April – Acquisitions Go On

The number of dominating companies grows. Strong companies buy smaller ones, increasing sales and therefore the revenue as two companies together are more valuable than two separate ones. April continues acquisitions. Will they all have chance of success, are they all worthwhile? 

No one knows…

April 01 - Velocity Acquires Global Cloud Hosting Company Titan Technology Partners

Velocity announced the acquisition of Titan Technology Partners. Founded in 1998, Titan serves Fortune 500 and midmarket organizations in North America, Europe and Asia and maintains offices in Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; London, England; Pune, India; and Singapore. It’s a provider of global cloud hosting and managed services, business process outsourcing (BPO) and consulting services.

April 02 - Harvest Technologies to Be Acquired by Stratasys

A Belton, Texas based additive manufacturing service bureau Harvest Technologies entered into a definitive agreement for Stratasys acquisition - a leading global provider of 3D printing and additive manufacturing solutions. 

April 10 - IBM Acquires Silverpop to Boost its Online Marketing Personalization Products

IBM purchased Silverpop, which specializes in managing personally-customized Internet promotions. Silverpop assembles profiles of individuals from social media sites, Web usage, email and other digital signals. IBM plans to integrate Silverpop's technologies into its own marketing services.

April 14 - Google acquires UAV maker Titan Aerospace

Google has acquired Mexico-based drone maker Titan Aerospace - the drone startup that makes high-flying robots which was previously scoped by Facebook as a potential acquisition target. Google is interested in Titan Aerospace as its solar-powered drones can fly continuously for 5 years, which makes them idea to bring wireless internet to remote destinations, such as Africa.

April 15 - Motorola's Enterprise Business Sold for US$3.45 Billion to Zebra Technologies

Zebra Technologies acquired Motorola's Enterprise business for US$3.45 billion in an all-cash transaction. Illinois-headquartered Zebra has been known for its RFID and real-time location solutions.

April 15 - Twitter Acquires Longtime Partner and Social Data Provider Gnip

Twitter has acquired Gnip, the social data provider that has long provided access to public Twitter data, and that has deepened its relationship with the social network over the years through a series of product and partnership announcements. Gnip offers access to historical Twitter data, and the full Twitter data firehose, but it also offers APIs that provide data from other social networks including Reddit, Instagram, Tumblr, Bitly and more.

April 17 - Dropbox acquires Loom

Dropbox acquired Loom, a popular service that offers cloud-based photo storage. Dropbox and Loom share many of the same ambitions, but unfortunately, the agreement also spells the end for Loom.The company has immediately halted new signups, and the service will shut down permanently on May 16th. Users can choose to automatically export their photos to Dropbox — and they'll automatically receive the same amount of cloud storage they previously had with Loom or customers can opt to receive a .zip file containing every image they've uploaded to Loom's servers.

April 24 - Facebook acquires ProtoGeo Oy, maker of fitness tracking app Moves

Facebook acquires ProtoGeo Oy, a Finnish software company that’s most well-known for making fitness tracker app Moves.  Facebook adds another stand-alone app to its growing stable.

March – Another Month Full of Acquisitions

I have an opinion that several large companies decided to buy as many smaller companies as possible. At the end of each month I go back to see what has been acquired and every time I am surprised to see the number of mergers and acquisitions. Names of many companies appear on my lists every month. And I should also mention that there are only the largest and most prominent acquisitions in my lists, otherwise it will become an endless list. And, here we go: 

March 5 - Yahoo Acquires  Social  Data Visualization Startup Vizify

Yahoo acquired Vizify, a company that turns social media data into interactive visual aids such as infographics and videos, adding to the Internet giant's string of acquisitions designed  to get talent and access to new technologies and services

.March 5 - News Reader Company Flipboard Buys Rival Zite from CNN

News reader company Flipboard has bought rival app Zite from CNN and struck a content partnership with the cable news network. The deal is valued at $60 million.

March 12 - Google Buys Green Throttle, a Smartphone Game Controller Company

Google is going to jump into the home game console market with a set-top box and has just snapped up a gaming company "Green Throttle Games," the producer of a gaming controller for Android.     

March 17 - Vodafone Agrees to Buy Spanish Cable Operator Ono 

Vodafone continues to strengthen its fixed network holdings by acquiring Spanish cable operator Ono for $10.1 billion. Vodafone sees the acquisitions of Ono and Kabel Deutschland as opportunities to combine mobile, fixed broadband and TV.

March 24 - Dell Continues Software Expansion with StatSoft Acquisition

Dell has added another company to its growing software portfolio with the acquisition of predictive analytics company StatSoft for an undisclosed amount. StatSoft sells analytics, database management and integration software. Terms of the acquisition were not detailed.    

March 24 - Palo Alto Networks Buys Maker Cyvera

Palo Alto Networks - next-generation firewall, is buying Israeli startup Cyvera for about $200 million to gain access to its endpoint security product for real-time attack prevention. The deal is expected to close in a few weeks. 


March 25 - Facebook Buying Oculus VR Virtual - Reality Company 

Facebook announced it is buying hot virtual reality gaming company Oculus VR for $2 billion. Facebook noted, and with Oculus it plans to tackle areas such as communications, media and entertainment, and education.

March 25 - Golden Gate Capital Completes Acquisition of LiveVox 

Golden Gate Capital, a leading investment firm has acquired a majority stake in LiveVox a leading provider of cloud-based contact center software and solutions for business process outsourcers and enterprise clients. Golden Gate Capital is highly experienced in the contact center software market,having previously invested in Aspect Software. 

March 26 -  Klout Acquired for $200 Million by LithiumTechnologies

Social score startup Klout has been acquired by Lithium Technologies for nearly $200 million.Lithium is a provider of social customer experience solutions for the enterprise.  

March 26 -  SAP to Acquire Fieldglass, the Global Cloud Technology Leader in Contingent Workforce Management

SAP acquires Fieldglass, the leading technology provider for procuring and managing contingent labor and services. The addition of Fieldglass' cloud-based Vendor Management System (VMS) solution meets the growing demand among employers to manage flexible workforces that can be quickly engaged and on-boarded to support rapidly changing business and customer needs.