Dendreon Sells $20M in Stock, Microsoft Teams Up with Scripps, Monster Buys BitWine, & More Seattle-Area Deals News

Heading deep into the battles of October (hang in there, Red Sox), dealflow has been fairly strong. The Northwest saw plenty of action in mobile, biotech, health care, and seed-stage tech funds in the past week.

—Redmond, WA-based MobUI, a mobile software developer, acquired Bellevue, WA-based Action Engine, as Ryan reported. MobUI also raised new funding, led by GlobalNET Mobile Solutions, a South American wireless application service provider, but no financial terms were disclosed.

—Microsoft (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MSFT]]) and San Diego-based Scripps Health teamed up with Bay Area firms Affymetrix and Navigenics to study the effects of personal genome testing on up to 10,000 people’s health behaviors. The researchers will use genetic scans to tell participants about their risk for various ailments, and then will track their lifestyle choices and their health outcomes for 20 years. Their personal health information will be kept in Microsoft’s secure HealthVault accounts.

—Seattle-based Dendreon raised $20 million in a stock sale to Azimuth Opportunity, as Luke reported. Earlier in the week, Dendreon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DNDN]]) said an interim analysis of a 500-patient study of its drug Provenge for prostate cancer found that it lowered the risk of death by 20 percent.

—Mentor Graphics, an electronics design and analysis firm based in Wilsonville, OR, acquired the Flomerics Group, a U.K.-based maker of fluid-dynamics simulation software. Flomerics will become the mechanical analysis division of Mentor Graphics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MENT]]).

—Luke reported that Founder’s Co-op, the Seattle-based seed-stage fund run by Andy Sack and Chris DeVore, raised a new investment round, worth $1.8 million, and announced 12 more limited partners, bringing the total to 14. Founder’s Co-op is a peer-to-peer investment firm in which the partners, all established entrepreneurs, help guide strategy and support the portfolio companies.

—Bellevue, WA-based Monster Venture Partners acquired a controlling stake in BitWine, a startup that lets users share knowledge and get expert advice online. Financial terms were not disclosed, but former Expedia exec Ronnie Gurion is BitWine’s new CEO, and Rob Monster is now chairman of the board.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.