M&A roundup - week ending 1/23/16

FireEye acquired iSight; Docker bought Unikernel Systems; Microsoft purchased MinecraftEdu

Spotify acquired Cord Project, which provides a series of products based on voice messaging. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Cord Project will not be shutting down, though all of it's current projects will be sun setting, including Cord, The team, who will be staying in New York, will be joining Spotify’s product development organization.

Founded in 2014, Cord Project had raised $1.8 million in venture funding from Greycroft Partners, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Metamorphic Ventures, Slow Ventures and Vayner/RSE, among others. 

Spotify also acquired Soundwave, a Dublin-based company focused on music discovery. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Soundwave's app has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times in 190 countries in 14 languages since its launch. It currently has a database of songs that has grown to over 150 million.

For Spotify, the acquisition of Soundwave help the company "to enhance the overall consumer experience on Spotify." The team will be joining Spotify’s product development organization.

Founded in 2012, Soundwave had raised $2.9 million in venture funding from ACT Venture Capital, Enterprise Ireland, Radical Investments, SparkLabs Global Ventures, and others. 

Cybersecurity company FireEye acquired cyber threat intelligence company iSight. FireEye will pay approximately $200 million in cash, subject to customary adjustments for transaction related expenses.

Existing iSIGHT customers will continue to have access to iSIGHT products. FireEye plans to add new intelligence subscription models that include industry vertical specific slices.

Founded in 2006, iSight has staff in 17 countries, covering 29 languages. Its has invested nearly $100 million over eight years to build out its cyber intelligence capability. The company had raised $39.35 million in venture funding.

Docker acquired Unikernel Systems, a company that focuses on the development of the unikernel, which are specialised, single address space machine images constructed by using library operating systems. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Unikernel Systems was formed last year to build tools that allow developers to take advantage of a growing number of unikernel projects.

The Unikernel Systems team will continue to support the growing unikernel community, and contribute to open source projects, including MirageOS, Rumprun, and unikernel.org, while working closely with the rest of Docker to make sure unikernels integrate well with Docker tools.

IBM acquired video conferencing service UStream. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition will extend the IBM Cloud platform to help enterprise clients unlock the value of video.

With several cloud video acquisitions in tow, the company also announced it was forming a new cloud video services unit. Ustream will join the IBM Cloud Video Services unit that combines assets from IBM's R&D labs and strategic acquisitions.

Founded in 2007, UStream had raised $60.31 million in venture funding from DCM Ventures, Infinity Venture Partners Incubator Fund, and SoftBank Capital, among others. 

Microsoft acquired MinecraftEdu, a provider of products and services that make it easy for educators to use Minecraft in the classroom. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The company will use the acquisition to invest in a new and expanded version of Minecraft for the classroom called Minecraft Education Edition.

Existing MinecraftEdu users will be able to keep using the services, and sales will continue normally for now. MinecraftEdu owners will be offered one year of the new Education Edition for free and MinecraftEdu Hosted Servers will keep working.

Axway, a provider of multi-enterprise cloud integration and API and identity management software, acquired mobile app development platform Appcelerator. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Axway’s digital enablement solutions will be combined with the Appcelerator Platform.

Founded in 2006, Appcelerator is used in 185 countries for building cross-platform mobile apps. It is handling over 2 billion cloud API calls per month and powering mobile apps running on over 350 million devices.

The company had raised $87.9 million in venture funding from eBay, EDB Investments, Mayfield Fund, Relay Ventures, Sierra Ventures, Storm Ventures and Translink Capital, among others. 

General Motors acquired the remaining assets of ridesharing company Sidecar. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

GM gains the team and technology to accelerate their mobility plans and grow their new mobility offering. The key component to the transaction is a license to Sidecar patents. Sidecar retains ownership of those patents.

Sidecar was one of the first to offer ridesharing, but it was unable to compete against Uber and Lyft. Eventually it began focusing on an on-demand delivery service for third-party merchants. That didn't work and it was forced to shut down in December. 

Sidecar had raised about $35 million across three major funding rounds from investors such as Union Square Ventures, Avalon Ventures, Huron River Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Google Ventures, and Richard Branson.

Bitcoin exchange Kraken acquired competitior Coinsetter. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Along with Coinsetter, Kraken is also gaining access to Cavirtex a bitcoin exchange that Coinsetter had purchased last year.  These two acquisitions set the stage for an immediate and significant expansion into North American markets.

Client accounts of both exchanges will be automatically transferred to Kraken’s platform on January 26.

Coinsettler had raised $2.28 million in venture funding. 

Flywire, a provider of cross-border payment solutions, acquired ScholarFX, a processor of tuition, room and board payments for international students attending universities and other educational institutions in Canada. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

ScholarFX will become part of Flywire Canada, based in Toronto. Existing educational clients will migrate to the Flywire platform over the next few months and ScholarFX’s founder, Darren Chadwick, joins Flywire Canada in a leadership role.

The ScholarFX acquisition brings the total number of colleges and universities served by Flywire to almost 900, adding institutions such as Bishop’s University, MacEwan University and Camosun College. 

Open Systems, a provider of business software, acquired ProcessPro a software company specializing in solutions for process manufacturing. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The ProcessPro division will continue to enhance their software products, serve their clients, and pursue prospects seeking solutions for process manufacturing ERP in the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, cosmetic, and specialty chemical industries.

The acquisition will allow ProcessPro to expand geographically and to extend the functionality of its software.

FocusVision, a provider of market research technologies, acquired Kinesis Survey Technologies, a provider of quantitative and qualitative technology solutions to the market research industry. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Kinesis has now become KinesisPanel. It is an online panel management platform that includes a device-responsive design, automation tools, and reporting capabilities.

The addition of KinesisPanel to FocusVision’s suite of quantitative and qualitative research solutions enhances the product options available to both FocusVision and KinesisPanel clients by providing a wider set of fully integrated market research tools with real-time data synchronization into a single panelist database.

Goodbox, an Indian e-commerce app, acquired mobile wallet SmartPocket. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

The entire SmartPocket team will be joining Goodbox. The founders of SmartPocket, Kiran Shastri and Mayank Shah, will be joining the core leadership team.

SmartPocket had raised $240,000 in venture funding. The company has close to 1,800 merchants including restaurants, packers and movers, supermarkets, laundry chains and canteens.

Bioclinica, a clinical trials services and technology provider, acquired Clinverse, which automates the financial lifecycle of global clinical trials for contract research organizations and pharmaceutical companies. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Clinverse will become part of Bioclinica's eHealth Solutions business segment. The acquisition expands Bioclinica's offerings in the automated financial management technology solutions for global clinical trials.

Founded in 2008, Clinverse had raised $15.1 million in venture funding from Edison Partners, Hatteras Venture Partners and Vital Venture Capital.

Riverbed Technology, a provider of application performance infrastructure, acquired Ocedo, a provider of software-defined networking and software-defined wide-area-network solutions. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition will expand and accelerate Riverbed’s delivery of SD-WAN solutions to customers, while creating significant new growth opportunities for Riverbed and its partners.    

SD-WAN solutions streamline and simplify how hybrid WANs are deployed and managed, enabling IT to provide fast and secure delivery of applications hosted on-premises or in the public cloud with greater agility and ease. The SD-WAN market is expected to grow significantly in the next several years.

StyleSeat, an online destination for booking beauty and wellness appointments, acquired BeautyBooked, a discovery and booking platform for high end salons and spas. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition of BeautyBooked enables StyleSeat to rapidly expand into the $21 billion salon and spa segment. This deal will bring StyleSeat significant salon market share in top metro markets including New York City and Los Angeles and will provide access to prestigious partnerships, including an exclusive booking collaboration with Conde Nast's Allure Magazine.

Founded in 2013, BeautyBooked has more than 1,000 marquee salons on its platform. it raised $775,000 in venture funding from ARC Angel Fund, Innovation Garden, New York Angels and New York Venture Partners.

OpenGate Capital, a global private equity firm, acquired Power Partners, a US-based manufacturer of power transformers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 1958, Power Partners has produced over 8.5 million transformers and is a highly regarded name in the transformer industry. Jack Roberts, the CEO of Pacific Crest Transformers, which OpenGate acquired in 2006, will serve as the CEO of Power Partners.

Power Partners is headquartered in Athens, Georgia, generates more than $140 million in revenue, and has 475 employees.

An affiliate of Lone Star Funds acquired A Wireless, a reseller agent of wireless voice and data communications services, from private equity firm Atlantic Street Capital. No financial terms were diclosed. 

Headquartered in Greenville, NC, A Wireless, formerly Z Wireless, is a full service wireless retailer that markets and sells a full suite of products and services from over 600 stores in 31 states. 

William Blair served as exclusive financial advisor in connection with the sale, and Morrison Cohen acted as the legal advisor to A Wireless.

Verifone, a provider of secure electronic POS solutions, signed an agreement to acquired AJB Software Design, a provider of payment gateway and switching solutions for large merchants in the U.S. and Canada. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Acquiring AJB will better enable Verifone and its partners to deliver payment and commerce services that meet merchants’ demands for additional simplicity, security, flexibility and functionality.

Approximately 150 large retailers in the U.S. and Canada rely on AJB’s on-premise gateway and other solutions to connect nearly a half million payment devices. AJB connects devices from Verifone and other providers to more than 100 processors and applications required by supermarkets, c-stores and other merchants.

Ericsson announced its intention to acquire FYI Television, an entertainment metadata and rich media content supplier. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

FYI Television's employees will join Business Line Broadcast & Media Services, part of Ericsson's Business Unit Global Services, with the acquisition expected to close in Q1 2016.

The acquisition will strengthen Ericsson’s position in broadcast and media services. 

FYI Television accumulates and distributes TV entertainment content and linear scheduling data from over 9,000 TV networks daily, aggregating the information into customized formats for various digital, media, content, analytics and print clients for use on their connected devices such as tablets, phones, desktops, internet portals and gaming consoles.

Factory, a provider of a network of spaces built to support entrepreneurs and foster innovation, acquired tech blog Silicon Allee. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Silicon Allee is joining Factory to build a 7,000 square meter shared office and living space in Berlin Mitte.

Travis Todd, CEO and co-Founder of Silicon Allee, will be leading internationalization at Factory. Tood had previously worked for Factory, helping with its international expansion.

Internet Brands, an online media and software services organization, acquired Demandforce, a marketing software service provider, from Intuit. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition will bolster Internet Brands’ growing presence in the SMB software services space, particularly in the Health category. Demandforce will operate within Internet Brands' Health portfolio.

Following the acquisition, Internet Brands will serve more than 50,000 clients with the Internet's largest collection of software solution providers for health professionals. These include Sesame Communications, Officite, eDoctors, TherapySites, iMatrix, and Baystone Media.

Demandforce was founded in 2003 and acquired by Intuit in 2012. It had raised $10.12 million in venture funding. 

Mindtree, a global information technology consulting firm, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Magnet 360, a Salesforce Platinum consulting partner. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition strengthens Mindtree’s ongoing focus on delivering customer success by helping clients digitize their entire back-end value chains.

Magnet 360 has been a Salesforce partner since 2004. Magnet 360 works with some of the world’s largest companies across the full suite of Salesforce solutions such as CRM, branded sites and communities, social campaign strategy and management, and marketing automation. 

Salesforce Ventures hadinvested in Magnet 360 along with StarTec Investments and Gage Group.

Professional services network PricewaterhouseCoopers agreed to acquire Outbox Group, a technology consulting business. No financial terms of the deal were diclosed. 

The acquisition bolsters PwC's ability to offer specialised cloud-based solutions and transformational services for clients across the UK and Europe.

Outbox managing director, Nicholas Mobbs, who will join PwC as a partner. 

Reckon, a provider of software solutions for accounting and bookkeeping professionals, acquired SmartVault, a Software as a Service (online document management system. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

SmartVault will continue to operate under its own brand, led by CEO and Founder Eric Pulaski and will maintain its employee base and head office in Houston, Texas. This continues Reckon’s acquisition model of acquiring leading companies and operating them independently, as wholly owned subsidiaries.

Founded in 2007, SmartVault had raised $7.1 million in venture funding.

(Image source: itv.com)