2015 – Starting a New Year with the Best Tech Deals

The internet of things? Can we learn about the future peering into the past? If so, this year will also be a promising one, as 2014 has been marked as the most active year in technology. Before that, 2000 was the most active one.

Numerous acquisitions happen each month, but to make my posts shorter, I select the most important deals only. Surely they are important from my personal point of view; anyway hope that my readers will share the same opinion.

The same “giants” all the time – as if conquering the heights. Do they need the products or the talents, or maybe both? Never remember any company announcing about that.

Year started with social deals – two Facebook acquisitions with two-day interval – not bad. Then Twitter joint the list with its ZipDial acquisition. Ok, let’s switch to the list, not to miss anyone. 

06 January - Facebook Acquires Wit.ai to Help Its Developers With Speech Recognition and Voice Interfaces
Facebook acquired Wit.ai, a Y Combinator startup founded 18 months ago to create an API for building voice-activated interfaces. Wit.ai already has 6,000 developers on its platform who have built hundreds of apps. The Wit.ai product lets developers add a few lines of its code to instantly build in voice control and speech recognition. The platform will remain open and free.  

08 January - Facebook Acquires Video Compression Startup QuickFire
Facebook acquired video-compression company QuickFire Networks, further underscoring the social networking giant’s increasing focus on video. Based in San Diego, QuickFire says, it can quickly convert video formats and allow them to be downloaded with less bandwidth and without a loss in video quality. 

20 January – Twitter Acquires India-Based 'Missed Call' Startup ZipDial

Twitter announced that it has acquired Bangalore-based ‘missed call’ marketing platform, ZipDial, which assigns companies a special phone number which their brands can use in print ads or TV commercials. Customers can call the number and hang up before they are charged for the call. In turn, brands can phone or send text messages about their business to the ‘missed callers’. ZipDial’s clients include Unilever, Disney, Gillette, Amazon, Facebook and, of course, Twitter, whose customers have used the platform for placing orders, receiving coupons or entering contests. 

20 January – Microsoft Acquires Text Analysis Startup Equivio, Plans to Integrate Machine Learning Tech into Office 365

Microsoft announced it has acquired text analysis software startup Equivio, which uses machine learning to let users explore large, unstructured sets of data. The startup’s technology leverages advanced text analytics to perform multi-dimensional analyses of data collections, intelligently sort documents into themes, group near-duplicates, and isolate unique data. 

21 January – Apple Buys UK Startup Semetric to Power up Its Media Analytics
Apple has acquired Semetric, the London-based startup behind music analytics service Musicmetric.  While Musicmetric seems an obvious fit with iTunes and Beats Music, Semetric has also been working on analysing data for games, TV, movies and books so will enhance Apple’s understanding of data around all the digital products it sells. 

23 January – Microsoft to Acquire Revolution Analytics to Help Customers Find Big Data Value with Advanced Statistical Analysis

Microsoft has reached an agreement to acquire Revolution Analytics - the leading commercial provider of software and services for R, the world’s most widely used programming language for statistical computing and predictive analytics. This acquisition will help more companies use the power of R and data science to unlock big data insights with advanced analytics. 

23 January – Mobile Network Three to Buy O2 in £10bn Deal 

Asia’s richest man is poised to take control of the UK’s biggest mobile phone network, after Three announced it had started exclusive takeover talks with its larger rival 02. The deal would create the UK’s largest mobile phone firm with 31.5 million customers, cutting the number of network owners in the UK from four to three.

Year in Review - 2014 Record-Setters

A great year passed, another one awaits. It really passed so fast and now I think if I should continue my monthly acquisition reporting another year. It was quite interesting for me to see the world’s giants becoming even more powerful with every new deal. I don’t remember any deal to be unworthy. Correct me, if it’s not so.

Google was the winner by the number of deals made in 2014. AT&T made the “mammoth” deal of the year. I cannot, but express my personal opinion - I consider Oracle the best deal maker of the year, as my career changed with one of its acquisitions during 2014. 

I pulled together the best deals of 2014 and all the mentioned acquisitions are game-changing purchases:

Google

• Google Buys Nest ($3.2 billion)
• Google Buys Skybox Imaging ($500 million)
• Google Buys Deepmind ($500 million)

Facebook

• Facebook Buys Oculus - $2 billion
• Facebook buys WhatsApp - $19 billion

Oracle

• Oracle Buys Micros Systems - $5.3 billion

Microsoft 

• Microsoft Buys Mojang - $2.5 billion

Apple

• Apple Buys Beats - $3 billion

Lenovo

• Lenovo Buys Motorola - $2.9 billion

Comcast

• Comcast buys Time Warner - $45 billion

AT&T

• AT&T buys DirecTV- $48 billion

May Acquisitions - a “Google” Month

Six acquisitions in 17 days! Let’s call it a "Google" month, although May was a blossom month for other companies as well, like Microsoft, Apple Yahoo and others. Microsoft made two purchases on the same day, two more Apple acquisitions during May. Several “big” companies buy smaller ones from time to time and many of them do not discuss any purposes or plans concerning the purchases.

May 1 - Microsoft acquires high-performance cloud-computing company GreenButton

May started with Microsoft acquisition of GreenButton, a US and New Zealand-based high-performance cloud-computing company which allows industries that need large amounts of compute power to more easily use the cloud to run their compute-intensive workloads – no recoding required. 

May 1 - Microsoft acquires mobile firm Capptain

Another acquisition on the same day, not bad! This time Microsoft adds Capptain, a French startup that helps app developers to retain new users with targeted push notifications based on their behavior and real-time analytics. Capptain's service supports apps on all the major smartphone platforms, like Windows Phone, Android, iOS and BlackBerry OS, as well as on Samsung SmartTV sets.

May 2 - Google buys Rangespan

It’s the second day of the month – high time for Google to start its campaign! The first company, acquired by Google in May is Rangespan, a London-based provider of back office services for online retailers, using data science to help them expand their product selection based on real-time sales dynamics. This is the third acquisition of Google out of the UK this year after AI-specialist DeepMind and anti-malware startup Spider.io.

May 2 - Apple acquires micro-LED display maker LuxVue technology   

Apple has acquired LuxVue Technology, a Silicon Valley-based company that's been working on micro-LED screen technologies. Micro-LEDs have the potential to improve battery life while offering brighter screens than competing technologies. 

May 6 - Google to acquire online attribution firm Adometry

Google acquires Adometry, an Austin-Tx.-based firm that specializes in online ad attribution–that is crediting various online ads for influencing a person to take an action, such as clicking on an ad or buying something. 

May 7 - Google acquires restaurant website builder Appetas

Google made one more acquisition that points to its interest in building up its relationship with local businesses. Google is buying Appetas, a site where restaurants can build websites for themselves, integrating services like GrubHub and OpenTable to add extra features like delivery services and reservations. Google says it will shut down the service. I wonder why it bought the site then? What will be its future?

May 7 - Google acquires cloud monitoring service Stackdriver

Today Google acquired cloud monitoring service Stackdriver. The company plans to roll many of the service’s features into its Cloud Platform in the coming months. Stackdriver, launched in 2012, allows its users to monitor their cloud applications, automate some of the devops when things go wrong and see detailed stats about how they are using their cloud platforms.

May 11 - FireEye acquires nPulse technologies

Cybersecurity company FireEye has agreed to acquire network forensics company nPulse Technologies for $60 million in cash and $10 million stock, according to the company. NPulse is headquartered in Charlottesville and has offices in Chantilly and Lansdowne.

May 12 - Arris paid $5.7 million for SeaWell networks

Arris paid approximately $5.7 million for Ontario-based SeaWell, which  makes a manifest manipulation technology that enables next-generation targeted advertising and personalized video services.

May 13 - Yahoo buys mobile'self-destruct' messaging app Blink

Yahoo has bought Blink, a mobile messaging startup whose app lets users send messages that will self-destruct at a time set by the sender. Blink is a product of Meh Labs, a company founded by ex-Googler Kevin Stephens and Michelle Norgan. Originally, the startup had been focused on a location-based service calledKismet which grew popular. Blink, which was launched in April 2013, will shut down its app for both iOS and Android platforms in coming weeks following the acquisition. 

May 16 - Google acquires Quest Visual

Quest Visual has been acquired by Google. With the acquisition, Google gets Quest Visual’s tech, which it will incorporate into Google Translate in the future. And while the apps Quest Visual has created in the past likely won’t be supported once that transition is complete, the startup is making them available along with all language packs for free on Google Glass, Google Play and Apple’s App Store for a limited time.

May 19 - Google acquires mobile service company Divide

Last Google acquisition of the month - Divide, a New York-based startup that offers a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) solution for corporate environments. The deal can help Google make further inroads into corporate settings. Founded four years ago, Divide’s basic features are free, but it has a premium service.

May 28 - Apple acquires Beats Electronics for $3 billion

Apple acquires the critically acclaimed subscription streaming music service Beats Music, and Beats Electronics, which makes the popular Beats headphones, speakers and audio software. As part of the acquisition, Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will join Apple. Apple is acquiring the two companies for a total of $3 billion, consisting of a purchase price of approximately $2.6 billion and approximately $400 million that will vest over time.

February Acquisitions

As promised I’m going to inform my readers about most important acquisitions of the year. If in January I thought that it’s the beginning of the year which is due to great changes, now I can say that I changed my mind and decided to call 2014 an “acquisition” year.

Many biggest companies buy more and more companies. But the “Wow” acquisition of the year (and not only year - it’s one of the biggest tech acquisitions since 2001 when HP bought Compaq for $25 billion) became Facebook’s $19 Billion WhatsApp Acquisition. February also became the biggest acquisition month for LinkedIn. Let’s go by date:

5.02.2014 - Amazon Acquires Video Gaming Studio Double Helix Games

Double Helix has a history of creating popular games for nearly 20 years. Amazon has acquired Double Helix as part of their ongoing commitment to build innovative games for customers.

6.02.2014 - LinkedIn makes its biggest acquisition by paying $120m for Bright
LinkedIn’s biggest acquisition deal ever! Bright is a natural fit for LinkedIn as it makes a bulk of its revenue from its Talent Solutions group. Over the past couple of years, LinkedIn has made several updates and launched new features to improve the process for recruiters - Bright may kick things up a notch.

11.02.02014 -Yahoo Acquires Social Diary Wander For A Price Over $10M

Originally, Wander was focused on sharing travel experiences in a diary, but soon pivoted focus onto an app called Days. The app lets users create a series of photographs and gifs in a package called a “Day,” which can be shared the next day. Days is about sharing an entire story of how your day went. 

13.02.2014 - Yahoo Acquires Technical Recruiting Startup Distill
Distill was working on a way to make technical recruiting easier by pairing video interviews and programming challenges. Distill’s product paired the basic features of a video chat service like Skype, and put them alongside a text editor and file upload space so that an interviewer could walk a candidate through a collaborative coding session. 

14.02.2014 - Rakuten buys Viber for $900 million to expand digital empire
Rakuten aims to be the world's number one Internet services company, and buying Viber complements its strategy in the digital space. Viber has rocketed in popularity as a potential rival to Skype, announcing 100 million worldwide users in September 2011, and then more than 200 million in May of 2013. The Viber app is available for iPhone, Android phones and tablets, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Windows, Windows 8, Mac OS X, Linux, Symbian, Nokia S40 and Bada devices over 3G/4G or Wi-Fi connections. Besides providing Rakuten access to new markets, the deal will offer new potential markets for Viber through Rakuten users. 

16.02.2014 – Google acquires SlickLogin to kill the password

SlickLogin is a small startup, whose product involves a unique, sound-based system for logging into websites.

19.02.2014 - Facebook’s $19 Billion WhatsApp Acquisition

WhatsApp is a global messaging platform with 450 million MAUs, which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. WhatsApp Messenger is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia and yes, those phones can all message each other! 

21.02.2014 - Apple acquires TestFlight creator Burstly

Burstly offers a full suite of products to power the entire app lifecycle. The app ecosystem is crowded but Burstly provides tools to help you navigate with ease. 

21.02.2014 - Google Acquires Spider.io To Help Spot And Stop Online Ad Fraud
Spider.io is a startup that specialized in weeding out fraudulent clicks around online ads. The three-year old company has tech that will help Google identify bad behavior around their content in video and display ads on the web, to help them get a more accurate picture of what is and isn't succeeding.

24.02.2014 - IBM Buys NoSQL Cloud Provider Cloudant
Based in Boston, the privately held Cloudant offers a hosted version of the ApacheCouchDB open source data store. Its own version, called BigCouch, can be run across multiple servers, providing a way to build and maintain an extremely large and fast data store for a front-end application.