Microsoft to acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion
Redmond, Washington - June 4, 2018 - Microsoft Corp. has announced it has reached an agreement to acquire GitHub, a software development platform where more than 28 million developers learn, share and collaborate to create the future. Together, the two companies will empower developers to achieve more at every stage of the development lifecycle, accelerate enterprise use of GitHub, and bring Microsoft’s developer tools and services to new audiences. “Microsoft is a developer-first company, and by joining forces with GitHub we strengthen our commitment to developer freedom, openness and innovation,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “We recognize the community responsibility we take on with this agreement and will do our best work to empower every developer to build, innovate and solve the world’s most pressing challenges.” Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion in Microsoft stock. Subject to customary closing conditions and completion of regulatory review, the acquisition is expected to close by the end of the calendar year.
https://news.microsoft.com/2018/06/04/microsoft-to-acquire-github-for-7-5-billion/
Roper Technologies Completes Acquisition of PowerPlan for $1.1 Billion
Sarasota, Florida, June 4, 2018 - Roper Technologies, Inc, a diversified technology company, has announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of PowerPlan. The Company funded the transaction with its revolving credit facility and cash on hand. PowerPlan is a provider of software and solutions for asset-centric companies, enabling its customers to optimize their financial performance and achieve regulatory compliance. “We are excited to officially welcome PowerPlan to the Roper family,” said Brian Jellison, Roper’s Chairman, President and CEO. “PowerPlan is an outstanding company and enjoys clear leadership in its niche market with numerous growth opportunities and a strong financial profile.”
http://www.ropertech.com/roper-technologies-completes-acquisition-powerplan
Green House Data Extends Digital Transformation Initiatives, Merges with Infront Consulting Group
Cheyenne, WY and Toronto, ONT. – 31st May 2018 - Green House Data, a platform agnostic, managed services provider, offering cloud hosting, managed IaaS, hybrid IT and application aware infrastructure, has announced a strategic merger with Infront Consulting Group, an IT consulting firm, specializing in Microsoft application and Microsoft Azure solution design, automation and deployment. Both entities will continue to operate under their respective brands. “Infront’s position in terms of customer enablement aligns with our own, and the company’s culture of automation and DevOps means the capacity to better execute throughout the entire IT landscape,” said Green House Data CEO, Shawn Mills. “We’ve always taken a consultative approach with our clients, and this relationship with Infront helps us to further codify our position, as well as create more value to our enterprise customers.”
https://www.greenhousedata.com/press/green-house-data-announces-merger-with-infront-consulting-group
WorkFusion expands $50M Series E round
New York – 30th May 2018 - WorkFusion, a robotic process automation (RPA) software company, has announced the participation of strategic customers Guardian, NewYork-Presbyterian, and The PNC Financial Services Group in its Series E funding. The company also announced that Alpha Intelligence Capital (AIC), a fund dedicated exclusively to investing in companies with deep Artificial Intelligence technology at the core of their offerings and business model, has joined existing investors to drive WorkFusion’s vision of helping companies achieve operational excellence through software bots that learn through AI.
https://www.workfusion.com/news-workfusion-expands-50-million-series-e-round-adds-guardian-newyork-presbyterian-the-pnc-financial-services-group-and-ai-capital-as-strategic-investors/
Iron Mountain acquires Dutch Evoswitch Data Center Business for €205 ($235) Million
Boston – 30th May 2018 - Storage and information management services company, Iron Mountain Incorporated, has acquired EvoSwitch Netherlands B.V and EvoSwitch Global Services B.V. for €205 ($235) million. The transaction provides 11 megawatts (MW) of existing data center capacity in the Netherlands, which is 100% leased, with expansion capability of an additional 23 MW, for total potential capacity of 34 MW. Founded in 2007, EvoSwitch NL is a global brand and provider of multi-tenant data center space, operating one of the largest colocation facilities centers in the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam (MRA). This transaction enhances Iron Mountain's presence in the important FLAP (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris) market, following Iron Mountain's move into London early this year through the purchase of a data center facility from Credit Suisse. Welcoming the EvoSwitch team and customers to Iron Mountain, Mark Kidd, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Iron Mountain Data Centers, said: "EvoSwitch NL's focus on security, energy efficiency and its solid track record of continuous uptime is a great fit with our existing data center organization..”
http://www.ironmountain.com/about-us/news-events/news-categories/press-releases/2018/may/iron-mountain-acquires-dutch-evoswitch-data-center-business-for-205-235-million-
KKR to buy BMC Software in deal valued at $8.5 billion
Houston and New York, May 29, 2018 - BMC Software, a global company offering software solutions for the digital enterprise, and KKR, a global investment firm, have announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which KKR will acquire BMC. The company is being acquired from a private investor group led by Bain Capital Private Equity and Golden Gate Capital together with GIC, Insight Venture Partners and Elliott Management. "In an ever-changing IT environment that is only becoming more complex, companies that help simplify and manage this essential infrastructure for their enterprise customers play an increasingly important role," said Herald Chen, KKR Member and Head of the firm's Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT) industry team, and John Park, KKR Member. "With more than 10,000 customers and 6,000 employees, BMC is a global leader in managing digital and IT infrastructure with a broad portfolio of software solutions. We are thrilled to partner with the talented BMC team to accelerate growth—including via M&A—building on BMC's deep technology expertise and long-standing customer relationships."
http://media.kkr.com/media/media_releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1068611
WiseTech Global acquires US specialist LTL TMS provider, SaaS Transportation
28th May 2018 - WiseTech Global has announced the acquisition of SaaS Transportation, a specialist US transport management solutions provider for Less Than Truckload (LTL) shipping. SaaS Transport’s Ken Pehanick (Managing Director) and Ilango Namasivayam (Chief Operating Officer) SaaS Transportation provides LTL and logistics transportation management solutions to third party logistics companies and shippers with integrated quoting, booking and tracking. SaaS Transportation also offers a specialist LTL freight rating engine with connections to LTL carriers including FedEx Freight, Con-way Freight/XPO Logistics, Day & Ross Freight, Old Dominion Freight Line, UPS Freight and YRC Freight. WiseTech Global Founder and CEO, Richard White, said “Adding specialist provider SaaS Transportation, which has connections to over 70 US LTL carriers, valuable market knowledge and US LTL road rate capabilities, to the WiseTech Global group fits into our adjacency acquisition strategy and will extend our road booking and road rates offering to our customer base.”
https://www.wisetechglobal.com/newsroom/blog/entryid/243/wisetech-global-acquires-us-specialist-ltl-tms-provider-saas-transportation
Adobe to Acquire Magento Commerce for $1.68 Million
May 21st 2018 - San Jose, California - Adobe has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Magento Commerce, a commerce platform, for $1.68 billion, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. The addition of the Magento Commerce Cloud will enable commerce to be seamlessly integrated into the Adobe Experience Cloud, delivering a single platform that serves both B2B and B2C customers globally. The Magento Platform brings together digital commerce, order management and predictive intelligence into a unified commerce platform, enabling shopping experiences across a wide array of industries. Brad Rencher, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Digital Experience, Adobe, said: “Embedding commerce into the Adobe Experience Cloud with Magento enables Adobe to make every moment personal and every experience shoppable.” Mark Lavelle, CEO, Magento, added, “Adobe and Magento share a vision for the future of digital experiences that brings together Adobe’s strength in content and data with Magento’s open commerce innovation..” Upon close, Magento CEO, Mark Lavelle, will continue to lead the Magento team as part of Adobe’s Digital Experience business, reporting to executive vice president and general manager Brad Rencher. http://news.adobe.com/press-release/corporate/adobe-acquire-magento-commerce
IBM Partners with SAP on a Cognitive Demand Forecasting Solution for the Retail Industry
For retailers, improving their overall planning capabilities is a critical need in meeting consumer demand. Staying in-stock with accurate and timely forecasts while minimizing supply chain costs and excess inventories has never been more important. To meet these requirements and deliver enhanced retail forecasting accuracy, IBM and SAP are teaming up to offer the IBM Cognitive Demand Forecasting (CDF) Solution, using machine learning and weather data to give retailers powerful new insights that will drive better business performance. The forecasting engine for this new cognitive demand forecasting solution is provided by SAP’s Unified Demand Forecast (UDF). UDF is a component of the SAP Customer Activity Repository application, which collects client data for use in the retail industry. UDF provides demand modelling and demand forecasting services.
https://news.sap.com/
Paytm acquires Alibaba-backed TicketNew for around $40 million
Online payments firm Paytm has acquired Alibaba-backed ticketing firm TicketNew for an undisclosed amount in a move that is likely to strengthen its position in the ticketing space. A source told Moneycontrol that the size of the deal was around $40 million. Paytm, which entered the online ticketing space in March 2016, claims to have sold over 52 million tickets in the last one year through its platform. It said that even after the acquisition is concluded, the TicketNew brand will continue to operate under its own name. “TicketNew founders have built a fantastic business in South India and share the same partnership mindset as Paytm. Under their leadership, Paytm is seeking to connect TicketNew partner cinemas to Paytm’s more than 300 million customers and further invest in helping grow their occupancy and revenues,” said Madhur Deora, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, Paytm. Ticket booking is an important segment for Paytm and this is the second ticketing-focused company that it has bought. Only last year, it acquired a majority stake in Insider.in, an events ticketing platform that allows users to book tickets for events such as the NH7 Weekender, EDC and The Grub Fest.
https://paytm.com/press
Microsoft acquires Semantic Machines, advancing the state of conversational AI
20th May 2018 – Microsoft has announced that it has acquired Semantic Machines Inc., a Berkeley, California-based company that has developed a revolutionary new approach to building conversational AI. Their work uses the power of machine learning to enable users to discover, access and interact with information and services in a much more natural way, and with significantly less effort. Semantic is led by conversational AI pioneers, including technology entrepreneur Dan Roth and two of the most prominent and innovative natural language AI researchers in the world, UC Berkeley professor Dan Klein and Stanford University professor Percy Liang, as well as former Apple chief speech scientist Larry Gillick. With the acquisition of Semantic Machines, Microsoft will establish a conversational AI center of excellence in Berkeley to push forward the boundaries of what is possible in language interfaces. Combining Semantic Machines’ technology with Microsoft’s own AI advances, they aim to deliver powerful, natural and more productive user experiences that will take conversational computing to a new level.
https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2018/05/20/microsoft-acquires-semantic-machines-advancing-the-state-of-conversational-ai/
PayPal acquires Swedish payments firm iZettle
PayPal has bought iZettle, a Swedish mobile payments company that sells a card-reader aimed at small businesses, for $2.2bn (£1.6bn). The move boosts PayPal's in-store presence at a time when competition in the online payments sector is increasing. The takeover comes less than three weeks after iZettle said it would list shares in Stockholm, in a bid to raise money for expansion. Once complete, the acquisition of iZettle will mean PayPal has an in-store presence in 11 markets in Europe and Latin America. PayPal president Dan Schulman said: "This combination brings together iZettle's in-store expertise, recognised brand and digital marketing strength with PayPal's global scale, mobile and online payments leadership, and trusted brand reputation." Founded in Stockholm in 2010, iZettle began by selling credit and debit card readers that could be plugged into smart phones and tablets. More recently, iZettle has expanded with an e-commerce platform which tracks items such as sales and inventory for its customers. Read the open letter from Jacob de Geer, Founder & CEO, iZettle:
https://www.izettleinvestors.com/en/an-open-letter-from-jacob-de-geer-izettle-to-join-forces-with-paypal/
Oracle Buys DataScience.com
Redwood Shores, California - May 16, 2018 - Oracle has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire DataScience.com, whose platform centralizes data science tools, projects and infrastructure in a fully-governed workspace. Oracle embeds Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities across its software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) solutions, including big data, analytics and security operations, to enable digital transformations. Together, Oracle and DataScience.com will provide customers with a single data science platform that leverages Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and the breadth of Oracle's integrated SaaS and PaaS offerings to help them realize the full potential of machine learning. “With the combination of Oracle and DataScience.com, customers will be able to harness a single data science platform to more effectively leverage machine learning and big data for predictive analysis and improved business results.” said Amit Zavery, Executive Vice President of Oracle Cloud Platform, Oracle.
https://www.oracle.com/corporate/pressrelease/oracle-buys-datascience-051618.html
iZettle to join forces with PayPal
May 18, 2018 - Stockholm - iZettle founder, Jacob de Geer and co-founder, Magnus Nilsson, have announced they have reached an agreement with PayPal to acquire iZettle. Since beginning in 2010, they have become known as the leading small business commerce platform in Europe and Latin America offering merchants tools to get paid, sell smarter and grow. De Geer and Nilsson had been preparing the company for an IPO when PayPal made their approach. The relationship between PayPal and iZettle is not a new one and initial talks very quickly turned into detailed discussions about the synergies of joining forces. De Geer said that during our discussions with PayPal’s President and CEO, Dan Schulman and his team, it became obvious that they shared the same belief in the power of small businesses. He said, Paypal “create diversity, choice and opportunity in society, but they’re still under-served by the incumbents. Small businesses deserve something better.” The two companies have complementary product offerings. Moving forward, iZettle will become a center of excellence for PayPal’s in-store product and services offerings for small businesses.
https://www.izettleinvestors.com/en/section/media/press-releases/
Access Expands in Canada with Acquisition of Six Canadian Records Management Companies
Boston, MA, May 17, 2018 – Access, the largest privately-held records and information management (RIM) services provider in the United States, has announced a major expansion into Canada, with the acquisition of six Canadian records management companies, servicing more than 20 key markets across 10 Canadian provinces. Access’ wide range of services and solutions are tailored to meet the needs of local and international businesses, driving cost savings and ensuring compliance in today’s rapidly changing regulatory environment. Access allows clients to focus on growing their businesses while reducing their risk associated with document management, retention, accessibility, or destruction by providing stringent data protection and secure chain of custody protocols. “We see great opportunity with our expansion into Canada, offering our high-quality, secure information governance solutions to businesses of all sizes across all of North America,” said Rob Alston, Chief Executive Officer of Access. https://www.accesscorp.com/access-expands-in-canada-with-acquisition-of-six-canadian-records-management-companies/
Droom raises $30 million in Series D in a round led by Toyota Tsusho Corporation
New Delhi, May 17, 2018: Droom, India’s First and Largest transactional Platform for automobile announced that the company has recently raised $30 million in Series D, led by Toyota Tsusho Corporation (member Toyota Group) and co-led by Digital Garage of Japan. They are joined by Ellison Investments, an Asia-based investment manager, as well as many existing investors and a number of prominent institutional investors and family offices from China, Hong Kong and SE Asia in this round of fund raising, demonstrating the deep trust and confidence Droom has built with its market dominating leadership position in online automobile market in India. The newly raised funds will be used to further strengthen Droom’s 70% domination of the online automobiles marketplace segment in India. The tech-led platform will also invest heavily in further developing its Machine learning and AI capabilities and build 100 x larger scale. The company aims to double its gross merchandise value to $1.4bn by end of 2018 and $3.5bn by 2019. The company plans to go for an IPO by end of 2019.
https://droom.in/news
