When earn-outs go bad: Cequint investors sue acquirer for interfering with deal’s potential

cequint444

Nearly three years ago, Reston, Virginia-based TNS acquired Cequint in a deal that valued the Seattle caller ID startup for as much as $112.5 million. At the time, everyone appeared happy. Cequint CEO Rick Hennessey said the acquisition “would accelerate our opportunities and improve the offering to our carrier customers,” while TNS CEO Henry H. Graham Jr…. Read More…

This 10-year-old cable company just raised $1B (and no one really knows them)

Wave CEO Steve Weed

I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of WaveDivision Holdings until this week when a longtime Seattle area PR veteran reached out to me about the Kirkland company with this pitch. “I am doing some work with a Seattle-area company that has very quietly grown to 800+ employees, is profitable and has a significant (hundreds of… Read More…

Your car is a device: Verizon buying Hughes Telematics for $612M

hughess

Verizon Communications this morning announced an agreement to acquire automotive technology company Hughes Telematics for $612 million in cash — a deal that underscores the emergence of the car as a connected device, as much as the smartphones in our pockets. The move will be closely watched in the Seattle region, which has become a… Read More…

Poll: Is Microsoft’s Skype acquisition a smart move?

skype

Microsoft’s $8.5 billion buyout of Skype marks the largest acquisition in the company’s history. But is it really a smart move? Depends on who you ask. GeekWire’s Todd Bishop has pointed out some of the potential benefits, noting that Skype’s integration with Kinect could be a killer application. A partnership also would combine Skype’s growing… Read More…