Amgen’s founding CEO dies
George Rathmann, the founding CEO of Thousand Oaks-based Amgen, has died, the company said April 23. Born in 1927, Rathmann helmed what is now Ventura County’s largest private-sector employer from 1980 to 1988 and was the chairman of the board until 1990. He had been recruited by Bill Bowes, one of Amgen’s founders, to run Read More →
Heritage Oaks regulatory order removed
Paso Robles-based Heritage Oaks Bancorp has bucked a regulatory consent order placed on it two years ago. The news came on April 23, as the firm reported that it earned $1.6 million in the first quarter, a 204 percent increase over the same quarter a year earlier. The parent company of Heritage Oaks Bank and Read More →
Eucalyptus raises $30M in venture capital
Eucalyptus Systems has raised $30 million in fresh venture capital from the same firm that funded Netflix and Twitter, bringing the Goleta-based cloud computing software company’s total capital raised to date to $55.5 million. Eucalyptus was founded in 2009 by a team of computer scientists led by UC Santa Barbara professor Rich Wolski. It makes Read More →
Ceres loses $6.8M in Q1
Energy crop company Ceres lost $6.8 million in the first quarter, it said in its first earnings report after going public in a $65.3 million IPO in late February. The Thousand Oaks-based firm’s loss widened from $5.4 million a year earlier as revenue dropped from $1.6 million to $1.3 million. Despite a $100,000 increase in Read More →
Founders earnings jump in Q1
San Luis Obispo-based Founders Community Bank earned $189,000 in the first quarter, up 220 percent from the $86,000 it earned in the first quarter a year earlier. The bank also announced plans to open a new Morro Bay branch. Loans and deposits were up during the quarter, with noninterest-bearing deposits climbing by $7 billion, CEO Read More →