The European Union’s competition regulator has given the all-clear to Microsoft’s $19.7 billion purchase of transcription tech firm Nuance, which was announced earlier this year. The EU said today it has concluded there are no competition concerns for the region if the acquisition goes ahead, clearing it without conditions. The deal was notified to the […]
Oracle joins Microsoft in spending big to dominate healthcare vertical
Enterprise software companies are focused firmly on healthcare. If you want proof, look at how Oracle and Microsoft both backed up trucks loaded with money to buy health tech companies this year.
MainOne CEO Funke Opeke says Equinix is buying her company for the right price
The African tech scene woke up today to exciting news about the landmark acquisition of MainOne, one of the region’s most important and pivotal tech companies in the past decade, by Equinix, a U.S. multinational specializing in internet connection data centers. The story of MainOne starts with founder and CEO Funke Opeke moving back to […]
How Credit Karma, acquired amid COVID chaos, fared in its first year under Intuit
February 24, 2020, is a day Ken Lin will never forget. The Credit Karma CEO was about to announce that the company he founded 13 years earlier was about to be acquired for more than $7 billion.
Picsart acquires R&D company DeepCraft in seven-figure deal to aid video push
SoftBank-based digital creation platform Picsart, which recently hit uniciorn status, announced today it’s acquiring the research and development company DeepCraft. The deal is a combination of both cash and stock and is in the seven-figure range, but the exact terms aren’t being disclosed. Picsart today offers a range of digital creation and editing tools aimed […]
Social app IRL makes its first acquisition with deal for digital nutrition company AaBeZe Labs
IRL, the SoftBank-backed social app and recent unicorn, is today announcing its first acquisition. The company is purchasing, for an undisclosed sum, the “digital nutrition” company AaBeZe Labs and its portfolio of IP with the goal of making IRL a healthier and more ethically designed social networking app. AaBeZe’s founders Michael Phillips Moskowitz, the former […]
UK’s antitrust watchdog orders Facebook to sell Giphy
In a significant push against big tech’s ability to maintain market dominance through sheer buying power, the UK’s competition watchdog has ordered Facebook (now Meta) to reverse its acquisition of animated GIF platform, Giphy — confirming the Financial Times‘ earlier reporting. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its phase 2 investigation cemented its earlier […]
Netflix to acquire German visual effects studio behind ‘Stranger Things’ and more
Netflix is acquiring Munich-based visual effects studio Scanline VFX for an undisclosed amount. The company expects the deal to close in the first quarter of 2022, subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions. Scanline has done work on several Netflix originals, including “Stranger Things” and “Cowboy Bebop.” The studio has also provided special effects for […]
Voyager Space Holdings to acquire majority stake in Space Micro
Voyager Space Holdings is continuing its trend of snapping up space companies by moving to acquire a majority stake in Space Micro, a manufacturer of orbital communications and digital subsystems for satellites. This is Voyager’s sixth acquisition since its founding in October 2019, as the company seeks to become a full-service space firm offering everything […]
EU retail giant Schwarz Group snags security startup XM Cyber for $700 million
Schwarz Group, an EU-based retail company, announced today that it has acquired Israeli security startup XM Cyber for $700 million. It may seem like a strange partnership, as Schwarz is best known as the owners of the Lidl and Kaufland supermarkets, but the company believes that extending into security will ultimately help benefit its retail […]