ACQUISITION | Pixr8 News

Pine Labs acquires Qwikcilver for $110 mn

20Apr By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Pine Labs acquires Qwikcilver for $110 mn

Singapore-based merchant platform company Pine Labs has acquired gift solution company, Qwikcilver for $110 million. Last month the company had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Qwikcilver. "We have acquired Qwikcilver for $110 million, funded via internal cash reserves and with additional funding from existing investors," a company statement said. The company is backed by Sequoia India, PayPal, Temasek, Actis Capital, Altimeter Capital, Madison India Capital and Sofina. Qwikcilver is a gift card service provider, managing an annualised gross transaction value of $1.5 billion across India, Middle East and South East Asia. With this acquisition, Qwikcilver and Pine Labs have a combined gift solutions business comprising 250 brands and retailers and 1,500 enterprise cu...

Online Payment firm PayU acquires US-based Wibmo for $70 mn

16Apr By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Online Payment firm PayU acquires US-based Wibmo for $70 mn

Online payment service provider PayU acquires the US-based financial technology firm Wibmo for $70 million (around Rs 484 crore). Given different capabilities and positioning in the value chain, Wibmo and PayU businesses will continue to run separately, PayU said in a statement. Wibmo partners and deeply integrate with banks in over 20 countries to offer payment authentication and risk-based decisions across billions of online and mobile payment transactions. "This strategic acquisition combines PayU's strong merchant network and Wibmo's leadership in digital transaction security solutions to offer industry-leading payments solutions to merchants and financial institutions in India and other high growth markets," the statement said. Aakash Moondhra, CFO, PayU Global said, "W...

Amazon buys warehouse robotics startup Canvas Technology

11Apr By NitishNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Amazon buys warehouse robotics startup Canvas Technology

Amazon has said it had acquired Canvas Technology, a robotics startup in Boulder, Colorado, that has built autonomous carts that can move goods around warehouses. An Amazon spokeswoman did not comment on the deal's price tag but said the companies "share a common vision for a future where people work alongside robotics to further improve safety and the workplace experience. We look forward to working with Canvas Technology's fantastic team to keep inventing for customers". The deal was earlier reported by TechCrunch. The world's largest online retailer has increasingly automated its fulfilment centres with robots, originally from Kiva Systems which it agreed to buy for $775 million in 2012, that transport shelves of inventory to workers to pick customer orders. Amazon has a...

Netcore Acquires Quinto.ai an AI Chatbot Start-up

10Apr By AnkitaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Netcore Acquires Quinto.ai an AI Chatbot Start-up

MNetcore Solutions, a Global Marketing technology company, has acquired Quinto.ai, an AI chatbot start-up. With the IP and talent acquisition, Netcore gets access to Quinto's conversational AI-powered chatbot engine and its employees. Quinto’s co-founder Hrishikesh Rajpathak also joins Netcore as Chief Data Scientist and will lead its Machine Learning and Conversation Analytics initiatives. Hrishikesh comes with over 12 years of experience in Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies. Founded 4 years back, Quinto is a food recommendation platform which later pivoted to a conversational AI platform. Quinto enables businesses to automate conversations with customers and improve customer experience. Businesses across verticals can use ...

McDonald’s Acquires AI startup Dynamic Yield in a $300 million deal

9Apr By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

McDonald’s Acquires AI startup Dynamic Yield in a $300 million deal

McDonald’s Corporation (McD) has acquired an AI-based startup Dynamic Yield in a $300 million deal. Dynamic Yield is a leader in personalization and decision logic technology. With this acquisition of Dynamic Yield, McDonald’s builds on its first technology acquisition for growth. McDonald’s will utilize this decision technology to provide an even more personalized customer experience by varying outdoor digital Drive Thru menu displays to show food based on time of day, weather, current restaurant traffic and trending menu items. The decision technology can also instantly suggest and display additional items to a customer’s order based on their current selections. This will enable McDonald’s to be one of the first companies to integrate decision technology into the custome...

Great Hill Partners Acquires Digital Media Group Gizmodo

8Apr By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Great Hill Partners Acquires Digital Media Group Gizmodo

Great Hill Partners, a leading growth-oriented private equity firm has acquired Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion, a collection of premium digital content producers, from Univision Communications Inc. The combined assets will form a new company named G/O Media Inc. that will be led by digital content industry veteran James (“Jim”) Spanfeller, who will also be a significant investor in the company. The Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion which was earlier acquired by the Gawker Media reach more than a third of all Americans online each month with approximately 100 million unique visitors, including its extended network. The Company’s collection of digital-first brands serve young, diverse influencers with content that reflects t...

8Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

BPEA Acquires 30% Shares of NIIT Tech

Baring Private Equity Asia ("BPEA") acquires 30% Stakes (18.85 million shares) of NIIT Technologies Limited from NIIT Limited. The cost of this deal is INR 1394 per share. The deal size is around $381 million. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Board of India Regulations, BPEA will also make an offer to other shareholders of NIIT Technologies to purchase 26% additional shareholding at a price of INR 1394 per share value up to approximately $709 million based on ownership of approximately 56% stake(controlling stake). This transaction is conditional upon customary conditions, including receipt of required regulatory approvals, including anti-trust and competition clearances from Competition Commission of India. Rajendra Pawar, Chairman, NIIT Technologies Limited, s...

NIIT Technologies Acquires 53% Stakes of WHISHWORKS

8Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

NIIT Technologies Acquires 53% Stakes of WHISHWORKS

NEW DELHI, April 7, 2019-- NIIT Technologies Limited, a leading global IT solutions organization, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with WHISHWORKS IT Consulting, an IT services and consulting company specializing in MuleSoft and Big Data technologies, to acquire a 53% stake initially, with the remaining equity to be acquired over the next two years through pay-outs linked to financial performance. The transaction closure is subject to fulfillment of certain government/regulatory approvals. A fast-growing company with a robust operating profile, WHISHWORKS currently has around 250 employees. Incorporated in 2010 and headquartered in Hyderabad, WHISHWORKS works with an ecosystem of global innovators, including MuleSoft, Salesforce, MapR, and Cloudera. It enjoys ...

230 Crore Deal: Reliance Jio Acquires Haptik

3Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

230 Crore Deal: Reliance Jio Acquires Haptik

Reliance Jio a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries acquires AI based platform Haptik in 230 crores. After the acquisition Reliance jio will invest 470 crores in the further operation. The Haptik team will continue to drive growth of the business, including the enterprise platform as well as digital consumer assistants. On a fully diluted basis Reliance will hold about 87% of the business with the rest being held by Haptik founders and employees through stock option grants. This transaction enables Reliance Jio to leverage Haptik’s capabilities across various devices and touch points in the consumer’s journey. The investment focus is on enhancement and expansion of the platform, with an addressable market opportunity of over 1 billion users in India. This partnersh...

Google Acquires 51.2% Stakes of Burning Man Festival

3Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Google Acquires 51.2% Stakes of Burning Man Festival

According to mixmag website, world's leading search giant Google has acquired the majority share of Burning Man festival. As per the report, Google proposes this offer on 31st March to take over majority stakes of the festival and organsers were agreed on it. Google now owns 51.2 per cent of the festival, meaning it now has the controlling share and will be taking over logistics and the annual running of the event. Though the amount of acquisition is still undisclosed, Pixr8 sources said the deal is around $1.2 billion. There is no secret that Google founders have had a presence at the festival since its inception for years and Sergey Brin, and Larry even hired its first CEO (Eric Schmidt) back in 2001 based on how he managed at the week-long pilgrimage. Marcus Fooly, Goo...

Elara acquires home rental platform FastFox for nearly $14.5 million

1Apr By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Elara acquires home rental platform FastFox for nearly $14.5 million

Elara Technologies, which owns three realty portals Housing.com, PropTiger and Makaan has acquired home rental brokerage platform FastFox.com at a valuation of nearly Rs 100 crore as part of its growth plans. After this acquisition, Singapore-based Elara entered into the online-to-offline home rentals space that has a market size of over Rs 20,000 crore. About Elara Technologies funding, the realty market based platform has raised $105 million so far from investors as equity. It also raised $35 million debt last year for organic and inorganic growth. "Until now we were in the home rentals market through listings on both our platforms, Housing.com and Makaan.com. With this acquisition, we will now provide end-to-end on-ground assistance to both landlords and tenants in collaborat...

Daimler AG buys Majority Stake in Self driving trucks startup Torc Robotics

30Mar By AnkitaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Daimler AG buys Majority Stake in Self driving trucks startup Torc Robotics

Daimler AG going to acquire a majority stake in self-driving truck Torc Robotics to develop autonomous truck vehicles. The Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Based in Blacksburg, Virginia, Torc will help Daimler to accelerate software development by giving the German manufacturer access to 120 skilled staff, Daimler Trucks Chief Executive Martin Daum said. “You cannot have enough expertise in this area. Our Achilles’ heel is the ability to quickly develop software,” Daum said. Torc has developed technology that allows vehicles to operate at a high level of automation, known as level 4, helping Daimler to accelerate its own plans for commercialising self-driving vehicles.Torc’s Level 4 system has been shown to operate well for both urban and highway driving in rain,...