M&A
Jetpac, a smartphone app that aggregates friends’ social media photos for people planning trips, has been acquired by Google. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the app will be taken down from the Apple App Store on September 15th. Khosla Ventures, Morado Venture Partners, and AME Cloud Ventures invested $2.4 million in the company in 2012. The message left by Jetpac founders Pete Warden and Julian Green on the company website, meanwhile, was to the point: “We’re joining Google!” According to reports, Warden, Green, and the rest of Jetpac will be joining Google’s Knowledge Graph team, a specialized group designed to enhance the integration of Google’s search results with “the real world.”
Iliad, the French telecom company, is purportedly in discussions with Microsoft and Google to bolster its bid for T-Mobile. Iliad had tried to acquire 57% of the company, for $15 billion, two weeks ago. That bid, worth $33 per share, was rejected and the Iliad is now looking for reinforcements to help with its next offer. The uncertainty around T-Mobile has not stopped CEO John Legere from using Twitter to take shots at Sprint, whose bid for the company also fell apart two weeks ago.
Wow – lucky new @sprint “unlimited” customers! You can get the lowest priority on the slowest network! #nailedit https://t.co/tzcxlbsqUQ
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) August 21, 2014
Meanwhile, the FCC has asked Comcast for more details about the company’s video and broadband operations, as part of the review of the proposed merger with Time Warner Cable, Reuters reports. This is a common procedure during a review, as regulators seek to establish if the merger is in the public’s best interest. The application was submitted earlier this year and the FCC reportedly seeks more information on the two companies’ plans than was previously revealed. Any deal which is approved by the FCC will more than likely be subject to conditions involving internet traffic management, and the net neutrality issue in particular, according to experts.
Shutterfly (Nasdaq: SLFY), the photo sharing service with a market cap of $1.9 billion, reportedly received buyout offers this week from Bain Capital, Hellman & Friedman, and Silver Lake Partners. It was an especially busy week for Bain Capital, as the PE firm announced Wednesday that it had acquired a 50% stake in TOMS Shoes.
IPO
The anticipation continues to mount for the upcoming Alibaba IPO. FoxBusiness has reported that the company is eyeing September 16th for its debut in the American public markets, and major shareholders SoftBank and Yahoo have recently seen pops in their own stock prices.