IPO
A week after disclosing $25 million in new funding, the streaming device company Roku is apparently working with BofA Merrill Lynch and Citigroup on its IPO. Originally backed by Netflix, which used Roku’s device as its exclusive streaming provider, the twelve-year old Roku has been able to hold onto the market lead despite entries by Apple, Google, and most recently Amazon. It also has began leasing its software to two Chinese television manufacturers, TCL Corp. and Hisense Electric Co., which are developing web-connected televisions.
Project management software company Upland Software set the terms for its IPO Monday. The company expects to sell 3.8 million shares in the $12 to $14 range, with the hope of raising as much as $50 million, and will list on NASDAQ under the UPLD ticker. Upland is expected to price in the first week of November. When it does, it will join Yodlee and Hubspot as other SaaS companies to recently IPO.
M&A
The Chinese consumer tech company Lenovo finalized its acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google, a $2.9 billion deal that officially makes Lenovo the world’s third biggest smartphone maker. In 2005, Lenovo acquired IBM’s PC business. The company has since gone on to become the PC market leader, with 19.9% of global sales. Samsung and Apple have a clear market lead in smartphones, but the increasing popularity of Lenovo and fellow Chinese hardware manufacturer Xiaomi have been a recent cause of concern for Samsung in particular.
Nest Labs, which itself was acquired by Google in the beginning of this year, has agreed to buy Revolv, a mobile application that unifies and then controls connected home devices that span a number of different brands, including Nest, GE, and Phillips. Nest has discontinued the Revolv product line, but will continue to offer service to existing Revolv customers. While the terms of the acquisition were not announced, Revolv’s backers, which include Brad Feld’s The Foundry Group, are likely pleased with the exit. “(Revolv’s) experience connecting devices around the home will help us continue to grow Works with Nest and bring the conscious home to life,” read a post on the Nest company blog. Revolv was founded in 2012 and based in Boulder, Colorado.
Continuing its push into original entertainment content, Amazon announced this week that it would acquire Rooftop Media, a company that focuses on uploading comic performances to the Web. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Rooftop had raised $2.5 million in 2007 from Azure Capital Partners.