Dealmaking was a bit slower over the last week—actually eight days—but there’s still plenty to recap. And the first one is a doozy.
—Network storage device maker EqualLogic of Nashua, NH, eschewed an IPO in favor of a $1.4 billion sale to Dell Computer (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DELL]]). If completed, the deal with be the largest all-cash acquisition of a venture-backed company in history.
—Lexington, MA’s Cilk Arts, which is commercializing a new programming language developed at MIT, raised an undisclosed sum in a Series A funding round led by Stata Venture Partners and a network of software industry executives. Wade has a nice profile of the firm.
—Software-protection firm V.i. Laboratories of Waltham, MA, closed a $8 million Series B round led by Ascent Venture Partners and Core Capital Partners.
—Westborough, MA’s ExaGrid, a disk-based backup firm, raised $20 million in a Series C round led by Lehman Brothers Venture Partners. Wade profiled ExaGrid on Thursday.
—Cambridge, MA-based Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MIPI]]) announced a $150 million bond financing. The funds should be enough to take the company through its first product launch, according to a press release.
—Polaris Venture Partners led a $7.5 million Series B round for Allurent, a Cambridge, MA-based e-commerce firm.
—Lexington, MA-based biopharmaceutical firm Epix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:EPIX]]) announced plans for a $16.3 million private placement of stock. The deal is expected to close on Thursday.
—Ensemble Discovery, a Cambridge, MA-based biotech startup, completed a $15 million Series B funding round.
