositis due to chemotherapy or radiation treatments. The company currently offers two oral rinse products under the Synedent name, Synedent Oral Care and Synedent Plus Oral Care with flo (More info...)
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HelloTech Expands Tech Support Service To San DiegoLos Angeles-based HelloTech, the on-demand, in-home technical services company founded by serial entrepreneur and tech investor Richard Wolpert, said it is expanding into San Diego, and has begun offering up its services in the city. The company now offers up its services in Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego. HelloTech taps a work force of college students, who provide in-person technical support to users, with everything from computers to home automation technology. HelloTech says its w (More info...)
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Newport Shareholders Give Nod To $897M MKS Instruments AcquisitionIrvine-based laser and photonics company Newport Corporation said today that its shareholders have approved the acquisition of the company by MKS Instruments. The deal--which had been announced in February--is worth $23.00 per share in cash, or a total of $897M. MKS Instruments makes equipment used for semiconductor processing and manufacturing. Newport manufactures lasers, optics, optic-mechanics, and motion controllers.
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Broadcom Sells Wireless IoT Business To Cypress For $550MIrvine-based Broadcom has sold its Wireless Internet of Things (IoT) business and related assets to Cypress Semiconductor, the two said this morning, in a $550M deal. According to the two, Cypress will acquire Broadcom's Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee IoT product lines and intellectual property, Broadcom's WICED brand, along with 430 employees, as part of the acquisition. The two said that Broadcom's IoT business generated $189M in revenues over the last 12 months.
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Maxwell Technologies Sells Microelectronics Line to Data DeviceSan Diego-based Maxwell Technologies has sold off its microelectronics product line, to Data Device Corporation, in a deal worth $21M in cash, the company said today. The company said that the sale included all assets and certain liabilities related to that product line, as well as 37 employees. Data Device Corporation is a subsidiary of ILC Industries. Maxwell was advised by Canaccord Genuity in the sale. The completed acquisition had been announced earlier by the company.
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Quality Systems Cuts 150 In Restructuring MoveIrvine-based Quality Systems, a developer of healthcare information systems, says it is cutting 150 employees, or approximately six percent of its staff, as part of a broad restructuring of thee company. According to the copany, it has dropped all plans to develop its NextGen Now platform, saying it will immediately discontinue all efforts to use or repurpose its next generation platform, and instead will shift to the platform it acquired from MediTouch. The company also said it will be eliminat (More info...)
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Key Information Systems Ties With Hewlett Packard On OpenStackAgoura Hills-based Key Information Systems said Wednesday that it has tied into Hewlett Packard, and become part of the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Partner Ready Program for Service Providers. The company said the move will allow it to provide hybrid cloud solutions for companies in Southern California. Key Information Systems will support the HPE Helion OpenStack software, HP's version of the OpenStack cloud computing project, which is tied into its ProLiant Server and 3PAR storage systems (More info...)
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