Microsoft acquires Wand Labs

Technology giant Microsoft corp. has acquired a messaging app developer founded by an Indian as the US based software firm aims to strengthen its position in the emerging era of combining the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence.

Microsoft acquired California based Wand Labs, a startup which builds messaging technology for apps, founded in 2013. Wand Labs technology and talent would strengthen Microsoft position in the emerging era of conversational intelligence where they bring together the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence, connecting people to knowledge, information, services and other people in more relevant and natural ways.

The acquisition builds on and extends the power of the Microsoft search Engine Bing, its cloud computing platform Azure, Office 365 and Windows platform to empower developers everywhere. Wand Labs expertise around services mapping, third party developer integration and conversational interfaces makes it a great fit to join the Bing Engineering and platform team.

Microsoft to buy LinkedIn for $26.2 Billion

Microsoft Corp. agreed to buy LinkedIn Corp for $26.2 Billion in its biggest ever deal, combining the software giant fast growing cloud service business with an online network of 433 million professionals. The offer of $196 per share represents a premium of 49.5% to LinkedIn Friday closing price.

Microsoft plans to speed-up monetization of LinkedIn by growing individual and organization subscriptions as well as targeted advertising. Despite the rich premium paid by Microsoft, LinkedIn is selling for well below its peak of more than $270 per share in 2015, but a weak forecast earlier this year sent its shares tumbling and slowing online ad revenue. LinkedIn went public in 2011 at $45.

LinkedIn is the world’s largest and most valuable professional network and continues to build a strong and growing business. Over the past year, the company has launched a new version of its mobile app that has led to increased member engagement, enhanced the LinkedIn newsfeed to deliver better business insights, acquired a leading online learning platform called Lynda.com to enter a new market and rolled out a new version of its recruiter product to its enterprise customers. 

Roadrunnr acquires TinyOwl

Hyperlocal delivery start-up Roadrunnr has acquired Food Ordering firm TinyOwl Technology Pvt. Ltd and has transitioned into a food ordering and delivery platform. It has also rebranded itself is Runnr.

After its acquisition of TinyOwl, the company has decided to reposition itself as a customer centric platform and launched a full integrated app called Runnr which is now available on the iOS and Google play store. Roadrunnr and TinyOwl have common investors in Sequoia Capital and Nexus Venture Partners.

Runnr food ordering app is currently live in South Mumbai with over 150 Restaurants. There is no minimum order size and the app offers live tracking of delivery. Roadrunnr may exit the business of delivering products for e-commerce companies and focus on a few select categories such as food, groceries and merchant-to-merchant or first mile deliveries.

The food delivery and takeaway market in India was pegged at $12.8 Million in 2014, however the actual penetration level has been only 0.7%. Around 27% of the 40 Million online shoppers order food online and the takeaway market is four times the delivery market.

HDFC Ergo buys L&T General Insurance

HDFC Ergo General Insurance arm of mortgage lender HDFC has acquired L&T General Insurance for Rs 551 crore, the first such consolidation in India’s crowded general Insurance sector having 27 players. L&T General Insurance reported gross earned premium of Rs 483 crore for the last financial year which puts the deal value at 1.14 times of the GEP.

The combined size and expertise will result in improved cost efficiencies in the merged entity and benefit policy holders and other stakeholders. L&T General Insurance is a wholly owned subsidiary of infrastructure and engineering major Larsen & Toubro. The move marks an exit from the insurance business for the infrastructure behemoth. The company received license to operate general insurance in 2010 and it has not been able to break even since then.

The company is also believed to be in discussion to dilute its holding in its mutual fund business L&T Mutual Fund. L&T General Insurance is among the few companies in the sector without a foreign partner. The Insurance Laws Act of 2015 has allowed FDI up to 49 percent in insurance companies. HDFC Ergo is a joint venture between HDFC and Germany based ERGO Insurance group.

HDFC Ergo, a 51:49 joint venture between housing finance major HDFC and global insurance major ERGO International Germany, is the fourth largest private sector general insurer in India.

Jugnoo acquires SabKuchFresh

On demand auto-rickshaw aggregator Jugnoo has acquired SabKuchFresh for an undisclosed amount to strengthen its recently launched grocery delivery service ‘Fatafat’. The acquisition comes after Chandigarh based Jugnoo raised $10 Million in Series B funding from mobile payments and commerce platform Paytm, Snow Leopard and Rocketship.vc in April.

This is a step towards helping the auto drivers to supplement their livelihood through extra earnings. Jugnoo also intends to create a logistics network for the mass market of India and wants to tap the hyper-local delivery service space through best possible routes. SabKuchFresh, an online store of fruits and vegetables has a tie-up with more than 100 farmers has a strong network of B2B and B2C users.

Jugnoo was launched in November 2014 and its auto-rickshaw aggregation service is now present in 29 cities and has a user base of 120 Million. Jugnoo operates three apps, the auto-rickshaw aggregation service Jugnoo Autos, food delivery service Jugnoo meals and hyperlocal delivery service Jugnoo Fatafat. The company is looking to strengthen its businesses.

Jugnoo had earlier acquired online Taxi booking platform BookMyCab in a cash and stock deal in July last year. The company raised $5 Million in Series A funding from Snow Leopard Technology Ventures and Paytm in July last year, $5.5 Million in a series B 1 round in January this year.