Tuesday, August 8, 2017


Faraday Future Loses Another Exec
Los Angeles-based electric car startup Faraday Future has lost another executive, the company's Vice President of Human Resources, according to a report on Tuesday afternoon. Alan Cherry apparently announced his departure at an "all hands" meeting at Faraday earlier today. Cherry was previously at Tesla Motors. Faraday Future has been fighting to stay alive, even as it faces financial pressure after primary backer LeEco ran into its own financial issues; the company recently announced plans for (More info...)
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CerraCap Ventures, Backed By NBA's Kevin Durant, Aims At Early Stage Investments
Costa Mesa-based CerraCap Ventures, a new, early stage investment firm which looks to invest in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and digital health investments, said today that it has scored backing from NBA star Kevin Durant. According to CerraCap Ventures, Durant has made an investment in the firm, as part of a move to invest in startups. Size of that investment were not announced. Durant is now part of the firm's Limited Partners. CerraCap Ventures Managing Partner and CEO is Saurabh R (More info...)
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Oasis Technology Rolls Out AI Powered Cybersecurity Device
Camarillo-based Oasis Technology, the developer of an intrusion prevention device called TITAN, says it has started rolling out its product after a number of regional trials. Oasis, led by President and CEO George Baldonado, says it has developed a device which sits in front of a company's firewalls, and uses artificial intelligence to dynamically adjust cyber-security rules in real-time to respond to possible attacks. The company says its self-learning and self-adjusting AI engine uses pattern (More info...)
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HBO Hack Worsens As Emails, Phone Numbers Of Stars Released
The impact of the hack over at HBO is getting worse, as hackers--demanding a multimillion dollar ransom--has released the email addresses and phone numbers of the stars of Game Of Thrones, plus other personal data--saying they have much more data from HBO's corporate network. According to reports, the hackers have 1.5TB of data from HBO which they are holding hostage. Data released in this dump apparently included five draft scripts of Game of Thrones episodes, plus administrator passwords, and (More info...)
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TYT Network Raises $20M For Online News
Los Angeles-based TYT Network, the online news empire run by Cenk Uygur, said this morning that it has raised $20M in a round of funding, to expand the company's management, creative talent, subscription offerings, marketing, and content and community. TYT--which focuses on politics, pop culture, and lifestyle content, with a Millenial-bent--said the funding came from 3L Capital, along with Greycroft, e.ventures and WndrCo. Shawn Colo of 3L will join the company's board as part of the funding. T (More info...)
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Triple Taps Augmented Reality To Sell Furniture
Los Angeles-based Triple, a startup developing augmented reality applications, said today that it has launched a new app to let users shop for furniture--and see how that furniture looks like in their home or office. The venture backed company's app--currently only available for iOS--let users search for different furniture from such stores as Design Within Reach, Article, CB2, Crate & Barrel, West Elm and Restoration Hardware, and "drag and drop" that furniture into real life augmented reality (More info...)
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Vance Street Capital Backs Acquisition By A&E Medical
Los Angeles-based private equity investor Vance Street Capital said this morning that its existing portfolio firm, A&E Medical Corporation, has acquired RTI Surgical's Cardiothoracic Closure business. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. The acquisition is the second acquisition for A&E Medical. Vance Street Capital acquired A&E Medical in February of 2016. Vance Street said it was advised by Paul Hastings LLP in the deal, with RTi being advised by Stephens Inc. and Holland (More info...)
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Solarflare Rolls Out Support For New Fabric Protocol
Irvine-based networking equipment maker Solarflare said today that it has demonstrated a new Ethernet fabric protocol, NVMe over fabric, along with Samsung Semiconductor and Supermicro. According to Solarflare, its support of NVme over TCP on its XtremeScale network interface cards (NICs) will be commercially available on September 30th. The new protocol is aimed at data center bridging and other low latency applications, allowing Ethernet to be used for fabric applications, rather than special (More info...)
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JMI Equity Promotes Two
San Diego- and Baltimore-based private equity investor JMI Equity announced this morning that it has made two promotions. The company said it has named Larry Contrella as Principal at the company, and named Paul Chang as Vice President. Contrella is based in Baltimore, and has been at the firm since 2010. Chang is in San Diego, and has been at JMI Equity since 2013. Contrella previously was at Merrill Lynch & Co.; Chang was previously at Jeffries LLC.
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J.D. Powers Sets Chief Digital Officer
Costa Mesa-based J.D. Power, the consumer analytics company best known for collecting data on consumer satisfaction in the automotive industry, said it has named Bernardo Rodriguez as its new Chief Digital Officer. J.D. Power said the new position will focus on its "digital transformation", and specifically on new product development, branding, marketing and mergers and acquisitions. Rodriguez joins the company from digital agency Huge, where he was Man‌aging Director of Strategy. Rodrigue (More info...)
posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2017(Full story)