“Avery Dennison Corp. said it has agreed to acquire Paxar Corp. in a deal worth $1.3 billion. The boards of the two companies approved the deal and agreed that Pasadena-based Avery will pay $30.50 per share in cash, a 27 percent premium on the White Plains, N.Y. company’s March 22 closing price. Avery said Thursday that the acquisition will expand its retail information services sector, which includes Avery’s radio frequency identification label business. Avery also expects to save $90 to $100 million in synergies between the two companies and provide the office supply and label making giant with improved access to Asian markets. Paxar did about $900 million in sales in 2006. Avery did $5.6 billion.”
“Integres Global Logistics has been bought by Panther Expedited Services Inc., Seville, Ohio-based Panther announced Wednesday. Panther is the largest independent provider of shipment delivery services in North America, according to the company. Gold River-based Integres Global Logistics is an online air freight and logistics service provider. Integres employs 83, with 61 employees at its headquarters in Gold River. The company says it can deliver up to six expedited freight-shipping options online in seconds. Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.
The combined company creates the industry’s largest full-service ‘premium logistics provider,’ Andrew Clarke, president of Panther, said in a news release.”
“Microsoft is negotiating to buy Tellme Networks, a Mountain View, Calif. company that offers voice-recognition technology, and could sign something as early as this week, according to multiple news reports. A Microsoft agreement to buy Tellme could value the company at up to $800 million.”
“The San Francisco Business Times reports that Software company FrontRange Solutions Inc. will buy German software maker Enteo Software Inc. Dublin-based FrontRange didn’t say what it will pay in the deal. Enteo is based in Filderstadt, Germany. FrontRange used to be called GoldMine Software Corp. Michael McCloskey is its CEO. Stephan Glathe is CEO of Enteo.”
“Oracle Corp. said today it has signed a $3.3 billion deal to buy Hyperion Solutions Corp. in a move that underscores CEO Larry Ellison’s aggressive bid to dominate the business software industry. Hyperion is a key player in the roughly $10 billion market for business intelligence software that companies use to get detailed reports on how a business is doing and to forecast how it would perform in the near future. The company is also known for software used for managing a company’s finances. Oracle, which has bought more than two dozen companies over the past two years, made clear that buying the company was a competitive move meant to undercut a major rival, SAP of Germany.” Both companies are headquartered in the Bay area: Oracle in Redwood Shoresand Hyperion in Sunnyvale.
“Vivendi Games has purchased the largest game development studio in Latin America, the company said Tuesday. Financial terms of the deal with Wanako Games, based in Santiago, Chile, were not disclosed. Vivendi said in a release that the purchase will help its Los Angeles-based Sierra Online division to enhance its internal product development capabilities in the downloadable online games space. Sierra will keep Wanako’s developers… Los Angeles’ Vivendi Games is the interactive entertainment unit of France-based Vivendi SA.”
“Smart & Final Inc. has agreed to sell to an affiliate of Apollo Management LP for $22 a share in cash, the company said Tuesday… The Apollo affiliate has also entered a stock purchase agreement with Paris-based Casino Guichard-Perrachon, S.A. that owns about 55 percent of Smart & Final’s common stock… City of Commerce-based Smart & Final Inc. operates 254 non-membership warehouse stores for food and food-service supplies in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and northern Mexico.”
“The Blackstone Group, the private equity firm that bought Equity Office Properties Trust in the biggest leveraged buyout ever, agreed to sell 23 Southern California buildings it acquired in the purchase to Maguire Properties Inc. for about $3 billion, it was learned. Maguire, the biggest office landlord in downtown Los Angeles, will gain more than 6.8 million square feet in Orange County and downtown Los Angeles”.
“Therma-Wave Inc. said Wednesday that it was notified that the German Federal Cartel office began a second phase in its review of KLA-Tencor Corp.’s proposed $75 million acquisition of the company. Fremont-based Therma-Wave and San Jose-based KLA-Tencor both said they will cooperate with the German authorities.”
“Trimble Navigation Ltd. said Wednesday it acquired INPHO GmbH in an all-cash transaction. Sunnyvale-based Trimble did not disclose financial terms of the deal. Stuttgart, Germany-based INPHO is a privately held company that focuses on photogrammetry and digital surface modeling for aerial surveying, mapping and remote sensing applications.”
“BT has agreed to terms to acquire International Network Services Inc (INS), a global provider of IT consulting and software solutions. This professional services acquisition will increase BT’s presence in North America and will significantly enhance BT’s consulting capabilities… Based in Santa Clara, California, with offices in Europe, Asia and throughout North America, the company builds, implements and secures business technology infrastructures for its customers.”
“Caritor Inc, a $100 million California-headquartered global provider of IT services with a predominant presence in India, is acquiring US-based Keane Inc for $854 million in an all cash deal. Keane is a Boston headquartered publicly listed $900 million IT and BPO service provider. The combined entity will storm into the $1 billion league employing 14,000 employees… The new entity will have Keane as its name and the company will be taken private. The chairman of Caritor, Mani Subramanian, will be the Chairman and CEO of the new firm. Subramanian was among the key senior executives of Wipro during its growth days before leaving to start Caritor in 1993. The company was started as IT Solutions, which was then re-christened Caritor during 2004.”
“Cisco Systems Inc. has agreed to acquire Five Across Inc., the company said late Thursday. San Jose-based Cisco did not disclose terms of the deal. San Francisco-based Five Across is a vendor in the social networking marketplace. Its platform, Connect Community Builder, is designed to let companies augment their Web sites with user-generated content such as audio, video, and photo sharing, blogs, podcasts and profiles. Five Across, which was founded in 2003, has 11 employees.”
“Diablo Valley Bank agreed to be acquired by Heritage Commerce Corp. for $70 million in cash and stock. About two-thirds of the purchase will be for stock and the balance in cash. The addition of Alamo-based Diablo Valley Bank, with offices in Danville and Pleasanton, will bring San Jose-based Heritage’s (NASDAQ: HTBK) assets to $1.3 billion.”
“Polycom Inc. said Wednesday it will buy SpectraLink Corp. for $220 million in cash. Pleasanton-based Polycom sells teleconferencing and video equipment. Boulder, Colorado-based SpectraLink sells wireless telecommunications to businesses.”
First American Corp, of Santa Ana has acquired a mortgage-fraud detection company: CoreLogic Systems Inc. of Sacramento for more than 100 million dollars. First American Corp is the country’s largest provider of business information, including title insurance, specialty insurance, mortgage information and property information.
