A typically busy week for LA-based startups saw a heavy focus on mergers and acquisitions. With just a few weeks left in Q1, four companies had some big news to share.
Though its headquarters are in Chicago, Legacy.com's Legacy Innovation Center is located right here in Southern California. This week, Boston-based Pamplona Capital Management announced it had acquired a majority interest in the leader in the obituary tech space. The news comes on the heels of more than a decade of double-digit growth at Legacy.com, which currently boasts more than 43 million monthly visitors across the globe. Both companies plan to continue development of Legacy's Calabasas-based Innovation Center. [Press Release]
Canadian startup HootSuite made waves this week, announcing the company had acquired Venice-based Naritiv for an undisclosed amount of money. HootSuite also announced it would be expanding its operations to Los Angeles in the coming months. Founded in 2014, Naritiv was a Techstars alumnus during the Snapchat analytics startup's brief existence. Co-founders Dan Altmann, Eric Posen and much of the Naritiv team will turn their focus to developing a media company that develops original content on mobile platforms, though further details of this venture were not revealed. [HootSuite]
Thanks in large part due to the $40 million funding the startup revealed back in October, Culver City-based Edlio announced this week it had acquired Sangha, a personalized parental interaction app. The startup, a cloud-based platform that helps schools and school districts build and manage websites, plans to combine internal resources with Sangha's. The company said it intends to utilize Sangha's approach to creating communication channels to streamline their existing products. [Press Release]
Simi Valley-based security software developer Xypro announced this week it had acquired Canadian startup Merlon Software Corporation, which had previously been the leading provider of database management software for Xypro's HPE NonStop servers. The Mississauga, Toronto-based company had been in business for 20 years prior to its acquisition. [Press Release]
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