takeover | Business Upturn

Facebook buys out CRM start-up, Kustomer for $1 billion

Shlok Arya — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 10:28:52 +0000

On Monday, Facebook announced buying a customer relationship management start-up, Kustomer. The deal was expected for more than $1 billion.

This is for the first time that Facebook is buying a business-software company such as Kustomer. Previously, Facebook has focused on buying customer-oriented company like gif catalogue company, Giphy in May. It has also bought Spanish cloud video gaming company PlayGiga in last year’s December.

Kustomer can help Facebook to provide small businesses with a space to advertise and sell goods with features such as sales through the social network’s services. It will create a vicious circle where these businesses will spend more on Facebook advertisements. Facebook is known for earning 99 percent of its revenue through advertisement.

Kustomer was founded in 2015 in New York and since then it has raised tentatively $173.5 million, according to Crunchbase. JP Morgan was the only advisor to Kustomer in the deal.

Carlyle Group to acquire Granules India for $1 billion: Source

Shlok Arya — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 08:07:50 +0000

Granules India may find a buyer in a large private equity firm Carlyle Group. It has been active on pharma investment, three independent sources shared with CNBC-TV18.

They suggested that Carlyle is in advanced stages to acquire Granules India for $1 billion approximately. Carlyle expects to buy promoter shares which leads to an open offer to acquire the additional stakes from others.

Carlyle acquired Sequent Scientific and bought a minority stake in Piramal Pharma. Granules India has been exploring options to sell stake due to favourable valuations and succession issues. The company predominates is active in pharmaceutical ingredients and contract research and manufacturing.

Both companies have declined to comment on the matter.

Laurus Labs buys 72.55 percent stake in Richcore Life Sciences

Shlok Arya — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 18:16:49 +0000

Laurus Labs signed an agreement to acquire a 772.55 percent stake of Richcore’s shares from Eight Roads Venture and Ventureast for a value of Rs 246.7 crores.

Richcore has advanced R&D and manufacturing facilities, develops and manufacturing biotech products critical for manufacturing biological drugs. It aims to develop and grow its bioprocesses by providing contract research, development, and manufacturing services.

The current promoters of Richcore, Subramani Ramachandrappa will continue this position and will also be responsible for its management and operations. Laurus Lab will control its internal accruals and this acquisition will be revenue and PAT accretive.

CEO of Laurus Labs, Dr Satyanarayana Chava said, “Laurus will bring scale to Richcore’s operations and can become a major player in the biotech CDMO space. This will also help Laurus in becoming a leader in biocatalysts as Richcore brings significant expertise in enzyme development for pharmaceutical and other industrial applications.”

Richcore Lifesciences, CMD, Subramani Ramchandrappa said, “Richcore and Laurus Labs’ coming together marks the convergence of biotechnology and chemistry faculties. Leveraging the synergies arising from Laurus’s experience and Richcore’s innovation, we plan to build as we continue to serve our existing customers and enter new biotech segments.”