A valuable deal for Groupon

Posted by on June 3, 2011

Contact: Brenon Daly As it preps for its public debut, we note that Groupon, the coupon giant known for offering consumers deals up to 90% off, did a bit of smart bargain shopping of its own last summer as it made an important purchase to expand business in Europe. In May 2010, Groupon picked up Berlin-based [...]

‘Acquisition in Motion’?

Posted by on May 3, 2011

Contact: Brenon Daly Instead of Research In Motion, maybe we should start calling the company ‘Acquisition In Motion.’ With Monday’s announcement of its purchase of ubitexx, the BlackBerry maker has now rung up nine acquisitions in just the past 13 months. That’s as many as the company had done, collectively, in the previous seven years. [...]

Google adds to NFC with Zetawire

Posted by on December 13, 2010

Contact: Jarrett Streebin, Ben Kolada, Vishal Jain Google continues to gobble up startups, and we’ve just uncovered a deal that supports its near field communications (NFC) ambitions. We’ve learned that Google recently picked up Zetawire, a Canadian startup focusing on mobile payments transactions. Like most of Google’s buys, this was a small deal, but it [...]

Nokia hiring by acquiring

Posted by on July 19, 2010

In an unusual bit of dealmaking, Nokia bought geo-tagging vendor MetaCarta in April and then turned around and sold it three months later. The recent divestiture might appear to be a botched acquisition. However, as we look closer at the deal, it turns out that Nokia actually got what it wanted out of the purchase. [...]

nextstop gets Facebooked

Posted by on July 13, 2010

Contact: Jarrett Streebin After years of building up its platform organically, Facebook has been acquiring like mad this year. The Palo Alto, California-based startup has just purchased its fourth company since January, up from only one in 2009. The latest acquisition is nextstop, a user-generated travel recommendation site. Like earlier buys this year, this one is about adding [...]

Wayfinder finds its way to a decent exit

Posted by on March 17, 2010

Contact: Brenon Daly Even in write-offs, it’s not impossible for companies to come out ahead. That’s what we were thinking when we saw the news that Vodafone pulled the shutter down on the Wayfinder Systems business that it acquired a little more than a year ago. Of course, in the year since the second-largest wireless [...]

No recession for mobile advertising M&A

Posted by on January 27, 2010

The vertical has not been hurt by the valuations decline. On the contrary, the past few months saw some of the richest deals for the sector yet. And with the segment poised to define mobile going forward, we believe there is much more to come.

Navigating a decent exit

Posted by on December 2, 2009

Contact: Brenon Daly When we last checked in with Networks In Motion (NiM) two weeks ago, we noted that the turn-by-turn navigation vendor had just been stepped on by the not-so-gentle giant, Google. As it turns out, NiM’s valuation got stepped on a bit, too. The Aliso Viejo, California-based company sold itself Tuesday to TeleCommunication [...]

Google, the not-so-gentle giant, steps into mobile apps

Posted by on November 17, 2009

Contact: Brenon Daly, Chris Hazelton In order to grow and foster broad support, technology platforms need to be open and inclusive. Of course, that’s a sentiment that runs counter to M&A, which by definition is selective and exclusionary. (See our earlier report on how selecting a company to buy often means giving a ring to [...]

Is mobile advertising back?

Posted by on November 10, 2009

Google’s monster acquisition of AdMob this week sure seems to suggest so. The high-multiple valuation makes this one of the richer deals in the overall sector and breathes new life into a niche vertical that seemed to be on life support earlier this year.

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