urbanSTL

Well, Arch City, you prove "Show-Me"ism is still alive and well.
How's this for validation...

Techli: Obsorb Acquired by MetaLab; First Arch Grants Successful Exit
Source: http://techli.com/guest_post/st-louis-o ... rants-Exit

Also of note:
This story states that the company recognized a total of $110M in private investments made. Previously, I had interpreted their stated investment total to include the $50K from Arch Grants, with $60K in raw VC. What this story says is that there was more venture capital investments made into this company that I'd originally thought, and therefore there will be more returns doled out to the private investors in Obsorb. To quote the Wayans brothers: Mo' money, mo' money, mo' money!

gone corporate wrote:Well, Arch City, you prove "Show-Me"ism is still alive and well.
How's this for validation...

LOL!! Yep.

However, I absolutely believe in the concept of positive-thinking too, but I have to balance it out with intuition although sometimes my intuition can be wrong.

Thanks for posting the article, but I had read it before you posted it. I love Techli. I read it at least twice a week for new stories. Still, Techli is only reporting what is on the surface.

On fund raising, $110,000 was barely enough to hire a programmer.

I still believe this is spin. Arch Grants has to spin it positively as a "graduated" firm in order to demonstrate that its money did not go to a dud. Arch Grants is taking it on the chin. Where's the product? What did Arch Grants and St. Louis gain? "A graduation" of a firm to........Canada? No products survived and the talent is gone to BC. Graduation = Spin. Perhaps Arch Grants made some people's lives a little happier - and that's okay - but it's still spin.

"Where's the beef?" So far I only have buns, lettuce, tomatoes, ketchup and pickles.

Missouri has 10 companies on the Fortune 500 list this year. Of those, 9 are in St. Louis.

Here are the St. Louis companies in the 2013 Fortune 500, with last year's ranking in parentheses:
24. Express Scripts Holding (60)
123. Emerson (120)
206. Monsanto (224)
275. Reinsurance Group of America (289)
303. Centene (453)
315. Peabody Energy (338)
373. Ameren (340)
465. Graybar Electric (451)
491. Jones Financial (516)

http://www.stltoday.com/business/column ... 200cb.html

And I heard just the opposite. That the animal food division will completely remain in STL and the ConAgra believes STL has a better position for their business structure. Who knows!

marshall wrote:We were in fact acquired for a product, and it's to be launched under MetaLab. Obsorb was the name of our first product (and the name of the corporation), which we didn't see enough traction with. After that, we started working on a 2nd product called Peak. MetaLab decided to acquire us for this new product. Peak will be launched under MetaLab when it is finished in the coming months. My team and I are leading it's development inside MetaLab.

Arch City, please get your facts right before making assumptions.

Marshall, thanks for the clarification. I would submit also that assumptions can be quite healthy and aren't always so bad until one gets the facts. Some of my assumptions, although a bit coarse, were made based on this piece from the article:

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Obsorb co-founder and CEO Marshall Haas said the company and its products would be shut down and he and Obsorb co-founder João Gradim would go to work for MetaLab in Victoria, in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

The article didn't mention anything about Peak. However, now that you have presented factual information to the contrary, I say "thanks" to you for the information and clarifications. I wish you the best in your new endeavors - always have - and my apologies to you and your partner.

marshall wrote:If anyone has additional questions about facts, you can email me at marshall@obsorb.com

Thanks for chiming in - really appreciate it.

May 29, 2013, 10:24am CDT Updated: May 29, 2013, 10:46am CDT
Answers acquires e-commerce software firm WebCollage



Answers has acquired Webcollage, a New York City-based software company that provides a platform for managing and publishing rich product information.

Webcollage, which has an R&D center in Tel Aviv, Israel, is a e-commerce software as a Service (SaaS) company that lets consumer brands and manufacturers manage product descriptions, video and interactive tours. Its clients included companies such as Dell, GE, Microsoft, Samsung and Sony.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed but reports in the Israeli media peg the price Answers paid at $37 million (Google Translate link) while Peter Kafka at AllThingsD claims it was more than $30 million but not as much as $37 million.

“Webcollage is a perfect extension to Answers’ product suite for retailers and brands,” Answers CEO David Karandish said in a statement. “Consumer manufacturers and retailers who trust Webcollage as a publishing platform can now benefit from Answers’ complementary products for product reviews, product Q&A, retailer reputation management, and branded consumer engagement.”

Answers had 2012 revenue of $150 million, close to 100 local employees and has added a string new executives in recent months.

Read More
Related Article

wabash wrote:^What's the St. Louis connection?

Answers.com is headquartered in St. Louis in the Delmar Loop (University City).

Google Streetview

Read more about it here.

^Trust me, there is likely no bigger advocate towards STL having international flights than Emerson.

And here's what's happening in your neck of the woods.......Monsanto buys a big data firm.

TECH CRUNCH: Monsanto Acquires Weather Big Data Company Climate Corporation For $1.1B
St. Louis Business Journal: Monsanto to acquire California tech company

The Climate Corporation will remain based in Silicon Valley, Hopefully, an outpost will open in St. Louis.

Good morning everyone. Today’s big acquisition, a huge agritech exit: Bio tech company Monsanto has bought Climate Corporation for approximately $1.1 billion. While the Monsanto press release says $930 million, we’re hearing from investors that the actual price is past the $1 billion mark because part of the all-cash deal is still in escrow.

This is a pretty cunning move. It comes on the same day that Monsanto — the world’s largest argibusiness company — reported a larger-than-expected, increased 4th quarter loss, of $249 million, or $0.47 per share.

justme123 wrote:

arch city wrote:And here's what's happening in your neck of the woods.......Monsanto buys a big data firm.

I replied over on the other thread.....this acquisition could be interesting to watch, for a lot of reasons.

This is absolutely great and I'm elated. However, why is it that whenever an outside company buys a St. Louis firm, it immediately gets moved to the outside location and gets gutted locally, but when a St. Louis firm buys somebody, more often than not, they're allowed to carry on where they are?

This is kind of a rhetorical question because I suspect the answer is that many of these people would rather quit than move here. The only way we will ever solve this problem is building a better urban environment and improving our image to the outside world.