Monday, October 3, 2016SpaceX Investigates Possible Sabotage In Rocket ExplosionIn an interesting twist to the dramatic explosion of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in Florida last month, the company has apparently been investigating the possibility of sabotage to the company's rocket. The Washington Post said over the weekend that SpaceX had been looking into an "odd shadow" and "white spot" on the roof of a building leased by fierce competitor United Launch Alliance (ULA) caught in videos of the explosion. ULA, and its CEO, Tony Bruno, has been a vocal critic of SpaceX, which di (More info...)
posted on Monday, October 3, 2016(Full story)
BlackLine Systems Files For IPOWoodland Hills-based BlackLine Systems has filed for an IPO, saying in an S-1 filing that it is looking to raise up to $100M in an IPO on the NASDAQ Global Select Market as BL. The IPO is being underwritten by Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan, Pacific Crest Securities, Raymond James, William Blair, and Baird. BlackLine is venture backed by Silver Lake Sumeru and ICONIQ, and led by Therese Tucker. Tucker owns around 15.6% of the company. BlackLine develops accounting software, which is used for (More info...)
posted on Monday, October 3, 2016(Full story)
Honest Co. To Reformulate ProductsLos Angeles-based eco-friendly products company The Honest Company says it is reformulating its products, to remove the use of sodium laurel sulfate, an ingredient that the company had pledged to avoid, but had managed to be used in a number of its products. The reformulation effort came after pressure by the Wall Street Journal, which tested The Honest Co.'s products in a investigative report earlier this year.
posted on Monday, October 3, 2016(Full story)
BlackLine Taps Zuora For Chief Customer OfficerLos Angeles-based BlackLine said this morning that it has named Karen Flathers as the company's new Chief Customer Officer. Flathers was previously Vice President, Global Field Operations at Zuora, and also has served at Aclara and SAP. BlackLine said Flathers will oversee oversee the day-to-day functions of its Implementations, Support, Customer Success and Product Training departments. BlackLine said Flathers had helped Zuora transition from a "start-up to a pre-IPO mentality." BlackLine just (More info...)
posted on Monday, October 3, 2016(Full story)
Activision's Skylanders Now Available As 3D Printed FiguresSanta Monica-based Activision said today that it has launched a new, mobile app, which lets players creat real-life, 3D printed figures for its Skylanders game. According to Activision, its new Skylanders Creator app lets fans create 3D, printed Skylanders Imaginators figures, which are playable in the Skylanders Imaginators console game. The 3D printed figures will cost $49.99 each. The new game and figures are part of a trend by video game companies to create "toys-to-life" video games, which (More info...)
posted on Monday, October 3, 2016(Full story)
Lytx Adds New Mobile Fleet Tracking FeaturesSan Diego-based Lytx, which develops video-based driver tracking systems under the DriveCam name, said it has rolled out new enhancements to its products, to add the ability to identify more unsafe driving behaviors. According to Lytx, the upgrades include two new triggers, including identifying when drivers fail to complete to complete a stop at a stop sign (rolling stop), and links to a third-party roll-stability system, which can indicate when drivers speed and/or road conditions are inconsis (More info...)
posted on Monday, October 3, 2016(Full story)
DNAe Gets $51.9M Contract For DNA Sequencing TechnologyCarlsbad- and London-based DNA Electronics, a developer of a semiconductor-based, DNA sequencing technology, says it has received $51.9M in a contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). DNAe said the funding goes towards developing its platform for the rapid diagnosis of antimicrobial resistant infections and influenza. The contract win came from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) a division of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and (More info...)
posted on Monday, October 3, 2016(Full story)
DreamHost Upgrades Email SupportLos Angeles-based web hosting provider DreamHost has upgraded its email experience for its customers, the company said late last week, with a partnership with atmail. According to DreamHost, the new link with atmail will provide ad-free, webmail for its users, without having to export their data to a third party. The atmail service keeps users' emails on their own, DreamHost accounts, rather than forwarding emails elsewhere. Dreamhost said it no longer will include SquirrelMail and Roundcube by (More info...)
posted on Monday, October 3, 2016(Full story)