M&A roundup - week ending 11/21/15

Google bought Bebop; Pandora acquired Rdio; Cisco purchased Acano

Google entered into an agreement to acquire Bebop, a development platform that makes it easy to build and maintain enterprise applications. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

Both founder Diane Greene, and the bebop team, will join Google upon close of the acquisition. Greene will lead a new team combining all of Google's cloud businesses, including Google for Work, Cloud Platform, and Google Apps.

Bebop had been in stealth mode until the acquisition.

Lightspeed POS, a point-of-sale platform for retailers and restaurateurs, acquired Amsterdam-based eCommerce software company SEOshop. No financial terms were disclosed.

As part of the acquisition, Lightspeed is launching Lightspeed eCom, its new eCommerce platform. In the coming months, Lightspeed will integrate Lightspeed eCom with its Lightspeed Retail cloud-based POS solution, bringing multi-channel retailers an even more robust set of tools to run their entire business from one place.

The full version of Lightspeed eCom as well as the integration with Lightspeed Retail for U.S. customers is expected to launch in Q1 2016.

Founded in 2008, SEOship had raised $1.62 million from HENQ Invest and Rutoo international.

Cisco acquired video conferencing firm Acano. While no financial terms of deal were disclosed, the price was reportedly $700 million.

Acano’s portfolio includes video and audio bridging technology and gateways to enable customers to connect different collaboration solutions from disparate vendors across cloud and hybrid environments.

The company will help Cisco expand the interoperability and scalability of its collaboration portfolio, allowing customers to connect from anywhere, from a browser on a mobile device to the corporate boardroom, and now scaling to easily connect thousands of users across an organization.

Chatbooks, a subscription service for printed photo books, acquired Guesterly, a company that creates pocket-sized printed event guides. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

Guesterly connects people at events like weddings and conferences by creating a passport-sized photo roster of all attendees.

Founded in 2014, Chatbooks has raised $2.1 million in seed funding, and will sell its one millionth photo book by the end of 2015.

Recruitment software company Greenhouse acquired onboarding tool Parklet. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

This is the first acquisition for Greenhouse. It bought Parklet’s team and technology.

Founded in 2012, Parklet had raised $1.5 million in seed funding from Greylock, Storm Ventures, and FundersClub.

Demand-side ad buy platform MediaMath acquired Spree7, a digital media consulting and programmatic implementation firm. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

MediaMath also announced the appointment of Spree7's CEO, Viktor Zawadzki, as Regional Manager for Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH). Spree7's office in Berlin will become the foundation for MediaMath's DACH, which will collaborate with other European offices including London, Paris, and Madrid as part of the company's expansion strategy in EMEA.

Spree7 was founded in 2012 and its clients include Swisscom group companies and it serves as a white label programmatic trading desk for more than 50 independent media agencies in the region.

Music discovery platform Pandora entered into an agreement to acquire several key assets from Rdio, a streaming music service. The purchase price is $75 million in cash, subject to certain purchase price adjustments.

In addition to acquiring technology and intellectual property from Rdio, many members of Rdio’s team will be offered roles with Pandora, subject to close of the agreement.

The company expects to offer an expanded Pandora listening experience by late 2016, pending its ability to obtain proper licenses.

Rdio had raised $125.7 million in funding from investors that included Atomico, Janus Friis, Mangrove Capital Partners and Skype.

Agent Ace, a real estate agent recommendation service, acquired fypio, a real estate company that provides a more personalized, lifestyle-driven search experience for home buyers. No financial terms were disclosed.

The two companies have now merged to create a new company called OpenHouse, a real estate lifestyle search company that combines property search, data-driven real estate agent recommendations and in-depth neighborhood and community information.

Additionally, OpenHouse secured $13.5 million in Series A funding in a round led by Triangle
Peak Partners and March Capital Partners, with participation from additional investors.

Founded in 2013, fypio had received $2.4 million in funding.

Digital hospitality company Velocity acquired Uncover, the UK-based restaurant reservation app. Finacncial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Velocity will continue to invest in the Uncover platform until the launch of a consolidated product early next year empowering diners across all geographies to discover, reserve, pay, and earn rewards in one app.

Honeywell signed an agreement to acquire Satcom1, a provider of on board communications routing software and a satellite communications provider of airtime and consulting services.No financial terms of the deal wer disclosed.

The acquisition positions Honeywell to offer operators an all-in-one connectivity solution spanning routing software, airtime, hardware equipment, avionics, flight support services and applications. The acquisition will broaden Honeywell's presence in Europe and more easily expand Honeywell connectivity offerings around the world.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2015.

Data102, a host of IT services for small to medium size businesses, acquired Icyshout, a website hosting service. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

like Icyshout, Data102 does website and email hosting, domain registrations, directmx email filtering, and SSL certificates. But Data102 also provides a Virtual Private Server product, as well as cloud backups, VoIP Phone Service, and colocation+bandwidth.

Icyshout and Data102 have long worked close together, and we have several duplicated backend systems. The two companies will merge their systems together.

TrekkSoft AG, a provider of software solutions for tour and activity companies, acquired Acteavo, another software as a service provider for the tour and activity industry. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

The acquisition of Acteavo will strengthen TrekkSoft’s position in Europe, where TrekkSoft is also based. TrekkSoft now employs twenty-six people from sixteen countries. Olan O’Sullivan, CEO of Acteavo, will join TrekkSoft’s team in Interlaken, Switzerland.

Acteavo had raised $116,000 in venture funding.

IDI, an information solutions provider, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Fluent, people-based digital marketing and customer acquisition company. The price was $100 million in cash and 15,000,000 shares of common stock.

As per the deal, Fluent will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of IDI.  The combined company will be cash flow positive from day one. Ryan Schulke, CEO of Fluent, and Matt Conlin, President of Fluent, will remain in their executive roles post-acquisition, with Schulke joining IDI’s Board of Directors at closing.

The transaction is expected to close on or before December 1, 2015, but closing may be extended to December 15, 2015.

M/A-COM Technology Solutions Holdings, a supplier of analog RF, microwave, millimeterwave and photonic semiconductor products, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire FiBest, a merchant market component supplier of optical sub assemblie. It was an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $60 million, or 2.4 times trailing twelve months revenue.

The acquisition extends MACOM’s leadership position in 100G, 200G and 400G optical networking, and  expands its Serviceable Addressable Market in data centers.

Closing is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to occur during the company’s fiscal first quarter of 2016.

Gravity4, a high frequency marketing cloud, acquired a 93.7% ownership stake in Pixels, a multi-screen advertising technology company headquartered in Hong Kong. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

This move marks Gravity4’s entry into the South East Asia and Hong Kong markets.

Pixels was created in October 2014, the result a merger between Pixel Media, Snap Mobile, and Adsfactor, and is one of the largest digital media entities in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. The company has just over 100 employees and is headquarters in Hong Kong, with additional offices in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Shanghai.

Kevin Huang, Co-founder and CEO of Pixels, will continue to lead the company.

(Image source: blog.widen.com)