October 3, 2024

Stephen Nellis


| Friday, October 10th, 2014

Groundwater rules and mandatory sick leave in spotlight

Columns, Latest news, Law & Goverment, Top Stories

While the water law will introduce formal management to many basins in the region for the first time, it doesn’t fundamentally change the idea of proprietary groundwater rights. In employment law, starting next summer, California businesses of all sizes will have to give all employees ­— part-time, full-time or even temporary, exempt or non-exempt — at least three days a year of paid sick time.

| Friday, October 3rd, 2014

Nellis bids farewell with final thoughts about tech corridor

Central Coast, Columns, East Ventura County, South Coast, Technology, Top Stories, Tri-County Economy, West Ventura County

Today is my final day at the Pacific Coast Business Times. By the time you read this, I’ll be working at a startup in San Francisco. But for the past seven years, I’ve had the pleasure of covering technology and innovation in the Tri-Counties. I’ve reported on everything from semiconductor firms that have been in Read More →

| Friday, October 3rd, 2014

ParentSquare software helps connect classrooms

Small Business, South Coast, Technology, Top Stories

Santa Barbara-based startup ParentSquare is making a communication system that hopes to reach all parents, regardless of what kind of communication technology they have at home or what language they speak.

| Tuesday, September 30th, 2014

News Corp. to buy Move for $950M

Real Estate, Technology, Top Stories

News Corp., the global media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, plans to buy Move Inc. for $950 million in an all-cash deal. Move is based in Silicon Valley, but its largest facilities and most of its operations are in Westlake Village.

| Monday, September 29th, 2014

SLO telecoms to merge

Central Coast, Latest news, Technology

Norcast Telecom and Blue Rooster Telecom, two San Luis Obispo-based firms that provide voice and data service to about 2,500 Central Coast business customers, are merging.

| Friday, September 26th, 2014

$86.2M Sientra IPO plumps up public-company ranks

South Coast, Technology, Top Stories, Tri-County Economy, Tri-County Public Companies

With Santa Barbara-based breast implant maker Sientra’s Sept. 19 announcement that it plans to raise up to $86.2 million, the IPO has returned to the Tri-Counties in a big way. Sientra’s filing is the fourth initial public offering announced in the region this year, joining completed deals at Goleta-based Inogen and Santa Barbara-based Resonant for Read More →

Alex Minicucci, CEO of San Luis Obispo-based SMS Masterminds. (Business Times file photo)

| Friday, September 26th, 2014

SpendSmart snaps up TechXpress for $1.6M

Technology, Top Stories

It has only been a few months since Alex Minicucci took the reins of publicly traded SpendSmart Networks, but he has already masterminded the acquisition of fellow San Luis Obispo firm TechXpress and expanded SpendSmart’s headcount from 12 to 40.