Category Archives: M&A Activity

AutoDesk, BIM, Building Information Modeling, Construction, M&A Activity, Project management, Vela Systems

Autodesk Acquires Vela Systems for Construction Management

Image representing Vela Systems as depicted in...

Autodesk, Inc. has acquired Vela Systems, a provider of cloud and mobile field management software for the construction industry. The addition of Vela Systems field management products to Autodesk’s growing portfolio of cloud and mobile products is helping to extend the value of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and project data to construction customers in the field. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“BIM has tremendous value in the planning and design aspects of construction projects, but if you can’t get that rich data into the field, at the point of construction, you are leaving out the critical ‘last 100 yards’ in the process. Integrating Vela Systems and its cloud and mobile products with the Autodesk BIM portfolio transforms the business of construction, delivering valuable information to job sites anywhere in the world,” said Amar Hanspal, Senior Vice President, Information Modeling and Platform Products Group.

Based in Burlington, Massachusetts, Vela Systems extends the power of BIM with cloud and mobile technologies that enable project and company-wide programs for streamlined management of quality, safety, commissioning and field construction. The powerful reporting tools provide immediate visibility into issues in the field, allowing for proactive management and resolution, rather than time consuming and expensive overruns caused by a reactive approach. Vela Systems software and services are integrated with current Autodesk integrated project management software including Autodesk Navisworks, the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry’s standard comprehensive set of integration, analysis, and communication tools for project review.

“Vela Systems has been a longstanding partner of Autodesk, and has been leading the charge in the field. The confluence of cloud computing, iOS mobile devices like the iPad and BIM has enabled a new way to deliver and manage construction projects of all types. With the acquisition, we will accelerate this revolution in field management through a broader solution and greatly enhanced distribution,” said Josh Kanner, co-founder, of Vela Systems.

Combined with the Autodesk BIM portfolio, the Vela Systems software has already helped contractors, owners, architects and engineers accelerate project schedules, reduce project risk, and improve the flow of information, including key data and project photos, between project stakeholders. Autodesk users can now reduce reliance on manual processes to track progress, document work activities and resolve issues. With the Vela Systems integration, users can also visualize the as-designed building in the field to improve quality and fidelity to design intent; streamline reviews; save money with more efficient workflows by linking physical tasks to a virtual model; and capture critical data on materials, systems, and equipment.

 


Bytemobile, Citrix, Citrix Systems, M&A Activity, Mobile, Mobile network operator, Video

Citrix Acquires Mobile Data, Video Optimization Provider Bytemobile

Image representing Bytemobile as depicted in C...

Citrix today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Bytemobile, a leading provider of data and video optimization solutions for mobile network operators. This acquisition gives Citrix a key strategic foothold in the core infrastructure of more than 130 mobile operators in 60 countries around the world, significantly extending the company’s market reach, and enhancing the broader Citrix strategy of powering mobile workstyles and cloud services.

With the advent of the Cloud Era, mobile operators are experiencing explosive growth in network traffic, driven by the combination of new consumer devices, rich multimedia content, and high speed 3G, 4G and LTE networks. By joining forces, Citrix and Bytemobile will be able to offer these operators combined solutions that deliver a high quality user experience to mobile subscribers, while helping operators manage the exponential growth of mobile network traffic with the best performance, visibility and efficiency. The acquisition builds on a strategic partnership announced earlier this year that combined the Bytemobile Smart Capacity™ technology with the Citrix NetScaler® line of cloud networking solutions.

This transaction has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is expected to close during the third quarter of 2012. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Citrix expects to discuss the acquisition in greater detail when it reports financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2012. Upon the close of this acquisition, Bytemobile will form a new Service Provider Platforms team as part of the Citrix Cloud Networking product group.

The acquisition of Bytemobile expands the market reach of Citrix from its existing leadership position with enterprise and cloud provider customers, into the rapidly growing mobile telecommunications space. Bytemobile brings Citrix leading technology, award-winning products, a strong customer base, and 12 years of customer relationships and deployment experience in mobile telecommunications. Bytemobile customers today serve more than 2 billion subscribers and process more than 20 petabytes of data traffic through customer networks daily.

Based near Citrix Silicon Valley headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., Bytemobile has approximately 300 employees, including product, sales and services teams around the world. In addition to optimizing mobile data and video traffic, Bytemobile solutions enable mobile operators to differentiate data service plans based on a wide variety of factors, including quality of experience and subscriber usage.

“The cloud and mobile revolutions are rapidly converging, and mobile operators are at the heart of this convergence,” said Klaus Oestermann, group vice president and general manager of cloud networking at Citrix. “With the integration of Bytemobile technology, products and intellectual capital, Citrix will be uniquely positioned to be a leader in the global mobile data and video infrastructure market in the LTE era.”

Since announcing their earlier strategic partnership at Mobile World Congress in February 2012, Citrix and Bytemobile have collaborated to deliver the Bytemobile T1100 Traffic Director, which helps operators scale next-generation mobile networks and apps with the application delivery intelligence and performance of the NEBS-compliant Citrix NetScaler platform. With this acquisition, Citrix and Bytemobile will further accelerate the ability to bring mobile operators a wide range of powerful solutions to enable mobile workstyles and power cloud services.

“The integration of Bytemobile will enable us to extend our value proposition to the edge of the network, bringing content closer to the end user,” continued Oestermann. “The benefits to network operators and their subscribers include faster, more efficient, more reliable, and more manageable networks; higher performance resulting in better service and a better user experience; and scalability to process growing volumes of data traffic at a much lower cost.”

Citrix plans to build on Bytemobile as the center of its go-to-market strategy for mobile network operators – retaining and growing its investment in the Bytemobile brand, technology, products, employees and customer relationships. Bytemobile will continue as an independent product group within the Citrix cloud networking group, leveraging clear synergies with adjacent technologies such as Citrix NetScaler.

“We are excited about the significance of this transaction for the industry, our customers, our employees, and our stockholders,” said Chris Koopmans, chief operating officer of Bytemobile. “With the rollout of LTE and other next-generation networks, the mobile data market is poised to grow dramatically in the coming years. The addition of Bytemobile solutions to the Citrix portfolio will accelerate the fulfillment of our vision and investment in the future of the industry.”


Dell, Desktop virtualization, M&A Activity, Virtualization, Wyse, Wyse Technology

Acquisition of Wyse Technology to Extend Dell’s Desktop Virtualization

Image representing Dell as depicted in CrunchBase

Dell today announced it has completed its acquisition of Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing. The combination of Wyse’s capabilities with Dell’s existing desktop virtualization offerings position the company as the leader in the desktop virtualization, enabling it to offer true end-to-end IT solutions for customers and partners.

Dell has made significant strategic investments over the past three years to expand its enterprise technology and services capabilities. The Dell Wyse portfolio with current Dell desktop virtualization offerings, leading data center products such as servers and storage, and Dell’s services division, provides customers and partners with a single vendor that can match the full range of their cloud computing and desktop virtualization needs.

The Dell Wyse solution portfolio includes industry-leading thin, zero and cloud client computing solutions with advanced management, desktop virtualization and cloud software supporting desktops, laptops and next generation mobile devices. Dell Wyse has more than 180 patents, both issued and pending, covering its solutions, software and differentiated intellectual property. Dell’s existing offerings include Desktop Virtualization Solution Simplified and Desktop Virtualization Solution Enterprise.

Dell recognizes it’s critical for the desktop virtualization solutions strategy to embrace simple device management, enhance security, scale, and boost user productivity, while providing the flexibility to support anytime, anywhere access on any device.

Dell plans to preserve Wyse’s channel offerings and all existing Wyse channel partners will be eligible for our PartnerDirect Program. Dell will combine the best of both companies’ channel deal registration programs, extend this new deal registration program to all partners, and introduce a program in which partners can grow and nurture a customer relationship.

“We’re excited to officially welcome Wyse to Dell and help extend its industry-leading efforts to a broader range of customers and partners,” said Jeff Clarke, Dell vice chairman and president, Global Operations and End User Computing Solutions. “We believe the Dell Wyse capabilities, combined with our previous desktop virtualization offerings and the strength of the Dell enterprise portfolio, provides the most comprehensive and competitive DVS solution available today.”

“Wyse and Dell share the vision and passion in helping our customers and partners create a frictionless user experience via the cloud,” said Tarkan Maner, Vice President and General Manager Dell Wyse, Cloud Client Computing.. “Combining our relentless IP innovation and tight operational skills, and most importantly our laser focus on customer and partner advocacy, Dell cloud client computing will develop and deliver the most advanced solutions globally, from the data center to the end user. We are and will be completely focused on the best user experience for any user, for any content, using any app, on any device, anytime, anywhere; without any conflict, compromise and constraint.”

“As a current customer who has deployed Wyse cloud client computing solutions with Dell PowerEdge servers and Dell EqualLogic storage, Western Wayne School District is excited about the combination of Dell and Wyse,” said Brian Seaman, Network Administrator at Western Wayne School District in Pennsylvania. “Like most school districts, Western Wayne operates in a budget constrained environment and our move to desktop virtualization technologies supported with strong enterprise infrastructure has enabled us to do more with less in service of our students and community. In working with Dell and Wyse to scope and deploy our computing environment, Western Wayne now has the right technology to help us achieve our vision of educating our students of today to become the productive citizens of tomorrow.”

“End point computing models continue to evolve and are accelerating tremendous innovation and efficiencies across enterprise desktop and personal computing,” said Bob O’Donnell, vice president, Clients and Displays, IDC. “One area of strong customer growth is in the desktop virtualization space and we expect to see adoption rates continue to grow over the next several years. As use models continue to mature, so do the vendors who offer solutions in this product space. Dell’s acquisition of Wyse results in an industry-leading solutions and services provider with a formidable end-to-end technology stack from the end point to the datacenter to the cloud.”


Dell, Legacy system, M&A Activity, Make Technologies, Tools

Dell Acquires Make Technologies for Cloud Transition Tech

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Dell announced today it has finalized the acquisition of Make Technologies, a leading application modernization software and services company. This acquisition, combined with the recent acquisition of Clerity Solutions, enables Dell to empower customers to reduce the cost, risk and time required to transition business-critical applications from legacy systems to cloud infrastructure and open, standards-based platforms. Through this technology, Dell is positioned to help organizations leverage more flexible platforms, allowing them to better leverage social and mobile technologies, enhancing workforce productivity and helping to deliver better business results.

The acquisition significantly augments the applications expertise Dell offers to customers with the following services enabled by the Make Technologies Transformational Legacy Modernization (TLM) suite:

  • Detailed application portfolio assessments to help customers define a
    modernization roadmap
  • Faster, lower risk, and cost-effective approach to application and
    data re-engineering

With this acquisition, Dell is better able to provide customers IT modernization solutions to reduce operational costs, migrate to an easier-to-maintain, standards-based architecture, and move to an application and data architecture that more effectively aligns with their business strategy. With a comprehensive mix of software and services dedicated to application modernization, Dell is well positioned to help scale Make’s offering and adds another tool in its suite of solutions that can help relieve customers from the inefficiencies of legacy applications and legacy infrastructure.

By better aligning their environments with current and future business processes, Make can empower customers’ modernization efforts by providing fully re-architected applications that provide a foundation for growth. The company differentiates itself in several ways:

  • Provides customers with end-to-end application portfolio
    transformation solutions that modernize entire portfolios of legacy
    applications in less time and with higher precision
  • Provides code and data migration tools to re-architect legacy
    application software to a more modern architecture
  • Reduces cost of maintaining and managing legacy applications
  • Drastically reduces the amount of custom code in legacy portfolios,
    while protecting the legacy information and business processes of the
    business functions it supports
  • Increases business agility through a re-engineered application that
    better aligns with our customers’ current and future business processes

“The addition of Make Technologies to our Dell Services portfolio allows us to offer customers a complete suite of application modernization services to help them move their legacy IT environments to more modern architectures,” said Steve Schuckenbrock, president, Dell Services. “At Dell, we are focused on solving some of our customers’ most complex problems with powerful IT solutions. With Make and Clerity we believe we have the industry’s most robust offering to help customers meet their modernization goals in an efficient, reliable and cost-effective way.”

“If Dell embraces the MAKE process as well as the tooling, it will gain a formidable weapon for its services arm. The sky truly is the limit for Dell – if it plays its cards right¹,” wrote Forrester Research, Inc. principal analyst, Phil Murphy.

“The combination of Make Technologies and Dell provides the market with a single vendor solution for any modernization activity and is an exciting step in expanding growth opportunities for our core application modernization software and services,” said Bill Bergen, president and CEO of Make Technologies, Inc. “Together, with Dell’s global reach, scale and reputation for customer support, Make’s methodology and tools will become even more accessible to more customers struggling with the dilemma that surrounds legacy environments.”


Hosting, Interxion, London, M&A Activity, Six Degrees Group

Six Degrees Group Acquires Datahop

Six Degrees Group has expanded its UK network capabilities with the acquisition of Datahop, an international datacentre interconnection business with 200 customers. Datahop’s network consists of a resilient, high-speed fibre ring that connects 21 points of presence (PoPs) in London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris.

Six Degrees Group’s expanded network will bring most of London’s datacentres on-net, including Telecity, Telehouse, Interxion, Level 3 and Iomart facilities. Datahop’s network brings 16 new PoPs onto the Six Degrees core network as well as extending the Group’s footprint into four Western European countries. Six Degrees Group run-rate revenues are now approximately £44m with EBITDA of over £11m.

Following the acquisition, Six Degrees Group will be investing in its network by undertaking a multi-million pound upgrade before launching a next generation VPLS-enabled datacentre interconnect fabric that will enable multi-gigabit port capability for distribution of its converged voice, data and hosting portfolio. The Group’s network now connects European and American financial centres with an unrivalled footprint in London carrier-neutral datacentres, and uniquely positions it with the ability to deliver high-speed network interconnects in London.

Daniel Lowe, managing director of Six Degrees Group’s managed data division, commented: “This announcement marks a significant step-change in the scale, reach and capability of the Six Degrees Group network. Datahop’s technologies will allow us to deliver higher bandwidth, and a broader range of services to our customers. Our ability to link people, places and clouds has been boosted significantly with the flexible service creation capability we now offer to the market.”

To find out more please visit: www.6dg.co.uk


Financial Services, Iceni, M&A Activity, Mobile, Plextek Limited

Plextek, RedCloud Acquire Iceni Mobile Payments System

Plextek Limited, a product innovation and design consultancy and RedCloud Technology Limited, an investor in mobile financial services in emerging markets, today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Intellectual Property Rights of Iceni Mobile Ltd including the mobile payments system (the I2S platform) developed by the same team that brought the world’s most successful mobile money service, M-PESA, to market.

The acquisition signifies both Plextek’s and RedCloud’s commitment to the mobile money market. With the founding team, the companies plan to deliver the technology as a platform as a service and create a new way in which mobile money and associated services are taken to market.

“Plextek and RedCloud share a vision for extending the mobile payments value chain to transform the way in which financial services are launched in emerging markets,” said Ian Murphy, Technical Director and Founder of Plextek. “The next generation of mobile payments technology is about leveraging the power of secure cloud computing platforms; it’s about a fundamentally better way to recruit, manage and empower banks to deliver mobile financial services.”

“Our cloud financial services investment strategy is accelerating, and is at the root of the broad-based transformation and innovation we are seeing from customers today,” said Justin Floyd, Founding Partner of RedCloud. “The launch of the Platform as a Service model revolutionizes mobile payments through banks and mobile operators in emerging markets. It’s an important step to making technology available at a lower cost of ownership to those that need it most.”

“We are set to transform the way in which mobile money technology is delivered to financial organizations,” added Warren Carew, one of the founders of Iceni. “Traditional mobile payment software that many financial organizations use today was designed to work in an offline world. Platform as a Service will remove barriers to entry for future providers allowing them to accelerate their entry to market.”

Iceni’s core services provide robust authentication solutions for web access and mobile solutions designed for un-banked populations over multiple service channels. The services include proximity and remote payment services such as in-store or online mobile payment, money transfer, and more. The I2S platform enables banks, payment service providers, and telecom operators to offer accessible and secure financial services to anyone with a phone.


Firstserv, Hosting, M&A Activity, Serverstream, Six Degrees Group

Six Degrees Group Announces Two Cloud Hosting Acquisitions

Six Degrees Group today announced that it has completed the acquisitions of two London-based managed hosting and cloud providers. Firstserv and Serverstream were both founded over 10 years ago and focus exclusively on the rapidly growing hosting market with a particular emphasis on the digital media, publishing and leisure sectors. Customers include Sunseeker, The Spectator and Port of London Authority.

Both Firstserv and Serverstream will be integrated into Six Degrees Group’s managed data division where they will add £3m of hosting revenues, representing a mix of managed hosting, cloud hosting (virtual private, private and hybrid) and complex web hosting. 17 highly-skilled personnel will be joining Six Degrees Group where they will focus on integrating and expanding the Group’s hosting platforms. The acquisitions are part of a series of strategic investments being made in the Six Degrees Group’s cloud offering.

Following these transactions, Six Degrees Group’s run-rate revenues now exceed £40m with underlying EBITDA of over £10m. The company continues to enjoy strong double-digit organic growth, underpinned by cross-selling.

Alastair Mills, CEO of Six Degrees Group, stated: “I am delighted to welcome both Firstserv and Serverstream to Six Degrees Group. This announcement sees the Group continue to focus on managed data services, particularly in the fast-growing cloud hosting sector. Our goal for 2012 is to become one of the top five hosting and cloud providers in the UK.”

Gordon Kenneway, MD of Firstserv, said: “This is an important day for all at Firstserv. Our employees will now have access to a larger, geographically diverse hosting platform with best-in-class compute and storage resources, which is also a very exciting step for our customers. I am looking forward to joining Alastair and the Six Degrees team to help establish their position as one of the UK’s fastest growing cloud companies.”

Jonathan Obadia, MD of Serverstream, commented: “We are excited to be joining Six Degrees Group. Serverstream has a strong reputation for delivering complex hosting solutions to mid-market customers and this merger enables us to continue our expansion with additional services, scale and geographical diversity. Our customers will continue to receive the same exceptional levels of service and support that they’ve become accustomed to, with the added benefit of access to


Blackbaud, Convio, Education, M&A Activity

Blackbaud Acquires Convio

Blackbaud, Inc. today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Convio, Inc., a leading provider of on-demand constituent engagement solutions. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Blackbaud paid an aggregate purchase price of approximately $325 million. Blackbaud financed the deal through a combination of cash and borrowings from its credit facility.

“This is an exciting day for the Blackbaud and Convio teams. Together, we can build better solutions for nonprofits, and that’s what drives us,” said Marc Chardon, Blackbaud’s chief executive officer. “Convio’s strengths in online and social marketing, and subscription and cloud-based offerings complement ours, and will accelerate our ability to deliver more to the nonprofit sector.”

“Having worked with both Convio and Blackbaud over the past few years, we are pleased to see this new development,” said Major George Hood, National Community Relations Secretary for The Salvation Army. “Being able to work with one vendor across multiple channels of engagement will be a benefit to The Salvation Army, and we are confident Blackbaud will continue to help us more effectively engage with our donors and supporters.”

Originally announced on January 17, 2012, the acquisition followed the completion of the tender offer Blackbaud made through its wholly owned subsidiary, Caribou Acquisition Corporation, for all the outstanding shares of Convio common stock for $16 per share, net to the seller in cash, without interest and less any applicable withholding taxes. Immediately prior to the merger, Caribou Acquisition Corporation held approximately 90.4% of Convio’s outstanding common stock. As a result, Blackbaud was able to complete a “short-form” merger under Delaware law where all outstanding shares of Convio common stock that were not previously tendered (other than shares held by Caribou Acquisition Corporation or Convio stockholders that properly exercise appraisal rights under Delaware law) were converted into the right to receive the same consideration paid to stockholders in the tender offer. Blackbaud assumed Convio equity awards that were unvested as of closing. Convio’s common stock has ceased trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

Blackbaud plans to support Convio’s current offerings, and the companies’ combined research and development (R&D) teams will work with customers to improve and extend current products and build new offerings. Blackbaud plans to keep Convio’s current office structure, adding key offices in the Bay Area and Austin. Gene Austin, Convio’s former president and CEO, will lead the enterprise customer business unit at Blackbaud, reporting to Marc Chardon. “We are excited to work together to bring nonprofits the technology they need at a faster pace than either of us could have separately,” said Austin.

Easter Seals, an organization focused on providing exceptional services, education, outreach, and advocacy to people living with autism and other disabilities, has worked closely with both Blackbaud and Convio for nearly a decade. “In that time, each company has developed core, and in many cases distinct strengths, in the fundraising and marketing arenas,” said Steve Bergman, Easter Seals’ CIO. “Blackbaud’s acquisition of Convio will hasten the creation of new products that could enhance the effectiveness of nonprofits like Easter Seals.”Mexico, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.


Aprimo, Big Data, eCircle, M&A Activity, Marketing, Teradata, Teradata Aster

Teradata Acquires eCircle

Teradata and Aprimo, a Teradata company today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Munich-based eCircle, a European cloud-based digital marketing company.

The combination of Teradata’s analytical capabilities, Aprimo’s Integrated Marketing Management, and eCircle’s digital messaging solution will enable marketers worldwide to create integrated customer experiences across online and offline channels that leverage Big Data insights to grow existing customers, attract new customers, and increase revenues. Digital marketers will also have the option to leverage the eCircle solution as a standalone offering. The addition of eCircle more than triples Aprimo’s European team, expertise and reach in all major European countries, creating the largest marketing applications provider in Europe and enabling the delivery of eCircle solutions globally.

Components of the combined Teradata, Aprimo, and eCircle offering will include:

•        An Integrated Marketing Management solution that provides access to all marketing applications from the cloud – including digital, campaign and operational – thus enabling faster time to market, higher ease of use, and less IT complexity;

•        Ability to easily create targeted, personalised digital campaigns that are among the world’s most robust in their compliance with security and privacy regulations;

•        A digital messaging platform for social, mobile, web and email that can scale to support hundreds of billions of messages a year;

•        Multi-channel data management, advanced segmentation and optimisation,

•        Access to digital marketing services such as messaging, content creation, best practices and lead generation delivered by Aprimo digital marketing experts;

•        Big Data analytics from Teradata and Teradata Aster that turns content from social, mobile, web and email channels into actionable insights; and,

•        Unified reporting.

eCircle will also be available as a standalone solution for the digital marketer who wants a simple to deploy but powerful and easy to use digital messaging infrastructure.


appRenaissance, DreamIt Ventures, M&A Activity, Mobile, Mobile application development, User interface, UXFLIP

appRenaissance Acquires Mobile UX/UI Innovator UXFLIP

appRenaissance, a provider of mobile applications, tools and infrastructure, announced today that it has acquired UXFLIP, an innovator in dynamic mobile interface capabilities. UXFLIP’s patent-pending dynamic UX/UI creation, deployment and management capabilities will be merged with the company’s mobile middleware platform, Unifeed™.

“We’re very excited to announce this acquisition today and to have founder Michael Raber join the appRenaissance team,” said Bob Moul, appRenaissance CEO. “The capabilities of UXFLIP are highly complementary to our middleware platform and Michael will be an awesome addition to the team.”

UXFLIP was a participant in the Fall 2011 accelerator program at DreamIt Ventures and recently won “best in show” at the Phorum tech conference in Philadelphia. UXFLIP allows users to dynamically build, deploy and manage the user interface and experience of mobile applications as a cloud-delivered service. A beta version of the offering will be available this summer.

“I am excited to be joining the team at appRenaissance and to help lead the development of next generation revolutionary mobile tools and infrastructure,” said Raber. “Bob was our advisor at DreamIt and immediately saw the value of what we were building. appRenaissance provides the perfect platform to continue to build out the vision we had when we launched UXFLIP.”