Thursday, April 18

ACQUISITION

Mergers and Acquisitions News: Get all latest news on mergers and acquisitions, Deals News, Deals Updates of big and small business enterprise on Pixr8.

Corbis Entertainment Owned by Bill Gates Sold to Visual China
ACQUISITION

Corbis Entertainment Owned by Bill Gates Sold to Visual China

Chinese image licensing company Visual China Group said it acquired on Friday the image division and content licensing unit of photo library Corbis Entertainment, owned by Microsoft Corp's co-founder Bill Gates. The company signed another deal with media service provider Getty Images to distribute Corbis' images and content to customers, thus bringing in a major photo library and an image distributor to China. Getty Images would distribute Corbis' content, creating a collection of over 200 million images and videos and certain archived historical contents for creative and editorial use. Following the sale of its image assets, Corbis will be rebranded and its other businesses will operate under a new brand name. As per the deal, Visual China's division, Unity Glory, will own and m...
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Urbanclap Has Acquired Mumbai Based After Sales Service Platform HandyHome

A mobile-based services marketplace, Urbanclap has acquired HandyHome, after sales service platform in an equity deal. HandyHome Mumbai-based startup allows users to book brand-authorized repairs and other services for electronic appliances online. HandyHome was founded in early 2015, had raised about half a million dollars from Bessemer Venture Partners and Kae Capital in June. Gurgaon-based UrbanClap provide a portal where users can book plumbers, beauticians and Yoga instructors among 75 such services across Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai and Pune. Urbanclap plans to have more than 2,00,000 professionals on the platform and serve over 1,00,000 customers every day in 25 cities across 100 categories over the next one year with the latest financing in place. However, over the ...
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O2O Strategy: Paytm acquired Shifu App In An $8-million (Rs 53-crore) Deal

Shifu an app to predict consumer preferences and behaviour has been acquired by Paytm. The Application was started 2 Years ago by a team of three: Prashant Singh the Product Development guy, Michael Massey the magician with Server and Analytics, and Deepansh Jain who heads Client Side Development. // The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is today Posted by Prashant Singh on Saturday, January 2, 2016     ALSO READ: Meet Shifu – App for digital assistant   For Paytm, the acquisition is in line with its plan to invest about $150 million in emerging companies to build a complete digital ecosystem. "Ventures in O2O (offline-to-online) and last-mile delivery, and platforms that can solve consumer problems a...
Talko, a mobile app for business team communications acquired by Microsoft
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Talko, a mobile app for business team communications acquired by Microsoft

Microsoft has acquired Former Microsoft chief architect Ray Ozzie project Talko. Talko allows you to create multiperson conversations that combine voice, text and photos all laid out over an evolving timeline. Talko Features - Amazing things can happen when we talk with each other. Thoughts are shared, ideas formed and problems solved. Talko is the best way to use your voice to get things done. Talk: Voice is the fastest and clearest way for people to communicate. Talk when and how you want – live or not. Share: Photos bring conversations to life. By tapping the camera to share as you talk, others will instantly see what you see. Do: Use voice to get things done. Organize, find, replay and share key moments using tags and bookmarks.   About the Deal I am pleased ...
Gurgaon based Aspiring Minds has acquired online and mobile internship platform, Letsintern
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Gurgaon based Aspiring Minds has acquired online and mobile internship platform, Letsintern

Online skills assessment company Aspiring Minds has acquired online and mobile internship platform, Letsintern, for an undisclosed amount in an all-cash deal. "The constant feedback we got from organisations was that people need practical knowledge and training," said Himanshu Aggarwal, CEO of Aspiring Minds, who cofounded the company with Varun Aggarwal in 2008. "Internship has been underplayed for a long time and it is an important part of the overall mix." Although the company declined to reveal details of the transaction, it said that as part of the transaction, it would invest $2-3 million in the next two years in the internship space. Founded in 2010 by Rishabh Gupta and Pranay Swarup, Letsintern has a network of 4-million students and has helped over 22,000 organisations such ...
Sanjiv Goenka (owner of Pune IPL Team) led Spencer has acquired Gurgaon-based Online Grocery Platform MeraGrocer.com
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Sanjiv Goenka (owner of Pune IPL Team) led Spencer has acquired Gurgaon-based Online Grocery Platform MeraGrocer.com

Spencer’s Retail has forayed into online space with the acquisition of 100 per cent stake in meragrocer.com at an undisclosed sum to grab 10 per cent of revenue in 4-5 years.The deal is a mixture of debt and equity. This acquisition makes meragrocer.com a subsidiary of Spencer’s, and will form the starting point of Spencer’s online retail business, Spencer’s said in a statement. “With the acquisition we will be able to enter the online channel for Spencer’s soon. However, this does not stop us from tying with other hyper local delivery startups”, sector head Shashwat Goenka said. “Currently we will be in Gurgaon and Delhi as the acquired company is present in these markets. By April-June quarter of 2016, we will launch the service in Kolkata”, he said. Spencer’s, he said, is workin...
Paytm buys home services marketplace Near.in
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Paytm buys home services marketplace Near.in

Mobile wallet and e-commerce venture Paytm has acquired Near.in, a marketplace app that connects users with local businesses for home services. The Economic Times, which first reported the development, said the deal is valued between $1.5 million and $2 million. A formal press release on the announcement is expected shortly. he Paytm-Near.in deal is the latest instance of consolidation in the online home services segment. Last month, Mumbai-based Crenovative Ideas Pvt Ltd, which operates home services startup Taskbob, acquired Zepper Services Pvt Ltd. The acquisition allows Paytm, run by One 97 Communication Ltd, to strengthen its tentacles in the online-to-offline (O2O) commerce space. "O2O is a focus area for Paytm. Local commerce has massive potential in India, and this acqu...
Activision Blizzard buys ‘Candy Crush’ maker in mobile push
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Activision Blizzard buys ‘Candy Crush’ maker in mobile push

Video game maker Activision Blizzard will buy "Candy Crush Saga" creator King Digital Entertainment for $5.9 billion, as the heavyweight of console and PC-gaming makes a major push into the faster-growing mobile market. The deal is one of the biggest in the industry in recent years, more than twice the size of Microsoft Inc's $2.5 billion purchase of "Minecraft" maker Mojang last year, and the biggest-ever acquisition of a mobile gaming company. The failure of Dublin-based King to replicate the success of Candy Crush with follow-up titles such as "Farm Heroes" and "Pet Rescue" has led some investors to think it may be a one-hit wonder. But Activision, whose shares were down 0.5 percent at $34.43 in early trading, is betting that its experience in sustaining long-running blockbuste...
HCL Technologies Acquires CRM Services Provider PowerObjects
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HCL Technologies Acquires CRM Services Provider PowerObjects

HCL Technologies, a leading global IT services provider, announced today that it has acquired Minneapolis-based PowerObjects - a leading North American provider of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This will bolster HCL's global applications business, which offers transformational programs and complex application management for a myriad of clients' technology landscapes. PowerObjects is a professional services firm completely focused on providing service, support, education and add-ons for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The company has won Microsoft's prestigious 'Partner of the Year' award three of the last four years and is one of Microsoft's leading partners for Dynamics CRM. This acquisition enables HCL to take advantage of the rapidly-growing global CRM industry, as Microsoft Dynamics is one of ...
Axel Springer acquires Business Insider for $442 Million
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Axel Springer acquires Business Insider for $442 Million

German publisher Axel Springer acquires Business Insider in a whopping $442 million deal, accelerating its push into English-language content. Axel Springer is a Berlin-based publisher best known as the owner of newspapers Die Welt and Bild, already owned 9 percent of the company, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who had previously put his own money into the company, will leave it in there. When factoring out the cash still on the books, the value comes down to $390 million. Springer will end up writing a check for $343 million when the deal closes; it says Business Insider has 76 million readers and 325 employees worldwide. (more…)
Practo acquires Qikwell, Hospital appointment scheduling platform
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Practo acquires Qikwell, Hospital appointment scheduling platform

Healthcare startup Practo today said it has acquired Qikwell, a company that facilitates appointment scheduling at hospitals, for an undisclosed amount. The buyout makes Practo the world's largest appointment booking platform with nearly 40 million appointments managed every year, it said in a statement. (more…)