Banking on a reunion: Funari and Ortega team up
Longtime Santa Barbara bankers Joanne Funari and Eloy Ortega are reunited again. The two bankers, who founded Business First National Bank together in 2001, now have their sights set on building out the The Bank of Santa Barbara on the South Coast.
Read More →Venture capital firm hungers for health-foods startups
Santa Barbara-based venture capital firm NGEN Partners has a new investing focus on a somewhat unlikely sector: healthy, environmentally friendly food.
Since its founding in 2001, NGEN has had a focus on funding sustainability-oriented companies. Its early focus was on energy and materials. Catalytic Solutions, a nanotechnology firm spun out of UC Santa Barbara that made emissions scrubbing cheaper and more effective in automobiles, was an early investment. Soraa, an LED lighting firm created by several UCSB professors that has gone on to receive big money from Khosla Ventures and others, remains active in the firm’s portfolio.
Read More →Salem profits soar on higher Internet revenue
Christian and conservative media operator Salem Communications Corp.’s third-quarter profits jumped 58 percent to $5.3 million, or 21 cents per share, as revenue increased 3.1 percent to $58.5 million. The Camarillo-based firm’s revenue continued to shift to the Web, with third-quarter Internet revenue increasing 20.4 percent to $9.4 million.
Read More →ValueClick profits jump 33%, firm to sell sites
Online advertising firm ValueClick’s third-quarter profits jumped 33 percent to $22.1 million and the firm announced plans to sell off company-owned websites such as Investopedia.com and CouponMountain.com.
“We delivered strong profitability and cash flow in the third quarter, driven by a continued mix shift into our higher-value-added offerings,” ValueClick CEO and President John Giuliani said in a news release. “Solid year-over-year growth in our CRM, affiliate marketing, mobile, video and cross-device solutions was offset by weakness in our insertion order display business within the media segment.”
Read More →Murdock completes buyout of Dole Food Co.
Dole Food Co. CEO and Chairman David Murdock has completed a buyout of the company, a deal that takes the Westlake Village-based produce giant private and values it at $1.6 billion.
The merger was approved by shareholders on Oct. 31, the company said. Dole shares will cease trading on the New York Stock Exchange at the close of business on Nov. 1.
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