Roundup, deals, VC
Amazon Buys Zappos, General Fusion and Finsphere Get $9M Each, Big Fish Partners with People.com, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
Gregory T. Huang 7/28/09
From Amazon to Zappos, it was an exciting week for deals in the Northwest. A lot of the news was dominated by Amazon’s biggest acquisition to date ($920 million), but there was plenty of other action in energy, biotech, software, and gaming.
—Xconomy broke the news that General Fusion, a Burnaby, BC-based clean energy company, raised $9 million out of a $12.5 million equity offering. The investors were undisclosed but include a syndicate from the U.S., U.K., and Canada, as Luke reported. The company’s board of directors includes members of GrowthWorks Capital and Chrysalix Energy in Vancouver, BC, Braemar Energy Ventures in New York, and Entrepreneurs Fund in London. General Fusion is developing a novel method of energy production called magnetized target fusion, and is currently working on a four-year, $50 million demonstration project.
—Bellevue, WA-based Limeade, a health-IT company, raised $2.4 million out of a $3 million equity offering, as Eric reported. The investors were not announced. Limeade makes software to help companies encourage their employees to reach wellness goals like losing weight or quitting smoking.
—Seattle-based Calypso Medical Technologies formed a partnership with Varian Medical Systems of Palo Alto, CA, to develop products that incorporate Calypso’s radiation-pinpointing technology into Varian’s software and devices for cancer treatment. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
—Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) made its biggest acquisition to date, buying Henderson, NV-based online shoe retailer Zappos for some $920 million, as Eric reported. The blockbuster deal is expected to close this fall, and most of the money will come from about 10 million shares of Amazon stock. Meanwhile, Wade contributed an interesting (and surprising) take on how the deal affects a Boston-area robotics company, Kiva, that works with Zappos. Finally, Xconomy provided some more context for …Next Page »
Gregory T. Huang is the Editor of Xconomy Seattle. You can e-mail him at gthuang@xconomy.com or call 206-624-2249.
