Latest Posts

• GreatCall Expands Lyft Partnership to Pick Up Seniors Nationwide

  GreatCall, the maker of the Jitterbug cellphone and other products and services for older adults, has extended its partnership with the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company Lyft to offer GreatCall customers the ability to schedule rides without a smartphone app. No financial... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/13/18

• Apptio Sells to PE Firm Vista Equity for $1.94B Two Years After IPO

  Apptio is being taken private by investment firm Vista Equity Partners in a $1.94 billion acquisition.

  Founded in Bellevue, WA, in 2007, Apptio (NASDAQ: APTI) helps corporate leaders track and manage IT spending. The company went public in 2016 with... Read more »

  David Holley11/12/18

• Nuance Goes All-in on Speech Tech, Sells Document Business to Kofax

  Nuance Communications is selling its document imaging division to Kofax for $400 million in cash, as Nuance’s new CEO narrows the company’s focus on its conversational artificial intelligence products and cloud-related technologies.

  Nuance’s (NASDAQ: NUAN) document imaging business provides enterprise... Read more »

  Jeff Engel11/12/18

• Qualtrics Skips IPO for $8B Sale to SAP

  It’s hard to say no to $8 billion. Qualtrics, the enterprise software firm that was on the verge of going public, has pulled its IPO in favor of selling to German software giant SAP for $8 billion in cash.

  Qualtrics—which has... Read more »

  Jeff Engel11/12/18

• Bio Roundup: Midterm Fallout, Alzheimer’s Search, Postpartum Panel

  There was plenty at stake in this week’s midterm elections, and not just in terms of political wins and losses. With congress now divided—Democrats took back control of the House and Republicans extended their majority in the Senate—the implications are significant... Read more »

  Ben Fidler11/9/18

• Allogene, Cortexyme & RDMD Headline Xconomy’s Dec. 5 Biotech Forum

  Each new technology has a story behind it. On Dec. 5, our Xchange Forum will offer a behind-the-scenes look at how some of them aim to transform healthcare.

  Xconomy’s San Francisco Biotech: The Next Generation, will feature three Bay Area... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/8/18

• Hold Your Horsepower: For Mobility Industry, “Reality Is Sinking In”

  Earlier this month, GM CEO Mary Barra told the crowd at a financial conference that her company was on track to unveil a ridesharing service in 2019 that would be powered by autonomous vehicles. It sounded like pretty big news, but... Read more »

  Sarah Schmid Stevenson11/8/18

• InCarda Breathes In $42M for Clinical Tests of Inhalable Heart Drug

  Treatments for patients who have atrial fibrillation (AF), an irregular heartbeat, include pills that take time to work, or hospital-based procedures. InCarda Therapeutics aims to offer an alternative: a fast-acting inhalable drug that patients would take at home. The startup is... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/8/18

• Mirum Pharmaceuticals Launches with $120M to Advance Liver Drugs

  Serial entrepreneur Mike Grey is launching a biotech enterprise with $120 million in new funding to advance two investigational liver disease drugs—one of which he has worked to develop before.

  Called Mirum Pharmaceuticals, the startup is developing a compound, maralixibat, to... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/7/18

• Rainwater Foundation Deploys Millions Toward Rare Brain Disease, PSP

  Dallas — A foundation started by a Texas billionaire announced Tuesday it will offer millions of dollars in awards to scientists who research neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and progressive supranuclear palsy.

  The Rainwater Charitable Foundation, which was founded in the... Read more »

  David Holley11/7/18

• Mitek Systems Rejects ASG’s $380M Takeover Bid

  Mitek Systems, which is being targeted for takeover by a subsidiary of Elliott, billionaire Paul Singer’s activist hedge fund, has unanimously rejected its $380 million offer.

  The Oct. 31 offer—rejected Monday—was made by ASG Technologies Group, a Florida-based software company... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/6/18

• Esperanto Reaps $58M to Speed Development of Its AI Chip

  Esperanto Technologies, a startup AI chip developer that has operated mostly below the radar since its founding in 2014, announced this week that it raised $58 million in a Series B fundraising round.

  Mountain View, CA-based Esperanto is vying with... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey11/5/18

• Broadcom to Sell Veracode for $950M After $19B CA Technologies Deal

  Broadcom is selling application security testing business Veracode for $950 million to private equity firm Thoma Bravo. Broadcom gained Veracode as a part of its blockbuster acquisition of CA Technologies.

  Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) announced in June it would acquire CA... Read more »

  David Holley11/5/18

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• MEI Pharma Inks Cancer Drug Deal with Japan’s Kyowa Hakko Kirin

  The second-most advanced investigational drug in MEI Pharma’s four-asset portfolio is drawing attention from overseas as a potential treatment for several leukemias and lymphomas.

  Japanese life sciences company Kyowa Hakko Kirin has agreed to pay the San Diego company $10 million... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo11/5/18

• “Don’t Go Nuts With This”: Tech CEOs on What $100M Can Buy

  So, your long-scrappy tech startup cashed a nine-figure check from a gaggle of venture capital types.

  What now?

  Launch a hiring spree? Land a beachhead in Europe? Squirrel some away for a rainy day? Build all the features into your gizmo... Read more »

  Brian Dowling11/5/18

• Win $2 Million to Solve Alzheimer’s: New Prize Will Reward Fresh Ideas

  San Antonio — A Texas billionaire is funding a new competition that will give $4 million to seven individuals who present promising ideas about the cause of Alzheimer’s disease and say they’ll work to prove it.

  Called the Oskar Fischer Project,... Read more »

  David Holley11/5/18

• Bio Roundup: Depression Drug Dashed, Peek at ASH, CRISPR Worry & More

  The gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 is opening up new research avenues all the time, such as giving drug developers a cheaper, faster way to knock out genes in tumor cells.

  Studies of CRISPR-Cas9 to treat human disease are about to start,... Read more »

  Alex Lash11/2/18

• Illumina Set to Acquire “Long-Read” DNA Sequencer PacBio for $1.2B

  [Updated, 11/2/18, 11:09 a.m. ET. See below.] DNA sequencing giant Illumina is shoring up its position in genetic research through a cash deal to acquire Pacific Biosciences for approximately $1.2 billion.

  Under the agreement, Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN)... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/1/18

• Cloud Leaders Shrug at IBM’s $34B Red Hat Deal

  In some ways, the biggest software acquisition of all time could be a yawner.

  IBM’s planned $34 billion deal to acquire open-source software maker Red Hat is a hefty price to pay to give its cloud computing business a shot in... Read more »

  Jeff Engel11/1/18

• Sanofi Pledges $125M to Denali in Pact for Neuro, Inflammation Drugs

  Sanofi sees potential in two early-stage Denali Therapeutics drugs as a way to reduce inflammation in the brain and throughout the body, and the two companies are teaming up to develop the compounds for tough-to-treat diseases including Alzheimer’s.

  Under the deal... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan11/1/18

• IRobot’s Roombas to Map Households for Google Smart Homes

  Autonomous vehicle developers rely heavily on navigational technology that maps the complex terrain of roads, curbs, signs, and people that their cars have to thread through.

  Google, as it develops its smart home systems, is turning to a company that already... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/31/18

• To Boost Cancer Pipeline, Gilead Bets at Least $50M on Startup Tango

  Gilead Sciences is paying tiny Tango Therapeutics $50 million to tap into the startup’s cancer drug program, adding to what has been so far an expensive, but not yet lucrative, foray into cancer immunotherapy for Gilead.

  Cambridge, MA-based Tango is still... Read more »

  Alex Lash10/31/18

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• Twist Bioscience IPO Hauls In $70M for DNA Synthesis Technology

  Synthetic biology company Twist Bioscience has joined the long list of life science firms going public this year, raising $70 million in its stock market debut.

  The San Francisco company sold 5 million shares at $14 apiece, which was within the... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/31/18

• Teraki Using Edge Processing to Meet Exploding Data Demands of AVs

  Teraki, a Berlin-based data processing and artificial intelligence company working in the mobility sector, has had a busy fall.

  In late September, Teraki raised a $3 million seed round from investors including Paladin Capital Group, GPS Ventures GmbH,... Read more »

  Sarah Schmid Stevenson10/31/18

• Moonshots, Tough Tech, and Not Falling in Love With Your Robot

  Before researchers at Google’s skunkworks labs embark on a new project, they decide when to kill it.

  The technical and business teams set parameters for when to walk away from the “moonshot” idea to avoid being so seduced by the technology... Read more »

  Brian Dowling10/31/18

• Orchard, Fueled by GSK’s Ex-Gene Therapy Biz, Nets $200M in IPO

  GlaxoSmithKline’s former gene therapy portfolio is at the center of a $200 million IPO, among the larger biopharma offerings on Wall Street over the last several years.

  Orchard Therapeutics, a London, Boston, and San Francisco-based biotech, sold 14,285,715 shares in its... Read more »

  Ben Fidler10/31/18

• Facebook’s 3Q Growth Suffices to Stave Off Another Stock Dive

  Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) shares gained nearly 3 percent Tuesday, and ticked up further in after-hours trading following the release of a third quarter earnings report that showed some strengths as well as shortfalls. Investors have been concerned about the social... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/30/18

• Fundraising Startup Classy Surpasses $1B Raised on Its Platform

  It took six years for Classy, a software-as-a-service company that targets nonprofit organizations looking to fundraise online, to facilitate $500 million in donations.

  But the next $500 million took just 14 months.

  The San Diego-based startup announced the $1 billion milestone... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo10/30/18

• Stantt CEO Thinks Its Approach to Selling Men’s Wear Fits Just Right

  Stantt wants to make standard sizing anything but.

  “Traditional sizing only fits 15 percent of guys,” says Matt Hornbuckle, the startup’s founder and co-CEO. “Twins come in and get different sizes.”

  To connect guys with a shirt that fits well, the... Read more »

  Angela Shah10/29/18

• Pre-Existing Immunity to CRISPR Found in 96% of People in Study

  [Updated October 30, 12:15pm ET with further comment, see below.] The immune systems of a large majority of people could already be primed to attack and possibly even disable a key component of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing therapeutics (which are... Read more »

  Corie Lok10/29/18

• No Pipeline Problem: Backstage Capital’s Detroit Plans Spark Excitement

  In September, Backstage Capital, a venture investment firm seeding early-stage startups led by women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community, launched a $36 million fund to help support black women founders.

  At the same time, managing... Read more »

  Sarah Schmid Stevenson10/29/18

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