Monday, July 8, 2019
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Virgin Galactic Plans To Go Public Via Acquisition Deal
Mojave-based Virgin Galactic, the space tourism venture led by Richard Branson, is looking to go public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), called Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp., according to the WSJ. The paper, citing "people familiar with the matter", says Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings would invest roughly $800M in Virgin Galactic for a 49 percent stake in the company, and create what will be the first, publicly traded space tourism company. Virgin Ga (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 8, 2019(Full story)
SpaceX Wins Award To Send Probe To Study Black Holes
Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX has scored a $50.3M contract to launch a NASA probe to study black holes and neutron stars. According to NASA, the award covers both launch services and other mission-related costs for the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). NASA explained the IXPE will measure polarized X-rays from objects, such as black holes and neutron stars to better understand these types of cosmic phenomena and extreme environments. The mission is expected to launch from Florida i (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 8, 2019(Full story)
Bird Scooters Among Those Trashed By DC Flooding
Scooters from Santa Monica-based Bird are among the many on-demand, last mile scooters which have been trashed by a sudden flash flood in Washington, DC this morning. The sudden flash flood emergency dropped more than 4 inches of rain in less than an hour, resulted in a snarled commute and multiple water rescues. It's unclear how much damage Bird incurred in the severe weather; the cost of keeping Bird's scooters on the road has emerged as a major problem for Bird. An LA Times article in May sai (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 8, 2019(Full story)
Fire Reported At SpaceX Facility In Florida
A fire broke out this morning at a SpaceX facility in Florida, where SpaceX is working on its "Starship", reportedly causing around $650,000 in damage. Other details on the fire have not yet been provided by SpaceX. SpaceX, which is based in the Los Angeles area, in Hawthorne, has said that it hopes to launch commercial missions on the Starship in 2021. The Starship is ultimately designed to carry people to Mars.
posted on Monday, July 8, 2019(Full story)
3L Capital Raises $217M For New Investments
Los Angeles- and New York-based 3L Capital, a new venture capital investment fund co-founded by former Demand Media CEO Shawn Colo, has raised $217M in a new investment round, the firm said today. The startup investor has already been busy making investments in Los Angeles area startups, and already has investments ChowNow, TYT, SnackNation, and Wheels along with TheRealReal, 101 Commerce, and others. Colo co-founded the firm with Dave Leyrer (Nexus Group, Boulevard Capital Management) and Kerry (More info...)
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Amazon Seeks To Challenge Starlink, Files With FCC For Satellite Network
Amazon is quickly moving forward on its plans to challenge Hawthorne-based SpaceX in the race to providing high speed Internet across the globe, saying in an FCC filing last week that it hopes to launch 3,236 satellites as part of its own satellite network. According to Amazon, its "Project Kuiper" project would connect tens of millions of people throughout the world. The new Amazon network is a direct challenger to a project by SpaceX, Starlink, which seeks to place more than 1500 satellites in (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 8, 2019(Full story)
Wana Family Network, Offering Babysitting Swaps, Acquires Komae
Los Angeles-based Wana Family Network, which operates a service which lets familys "swap" babysitting services with each other, has acquired Komae, an Ohio-based competitor. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. Wana Family Network, led by founder and CEO Erin Beck, says that the acquisition adds over 19,000 families to its community, plus a set of mobile apps. Wana Family Network allows families to meet, set up play dates, and trade childcare for "points" instead of dollars; (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 8, 2019(Full story)
Perforce Software, Backed By Clearlake Capital, Finds New Funding
Perforce Software, a developer of software used by developers to manage their software source control and DevOps--which is backed by Santa Monica-based Clearlake Capital Group--has scored a new round of funding, the company announced this morning. The company, based in Minneapolis, said the funding came from private equity investor Francisco Partners, and also included Clearlake Capital Group. Clearlake first made its investment in Perforce in late 2017. Size of the investment by Francisco Partn (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 8, 2019(Full story)
Hawke Media Links With Facebook
Los Angeles-based Hawke Media, which provides social marketing and other services, says it has named a "Preferred Agency Partner" for Facebook. Hawke says the partnership gives it access "advanced tools, resources, training and support" among other resources. The company said it had to "demonstrate consistent success in driving results and scaling campaigns for clients over several years" to be named to the program. There are a fair number of Preferred Agency Partners in Facebook's program.
posted on Monday, July 8, 2019(Full story)
Curogram Selected For Publicis Startup Competition
Los Angeles-based health messaging startup Curogram, a new startup developing a web-based, SMS app for the healthcare market, has been selected as a finalist for the Publicis Health Media Disruption Garage Competition, according to the company. Curogram says it has developed an all in one texting and HIPAA-secure messaging platform for independent practices, physician groups, and radiologists, which allows for communications between doctors and patients. The startup says it is up to win an prize (More info...)
posted on Monday, July 8, 2019(Full story)
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