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Selling an Edtech Business: The PositivePsychology.com Exit
PositivePsychology.com, a mission-driven edtech platform used by 19M+ professionals, was acquired in an 8-figure deal advised by FE International. This case study covers their growth, decision to sell, and the exit process.
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DocuSign Acquires SpringCM, Brandless Receives $240 million in Funding, Twitter Shares Search Ranking Methods: Newsletter August 2, 2018
DocuSign Acquires SpringCM, Brandless Receives $240 million in Funding, Twitter Shares Search Ranking Methods: Newsletter August 2, 2018
Facebook Stock Falls 21%, Slack Acquires HipChat, Amazon Shares Rise, Google Drops Public Submit to Index Feature: Newsletter July 27, 2018
Facebook’s stock fell 21% (or $120 billion) following its Q2 earnings release this week. Facebook’s earnings report showed quarterly user growth slowing to just 1.54% (to 2.23 billion monthly users) compared to a 3.14% increase in Q1. Daily active user growth also slowed to 1.44% (down from 3.42% in Q1), however, Zuckerberg noted that 2.5 billion people use at least one of the company’s apps—Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Reuters consensus forecast showed revenues coming in at $13.36 billion in revenue, which was marginally higher than the actual numbers posted ($13.23 billion).
Salesforce to Acquire Datorama, Amazon Prime Day Results, Facebook Messenger AI Payments Patent: Newsletter July 20, 2018
Salesforce this week announced an agreement to acquire Datorama Inc., a cloud-based marketing platform in an $800 million acquisition. CEO Ran Sarig indicated that the platform would be included as a part of Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud, chiefly providing improved data integration, intelligence and analytics enabling marketers to build custom reports of holistic marketing data captured by the platform’s native AI. To date, Datorama has only raised $50 million in funding but counts PepsiCo Inc., IBM Corp. and Unilever PLC. among its biggest clients. A closing date for the acquisition has not yet been announced.
Trump China Tariffs, Meero Raises $45M for US and Asia Expansion, Amazon Prime Day: Newsletter July 13, 2018
Global trade news saw President Trump propose a list of $200 billion in Chinese imports on which to impose 10% tariffs, which is roughly equal to China’s exports to the US. The list includes products which are part of the Made in China 2025 strategic plan to make China a leading producer in key global industries. While the list aims to disrupt the Chinese economy, China has retaliated by imposing their own tariffs on $34 billion in US exports to China, threatening another $16 billion, and causing US retailers to grow concerned over product price increases and sourcing complications.
What Is GDPR Compliance?
The world of digital business has been shifted by new legislation. As of May 25th, 2018, enforcement of the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has begun. Arguably the most sweeping and potentially punitive legislation governing the use of sensitive consumer data ever established, the GDPR is already changing how businesses worldwide use and safeguard customer information. The bar for data that is considered worthy of protection has been lowered substantially. Consumer IP addresses and even web cookies are now subject to similar standards regarding use and security as more overtly sensitive data such as Social Security numbers, physical addresses, and telephone numbers.
Opera Files for IPO, SaaS Capital Launches Third Fund, Google Speed Update for Mobile: Newsletter July 6, 2018
Opera, the Norway-based browser company, has filed for an IPO in the United States. F-1 documents filed with the application reveal that the company plans to raise up to $115 million in its initial public offering. Opera currently has around 182 million monthly active users across its mobile software products and 57.4 million users on desktop browsers. The business generated $128.9 million in 2017 operating revenues for a net income of $6.1 million, with their top two business partners contributing approximately 56.1% of the total operating revenue.
Microsoft Ventures Invests in Cerebri, Amazon Acquires PillPack, PayPal Introduces New Checkout Technology: Newsletter June 29, 2018
Microsoft Ventures, now known as M12, this week lead a $5 million Series A round of funding into Cerebri AI, doubling the company’s total funding to $10 million to date. Cerebri’s platform sits atop Microsoft Azure and represents potential future synergies in machine learning for Microsoft, an area the tech giant has shown significant interest in. In addition to announcing the round of funding, Cerebri launched Cerebri Values this week, a product which seeks to quantify a customer’s commitment to a brand or product.
SurveyMonkey Files for IPO, Supreme Court E-Commerce Tax Ruling, Instagram TV Launch: Newsletter June 22, 2018
SurveyMonkey has this week announced that it has confidentially filed for IPO. The survey and customer feedback market leader was previously valued at $2 billion at its last fundraising round in 2014. SurveyMonkey’s decision to file confidentially has granted them the opportunity to gauge investor interest while not having to disclose financial and operational details. Reuters reported in May that SurveyMonkey had hired J.P. Morgan to help lead IPO preparations.
Salesforce Launches B2B Commerce, Microsoft Developing Cashierless Technology, Facebook to Ban Low Quality Stores: Newsletter June 15, 2018
Salesforce has this week announced the launch of B2B Commerce a solution aimed specifically at B2B shoppers. Commerce Cloud, a platform which powers over 2,500 e-commerce stores worldwide, originally only served B2C e-commerce companies. B2B Commerce was developed from Salesforce’s acquisition of CloudCraze in April of this year. The new platform offers increased sophistication in the customer data available to B2B e-commerce retailers, as well as direct access to data from business buyers’ portals for easy account and order management. This move is yet another sign of the e-commerce platform competition heating up, following Adobe’s acquisition of Magento (which has a sophisticated B2B e-commerce platform) last month.
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