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By Staff Report / Thursday, November 7th, 2013 / East Ventura County, Technology, Top Stories / Comments Off on ImmunGene raises $9M
Thousand Oaks-based ImmunGene, a cancer treatment firm led by a former Amgen scientist, has raised $9 million from Ally Bridge Group, an investment group with ties to Hong Kong.
ImmunGene’s so-called antibody-cytokine fusion technology could help improve the cancer-cell targeting in therapies. President and CEO Sanjay D. Khare was formerly the scientific director at Amgen, the biotech giant. Prior to the funding, ImmunGene had received several hundred thousand dollars in federal research grants.
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By Stephen Nellis / Friday, November 1st, 2013 / Real Estate, South Coast, Top Stories, Tourism / Comments Off on Court launches bids for eight Nesbitt hotels
Montecito hotel magnate Pat Nesbitt could lose as many as half of his Embassy Suites properties under a recently approved bankruptcy reorganization plan.
Nesbitt and his company, Windsor Capital Group, parked a portfolio of eight Embassy Suites hotels in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing more than $100 million in debts, after being unable to work out a deal with his servicer, New York-based Torchlight Investors. Nesbitt’s Embassy Suites properties in Lompoc and San Luis Obispo were not involved in the case.
Court documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Barbara indicate the eight hotels in the bankruptcy are now slated to go to the auction block.
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By Marlize van Romburgh / Friday, November 1st, 2013 / Banking & Finance, Banking Industry, Top Stories, Tri-County Economy / Comments Off on Treasury nets $3.2M loss on TARP in region
As the last bank in the region exits the Troubled Asset Relief Program on the five-year anniversary of the federal aid program, the U.S. Treasury has recouped most of its investment in the Tri-Counties, taking a loss of $3.2 million on the $259.6 million it disbursed to area lenders.
By paying off $2.1 million in federal aid it received at the height of the financial crisis, Ojai Community Bank becomes the last of the region’s banks to exit TARP. All told, the U.S. Treasury received $256.4 million on the $259.6 million in aid it disbursed to nine banks in the Tri-Counties.
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By Stephen Nellis / Friday, November 1st, 2013 / Features, Technology, Top Stories / Comments Off on Out of this world: Santa Barbara company produces saucer-shaped UAVs
Flying saucers have landed in Santa Barbara.
Aerobat Aviation, a Santa Barbara firm with ties to Georgia, is planning to take its saucer-shaped unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, on the road in the coming months hoping to raise $5 million from investors.
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By Tom Bronzini / Friday, November 1st, 2013 / Features, Top Stories, Tri-County Economy, West Ventura County / Comments Off on On a 40-year roll: P&G paper plants set to mark milestone in Oxnard
Procter & Gamble will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its Family Care Plant in Oxnard this month, a remarkable milestone when viewed against the decline in manufacturing jobs in California and across the nation. The Oxnard plant makes Bounty paper towels and Charmin toilet tissue in huge quantities that supply California and parts of the western U.S.
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By Patrick Kulp / Friday, November 1st, 2013 / Central Coast, Technology, Top Stories, Tri-County Economy / Comments Off on Refinery rail project would ease crude oil supply concerns
A Phillips 66 refinery on the Nipomo Mesa is hoping to supplement its dwindling inflow of California crude by extending a rail spur that will allow it to import oil from out of state.
The refinery — tucked away off of Highway 1 in South San Luis Obispo County — is a little-known yet critical part of the Golden State’s petroleum infrastructure. It processes the state’s heavy, sour crude into semi-refined products that flow through 200 miles of pipeline to Conoco’s 128,000-barrel-a-day facility in Rodeo in the Bay Area, where it is turned into gasoline.
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By Stephen Nellis / Friday, November 1st, 2013 / Agribusiness, Latest news, Top Stories / Comments Off on Tracking liquid assets: Groundswell creates Web-based water maps
Santa Barbara-based Groundswell Technologies makes Web-based software that can integrate data from any source — whether it’s a cutting-edge sensor connected via satellites or historical records — and generate “heat maps” of water supply or contamination on demand. The key is leveraging powerful computers in the cloud to handle lots of data and generate reports that used to take weeks in a matter of seconds.
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