Friday, April 14, 2017Hulu Opens Up Customer Service Site In TexasLos Angeles-based streaming television- and video-provider Hulu has selected San Antonio, Texas, as the site for a new customer service center, the company said on Thursday. Hulu said it will hire 300 people by the end of 2017, and another 200 in 2018, as part of the new "viewer experience headquarters" in Texas. Silicon Beach companies appear to be been using Texas as a convenient, low cost area for their customer service operations: this week, Santa Monica-based TaskUs also said it is opening (More info...)
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Tocagen Rises In IPO DebutSan Diego-based gene therapy developer Tocagen rose in its IPO this morning, after pricing at $10.00 per share last night in its initial public offering. Tocagen was trading up around 24% in morning trading, at $12.45 per share, after its debut on the NASDAQ Global Select Market as TOCA. Tocagen is developing clinical-stage, cancer-selective gene therapy products. The company priced its IPO at the low end of an initial estimated $10.00 to $12.00 per share range. The company now has a market cap (More info...)
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Broadvoice Buys XBPLos Angeles-based Broadvoice, a provider of unified communications (UC), voice, and SIP trunking services for businesses, has acquired Tustin-based XBP, the companies said late Thursday. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced by the companies. Broadvoice said that XBP's entire workforce will join the company as part of the acquisition. XBP provides communications APIs and SDKs, which allow developers to create unified communications (UC) applications. Broadvoice explained that X (More info...)
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Keysight, Ixia Clear Final Regulatory Hurdles, Deal To Close On TuesdayKeysight Technologies and Calabasas-based Ixia announced Thursday afternoon that they have cleared the final regulatory hurdles over Keysight's acquisition of Ixia, and now expect the deal to close on April 18th. The company said it received clearance under the antitrust laws of Russia, Germany, and Israel, in addition to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 here in the United States. The deal is worth $1.6 billion in cash.
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TriTech, NASA In Economic Development, Technology Transfer AgreementTriTech Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which provides consulting and training to high tech entrepreneurs, and NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, in Edwards, California, are in a new economic development, technology transfer, and research relationship, the two announced on Thursday. According to the two, the deal is part of an effort to create a "new business model to spur economic development." The intent of the partnership is to facilitate the technology transfer and commercializ (More info...)
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TaskUs Expands In TexasLos Angeles-based business process outsourcing provider TaskUs is in another big expansion, this time in Texas, saying it plans to hire more than 500 employees in San Antonio, in a new, 32,000 square foot space in that city. TaskUs also announced an expansion in Santa Monica earlier this month, to a new space at the Santa Monica airport. On the negative side, TaskUs said that it's two founders, Bryce Maddock and Jaspar Weir, are both moving to Texas as part of the new expansion. TaskUs has the b (More info...)
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Meed Links With OracleSanta Monica-based Meed, a developer of financial technology and banking applications, said late Thursday that it has linked up with Oracle, to deliver its digital financial services to banks worldwide. Meed said it will integrate with Oracle's Digital Banking Experience (OBDx) solution. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Meed said that, so far, it has launched its applications in Vietnam, and already has signed up over 300,000 users in that country after a launch in November; the (More info...)
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