Boss Insights – Weekly M&A and Software Sector News Round Up
Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire July Systems
Burlingame, Calif. And Bangalore, India – 19th June 2018 – Cisco have announced that they are to buy privately-held July Systems and its cloud-based mobile experience and location services platform to bolster their Enterprise Wi-Fi platform and enable superior indoor location services capabilities. July Systems provides an enterprise-grade location platform with features such as instant customer activation, data-driven behavioural insights, contextual rules engine and APIs. The solution is a cloud-based, subscription offering with a global footprint and backed by end-to-end SLA. Cisco has worked closely with July Systems for several years as an OEM for Cisco Connected Mobile Experience(CMX). Cisco plans to add July Systems’ platform and business context capabilities to provide a unified solution on which their partners and customers can build and deliver a range of indoor location services for industries as diverse as healthcare, government, logistics, manufacturing, sports arenas, hotels, education and retail. Some of our CMX Engage customers include Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) and Westfield Corp. Cisco recently announced that it is opening up its intent-based networks with a suite of powerful new developer tools. The July Systems acquisition ties into this vision of creating an open, programmable platform for innovation.
https://blogs.cisco.com/news/cisco-announces-corporate-news-062018
Swiggy Raises $210 million in Series G Funding Round
New Dehli, India - 21st June 2018 - Online food delivery platform, Swiggy, has raised $210 million in Series G round of funding. With this funding round, the total capital raised by Swiggy has crossed $466 million. According to reports, Swiggy was valued at about $1.3 billion in this funding round. "With this investment, we will continue to widen Swiggy's offerings, along with bolstering our capabilities and plugging the gaps in the on-demand delivery ecosystem," Swiggy CEO Sriharsha Majety said. The latest round will enable Swiggy to quickly ramp up its supply chain network and expand to new markets, while investing in core capabilities that enhance consumer experience and the brand. It would also double its technology headcount to build for robust operations, deep personalisation and connected supply chain systems.
Iron Mountain Acquires Arhiv Trezor, Enters Croatian Market
Zagreb, Croatia – 18th June 2018 - Iron Mountain Incorporated, the storage and information management services company, has announced it has entered the Croatian market with the acquisition of Arhiv Trezor, a provider of records management, secure destruction and secure transportation. This acquisition will give Iron Mountain its first facility in country. "The acquisition of Arhiv Trezor is an important step in our efforts to grow our presence within south eastern Europe," said Andras Szakonyi, Senior Vice President, Northern and Eastern Europe and India, Iron Mountain. "The opportunity to enter the market by acquiring a company with such a solid reputation and important customer base, made Arhiv Trezor an attractive option for Iron Mountain. And, since Croatia is a member of the European Union, its economic and cultural connections to other Central and Southeastern European markets are very strong, allowing us the opportunity to leverage our global scale to help local, regional and multinational customers with their records and information management needs."
http://www.ironmountain.com/about-us/news-events/news-categories/press-releases/2018/june/iron-mountain-enters-croatian-market-with-acquisition-of-arhiv-trezor
Enterprise File Sharing and Synchronization (EFSS) Market Overview 2018 to 2025
18th June 2018 - The global Enterprise File Sharing and Synchronization (EFSS) market was valued at USD 1.45 billion in 2016 and is projected to reach USD 8.59 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 24.9% from 2017 to 2025. Enterprise file synchronization and sharing (EFSS) refers to software services that enable organizations to securely synchronize and share documents, photos, videos and files from multiple devices with employees, and external customers and partners. Organizations use these technologies to prevent employees from using consumer-based file sharing apps to store, access and manage corporate data that is outside of the IT department’s control and visibility.
http://mednewsledger.com/news/enterprise-file-sharing-and-synchronization-efss-market-overview-2018-to-2025/72648/
Tray.io Launches Era of the Automated Organization with $14.3 Million Series A Funding
San Francisco, Calif – 18th June 2018 - Tray.io, the General Automation Platform that puts complex integrations and enterprise-scale automation into the hands of business users, enabling them to become citizen automators, has announced a $14.3 million Series A investment led by GGV Capital, bringing the company’s total financing to $21 million. Additional investors include True Ventures, Mosaic Ventures, and AngelPad. Glenn Solomon, Managing Partner, GGV Capital will join the company’s board of directors. “The success of Tibco, Webmethods and the recent $6.5 billion Mulesoft acquisition by Salesforce shows the pivotal role of integration in today’s cloud-based world. The talented Tray.io team has tapped into the demand for bespoke integrations and has established itself as a clear leader in this category,” said Glenn Solomon of GGV Capital. “This is a talented and driven team that has built powerful, enterprise-scale automation plus universal ease-of-use, solving three of the toughest challenges in business today: inefficiency, data management, and scale.”
https://tray.io/blog/tray.io-funding-launches-era-of-the-automated-organization
IBM Acquires Oniqua
Armonk – 15th June 2018 - IBM has acquired Oniqua, a global innovator in maintenance-repair-operate (MRO) inventory optimization solutions and services for asset-intensive industries. The Oniqua inventory platform combines statistical analyses, prescriptive analytics, and optimization algorithms to deliver decision support through informative dashboards. Most asset-intensive organizations have siloed and unstructured data scattered across multiple business units. Without access to current data on key assets, it's difficult to take timely action — which can have dire business consequences. Oniqua helps reduce unscheduled downtime by constantly monitoring and analyzing enterprise-wide asset inventory data. These insights help ensure the right parts and materials are available when required. The acquisition of Oniqua expands IBM Asset Optimization Practice capabilities as well as enhancing the IBM solutions-as-a-service portfolio.
Drip Capital raises $15 million from Accel, Sequoia, Wing VC
California and Mumbai 21st June 2018 - Fintech startup Drip Capital, which provides working capital finance to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) engaged in cross-border trade in emerging markets, has raised $15 million in a Series A round from venture capital firm Accel Partners, Sequoia India and Wing VC, a Silicon Valley based venture fund. The round also saw the participation of its existing investors, including US seed accelerator Y-Combinator, among others. Drip Capital had raised $5-million in seed money in 2015, besides securing an undisclosed amount in debt capital from Silicon Valley Bank, a subsidiary of the California-based SVB Financial. “Drip comes at a crucial time for Indian exporters with a slowdown in bank lending and delays in goods and service tax (GST) input tax credit refunds. The working capital gap is quite pronounced in India, where SMEs contribute to 40% of exports,” said Pushkar Mukewar, co-founder and co-Chief Executive of Drip. The company uses alternative data and technology to underwrite and finance cross-border trade transactions to provide working capital to SMEs.
https://www.dripcapital.com/about/
Closing a Deal with Private Equity – Tips for the Tech Industry M&A Professional
They once seemed like unlikely partners. But these days, our Technology, Media and Telecommunications Deals leader, Marc Suidan, comments, most of his corporate M&A projects with tech involve PEs. A record number of tech-focused PE deals are taking place, and several PEs are focusing exclusively on the tech sector. As technology is expected to remain a significant portion of the economy, the PE investment trend is expected to continue through 2018. How does involving private equity firms change the dynamics of deal making? How can tech and PE firms bridge their complementary, but distinct, mindsets to create a win-win scenario? And what’s ahead? Marc and Ben Gillikin, Private Equity Deals Partner, recently discussed what PEs are looking for in a tech acquisition and what tech companies should consider as they look at partnering with private equity investors.
http://usblogs.pwc.com/deals/closing-a-deal-with-private-equity-tips-for-the-tech-industry-ma-professional/
TA Associates Announces Acquisition and Combination of Global Software, Inc. and insightsoftware.com International
14th June 2018 - Global Software, Inc. and insightsoftware.com International combine in merger of equals to create a world-class ERP reporting and corporate performance management company
Boston, MA and Raleigh, NC - TA Associates, a global growth private equity firm, has announced the acquisition and combination of Global Software, Inc. and insightsoftware.com International, two ERP reporting and corporate performance management software companies with over 6,000 enterprise customers globally and more than 75,000 end users. Financial terms of both transactions were not disclosed.
https://www.ta.com/about/news/ta-associates-announces-acquisition-and-combination-of-global-software-inc-and-insightsoftwarecom-international-to-create-market-leading-erp-reporting-platform
Google Buys More Land in Europe for Data-Center Construction
14th June 2018 - Alphabet Inc.’s Google has bought 70 hectares (173 acres) of land in the Netherlands as it explores options for constructing more data centers across Europe. The company said it’s still considering whether to build on the site in Noord-Holland, but that a decision will be made soon. "We want to ensure that we have options to continue to expand our data center presence in Europe if our business demands it," Google spokesman Mark Jansen said Thursday. Google already owns a data center in the northeastern town of Eemshaven in the Netherlands, and announced earlier this year it would invest 500 million euros ($582.2 million) to expand it, after initially spending 600 million euros. The search giant also recently bought plots of land in Denmark, Luxembourg and Sweden, and in February said it would invest further in its Belgian site. Mountain View, California-based Google, which is lagging behind Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft in cloud services, said in April that the bulk of $7.7 billion in capital expenditures last quarter went toward infrastructure to expand its cloud and artificial intelligence efforts. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-14/google-buys-more-land-in-europe-for-data-center-construction
Software AG Announces Acquisition of TrendMiner NV
Darmstadt, Germany - 12th June 2018 - Software AG has announced the acquisition of TrendMiner NV. Founded in 2008 and based in Hasselt, Belgium, TrendMiner specializes in visual data analytics for the manufacturing and process industry and will complement Software AG’s Cumulocity Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 product portfolio. Following its acquisitions of artificial intelligence (AI) specialist Zementis (2016) and Cumulocity IoT (2017), Software AG’s acquisition of TrendMiner is consolidating its position in the rapidly growing IoT market. Karl-Heinz Streibich, Software AG CEO, stated, “TrendMiner provides an ideal fit into our Cumulocity IoT portfolio at a strategically decisive moment. We are in a phase of dynamic market development for IoT applications. Together with TrendMiner, we will be able to offer a leading streaming and visual time-series analytics platform – A unique combination.”
https://www.softwareag.com/corporate/company/press/news/dyn_press?id=171415-158077
TIBCO Software Acquires Integration Platform-as-a-Service Leader Scribe Software
6th June 2018 - TIBCO Software Inc., a global organisation, specialising in integration, API management and analytics, has announced the acquisition of Scribe Software, an innovative, cloud-based integration service that helps more than 10,000 businesses efficiently connect Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications and automate data flows using an intuitive browser-based approach. “By strengthening TIBCO’s Connected Intelligence Cloud with Scribe’s unique data automation and SaaS integration capabilities, we enable the broadest set of users to participate in digital transformation efforts,” said Matt Quinn, Chief Operating Officer, TIBCO. “Scribe’s straightforward, code-free method of creating, testing and managing data flows, enables thousands of customers and partners to quickly and easily connect their SaaS apps for better business performance.”
https://www.tibco.com/press-releases/tibco-software-acquires-ipaas-leader-scribe-software
