M&A roundup - week ending 1/2/16

Credit Karma bought Snowball; AT&T acquired Carrier IQ; BMG purchased Beds & Beats

Credit Karma, a personal finance company, acquired Snowball, a provider of an inbox for prioritizing mobile notifications on Android. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

This was an acqui-hire, with five out of six Snowball employees coming to Credit Karma. Anish Acharya, founder and CEO of Snowball, will become the company's Senior Director of Product Management. Snowball will be removed from the Google Play store, but remain active for the next three months before it is shut down for good and all of its data is deleted.

This acquisition will help Credit Karma build out its mobile capabilites. 

Snowball started life in 2010 as an inbox for mobile messaging services, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS and Snapchat, before it pivoted in July of this year to do the same thing but for push notifications instead.

Along the way the company had raised $2.3 million in venture funding, and was backed by Google Ventures, First Round Capital and Greylock Partners.

AT&T acquired software assets from Carrier IQ, a mobile service intelligence platform providing diagnostic analysis of smartphone users to OEMs and wireless carriers. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

The deal also involved some of Carrier IQ's staff. The company's website if now offline, so it seems as though it has now shut down.

Founded in 2005, Carrier IQ came under fire a few years ago when it was discovered that it was tracking the data of its 140 million users. Customers had included AT&T, Nielsen, Ericsson, IBM, Symphony Teleca and Teradata.

The company had raised $42 million in venture funding. 

Transcat, a provider of accredited calibration and compliance services, acquired Spectrum Technologies, a provider of commercial calibrations, test equipment repair services and product sales. The deal is worth $11.25 million in cash.

Founded in 1986, Spectrum was acquired in 1999 by its Chief Executive Officer, Brian Hubler, and Ken Horvath, Vice President of Operations, both of whom will remain with Transcat to continue leading the Spectrum operations and its 40 employees.

Spectrum generates annualized revenue of approximately $5.8 million.

The transaction will be effective December 31, 2015. Additional purchase consideration of $0.5 million may be paid by Transcat after 12 months if Spectrum achieves certain profit targets.

ePlus Technology acquired the businesses of IGX, a provider of advanced security solutions, secured networking products, and related professional services. No financial terms were disclosed. 

IGX will enhance ePlus' engineering delivery of advanced technology solutions in security and secured networking, while also expanding in geographic footprint in Connecticut.

The company's existing customers include SLED, commercial, enterprise, and global organizations, who will gain access to ePlus’ managed and professional services and integrated solutions across the data center, collaboration, networking, and the cloud.

Headquartered near Hartford, CT, with offices in metro New York, metro Boston, and London, IGX had net sales in excess of $51 million for the trailing 12 months ending August 31, 2015

StoneCalibre, an investment firm specializing in the acquisition of lower middle market companies, completed the acquisition of the Secure Document Exchange business unit, which includes Sagemcom Canada. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The company also announced that Sagemcom Canada has changed its name to XMedius Solutions. With its global headquarters in Montreal, Canada, XMedius enables companies to securely exchange vital and confidential information using different types of enterprise grade solutions, either on-premises or in the cloud.

Founded in 1996, XMedius is headquartered in Montreal, Canada, and operates in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. It has more than 12,800 live deployments. 

Russian online travel agency OneTwoTrip acquired flight metasearch application Corner. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The team at Corner have received job offers from OneTwoTrip. The app has been closed down and all user accounts will be transferred to the OneTwoTrip Mobile App.

The acquisition was part of OneTwoTrip's strategy to increase its mobile share of sales.

BMG, an international group of music companies focused on the management of music publishing, recording rights and music distribution, acquired Beds & Beats, a specialist UK production music company. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

The deal will allow BMG to expand its growing production music business into the radio sector.

Beds & Beats provides music publishing services. It was founded in 2008, comprises over 5,000 tracks and is the industry leader in radio production music, with all the major radio groups in the UK as regular users. Clients range from Classic FM to Radio 1 Xtra.

BMG’s production music business already includes brands such as X-Ray Dog and Music Beyond in the US and MusicDirector in Continental Europe.

(Image source: cynthiaburnham.com)