Monday, July 18, 2016


Airbnb To Collect Taxes For Los Angeles
Airbnb and the City of Los Angeles have reached an agreement, where Airbnb will collect taxes for the city, and hand those taxes over to Los Angeles. The deal is expected to go into effect in August. Los Angeles--and other cities--have struggled to collect room taxes from hosts, who are already required to collect those taxes and to pay the city.
posted on Monday, July 18, 2016(Full story)

NASA: SpaceX Falcon To Dock On Wednesday
NASA says that the latest SpaceX Falcon mission to the International Space Station is planning to dock on Wednesday. NASA sent almost 5,000 pounds of cargo into space on the SpaceX Falcon 9 -- built by SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, in Los Angeles -- in this latest mission, which is its ninth Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission for the agency. The two launched the latest SpaceX mission from Cape Canaveral early this morning, at 12:45 a.m. EDT. SpaceX successfully landed its Falcon 9 boo (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 18, 2016(Full story)

Pipeliner Rolls Out Updated CRM Tools
Los Angeles-based Pipeliner CRM, the developer of customer relationship management software led by Nikolaus Kimla, has rolled out a new release of its CRM tools, which it says adds new data visualization capabilities. The company said its "Pipeliner Collection" release adds such features as compact view of leads, accounts, opportunities, and contacts, and new ways of viewing accounts, among other features. The company claimed that its revenues grew 100% in the first half of the year compared wi (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 18, 2016(Full story)

Chrome River Links With Sabre
Los Angeles-based expense management software developer Chrome River has scored a big win today, with a link with travel booking system developer Sabre. Sabre said that it will offer up expense management and employee reimbursement support within its mobile platform, powered by technology from Chrome River. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Sabre said its new, mobile platform will provide a "total trip solution" from the travel request all the way to employee reimbursement--autom (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 18, 2016(Full story)

Airgain Files For IPO
San Diego-based Airgain, a developer of embedded antenna technology for the wireless networking market, has filed for an IPO, saying that it is looking to raise $17.5M in a public offering on the NASDAQ Capital Market. The company has applied to list as AIRG. The company's IPO is being underwritten by a single underwriter, Northland Capital Markets. The company reported $27.793M in sales for its year ended December 31, 2015. The company is backed by GEN3 Capital and Northwater Intellectual Prope (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 18, 2016(Full story)

SpaceX Successfully Launches Another Mission To ISS, Lands Booster
Hawthorne-based SpaceX has sent more than two tons of equipment on its was to the International Space Station this morning, and successfully landed another rocket booster--on land--as part of a mission for NASA. The SpaceX CRS-9 mission lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 12:45 a.m. EDT this morning. NASA said the mission includes materials for more than 250 scientific investigations, including a 1,000 pound metal ring that is being used as a docking adapter for future manned missions.
posted on Monday, July 18, 2016(Full story)

ZestFinance Finds Strategic Funding From Baidu
Los Angeles-based ZestFinance has received a strategic investment from Baidu, according to the company on Sunday. ZestFinance did not disclose the size of the Baidu investment. ZestFinance said that the two are working together to apply the company's credit underwriting technology to Baidu's search, location, and payment data, in order to improve credit scoring in China. ZestFinance, led by Douglas Merrill, is using machine learning to help with credit underwriting and lending. The company curre (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 18, 2016 (More)(Full story)

ESET: Fake Apps On Google Play Aimed at Pokemon GO
San Diego-based security software developer ESET is warning users that it has located a number of fake apps on Google Play, which specifically target Pokemon GO users. ESET said the apps deliberately threw users' phones into a lock screen, and clicked on porn ads in the background in the meantime. ESET said that Google has already removed the apps--"Pokemon GO Ultimate" "Guides & Cheats for Pokemon GO" and "Install Pokemongo"--from the app store, on its recommendation. The most installed of the (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 18, 2016(Full story)

Western Digital, Toshiba Open New Flash Memory Fab In Japan
Irvine-based Western Digital and Toshiba said Friday that the two have opened up a flash memory fab in Japan, to help support mass production of 3D flash memory. The two said the New Fab 2 semiconductor fabrication facility is in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, Japan. The new flash memory fab is part of a joint effort by Toshiba and SanDisk, which WD acquired in May. NAND flash is heavily used in solid state storage devices. WD did not say how much was invested in building the new fab plant.
posted on Monday, July 18, 2016(Full story)