Cisco Systems Inc. has acquired cloud communications platform provider Tropo Inc. Founded in 2009, Tropo offers a cloud based API platform that makes it simple to add phone and SMS applications into existing website and applications. Although smaller than its main competitor Twilio Inc., the platform is said to have over 200,000 developers and although ...

Social data company Banjo has raised $100 million Series C in a round led by SoftBank Corp. that included BlueRun Ventures. Founded in 2011 originally as an app that allowed users to view social media posts tagged to a location or a popular event, Banjo has evolved into something far, far more interesting: It now describes ...

SaaS enterprise solutions provider Atlassian Pty. Ltd. has acquired real-time chat and messaging provider Hall Inc. for an undisclosed price. Founded in 2011 originally as Companyline, Hall offers a platform that is said to help teams and companies communicate in real-time. The company offered what it described as an all-in-one unified communications app that prvided ...

Work management and collaboration platform provider Wrike has raised $15 million Series B in a round led by Scale Venture Partners (ScaleVP) that included DCM Ventures and previous investor Bain Capital Ventures. As part of the deal, ScaleVP Partner Rory O’Driscoll has joined Wrike’s Board of Directors. Founded in 2007, Wrike offers a software as a ...

When anonymous messaging app Secret shut its doors last week, one aspect of the story that stood out was that the two founders of the startup had cashed out $6 million in shares prior to its closure, with one founder, Secret Chief Executive Officer David Byttow, having used part of his share to purchase a Ferrari. ...

SunGard Data Systems Inc. is said to be preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) according to multiple reports Tuesday. Reuters reported that JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Credit Suisse has been appointed to lead the IPO, although the company is said to be open to a sale as an alternative to ...

Shares in Salesforce.com Inc. surged Tuesday after a report emerged that Microsoft Corp. might be interested in the software as a service (SaaS) CRM firm. Bloomberg claimed that “people with knowledge of the matter” say that the Redmond, Washington, based tech giant is currently evaluating a bid to buy Salesforce, after reports emerged late April that ...

Linux distribution provider CoreOS, Inc. has taken the battle for a Linux container standard in a new direction by spinning off its App Container Spec (appc) project into a separate foundation. CoreOS launched its own App Container back in 2014 in what was described by some as the beginning of “the container wars” after it ...

Cloud communications company Twilio Inc., has raised $100 million Series E on a valuation of $1.1 billion, making the company a newly born baby unicorn. Details of the investors were not available, but the round was discovered in a filing dated April 24 which authorized the sale of 8,841,730 new shares at an issue price of ...

Foursquare Inc. has undertaken a backflip worthy of an Olympic gold medal and has decided to reintroduce badges and mayorships to its Swarm app. The original Foursquare app (now represented by the Swarm app) was a geolocation check-in service that was part knowing where your friends were, but part games as well. Users earned badges ...