– San Fernando Valley Glendale LegalZoom.com Inc. has joined with Sam’s Club in a strategic sales agreement that will broaden how the Glendale company sells its do-it-yourself legal documents and services. LegalZoom, which sells legal documents online, will offer Sam’s Club members a package that includes a will, living trust and power of attorney for $299. The offer includes a year of unlimited revisions and independent attorney consultations, as well as discounts on other LegalZoom documents, such as incorporations, LLCs, trademark applications and other forms targeted at businesses. Sam’s Club is a chain of warehouse stores owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. It has three classes of membership, including one specifically for businesses. USC’s medical system announced it has formed a strategic alliance with Surgical Care Affiliates Inc. to manage surgery centers in the Los Angeles region, including one in Glendale. Surgical Care is a publicly traded company in Deerfield, Ill. that provides surgery services, often working with academic hospitals. Under the agreement with Keck Medicine of USC, the university will supply the surgeons and Surgical Care will manage the day-to-day activities in the operating rooms, with the goal of increasing efficiency and lowering costs. The first outpatient location to utilize the new model will be Keck Medicine of USC Surgical Center – Glendale, offering endoscopy, orthopaedic and urology procedures. USC recently purchased an orthopaedic doctors group in Glendale. Burbank Post-production house Modern VideoFilm has brought in executives for a new management team from a unit of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. that helps turn around troubled companies. Scott Avila joins the Burbank company as chief executive and Cooper Crouse as president. Both are directors with the Deloitte Corporate Restructuring Group, a team providing advisory and interim management services to companies and their stakeholders. They are joined by Roxanna Sassanian who was appointed chief financial officer. The changes follow management turnover at Modern VideoFilm. Former chief executive Moshe Barkat and former chief financial officer Hugh Miller left a month ago. Warner Bros. Entertainment has formed Blue Ribbon Content, a production unit for short-form, live-action content. The Burbank studio will produce original shows and some based on characters it owns from entities like DC Comics. Blue Ribbon Content has already ordered three series to be produced. Sam Register will oversee Blue Ribbon. Register was named in April as president of Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Digital. Senior Vice President Andrew Mellett will oversee business affairs, financial operations and distribution and sponsorship deals. Northridge Cal State Northridge received a $22 million grant to promote diversity in the nation’s biomedical workforce – the largest single grant the school has received. The money from the National Institutes of Health will fund the Build@CSUN program to create new strategies for recruiting and retaining minority researchers in the biomedical field. The grant is one of 12 given nationally by the NIH for those efforts. CSUN and the other institutions awarded grants will establish a national consortium that will develop and implement methods for encouraging minorities to start and stay in biomedical research careers. Van Nuys Van Nuys Airport announced it will begin offering U.S. Customs clearance and inspection services next year. The services will be provided in a dedicated facility being constructed by Signature Flight Support, a fixed-base operator at the general aviation field. Van Nuys has been without customs agents since 2006, when they were pulled from there and Burbank Bob Hope Airport for re-assignment. That forced incoming international flights to stop at other airports, including Los Angeles International Airport, with Customs service. Under the deal with Signature, the company will remodel part of its Van Nuys terminal at a cost of $225,000 to separate incoming international travelers from domestic charter passengers. Canoga Park Fireman’s Brew announced a private offering of up to $6 million through an online platform allowed under the new federal JOBS Act. The offering will allow accredited investors in the United States and overseas to purchase shares, priced at $1.25 through FlashFunders.com, an online funding platform aimed at early-stage companies. Proceeds from the offering, which will extend to Jan. 14, will be used to accelerate the Canoga Park craft beer company’s expansion nationwide. Fireman’s Brew, founded in 2005 by two local firefighters, has been conducting private stock offerings to raise capital for expansion periodically since 2007. The latest offering would be its largest to date. Sherman Oaks Signature Group Holdings Inc. announced it will acquire Global Recycling and Specification Alloys for $525 million. Signature, in Sherman Oaks, is acquiring the business unit from Aleris International Inc. of Beachwood, Ohio. The sale includes 18 metal-and-alloy recycling service facilities in North America and six in Europe. Signature will pay $495 million in cash, with the remainder in preferred shares. Signature, which is an investment holding company that buys profitable target businesses, plans on issuing about $300 million of senior secured bonds in a private placement, as well as a registered offering of Signature’s common stock at a later date. A long-time executive of the Valley Economic Alliance has been named as the group’s new chief. Kenn Phillips will take over the Sherman Oaks group that works to attract and retain companies. He replaces Greg Krikorian who left after about 16 months to take a position at Woodbury University in Burbank. Phillips, 56, has been with the Alliance for 15 years, most recently as senior vice president. Prior to joining the Alliance, Phillips worked for Boeing Co. He serves as a commissioner on the City of Los Angeles Workforce Investment Board. Porter Ranch A joint venture of Foremost Communities Inc., in Newport Beach, and Starwood Capital Group Global LP, in Greenwich, Conn. has purchased 230 acres near Porter Ranch to build a 314-home subdivision. Lots at the Deerlake Ranch development will span from 5,000 square feet to a half-acre with home prices expected to fall between $1.2 million and $1.7 million. The neighborhood will feature a resort-quality pool complex, equestrian trails and 73 acres of open space. The project was entitled for another developer in 2004 but was never built because the housing crash hit. – Conejo Valley Camarillo Interlink Electronics Inc. announced a collaboration with the Institute of Technical Education in Singapore for the development of sensors and applications used in human interaction with machines. The collaboration will allow the Camarillo sensor technology company access to engineering capabilities and industry-oriented infrastructure at the institute’s Technology Development Centre. Interlink Chief Executive Steven Bronson said the partnership will accelerate growth in the company’s research and development in Singapore. Agoura Hills Tipalti, an Agoura Hills firm that offers automated cloud payout services, announced it has received $13 million in a funding round led by Wicklow Capital. The company plans to use the Series B funding to aggressively grow sales and marketing, invest in product development and research development, and to expand its business to new markets. Tipalti’s services automate business payments for companies that may have a large number of payouts, such as an affiliate advertising network. Tipalti currently serves more than 250,000 payees and processes over $1 billion annually. – Around the Valleys To be considered for publication, submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. Please put ATV in the subject line. For more information, call (818) 316-3123.
