Monday, June 27, 2016


ReachLocal Acquired By Gannett For $156M
Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal is being acquired by publishing giant Gannett Co., in a deal worth approximately $156M, the two companies said on Monday afternoon. ReachLocal said Gannett would pay $4.60 per share in cash for the company. VantagePoint Venture Partners and Rho Ventures--who own approximately 40% of ReachLocal--said it had agreed to tender their shares to Gannett as part of the acquisition deal. Gannett said it would use the acquisition of ReachLocal to accelerate its digital grow (More info...)
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Upfront Ventures To Canada With Latest Video Funding In Vemba
Los Angeles-based venture investor Upfront Ventures has made a new investment in the video distribution and content discovery area, with an investment in Canadian firm Vemba. Vemba, which is based in Toronto but has offices in Los Angeles, said it raised $5M in a Series A funding, which was led by Upfront Ventures and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI), along with the Enterprise Fund at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Vemba, led by Garrick Tiplady, develops a video marketpl (More info...)
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Thrive Market Picks Up $111M In New Funding
Marina Del Rey-based, online healthy foods grocer Thrive Market has raised $111M in a new, venture funding round, the company disclosed this morning. The new funding was led by Invus Group, and also included Greycroft Partners, E-Ventures and Crosscut Ventures. Thrive Market, which is led by Nick Green and Gunnar Lovelace, recently passed up $100M in revenues, and has been seeing a huge expansion in its customer base. The company offers up healthy foods and other products through its online, mem (More info...)
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OneRoof Energy Loses COO
San Diego-based residential solar installer OneRoof Energy, which is backed by private equity investor Black Coral Capital, has cut ties with its Chief Operating Officer, Brian Alexson, the company said in a very terse statement late on Friday. Reason for the departure of Alexson was not given. OneRoof has been undergoing some major turmoil lately, cutting staff and realigning its business, after one of its financial backers pulled funding from the company, which is publicly listed on the TSX.
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BoutiqueHomes Targets Unique, Architectural Vacation Rentals
Topanga-based BoutiqueHomes, a vacation rental site aimed at letting travelers rent unique, "architectural gems" from around the world, says it has launched a new site and hired Michael Bolger as head of its Business Development efforts. Bolger was the founder of vacation rental site hovelstay.com. BoutiqueHomes features architecturally unique homes across the world, which you'd expect to see in Dwell or other architectural magazines rather than as vacation rentals. BoutiqueHomes said hovelstay. (More info...)
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Green Dot Names New Chairman
Pasadena-based debit card and online banking company Green Dot announced this morning that it has named William I. Jacobs as the company's new Chairman of its board of directors. The move is part of an agreement with an activist investor group to split up the Chairman and CEO roles at the company. Jacobs s the Chairman of the board of Global Payments, a payment processing firm, and has also served at The New Power Company, MasterCard International, and Financial Security Assurance, in addition t (More info...)
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Vizio Launches Product Line In Canada
Irvine-based HDTV maker Vizio said today that it has launched a new product line in Canada, the VIZIO SmartCast collection. According to VIZIO, the product line including several new lines of HD displays, including its P-Series, M-Series, and E-Series HD home theater displays, ranging from $1,299 for the 50" E-Series to $3,199 for the 70" M-Series. All of the new displays include Google Cast technology and the P- and M-series include their own, included tablet PC which serves as a remote control (More info...)
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Music Reports Launches Automated Licensing Filings For Music
Los Angeles-based Music Reports, which provides music rights administration software, said it has begun offering up automated, filing of mechanical licenses with the United States Copyright Office. According to Music Reports, the service is aimed at on-demand music providers, who need clearance on music they'd like to stream. Music Reports said the service specifically comes from section 115 of the U.S. Copyright Act, which requires that composition owners must be informed of a licensee's intent (More info...)
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Qualcomm: More than 60 Manufacturers Now Using Its 4G LTE For IoT
San Diego-based Qualcomm said late Sunday that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, has now secure more than 60 manufacturers and 100 design wins, for its solutions for 4G LTE modems in the Internet-of-Things space. Qualcomm said that 60 OEMs are using its Qualcomm Snapdragon X5 LTE model and MDMD9207-1 modems, specificdally for Internet-of-Things (IoT) products. Qualcomm said those designs include use in energy & metering, building security, infrastructure, industrial control and automation, (More info...)
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Dun & Bradstreet Opens Business Credit Data For July After Brexit
Los Angeles-based Dun & Bradstreet said today that it is making its business credit reports available at no cost, as a result of the big Brexit vote in Britain to exit the European Union. D&B's online business credit business--which is run out of Malibu by technology veteran Jeff Stibel---said it will give free access to up to $5,000 in business credit reports in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., to help them assess the creditworthiness of their business partners. The free access promo runes thro (More info...)
posted on Monday, June 27, 2016(Full story)