M&A roundup - week ending 12/3/16

Steven Loeb · December 3, 2016 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/4870

Twitter bought Yes; Apple acquired Indoor.io; Fandango purchased Cinepapaya

CNN acquired the team behind video-sharing platform Beme. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Beme will be shutting down on January 31 of next year, while the 12 person Beme team comes over to CNN. They will be in charge of a new venture, which will be a separate, stand-alone business as part of the CNN Digital portfolio. 

CNN expects to launch the new news site it by the summer of 2017. The team at Beme will keep its current office in Tribeca, which will house the new media brand.

Beme, which was co-founded by YouTube star Casey Neistat and launched in beta in July 2015, was downloaded 1.2 million times. 

The company had raised $2 million in venture funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Vayner/RSE.

Dick's Sporting Goods acquired GameChanger Media, a mobile app and website providing scorekeeping, stats, live gamester plays, and recap stories for amateur sports teams. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

GameChanger will become part of Dick's Team Sports HQ, its suite of digital youth sports offerings.

Founded in 2009, GameChanger has been used by 165,000 amateur baseball and softball teams and, in October, the company reached 8.6 million baseball and softball games scored, along with over 1.6 billion pitches, on the GameChanger App.

GameChanger had raised $10.63 million in venture funding from BoxGroup, Costanoa Venture Capital, David Tisch, Tenfore Holdings, Trilogy Equity Partners and Upstage Ventures.

Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm, completed its acquisition of enterprise event management platform Cvent. The price of the deal was $36.00 per share in a transaction valued at approximately $1.65 billion.

Cvent has been merged with Lanyon, a cloud-based software for the meetings and events industry, which was acquired by Vista in 2013. 

Going forward, the combined company will operate under the Cvent brand and will be led by Reggie Aggarwal, Cvent’s founder and CEO. David Bonnette, CEO of Lanyon, will work with the management team helpin to transition the two entities into a single company.

Together, the company will have more than 800 technology professionals and more than 700 customer-facing support staff, along with 28,000 customers in 100 countries. Combined, they have powered over 2 million events and sourced over $50 billion total RFP value through their sourcing networks.

The headquarters for the combined company will be in Tysons Corner, Virginia with a significant office presence in Lanyon’s former headquarters in Dallas, Texas. The merger is effective as of Tuesday, and the two companies will combine business operations over the coming year.

Cvent’s common stock stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange on November 29.

Founded in 1999, Cvent went public in 2013 at an IPO price of $21 a share. 

AngelList, which helps startups connect with investors, acquired Product Hunt, a technology discover site. No financial terms were disclosed. 

Product Hunt will remain independent. In the following months, with their community’s input, they’ll introduce new integrations to help companies reach customers.

Founded in 2013, over 100 million product discoveries and 50,000 startups and makers have introduced their technology on Product Hunt. 

The company raised $7.1 million in ventue funding.

Twitter acquired social app developer Yes. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Some of Yes's apps included Frenzy, which brought friends together in real life, and WYD, which lets users see photo and video statuses of what their friends are doing at the moment. The apps will be shutting down in the next few weeks.

Yes founder Keith Coleman will be joining Twitter as its new VP of Product. 

Juniper Networks, an enterprise security company, acquired cloud operations management and optimization company AppFormix. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The AppFormix team will report to Juniper's office of the CTO.  This acquisition will bring the power of analytics through machine learning and telemetry to Juniper's customers.

Founded in 2013, AppFormix had raised $7 million in venture funding from August Capital.

The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2016, subject to customary closing conditions.

Wargaming, a game development platform that publishes free-to-play MMO games online, acquired mobile game developer Boomlagoon. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The Boomlagoon team will become a newly established entity: Wargaming Helsinki. This studio will focus on strengthening Wargaming in mobile, by working on titles within the company’s stable of games, as well as creating new experiences.

Founded in Helsinki in 2012, Boomlagoon have worked on titles including Monsu, Spirit Hunter and Super Soldiers.

The company had raised $3.6 million in venture funding from 360 Capital Partners, Inventure Oy, London Venture Partners and Northzone.

CA Technologies signed a definitive agreement to acquire Automic Holding GmbH, a provider of business automation software. The transaction is valued at approximately 600 million euros.

CA will add Automic’s automation and orchestration capabilities to its portfolio to give customers options that address their IT operations and DevOps needs on-premises, in the cloud and hybrid cloud environments.

Founded in 1985, Automic has offices in Vienna, Paris, Asia Pacific Japan, and Bellevue, Washington. It has  has approximately 600 employees.

The deal has been unanimously approved by both Boards of Directors, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of CA’s fiscal 2017. Foros acted as financial advisor to CA Technologies on this acquisition.

SUSE, a provider of open source software,, has entered into an agreement to acquire OpenStack Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Cloud Foundry Platform-as-a-Service cloud assets from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. No financial tems of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquired OpenStack assets will be integrated into SUSE OpenStack Cloud, and the acquired Cloud Foundry and PaaS assets will enable SUSE to bring to market a certified, enterprise-ready SUSE Cloud Foundry PaaS solution for all customers and partners in the SUSE ecosystem.

The agreement includes HPE naming SUSE as its preferred open source partner for Linux, OpenStack and Cloud Foundry solutions. In addition, SUSE has increased engagement with the Cloud Foundry Foundation, becoming a platinum member and taking a seat on the Cloud Foundry Foundation board.

FLIR Systems, which designs, manufactures, and markets sensor systems, acquired Prox Dynamics AS, a developer and manufacturer of nano-class unmanned aerial systems for military and para-military intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance applications. The deal is worth approximately $134 million in cash.

The addition of the Prox Dynamics business will augment FLIR's Surveillance segment by extending FLIR's Airborne sensor product line and fully leveraging Lepton technology. FLIR intends to invest in optimizing the PRS platform to further enhance the range, cost, flexibility, and performance of the system.

Prox Dynamics will become FLIR's Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) line of business operating within the Surveillance segment.

Cendyn, a provider of software and services for driving sales and marketing performance in the travel and hospitality industry, acquired Guestfolio Communications, a CRM marketing platform for boutique hotels. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Duane Hepditch, CEO of Guestfolio, will join the Cendyn executive team as the Senior Vice President of Product Marketing, and the remainder of the Guestfolio team will serve as the West Coast hub for Cendyn, with offices in Whistler, British Columbia.

Guestfolio's focus on guest engagement and marketing automation for independent boutique hotels will be combined with Cendyn's data-driven enterprise hotel CRM solution.

AVI-SPL, a provider of enterprise grade audio visual systems integration and collaboration solutions, acquired Anderson Audio Visual, an AV consultant and design firm. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Anderson’s market leading regional capabilities will strengthen AVI-SPL’s presence in high growth markets and expand AVI-SPL’s industry leading global support and services platform to current and prospective customers.

Anderson has six locations, four in California, one in Texas, and one in North Carolina. It was ranked as the industry’s 17th largest revenue generator in 2015.

Zayo Group Holdings, a provider of communications infrastructure services, entered into an agreement to acquire Electric Lightwave, a provider of fiber-based network infrastructure solutions. The deal is for $1.42 billion in cash.

Electric Lightwave has 8,100 route miles of long haul fiber and 4,000 miles of dense metro fiber in Portland, Seattle, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Spokane and Boise, with on-net connectivity to more than 3,100 enterprise buildings and 100 data centers.

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP served as legal advisor to Zayo on the transaction. Latham & Watkins and Gray Plant Mooty served as legal advisors to Electric Lightwave.

Syncsort, a provider of tools for big bata, mainframes, and the cloud, acquired Trillium Software, a provider of data quality solutions. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The combination of Syncsort and Trillium’s complementary product set will enable enterprise customers to seamlessly harness all their valuable data assets for greater business insights, applying high-performance and scalable data movement, transformation, profiling and quality across traditional data management technology stacks and emerging Hadoop and cloud environments.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Credit Suisse, Antares Capital and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey are providing fully committed debt financing for the transaction. Foros served as the financial advisor to Harte Hanks. Credit Suisse, Evercore and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey served as the financial advisors to Syncsort.

SintecMedia, a provider of management systems for the broadcast, cable, and satellite industries, acquired Operative Media, a digital advertising business management solutions for major media companies. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Operative's management team, including Lorne Brown, the company's founder, are also investors in the combined business. Brown will take the role of President and remain part of the strategic leadership team within SintecMedia.

The combined company brings together TV and digital ad management for media companies and publishers worldwide. 

Founded in 2000, Operative had raised $14.5 million in venture funding. 

GCA Advisors, LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor and Dentons US LLP, the world's largest law firm, acted as legal advisor to Operative.  Morris Manning and Martin, LLP acted as legal advisor to Francisco Partners and SintecMedia.

GSIX, a software development company, acquired Effectuate Ventures, a custom software company. Financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Effectuate will soon be renamed GSIX USA.

Effectuate was founded in 2013 by Gerrit McGowan, the former CEO/founder of charitable giving SaaS, kula.com.

GetInsured, a provider of individual health insurance e-commerce, acquired Array Health, a provider of group health insurance ecommerce technology. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

Chini Krishnan, GetInsured's CEO and co-founder, will remain CEO of the combined company. Array Health co-founder and CEO Jonathan Rickert will serve as senior vice president and general manager of the Insurer Business Unit.

The company's headquarters will be in Mountain View, California, while engineering, product management, sales and services in support of the insurer line of business will be based in Seattle.

Founded in 2006, Array Health had raised $13.08 million in venture funding.

Fidel Technologies, a provider of IT services for localisation and translation, acquired LinguaNext, which allows any software application to be used in any language. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition will expand Fidel's multilingual services and solutions portfolio.

Founded in 2010, LinguaNext had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Helion Venture Partners.

Bridges Ventures, a specialist fund manager, acquired a majority stake in World of Books, a ‘circular economy’ technology business for used books. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

World of Books works with charity shops and recycling merchants to collect used books; re-selling as many as possible, and recycling the rest to make corrugated cardboard packaging and newsprint. World of Books has created an £11 million economic benefit for the charities it works with over the last five years.

Eversheds acted as an adviser to Bridges Ventures. 

Commercial leasing and asset management platform VTS merged with leasing management platform Hightower. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Under this agreement, VTS and Hightower will combine under VTS. Nick Romito, CEO and Co-founder of VTS, will remain in his role as CEO. Brandon Weber, Co-founder and former CEO of Hightower, will assume the role of Chief Product Officer at VTS, leading the charge for product development. Weber will join the VTS Board of Directors along with former Hightower board member Ethan Kurzweil, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners.

Founded in 2011, VTS had raised $88.7 million in venture funding from 500 Startups, Ben Ling, Insight Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures, among others.

Founded in 2013, Hightower had raised $21.66 million in funding from Aaron Levie, Bessemer Venture Partners, BoxGroup, Gary Vaynerchuk, RRE Ventures and Thrive Capital, among others.

Accenture, a global professional services company, acquired Karmarama, a UK-based independent agency. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition strengthens the ability of Accenture Interactive, part of Accenture Digital, to create and deliver integrated customer experiences to brands in the UK and beyond.

Karmarama’s Jon Wilkins (Executive Chairman), Ben Bilboul (Chief Executive Officer), Sid McGrath (Chief Strategy Officer) and Nik Studzinski (Chief Creative Officer) will continue in their current roles and take on additional Accenture Interactive leadership positions to drive brand strategy and creativity in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America (EALA).

Founded in 2000, Karmarama's clients include the BBC, Confused.com, Honda, Just Eat and Unilever. Karmarama has a team of 250 employees.

The raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Phoenix Equity Partners.

Rogue Wave Software, a developer of tools for mission-critical applications, acquired Akana, a suite of API management/security tools. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Akana is available as a SaaS platform, on-premises, and as a hybrid deployment. This acquisition is highly complementary to the 2015 Zend acquisition, fueling web and mobile development, including API development.

The company was founded in 2001.

Advantage Solutions, a provider of sales and marketing solutions, acquired Upshot, a consumer marketing agency. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Upshot will continue operating under its current name as a business unit within Advantage’s marketing division, Advantage Marketing Partners

President and CEO Brian Kristofek will continue leading Upshot.

Founded in 2013, Upshot had raised $28,000 in venture funding from Alchemist Accelerator.

Booz Allen Hamilton, a provider of management and technology consulting services, entered into an agreement to acquire digital services firm eGov Holdings, aka Aquilent. The purchase price was $250 million.

Aquilent will be the Laurel, Maryland hub of Booz Allen’s Digital business. Upon closing of the transaction, eGov Holdings will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Booz Allen Hamilton.

Aquilent provide digital and cloud services for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Postal Service (USPS), U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), and other federal clients. Its revenue  have grown at a 28 percentcompounded annual growth rate over the last five years. For the remainder of Booz Allen’s fiscal year 2017, the transaction is expected to add approximately $30 million to $35 million of revenue. It is expected to be accretive to Booz Allen earnings and to add to operating margin in fiscal year 2018.

The transaction is expected to close by December 31, 2016, and is subject to customary closing conditions.

Omnicell, a provider of medication and supply management solutions and adherence tools to healthcare systems and pharmacies, signed an agreement to acquire Ateb, a provider of pharmacy-based patient care solutions.  The price was approximately $41 million.

The shared portfolio supports the Omnicell mission of increasing patient access to medication adherence solutions to simplify management of chronic conditions, with the goal of improving outcomes.

Omnicell expects the transaction to close during the fourth quarter of 2016, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Zipongo, a digital nutrition solution, acquired the team and assets of FillMyFork, a provider of healthy cooking recommendations, nutrition rewards, passive tracking of grocery purchases and related analytics. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

FillMyFork's analytics have revealed nutrition trends in tens of thousands of grocery purchases. Zipongo and FillMyFork will use the combined power of their analytics to leverage behavioral science to drive healthy eating choices.

Founded in 2014, FillMyFork had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Alchemist Accelerator, Jean Hammond, Prat Moghe, Ramesh Motwane and Tim Draper.

Accedo, a provider of interactive apps for smart TVs and connected TV devices, merged with Digiflare, a provider of UX strategy, design and development for multi-screen and TV Everywhere applications. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Michael Lantz, co-founder and CEO of Acced, will be CEO of the merged company, which will remain under the Accedo brand, while Accedo founder Fredrik Andersson, and Digiflare founders David George and Mano Kulasingam, will all take on senior leadership positions within the merged organisation.

Accedo was founded in 2004 and has raised $11.27 million in funding from Industrifonden and SEB Private Equity.

Verisk Analytics, a data analytics provider, acquired MarketStance, a provider of market intelligence data and analytics to the property/casualty insurance market. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

MarketStance will become part of ISO, a Verisk Analytics business and a leading source of information about property/casualty insurance risk.

Dr. Fritz Yohn, chief executive officer and founder of MarketStance, will continue to lead the business.

Fandango acquired online movie ticketer Cinepapaya. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

This allows the company to expand its business in Latin America. The acquisition of Cinepapaya will nearly double the company's consumer reach in the region and extend its ticketing business to seven new countries: MexicoArgentinaColombiaPeruChileEcuador and Bolivia. 

Founded in 2012, Cinepapaya's exhibition clients include Cinemark, Cinepolis, Cine Colombia, Cinestar, Cine Pavilion, among others.

The company had raised $3.04 million in venture funding.

Apple acquired indoor mapping platform Indoor.io. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

 Apple is also working on a feature that provides better guidance for changing lanes while driving.

Founded in 2007, Indoor.io had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from First Fellow Partners.

Penske Automotive Group, an international transportation services provider, signed an agreement to acquire CarSense, a specialty retailer of used vehicles in the United States. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Founded in 1997, CarSense has five locations operating in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, market areas, including southern New Jersey.

The completion of the transaction is subject to customary conditions and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017.

Clarion Capital Partners, a private equity firm, acquired Madison Logic, a provider of data-driven, account-based marketing. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

 

Madison Logic’s existing shareholders, including CEO Tom O’Regan and co-founders Vin Turk and chairman Erik Matlick, will maintain an ownership stake in the company and will continue to build the business in partnership with Clarion. Tom O’Regan will remain Madison Logic’s CEO, managing day-to-day operations and directing the company’s long-term strategy.

Founded in 2009, Madison Logic had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Compound.

Petsky Prunier represented Madison Logic.

Visa agreed to acquire CardinalCommerce, an e-commerce payment authentication company. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition will enable more secure, seamless payments, whether made through a browser, mobile app, or connected device, and will help Visa’s clients and merchant partners accelerate digital commerce.

Cardinal will continue to operate and serve all of its clients as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Visa, and its authentication platform will continue to support a broad range of payment brands and partners across the industry. Co-founders Tim Sherwin and Chandra Balasubramanian will remain as leaders of the Cardinal team, based in Mentor, Ohio.

Founded in 1999, Cardinal raised $7.55 million in venture funding.

 

The transaction, which is subject to the customary closing conditions, is expected to close in Visa’s second fiscal quarter 2017.

(Image source: turnbullhill.com)

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