CONEJO VALLEY THOUSAND OAKS A subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies Inc. received a $10 million contract from a French space agency to provide detectors and other electronics for a mission to Jupiter launching in 2022. Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks will provide infrared detectors and focal plane electronics for use in the Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer developed by the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale. The instrument will be aboard the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission of the European Space Agency to launch in 2022 and arrive at Jupiter in 2030 for a three-year study of the planet and three of its moons. Amgen Inc.’s biosimilar to the bestselling drug of all time has been approved for commercialization by the European Commission. Amgevita, a biosimilar to pharma giant AbbVie Inc.’s arthritis medication Humira – which brought in more than $16 billion in worldwide sales last year – has been approved to treat a number of inflammatory diseases in adults and children, including various forms of arthritis, plaque psoriasis and Crohn’s disease. Biosimilars are highly comparable to their original bioengineered counterparts but are not exact replicas because they are made in living cells. The Thousand Oaks biotech’s version was FDA-approved last September following Chicago-based AbbVie’s lawsuit claiming Amgevita infringed on at least 10 AbbVie patents. WESTLAKE VILLAGE Precision Painting of Westlake Village has signed a lease to take more than double its current space in Newbury Park to accommodate growth, according to commercial real estate firm Westcord Commercial Real Estate Services of Westlake Village. The painting contractor has signed an agreement to take 7,000 square feet in the Anchor Business Park at 2192 Anchor Court. The business, which has 40 employees, currently leases 3,300 square feet at 31312 Via Colinas. Precision has been operating since 2009 performing both commercial and residential work and has additional locations in Irvine and Santa Clarita, according to its website. SAN FERNANDO VALLEY BURBANK Walt Disney Co.’s board of directors extended for an additional year the contract with Chief Executive Robert Iger. He had planned to step down from the Burbank entertainment and media giant next year but with no successor in place, the board believed the company and its shareholders would best be served by having him stay on until July 2, 2019. Former chief operating officer Thomas Staggs was considered the likely successor to Iger until he abruptly left the company in April last year. Iger has been head of Disney since September 2005 and originally announced he would retire in March 2015. Videogame and comics fan website Machinima has named Russell Arons as general manager to replace the outgoing chief executive. Arons will work with former chief executive Chad Gutstein on a transition plan, after which he will leave the Burbank company to pursue entrepreneurial projects. The digital networks group of Warner Bros. Entertainment acquired Machinima last year after several years of the Burbank studio being an investor in the programming service that targets gamer, comics and superhero fans. Arons, who joined Warner Bros. in 2009, will oversee the creative, marketing services, data analytics and business development of Machinima. ENCINO Insurance brokerage Answer Financial has formed a partnership with online loan company LendingTree to provide its insurance comparison platform. The agreement with the Encino brokerage allows LendingTree customers to compare insurance rates, coverage and customer reviews for top-rated insurers. Experts from Answer Financial will be available for consultation to guide customers through purchase options. Answer Financial was founded in 1997 and acquired in 2011 by Allstate Corp., the largest publicly held personal line insurer in the U.S. The company has about 200 employees in Encino and another 400 working in other offices, primarily in Knoxville, Tenn. GLENDALE Avery Dennison Corp. has named Gregory Lovins interim chief financial officer. The label and pressure-sensitive materials manufacturer said Lovins had been elected by its board to replace chief financial officer Anne Bramman, who will depart the company after a “brief transition period.” Lovins, 44, was appointed vice president and treasurer of Avery Dennison in August 2016 and has worked for the company for more than 20 years. His experience leading Avery Dennison’s various businesses – including its label and graphics materials arm, which generated more than two-thirds of the company’s $6.1 billion in sales last year – was a key factor in the board’s decision to name him to the post, Chief Executive Mitch Butier said in a statement. Startup ServiceTitan, the maker of management software for home service companies, has secured $80 million in investment funding. The Glendale company announced that it had closed a Series B financing round led by San Francisco’s Iconiq Capital. ServiceTitan completed a $19 million Series A round in 2015, according to company intelligence firm Crunchbase, bringing its total funding to just shy of $100 million. ServiceTitan’s product is designed to streamline business operations for residential plumbers, air conditioning companies, electricians and other home service professionals. The software includes tools for dispatching technicians to work sites, invoicing and managing customer relations. SHERMAN OAKS Miguel Angel Juárez has been named president and executive director of Golden State Certified Development Corp. Juarez will oversee all areas of the Sherman Oaks nonprofit lending organization’s efforts to provide long-term, fixed-rate financing through U.S. Small Business Administration loan programs. Prior to joining Golden State, Juarez had been director of small business lending for Valley Economic Development Center, a nonprofit lender located in the same Sherman Oaks building as Golden State. Golden State administers the Small Business Administration’s 504 loan program and Intermediary Loan Program. It operates under the umbrella organization San Fernando Valley Small Business Development Corp. TARZANA Local fast-casual chain Carving Board Sandwiches has announced plans to develop franchise locations of its restaurants. The sandwich shop manages corporate-owned outposts in Burbank, West L.A., Hollywood and Tarzana, where it is headquartered. Three more are slated to launch in California in late 2017, and its first franchised location will open in Dubai later this spring. However, the company will focus primarily on securing domestic partnerships in major U.S. cities to fuel its expansion, and is seeking entrepreneurs in populous cities like San Francisco and Dallas to franchise its concept for roughly $468,000 in average startup costs. UNIVERSAL CITY A Los Angeles automobile dealership chain with locations in Universal City, Glendale, Valencia and North Hollywood has agreed to pay $3.6 million in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, according to the commission. Sage Automotive Group and two of its employees were charged with using deceptive advertising and online reviews, and deceptive and unfair sales and financing practices, according to the FTC. The settlement, which still needs court approval, will prohibit the dealerships and individuals from making misrepresentations in advertising, testimonials or reviews. Under the settlement proposal, the defendants’ payment would return money to affected consumers. SIMI VALLEY SIMI VALLEY Xypro Technology Corp., a Simi Valley provider of security software for computer servers, announced it had completed the acquisition of Merlon Software Corp. The purchase will allow Xypro to integrate its products with Merlon’s database management software tools, which are used by financial services, telecommunications and retail companies that rely on Hewlett-Packard Enterprise servers. Xypro has served as a distribution channel for Merlon’s products for more than eight years, said Senior Director of Business Development Kenneth Scudder, who was appointed Merlon’s president following the acquisition. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. – Compiled by Stephanie Henkel