Austin Weekly Deal Highlights for December 23, 2018

From: “Mason Rathe” <[email protected]>
Sent:Monday, 31 December 2018 05:35
To: [email protected]
Subject:Austin Weekly Deal Highlights 12-30-18

Austin Weekly Deal Highlights

By Mason Rathe – December 30, 2018

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Helloooo Austin! I’ll keep today’s newsletter brief for both of our sake. Momentarily interrupting your holiday week to catch you up on Austin’s latest, including Dell’s return to the public markets. Happy New Year everyone

Austin Financing Activity

• Dell Technologies officially became a public company again on Friday after a five-year hiatus from Wall Street. The company (NYSE: DELL) acquired Dell-VMWare Tracking through a $24 billion cash-and-equity reverse merger, resulting in the combined entity trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol DELL with a $35B market cap. The company was last acquired by Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners through a $24.9 billion public-to-private n 2013. Taking over an existing listed stock allowed Dell to avoid the usual IPO process and questions or pressure regarding the company’s debt. Silver Lake is retaining its 24 percent piece of Dell. 3 things to know as Dell returns to stock market
• Phunware, a mobile app management and analytics company, began publicly trading on Nasdaq on Thursday after a reverse merger with Athens, Greece-based Stellar Acquisition III. The deal values Phunware at $301M. The combined company will take on Phunware’s name and trade on Nasdaq under the ticker name “PHUN.” Phunware has raised over $100M to date.
• WGVS Holdings, an entertainment platform offering a wide range of videos, raised $6.75M of angel funding from undisclosed investors, according to Pitchbook.
• QuickStart Learning added approx. $2.8M in new equity funding. Led by CEO Ed Sattar, the Austin-based company has created an online portal for training information technology workers. The new money came from nine investors and was part of a $5.5M round reported in May that included Moneta Ventures and Sattar Ventures.

Austin M&A Activity

• Austin-based private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, has acquired San Luis Obispo, California-based MINDBODY, the developer of spa, beauty, fitness, and other booking software and services, in a deal worth $1.9B.

Austin People

• The Top Austin Tech and Startup Hires and Departures in December 2018
• Vista Equity Partners promoted three senior vice presidents, Rachel Arnold, Justin Stalder and Justin Cho, and Director of Capital Markets Kevin Sofield, into its partnership ranks

Austin News

• With Tech Expansion, Austin Is Still Weird. It’s Just More Wired Now, Too: New York Times Article
• Austin Startup Funding, Acquisitions and Venture Capital Activity in December 2018
• Austin tech raised over $1.7B in 2018. These were the largest 10 rounds
• Real Estate Roundup: Home Depot expands innovation lab downtown while builder gets new home in suburbs
• Austin startup, Fintiv, is suing Apple over a patent covering virtual wallets such as the one core to Apple Pay.

Upcoming Events

• December 12th, Startup Grind Holiday Happy Hour

LiveOak Venture Partners

Think you might be a fit for LiveOak, if I missed a deal, or have feedback, you can reach me at [email protected] If your company is recruiting for a senior level position, happy to include a shout-out.

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