Thursday, August 10, 2017


Snap Loses $443M On Revenues Of $181M In Second Quarter
Venice-based Snap Inc. announced its quarterly results for its second quarter, saying that it had a net loss of $443.0M on revenues of $181.67M for the quarter ended June 30th, 2017. The company's revenues increased from Q2 of 2016, when it had $71.798M in revenues. According to Snap, it now had daily active users (DAUs) of 173 million in Q2.
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Famous Birthdays Grows To 17 Million Uniques
Los Angeles-based Famous Birthdays, an online website which look up the birthdays of famous people and read profiles of those celebrities, said on Thursday that it just passed up 17 million monthly unique users in July. The company, led by founder Evan Britton, publishes information on celebrities, including actors, singers, and social media stars. The company says it is now seeing over 900,000 visits a day on its site, and has 24 full time employees in its Santa Monica offices.
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Voicebank.net Acquired By Voices.com
Beverly Hills-based Voicebank.net, an online marketplace which connects advertising agencies, casting directors, and others with voice talent, has been acquired by Canadian company Voices.com. Financial details of the buy were not disclosed. Voices.com operates an online marketplace for audio and voice over products and services. Voicebank.net was founded in 1998, and had been founded by CEO Jeff Hixon.
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Ocular Data Systems Raises Funding
Pasadena-based Ocular Data Systems, a startup that develops a high resolution camera which is used by law enforcement to document signs of drug and alcohol impairment and other issues with drivers, has raised a round of investment from the Pasadena Angels. Size of the funding round was not announced, however, the company says it has now raised $1M in total funding. Ocular, led by CEO Marcus O. Filipovich, develops the "DAX", a handheld camera which picks up eye movements and responses--which are (More info...)
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Chef'd Finds $35M For Meal Kits
Los Angeles-based Chef'd, a service which provides personalized "meal kits" to shortcut the process of making meals for cooks, has raised $35.2M in funding, according to a regulatory filing from the company this week. The funding came from Smithfield Foods, which invested $25M in the round, along with Campbell Soup ($10M), and Fresh Direct. The company, led by CEO Kyle Ransford, sells its meal kits directly to consumers from an online marketplace.
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Prodege Buys ShopAtHome.com
El Segundo-based Prodege, the parent company of Swagbucks and MyPoints, announced Thursday morning that it has acquired cash-back shopping and coupon site ShopAtHome. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. ShopAtHome, which was headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado, was previously owned by Belcaro Group, Inc. Prodege is run by CEO Chuck Davis, who previously served as CEO of both Fandango and Shopzilla.
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Owners Of LA Rams Buy Into Overwatch League, Set Up LA Team
The Overwatch League, the new e-sports league based on Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment's game, Overwatch, said it has added two teams this morning--one in Los Angeles, the other in London. According to the league, the London team was purchased by Jack Etienne of Cloud9, with the Los Angeles team purchased by Stan and Josh Kroenke, the owners of the Los Angeles Rams, Arsenal Football Club, Denver Nuggets, and Colorado Avalanche. The e-sports league is expected to begin its first season later (More info...)
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GM's Maven Gig Expands Into Los Angeles, Ties With HopSkipDrive
GM's Maven Gig service, a service which allows ridesharing drivers to offer up package, grocery and food delivery, said this morning that it has expanded into Los Angeles, where GM will provide its vehicles to freelance drivers, as well as opportunities to earn money as a freelancer. The expansion is the first part of a expansion by GM of its Maven Gig service to such cities as Boston, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., and Baltimore and Detroit. Maven Gig also offers up its vehicles and services in (More info...)
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CoreLogic Buys Mercury Network
Irvine-based real estate and property information provider CoreLogic said this morning that it has acquired 100 percent of Mercury Network, a provider of software for valuation and appraisal management. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. Mercury Network was owned by private equity investor Serent Capital. CoreLogic had previously purchase a 45 percent, minority stake in Mercury Network in June. The company said Mercury Network has more than 800 emerging and medium-sized mor (More info...)
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Esri Teams To Use Drones To Help Fight Wildfires
Redland-based GIS technology and software provider Esri is helping to power a new product, which is using military drone technology to help fight wildfires. According to FireWhat, Esri, and unmanned aerial vehicle maker Insitu, they've created a system for aerial reconnaissance of wildfires. The system taps Insitu's ScanEagle aerial vehicle, Esri's geographical information systems (GIS), and support from FireWhat's fire professionals, to help provide data collection and spatial analytics of fire (More info...)
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Newegg Ties With SquareTrade
Los Angeles-based online electronics retailer NewEgg said this morning that it has tied with SquareTrade as an option on eligible product purchases on the site. SquareTrade is a provider of electronics "protection plans", which extend a product's warranty. NewEgg and SquareTrade did not discuss terms of their deal to offer up the extended protection plans on NewEgg's site. NewEgg is based in the City of Industry.
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