Seattle Roundup: End of Summer M&A Flurry

Northwest tech deal-makers were busy this week, announcing several significant mergers and acquisitions before the unofficial end of summer. Amazon Web Services is buying Portland, OR-based Elemental Technologies. Microsoft is scooping up people analytics company VoloMetrix. And Zillow is spinning off Market Leader at a significant discount. Read on for more details:

—Elemental Technologies’ pending purchase by Amazon Web Services represents a potential home run for the company’s venture and angel investors, if the $500 million reported deal price is accurate. Elemental Technologies raised $44.1 million since its founding in 2006. Read our full coverage of the deal here.

—With its pending acquisition of people analytics company VoloMetrix, Microsoft would gain software that scours a company’s internal communications and collaboration tools to track employee work patterns, such as time spent in meetings and co-workers they interact with most frequently. This data-driven approach to organizational behavior will add to Microsoft’s Office 365 effort, including Delve Organizational Analytics. Co-founded in 2011 by Chris Brahm (board chairman) and Ryan Fuller (CEO), VoloMetrix raised a total of $17 million from investors including Split Rock Partners and Shasta Ventures.

—Simply Measured, the Seattle social media analytics company, has acquired Inside Social, which makes technology that helps marketers track the impact of their investments in social media on business results. Inside Social is a 2013 Techstars Seattle graduate. Simply Measured co-founder Aviel Ginzburg was a mentor to Inside Social, a relationship that led ultimately to the acquisition. Inside Social, founded by Brewster Stanislaw and Joey Kotkins, adds to Simply Measured’s fast-growing team of 130 employees. Simply Measured raised $20 million in March 2014.

—In 2013, online real estate company Trulia bought Market Leader, which makes customer relationship management software for real estate professionals, for $355 million. Seattle online real estate company Zillow bought Trulia for $2.5 billion in stock, a deal that closed earlier this year. Now Zillow is selling Market Leader, based in Bellevue, WA, for $23 million to the Perseus Division of Constellation Software. Zillow said in its second quarter earnings report that Market Leader’s revenue fell 21 percent from a year earlier to $12.5 million.

Author: Benjamin Romano

Benjamin is the former Editor of Xconomy Seattle. He has covered the intersections of business, technology and the environment in the Pacific Northwest and beyond for more than a decade. At The Seattle Times he was the lead beat reporter covering Microsoft during Bill Gates’ transition from business to philanthropy. He also covered Seattle venture capital and biotech. Most recently, Benjamin followed the technology, finance and policies driving renewable energy development in the Western US for Recharge, a global trade publication. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.