Waterman granted over $100,000 from California Employment Training Panel

From the Foothills Sun-Gazette

http://www.thesungazette.com/article/business/2017/06/21/waterman-granted-over-100000-from-california-employment-training-panel/

Exeter — Finding the right person for the right job in an organization is only half of the battle. The other half is training them. On a tight budget, companies find it strenuous to not only keep up with day-to-day tasks but training someone on their job throws a wrench in the whole thing. Even worse, when an employee is not trained appropriately they make mistakes along the way that are not necessarily their fault. And while that may be the case for a lot of businesses in the area, one business is being granted a break.

The State of California’s Employment Training Panel (ETP) has granted Waterman Industries $117,000 to enhance and enrich the skills of its local workforce.

The ETP was created in 1982 and is funded through an employer-paid payroll tax called the Employment Training Tax. The ETP’s financial support to California businesses helps in strengthening workplace knowledge, productivity, and competitiveness by empowering its workers and creating a healthy labor economy.

The ETP’s allocation of funds to Waterman Industries will allow the company to further reinforce its continuous improvement initiatives already underway. “We want to invest in our employees to enhance their abilities and their proficiency with the latest manufacturing best practices,” said Marcus Shiveley, president/CFO of Waterman Industries. “As a California-based company with global competitors, we’re committed to holding ourselves to the highest of standards in quality, timely delivery, and service.”

The company currently employs over 150 at its engineering and manufacturing center in Exeter. All of the company’s employees will participate in the benefits of the training program.

About Waterman Industries

Waterman Industries is a recognized leader in water control products for water treatment, wastewater, agriculture, rural water delivery, hydro-power, and flood control management. Waterman is a leading provider of water control gates, valves, automated controls, and accessories to these markets and key customers such as government agencies (water districts, utilities, flood control districts) and agricultural water users (growers, cooperatives).

The company was founded by W.A. Waterman in 1912. In 1953, the company began production of large and complex cast iron sluice gates, fabricated slide gates and radial gates in Exeter, California. In 2015,

the company was acquired by The Central Valley Fund, a private equity firm that invests in promising mid-market firms and positions them for rapid growth. For more information on Waterman Industries visit www.WatermanUSA.com

LightRiver Software, Acquires Unique Computer Services to Drive Multi-Vendor Transport Network Management

CVF invests alongside Plexus Capital into portfolio company, LightRiver Technologies, to fund the acquisition of Unique Computer Services

CONCORD, CA – June 6, 2017 – LightRiver Software, Inc., along with sister Company, LightRiver Technologies, Inc., the leader in Factory Built Network® design and commissioning of multi-vendor packet-optical networks, announces today that it has acquired Unique Computer Services, Inc., a pioneer and industry leader in the development and support of multi-vendor, transport network systems software, with hundreds of thousands of nodes under management.

Unique’s industry-leading product, netFLEX®, enables transport network operators of all sizes to efficiently provision and manage anything from a few to several hundred thousand network elements, with FCAPS support across a broad range of legacy and next-generation vendors and devices. Added to LightRiver’s Transport Lab, Network Factory preferred access to leading equipment vendors, and ongoing investment in Tier 1 Software Defined Networking integration, this combination will expedite the benefits operators can gain from next-generation transport technologies and network orchestration, with Webscale 2.0 elasticity. Additionally, the combination leverages aggregated resources to provide a single entity for the design, delivery, and management of complex, constantly evolving software controlled transport networks.

Carrier Grade Network Operators need to continuously improve the flexibility, capability, and stability of their networks while reducing operating costs and service delays. The netFLEX® system provides an L0/L1/L2 Transport Network Controller, either on-premises or in a hosted cloud model, for multi-vendor management across a wide range of technology domains – WDM, OTN, SONET, TDM, Ethernet; a wide range of leading vendors, including Adva, Nokia (Alcatel-Lucent), Ciena, Cisco, Coriant, Fujitsu, Infinera, and others, and can act as a single platform for Transport Domain Management and Services provisioning and SDN Multi-Domain Service Orchestration enablement.

“LightRiver is the leader in integrating optical solutions for mission-critical transport network operators of every type, so this is a perfect fit,” says Michael Leddy / Co-Founder and President at Unique. “The closer marriage of vendor-neutral, hardware and software integration will provide clear and immediate benefits to clients and vendors alike.”

“LightRiver and Unique are committed to serving our customers’ needs,” adds Glenn Johansen, LightRiver CEO. “Simplifying and accelerating migration to next-generation packet-optical networks, with the added power, flexibility, and efficiency that software automation will drive for legacy, current, and next-generation transport technologies must be our mission.”

Ed McNulty, Managing Partner at CVF Capital Partners added, “We are pleased to be able to support Light River in this strategic acquisition, as the company continues to drive a best in class solution for its customers”.

Combining multiple functions from multiple vendors into a single, integrated, hardware/software ecosystem provides network operators with a return on investment driven by the speed of delivery, improved network operations without vendor lock-in, and provides transport vendors a knowledgeable and friendly partner enabling nearer-term packet-optical migration and SDN instantiation, with access to domain management friendly to legacy network elements, with open interfaces and programmable API’s for the future.

The LightRiver Companies

The LightRiver Companies comprise the premier integration solution for next-generation, multi-vendor, Factory Built Networks® and netFLEX®, vendor-neutral, Transport Domain Orchestration Software solutions. LightRiver is an expert in Packet Optical, DWDM/ROADM, MPLS, and Carrier Ethernet systems and designs, engineers, commissions, manages and supports next-generation, software-controlled, transport networks for mission-critical clients that require the highest capacity, reliability, resiliency, and manageability that today’s optical communications technology can deliver. LightRiver delivers unique value with turnkey hardware and software solutions, carrier-grade quality, and unparalleled customer care in multi-technology networking. For more information, please visit www.lightriver.com.

About Unique Computer Services, Inc.

Unique is a pioneer and industry-leading provider of multi-vendor multi-technology telecommunications management software. Unique’s products enable companies of all sizes to efficiently manage up to several hundred thousand network elements, across a broad range of vendors. Unique provides all development for its products as well as the services needed to deploy and maintain them. Visit www.unique-inc.com for more information.

CVF Capital Partners Opens New San Diego Office

CVF Capital Partners announces the opening of a San Diego office in the downtown business district

Davis, CA and San Diego, CA – March 6, 2017

CVF Capital Partners (“CVF”) announces the opening of a San Diego office in the downtown business district. This new Southern California office, allows CVF to broaden its California presence and be closer to Southland middle-market companies.

José Blanco, CVF Managing Partner, commented, “We have done business for years all over California and the Central Valley, but having a local San Diego office will allow us to broaden our reach and be closer to business owners, advisors, bank partners, and many of our LP’s in Southern California”.

CVF’s launch of its third fund, CVF III, is looking to capture the positive economic and business dynamics of anticipated lower taxes, less regulatory burden, and a good macroeconomic outlook. As the group has done over the last decade, it will invest mezzanine capital through subordinated debt and equity instruments in lower-middle and middle-market companies throughout California, the Pacific Northwest, and the broader U.S. Southwest. “We continue to increase our efforts in expanding our geographic footprint and will continue to seek the best partners. To date, we have done transactions in California, Washington, Oregon, and Texas. Opening a new office will allow CVF to expand and better cover markets throughout the West”, Ed McNulty, CVF Managing Partner commented.

As part of this new expansion, CVF has brought Mr. Stefan Okhuysen back on board. Mr. Okhuysen previously worked for the firm and now returns as a Principal to head the new office. Brad Triebsch, CVF Managing Partner, commented, “We are very happy to have Stefan back. Having him leading our efforts in Southern California and into new markets will help our firm’s growth and continued success. In addition, his experience in Hispanic markets and companies will greatly aid businesses pursuing cross border opportunities”.

With the launch of CVF III, the California-based firm intends to invest between $5 and $20 million dollars per transaction in Mezzanine debt and/or equity. CVF will continue to focus mainly on financing acquisitions, management buyouts, recapitalizations, expansions, and strategic opportunities with a generalist industry approach.

For more information contact:

José Blanco

Managing Partner

CVF Capital Partners, Inc.

1590 Drew Avenue, Suite 110

Davis, CA 95618

Tel: 530-757-7004 ext. 227

Email: jblanco@cvfcapitalpartners.com

Stefan Okhuysen

Principal

CVF Capital Partners, Inc.

501 Broadway, Suite 800

San Diego, CA

Tel: 619-400-4881

Email: sokhuysen@cvfcapitalpartners.com