There's a bonus track this month: a special Halloween category for companies that came back from the dead.
Obviously, we're talking about Bridj - the transportation startup that shut down in April after a deal with a major car company fell through. The company is now resurrecting in Australia, where Bridj plans to relaunch later this year after it was acquired by Australian transportation operator Transit Systems.
As for the key takeaways from last month, October marked one of the local top tech deals of the year with the acquisition of nuTonomy by British manufacturer Delphi for up to $450 million. The list of October M&A deals, which includes names such as Grapevine, Akamai and Autotask, is significantly longer than the list of September when only five deals (although significant) were announced.
For October, we tracked nine M&A announcements - the same number for July 2017.
Here are the BostInno Departed from October 2017.
The Shuttered:
• Say goodbye to Foodler. The Boston-based take-out delivery service shut down after its sale to Chicago-based Grubhub was completed, The Boston Globe reported. Grubhub entered into an agreement to acquire Foodler in June 2017.
The Merged and Acquired:
• Ace Hardware, the 93-year-old national hardware retailer, has acquired a majority stake in Somerville e-commerce startup The Grommet. Ace gained majority ownership by purchasing shares of The Grommet from its previous investor, Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
• Boston-based company Supplet has been acquired by Bump Boxes, a Peoria, Illinois-based pregnancy subscription service that sends moms and moms-to-be gift boxes with baby products. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
• Sovos, a tax compliance and reporting software provider based in Wilmington, acquired U.K.-based FiscalReps.
• Cambridge startup Grapevine, an influencer marketing platform for YouTube, has acquired ReadyCart, a Tennessee-based affiliate marketing service that lets creators on platforms like YouTube build custom storefronts that sell products discussed in their videos. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
• Akamai announced it has reached a deal to acquire Nominum, a California-based provider of DNS and enterprise security solutions for internet service providers. Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close later this quarter, were not disclosed.
• Digi International, a company in the Internet of Things space, purchased Boston-based TempAlert, which provides automated, real-time temperature monitoring services. Digi reached the deal for $45 million in cash plus future earn-out incentives.
• Boston-based self-driving startup nuTonomy is getting acquired by British automotive parts manufacturer Delphi for up to $450 million. The deal will not have an impact on nuTonomy’s existing partnerships.
• Imprivata has acquired the identity and access management department of Caradigm, a GE Healthcare company, BBJ reported. Financial details were not disclosed.
• Private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, which acquired Autotask in 2014, will acquire Datto and merge the two technology companies. The combined company will offer data protection, backup and disaster recovery services for managed services providers.
If you think there’s a startup missing from this list, email me at lmaffei@americaninno.com
