An overview of the week in deals in the Irish and global technology sector.
Facebook confirms Gowalla acquisition
Facebook has confirmed its acquisition of travel app firm Gowalla, whose staff will join its design and engineering teams and no doubt influence the development of Timeline.
Last week, a Facebook spokesperson said: “We’re excited to confirm that Gowalla co-founders Josh Williams and Scott Raymond, along with other members of the Gowalla team, are moving to Facebook in January to join our design and engineering teams.
“In talking with the Gowalla team, we realised that we share many of the same goals: building great products that reach millions of people, making a big impact quickly, and creating new ways for people to connect and share what’s going on in their lives.
“While Facebook isn’t acquiring the Gowalla service or technology, we’re sure that the inspiration behind Gowalla will make its way into Facebook over time,” the spokesperson said.
IBM acquires Irish software firm Cúram for undisclosed sum
Technology giant IBM is to buy Irish software company Cúram Software Ltd to deliver social programmes for smarter cities. The financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
After the acquisition is completed, Cúram Software will be integrated into IBM’s Software Group, which is a key driver of growth and profitability for the company.
The acquisition is anticipated to close by the end of December, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions and regulatory reviews.
Cúram’s technology is used in more than 80 government agency projects around the world to provide the most appropriate social programmes to citizens and their families in a timely manner, deliver services more effectively and continuously monitor progress toward achieving people’s social and economic potential.
Through its Smarter Cities initiative, IBM helps cities and governments serve citizens better by adopting more intelligent and efficient ways to analyse data, anticipate problems and co-ordinate resources. IBM has led more than 2,000 projects to achieve these goals and through its acquisition of Cúram Software, IBM expects to extend its leadership in this area.
IBM to acquire DemandTec
Technology giant IBM is to acquire DemandTec, a collaborative optimisation network for retailers and consumer products companies, in an all-cash transaction for US$13.20/share, or at a net price of about US$440m, after adjusting for cash.
IBM will extend its Smarter Commerce initiative with the DemandTec acquisition by adding cloud-based price, promotion and other merchandising and marketing analytics to help companies better define the best price points and product mix based on customer buying trends.
IBM will continue to support and enhance DemandTec’s technologies and clients while allowing them to take advantage of the broader IBM portfolio.
DemandTec will be integrated into IBM’s Software Group as part of the acquisition, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012.
The deal is subject to DemandTec shareholder approval, applicable regulatory clearances and other customary closing conditions.
HP acquires cloud printing firm Hiflex
HP has bought a German web-to-print and management information systems software company called Hiflex for an undisclosed sum.
Hiflex’s technologies will enable the computing giant to expand its portfolio of cloud technologies.
The move appears motivated by HP’s strategy to enable users to be able to print anything anywhere via smartphones, tablets, the cloud and social.
Kofax acquires NI tech firm Singularity for US$48.1m
Northern Ireland tech firm Singularity has been bought by London Stock Exchange-listed business automation firm Kofax for US$48.1m in cash. The move will allow the expanded company to become a major provider of cloud business process management (BPM).
Of this amount, US$30.3m was paid on closing of the transaction and US$3.3m will be paid one year from closing subject to certain indemnification terms and conditions.
Additional payments totalling up to US$14.5m may be made one and two years following closing subject to the achievement of specific annual software license revenue growth rates and certain management employment conditions.
As a result of the acquisition of Singularity, Kofax will be the first company to offer a capture-enabled BPM platform, which will provide uniquely differentiated software product and solution offerings in both the capture and BPM markets.
The combined Kofax and Singularity products will be fully deployable “on premise” or via private clouds under a traditional perpetual licence model and via a public cloud under a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscription model.
Appirio acquires Irish tech firm Saaspoint
US cloud services provider Appirio will acquire Irish tech firm Saaspoint in order for Appirio to gain a physical presence in the UK and Ireland.
The acquisition will add to Appirio’s existing presence in the US, Japan and India and will form the foundation for the US firm to build out more broadly into Europe.
Appirio helps enterprises power their businesses with cloud applications and platforms, such as Salesforce.com, Google and Workday.
The transaction will close in the fourth quarter of this year.
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