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It’s been anything but a quiet year for tech mergers and acquisitions in Austin. Although plenty of smaller deals took place throughout the first three quarters of 2014, today we’re taking a look back at some of the largest and most impactful to date.
Within the top four, we see a massive merger in the social media marketing space, a duo of acquisitions by a workforce management systems developer, a semiconductor shakeup and the whopping acquisition of a Scottish audio app maker by one of Austin’s top integrated circuit developers.
Here, a look back at some of the most notable deals of 2014 so far:
Spredfast and Mass Relevance, both of which have counted Austin Ventures among its investors since 2010, merged in April, joining forces to become a formidable social marketing force after Spredfast completed a $32.5M Series D round of funding from six investors in January. Founded in 2008 under the name “Social Agency Inc.,” Spredfast employed around 200 workers before the merger -- a number that spiked to 380 after its completion. The company has opened offices in Chicago, London, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco and Sydney.
Fabless semiconductor company Black Sand Technologies, which was founded in 2005, based in Austin and known for having the semiconductor industry’s largest patent portfolio of IP-based mixed-signal technology, was acquired by digital communication giant Qualcomm, based in San Diego, for an undisclosed amount. The deal was completed on June 18. Black Sands’ last reported round of financing was a $10M Series C round led by Austin Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners.
Austin-based Asure Software Inc. has had a busy year so far, acquiring cloud-based labor and time management provider FotoPunch Inc., for $4.5M in July and then, a month later, acquiring move management software developer Roomtag, which was founded in 2008, for $1.7M. For its part, Asure develops workforce and workspace management systems and employs around 120 people.
The most recent major Austin acquisition on the books happens to also be the largest. Cirrus Logic completed a $467M acquisition of Wolfson Microelectronics PLC, a portable audio application maker based in Scotland, after announcing the deal in April. Its most recent acquisition prior to that was in October 2013, when it snapped up Arizona-based Acoustic Technologies in a deal with an undisclosed amount. Cirrus, which develops integrated circuits for tablets, smartphones and other portable electronic devices, employs more than 650 workers. It’s currently completing construction of a new office at 3rd Street and Rio Grande, across from the building that once housed famed music venue La Zona Rosa.
We’ll check back in regularly with more updates on major transactions affecting Austin’s tech space.
