Scenes from the reopening: lottery winners, maskless customers
The doors of the region’s businesses were fully open on June 15 for the first time in 15 months — and two Central Coast residents became millionaires — as California lifted nearly all of its COVID-19 restrictions. The state appears to have the upper hand on the virus, with new cases down to around 1,000 Read More →
CSUCI, SBCC get multimillion-dollar gifts from MacKenzie Scott
Amazon billionaire MacKenzie Scott gave away another $2.7 billion on June 15, including $20 million for Santa Barbara City College and $15 million for CSU Channel Islands near Camarillo. Scott announced the new round of gifts with a blog post that lists all 286 recipients, most of them public institutions and private nonprofits in higher Read More →
AeroVironment moves headquarters out of Simi Valley
Fifty years after it was founded and two and a half after it moved to Simi Valley, the drone developer and manufacturer AeroVironment is moving its headquarters to Arlington, Virginia, effective immediately. The company made the announcement with an early morning news release on June 15. “The greater Washington D.C. area is where many of Read More →
Sientra closes sale of miraDry at $10M loss
Sientra, a Goleta-based plastic surgery device company specializing in breast implants, announced June 11 that it had closed the sale of miraDry, a non-surgical dermatological treatment. The $10 million sale brought half of what Sientra paid for the business four years ago. The miraDry system is an FDA-approved treatment to reduce underarm sweat, hair and Read More →
American Riviera moves up to top OTC marketplace
American Riviera Bank, the second-largest bank based in the Tri-Counties with nearly $1.1 billion in assets, began trading on the over-the-counter “Best Market” on June 14, a step up from its previous home on the “Pink” marketplace. Both marketplaces are run by OTC Markets Group. The Best Market, or OTCQX, is the highest tier for Read More →
Mission Produce earnings up, buoyed by rising avocado consumption
Rising avocado sales helped Mission Produce turn a profit in the second quarter of 2021 after posting a loss a year earlier. The Oxnard-based avocado distributor generated earnings of $7.4 million, or 10 cents per diluted share, for the quarter ended April 30, the company announced on June 10. In the same quarter last year, Read More →
Morro Bay stacks could go up in smoke under new agreement with battery project developer
The city of Morro Bay and Vistra Energy have reached an agreement that smoothes out several roadblocks that stood in the way of Vistra’s proposal to build the world’s largest battery storage facility on the Central Coast. Vistra and city staff members reached a memorandum of understanding that was approved by the Morro Bay City Read More →
