RealPage to Acquire Modern Message
Richardson, Texas – 22nd January 2020 - RealPage, Inc, a global provider of software and data analytics to the real estate industry, has agreed to acquire Modern Message, Inc., the multifamily real estate industry’s resident engagement solution. Modern Message has seen rapid adoption of its platform by over half the property management companies in the NMHC Top 50. Modern Message’s flagship resident engagement platform, Community Rewards, builds meaningful engagement through a fully mobile UI that is motivating, rewarding, fun and interactive for property residents. RealPage plans to combine the two platforms to offer property management companies a complete renter engagement solution with significant benefits. Jon Pastor, Senior Vice President of Consumer Solutions at RealPage, said: “Modern Message provides a unique boost to our already powerful resident engagement platform. The two solutions joined together enable our clients to give residents a rich rewards experience, boost ancillary revenue, resident loyalty and reputation scores, and see greater adoption of their RealPage solutions. In short, we will be able to offer clients and residents the full potential of a resident portal.”
https://www.realpage.com/news/realpage-acquire-modern-message/

CollabNet VersionOne and XebiaLabs Combine to Create Integrated Agile DevOps Platform
Atlanta and Boston, MA – 21st January 2020 - CollabNet VersionOne, a provider for Agile planning and collaborative development, and XebiaLabs, a release orchestration, deployment and continuous delivery company, have announced that the two companies have merged. The combination, which was backed by TPG Capital, unites CollabNet’s upstream Agile planning and enterprise version control functionality with XebiaLabs’ downstream release orchestration and deployment automation capabilities to create an Agile, end-to-end DevOps platform for enterprises. In connection with the transaction, Ashok Reddy, an accomplished industry veteran and former Broadcom executive, has joined the combined company as CEO. “The combination of CollabNet and XebiaLabs will provide enterprise customers with the end-to-end visibility and management capabilities needed to develop software quickly, reliably, and securely, ultimately helping accelerate their digital transformation and drive business outcomes,” said Nehal Raj and Art Heidrich of TPG Capital.
https://xebialabs.com/company/collabnet-versionone-and-xebialabs-combine-to-create-integrated-agile-devops-platform/

Visa To Acquire Plaid in a Deal Worth $5.3 Billion
San Francisco - 14th January 2020 - Visa Inc. announced it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Plaid, a network that makes it easy for people to securely connect their financial accounts to the apps they use to manage their financial lives. Visa will pay total purchase consideration of $5.3 billion to acquire Plaid. Plaid’s products enable consumers to conveniently share their financial information with thousands of apps and services such as Acorns, Betterment, Chime, Transferwise and Venmo. Connectivity between financial institutions and developers has become increasingly important to facilitate consumers’ ability to use fintech applications. 75 percent of the world's internet-enabled consumers used a fintech application to initiate money movement in 2019. Commenting, Al Kelly, CEO and Chairman of Visa, said: “We are extremely excited about our acquisition of Plaid and how it enhances the growth trajectory of our business. Plaid is a leader in the fast growing fintech world with best-in-class capabilities and talent. The acquisition, combined with our many fintech efforts already underway, will position Visa to deliver even more value for developers, financial institutions and consumers.”
https://investor.visa.com/news/news-details/2020/Visa-To-Acquire-Plaid/default.aspx

Apple buys edge-based AI start up Xnor.ai for a reported $200M
Seattle – 16th January 2020 – Apple has reportedly acquired Seattle-based start-up, Xnor.ai, for $200 million. Xnor.ai is one of the few start-ups that’s focused on delivering AI capabilities at the edge and is a spin-out of the AI2 incubator begun by the late Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. In 2017, the company got a seed funding of $2.5 million from Madrona Ventures which doubled down its investment in 2018 with the Series A funding of $12 million. As is customary for Apple in its smaller acquisitions, the company didn’t elaborate on the deal, issuing its standard response when asked about the deal by GeekWire: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” Back in August 2016, Apple acquired another Seattle-based AI start-up, Turi, for a reported $200 million. This latest acquisition underlines Apple’s commitment to machine learning and AI capabilities.
https://news.crunchbase.com/news/apple-acquires-ai-on-the-edge-startup-xnor-ai-for-around-200m/

Google to Acquire Irish Retail Tech Start-Up, Pointy
Dublin – 14th January 2020 - Google is acquiring Pointy, an Irish startup that helps people find out what their local stores have in physical stock. Pointy has created a small, physical box that plugs into local retailers' barcode scanners to track what they sell. It then displays online the stock they have left in store, to potential customers looking up the business online. This is the second company Google has acquired from Irish co-founder and serial entrepreneur, Mark Cummins. Cummins was once rejected from a job at Google before going on to found his first start-up Plink, and selling it to Google in 2010. In a blog post announcing the deal, Google said that Pointy had been a key partner for several years. The blog continued: "One of the challenges small merchants face is getting their in-store inventory information online in a way that is easy to manage and reliably up to date. Since organizing the world's information is core to what we do, we've been working to make it easier for local merchants to better showcase their products to interested shoppers on Google." The transaction is expected to complete over the next few weeks. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/small-business/helping-local-businesses-showcase-products-online-pointy/

Google acquires no-code application development platform, AppSheet
Seattle - 14th January 2020 - In its second acquisition of the week, Google has announced that it has acquired no-code enterprise app development platform, AppSheet, for an undisclosed sum. Google Cloud Vice President, Amit Zavery, said in a blog post,:” AppSheet complements Google Cloud’s strategy to reimagine the application development space with a platform that helps enterprises innovate with no-code development, workflow automation, application integration and API management as they modernize their business processes in the cloud.” In a separate blog post, Praveen Seshadri commented: “First and foremost, we are philosophically and strategically aligned with Google Cloud in a shared commitment to a no-code platform.” And further, “There is great potential to leverage and integrate more deeply with many of Google’s amazing assets like G Suite and Android to improve the functionality, scale, and performance of AppSheet. Moving forward, we expect to combine AppSheet’s core strengths with Google Cloud’s deep industry expertise in verticals like financial services, retail, and media & entertainment.”
https://blog.appsheet.com/appsheet-acquired-by-google-cloud
https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/inside-google-cloud/helping-businesses-create-and-extend-applications-without-coding

Equinix to Acquire Bare Metal Leader Packet
Redwood City, California – 14th January 2020 - Equinix, Inc, a global interconnection and data center company, has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Packet, a bare metal automation platform. The acquisition will accelerate Equinix's strategy to help enterprises more seamlessly deploy hybrid multi-cloud architectures on Platform Equinix® and extract greater value from the platform's rich ecosystems and global interconnection fabric. Commenting on the deal, Sara Baack, Chief Product Officer, Equinix, said: "By acquiring Packet we are making it easier for enterprises to seamlessly deploy multi-cloud solutions at Equinix and extract greater value from our rich ecosystems and global interconnection platform. Packet's innovative and agile bare metal service, and neutral approach to software stacks, fits our own cloud-neutral model and match our strategy for helping enterprises flexibly deploy digital infrastructure, within minutes, at global scale. Our combined strengths will further empower companies to be everywhere they need to be, to interconnect everyone and integrate everything that matters to their business."
https://www.equinix.com/newsroom/press-releases/pr/123868/Equinix-to-Acquire-Bare-Metal-Leader-Packet/

CarGurus Acquires Car Shopping Platform Autolist
Cambridge, Massachusetts - 16th January 2020  - CarGurus, a global automotive marketplace, has announced it has acquired Autolist, an innovative car shopping platform, based in San Francisco, CA. The acquisition expands CarGurus’ consumer audience and will help enable the company to further enhance its unique value proposition for subscribing dealers. CarGurus will operate Autolist as a standalone brand and website. With its focus on bringing trust and transparency to the car buying process, CarGurus is already the most visited automotive shopping website in the US, with more than 28,000 US dealers paying subscribtions to list their inventory on the platform. Founded in 2014, Autolist has leveraged its popular mobile app, innovative car search technology and a large aggregated inventory of car listings to build a consumer audience of more than 1.3M unique monthly visitors on its website and nearly 400K unique monthly app visitors through iOS and Android. Jason Trevisan, Chief Financial Officer at CarGurus, said: “Like CarGurus, Autolist is a technology company with a pioneering mindset, which makes them a great fit with our innovative culture. We are excited about joining forces to provide best-in-class products and services that make car buying easier for shoppers and drive more sales for dealers.”
https://www.cargurus.com/press/cargurus_acquires_car_shopping_platform_autolist.html

Waters to Acquire Andrew Alliance
Milford, Massachusetts – 13th January 2020 - Waters Corporation has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Andrew Alliance, an innovator in specialty laboratory automation technology, including software and robotics. Andrew Alliance’s cloud-native software platform and modern interface dramatically improves the use of automation technology, enabling more scientists to realize the advantages of repeatability and performance for both routine and complex laboratory workflows. “The acquisition of Andrew Alliance broadens our technology portfolio to include advanced robotics and software that will positively impact our customers’ workflows across pharmaceuticals, life sciences and materials science markets,” commented Chris O’Connell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Waters Corporation. “This move also demonstrates Waters’ commitment to deploy capital to growth-oriented acquisitions that reinforce our specialty strategy and enhance our core business.”
https://www.waters.com/waters/en_GB/News-Releases/nav.htm?cid=134627991&locale=en_GB

Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Aptos, Inc. from funds advised by Apax Partners
Atlanta – 13th January 2020: Aptos has announced that funds affiliated with the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs have reached a definitive agreement to acquire the company from funds advised by Apax Partners. Aptos, Inc., a recognized market leader in retail technology solutions, delivers innovative, cloud-native and comprehensive omni-channel solutions to more than 1,000 retail brands in 65 countries. The Apax Funds backed Aptos CEO Noel Goggin to spin-out the business from portfolio company, Epicor, in 2015. Since then, Aptos has thrived as an independent company having more than doubled their customer base to become one of the largest global enterprise software providers focused exclusively on retail. In addition, the Apax Funds supported Aptos on a number of strategic acquisitions which strengthened Aptos’ presence in Europe and extended its product capabilities. “Aptos is looking forward to the next stage in our growth and maturation journey in partnering with Goldman Sachs, a group that brings a wealth of enterprise software expertise, commercial relationships and vast global resources,” said Noel Goggin, Aptos CEO and culture leader. “We are also grateful for the strong partnership and strategic support Apax has provided over the past four and a half years.”
https://www.apax.com/news/press-releases/2020/aptos-to-be-acquired-by-affiliates-of-goldman-sachs%E2%80%99-merchant-banking-division-from-funds-advised-by-apax-partners/

ICF Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire ITG for $255 million
Fairfax, Vancouver – 13th January 2020 - ICF, a global consulting and technology services provider, has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Incentive Technology Group, LLC, a fast-growing provider of cloud-based platform services to the U.S. federal government. ITG had revenues of approximately $90 million in 2019 and ended the year with a revenue run-rate in excess of $100 million. The purchase price is $255 million, funded by ICF's existing credit facility. The closing of this transaction, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions, is expected to occur in the first quarter of this year and to be accretive on a non-GAAP EPS basis in 2020.
https://www.icf.com/news/2020/01/icf-announces-definitive-agreement-to-acquire-itg

R1 Announces Agreement to Acquire SCI Solutions, a Leading Provider of Digital Patient Engagement Solutions
Chicago – 13th January 2020 – R1 RCM Inc., a technology-enabled revenue cycle management (RCM) services to healthcare providers, has announced a definitive agreement to acquire SCI Solutions, Inc. (SCI), a provider of SaaS-based scheduling and patient access solutions, for approximately $190 million in cash. SCI’s platform streamlines the patient and provider experience, creating efficient care networks where health systems’ capacity is digitally and conveniently accessible to all market constituents. With consumer self-scheduling and provider order facilitation, SCI’s EHR-agnostic patient access and care coordination solutions support more than 94,000 providers and 1,200 sites of care that comprise $225B of potential net patient revenue across the country. Joe Flanagan, President and CEO of R1, said: “Patient scheduling is a critical component of the revenue cycle process, and yet is too often a major pain point for referring providers and health systems. With SCI’s capabilities integrated into our leading revenue cycle solution, we believe that R1 offers our customers the broadest and deepest tech-enabled patient intake solution available. We look forward to welcoming the SCI team to R1.”
https://www.r1rcm.com/news/r1-announces-agreement-to-acquire-sci-solutions