Local.com Corp., which runs a search engine for finding local businesses, said Thursday it relocated its headquarters to a larger space in Irvine.
The company moved to 34,000 square feet at 7555 Irvine Center Drive in the Irvine Spectrum. The space is 50% larger than Local.com’s previous space in Irvine.
Local.com took over space that used to serve as an office for Reston, Va.-based QuadraMed Corp., a developer of software for hospitals.
QuadraMed appears to have closed its Orange County office.
Local.com leased the space for five years. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
The company has seen its shares plunge in recent weeks after a website published a critical story about Local.com and its executives.
The shares are down 40% in the past six months with a recent market value of about $55 million.
In early August, TheStreetSweeper.org published a story that raised questions about the credibility of the company’s current and past executives and its way of doing business.
Local.com refuted the assertions, calling them “loose implications” designed to benefit investors who’ve shorted the company’s shares and profit when they fall.
The company runs an online search engine that directs users to local businesses, such as “flowers in Irvine.”
Users also get search results that include offers from local businesses, reviews, links to local websites, maps, driving directions and other features.
Local.com got started a decade ago as Interchange Corp.
Interchange, which went public in 2004, initially surged on the coattails of Google Inc. that same year.
Its shares fell off a cliff in the following years—plummeting nearly 90% by 2006.
The company has slowly been rebuilding itself since then via acquisitions of customers and a new branding strategy that includes various Web properties.
Late last year, Local.com reorganized and divided itself into three business units, dubbed “owned and operated,” “network” and “sales and advertiser services.”
