Wednesday, January 18, 2017


Famous Birthdays In Growth Mode
Los Angeles-based Famous Birthdays, which operates an online service which lets you look up the birthdays of famous people and read profiles of those celebrities, says it has now passed 13 million unique visitors, based on numbers from December. The company also says it now has a staff of 20 full-time staffers working out of its Santa Monica office. The startup, which recently relaunched its website to add video on its many profiles, is led by Evan Britton.
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Exactly Me Looks To Connect You With People Exactly Like Yourself
Los Angeles-based Exactly.me, a new, photo-driven messaging startup, has launched an app which looks to connect people who meet people who are "exactly like you"--or at least, who are very like-minded. According to the startup, it is looking to rise beyond the many message apps that just communicate with people you know, and instead helps people discover other like-minded individuals, helping strangers become friends. The startup, led by Los Angeles startup veteran Jay Goss, says the company's t (More info...)
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TeamDom Raises $1M For Influencer Marketing
Los Angeles-based TeamDom, a new startup started by 19-year old social media star Jake Paul, disclosed today that it has raised $1M in a funding round. The round was led by Danhua Capital, and also included Edward Lando, Gary Vaynerchuk, Abe Burns, and Adam Zeplain. Jake Paul--a Disney star who played Dirk on The Disney Channels "Bizaardvark"-- says he has 15.5 million followers. Paul says on his Linkedin profile that Teamdom is a "modernday media conglomerate focused on building powerful brands (More info...)
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ServiceNow Buys DxContinuum
ServiceNow, the developer of cloud-based, enterprise software for service management which has a big office San Diego, announced this morning that it has acquired
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Hyperloop Transportation Technologies In Exploratory Deal With Czech City
Playa Vista-based Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), one of the Los Angeles companies working on technology to bring Elon Musk's concept of a high speed transportation system to market, said this morning that it has signed an "exploratory agreement" with the city of Brno, Czech Republic. HTT said that the agreement will explore feasibility of a Hyperloop system to connect Brno and Bratislava, Slovakia, as well as a "vision" for connecting the city to the Czech capital of Prague. HTT di (More info...)
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OroCommerce, Founded by Magento's Founders, Launches Ecommerce Platform
West Hollywood-based OroCommerce, a new startup founded by Magento's Yoav Kutner and Roy Rubin, said today that it has launched a new e-commerce platform specifically aimed at B2B e-commerce. The new software is epcifically aimed at helping companies manage corporate accounts and buyer-seller relationships, managing price lists and catalogs, automating business workflows, and more, according to the company. OroCommerce also says it integrates with existing ERP, CRM, and product information softw (More info...)
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FTC Charges Qualcomm With Anticompetitive Practices
The Federal Trade Commission has charged San Diego-based Qualcomm with using anticompetitive tactics to maintain its monopoly in baseband processors used in cell phones, the FTC announced on Tuesday, specifically citing Qualcomm's licensing behavior with Apple. According to the FTC, Qualcomm has used its dominant position as a supplier of baseband processors to impose "onerous and anticompetitive" supply and licensing terms on cell phone manufacturers. The FTC also charged that Qualcomm had thre (More info...)
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Numecent Swaps CEO
Irvine-based cloud application delivery technology developer Numecent has swapped CEOs, saying on Tuesday that it has appointed co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Arthur Hitomi to the position of President and CEO of the company. Hitomi replaces Tom Lagatta. Numecent did not mention Lagatta by name, nor did it explain why Hitomi is taking over as President and CEO of the company. Numecent's technology is used to turn Windows applications into cloud software.
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Mitu, Major League Baseball In Latino Content Deal
Los Angeles-based mitu, the venture-backed, Latino-focused online content network, and Major League Baseball, said on Tuesday that the two are in a new content campaign targeted at delivering MLB content to multicultural youth. According to the two, MLB and mitu will produce exclusive digital content which will feature star Latino baseball players, and appear across both mitu and the MLB's distribution channels. Financial details of the deal were not announced. The two said the effort will "cele (More info...)
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