TECHdotMN: News about Minnesota Startups

Via News Release

“Cologix, a network neutral interconnection and colocation company, announced today, the acquisition of Minnesota’s premier network neutral interconnection and colocation provider, The Minnesota Gateway, located in the carrier hotel at 511 11th Avenue South in Minneapolis.

The acquisition adds the leading position in Minneapolis, the 16th largest metro market in the United States, to the Cologix platform. The Minnesota Gateway operates the meet-me-room in the 511 building with 70 networks presented and is universally regarded as the place to colocate and connect in the region.”

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Via News Release

“Minneapolis, MN – May 2, 2012 – Avtex, a provider of integrated, interaction solutions, today announced the acquisition of Reliant CCS, a contact center solutions provider based in Greenville, South Carolina. The acquisition expands Avtex’s already strong geographic reach by strengthening their presence in the southeast.

Reliant CCS, founded in 2007, has built a solid portfolio of customer service focused solutions leveraging the Interactive Intelligence contact center platform and had recently started to expand its offering to include Microsoft Lync based Unified Communications solutions.”

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Via News Release

“WESTMINSTER, Calif., Apr 25, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Cosmi, the 30-year value-priced consumer software pioneer, today announced the acquisition of Chaska, Minnesota-based ValuSoft, the PC value line of THQ Inc.

The combination will make the new ValuSoft+Cosmi venture the second largest U.S. Retail Publisher of PC Games in units sold and the #1 Retail Publisher in the Value Software Category by units sold. The acquisition was consummated through the creation of ValuSoft Finance LLC, a sister company to Cosmi.”

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Capella Education Company (NYSE: CPLA) has acquired Minneapolis startup Sophia Learning on undisclosed terms. Launched just 13 months ago, Sophia is a social teaching and learning platform that connects students and teachers worldwide with tutorials on a huge range of academic topics.

Developed by GoKart Labs, the Sophia community of students and teachers has grown to encompass over 170 different countries, representing over 5,000 schools and universities.  The startup had made its own purchase last year when Guaranteach was acquired. Capella plans to expand the reach through the new wholly owned subsidiary to offer nearly 30,000 academic tutorials and quizzes in areas including Algebra, Geometry, Physics, Chemistry and English.

Capella was Sophia’s original outside investor and the former employer of Sophia and GoKart Labs founder Don Smithmier.

Via News Release

“MINNEAPOLIS & REHOVOT, Israel–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Stratasys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSYS), a leading manufacturer of 3D printers and production systems for prototyping and manufacturing applications, and privately held Objet Ltd., a leading manufacturer of 3D printers for rapid prototyping, today announced that the boards of directors of both companies have unanimously approved a definitive merger agreement under which the companies would combine in an all-stock transaction with a combined equity value of approximately $1.4 billion, based upon the closing price of Stratasys’ common stock on April 13, 2012. The transaction will position the combined company as a leader within the high-growth 3D printing and direct digital manufacturing industry.”

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Via News Release

“Wayne, PA, April 11, 2012 – Boathouse Capital and Renovus Capital Partners are pleased to announce the acquisition of Atomic Learning, Inc.(“Atomic Learning”) from Granite Equity Partners. Boathouse and Renovus are private equity funds based outside of Philadelphia, PA.”

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Via News Release

“ST. PAUL, Minn. – April 10, 2012 – 3M announced today that it has acquired CodeRyte, Inc., an industry leader in clinical natural language processing (NLP) technology and computer-assisted coding solutions for healthcare outpatient providers. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

CodeRyte helps physicians and coders deliver fast, accurate and complete coding information immediately through its advanced NLP technology. Its products include CodeAssist, CodeComplete and DataScout. Since 2009, 3M has worked with CodeRyte to bring its computer-assisted coding technology to more than 60 3M clients.”

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Via News Release

“MINNEAPOLIS – April 4, 2012 – Magnet 360, a Minneapolis-based marketing and technology consultancy, today announces that it has acquired Reside, a Minneapolis-based cloud solutions firm, to establish a single entity that will
provide a comprehensive set of social business services. The new business will operate under the name Magnet 360, with a Minneapolis headquarters and an office in New York City.”

Read More… | The Q & A Backgrounder

Via News Release

“EDINA, Minn. – (April4, 2012) ReconRobotics, Inc., the world leader in micro-robot systems for defense and law enforcement, announced today that it has acquired Xollai LLC, a systems engineering firm with a broad base of intellectual property in automated guidance technology, optics-based autonomous control systems, and image processing and recognition.

Xollai was the 2011 winner of the prestigious Architect of Defense award given annually by the Minnesota-based Defense Alliance, which represents more than 85 regionally based defense industry organizations.”

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Via News Release

“MINNEAPOLIS – March 5, 2012 – PLATO Learning, a leading provider of online education solutions for kindergarten through adult learners, announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Archipelago Learning (NASDAQ: ARCL), an award-winning software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of supplemental education products.

The acquisition enhances the comprehensive portfolio of education solutions that PLATO Learning provides to administrators, educators and learners. PLATO Learning is backed by leading middle market private equity firm Thoma Bravo, LLC.”

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