M&A roundup - week ending 6/4/16

Salesforce bought Demandware for $2.8B; Vista acquired Marketo for $1.8B; Snapchat purchased Seene

Salesforce acquired Demandware, a provider of enterprise cloud commerce solutions. The deal is worth approximately $2.8 billion, valuing Demandware at $75 a share, which is 56 percent higher than its $47.99 closing price on Tuesday.

The Demandware team, which consists of more than 1,000 employees, will join Salesforce upon the closing of the transaction, and the company will become a part of the Salesforce Customer Success Platform. Specifically, Demandware will be spearheading a new division, called The Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

Founded in 2004, Demandware has 349 live customers, and 1,590 live sites. The company's clients include brands such as Design Within Reach, Lands’ End, L’Oreal and Marks & Spencer.

In Q1, Demandforce's subscription revenue was $56.8 million, a 31 percent year over year increase from $43.2 million in the first quarter of 2015. Its total revenue was $67.1 million, a 33 percent increase from $50.3 million a year earlier. 

Private equity firm Vista Equity Partners acquired marketing automation software company Marketo. Vista will acquire all outstanding shares of Marketo common stock for a total value of approximately $1.79 billion, or $35.25 per share, a 64% premium to the unaffected closing price as of May 9.

Marketo headquarters will remain in San Mateo. Closing of the deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of Marketo shareholders and antitrust approval in the United States. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016.

Foundedin 2006, Marketo went public in 2013. 

Vista Equity Partners also acquired identity management software provider Ping Identity. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition will allow Ping Identity to accelerate growth and innovation through strategic acquisitions and focused investment in its leading enterprise Identity-as-a-Service capabilities, which places identity at the core of enterprise security.

Founded in 2002, more than 1,500 enterprises, including over half of the Fortune 100, use Ping Identity. The company had raised $128.35 million in venture funding from DFJ, Fidelity Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, and Triangle Peak Partners, among others. 

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

Nokia completed the acquisition of smart device maker Withings. The transaction is valued at EUR 170 million (roughly $193 million).

Through this acquisition, Nokia Technologies has established a new Digital Health business unit led by Cédric Hutchings, formerly CEO of Withings, who reports to Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia Technologies.

Withings was founded by Chairman Eric Carreel and CEO Cedric Hutchings in 2008 and is headquartered in France, with approximately 200 employees across its locations in Paris, France, Cambridge, US and Hong Kong.

The company had raised $33.83 million in venture capital.

This acquisition was first reported in April. 

Freska, a Finnish on-demand cleaning service, acquired Wipe, a similar service from Norway. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

This acquisition will allow Freska to expand the company to the Nordics. 

Wipe’s founders are staying on and going forward will run Freska’s operations in Norway. 

Blackboard, an education technology company, acquired Sequoia Retail Systems, a provider of point-of-sale solutions exclusively focused on educational institutions and the students they serve. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition strengthens the Blackboard Transact suite of campus solutions for institutions, while simultaneously enhancing the student experience both on and off campus.

Founded in 1985, Sequoia has hundreds of colleges and universities as customers. 

Relequint, a digital agency specializing in inbound marketing for B2B tech, healthcare and manufacturing companies, acquired ZoomSpring, a digital marketing agency specializing in SEO and pay-per-click advertising. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

ZoomSpring CEO Jordan Godbey will receive equity ownership in Relequint and will serve as Relequint’s Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy to begin his partnership role. The company will relocate from Newport, KY to Relequint’s offices at 1010 Race St. in downtown Cincinnati. Relequint plans to make several more hires this year.

ZoomSpring was founded in 2011.

Patterson Medical, a distributor of rehabilitation, sports medicine and assistive patient products, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Performance Health, a manufacturer and supplier of consumer branded health, wellness and self-care products, from Gridiron Capital. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The combination of the two companies is expected to create a market-leading, multi-channel branded supplier to global rehabilitation, recovery and sports medicine customers. 

Mike Orscheln, Chief Executive Officer of Patterson Medical, will serve as Chief Executive Officer of the new company, with Marshall Dahneke, Chief Executive Officer of Performance Health, becoming President of the Performance Health segment. 

Patterson Medical is backed by majority shareholder Madison Dearborn Partners.

ACTIVE Network, a marketplace for activities and events, acquired JumpForward, a provider of NCAA recruiting, compliance, and business office management. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The integration of JumpForward into ACTIVE’s product portfolio for collegiate sports provides campus leaders a scalable product suite to handle the requirements needed for collegiate athletic departments

Founded in 2007, JumpForward is used by 55 percent of Division I collegiate sports programs, and has over 150,000 users and 175 college athletic departments as customers. 

Tagboard, a social search and display platform, acquired ZIIBRA, a platform for online retailers to interact with customers. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

With this acquisition, Tagboard proves its platform scales to solve new industry pain points, specifically towards an area important to current clientele: online commerce. 

As part of the acquisition, ZIIBRA Founder and CEO Omri Mor, along with Co-Founder Justin Myersand select staff, will join Tagboard immediately as part of the product development team.

Founded in 2012, ZIIBRA had raised $118,000 in venture funding from Right Side Capital Management and Techstars.

Instem, a leading provider of IT solutions to the global early development healthcare market, acquired Regulatory Information Management (RIM) solutions provider Samarind. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition will help Instem bring scalability and next generation capabilities to the increasingly complex global regulatory environment.

Samarind RMS will be aligned with Instem’s eStudy Data and Regulatory Management Solutions group, where they are providing focused software and services for converting, managing, storing, sharing and submitting information to FDA and other agencies.

Samarind was founded in 1987.

Electronic cash payment network PayNearMe acquired consumer financial management app Prism Money. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition enables the company to offer businesses and financial institutions in-app bill presentment and the ability for consumers to make bill payments via Automated Clearing House or credit/debit/prepaid cards. These capabilities augment PayNearMe's existing cash payment processing capabilities.

Founded in 2011, Prism had raised $3.53 million in venture funding.

OnePlus Corp., a provider of technology solutions in waste compactor monitoring systems, acquired SmartBin, a provider of intelligent remote monitoring systems for the waste and recycling sectors. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The combined company, which will be headquartered in Chicago and Dublin, enables each company to introduce its technology in new geographies and end markets, including fueling OnePlus’ growth in Europe and Australia.

SmartBin was established in 2010 and has over 100 clients in more than 25 countries, including the United States.  

BroadSoft, a unified communication software as a service company, acquired Intellinote, an enterprise messaging-based team communication and collaboration software application. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Intellinote advances BroadSoft’s vision for Project Tempo, an open communications framework that enables team collaboration and productivity by integrating popular enterprise cloud applications with contextual intelligence and real-time unified communications services provided by BroadSoft UC-One.

For 2016, BroadSoft expects the acquisition to be dilutive by about $0.04 to its non-GAAP earnings. 

Founded in 2013, Intellinote had raised $4.8 million in venture funding from Boulder Ventures and Grotech Ventures.

The Citadel Group, an Australian technology, healthcare and education solutions provider, acquired HPE records manager specialist Kapish. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Kapish will continue operating as usual for its existing customers.

The company, founded in 2007, is a Tier 1 HPE Software Gold Business Partner.

Publishing platform Medium acquired Superfeedr, a provider of unified Feed API. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Going forward, the company will remain independent of Medium, though founder and CEO Julien Genestoux said he is already working to enable full content RSS feeds both for publications and users on the site. 

Founded in 2009, Superfeedr raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Betaworks and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in 2009.

Healthiest, which curates natural products for personal care and for relief common and chronic health conditions, acquired 21Bundles, a monthly subscription service delivering a box of healthy products to new moms. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

Going forward, 21Bundles will continue to operate under its current name, with the possibility of being rebranded under the Healthiest label at some point in the future.

21Bundles' two employees, including founder Jacqueline Cerone, will remain as advisers to Healthiest, but will not be coming over as part of the deal.

Currently, 21Bundles has a recurring subscription-base of around 200 a month, sometimes as as high as 500, and, together, Healthiest and 21Bundles will have at least 350 monthly subscribers this month.

Snapchat acquired 3D photo app maker Seene. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

Snapchat was interested in Seene’s computer vision technology and its engineering team, which will relocate to Los Angeles. At least one senior Seene engineer is not joining Snapchat.

It is not clear whether the Seene app will continue to be maintained.

Occipital, a developer of mobile computer vision applications, acquired Replica Labs, which specializes in 3D reconstruction from a single camera. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Replica Labs technology is already integrated into Occipital, and the team is headquartered at its office in Boulder.

In conjunction with the acquisition, Occipital is revealing a feature that lets any phone or tablet with a single camera interact scale-accurately with a captured scene.

Replica Labs was founded in 2013, and raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Plug and Play.

Asentinel, a provider of Technology and Telecom Expense Management and Managed Mobility Services, acquired Anatole, a provider of SaaS telecom and IT expense management solutions. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The merger will add robust wireless capabilities to Asentinel’s existing TEM product offering and create a provider of wireline and wireless technology expense management software solutions.

Founded in 1999, Anatole had raised $3.24 million in funding from A Plus Finance and Calliode.

Open Text, a provider of enterprise content management, signed an agreement to acquire Recommind, a provider of enterprise search, email management and eDiscovery systems. The transaction purchase price is approximately $163 million.

With this acquisition, Recommind’s eDiscovery solution will complement OpenText’s enterprise information management (EIM) solutions. In addition, this acquisition is expected to expand OpenText’s expertise in cloud and developing and using analytics to solve concrete and expensive business problems.

Founded in 2009, Recommind had raised $22.5 million in venture funding from Kennet Partners and Sapphire Ventures.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of fiscal 2017 and is subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions. (1) 

Schneider, a provider of transportation and logistics services, acquired Watkins & Shepard, a provider of logistics planning, technology implementation and asset utilization, and Lodeso, a national white glove home delivery service with online tracking capabilities. No financial terms of these deals were disclosed. 

These acquisitions bring together final-mile delivery, claims-free handling and a technology platform. When combined with Schneider, it creates an integrated capability that takes the complexity out of the supply chain for omnichannel retailers and manufacturers.

Both acquisitions complement the growing Final Mile+ service from Schneider, which provides customized home, commercial and retail delivery with white-glove service.

Watkins & Shepard and Lodeso will continue to offer services to existing customers. 

Compliance software developer Tax Compliance acquired property tax appeal management software company AppealTrack. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Founded in 2008, AppealTrack manages, monitors, and automates the property tax appeal process, focusing on common pain points like storing documents, managing staff workflow, and tracking multi-year appeals.

TCI’s existing products include PTMS, software that helps businesses manage personal and/or real property tax compliance and LicenseHQ, which provides management functionality specifically focused on licensing and permitting.

Warner Music Group acquired digital compilation company X5 Music Group. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

X5 will continue to operate as a standalone company under its existing management, led by CEO and co-founder Johan Lagerlöf. Its operations will be overseen by Tim Fraser-Harding, WMG’s President, Global Catalog, Recorded Music. 

Founded in 2003, X5 is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

Noosphere, an international asset management firm, acquired Fiksu, a mobile marketing technology company. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

Fiksu has become part of ClickDealer, a performance marketing agency owned by Noosphere. 

Founded in 2008 Fiksu amassed over 1,300 brands and app publishers as clients, including 24 of last year’s top 25 grossing apps. It been responsible for 7.2 billion app downloads, and collected over 26 trillion app usage points.

The company had raised $16.75 million in venture funding from CRV, Nick Beim and Qualcomm Ventures.

MedAssets-Precyse, a provider of revenue cycle services, technology and education solutions, acquired Equation, a provider of financial and clinical healthcare analytics and consulting. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

This union will result in an enhanced, end-to-end healthcare financial and clinical business intelligence and analytics solution for the healthcare enterprise.

Equation’s technology and analytics will be combined with MedAssets-Precyse existing analytics platform, merging MedAssets-Precyse revenue cycle management, health information management, with Equation’s data analytics capabilities into one  patient to payment healthcare solution.

SolarWinds, a provider of IT management software, completed the acquisition of LOGICnow, a provider of integrated cloud-based IT Service Management solutions. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

With this acquisition, SolarWinds is bringing together LOGICnow and SolarWinds N-able to create SolarWinds MSP, uniting two complementary leading players in the managed services solutions market to deliver a strong and complete portfolio of capabilities to MSPs of every size and scale worldwide.

As a combined entity, SolarWinds MSP will serve more than 20,000 managed service providers worldwide, managing more than five million end-points and one million mailboxes.

Founded in 2001, LOGICnow had raised $27.58 million in venture funding.

Wire Stone, an independent digital marketing agency, acquired Tenthwave Digital, a full-service digital agency. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition expands Wire Stone's national footprint to include the East Coast, and adds roughly 60 employees to its 200-person roster of integrated marketing specialists.

Founded in 2011, Tenthwave's clients include PayPal, eBay, Time Warner, Duncan Hines, Facebook and Google.

Augeo, a provider of engagement, loyalty and incentive platforms, completed the acquisition of Incentive Logic. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

While both Augeo and Incentive Logic focus on large scale, highly complex employee recognition programs among other areas, Augeo will be adding Incentive Logic's solutions for the SMB employee incentive market, market research and health and wellness incentive solutions to expand its offering.

Incentive Logic was founded in 1998 and its operations will remain intact with the current account, technology and customer support teams working out of Scottsdale, Arizona. 

IBM acquired EZSource, an Israel-based application discovery company. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The planned acquisition of EZSource will help clients find new ways to modernize and update applications on the system that is the backbone of the global economy.

EZSource provides a visual dashboard to quickly and easily show developers which applications have changed to ease the process of modernizing applications, exposing APIs and more efficiently leveraging development resources.

The planned acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016 subject to completion of governmental review and customary closing conditions.

ServiceNow, an enterprise cloud company, agreed to acquire cybersecurity company BrightPoint Security. No financial terms of the all-cash deal were disclosed. 

With this acquisition, ServiceNow continues to expand its Security Operations offering, enabling customers to more quickly identify and respond to relevant threats.

BrightPoint Security capabilities will eventually be added to ServiceNow's Security Operations, which it launched in February. The BrightPoint addition will help firms gain secure and controlled information sharing to rapidly prioritize and better remediate threats.

Founded in 2011, BrightPoint had raised $8.4 million in funding from Aligned Partners, EMC Ventures, Founder Collective, TechOperators and The Perkins Fund.

Market Track, a provider of advertising, promotions, pricing and eCommerce intelligence solutions, acquired Channel IQ, a provider of pricing intelligence, Minimum Advertised Price monitoring, and Where-to-Buy eCommerce solutions. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Founded in 2009, Channel IQ raised $12 million in venture funding from Drive Capital. The company serves more than 600 of the world's leading brands across nearly every major product category.

Financing for the transaction was provided by Golub Capital.

Novantas, a provider of analytic advisory services and technology solutions for banks, acquired Treasury Strategies, a treasury consulting company. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The transaction expands the Novantas portfolio and strengthens its position as the leading revenue management company serving the financial community. It also extends Novantas analytic advisory services and technology solutions into the corporate arena.

 

The Company announced that it will operate under the Novantas name and retain the Treasury Strategies brand in the corporate advisory business line. Treasury Strategies partners, Tony Carfang, Cathy Gregg and Dave Robertson, will become Managing Directors of Novantas, Inc, and the Treasury Strategies Chicago office will be combined with the Novantas Chicago facilities.

The corporate integration is expected to be completed during June 2016.

 

Zentila CEO Mike Mason will join etouches as Vice President, Sourcing and Hospitality Solutions. He will lead etouches efforts into the hospitality market with a fully integrated platform offering the most comprehensive solution for venue sourcing, booking and the entire event management process.

etouches provides enterprise event management software with tools for registration, mobile apps, event marketing, onsite, logistics, event data and ROI. Zentila completes the solution with integrated hospitality features to enhance the user experience and boost ROI through increased event performance.

DrFirst, a provider of e-medication management software and services, acquired certain assets of The IN Group, a consulting services firm that helps hospitals using MEDITECH healthcare information systems.

Through the acquisition, The IN Group becomes a division of DrFirst, led by DrFirst’s Brad Block as president, and The IN Group founder Bruce Matthias as senior vice president.

Founded in 2004, The IN Group provides a variety of consultative services for hospitals that use MEDITECH. This includes implementation, optimization and upgrade support, report writing, regulatory compliance improvement for Meaningful Use and ICD-10, as well as support for hospitals pursuing new payment models such as Patient-Centered Medical Home and Accountable Care.

(Image source: forbes.com)