There were a lot of funding announcements and acquisitions in technology this week. Here’s what happened:
Capital Gains: Twitter’s Got (a) Talent (Agency), Microsoft Snaps Up Sunrise and More
Also, Expedia bought Orbitz for $1.33 billion in cash.
Vjeran Pavic
- The online travel service Expedia said it would buy competitor Orbitz in a $1.33 billion cash deal. The deal won praise from analysts, and their stock prices both went up by double-digit percentages.
- Last Sunday, Alibaba announced it would be investing $590 million for an undisclosed stake in the quickly-growing Chinese smartphone maker Meizu. The company began in 2003 making MP3 players, and switched to producing smartphones in 2007.
- The enterprise-focused venture capital firm Emergence Capital announced it raised $335 million for its fourth fund, to be used for investments in new markets (the Wall Street Journal).
- Jet, a soon-to-be-launched Amazon competitor founded by the CEO of Diapers.com, raised $140 million in a round led by Bain Capital. Altogether, Jet has raised $220 million in funding.
- Microsoft acquired the calendar app maker Sunrise as part of its efforts to expand the services it offers on competitors’ platforms and devices. Earlier reports said the purchase price was around $100 million.
- Quixey, a startup focusing on deep-linking technology and in-app search, raised $60 million from China’s Alibaba Group, Twitter, SoftBank and others. Since its founding in 2009, Quixey has raised $90 million in funding.
- The cloud software startup AppDirect raised $50 million in a new funding round led by existing investor Mithril Capital Management (the New York Times).
- Niche, a startup that links advertisers with social media stars, was acquired by Twitter in a $30 million deal. Sources told Re/code that the terms of the deal could inflate its cost to as much as $60 million.
- The medical technology startup Invuity raised $20 million in a new round led by Wellington Management Capital. Invuity makes specialized illuminated tools that assist doctors during surgery (MedCity News).
- Team8, a group of former high-ranking Israeli military officers, raised $18 million to recruit and invest in Israeli technology startups. Investors include Alcatel-Lucent, Bessemer Venture Partners, Marker LLC and the Eric Schmidt-founded Innovation Endeavors (Haaretz).
- Reserve, an Uber imitator that lets users book and pre-pay for meals at restaurants, raised $15 million in a Series A funding round. To date, Reserve has raised $17.3 million in funding (Mashable).
- The tablet gaming company Proletariat raised $6 million in a Series A round led by Spark Capital, with participation from FirstMark Capital and Atlas Ventures.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
