Ventura-based Clean Diesel Technologies said Dec. 10 that CEO and President R. Craig Breese has resigned to “pursue other opportunities.” He will remain at his post until Jan. 8 and the company has created an interim office of the chief executive to replace him. Breese was also a member of the board of directors.
Westlake Village-based online advertising firm ValueClick is selling its owned-and-operated websites to the parent company of Dictionary.com, Match.com, Ask.com and About.com. The aggregate purchase price was $80 million, according to a regulatory filing.
Westlake Village-based LTC Properties, Goleta-based Deckers Outdoor Corp. and Move Inc., whose headquarters are in the Bay Area but has most of its employees in Westlake Village, were on a yearly ranking produced by UC Davis. Each year, the school surveys publicly traded companies in the state to find which have the most women among their boards of directors and highest paid executives.
Goleta-based Inogen, a maker of portable oxygen concentrators founded by UC Santa Barbara students, has filed for an initial public offering to raise up to $86.2 million. While many successful companies have been spun out of UCSB by professors and doctoral students, Inogen would likely be the first company founded by an undergraduate team to go public. Inogen won the program’s very first business plan competition in 2001.
As part of an occasional series checking in with small-business experts in the region, the Business Times asked Ray Bowman, the director of the Small Business Development Center at the Economic Development Collaborative — Ventura County, to take part in a written Q&A about entrepreneurial finance.
CKE will join Roark affiliated companies, which include Arby’s, Cinnabon, Carvel, Wingstop, Corner Bakery and a number of others. “The cultural match is very positive, and we look forward to taking full advantage of their experience and expertise in the restaurant segment,” CKE chief executive Andy Puzder told the Business Times.
CKE Restaurants, the Carpinteria-based parent of Carls Jr. and Hardees, has been sold to an Atlanta private equity firm specializing in restaurant chains.
The price was not disclosed and the sale to an affiliate of Roark Capital Group comes five months after Apollo Global Management hired Goldman Sachs to explore a sale or spinoff of the company it purchased in 2010.
