Links 4/28: Amazon Web Services Forges Ahead; Cloudamize Secures Additional $1 Million in Financing




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Amazon Web Services Forges Ahead Like There Is No Competition (Fortune)

Cloudamize Secures Additional $1 Million in Financing to Fuel Growth Strategy (PR Web)
MissionOG Leads Funding; Jonathan Palmer Named to Board of Directors

Amazon plans to 'significantly' increase investment in video as it goes to war with Netflix (Business Insider)

Google Gets Beaten to the Punch by AT&T on Super-Fast Broadband (Bloomberg)

SpaceX Wins US Air Force Contract For GPS III Launch (Defense News)

How the Comcast-DreamWorks deal came together so fast (LA Times)


Qlik Tech Said to Draw Bids From Thoma Bravo, Bain, Permira (Bloomberg)

Amazon Seeing ‘Momentous’ Change of Guard as Public Cloud ‘Booms,’ Says JP Morgan (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)

Qlik Announces Strong First Quarter 2016 Financial Results (Qlik Technologies)


Oracle acquires Textura for $663 million; Will combine products with those of Bala Cynwyd-founded Primavera


Tom Paine



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Oracle today announced the acquisition of Deerfield, IL-based Textura for $663 million. Textura provides cloud services for the engineering and construction industry.

Textura's products will be combined with Oracle's existing Primavera project-management suite - the result of a 2008 acquisition - in the Oracle Engineering and Construction Global Business Unit, Oracle said.

Primavera, founded by Joel Koppelman, was based in Bala Cynwyd and still has a significant presence there, although I'm not sure of its scope. I've got a call into Oracle to find out more. Primavera became a primary player in the Project Portfolio Management market for large construction and engineering projects. Koppelman, a Drexel and Penn grad, was also a thought leader in the Project Portfolio Management field. I don't recall anyone offering up the exact price that Oracle paid for Primavera, but my recollection says it was at least a couple of hundred million dollars in a down market.

Koppleman stayed on briefly following the acquisition by Oracle before leaving the software business.

Textura is a bit like SAP's Ariba, but for engineering and construction projects. Textura’s cloud  processes $3.4 billion in payments for more than 6,000 projects each month, Oracle said, and more than 85,000 contractors and subcontractors are connected to the platform.

Oracle says it plans to continue to invest in the engineering and construction industry.


Comcast to acquire DreamWorks Animation


Tom Paine



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NBCUNIVERSAL ANNOUNCES DREAMWORKS ANIMATION ACQUISITION
(Comcast)

How the Comcast-DreamWorks deal came together so fast (LA Times)




-DreamWorks Animation valued at about $3.8 billion.

-"Acquisition builds on NBCUniversal’s presence in family and animation space. DreamWorks Animation to become unit of Universal Filmed Entertainment."

-Illumination Entertainment (unit of NBCUniversal) founder Chris Meledandri to "help guide the growth of the DreamWorks Animation business in the future."

-Jeffrey Katzenberg will become Chairman of DreamWorks New Media, which will be comprised of the company’s ownership interests in Awesomeness TV and NOVA.

-Agreement has been approved by the boards of directors of DreamWorks Animation and Comcast, and the controlling shareholder of DreamWorks Animation has approved the agreement by written consent.

-Transaction is expected to close by the end of 2016.


Update: WSJ reports that Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg will step down from the company if Comcast acquires it. Presumably, this gives more substantiation to the entire acquisition scenario.

Comcast is reportedly in talks to buy DreamWorks Animation, the Wall Street Journal reports.


The reported price, if a deal occurred, would be more than $3 billion, a premium over the studio's current market value of $2.35 billion.

DreamWorks, founded in 2004 as a new kind of studio, has had some major successes, but is often perceived as too small for a stand alone studio. Like a small driller, it suffers if it hits a few dry wells. Last year a series of less than successful releases forced the company to cut 500 jobs, close its studio in Northern California and make management changes.

For Comcast, the deal would expand its successful animation business, with major implications for its theme parks and international expansion.

But the LA Times cautions that there have been several prior discussions by others with DreamWorks that ended without results.

The Journal suggests a deal would make Comcast a more formidable challenger to Disney in family entertainment, bringing back memories of its failed attempt to acquire Disney in 2004. Comcast reports earnings tomorrow, but rarely comments on breaking news at that time.