Florida-based Citrix Systems, Inc. has agreed to acquire Wrike, a rapidly growing, developer of SaaS collaborative work management space, for $2.25 billion in cash. Headquartered in San Jose, and employing more than 1,000 employees, Wrike is owned by private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. The combination will bring together Citrix’s powerful digital work platform, which securely […]
Lumentum to Buy Coherent in $5.7 Billion Deal
SAN JOSE — Two photonics companies in Silicon Valley have agreed to merge. Lumentum Holdings has agreed to buy Santa Clara-based Coherent in a cash and stock transaction valued at $5.7 billion. Coherent stockholders will receive $100.00 per share in cash and 1.1851 shares of Lumentum common stock for each Coherent share they own. At […]
Netflix Shares Soar 16% After Surpassing 203 Million Subscribers
LOS GATOS — Shares in Netflix soared 16.8% on Wednesday after announcing it has more than 203.6 million subscribers worldwide. The company said it added 8.51 million subscribers in the fourth quarter and net income of $542 million on $6.6 billion in revenues. With the pandemic keeping people home around the world, streaming services have […]
Stanford Elects Denning to Board of Trustees
Stanford University announced that Roberta Denning, who earned her undergraduate degree in English and her MBA from Stanford, has been elected to the university’s Board of Trustees. Her five-year term begins Feb. 1. In 2017, Denning was awarded the university’s Gold Spike Award, one of Stanford’s highest honors for volunteer service. Specifically, Denning was recognized […]
PC Sales Continue to Soar Due to Pandemic
Sales of personal computers (including desktops, notebooks, and workstations) continue to soar due to the pandemic. The fourth quarter of 2020 (4Q20) saw global shipments grow 26.1% year over year to 91.6 million units, according to research from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. The same category of devices grew 13.1% […]
Resident Wakes Up With $130 Million
SAN FRANCISCO — Resident, which sells direct-to-consumer brands in the mattress and home goods market, has received an investment of $130 million led by Ion Crossover Partners and Nexus Capital Management with participation from Baron Capital Group. The funds will be used by the company to execute Resident’s growth plan, expand its brick-and-mortar retail footprint and strengthen its […]
Landing Lands a Smooth $75 Million
SAN FRANCISCO — Landing, a company offering flexible, long-term living memberships, has secured $100 million in new funding: a $45 million Series B led by Foundry Group with participation by Greycroft and Maveron, alongside a $55 million debt facility. With an influx of fresh capital and a rapidly growing membership base, the company will continue […]
Notable Health First to Launch Automated Identification and Engagement of Patients Eligible for COVID-19 Vaccine
SAN MATEO — Notable Health, the leading intelligent automation company for healthcare, announced today it has extended its platform capabilities to support automating COVID-19 vaccine administration workflows. US healthcare systems face a massive logistical challenge in identifying patients who meet state or federal criteria for receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, and engaging with these patients to schedule as […]
Workato Valued at $1.7 Billion With $110 Million Round
MOUNTAIN VIEW — Workato, which develops a platform for business automation, has announced $110 million in Series D funding led by investment firm Altimeter Capital alongside Insight Partners. Pauline Yang, partner at Altimeter Capital, will join Workato’s board of directors as an observer. Existing investors, Redpoint Ventures and Battery Ventures, also participated in the round. […]
Intel Hires VMware’s Gelsinger to be New CEO
SANTA CLARA — Chip maker Intel announced that its board of directors has appointed VMware Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger to be its new CEO, effective Feb. 15, 2021. Gelsinger will also join the Intel board of directors upon assuming the role. He will succeed Bob Swan, who will remain CEO until Feb. 15. Gelsinger […]
Walmart to Launch Financial Startup With Ribbit Capital
Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, is creating a new fintech startup to offer affordable financial solutions aimed at its customers and employees. The new company is a strategic partnership with Palo Alto investment firm Ribbit Capital, which has backed Affirm and Robinhood. The unnamed venture will bring together Walmart’s retail power and scale with Ribbit’s […]
Roblox Reels In $520 Million
SAN MATEO — Roblox, which operates a popular gaming platform, has raised $520 million in new Series H funding at a purchase price of $45.00 per share led by Altimeter Capital and Dragoneer Investment Group. The Investment Group of Santa Barbara and Warner Music Group, along with several current investors, also participated in this round. […]
NIO Teams Up With NVIDIA for Autonomous Vehicles
SHANGHAI and SANTA CLARA — NIO, a Chinese maker of electric cars, has selected the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC) for its new generation of electric vehicles (photo above), which will offer advanced automated driving capabilities. NIO is working to make consumer adoption of smart, performance-packed electric vehicles a widespread reality. At NIO Day, the […]
Acer Debuts New Gaming Notebooks Powered by AMD
Taiwanese computer company Acer has announced new Nitro 5 gaming notebooks, plus new Aspire 5 and 7 notebooks, powered by AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Mobile Processors. The new AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors deliver fast and efficient performance for laptops. With up to 8 cores of processing power, they combine low-power high-bandwidth memory with low power […]
Protiviti Promotes 34 New Directors
MENLO PARK — Consulting firm Protiviti says it has promoted 30 of its directors to the position of managing director and four to the position of senior director. The new managing directors and senior directors are from a range of Protiviti’s solution groups including Internal Audit and Financial Advisory, Risk and Compliance, Technology Consulting and […]
Lacework Scores $525 Million Round
SAN JOSE – Lacework, which operates a cloud security platform, has raised a $525 million growth round with a valuation of $1 billion. Led by Sutter Hill and Altimeter Capital, and joined by D1 Capital Partners, Coatue, Dragoneer Investment Group, Liberty Global Ventures, Snowflake Ventures and Tiger Global Management, the round reflects Lacework’s accelerated adoption […]
Hinge Raises Healthy $300 Million Series D
SAN FRANCISCO – Hinge Health has raised a $300 million Series D round to expand clinical capabilities as an end-to-end Digital Musculoskeletal (MSK) Clinic for all back and joint pain care. The fundraising was heavily oversubscribed and jointly led by Coatue Management and Tiger Global with participation from existing investors Atomico, Insight Partners, Quadrille, 11.2 […]
Homes for Sale Inventory at Record Lows
SANTA CLARA — The number of homes for sale in the U.S. reached an all-time low in December, dipping below 700,000 for the first time as buyers remained active throughout the holiday season, according to realtor.com’s Monthly Housing Trends Report. Due to unusually strong demand, home prices were up double digits compared to last year, however, the median […]
Chipotle Introduces Cauliflower Rice at Restaurants
Casual food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill has introduced Cilantro-Lime Cauliflower rice that is now available at U.S. and Canadian restaurants for a limited time. The rice costs an additional $2 per order with burrito or tacos. Chipotle’s latest plant-based option is made with freshly grilled, riced cauliflower, finished with hand-chopped cilantro, lime, and salt, and […]
Dremio Lands $135 Million Series D
SANTA CLARA — Dremio, a specialist in data lake transformation, announced it has raised $135 million in Series D funding, giving the company a valuation of $1 billion. This new funding round occurred just nine months after a $70 million round led by Insight Partners in March 2020. Sapphire Ventures led the round with participation […]
Oxygen Closes $17 Million Series A
SAN FRANCISCO — Digital banking platform Oxygen announced a $17 million Series A round of funding. The round included Runa Capital, S7V, 1984.vc, EFG Hermes, Rucker Park, and Inventures, in addition to individual investors, including Frank Strauss, Global CEO of the Private & Commercial Bank for Deutsche Bank AG, William Hockey, Co-Founder of Plaid, Ankur Nagpal, Founder […]
The Greatest Year Ever for Silicon Valley Stocks?
2020 may go down in history as one of the greatest years ever for stocks at companies in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. Even with a pandemic that caused the stock market to plunge in March, investors stuck at home and low interest rates on savings helped drive a surge in buying that led […]
Octave Bioscience Secures $32 Million
MENLO PARK — Octave Bioscience, the developer of a fully integrated care management platform for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurodegenerative diseases, has completed a $32 million Series B financing. Northpond Ventures led the investment round with participation by Deerfield Management and Casdin Capital. All previous investors participated in the financing round, including the Blue […]
KBS Sells District 237 Office Building for $50.5 Million
SAN JOSE — Commercial real estate investor KBS has sold a 96,502-square-foot building at District 237, an eight-building, 415,492-square-foot, Class A office/R&D complex in San Jose. The building at 350 Holger Way (photo above), owned by KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II, was sold to Thor Equities for $50.5 million. District 237, formerly known as […]