Tagged / acquisition

» Silicon Alley Insider reports that job supersite Monster has purchased Yahoo!'s HotJobs for $225 million in cash, combining two giants in job sites. SAI indicates a traffic agreement. It'll generate some extra income for Yahoo! to (possibly) reinvent itself. (0)

» In a landmark acquisition, Oracle has completed their merger with Sun, combining two of the largest and most important software and hardware market players. Press release. Of note: Oracle's flagship product is their 11g enterprise database product; Sun's more SMB-focused product is MySQL. What will happen between them? (0)

» Ben Parr at Mashable reports that Apple is to acquire mobile ad platform Quattro Wireless, matching Google's AdMob acquisition from a few months ago. This is a telling move. Price is $275 million. (0)

» TechCrunch reports that Yelp has walked away from the $550 million deal with Google. Wow—it was almost finished. Confidence much in Yelp, or something wrong in the agreement? (0)

» This was one of the strangest acquisitions. MySpace killed off imeem, it seems, hours after the deal, and now thousands of artists go unpaid. (0)

Branchr Acquires My Company, Atomplan

26 Aug 09 / by Mark Bao / Business, Startups / / Comments

Today, Branchr Advertising acquired my company, Atomplan, formerly Avecora OnDemand. Atomplan is a small business organization and management application built to simplify and integrate communication and collaboration in companies and groups. It includes project management, contact and customer relationship management, wiki, status updates, calendar, and more.

Financial details were not disclosed, but the deal was a dual cash/equity transaction. I (Mark Bao) will remain the CEO of Atomplan, as Atomplan operates as an empirically separate entity from Branchr Advertising. Atomplan’s service will continue for existing customers. The only changes in service is the change in name and dramatic increase in file storage space for paid users.

I’m very happy with this acquisition. The Director and Founder of Branchr Advertising, Christian Owens, is a great person and a fantastic partner to be working with. Thanks for the great times, everyone. Time to work on the next startup!

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For more information: TechCrunch: Branchr Advertising Acquires Online Collaboration Software Maker Atomplan and Avecora’s Press Release: Avecora Announces the Aquisition of Avecora OnDemand by Branchr Advertising.

Amazon.com Acquires Zappos, Zappos Becomes Subsidary, No Layoffs

22 Jul 09 / by Mark Bao / Business / / Comments

zappos-logoGist: Amazon acquires Zappos. Zappos management staying, they’re becoming a wholly owned subsidary. No changes at Zappos, no layoffs. Very fitting acquisition for both companies and will result in many benefits to both.

They did it — Amazon.com (AMZN) acquired Zappos today. The two online retail megagiants combined today, with Zappos as a legally and wholly owned subsidary of Amazon. Zappos’s mangement isn’t leaving, nor are any layoffs being done, in an acquisition that (I think) is beneficial to everyone.

Zappos is known for their focus on customer service (their slogan is Powered by Service), and it shows as they constantly receive rave reviews for their customer service on the web, as well as appreciation for their regular process of upgrading shipping to overnight for free. Their corporate culture is light and they maintain an open culture. Similarly, Amazon is also an e-tailer respected by its customers, with good customer support, fast shipping, openish culture, and their cloud services at Amazon Web Services.

The acquisition represents a hand-in-glove combination of two differently-focused companies: Amazon, while they do have a selection of clothing and apparel, doesn’t have the selection of Zappos, which is a footwear plus clothing focused e-tailer. The combination of the two will allow them to share products and leads within their environment, leading to an improved experience for both of their customer bases.

All in all, an excellent acquisition. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has written a detailed letter about the definitive agreement to their employees, released to the public, here.

Nuance Acquires Jott, Hope for Recession-Era Acquisitions

14 Jul 09 / by Mark Bao / Business, Startups / / Comments

nuance-jottGist: Nuance Communications, leader in speech recognition, acquires consumer mobile/speech rec startup Jott. Expanding into enterprise. Excellent match, since Nuance should have entered mobile a long time ago.

Nuance Communications (NUAN) acquired consumer mobile startup Jott today, another important startup acquisition, breaking another relatively quiet purchase time environment. Jott is a mobile productivity tool for consumers with speech-to-text technology. Nuance Communications is (literally) the leader in speech-to-text technology, their flagship consumer and enterprise product being Dragon NaturallySpeaking with a powerful speech recognition engine.

This is a great acquisition. The obvious route for speech recognition is by voice on the phone, and I’m not sure why Nuance hasn’t tackled this market already. Jott and Nuance are a match made in heaven.

Nuance says that they plan on building an enterprise solution with Jott. Great idea. Hopefully, though, they keep the huge consumer portion (and market and expand the consumer Jott as well, as the startup gains more leverage within the corporation.)

Entrepreneurs: there’s hope yet for recession-era acquisitions.