IPO
Etsy, an online marketplace for vintage and handcrafted items like typewriters and jewelry, is reportedly looking to raise $300 million, and could do so within the next few months. If it does, it would be the biggest public stock market debut by a New York-based tech company since the Bubble. Etsy is backed by Accel Partners and Union Square Ventures, among others. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will lead the offering.
The e-commerce company Shopify is expected to raise $100 million through an IPO later this year, according to multiple reports. Shopify enables partner retailers to easily set up online storefronts, and has raised over $120 million in venture financing since its founding in 2006. The rumored terms of the IPO would value the Ottawa-based company at over $1 billion.
Apigee, an application tools provider to enterprise customers like eBay and Walgreens, has retained Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan in anticipation of an upcoming IPO. The San Jose, Calif.-based company is seeking terms that would value it at $700 million.
M&A
Samsung reportedly offered to acquire the fallen mobile phone manufacturer BlackBerry for $7.5 billion. At $15.49 per share, the price would have represented a 60 percent premium over the value of BlackBerry’s publicly traded stock. BlackBerry’s stock responded to the rumors Wednesday by jumping 30%, to as high as $12.60, before falling back to $10.35 in after hours trading. Samsung, for its part, is denying the rumor. “Media reports of the acquisition are groundless,” a company spokeswoman told Reuters.
Alibaba announced this week that it had secured a controlling interest in AdChina, one of China’s biggest Internet marketing platforms. The deal marks a bigger push into online advertising for the e-commerce behemoth, which currently runs such operations through its Alimama group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. AdChina had raised $40 million from American investors like NewsCorp and Norwest Venture Partners back in 2010.
Symantec has acquired Boeing’s cyber security division, Narus, for an undisclosed amount. The deal will bring 65 engineers and data scientists over to Symantec, which will break up into its component data storage and security businesses later in the year.