Monday, October 17, 2016


Razer Acquires THX
Carlsbad-based gaming accessories maker Razer said on Monday that it has acquired surround processing technology developer THX. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. THX--which was founded by George Lucas--will continue to operate as a separate brand and business. Razer said the acquisition would extend its brand into broader areas of entertainment. The acquisition is the second in the surround sound and sound processing area in the last month; Calabasas-based DTS was acquired i (More info...)
posted on Monday, October 17, 2016(Full story)

BlackLine Systems Sets Estimated IPO Pricing Range
Woodland Hills-based accounting software maker BlackLine Systems has moved one step closer to its IPO, saying this morning in a regulatory filing that it is expecting its IPO to price at between $13.00 and $15.00 per share. BlackLine, which was founded and is led by CEO Therese Tucker, is selling 8,600,000 shares of its common stock, and intends to list on the NASDAQ Global Select Market as BL. BlackLine is venture backed by Silver Lake Sumeru and ICONIQ. Tucker is the former CTO at SunGard T (More info...)
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HelloTech Names New President
Los Angeles-based HelloTech, the on-demand, tech support company co-founded by Richard Wolpert, announced this morning that it has named Ted Hong as President of the company. Hong was previously co-founder of Dropoff, an Austin, Texas startup providing same day delivery for businesses. Prior to that, he was Chief Marketing Officer at Fandango. According to HelloTech, Hong will ofersee finance, marketing, operations, product development, and technology operations for the company. HelloTech taps i (More info...)
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Mike Jones of Science Inc, On Exits And Finding The Right Entrepreneurs
Los Angeles-based Science Inc. (www.science-inc.com), the startup “studio” led by former MySpace CEO and technology veteran Mike Jones, just saw its third acquisition out of its portfolio this year—the acquisition of FameBit by Google/Youtube. The company's other acquisitions included the $1 billion acquisition of Dollar Shave Club by Unilever, and the acquisition of HelloSociety by the New York Times. We caught up with Mike last week to hear from him why he thinks Science has managed to (More info...)
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Telechips Sets Up US Headquarters In Irvine
South Korean fabless semiconductor developer Telechips said late Sunday evening that it has set up a new U.S. headquarters, in Irvine, California. According to Telechips, the company will use the new headquarters to expand sales in the set-top box and automotive market. The company's U.S. operations are being run by Steve Wahl, CEO of Telechips USA. The company makes chips used for the automotive multimedia, connectivity, and broadcasting market. Telechips did not say how it selected Irvine as t (More info...)
posted on Monday, October 17, 2016(Full story)

Western Digital Certifies New SSDs For VMware
Irvine-based disk drive and storage products maker Western Digital said this orning that it has certified two, solid state disk drives (SSDs) for use in VMware environments. According to WD, its SanDisk-branded CloudSpeed Eco Gen II SATA solid state drive, and the HGST-branded Ultrastar SN100 PCI Express (PCIe) NVMe SSD, both have been certified with the popular enterprise virtualization environment. Both of the SSDs are aimed at the enterprise market. Both SanDisk and HGST are now owned by West (More info...)
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Amgen Names New Member To Board
Thousand Oaks-based Amgen said late Friday that it has named Ellen J. Kullman to its board of directors, expanding the company's board to a total of 14 directors. Kullman is the former President, Chair, and CEO of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (Dupont). Kullman also has served on the boards of General Motors, Carbon3D, and Dell Technologies, and is on the Board of Trustees of Tufts University; she also has been on the Temasek Americas Advisory Panel of Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, t (More info...)
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Newracom Aims Wi-Fi Chip At Internet of Things
Irvine-based Newracom, a developer of systems-on-a-chip circuits which recently set up its headquarters in Irvine, says it has launched a new, ultra-low power, Wi-Fi chip aimed at the Internet-of-Things market. The company said it has introduced a new 802.11n MAC/PHY/Subsystem/RFIC+Front-end CMOS chip, which specifically is designed to be integrated into systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) with the ultra-lower power consumption required for IoT devices. Newracom is a spinout of South Korea's ETRI, the larg (More info...)
posted on Monday, October 17, 2016(Full story)