In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development.
This week, Google acquired Fitbit, SnapChat’s parent company Snap gained StreetCred Labs, and Pioneer Natural Energy bought Parsley Energy, effectively removing it from the NYSE.
Google buys Fitbit, waits on US DOJ support
Google completed its $2.1 billion acquisition of fitness tracking company Fitbit.
The deal, first publicized in November 2019, gained approval from the European Commission last month, though with a number of specific regulations. Google was told not to use GPS or manually inserted data from Fitbit users, as well as allowing users to opt out of giving access to health and wellness data collected from Fitbit devices for Google Ads.
Google has also agreed to continue to support third-party wearables with Android devices.
Despite Google’s announcement, the US Department of Justice released a statement on Thursday saying it was still investigating the deal and had not reached a conclusion.
The acquisition of Fitbit gives Google an established brand to back in its competition with Apple’s Apple Watch in the fitness tracking market.
Snap acquires StreetCred Labs in hopes of growing Snap Map
Snap Inc., parent company of the social media app SnapChat, has purchased location data startup StreetCred. StreetCred collects mapping data from a game that users play on its apps.
As part of the deal the StreetCred platform will be shut down and the creators will join the team at Snap. The acquisition is a big part of building up Snap Map, which allows users to post and view public snaps from a given location.
Snap Map was added to Snapchat last summer, and the company claimed that the product was reaching 200 million users every month. The acquisition could also be integrated into Snap’s Local Lenses, which allows developers and advertisers to create customized filters for users in a specific location.
Financial terms of the deal have not been made public.
Pioneer Natural Resources gains Parsley Energy
Pioneer Natural Resources Company announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Parsley Energy in an all-stock transaction valued around $4.5 billion.
According to Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield, the transaction is expected to further strengthen the company’s investment framework by providing “free cash flow and enhancing return of capital to shareholders.”
Parsley stock will no longer be listed for trading on the stock exchange and their stockholders will receive 0.1252 shares of Pioneer common stock for each share of Parsley common stock owned.
The buyout forced Parsley to lay off 234 employees, most of its Austin, Texas workforce.
In Other News
Other notable events this week include:
- IBM announced it has acquired 7Summits, a privately held consulting firm that specializes in software-as-a-services (SaaS) applications from Salesforce.
- Trivago has acquired 100% of the shares in weekendgo GmbH in its buyout of Weekend.com, an online travel agency startup for travelers looking for short vacations.
- Qualcomm Incorporated announced that it is acquiring semiconductor start-up NUVIA for approximately $1.4 billion.
- Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) announced that it is acquiring private jet servicing company Signature Aviation for $4.63 billion, outbidding private equity giants Blackstone and The Carlyle Group.
- According to Bloomberg, electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors is in talks to go public through a merger with Churchill Capital Corp IV, a Special-Purpose Acquisition Company(SPAC) led by reputed financial deal-maker Michael Klein.
- Visa Inc. and San Francisco-based fintech start-up Plaid Inc., announced that they have mutually terminated their $5.3 billion merger agreement after the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit to block the combination over competition concerns.
- Cisco Systems Corp. announced that it has reached a new agreement to buy Acacia Communications Inc. after boosting its original purchase price by 64% to $4.5 billion.
