Tuesday, September 27, 2016Team Liquid Acquired By Local Sports, Media, Tech EntrepeneursE-sports franchise Team Liquid, which operates ten different e-sports teams with more than 50 players in total, has been acquired by a group of entrepreneurs led by Peter Guber and Ted Leonsis. According to Axiomatic--whose owners include Guber, Leonsis, Magic Johnson, Dick Glover (Mandalay Sports), NextVR, Lon Rosen (LA Dodgers), Tucker Kain (LA Dodgers), plus such others as Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky of Groupon, Blake Byers of Google Ventures, Tony Robbins, former NFL linebacker Dhani Jon (More info...)
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EcoATM Gets New CEO After Private Equity AcquisitionSan Diego-based ecoATM has appointed David D. Maquera as its CEO, after the completion of the company's acquisition by private equity investor Apollo Global Management. Apollo paid approximately $1.6 billion for ecoAtM's parent company, Outerwall, which it is splitting back into three separate companies--Redbox, Coinstar, and ecoATM. David Maquera had been serving as President of Outerwall's ecoATM business, which allows consumers to turn in their old cell phones for cash payments. ecoATM says (More info...)
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LeisureLink Shuts Down All OperationsLeisureLink, the developer of vacation rental booking software which was started in Pasadena, has shut down all of its operations, and laid off all of its staff. In a letter to partners, LeisureLink said all employees of LeisureLink are being terminated and the platform turned off, after its management was unable to raise additional equity to fund the company. In that letter, the company said it had been working with an investment bank in the last 12 months, and expected it would raise money thi (More info...)
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Jukin Media Targets Brands, Creative Agencies With New UnitLos Angeles-based Jukin Media said today that it has launched a new division, which will specifically aim at helping brands with their advertising and content marketing campaigns. Jukin said the new division--called "Ethos"-will use its technology and expertise in user generated content (UGC), to help brands and agencies to target, source, and clear user-generated video for content marketing and creative advertising campaigns. The company said the new unit comes as a result of working with such (More info...)
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Elon Musk Unveils Plans For Interplanetary ColonizationTech mogul Elon Musk is unveiling his plans for interplanetary colonization, starting with Mars, at a conference today, saying he is looking to make humans an "interplanetary species". SpaceX unveiled a video envisioning a system that will give humans access to the entire solar systems, involving the use of inflight refueling of spaceships in orbit, and interplanetary refueling stations. Musk detailed further technical details of the spaceship--and rocket boosters currently under development at (More info...)
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Fulgent Genetics Poised For IPO On WednesdayMing Hsieh, the founder of Fulgent Genomics, former founder of Cogent, and namesake of the University of Southern California's Mind Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering--looks to be having two big events in the next month; a possible IPO of Fulgent Genomics on the NASDAQ Global Market on Wednesday, and the ten year anniversary of the naming of USC's EE department after him. According to the NASDAQ IPO Calendar, Fulgent is poised to have its IPO on Wednesday, meaning that it most likely wil (More info...)
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Obalon Sets IPO Pricing RangeCarlsbad-based Obalon Therapeutics, which is developing a balloon-based medical device for assisting in weight loss, has set the estimated initial IPO pricing range for its public offering, saying it now expects an initial public offering at between $14.00 and $16.00 per share. The company is selling 5,000,000 shares of its common stock, which would net it $92.0M if it prices at the high end of its estimated range. Obalon is looking to list on the NASDAQ Global Market as OBLN. The company has no (More info...)
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Foursquare Opens First Office In LALocation-based information service Foursquare said on Monday that it has opened up its first office in Los Angeles, in Playa Vista. According to Foursquare, the new office will help it meet explosion in demand, in part due to local local automotive, entertainment, CPG and QSR customers. The company said that Lindsay Aston, Matt Bontaites and Karen Lurry will lead the new office. Aston was previously at such companies as Ziff Davis, CNET, Hearst, Meebo, TrueX and Gravity; Bontaites previously was (More info...)
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Fortis Therapeutics Raises $18MSan Diego-based Fortis Therapeutics, a new biotech company in the immuno-oncology area, announced this morning that it has raised $18M in a Series A funding. The funding was led by Avalon Ventures and also included Bregua Corporation, Lilly Asia Ventures, Osage University Partners, and Vivo Capital. The startup, based in the COI Pharmaceuticals cluster of companies in San Diego, is based on research developed by Bin Liu, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Anesthesia at UC San Francisco. For (More info...)
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HireAHelper Launches Moving Cost CalculatorOceanside-based HireAHelper, which operates an online, peer-to-peer marketplace for finding labor to help you move, has launched a new website focused on moving costs. The company said it has launched the Moving Cost Calculator, a new website which lets users get estimates of moving expenses from service providers from across the industry. The new site collects information such as distance of the move, size of the move, and preferred moving style, and helps provide price estimates from moving pr (More info...)
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Esri Supplies Microsoft With GIS ServiceRedland-based GIS software developer Esri said on Monday that it has been selected by Microsoft, to offer up its GIS services for Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft Azure. Esri said its ArcGIS platform will be integrated into Microsoft's Power BI (Business Intelligence), a set of business analytics tools. Esri will also offer up its ArcGIS Pro desktop application via Microsoft Azure. Financial details of the collaboration deal were not announced.
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Turtle Beach Restructures HyperSound, Seeks BuyerSan Diego-based audio technology developer Turtle Beach said Monday that it is restructuring its HyperSound business, in a bid to lower the operating costs of that business. As part of that restructuring, the company said that investment banker Piper Jaffray is contiuing "exploration of strategic options"for that business. Turtle Beach said it has taken actions to "significantly reduce" its operating expenses of that business. The company did not detail those actions, or if they included staff (More info...)
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Life Sciences Organization Launches Office In LAThe California Life Sciences Association (CLSA), a group which focuses on public policy and business leadership in the life sciences area, said today that it has launched what it calls a new "Life Sciences Innovation Hub" in Los Angeles. According to the company, its new Los Angeles satellite office will be located in Monrovia, and will go to help its work in Los Angeles County, providing political advocacy, special industry events, and professional development for the life sciences sector. The (More info...)
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