Boss Insights - Tech M&A Round Up - 17th July 2020

HPE to Accelerate Edge-to-Cloud Strategy with Acquisition of Silver Peak
San Jose, California – 13th July - Hewlett Packard Enterprise has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Silver Peak, an SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network )company, in a transaction valued at $925 million.  Silver Peak will be combined with HPE’s Aruba business unit and will extend Aruba’s technology leadership in the large and fast-growing SD-WAN space. President and CEO of HPE, Antonio Neri, said: “HPE was an early mover in identifying the opportunity at the edge and that trend is accelerating in a post-COVID world. With this acquisition we are accelerating our edge-to-cloud strategy to provide a true distributed cloud model and cloud experience for all apps and data wherever they live. Silver Peak’s innovative team and technology bring critical capabilities that will help our customers modernize and transform their networks to securely connect any edge to any cloud.”
https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/press-release/2020/07/hpe-accelerates-edge-to-cloud-strategy-with-acquisition-of-sd-wan-leader-silver-peak.html

Crayon Acquires Oracle Cloud and On-Premise Licensing Optimization Company, Navicle
Sydney, Australia – 15th July 2020 - Crayon, a global, digital transformation services company, has announced that it acquired Navicle, a specialist in Oracle on-premise and cloud license optimization. The agreement will enable Navicle to leverage Crayon's expertise in cloud economics and cost optimization while continuing to support their local clients. This opportunity also allows Navicle to support Crayon's global customer base, providing their expertise and proprietary technology to a global audience. Discussing the acquisition rationale, Crayon CEO, Torgrim Takle, said: "The acquisition of Navicle gives us an even stronger foothold in this market, enabling us to continue to provide our expertise to our customers and support them to get the most out of their IT solutions while saving costs. In addition, we see opportunities for Navicle to support our other subsidiaries, helping them expand to a wider customer base that was previously out of reach."
https://www.crayon.com/en/news-and-resources/crayon-acquires-navicle--leading-expert-in-oracle-cloud-and-on-premise-licensing-optimization/

Planview Acquires AI/ML Company, Aptage
Austin, Texas – 9th July 9, 2020 — Planview® has announced the acquisition of Aptage, a technology pioneer in the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to portfolio management and work management. Aptage’s expertise in data science is combined with unique domain knowledge in the economics of development spanning Agile and project methodologies. The company’s technology and IP is focused on the application of AI/ML to enterprise software, offering customers early insights and visibility into anticipated value and delivery risk across traditional project management and agile methodologies. Commenting on the acquisition, Greg Gilmore, CEO of Planview, said: “In today’s disruptive environment, the companies with early insights are the ones that can pivot more quickly to create competitive advantage. Aptage’s innovative AI/ML technology creates insights into project value and delivery risk, improving and strengthening the strategy to delivery pipeline. We’re excited to welcome Aptage into the Planview family and bring this expertise to our customers.”
https://www.planview.com/company/newsroom/planview-acquires-ai-ml-leader-aptage/

IBM to Acquire Brazilian Robotics Company WDG Automation
Armonk, New York – 8th July 2020 - IBM has announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Brazilian software provider of robotic process automation (RPA) WDG Soluções Em Sistemas E Automação De Processos LTDA (referred to as "WDG Automation" throughout). The acquisition further advances IBM's comprehensive AI-infused automation capabilities, spanning business processes to IT operations. Financial terms were not disclosed. By embedding WDG Automation's RPA capabilities into IBM's existing AI-infused automation capabilities across business processes and IT operations, business leaders will have broader access to intelligent automation through software robots. The acquisition also will extend IBM Services' ability to transform clients' operations as RPA, analytics and AI bring more intelligence to the enterprise workflows that fuel adaptive and resilient businesses and helps to expand IBM's capabilities for delivering automation pervasively across client organizations.
https://newsroom.ibm.com/2020-07-08-IBM-to-Acquire-WDG-Automation-to-Advance-AI-Infused-Automation-Capabilities-for-Enterprises

Google to Invest $10 Billion in India
Sheffield, UK - 13th July 2020 - Chief Executive of Google, Sundar Pichai, has unveiled plans for Google invest $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years as the search giant looks to help accelerate adoption of digital services in the key overseas market. The company has set up Google for India Digitization Fund through which it will be making investments in the country. India is a key overseas market for Google, where a range of its products and services, including Search, YouTube and Android, have seen adoption with a large percentage of the online population. With more than 500 million people in India online every day, and over 450 million smartphones in active use, India is regarded as an attractive and largely untapped market for both US and Chinese tech giants. India-born Pichai commented: “There’s still more work to do in order to make the internet affordable and useful for a billion Indians…from improving voice input and computing for all of India’s languages, to inspiring and supporting a whole new generation of entrepreneurs.”
https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/investing-in-indias-digital-future

Twilio Boosts Growing IoT Business with Acquisition of Electric Imp
https://connect.electricimp.com/blog/electric-imp-is-now-part-of-twilio

Property Tech Company Goodlord has Acquired Vouch
13th July 2020 - Property technology company Goodlord, has announced that it has acquired fast-growing referencing platform, Vouch. The acquisition will bring together two of the sector’s most dynamic players and create a market-leading technology business. Going forward, the 2,000+ clients of the two companies will have a wider choice of software offerings and access to a sector-leading end-to-end platform. Goodlord CEO, William Reeve, will be CEO of the combined group. Vouch’s founders will become Goodlord shareholders and Vouch gains a seat on the Goodlord Board of Directors. Vouch co-founders, husband and wife team Simon and Jaime Tillyer, will continue to run the Vouch platform from their Sheffield HQ, alongside their team of 15 employees. They retain their roles of Managing Director and Director of Operations, respectively. Vouch’s Head of Technology, Dan Hawkins, will continue in his role. Co-founders Kevin and Lynsey Gaskell will move on to focus on the separate family agency business, Shefflets.
https://blog.goodlord.co/news/goodlord-and-vouch-to-join-forces-to-create-new-market-leader

SiriusXM To Acquire Stitcher For Up To $325M
SiriusXM  has announced it plans to buy podcast platform, Stitcher from the E.W. Scripps Company for up to $325 million. According to a statement from the company, the satellite radio company will pay $265 million in cash for Stitcher when the deal closes, and it could pay up to an additional $60 million to Scripps, if Stitcher meets certain financial criteria this year and next. The acquisition of Stitcher will help bolster SiriusXM in the podcast and digital audio ad marketplaces. Commenting on the acquisition, SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer, said: “The addition of Stitcher is an important next step as we continue to develop and strengthen our offering in the fast-growing podcasting market. With Stitcher, we will expand our digital audio advertising presence and look to generate new ways for creators to find and connect with their audiences. Stitcher has a talented team with deep experience in the podcast space, and we look forward to working with them to better meet the needs of creators, advertisers, and listeners.”
http://investor.siriusxm.com/investor-overview/press-releases/press-release-details/2020/SiriusXM-to-Acquire-Stitcher/default.aspx

DocuSign Acquires Liveoak Technologies for $38 Million to Continue Cloud Expansion
San Francisco – 7th July 2020 - Amid increasing demand for solutions that enable the remote completion of agreements that traditionally required in-person contact, DocuSign has announced its acquisition of Austin-based startup, Liveoak Technologies, for $38 million in an all-stock transaction. The acquisition builds on the companies' existing partnership, where DocuSign eSignature is integrated with Liveoak's secure agreement-collaboration platform. Liveoak uses web-based videoconferencing, rich collaboration features, identity verification and other tools to help complete an auditable transaction remotely—and it counts some of the world's largest financial institutions as customers. DocuSign COO, Scott Olrich, said: "DocuSign is practically synonymous with the electronic completion of agreements from almost anywhere, on almost any device. But there is an important class of high-value agreements that require the live participation of a notary or other representative. With this acquisition, we intend to bring the DocuSign experience to those agreements too—so signers and those assisting can get business done no matter where they are."
https://www.docusign.com/press-releases/docusign-continues-agreement-cloud-expansion-with-liveoak-technologies-acquisition

Magstim Acquires Electrical Geodesics, Inc. (EGI) Product Portfolio
Minneapolis, Minnesota & Carmarthenshire, UK – 2nd July 202 - Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS company), Magstim has announced an agreement to acquire the product portfolio of Electrical Geodesics, Inc. (EGI) from Royal Philips, a global health technology company. EGI designs non-invasive multimodal technologies to monitor brain activity and deliver transcranial electrical stimulation in brain research. Magstim will acquire EGI hardware, software and sensor nets assets and will immediately manage global sales, service and support. Philips will support the transition through the end of 2020. Lothar Krinke, Group CEO for Magstim , said: “This adds high-density EEG to our product portfolio supporting more than 1,200 research labs and clinics that focus on mental health, brain disorders and cognitive neuroscience. Magstim has been pioneering and advancing transcranial magnetic stimulation for 30 years. High-density EEG closes the loop for the development of a comprehensive system for non-invasive neuromodulation. Magstim and EGI share a legacy and passion for innovation in neuroscience.”
https://www.magstim.com/2020/07/magstim-welcomes-egi/

17 July 2020