Last week saw a little blip in the action among companies working on aspects of fixed and mobile media delivery—or is it the beginning of a trend? Oh, and there were some life sciences deals in there as well. This is Boston, after all.
—Blackwave, an Acton, MA-based maker of hardware for video streaming, raised $16 million in Series B funding. Sigma Partners led the deal; Globespan Capital Partners and IDG Ventures participated as well.
—Merrimack Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, MA, raised $35 million of an $80 Series F funding round from unspecified investors.
—Andover, MA-based Memsic, which produces sensors using micro electro-mechanical systems, or MEMS, set the terms of its upcoming IPO at 6 million shares to be offered at between $11 and $13 per share.
—Billerica, MA’s Reef Point Systems and Gaithersburg, MD-based NexTone Communications merged to form NextPoint Networks. The firm, which aims to deliver voice, data, and video services over IP networks, also announced it had closed a $20 million funding round led by One Equity Partners and joined by American Capital, Core Capital Partners, Jerusalem Venture Partners, Safeguard Scientifics, and Summerhill Venture Partners.
—Another Billerica firm, scientific instruments maker Bruker BioSciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BRKR]]), announced it will acquire the Bruker BioSpin Group for $914 million in cash and stock.
—Boston- and Denver-based Buzzwire, a developer of streaming technology for mobile devices, raised $8 million in a Series B funding round led by Sequel Partners and joined by Spark Capital and Matrix Partners.
—Cambridge, MA-based Aveo Pharmaceuticals forged an agreement with Eli Lilly to help the pharma giant figure out which patients respond best to an experimental cancer drug. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Malorye explains how this is representative of Big Pharma’s growing interest in so-called biomarkers.
—Hologic (NASDAQ: [[ticker:HOLX]]), a Bedford, MA-based maker of imaging tools and medical devices focused on the women’s healthcare market, priced $1.5 billion worth of convertible senior notes to mature in 2037. The sale of the notes, which will have a conversion price of roughly $77.19, is expected to close today. In October, shareholders approved Hologic’s $6.2 billion acquisition of Marlborough’s Cytyc.
—Waltham, MA-based molecular diagnostics maker BG Medicine dropped the price range for its planned 4.5 million-share IPO from $14 to $16 per share down to $8 to $10 per share.
