It’s been hot, hot, hot in the D.C. metro area’s tech scene to start the year, with February keeping the consolidation streak alive. A lot of money changed hands – upwards of $100 million in local startup funding alone – but on the exit side of investments, a handful of acquisitions gave the ecosystem a continued boost.
Here are some of the biggest D.C.-area acquisition deals from last month:
D.C.-based software startup Contactually was scooped up by real estate company Compass. The WBJ reports the acquisition is worth "mid-eight-figures," and the startup's 32 employees plan to join Compass. Contactually, which launched in 2011 and makes CRM software for real estate brokers, previously raised $12 million from investors, including Grotech Ventures, Flight Ventures and Rally Ventures. CEO Zvi Band and his team will stay put in their D.C. office, and it's already starting hiring for more product, engineering and UX positions.
Shipbuilding giant Huntington Ingalls Industries completed its acquisition of Centreville, Va. government consulting company Fulcrum IT Services for $193 million. Fulcrum will now be part of HII’s technical solutions division, which includes cybersecurity, software development, unmanned systems, nuclear operations, fleet services and oil and gas engineering. The contractor's former owners – Boyne Capital and Grindstone Partners – acquired the company in 2010 when annual revenue stood at $22 million, growing it to more than $160 million in 2018.
Reston-based Leidos finalized the sale of its commercial cybersecurity business to Capgemini, a France-based firm with U.S. offices in Tysons Corner. Leidos said it shed the business to concentrate on the government market and highly-regulated industries, transferring close to 500 staff members as a result of the deal.
Alexandria-based Dark Cubed, a developer of cybersecurity software for small and mid-sized companies, acquired Glen Allen, Va.-based Fenris, which offers similar services but focuses on highly regulated industries. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Dark Cubed said the acquisition adds an experienced security operations team and eliminates the need for on-premise hardware and software.
McLean-based analytics platform Logi Analytics is set to acquire competitor Jinfonet Software, a provider of operational reporting analytics, consolidating two of the top platforms for embedded analytics. Logi, founded in 2001, makes software that embeds analytics dashboards in 1,900 enterprise applications. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The combined company will have about 250 employees, with 100 at its McLean headquarters and another 20 in Rockville that joined from Jinfonet.
Reston software startup GoCanvas, which makes mobile-friendly web forms for businesses, was acquired by private equity firm K1 Investment Management for reportedly more than $100 million. The deal gives the Los Angeles-based group majority ownership and leaves in some investors, including founder and CEO James Quigley and founding investor and former NFL star Kurt Warner. Quigley plans to grow from 165 employees to more than 300 following the investment, mostly at the company’s Reston Town Center headquarters.
Herndon-based enterprise software company MicroPact is being acquired by Texas IT firm Tyler Technologies in a $185 million, all-cash deal. Tyler bought the 22-year-old company from D.C. private equity group Arlington Capital Partners, which merged MicroPact with Iron Data Solutions in 2015. The deal will supply Tyler with $70 million in revenue and 350 public-sector clients.
