Before everyone bolts town for Thanksgiving, let’s take a look at some notable recent headlines in the Boston-area tech community:
—This week’s big deal was Oracle’s acquisition of Dyn, the Manchester, NH-based Internet infrastructure firm targeted in a recent distributed denial-of-service attack that temporarily shut down many popular websites. The companies didn’t disclose financial terms, but reports by Fortune and Dan Primack peg the acquisition price at $600 million-plus, citing anonymous sources. Dyn previously raised $88 million from investors.
—In venture funding news, ConnectPay raised $5.3 million from investors, according to an SEC filing. The cloud-based payroll software firm has offices in Concord, MA, and Grosse Pointe, MI.
—Boston-based mobile app data startup Apptopia raised $2.7 million in a round led by Sound Ventures, the venture capital firm led by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary. Apptopia said it has raised $5 million to date from investors, who also include Mark Cuban, 500 Startups, and RTA Ventures.
Apptopia plans to double its 42-person staff, BostInno reported. Read more about Apptopia’s origins in this Xconomy story from 2012.
—NuTonomy announced plans to begin testing its self-driving vehicle software in Boston by the end of the year. The tests will involve Renault Zoe electric vehicles and take place on certain public roads in the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park in Boston’s Seaport neighborhood. The Cambridge, MA-based startup’s first tests of its software were with taxis in Singapore.
—Fresh off raising more money from investors, Boston-based Jibo has delayed the release of its consumer robot yet again, BostInno reported.
—Starry, the new startup from Aereo founder Chet Kanojia, will begin rolling out its wireless Internet service in Boston in early 2017, the Boston Globe reported. Starry previously said it planned to launch the service last summer. Read more about Starry’s technology and ambitious plans in this Xconomy story from February.
—For its new headquarters, Cambridge, MA-based Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AKAM]]) plans to lease upwards of 630,000 square feet of office space in Kendall Square for at least $698.4 million paid over a 15-year period, the Boston Business Journal reported. It’s the state’s largest real-estate lease in at least three years, according to the publication.
—A new initiative called Hack.Diversity will attempt to address the lack of people of color in Boston’s tech sector. It will help black and Latino computer science and engineering students land internships at local high-tech companies—such as Carbonite, DataXu, HubSpot, and Vertex—and also provide them with mentorship and other support.
Hack.Diversity was founded by Flybridge Capital’s Jeff Bussgang, Melissa James of The Tech Connection, and Jody Rose of the New England Venture Capital Association. The program’s advisors include David Delmar, who runs Resilient Coders, a local nonprofit that teaches Web development skills to teens and adults from underserved communities. Xconomy recently profiled Resilient and its efforts to boost diversity in the local tech industry.
