Los Angeles-based web content management software developer CrownPeak has raised $50M in a funding round, and merged with UK-based ActiveStandards , according to the two companies. According to the companies, the combined company will be based in Los Angeles, and will also have locations in Denver and London. The company said it will use the funding to re-launch the company and for future product enhancements. MORE

Last year saw the city reap windfall exits from the acquisition of companies like Dollar Shave Club, and has a number of promising e-commerce companies… Read More. MORE

Mitu Network is the largest digital media company for Latinos in the US and also targeting Mexico and South America. In long-form online video, companies were also broad in nature: Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and Apple TV. Where will the company develop in the future? MORE

Los Angeles-based The Honest Company , the online, family products retailer led by serial entrepreneur Brian Lee, and which was co-founded by Jessica Alba, has raised $70M in a funding round, according to the company Tuesday. The funding brings the company''s total raised to $122M. MORE

However, in many cases, acquiring companies behave less rationally than Mr. Jackson. Citrix politely approached us, told us they had an interest in acquiring our company and then asked us, “How much?”. Our response was that there was no “price” as our company was not for sale. MORE

There is much discussion online and also in small, private groups, about why the price of technology companies – public and private – are falling. In 2015 in the US there were $77 billion written into startup tech companies. MORE

Los Angeles-based J2 Global , the Internet services provider and publisher, has gobbled up four more companies, as it continues to have a ravenous appetite for acquisitions. The company said it acquired Ausweb , a hosting firm in Australia, Offers.com , a digital media company here in the US; On Demand Recovery , a provider of backup services in the UK; and MX Toolbox , an email security company also based here in the US. MORE

Irvine-based Oculus VR and co-founder Palmer Luckey have been sued again, this time by a company in Hawaii called Total Recall Technologies. Total Recall says that it hired Luckey to build the company a head mounted display in 2011--information that he later used to start Oculus VR. MORE

In fact, one of Uber’s investors recently said the company could be worth more than $40 billion with an estimated annual growth of an astounding 800 percent. This is the reason many view Uber as a company that specializes in big data. Uber isn’t some niche startup anymore. MORE

Los Angeles-based Honest Company , the online provider of eco-friendly baby, personal care, and other household goods led by Brian Lee and co-founded by Jessica Alba, has quietly let go of 80 employees --or nearly 14% of the company--in what the company has billed as a "growth positioning". honest company layoff jobs employment jessica alba baby personal care products ecommerce MORE

If you are networking to assist a startup you are advising, you can substitute the company’s pitch for your personal pitch. Don’t worry, you can apologize after the fact, when you point to the positive impact your initiative had on your company. MORE

Challenging work, ongoing training, an opportunity to advance without having to become a manager, and a talented peer group all help companies recruit and retain these sought-after “ninjas”—the individuals who can do what artificial intelligence security tools can’t. MORE

Who are the top tech companies to work for in Los Angeles? Despite a huge number of companies, we found there are a number which. Although it's impossible to include all the companies suggested to us (there were dozens and dozens), here's some of the ones that stood out: 1. MORE

Los Angeles-based MarketCast , a market research company providing research services to the global entertainment industry, has been acquired by Kohlberg & Company , according to reports. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. MarketCast was owned by another, private equity investor--RLJ Equity Partners--which acquired MarketCast in November of 2014. READ MORE>>. marketcast market research entertainment hollywood content merger acquisition private equity MORE

And while independent freelancers offer alternatives, it’s still a bit too expensive and time consuming for startup companies. Tech-based companies immediately understand the need for an explainer video to showcase the rich features of their app or web platform. MORE

Los Angeles-based Honest Company is one of 44 companies who are backing an effort this week by the current White House, to bolster equal pay efforts in the United States. The Honest Company joined such companies as Adobe, AT&T, Autodesk, eBay, Edison International, Estee Lauder, InterContinental Hotels Group, New Belgium Brewing, and many others in signing the pledge. obama equity gender effort equal house white company honest MORE

Los Angeles-based Internet services and online publishing giant j2 Global says it has acquired four more companies, all completed in the third quarter of 2016. The company said all four acquisition will help it grow its global customer base, provide access to new markets and expand its lineup. MORE

Santa Monica-based Event Farm , which develops event marketing software, has acquired Boston-based event software company Attend , as an expansion of the company's reach. Event Farm--which already has offices in Santa Monica and Washington D.C., said the acquisition will add its presence with an office in Boston. MORE

Southern California companies raised $2.49 billion in venture capital in Q2 of 2016, according to the latest numbers from the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the National Venture Capital Association, and Thomson Reuters. The number for the quarter is the biggest amount raised in the region since the dot com boom, and a major bump over Q1's $957M. The boost in funding came despite a lower overall deal count, with 89 funding deals in Q2, versus 97 in Q1. MORE

We've identified ten of the more technically interesting companies working on software in Southern California, using our unscientific, unproven, and undoubtedly biased informal polling. The company handles all the infrastructure required for text messaging, voice. MORE

Todd Gitlin of Safire Partners was nice enough to compile some data on CTO Equity and Compensation at Venture Backed Companies for the LA CTO Forum and present last year. I'm a little surprised that CTO Founders with growth capital funding only have 15% of their companies. MORE

As Guy Kawasaki pointed out in our recent conversation , “…it is cheaper than ever to start a company. If there was ever a time to start a company, this is it.”. However, a recessionary market also generates a number of Big Dumb Company (BDC) refugees. MORE

But what IS the right amount of burn for a company? Burn rate in case you don’t know is the amount of money a company is either spending (gross) or losing (net) per month. (it Conversely if you’re burning $600,000 per month (yes, some companies do) then you only have 5 months of cash left. I often see companies burning $100,000 per month (net) looking to raise $6-8 million. Ask other portfolio companies how your VC acted when / if they got in a cash pinch. MORE

gobbled up another slate of companies. The Hollywood-based internet services company acquired six small companies for an undisclosed amount in the second quarter. The acquired firms include email marketing companies SMTP and Publicaster, digital media company GameTrailers, as well as backup storage companies Electronic Vaulting Services, Safebackup, and 24sevenbackup As it does every quarter, J2 Global Inc. MORE

With all the hand wringing in the tech industry over gender balance and equity, here's one company that apparently has no issue: LA-based Evite , the online invitations service. Evite's gender balance is in stark contrast to such companies as Apple (68% male, 32% female employees and 72% male, 28% male leadership); Uber (63.9% The company is led by CEO Victor Cho. evite gender balance executives diversity report online technology company tech MORE

Real estate and facilities management software developer Accruent , which has operations in Santa Monica, said today that it has acquired two software companies, Four Rivers Software Systems , and SiteFM , both developers of healthcare facilities management software. Accruent--which is led by Mark Friedman--said the buy will help the company enter the healthcare industry. MORE

Los Angeles-based J2 Global , the Internet services provider led by Hemi Zucker, has gobbled up six more companies, the company announced today. The company said the financial impact of the acquisition was not expected to be material. MORE

Thus, the "best" place for you to start your company is the community you want to live in. For the first decade, nearly every venture capitalist I met posed the same question, "Santa Barbara is a great town, but when are you going to move your company to the Valley?" MORE

See below. ] Dallas —Dallas-based aviation startup Rise has been acquired by Surf Air, a California airline membership company. Rise founder Nick Kennedy will remain with the company as president of the Texas region. [ Updated 6/7/17 12:21 pm. MORE

San Diego-based enterprise IT management provider ServiceNow reported a win today with Israeli telecommunications provider Partner Communications Company Ltd. Financial details of the win were not announced. ServiceNow said that Partner Communications is consolidating more than 10 separate systems across its IT and Engineering divisions to SerivceNow''s IT management system. Partner Communications service more than 3 million cellular subscribers in Israel, under the Orange brand. MORE

I was at a dinner recently in Chicago and the table discussion was about building great companies outside of Silicon Valley. It’s not the great companies you build, it’s the silent killer of those that should have been build locally and weren’t. For example, Lookout is a mobile security company that was founded by three talented graduates of USC. Klout was an LA company – sold for $200 million to Lithium. MORE

Is another, Los Angeles consumer startup-- The Honest Company --about to be acquired by Unilever ? An unconfirmed report Thursday afternoon, from TechCrunch, says that Unilever is in early talks to acquire the company, founded by Jessica Alba and SoCal serial entrepreneur Brian Lee. The Honest Company has been hinting that it has been working on a possible IPO filing over the last year or so. honestco honest company jessica alba unilever merger acquisition rumor exit MORE

“You can’t build a large online video company. You have to build a large online tech company that distributes video.” There’s a reason that Maker pulled away while most online video companies did not. Online technology company that distributes video. MORE

Southern California has seen another, big venture capital investment quarter, with companies raising $1.46 raised in 15 companies. The largest deal in the quarter was for Suja Life ($149.4M), followed by Honest Company ($100.0M) and CrowdStrike ($100.0M). MORE

On a micro level, you can do your part to fix tech's gender problem by recruiting people with diverse backgrounds and place them in a company culture that rewards those who challenge the status quo. A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. MORE

of Marina del Rey, a developer of user authentication software, announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to be acquired for $230 million in cash by telecommunications company BICS of Belgium TeleSign Corp. MORE