M&A Report: Google, Visa and Casper In the News

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 makes (more) big moves, Visa invests in (more) fintech, and Casper (finally) plans to go public.

Google Acquiring Two New Assets

Google has announced the acquisition of two companies, designed to supplement both its consumer and business products.

Irish retail search software developer Pointy is being acquired by Google for a rumored $163 million. Google plans to close this acquisition in the coming weeks. Pointy provides retail stores with the ability to connect their products and inventory feed to the internet, allowing customers to view store products through Google searches or on the store’s Pointy webpage. This acquisition will strengthen Google’s search engine capabilities as it will provide more relevant details for consumers and give Google an extra push in its competition against Amazon. Pointy has had products in approximately 10,000 U.S. retail locations since 2018.

Google has also acquired AppSheet, a leading no-code application development platform. AppSheet will join Google Cloud as a space for innovation, efficiency, and automation. The AppSheet platform allows users to create applications without professional coding experience; this creates efficient development tools for modernizing business processes. Google will be able to integrate the platform into its own cloud-hosted technologies such as Google Sheets, Google Forms, and Google Analytics. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Visa is Acquiring FinTech Company Plaid

Visa has announced that it is acquiring Plaid Inc., a privately held financial software developer.

The deal is valued at $5.3 billion, double that of Plaid’s reported value in December 2018.

Plaid’s technology allows people to link their bank accounts to mobile apps such as Venmo, Acorns, and Chime. Associates of Plaid state that its systems are used by 1 in 4 people with bank accounts and is connected to over 11,000 financial institutions in the world. Visa expects the deal to close in the next 3 to 6 months.

DTC Mattress Company Casper Files for IPO

Casper, the $1 billion online mattress retail startup, has filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CSPR.

Casper’s financial filings show that, although the company’s net revenues grew between 2017 and 2018, net losses have also increased.

Casper delivers mattresses to over 1.4 million customers and plans to open 200 stores across the United States. Through this IPO, Casper pla ns to expand into more than 20 countries, almost triple that of its current footprint of 7 countries.

In Other News

These are some other notable deals and developments from the past week:

Digital Dream Labs, LLC has announced its acquisition of Anki Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. This deal comes several months after Anki CEO, Boris Sofman, was forced to shut down operations and lay off nearly 200 staffers.

iOffice, Inc., a workplace and asset management solutions provider, has acquired Teem Technologies, developer of cloud-based meeting space solutions and workplace analytics.

Cott Corporation is acquiring Primo Water Corporation, North America’s leading provider of water dispensers, multi-gallon purified bottled water, and self-service refill drinking water.