Mergers & Acquisitions Archives - Page 26 of 31

Algomi Acquires AllianceBernstein’s ALFA’s Fixed Income Liquidity and Analytics Tool

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 18, 2017
Categories: Algomi, Mergers & Acquisitions

In a deal announced this week, Algomi, a company that offers tools for buy-side and sell-side trading in fixed income securities, has acquired ALFA (Automated Liquidity Filtering & Analytics) from AllianceBernstein. The acquisition includes the IP and technology behind ALFA as well as the brand name. As a part of the acquisition, AllianceBernstein is taking an undisclosed, minority stake in Algomi, as well as a seat on the company’s Board.

Originally developed as an in-house liquidity tool, ALFA is now called Algomi ALFA. The solution provides cross-market information on liquidity and trading to give the buy-side a real-time view of the entire bond market. Algomi, which AllianceBernstein selected via a competitive process to take over ALFA, will become the sole marketer of Algomi ALFA, which will be sold to buy-side fund managers.

At FinovateFall 2014, Algomi debuted Honeycomb, a buy-side GUI that helps investors see which dealer is best to facilitate illiquid block trades without disturbing the market. Founded in 2012, Algomi has 140 employees with offices in London, New York, and Hong Kong. Earlier this year, the company received a $10 million investment from Euronext, boosting its funding to more than $10 million after Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer invested an undisclosed amount of capital in a 2016 round.

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KPMG Acquires Fintech Collaboration Specialist, Matchi

By David Penn Posted on May 11, 2017
Categories: Matchi, Mergers & Acquisitions

Fintech matchmaker Matchi has made a major match of its own: The Hong Kong-based company agreed to an acquisition by KPMG this week. Terms of the deal were not immediately available.

Calling the combination of the two entities a “powerful fintech resource,” Matchi CEO David Milligan said that the acquisition will help Match “fulfill the promise of collaboration between financial institutions and fintech firms, which can ultimately benefit all consumers.” Global co-leader of Fintech for KPMG International, Ian Pollari called Matchi’s curated approach” as very different from the “fintech databases that merely provide lists.” He added “It is designed to identify, match, and enable collaboration with the most innovative fintechs and solutions to address specific issues being faced by financial institutions.”

Matchi’s platform featured more than 700 curated fintech solutions as well as a 2,500+ company database of fintech innovators that FIs can collaborate and work with. FIs can search for specific companies or technologies, and take advantage of Matchi’s Innovation Challenge feature by issuing a specific business issue or problem on the platform and see what fintechs are interested in pursuing a solution. “Finding fintech companies who are pre-validated, helps to reduce risks and can accelerate time to market,” Pollari explained.

Founded in 2013, Matchi demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2014. The company has played matchmaker for more than 100 leading banks and insurance companies worldwide, helping firms deploy a variety of technologies ranging from next generation payments to the blockchain. Last month, Matchi teamed up with ATB Financial and KPMG Canada to run a customer onboarding innovation challenge for fintech companies.

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Thoma Bravo to Acquire Lexmark’s Kofax

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 8, 2017
Categories: Kofax, Mergers & Acquisitions

Customer engagement and analytics company Kofax is undergoing its second acquisition in as many years this week. The company announced it will be acquired by private equity firm, Thoma Bravo.

The acquisition includes all of Lexmark’s Enterprise Software business, which is made up of three entities; Kofax, ReadSoft and Perceptive Software. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close Q3 of 2017, were not disclosed. Once the deal is finalized, Kofax and ReadSoft will be combined into a single, newly independent Thoma Bravo portfolio company. The new entity will operate under the Kofax brand and will be led by President of Lexmark Enterprise Software, Reynolds Bish.

Regarding the acquisition, Seth Boro, Managing Partner at Thoma Bravo said that he is “thrilled to partner with Reynolds and his management team under the Kofax brand as a new Thoma Bravo portfolio company.” Boro siad that Kofax’s “vision to digitally transform and simplify initial customer interactions with businesses, or what they term the First Mile” offers an opportunity for Thoma Bravo.

Kofax was recently named by Forrester as a leader in ECM Transactional Content Services. Last month, the company announced the availability of ReadSoft Online R9, an automated accounts payable solution. And in March, a top 10 global bank deployed Kofax Mobile Credit and Debit Card Framework and the Kofax Mobile Capture Platform.

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Loyal3 Shuts Down, Stockpile Steps Up

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 8, 2017
Categories: LOYAL3, Mergers & Acquisitions, Stockpile

As Tupac once said, “I don’t have no fear of death. My only fear is coming back reincarnated.” Unlike Tupac, however, Loyal3 users have nothing to be scared of. That’s because even though Loyal3 is shutting down its IPO marketplace and discount brokerage platform on May 19, stock gift card company Stockpile has stepped in to allow Loyal3 clients to transfer their shares to its platform.

Launched in 2008, Loyal3 sought to democratize capital markets by helping novice investors purchase fractional stock shares. Users could browse the company’s portfolio of 70 stocks and invest with as little as $10 per stock, with zero fees. The company’s batch trading strategy executed trades once per day. At FinovateFall 2014, the company showed off its mobile IPO marketplace where users could view the IPO status, receive IPO pricing and allocation notifications, and confirm or withdraw their IPO reservations.

To capture Loyal3 clients, Palo Alto-based Stockpile has facilitated the onboarding process for the new customers. Users just sign up for a Stockpile account, email a recent Loyal3 account statement to Stockpile’s customer support, and Stockpile returns a (mostly) pre-filled account form. Users complete, sign, and upload the form to Stockpile, which oversees the transition of assets over to its platform. The only wrinkle is that Stockpile cannot accept stocks from Frontier and Nokia; users will need to cash out those stocks.

This isn’t Stockpile’s first move to expand its user base. In 2016, the company acquired SparkGift, transferring SparkGift’s customer base to its own brokerage platform for free. In 2015 the company partnered with Blackhawk Network to offer physical gift cards in denominations of $25, $50, and $100 at select U.S. retailers. Founded in 2010, by Avi Lele and Sanj Kulkarni, Stockpile launched at FinovateSpring 2014 in a demo that won Best of Show.

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OutsideIQ Acquired by Global Compliance Specialist, Exiger

By David Penn Posted on May 2, 2017
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, OutsideIQ

The recent news that due diligence innovator OutsideIQ agreed to be acquired by compliance specialist, Exiger, is a sign that the RegTech revolution in fintech is real. OutsideIQ founder and CEO Dan Adamson said the acquisition was a “logical step in our shared view of the dominant role that cognitive computing solutions will play in compliance.” Business Insider reports that Exiger paid $22 million (C$30 million) for the Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based company.

OutsideIQ’s flagship technology DDIQ leverages automation and human analysis to detect potential regulatory risks that often go overlooked by currently-used methods. Geared toward financial institutions, investment firms, and large enterprises, the technology automatically scans publicly available information for any data on the subject and provides auditable reports on the findings. Exiger Analytics president Brandon Daniels noted that transaction alert monitoring, KYC/AML, onboarding, and counterparty/ third party risk at the enterprise level are among the challenges DDIQ will help Exiger address. “The acquisition … will augment our ability to deliver purpose-built, AI-based solutions that transform how global banks and multi-national corporations meet the evolving expectations of regulators looking for truly measurable and auditable solutions,” Daniels said.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, OutsideIQ demonstrated its due diligence technology, DDIQ, at FinovateSpring 2016. In March, the company partnered with SAP Ariba, and teamed up with Genpact to provide better KYC and compliance solutions for FIs. We highlighted OutsideIQ last fall in our RegTech Reality Check. OutsideIQ is also a veteran of our developers conference, having presented at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016.

OutsideIQ is Exiger’s largest acquisition to date. Exiger was founded in 2013 to provide court-mandated oversight of HSBC, “the most comprehensive monitoring assignment ever awarded by the Department of Justice” according to the company. Additionally, Exiger serves clients worldwide through its offices in New York, Toronto, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Silver Spring, Maryland.

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Cartera Commerce Acquired by Ebates

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on February 1, 2017
Categories: Cartera Commerce, Mergers & Acquisitions

Card-linked offers (CLO) solutions company Cartera Commerce announced this week it has been acquired by loyalty marketplace, Ebates. San Francisco-based Ebates anticipates the acquisition will bolster its loyalty marketing offerings and will offer new loyalty programs to its existing clients.

This announcement further demonstrates consolidation in the CLO/rewards space that peaked in 2012. Last month, CLO company edo Interactive was acquired by Auego.

Massachusetts-based Cartera Commerce partners with companies who use loyalty programs to reward their customer base. The company works with 5 of the top 10 U.S. credit card issuers and 5 of the 6 largest U.S. airlines. Since it was founded in 2005, Cartera has distributed 20+ billion points and miles. At FinovateFall 2011, the company debuted its Local Offers solution which aimed to help banks compete with daily deals sites.

In the press release announcing the acquisition, Cartera Commerce CEO Tom Beecher said, “We are excited to leverage Ebates’ expertise and solutions to enhance the loyalty marketing services we provide to our clients – and to work together on new and exciting offerings for our customers.” Beecher will remain CEO of Cartera Commerce, which will continue operations in its Massachusetts office.

Ebates launched in 1999 and was acquired by Rakuten in 2014. The company has distributed almost $1 billion in rewards to its user base of 20 million shoppers.

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Wipro Agrees to Acquire InfoSERVER for $8.7 Million

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on January 27, 2017
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, wipro

Information technology company Wipro announced today it has agreed to acquire Brazil-based InfoSERVER for $8.7 million. In the press release, India-based Wipro noted that it sees Brazil as a strategic “growth and investment region.”

Today’s deal marks the company’s 11th acquisition. Wipro expects that IT services provider InfoSERVER will help it “[expand] its presence in the country’s highly traditional and competitive banking, financial services and insurance market” as well as add “invaluable domain and process knowledge on the sector.” Wipro’s presence in Latin America already spans Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. The company is hoping today’s partnership will help it expand in the LATAM market. InfoSERVER has been working with Brazilian banks for 20 years and counts some of the largest banks in Brazil as its clients.

InfoSERVER’s VP and head of sales, Fabiano Funari, said that he is excited about the deal. Funari anticipates that Wipro’s “global client base, delivery expertise and scale” will help the company expand its global reach as well as the breadth of its offerings.

Founded in 1945, Wipro went public in 2000. Wipro demoed at FinovateEurope 2015 where it debuted ngGenie MyAdvisor. MyAdvisor is a natural language chatbot that uses machine learning to learn consumers’ spending patterns and transactions to provide personalized assistance. Most recently the company was positioned as a “Leader” in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for application testing services.

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Card-Linked Offers Consolidates: Edo Interactive Acquired by Augeo

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on January 20, 2017
Categories: edo Interactive, Mergers & Acquisitions

From 2011 to 2013, card-linked offers (CLO) was all the rage– you could say it was the AI of that era. The trend peaked in 2012, when it seemed every other fintech company added some type of card-linked offers. As is typical with explosive trends such as these, we’re now seeing industry consolidation.

This week that consolidation comes in the form of successful CLO player Edo Interactive being acquired by Auego. Minnesota-based Auego will add Edo’s CLO technology to its loyalty and engagement offerings, which will provide Edo access to a larger client base. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Since launching in 2007 Edo has partnered with hundreds of national and local merchants, helping each tailor a personalized digital marketing campaign to drive sales. At FinovateSpring 2012, the Nashville-based company (pictured right) launched its GeoCommerce feature that enabled retailers to push offers to users’ phones based on their geolocation.

Ed Braswell, Edo CEO said, “…the combination of our platforms helps solve the challenges many others face with content and delivers the strategy, data insight and analytics required for programs to be sustainable and successful. Heading into 2017, we intend to deliver the next generation of card-linked loyalty with the most premier partners in the space.”

This is Auego’s seventh acquisition since launching in 1998. The company will preserve the Edo brand along with its operations and headquarters location.

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Arxan Acquires Apperian

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on January 13, 2017
Categories: Arxan Technologies, Mergers & Acquisitions

Application security company Arxan announced this week it has acquired Apperian. The mobile application management company will operate as a subsidiary of Arxan. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Apperian was founded in 2009 and has enabled 2.5 million enterprise app installations. In the past two years, the company has seen its user base grow 180%. Apperian executive Mark Lorion will become president and general manager of the new subsidiary. Lorion stated he is excited about the transition, since the companies share an “app-centric philosophy.”

In a press release Arxan CEO Joe Sander describes Apperian’s security capabilities as “pivotal for organizations to securely deploy and manage their apps.” Arxan launched in 2001 to prevent attacks and protect products for mobile, desktop, server and IoT.

Arxan is an alum of both Finovate and FinDEVr, having demoed at FinovateEurope 2014 where it debuted mobile application hardening technology that uses object code to lock down applications. The company also presented at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2015 where CTO Sam Rehman presented on protecting apps and data from emerging risks. Arxan currently protects applications running on more than 500 million devices. Last month, the company closed out the year by winning a total of six IoT security awards.

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Kalixa Acquired By Singapore’s Senjō Group for $30 Million

By David Penn Posted on January 6, 2017
Categories: Kalixa, Mergers & Acquisitions

In a deal inked in the second half of December and slated to be completed in the first quarter of 2017, payments innovator Kalixa Group has been sold to Senjō Group, a private investment company based in Singapore. The price tag of the purchase is $30 million (€29 million), with a completion accounts adjustment that could take the final tally to as much as $37 million (€35.5 million).

In a statement, Kalixa said the acquisition gave the company the chance to “build a global footprint.” In addition, the statement read “it will give us the stability and long term support we need to further develop our platform and product portfolio for the benefit of our customers and partners.” Kalixa offers end-to-end payment services in verticals including financial services, e-commerce, gaming, and ticketing systems. Its solutions include Kalixa Pay, a prepaid digital wallet; Kalixa Pro, a small business mPOS; and Kalixa Accept, which enables merchants to accept more than 200 different payment methods. Following its acquisition of PXP Solutions in 2014, Kalixa became one of the top five payment services companies in the world.

With 19 payments, e-commerce, remittance, trading, and factoring companies in its portfolio, Senjō Group sees Kalixa as a good fit “with our strategy of building a global payments ecosystem,” in the words of Senjō Group COO Gavin Lock. “In return we will provide Kalixa, its employees and customers with the benefits of being a part of a global specialist payments operator.”

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Vienna, Austria, Kalixa demonstrated its mPOS technology at FinovateEurope 2013. In the fall of 2015, Kalixa was among a number of Finovate alums to make it to the finals of the U.K. Emerging Payments Awards. Earlier that year the company’s collaboration with Monitise, the social savings app called KiTTi, was launched by Santander UK.

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Akamai Acquires Cyberfend for Bot Detection

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 19, 2016
Categories: Akamai, Cyberfend, Mergers & Acquisitions

Web and mobile security company Akamai added to its expertise today after acquiring Cyberfend, a bot detection company. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Massachusetts-based Akamai, which went public on NASDAQ in 1999, aims to help banks and businesses protect their websites, mobile apps, and cloud environments. Akamai launched Bot Manager earlier this year to help thwart automated bots, which use stolen credentials to log into legitimate ecommerce and financial services websites.

Launched in 2014, California-based Cyberfend debuted BotFender, a cyber attack automation detection service, at FinovateSpring 2016. BotFender combines human cognitive science with machine learning algorithms to create a website security layer that is invisible to the end user and detects attacks in real time. Cyberfend is backed by Y-Combinator and protects 1 billion transactions every month.

Stuart Scholly, senior vice president and general manager of Web Security at Akamai, said, “The addition of Cyberfend’s technology is intended to give our customers a better way to spot and stop credential abuse on their sites—benefiting both the online business and its users.”

Cyberfend is Akamai’s third acquisition this year—after acquiring Concord Systems in September and Soha Systems in October—and its 16th acquisition since launching in 1998. As we reported earlier this year, Akamai is bolstering its security capabilities to become more appealing to potential, large acquirers, such as Google or Microsoft.

Akamai most recently presented at FinovateEurope 2015 in London where it debuted Client Reputation Service, designed to help FIs forecast security issues and protect against DDoS attacks, web attackers, screen scrapers, and scanning tools. The company is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Tom Leighton is CEO.

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Fiserv’s Newest Acquisition Deepens its Business Banking Capabilities

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on December 12, 2016
Categories: Fiserv, Mergers & Acquisitions

Financial services technology company Fiserv has agreed to acquire Online Banking Solutions, an Atlanta-based company that specializes in providing online business banking technology to U.S. commercial banks and credit unions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Online Banking Solutions cash-management platform offers a single user interface that enables cash management functionality for digital channels and acts as a secure gateway to access other bank-provided applications. Fiserv CEO Jeffery Yabuki anticipates the new capabilities garnered from the acquisition will help bank clients “provide greater value to their commercial customers through sophisticated cash-management solutions when and where they need them.”

The acquisition is subject to closing conditions and is expected to be finalized before the end of 2016.

At FinovateFall 2016 the company showed off its Mobiliti Enterprise solution that integrates traditional loan applications with a bank. In September, Fiserv marked 30 years of service as a publicly traded company, celebrating the occasion by ringing the opening bell on Nasdaq. Most recently, the company updated its Unified Wealth Platform to allow advisers to access client account management tools more conveniently. Fiserv is headquartered in Wisconsin and was founded in 1984.

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