Wednesday, July 27, 2016


The Stage Fund Sets Partner In Los Angeles
The The Stage Fund, a investment and acquisition firm focused on acquiring turnaround companies, has tapped a longtime Southern California entrepreneur, Dan Tamkin, as a new Managing Partner in Los Angeles. According to the fund, Tamkin will be setting up a West Coast office for the fund, which is based in Denver, Colorado. Tamkin had previously served at Chief Technology Officer at Transdev, a $10 billion transportation conglomerate, and was founder and CEO of LA's Unified Dispatch, a developer (More info...)
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Car Harmony Takes On Car Financing With Self Service Tool
Los Angeles-based online car shopping startup Car Harmony is taking on the area of auto finance today, saying it has launched a new, self service tool aimed at letting car shoppers create their own custom financing options for cars. The company said that it is partnering with auto finance provider Westlake Financial Services, which lets users adjust down payments, monthly payments, contract terms, and more on any car listed on the site--short cutting the usually long process at traditional deale (More info...)
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Esri Powers Pokemon Hunting Map From Santa Monica's Pokevision
Redlands, California-based mapping software developer Esri said today that it is powering a new, mobile app which helps Pokemon Go players find Pokemon hot spots. According to Esri, Pokevision, a third party app developer, used its ArcGIS services to show real time locations of Pokemon hot spots, in real time. Pokevision apparently has been seeing a huge spike in demand for its service, with nearly 20 million unique users in its first five days. Pokevision is based in Santa Monica. Esri develops (More info...)
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Sequenom Acquired By LabCorp For $371M
San Diego-based prenatal testing provider Sequenom is being acquired by Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp), in a deal worth $371M, the companies said this morning. According to LabCorp, it has agreeed to pay $2.40 per share in cash for all of the outstanding shares of publicly held Sequenom, which trades as SQNM. Sequenom provides non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for reproductive health. Sequenom is being advised by JP Morgan and Cooley LLP in the deal; LabCorp is being advised by (More info...)
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Vizio's William Wang Becomes SoCal's Latest Technology Billionaire
The $2 billion acquisition of Irvine-based Vizio on Monday has most likely resulted in the creation of another, technology billionaire in Southern California--Vizio founder William Wang. According to regulatory documents filed by Vizio last year in preparation for an IPO, Wang owned 54.4 percent of Vizio--or, $1.088 billion. There are also a number of other executives with major stakes in Vizio who are probably now multi-millionaires, thanks to the acquisition by Chinese television maker LeEco. (More info...)
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Influential Raises $5M For Influencer Marketing
Beverly Hills-based Influential, a developer of influencer marketing software, has raised $5M in a Series A funding, according to the company. The funding was led by Capital Zed, and also included ROAR, Paradigm Talent Agency, Europlay Capital Advisors, MSMCi, and Ace Fund, along with angels Alex Welch, Michael Tedesco, Chris Varelas and Ivan Brockman. The startup, led by Ryan Detert, says it helps marketers reach more than 7,000 top influencers on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Vine an (More info...)
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Western Digital Leads $77M Funding In Personal Storage Service Upthere
Irvine-based disk drive and storage products maker Western Digital is one of the lead investors in a new startup developing personal storage services and applications. Upthere, which says it has created a new "operating system" to help users keep, find, and share their files, photos, videos, music, and more, said it raised $77M in funding, led by KPCB and Western Digital, and also included Elevation Partners, Floodgate, GV, NTT Docomo Ventures, and Square 1 Bank. The company is based in Redwood (More info...)
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Qualcomm Agrees To Settle Gender Discrimination Suit For $19.5M
San Diego-based Qualcomm Incorporated has agreed to pay $19.5M to settle a gender discrimination suit, filed on behalf of its employees, according to class action law firm Sanford Heisler LLP. According to that firm, Qualcomm agreed to the settlement, which requires the technology firm to institute "comprehensive programmatic relief" to ensure that female employees working in STEM and related positions will enjoy equal job opportunities at the company. Sanford Heisler said it had filed the lawsu (More info...)
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eHarmony Founder Neil Clark Warren Steps Down From CEO Post
Los Angeles-based eHarmony said on Tuesday that its founder and CEO, Dr. Neil Clark Warren, has stepped down from his role as CEO. According to eHarmony, it has named Grant Langston as its new CEO. Warren remains as Chairman of the board. eHarmony did not say why Warren decided to step down, however, Langston was part of eHarmony's original founding team. eHarmony was founded 16 years ago. eHarmony offers up a personality-test driven matchmaking service, ultimately aimed at marriage; the compan (More info...)
posted on Wednesday, July 27, 2016(Full story)