Heading into the holidays, the deals have slowed down a bit. But there was still a trickle of activity over the past week in biotech, renewable energy, and software.
—Seattle-based Jobster’s co-founder and ex-CEO, Jason Goldberg, sold his New York startup, Socialmedian, to Hamburg, Germany-based Xing for $7.5 million. Socialmedian’s news-filtering service fits well with Xing, which is a social site focused on business and professional networking.
—3Tier Group, a Seattle company that helps developers and financiers spot the best places in the world to build renewable energy facilities, raised $10 million in venture capital, as Luke reported. The funding round, first reported by TechFlash, was led by UK-based Good Energies.
—Luke also reported that Seattle-based Oncothyreon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ONTY]]) sold the manufacturing rights to its cancer vaccine Stimuvax to Germany-based Merck KgaA for $13 million. Merck will take over Oncothyreon’s drug manufacturing plant in Edmonton, Canada. It’s part of a series of strategic moves made by Oncothyreon to conserve cash.
—The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a three-year, $7 million grant to the Seattle-based Infectious Disease Research Institute to treat patients with visceral leishmaniasis, a parasite infection, in Africa.
—We announced a deal of our own at Xconomy, which means stories like the one you’re reading right now will reach an even wider audience. Xconomy formed a syndication partnership with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that will allow both organizations to share online content, and gives the P-I the right to publish some of our content in newsprint.
—Seattle biotech firm VLST formed a major partnership with Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, as Luke reported. The deal allows Novo to develop drugs against cell targets VLST has discovered for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It will pump $12 million into VLST from upfront fees and equity investment, plus undisclosed future milestone payments and royalties.
—Seattle’s Movaya and PressOK Entertainment are teaming up to develop games for mobile devices. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. PressOK was formed in September by the merger of the mobile-gaming companies Reaxion and Mobliss.
—Seattle-based Pelago has partnered with Norwich, VT-based Maponics to provide Whrrl, a location-aware mobile networking service, to customers in more than 50,000 neighborhoods in 2,000 cities across the U.S. and Canada. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
—Not a deal per se, but some priceless anecdotes from three of Seattle’s most respected dealmakers. Luke attended a fireside chat with life sciences execs Bruce Carter, Bruce Montgomery, and Stewart Parker, who talked about (among other things) the understated role of luck in innovation and dealmaking.
