Boss Insights – Weekly M&A Round Up – 3rd August 2018
Swiggy acquires on-demand delivery firm Scootsy for Rs 50 crore (c$8 Million)
3 August, 2018 - Mumbai-based on demand delivery firm, Scootsy, has been acquired by food delivery firm Swiggy in what is generally perceived as a ‘distress sale’. The all-cash deal is valued at about Rs 50 crore (under $8 million) and is likely to see Scootsy’s brand name being retained in Mumbai, according to multiple people aware of the development. Founded in 2015 as an on-demand delivery platform in Mumbai, Scootsy has raised about Rs 25 crore so far from Agnus Capital and Khattar Holdings. While the firm aggregates premium dining options catering to a niche, premium, high ticket size food delivery play in the city, about 25-30% of its business comes from non-food hyperlocal delivery operations, including daily essentials, flower and gifting. In a statement, Sriharsha Majety, CEO, Swiggy said, “With a shared belief of providing a superior user experience, its (Scootsy’s) addition will extend the convenience and reliability that Swiggy is synonymous with.”
https://www.swiggy.com/
Cisco to Acquire Cyber-Security Start Up, DUO Security for $2.35 Million
Ann Arbor, Michigan - August 2nd 2018 - Cisco has announced its intent to acquire Duo Security. In the company blog, David Goekler explained that the acquisition had been several months in the making. Goekler confirmed that Cisco’s motivation for acquiring the unified security access and multi-factor authentication business was that it would complement their cloud security portfolio. However additional synergies include Duo’s relevance within the context of Cisco’s intent-based networking strategy across the entire extended enterprise. It is a highly strategic addition for Cisco, offering their customers the ability to securely connect any user to any application on any network in today’s multi-cloud world. Chuck Robbins, CEO at Cisco since 2015, said, "We continue to rapidly innovate in security to address key areas of concern for our customers such as security in their complex data centers."
https://blogs.cisco.com/news/the-journey-to-secure-intent-based-networking-in-a-multicloud-world?_ga=2.210570261.1800380396.1533284534-322171601.1533284534
Austin software company Accruent sold in $2 billion deal
Austin, Texas & Everett, Washington - 31st July 2018 – Owners of Austin-based software company, Accruent, have announced that the company is being sold for $2 billion. California-based private equity firm, Genstar Capital, which has owned Accruent since 2016, has agreed to sell Accruent to Fortive Corp., an industrial products company based in Everett, Washington. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter. Accruent sells real estate, facilities and equipment management software. The company has more than 20 offices and 1,100 employees worldwide, and its software is used by more than 10,000 customers. Fortive expects Accruent to generate revenues of approximately $270 million in 2018. Fortive has also announced the completion of its acquisition of Gordian, a company offering software solutions to the construction industry.
https://investors.fortive.com/press-release/acquisitions-divestitures/fortive-acquire-accruent-approximately-20-billion-cash
Cision Acquires ShareIQ Visual Recognition Technology
Chicago – 30th July 2018 - Cision has announced it has acquired the technical assets of Berlin-based ShareIQ. The ShareIQ platform is based on patent-pending technology that discovers, analyzes and indexes original pieces of visual content, as well as shared and re-published copies of specific images. With the addition of ShareIQ technology to the Cision Communications Cloud, Cision becomes the first earned media platform in the industry to monitor, analyze and attribute value to both text and visual content. "Cision Comms Cloud™ is the technology enabler for earned media management, a new discipline in which professional communicators are able to combine the art of storytelling with the power and science of data to establish communications as a critical driver of business value," said Kevin Akeroyd, Cision CEO. "With more than three billion images uploaded to the web each day and more than 95 million images added to channels like Instagram daily, earned media is becoming increasingly visual. ShareIQ is the latest of our carefully curated technology acquisitions designed to make the Cision Comms Cloud the most robust in the industry – and the first to provide comms professionals with a way to harness the true business impact of the visual content market."
http://www.cision.co.uk/
CloudTrade Secures £2 million Investment from Calculus Capital
London, England - 27 July 2018 - CloudTrade, the leading provider of cloud-based e-invoicing, e-order and complex data capture services, has today announced the completion of its first investment round, securing a £2 million injection from Calculus Capital. The funds will accelerate expansion of CloudTrade’s services in the US and EMEA, while bolstering the business’s second stage global growth, which currently stands at over 40% YOY globally. The newly raised funds will also increase CloudTrade’s ongoing team expansion and deepen its research and development into complex data extraction, as well as its application into different solutions and sectors. Richard Moore, Investment Director, Calculus Capital, said: “What the team at CloudTrade have done is to streamline the Purchase-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash processes. Utilising its market-leading, patented technology, CloudTrade provides a uniquely simple and non-disruptive way for trading partners to send electronic invoices, orders and other business documents, straight into the receiving organisation’s processing application..”
https://blog.cloudtradenetwork.com/cloudtrade-closes-first-investment-round-raising-2-million
Slack Buys Atlassian’s HipChat and Stride
Sidney – 26 July 2018 – Announcing the acquisitions, Slack stated that Atlassian and Slack have been partners for a long time, with both companies sharing an orientation toward customer service. The partnership will be about their joint vision of simplifying and automating alignment, coordination and productivity for their customers. As part of the deal Atlassian is also making a small, but investment in Slack, which April Underwood, (for Slack) called “symbolically significant”. As part of the partnership, Atlassian will discontinue Hipchat and Stride, while providing a migration path to Slack for all their customers. Both sides are also committed to building deeper and more powerful integrations between Slack and the Atlassian family of products, including adding new functionality to the existing Slack integrations for Jira Server and Cloud, Trello and Bitbucket, and building out new integrations with Confluence and other products.”
https://slackhq.com/atlassian-and-slack-partnership
Exxe Group Announces Acquisition of Swiss High-Tech Storage Facility
New York, NY, July 25, 2018 - Exxe Group has announced the completion of the acquisition through its subsidiary of a 50,000 square foot storage facility that, once completed, will host a 100,000 square foot High Tech Center located in Switzerland, halfway between Zurich and Basel. The Center will serve as the hub of its new USB Universal Storage Box Solution for Physical and Digital Assets. At this property, Exxe Group will have secure, climate-controlled storage facilities for safely storing high value assets such as gems, precious metals, art, and other high value objects, on behalf of third parties or the corporation itself, and will also build a server farm that will host proprietary software enabling the digitization of these high value assets. This software, developed by Exxe Group’s subsidiary tech company, hosted at the new Swiss facility, will allow third parties to be able to issue alternative asset classes and digitized products backed by the assets stored at this facility, or ultimately, other physical and digital storage properties that may be developed and/or acquired by Exxe Group at a future date. The software that Exxe Group will be running out of the facility can be used to create, syndicate, and manage digitized assets for third parties, as well as broker such products on behalf of Exxe Group or on behalf of third parties.
https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/AXXA/news/Exxe-Group-Announces-the-Acquisition-of-the-Swiss-High-Tech-Storage-Facility-That-Will-Serve-as-the-Global-Physical-Hub-?id=198977
How Tantalum and SAP Are Driving a Revolution in Connected Vehicles
Tantalum and SAP are working together through the SAP Vehicles Network solution to improve the driving experience, a collaboration that will result in finding and paying for services like parking and fueling with just one click. “Just because you don’t have a smart car, doesn’t mean that you cannot benefit from these technologies,” Ozgur Tohumcu, CEO of Tantalum, said in a discussion with Eric Kavanagh, CEO of the Bloor Group. “It is becoming one large integrated transport network and it not just cars — even trains and bicycles. Having that much real-time data opens lots of new doors that we are not even aware of yet.”
https://news.sap.com/press-room/
