A quick look at what’s happening around the horn today:
—Boston-based Pathogenica, a DNA-sequencing technology startup specializing in detecting pathogens, has formed an exclusive partnership with Life Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LIFE]]) to co-market and distribute its hospital-acquired infection biodetection kit in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Pathogenica started in 2009 and is led by CEO and co-founder Yemi Adesokan.
—New startup Azigo, based in Wellesley Hills, MA, has rolled out software to help people manage and browse through commercial e-mails. (It looks a bit like Flipboard for e-mail offers and brand-related messages.) The product comes integrated with PowerInbox, a fellow Boston-area e-mail startup. Azigo is led by CEO and co-founder Paul Trevithick (formerly of Bitstream).
—New Hampshire-based Dyn has acquired Pepperell, MA-based TZO, a managed DNS (Domain Name System) services company, for $4 million. This is the fifth acquisition for Dyn in the past three years, and it adds about 10 new employees (Dyn now has about 170 total). Looks like some consolidation is occurring in Internet infrastructure companies. Dyn has been around since 2001 and continues to grow (and fend off VCs who want a piece of the bootstrapped and profitable company).
—Boston skills-testing software startup Smarterer has a new product direction: it’s less about reputation management, and more about personal (and private) learning. In response to community feedback, the company’s latest version has more efficient test flow and interactive questions, and includes benchmarks to help people reassess their skills via a personal dashboard. Smarterer’s fundamental approach of crowd-sourced questions and scoring algorithms remains the same.
