Trulia to buy Market Leader for $355 million, planting stake in Zillow’s backyard

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Trulia is making its biggest bet yet. And it is doing so in Zillow’s backyard. Today, Trulia announced a plan to purchase Kirkland-based Market Leader for $355 million — an 18 percent premium over Market Leader’s stock close on Tuesday. The deal also values Market Leader — originally founded in 1999 as HouseValues.com — at about… Read More…

‘Dream of the 90s’ is alive in Portland for SEOmoz: It just bought another Rose City startup

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In a recent episode of Portlandia, Fred and Carrie are sent on a mission to Seattle to evangelize the goodness of Portland. Maybe they knocked on the door of SEOmoz CEO Rand Fishkin. After all, Fishkin’s fast-growing Seattle software startup has made not one, not two, but three acquisitions in Portland in the past 12… Read More…

Microsoft spends a mere $75M on acquisitions in fiscal 2011

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Microsoft’s 2011 fiscal year, which ended in June, was one of its lightest on record for acquisitions. The company, which has more than $50 billion in cash and short-term investments, spent just $75 million to acquire three entities during the year. Maybe it was saving up for Skype? The numbers don’t include Microsoft’s proposed $8.5 billion acquisition of the… Read More…