'Net Features : acquisitions

Google Introduces Wallet and More Deals

Michael Garrity — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Monday was a big day for Google, with the company purchasing the aptly named German daily deals site DailyDeal, as well as rolling out Google Wallet.

The purchase of DailyDeal marks their second big daily deal site buyout in the last two months, with the first being their acquisition of Dealmap.

DailyDeal was started in late 2009, but showed rapid growth with a reported 252,000 vouchers sold in the first quarter of 2011. They've also gone from just two employees to around 200 as of quarter two of this year.

A German newspaper is reporting that the purchase cost Google somewhere between $150 million and $200 million.

It's likely that Google procured DailyDeal as another method of kickstarting its slow-growing daily deal service Google Offers, which saw a steep revenue decline between the months of July and August.

Having more daily deals services in its back pocket should help Google to round out the launch of Google Wallet, the NFC-based mobile payment service. The application will be available to owners of the Sprint Nexus S Android phone and, with the initial rollout, will only be applicable for users who have PayPass-enabled Citi MasterCards.

GSI Commerce Acquires ClearSaleing for Analytics, Attribution

Linc Wonham — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:37:00 GMT

Consolidation continues to be a significant Web trend in early 2011 as e-commerce and marketing solutions provider GSI Commerce has acquired advertising analytics and attribution management firm ClearSaleing.

The purchase will further broaden the offerings of GSI’s Global Marketing Services (GMS) division, which now has eight leading marketing services companies in its portfolio and most recently bought ad retargeting firm FetchBack in June for $40 million. Terms of the ClearSaleing acquisition have not been disclosed.

ClearSaleing’s Attribution Management product has been recognized as an industry leader for its ease of use and custom analytics, appealing to a wide range of clients such as American Greetings, Rosetta, Range Online Media and Nationwide Insurance. TrueAction, one of the full-service digital marketing firms in GSI's GMS division, has been using ClearSaleing’s platform for the past year to help its clients improve efficiency and increase productivity from automation and reporting.

ClearSaleing will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of the GMS division, which also includes FetchBack, TrueAction, M3 Mobile, MBS Insight, Pepperjam, Silverlign and e-Dialog.

M&A's Down (Way Down) in '08

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:41:00 GMT

According to a special report by SoftwareCEO.com - part of the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) - oftware mergers and acquisitions were down dramatically in 2008, and software initial public offerings (IPOs) did not fare much better.

The seventh annual report reveals that technology mergers and acquisitions (M&As) around the world dropped to $290 billion in 2008, down one-third from a year earlier. There were only six tech-related IPOs in 2008, down from 27 the year before.

“It’s always challenging to run a successful software company, but the second half of 2008 was especially tough,” said Robert Biddle, publisher of SoftwareCEO. “Neither investors nor customers want to part with any money in this economy. “In 2009, software companies need to protect their core value and be prepared to sacrifice everything else,” Biddle said. “Any companies that aren’t viable risk being acquired or going out of business.”