Woodland Hills-based B. Riley Financial Corp. said profit nearly doubled in the first quarter of the year over the same year-earlier period, fueled partly by two acquisitions made last year.

Profit in its first quarter ended March 31 grew 77.8% to $8 million versus $4.5 million last year.

Bryant Riley, chairman and co-chief executive officer of the financial services company, said last year’s acquisitions of GlassRatner and MagicJack helped fuel the growth.

Downtown-based GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group, a financial advisory services firm, became a wholly-owned unit of B. Riley Financial on Aug. 1. In November, B. Riley paid $143 million for Israel-based MagicJack VocalTec Ltd., a cloud-based communications company.

First quarter revenue grew 48.3% to $142.1 million versus $95.8 million last year.

B. Riley’s board of directors also approved a special dividend. Stockholders on record on May 15 will receive 18 cents a share in addition to the regular quarterly dividend of 8 cents a share, which will be paid on or about May 29.

B. Riley’s shares closed at $18.12 on Wednesday, unchanged from the previous day.

Finance reporter Pat Maio can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8329.