Over the last week, as summer waves goodbye, the autumn deals have started rolling in. Take a look at the highlights:
—Seattle-based startup DigitalScirocco rolled out of stealth a few months ago, and into a deal with US Presswire last week. The digital content marketplace teamed up with the sports wire service to build out a collaborative sports photo news service. The partnership gives news organizations, bloggers, and personal websites the ability to purchase photos with captions from the US Presswire catalog and republish them online.
—Cequint, a Seattle-based developer of caller ID technology for mobile devices, entered into an acquisition agreement with Virginia-based Transaction Network Services (TNS) worth up to $112.5 million. The deal is expected to close in the beginning of the fourth quarter. The terms state that TNS will purchase the company for an initial $46.7 million in cash plus $3.3 million in stock, with the potential for an additional $62.5 million if Cequint meets future performance targets.
—This isn’t a deal, but it was a big story in the Seattle tech scene this week. After a long silence, local startup online media Intersect came out of stealth and onto the Web. The venture—a self-proclaimed community journalism site—is something in between an online publication and a social network. At Intersect, people can publish and share stories, all marked with time and place stamps, allowing users to create personal storylines and view, through these stories, where they crossed paths with other people.
—Bellevue, WA-based DataSphere Technologies raised a $10 million in a Series C financing round led by Kirkland, WA-based OVP Venture Partners to further expand into the local advertising market. The Web technology and ad sales company helps media organizations and businesses build websites, track audience behavior, and manage search and information discovery. DataSphere is also backed by Ignition Venture Partners and a number of media organizations, including Fisher Communications.
—Small-scale hydropower startup Hydrovolts, based out of the McKinstry Innovation Center in Seattle, received a $250,000 investment from U.S.-based civil engineering firm DLZ Corp. to develop a prototype 25-kilowatt hydrokinetic canal turbine. While the investment may seem small, it could lead to big business for the cleantech startup. If the prototype works well, DLZ says it intends to purchase another 400 just like it from Hydrovolts, worth an estimated $20 million.
