Audio Analytic
Cambridge start-up is bought by Facebook owner as Zuckerberg pushes deeper into the metaverse.
Vantage Power
Allison Transmission acquires Vantage Power and AxleTech’s electric vehicle systems division
INDIANAPOLIS, April, 2019 – Allison Transmission Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ALSN), the largest global manufacturer of medium- and heavy-duty fully automatic transmissions, announced today that it has purchased Vantage Power and AxleTech’s electric vehicle (EV) systems division.
Allison Transmission has a more than 103-year history of leading technological advancements: from James Allison owning the winning racecar of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race in 1915 to building every transmission that is in the United States Army’s Abrams Battle Tank. Allison is building upon the legacy of those and other advancements with an electrification strategy that leverages and extends current electric hybrid technologies, develops new electrified propulsion solutions, and expands system and integration level capabilities in alternative propulsion. Both of these acquisitions align with Allison’s leading innovator position in propulsion technology, and will complement its existing capabilities to advance electrification adoption in commercial vehicles.
Vantage Power is an award-winning London-based technology company specializing in developing electrified propulsion and connected vehicle technologies for medium- and heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers. With particular focus on battery technology development, vehicle integration and control systems, as well as vehicle connectivity and telemetry, Vantage Power technologies have been deployed in a wide range of applications including complete electric hybrid repower systems for buses to grid energy storage.
“Vantage Power’s entrepreneurial spirit and technological advancements complement our strategic priorities to meet and exceed our customers’ demands,” said David S. Graziosi, President and CEO of Allison Transmission. “Through this and other growth initiatives, we will continue to build upon our conventional and electric hybrid products today while differentiating ourselves in the electrification and fuel cell markets.”
AxleTech is a leading technology company that designs, engineers, manufactures, sells and services axles and integrated electrified axle solutions for on- and off-highway heavy-duty commercial vehicles. With industrial roots established in 1919, the company’s nearly 800 worldwide employees drive the company to develop advanced powertrain systems, axles, components and aftermarket parts for global customers. The EV systems division is located at AxleTech’s headquarters in Troy, Michigan.
“AxleTech’s highly integrated solutions in the EV space and their presence in Allison’s end markets complement our position as a leading propulsion solutions provider,” said Graziosi. “The talented individuals and products within AxleTech’s EV systems division and their capabilities will combine well with our current products expertise to create and provide unmatched propulsion solutions.”
About Vantage Power
Vantage Power is an award-winning London-based technology company specializing in developing electrified and connected technologies for heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers and tier 1 suppliers. With a particular focus on battery packs, control systems, next generation telemetry and system design and integration expertise, Vantage Power technology has been deployed in a wide range of applications from hybrid repower systems for buses through to grid energy storage systems. For more information about Vantage Power, please visit vantage-power.com
About AxleTech
AxleTech is a leading technology company that engineers, designs, manufactures, sells and services powertrain solutions for on-and off-highway heavy-duty commercial vehicles. With industrial roots established in 1919, the company’s nearly 800 worldwide employees drive the company to develop advanced powertrain systems, axles, brakes, components and aftermarket parts for global customers. Headquartered in Troy, Michigan, the company has locations in Oshkosh, Wisconsin; Chicago; Saint-Étienne, France; Osasco, Brazil; Pune, India; and Shanghai, China. For more information about AxleTech, please visit axletech.com
About Allison Transmission
Allison Transmission (NYSE: ALSN) is the world's largest manufacturer of fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles. Allison transmissions are used in a variety of applications including refuse, construction, fire, distribution, bus, motorhomes, defense and energy. Founded in 1915, the company is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA and employs approximately 2,900 people worldwide. With a market presence in more than 80 countries, Allison has regional headquarters in the Netherlands, China and Brazil with manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Hungary and India. Allison also has approximately 1,400 independent distributor and dealer locations worldwide. For more information, visit allisontransmission.com.
Contacts
Raymond Posadas
Investor Relations
ir@allisontransmission.com
(317) 242-3078
Claire Gregory
Director of Communications and Media Relations
Claire.Gregory@allisontransmission.com
(317) 695-9124
Grapeshot
California tech giant Oracle has splashed undisclosed millions on a second Cambridge company, snapping up Grapeshot in a deal that brings a windfall to a host of investors in the UK technology cluster.
California tech giant Oracle has splashed undisclosed millions on a second Cambridge company, snapping up Grapeshot in a deal that brings a windfall to a host of investors in the UK technology cluster.
Not least among them is IQ Capital whose two funds own around 31.5 per cent of Grapeshot’s shareholding. IQ merely announced the successful exit and said it would go into more detail later.
It is also boom time for Grapeshot co-founder and CEO John Snyder who is understood to be the second largest shareholder.
One investor told Business Weekly that while the purchase price was being kept under wraps, in terms of cash coming back into Cambridge for re-investment it was very good news.
It is seven years to the month since Oracle, headquartered in Redwood City but with a major presence at Cambridge Science Park, swooped for another tech company in the cluster – Datanomic. It declined to name the price in that deal as well.
John Snyder has not yet responded to a Business Weekly request for comment and Oracle are keeping details to the minimum, announcing merely that it had signed an agreement to acquire Grapeshot, which provides brand safety and pre-bid contextual solutions to over 5,000 of the world's leading marketers.
Every month, over 38 billion programmatic ad impressions are enhanced using Grapeshot's Contextual Intelligence Platform in dozens of languages and this number has grown well over 100 per cent year over year.
Oracle did add that the Grapeshot technology “will complement Oracle Data Cloud’s custom audience ability to improve marketing outcomes for our partners worldwide by adding the important dimension of context to Oracle Data Cloud's expertise in audiences and measurement.”
The Oracle acquisition is a fabulous outcome for John Snyder, until recently a judge in the Business Weekly Awards.
Snyder has built Grapeshot into a global leader in contextual intelligence with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, New York, London, Cambridge, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sydney.
He has spent his whole career in the field of information retrieval and keyword technology, with a successful exit of the Muscat information search business in 1997 and a series of investments in hi-tech startups.
He holds a BA Honours degree from the University of Cambridge, where he remains a Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Judge Business School.
Lintbells
The PwC UK Retail, Consumer and Leisure Corporate Finance team is pleased to announce the completion of Project Mussel, the sale of a minority equity stake in Lintbells Limited ("Lintbells") to Inflexion Private Equity ("Inflexion").
Lintbells was established in 2006 by John Howie and John Davies and has rapidly grown into the UK’s leading nutritional supplements for pets business by targeting a growing market of pet owners with innovative products that have scientific validation and deliver visible health benefits.
The pets sector is an area of significant growth and investment due to its large addressable market, resilient consumer spending patterns and continuation of the trend of “humanisation of pets”.
PwC acted as lead financial advisor to Lintbells and this transaction follows on a number of successful deals led by PwC in the UK pet sector, including the sale of MPM Petfood to ECI Partners and Armitage Pet Care to Rutland Partners.
The PwC team was led by John Lane, Amit Aggarwal and Oliver Connolly, with oversight and guidance provided by Neil Sutton. Olivia Lonsdale and Charlotte Astleford provided support and deal management assistance.
We are excited to partner with Inflexion as we look to accelerate the expansion of Lintbells in multiple areas. I would like to also thank PwC for their support and hard work on achieving this important milestone on our journey. Throughout the process, PwC’s team consistently delivered sound advice and demonstrated their knowledge of the sector. It was clear that they really understood our business and growth objectives. Finally, not only were they focused on ensuring that we found the right partner, they were also fun to work with.
John Howie CEO of Lintbells
Monica Healthcare
Monica Healthcare becomes part of GE Healthcare
Monitoring expectant mothers and their babies before and during childbirth is a vital and at times a complicated task. GE Healthcare is investing in innovations to make it easier. Today, GE Healthcare announced that it is expanding its Maternal-Infant Care business with the acquisition of Monica Healthcare, a monitoring technology company based in the United Kingdom. This acquisition (price not disclosed) enhances GE Healthcare’s mobile and digital offerings by providing clinicians and patients around the world with more innovative solutions for labor, delivery, and home care.
Monica Healthcare is a 12-year-old private company dedicated to improving the birth experience and enhancing obstetric care through wearable wireless fetal monitoring devices. Monica Healthcare’s advanced fetal monitors already empower midwives, labor and delivery nurses, and expectant women at approximately 1,000 sites across Europe, Asia and North America – with more than 100,000 patients impacted just last year.
“At GE Healthcare, we are committed to improving the health care experience across care areas, including childbirth,” says Tammy Noll, General Manager of GE Healthcare’s Maternal-Infant Care division. “Through this acquisition, we will combine the incredible expertise and mobile-digital innovation from the Monica team with GE Healthcare’s longstanding industry leadership and customer focus – all with the goal of bettering maternal and infant care for patients worldwide.”
Since 2015, GE Healthcare has been Monica’s North American distribution partner for the Novii™ Wireless Patch System – a singlepatient use patch that effectively monitors maternal heart rate, fetal heart rate, and uterine activity, even on many of the most difficult to monitor patients. The Novii patch communicates through Bluetooth wirelessly to the fetal monitor, providing patients with greater mobility in labor. To learn more about the Novii patch, watch the video here.
“Joining GE Healthcare provides a fantastic opportunity to bring together Monica’s digital offerings with GE Healthcare’s global infrastructure to provide even stronger capabilities and solutions to customers around the world,” said Carl Barratt, CEO of Monica Healthcare.
GE Healthcare Maternal Infant Care offers neuro-developmental and family-centered solutions across maternal/fetal monitors, infant warmers, infant resuscitation systems, phototherapy, incubators and combination beds – helping to send moms and babies home healthy. GE Healthcare is also the global industry leader for prenatal ultrasound, with more than 230 million expectant mothers using GE Healthcare ultrasound every year.
Oval Medical Technologies
HealthTech firm Oval Medical Technologies has been acquired by global pharmaceutical device manufacturer SMC Ltd.
Founded in Cambridge in 2009, Oval is a medical technology company that designs and produces auto-injectors to enhance medical safety and help those who have a fear of needles.
Its acquisition by US-based SMC comes two years after it raised £1.1m via the SyndicateRoom platform in 2014.
This is the first exit of a Syndicate Room-funded company, and will see 40 SyndicateRoom investors enjoy a return.
Barbara Lead, CEO at Oval Medical Technologies, said: “As part of SMC, Oval will be well placed to provide customers with devices that meet their needs and those of their patients.
“The combination of Oval’s design and development capability and SMC’s capabilities in global manufacturing, will ensure a high level of reliability in product performance and a fast route to market,” she added.
One of Oval’s products is an Epinephrine auto-injector – a small device for treating patients for anaphylactic shock. Another is the Sumatriptan, which is being developed to treat patients with migraines and cluster headaches.
Chetan Patel, president and founder at SMC Ltd, said he was “excited” about his firm’s acquisition of Oval Medical Technologies.
“In addition to autoinjectors, the Oval team brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the design, development and manufacturing of inhalation products,” he added.
Cambridge CMOS Sensors
ams acquires CCMOSS to become world leader in gas and infrared sensing
Completing ams’ sensor portfolio, transaction creates technology leader in CMOS-based gas sensing and infrared sensing for automotive, industrial, medical, and consumer applications
Premstaetten, Austria (16 June 2016) - ams (SIX: AMS), a leading worldwide manufacturer of high performance sensor and analog solutions, has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares in Cambridge CMOS Sensors Ltd (CCMOSS), the technology leader in micro hotplate structures for gas sensing and infrared applications, in an all-cash transaction.
CCMOSS’ micro hotplates are MEMS structures that are used in gas sensors for volume applications in the automotive, industrial, medical, and consumer markets. The company’s deep expertise in this area is highly synergetic with ams’ technology leadership in MOX gas sensing materials to detect gases like CO, NOx, and VOCs. CCMOSS’ manufactures these MEMS structures on CMOS wafers allowing the creation of complete monolithically integrated CMOS sensor ICs. This makes CCMOSS’ solutions highly cost-efficient, besides offering other significant advantages over competing technologies like low power consumption, small footprint and the ability to integrate additional sensor modalities like relative humidity, temperature, and pressure.
In addition, CCMOSS commands an industry-leading portfolio of IR technology comprising high performance IR radiation sources and detectors for sensor applications. Highly complementary to ams’ spectral sensing strategy for next generation optical sensor technologies, CCMOSS’ IR sensing is based on the same monolithic CMOS structures as for gas sensing, enabling miniaturized implementations and efficient integration with other on-chip functions. Applications include CO2 gas sensing and human presence detection and will extend into spectroscopic identification of organic materials.
Founded in 2008 as a spin-off from Cambridge University, with the start of technology development dating back to 1994 in collaboration with the University of Warwick, CCMOSS has built an outstanding expertise in micro hotplate design and manufacturing for gas and infrared sensing over more than 20 years. CCMOSS’ corporate headquarters are located in Cambridge, UK, and the company has 33 employees. The Cambridge region has become a center of innovation for sensor technologies globally so ams values the ability to gain direct access to this attractive ecosystem going forward. CCMOSS currently has product revenues on a small scale but is not yet profitable.
The parties to the transaction, which is expected to close within a week given that no regulatory approvals are needed, have agreed to keep the consideration confidential. ams plans to fully integrate CCMOSS’ activities into its existing environmental sensor business, which has development locations in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and Reutlingen, Germany.
Alexander Everke, CEO of ams, commented on the transaction, “The addition of CCMOSS makes ams the clear leader in gas and infrared sensor technology worldwide, and completes ams’ portfolio of products and technologies for the environmental sensor market. This highly strategic acquisition is therefore another key step in making ams the world’s leading provider of sensor solutions for consumer, automotive, industrial, and medical applications.”
Alert Me
British Gas have acquired AlertMe to create the UK’s leading connected homes provider. This exciting move brings together British Gas’ ability to innovate for customers with AlertMe’s next generation Internet of Things technology and expertise. The acquisition has created a highly experienced and fully integrated team which will now accelerate the development of new connected home services in the UK and worldwide.
Neul
Neul sold to Huawei for $25 million
Chinese technology heavyweight Huawei has bought Cambridge UK based IoT business Neul for $25 million.
Huawei recently told Business Secretary Vince Cable that it was investing £1.3 billion in the UK but at the time declined to say whether this would be at its current Ipswich facility or in expansion into Cambridge.
The Neul deal would appear to have answered part of the question.
CEO Stan Boland was brought in to maximise value for VC investors, one of whom told me they thought it was a good deal but another source close to the business said they thought Neul been sold too cheaply given its potential.
Neul positioned itself at the heart of the whole Internet of Things acceleration process and this has undoubtedly been the attraction for Huawei, which is a world-leading ICT provider.
I understand that the Cambridge company was seeking a major strategic investor – without success – and one source told me the alternative to not raising funds could even have been going into administration. The urgency of the situation seems to have accelerated the Huawei deal.
Boland was not available to comment.
Another undercurrent has been a difference between co-founder James Collier and Boland over the direction the company should take. It began targeting deals involving the new TV white space spectrum but has morphed into a pure IoT/smart city play.
Collier is said to have been unavailable even to close contacts while the Huawei sale has been unfolding. There are also reports locally that Collier – also co-founder of CSR – has been seeking an exit to explore fresh opportunities.Update: Huawei investing tens of millions to build Cambridge IoT powerhouse
