FEBRUARY 2008: DEAL WATCH
Technology that’s all about MyWay
CORVALLIS-BASED MyStrands, a developer of social recommendation
technology, scooped up another $24 million in early December,
bringing its VC war chest to $55 million to date. Spanish bank
BBVA led the series B2 funding along with existing investor
Debaeque.
The company says it “develops technologies to better
understand people’s taste and help them discover new
things they like and didn’t know about
already.”
Or, put another way by Gabriel Aldamiz-echevarria, MyStrands
VP of communications:
“You need to understand what people like and give them
tools to control their data. The future is that everything is
going to be personalized. It’s the new age of the
Internet.”
MyStrands has developed a social recommender engine, which
provides real-time personalized recommendations of products and
services through computers, mobile phones, and other
Internet-connected devices. It takes into account that taste is
context sensitive and evolves over time. It also has developed
a scalable Personalized Discovery Platform. The company says
these two developments have created sales of $12 million during
2007.
“Now we are going to see a shift. Personalization will
come with us wherever we go, online and offline,”
predicts Aldamiz-echevarria. “The search industry has
been here for 30 years, but only Google made us realize that
search was relevant. We think the search industry will shift a
bit toward helping you not only find things but to guiding you
to things you like. People will realize more and more that they
can be personal. We are entering the age of the
guide.”
Since it was founded in 2003, the company has grown to 97
employees (35 in Corvallis). It also has offices in New York
and Barcelona, Spain.
The tech press has reported that the new capital would be used
to move beyond the current recommendation service, which is
centered on music recommendations, and expand into video,
online shopping and other media. So what are the next big
ideas?
Aldamiz-echevarria isn’t giving it up.
“We’ve got huge plans,” he says, “but
I’m not going to give you specifics.”
ROBIN DOUSSARD
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
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ANNOUNCED
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EXP. CLOSE
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BUYER / PARENT (HQ)
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SELLER (HQ) / PARENT
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PRICE (TERMS)
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Dec. 5
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ND
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CEI Acquisition (Portland)
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Christenson Electric (Portland)/Microfield Group
(Portland)
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$9.65m (cash + debt assumption)
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Dec. 5
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4Q ‘07
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Catcher Holdings (VA)
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Vivato Networks (Portland)
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$1.35m (stock for stock)
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|
Dec. 7
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4Q ‘07
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Gheen Irrigation Works (Eugene)
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OR & TX manufacturing assets/Lake (Eugene)
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ND
|
|
Dec. 7
|
1Q ‘08
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O’Brien Auto Group (WA)
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DeLon Auto Center (Salem)
|
ND
|
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Dec. 10
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ND
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Drake Gold Resources (Portland)
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Wolverine & LC2 - AG prospects (BC)
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ND
|
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Dec. 13
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4Q ‘07
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Northwest Pipe (Portland)
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S Square Tube Products (CO)
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ND (assets)
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Dec. 26
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1Q ‘08
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I-Flow (CA)
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AcryMed (Tigard)
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$25m
|
|
Dec. 27
|
4Q ‘07
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Cooper Industries (TX)
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Sure Power Industries (Tualatin)
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ND (cash)
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REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS
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ANNOUNCED
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BUYER / PARENT (HQ)
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REAL ESTATE (LOCATION) / SELLER (HQ)
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PRICE
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Dec. 5
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Jennipher L. Grudzien; Charles M. McGrath
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office building (Bend)/ Daniel and Tambry Broise
Joint Trust
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$1.4m
|
|
Dec. 7
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Washington Real Estate Holdings (WA)
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office building (Portland)/ Port of Portland
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$29.2m
|
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Dec. 7
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Balaclava Holdings/ Belkorp (BC)
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apartment complexes (Portland)/ Essex Property Trust
(CA)
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$97.5m
|
|
Dec. 12
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Port of Vancouver (WA)
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land (WA)/ Alcoa Aluminum and Evergreen Aluminum
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$49m
|
|
Dec. 12
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Gee-Aspora II (CA)
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office properties (Portland)/ Terrell Group
Management (Portland)
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$13.3m
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Dec. 12
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Loren Ness (WA)
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Tioga Hotel & Koski Building (Coos Bay)/ Estate
of Merlin Wisby
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$2.63m
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Dec. 13
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Triple Net Properties (CA)
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5 office buildings (Beaverton)/ NNN 2003 Value Fund
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$5.4b
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Dec. 17
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undisclosed buyer
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141 homes (Portland)/ Buena Vista Custom Homes
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$65m
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Dec. 19
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Kailash Ecovillage
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Cabana Apartments (Portland)/ Jack Barry Zwahlen
Family Trust
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$1.7m
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|
Dec. 20
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Port of Portland (Portland)
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700-acre industrial site (Portland)/ Reynolds Metals
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$17.25m
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Dec. 21
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Ashforth Pacific (Portland)
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Pacwest Center (Portland)/ Mitsubishi Estate (Japan)
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$161.5m
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Dec. 27
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private investment group
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warehouse (CO)/Nautilus (WA)
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$6.3m
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Dec. 29
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Saltzman Properties
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apartment complex (Bend)/ PTLA Corp
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$14.25m
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CAPITAL RAISING
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ANNOUNCED
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COMPANY (HQ) / LEADERSHIP
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INVESTOR (HQ)
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PRICE (TERMS)
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Dec. 4
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MyStrands (Corvallis) / Francisco J. Martin, CEO
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BBVA; Debaeque (Spain)
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$24m (series B-2)
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Dec. 12
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Provenance Hotels (Portland) / Gordon Sondland,
President
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undisclosed bank
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$24m (mortgage financing)
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Dec. 14
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Elemental Technologies (Portland) / Sam Blackma, CEO
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Oregon Angel Fund; Bend Venture Conference; Seattle
Alliance of Angels (OR & WA)
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$1.05m (seed round)
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Dec. 19
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AVI BioPharma (Portland) / K. Michael Forrest, CEO
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institutional investors
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$20.3m (common stock + warrants)
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List researched by Mark
Druskoff
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Have an opinion? E-mail feedback@oregonbusiness.com
