Takeovers and Buyouts
The latest deal news from across the alternative investment space.
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Bullish, the rapidly growing institutional digital assets exchange led by Tom Farley, has acquired CoinDesk, a prominent media, events, and index platform focused on crypto assets, from Digital Currency Group (DGC). The acquisition aims to support CoinDesk’s global expansion and the growth of its various businesses. However, the financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
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FinTech: PayPal Looking To Acquire Pinterest At $70 Per Share
PayPal Inc (NASDAQ: PYPL) sounded out Pinterest (NYSE: PINS) recently on a takeover, Bloomberg reported. The two companies are said to have considered a potential price of $70 per listed Class A share.
FinTech: JPMorgan Chase Acquires College Financial Planning Platform Frank
JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) has acquired Frank, a very popular college financial planning platform for undisclosed terms. Frank enables students to locate, apply and obtain financial aid, find scholarships, and enroll in online courses. According to CNBC, JPMorgan bought up the fintech to enhance relationships with students and their parents.
FinTech: Goldman Sachs Snaps Up BNPL Fintech Greensky For $2.24B
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) announced Wednesday its all-stock acquisition of GreenSky (NASDAQ: GSKY), a fintech lender specializing in BNPL home improvement loans, for $2.24 billion. Goldman Sachs said the transaction would help accelerate its efforts to “create the consumer banking platform of the future.”
Artificial Intelligence: Automated Kitchens Pioneer Spyce Acquired By Salad Chain Sweetgreen
Three college students launched sweetgreen to offer a solution to a very unpalatable dilemma – eat food that was slow, expensive, and fresh—or fast, cheap, and unhealthy. The result was a fast casual salad chain that used fresh, organic produce and has grown to over 130 restaurants. Sweetgreen announced Tuesday its acquisition of Spyce, a startup with a similar vision for serving healthy and fresh food – only more automated.
Alternative Investments/ESG: Goldman Sachs To Acquire ESG-Focused NN Investment Partners
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has agreed to buy all of NN Investment Partners, a Netherlands-based asset manager with $355 billion in assets under management and about $70 billion in assets under advisement. NN Investment Partners is the money management arm of Dutch insurer NN Group NV (AEX: NN) and 75% of its assets under supervision are ESG integrated.
Artificial Intelligence: SAP Acquires SwoopTalent For Its AI-Powered HR Platform
SwoopTalent, an AI-powered platform that combines, analyzes and trains data from disparate human resource (HR) systems and workflows, has been acquired by SAP (NYSE: SAP), the German multinational software maker known for its ERP system. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
FinTech: M&A Deals Of Note
Three transactions this week cover bill payments, investment communications, and paperless invoices. Fintech M&A to note: Payveris-Paymentus Payveris, an open-API, cloud-based digital payments and money movement platform for financial institutions and their digital partners has acquired Paymentus, an integrated, omni-channel platform for electronic bill payments. The transaction value is $152.2 million, with approximately 56% payable…
FinTech: Blockchain-Based Fintech Figure Technologies To Merge With Homebridge
Mike Cagney-led Figure Technologies announced Tuesday (3 August 2021), its merger deal with Homebridge Financial Services, a mortgage lender which funded more than $25 billion in home loans at the close of 2020. Figure Technologies is on a mission to transform financial services using blockchain technology, particularly the origination, finance, servicing and trade of loans. you know
FinTech: Square Plonks Down $29B For Aussie BNPL Giant Afterpay
Jack Dorsey-led Square (NYSE: SQ) announced today (August 2, 2021) its acquisition of Australian fintech and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) leader Afterpay (ASX: APT) for $29 billion in an all-stock deal. Square will acquire all the outstanding shares of Afterpay at this valuation based on the closing price of Square common stock on July 30, 2021.
FinTech: Bankers Fight For Wealth Management Turf; Lloyds Acquires Embark For $500M
Lloyds Banking Group (LON: LLOY) announced Thursday (July 29, 2021) the acquisition of Embark Group, an investment and retirement platform business, for £390 million (US$500 million). Embark will become a wholly subsidiary of Lloyds’ Scottish Widows Group, bringing with it about £35 billion of assets under administration on behalf of 410,000 consumer clients. Jackie Leiper, Managing Director Pensions, Stockbroking & Distribution at Scottish Widows, will become CEO of Embark.
FinTech: Visa To Acquire European Open Banking Platform Tink For $2.2B
Visa (NYSE: V) announced Thursday its deal to acquire European open banking platform Tink for €1.8 billion ($2.2 billion) as it moves to take advantage of European Union law – the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) – which facilitates open banking. The law requires banks to allow access to customer data by registered third-party providers to boost competition.
FinTech: Fintech Credijusto Snaps Up Mexican Bank; Becomes Regulated Neobank
According to Entrepreneur, Credijusto, the Mexican fintech and lending platform acquired Banco Finterra for about $50 million, in the process bagging a banking license. Banco Finterra specializes in financing solutions for the agri-food sector.
Artificial Intelligence: Clinical Stage Pharmatech Startup Exscientia Acquires AI-Powered Allcyte
Exscientia, which uses AI to design and create drug candidate molecules satisfying complex therapeutic requirements with revolutionary efficiency, has acquired Allcyte, the Austrian company that uses AI for cancer screening. Exscientia will pay 50 million euros ($60.6 million) in a combination of cash and shares for the acquisition.
Artificial Intelligence: Eye Tracking Company Smart Eye Acquires Emotion Detection Software Firm Affectiva
Affectiva says 9 people are killed every day and 1,000 are injured due to distracted driving. 6,000 people are killed annually due to drowsy driving. Its Affectiva Automotive AI is an In-Cabin Sensing software that measures in real-time the state of the cabin, and that of the driver and occupants in it. Swedish company Smart Eye will acquire Affectiva to gain global leadership in automotive-grade Interior Sensing AI.
FinTech: Zip Acquires BNPL Providers In Europe And UAE
Australian fintech Zip (ASX: Z1P) has bought up the entire remaining capital in a Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) entity each in Europe and the UAE. Zip will pay $140 million for the balance shares in Twisto, which operates in Central Europe, and $21 million for the shares it does not own in Spotii, a BNPL leader in UAE.
Digital Assets: Galaxy Digital To Buy BitGo For $1.2B
Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd (TSE: GLXY), founded by Michael Novogratz has inked a deal to acquire BitGo Inc for $1.2 billion in cash and stock.
FinTech: Fresh From A £322M Funding Round, Starling May Target Another Lender
Boden said at the event that Starling now had the wherewithal to buy out another lender. Further, responding to the U.K. Government’s newly-announced fast-track “scale up” visas proposal, she said there was no need for these because home-grown talent was available in plenty within the U.K.
Artificial Intelligence: Microsoft Eyeing Acquisition of Nuance Communications (Bloomberg)
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) may buy Nuance Communication (NASDAQ: NUAN) at a valuation of $56 per share, according to Bloomberg, which cited unnamed people who were familiar with the matter. The price represents a premium of 23% over the Friday closing of Nuance of $45.58.
Artificial Intelligence: Indoor Farming Company AppHarvest Acquires Root AI
AppHarvest, Inc (NASDAQ: APPH), an indoor and sustainable farming company, announced today its acquisition of Root AI, a startup that develops AI-powered robots for use in indoor farming and harvesting. The deal includes Root AI’s signature robotic harvester dubbed Virgo. AppHarvest will pay about $60 million for the acquisition, comprising $10 million in cash and the rest in shares.
Digital Assets: Greenidge Generation, A Powerplant-Crypto Mining Hybrid, To List On Nasdaq
Greenidge Generation, an 84-year old mothballed coal-fired power station located in the New York Finger Lake Region, pivoted to natural gas-based generation and crypto mining in the past few years after its purchase in 2014 by affiliates of Atlas Holdings LLC, the private equity fund. Greenidge announced today a merger agreement with Support.com (NASDAQ: SPRT) that is expected to close in Q3 of 2021.
Venture Capital: Blade, The Short-Hop Uber-Of-The-Skies, To Go Public Via SPAC
Blade Urban Air Mobility, the helicopter company known for short-haul trips from airports to city centers, is going public by merging with Experience Investment Corp. (NASDAQ: EXPC), a public entity affiliated with KSL Capital Partners. The short hop to listing will make Blade the only publicly traded global urban mobility company.
FinTech: MassMutual Seals Deal To Acquire Fintech Platform Flourish From Stone Ridge
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, or MassMutual, announced Monday that it agreed to acquire Flourish, a fintech platform, from Stone Ridge Holdings Group. Flourish is a digital platform that provides various products and services to more than 350 RIAs that manage more than $ 600 billion of assets. Flourish Cash is the only cash management platform developed specifically for financial advisors and their clients.
FinTech: Financial Fraud Detecting Platform Verafin Sold To Nasdaq
Global technology company Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ) announced today its acquisition of Canada-based Verafin for $2.75 billion payable in cash. Verafin’s cloud-based software platform serves customers with fraud detection, money laundering protection, and high-risk customer management. The 2003-founded firm counts more than 2,000 financial organizations as its customers.
Artificial Intelligence: IBM Acquires Germany-based Software Firm Instana
IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced Wednesday its acquisition of German software company Instana for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will help businesses better manage the complexity of modern applications, considering they span the hybrid cloud landscape and use AI extensively.