Aerospace
Satellite launch company Rocket Lab moved its headquarters from Los Angeles to Huntington Beach as it completed a $75 million funding round led by San Francisco-based venture capital fund Data Collective. It said the round brought its total funding to $148 million. The company, which launches small satellites, also said it plans to expand engineering and business units at the 150,000-square-foot headquarters and at its presence in Auckland, New Zealand.
Finance
A former board member of Freedom Communications and his sister launched an online crowdfunding platform for Orange County individuals and nonprofit groups. David Threshie and his sister Susan Barrett created Orange-based SproutOC. The platform is for state-registered nonprofits and for individuals, such as teachers purchasing supplies for their classrooms or a small charitable cause starting up. SproutOC says all leftover profits go to support the SproutOC Project, a registered nonprofit initiative intended to bring awareness to other registered nonprofits.
Media
The Securities and Exchange Commission said this week it would temporarily suspend the stock of Irvine-based Ubiquity Inc. from March 20 to March 31 due to “a lack of current and accurate information about the company.” Ubiquity, a media company that says it’s changing its business model to focus on augmented and virtual reality, has been delinquent in its required periodic filings since late last year, according to regulatory filings. The commission’s action is the latest in a string of actions against the company and former executives.
Restaurants
CKE Restaurant Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Andrew Puzder will step down from his post next month and be replaced by Jason Marker, who most recently led U.S. operations for KFC Corp. Privately held CKE owns the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast food chains. Carl’s Jr. was founded in Anaheim and maintains a presence there with about 275 employees. CKE has been based in Carpinteria but is moving its headquarters to Nashville, Tenn. It has said it will also keep its OC offices. Puzder had led CKE since 2000. He was President Donald Trump’s first labor secretary nominee, but the nomination was withdrawn.
Technology
Microsemi Corp. said it closed a manufacturing plant in China, The Aliso Viejo-based chipmaker didn’t detail which products were manufactured at the facility but described them as “lower value” devices not aligned with its strategic direction. Microsemi said resources will be invested elsewhere in higher value growth products and end markets. It said the closure won’t have a material impact on earnings. The plant, in Shanghai, was its only manufacturing factory in China, according to its annual report.
Shares of Irvine-based Alteryx Inc. surged in its first trading session on the New York Stock Exchange. The company priced its initial public offering at $14 per share, the high end of an initial estimate provided earlier this month. Shares trade under the symbol AYX and had risen to $15.36 by midday Friday. The analytics software maker is selling 9 million shares of Class A common stock and has granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.35 million shares of Class A common stock. Net proceeds from the offering are expected to be $126 million, or $145 million, if underwriters exercise their option to purchase the additional shares in full.
The Samueli Foundation gave $20 million to the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science to help it further diversify its undergraduate engineering and computer science student makeup. It will fund a new program that combines scholarships and internships. The school is named for Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli.
