PayPal Makes Two Acquisitions and a Nebraska Firm Gets Bought Out

​Last week was a busy week for companies in the tech, media, and telecom (TMT) sector. PayPal made two acquisitions, HyperWallet and Simility, for a total of $520 million. Twitter improved its scam protection with its purchase of Smyte. Kepyr and Intelity merged to integrate their guest services platforms. Cisco is making improvements to its location intelligence services business in its buyout of July Systems. Finally, a Nebraska telecom firm, Great Plains Communications, was bought out by Grain Management, a Florida private equity firm.

• Last Tuesday, in PayPal’s first move of the week, they acquired HyperWallet Systems, a developer and operator of an online mobile payment platform, for $400 million. The Bay Area firm offers cross-border, prepaid credit card, and foreign exchange payment services. It does this by interlinking cash networks, card schemes and mobile money services with domestic ACH networks around the world. This platform allows people and small businesses to receive payments for products and services that they sell and will help PayPal expand its global reach.

• Two days later, PayPal announced the $120 million acquisition of Simility, a Silicon Valley-based provider of a machine-learning fraud prevention software. PayPal hopes to make this software available to its merchants following the close of the deal to allow them to better control the use of e-commerce fraud on their software. The deal is well timed, as the rate of e-commerce fraud in the U.S. grew more than 30% in 2017, according to Reuters.

• Twitter also made its own acquisition of a fraud prevention system on Thursday. Twitter’s target, Smyte, is a developer of a software designed to stop scams, fraudulent activity and compromised accounts from disrupting the web. The move comes as social-media sites are cracking down on fake news, spam, and bot accounts. Smyte’s software uses machine learning to analyze five billion online actions every month. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

• On Monday, it was announced that Keypr, a developer of cloud-based hotel management services, was to merge under Intelity, an operator of guest services technology. Keypr’s platform integrates the hotel experience by allowing guests to check in or out of their rooms, track service requests, or even use keyless entry into their rooms via a smartphone application. Hotel managers can use the service to improve the timeliness of service and guest satisfaction.

• July Systems, a provider of a cloud-based software platform that provides location intelligence services, was acquired by Cisco Systems on Tuesday. July’s innovative software, called Proximity MX, offers contextual location intelligence services, allowing marketers to transform how they engage with customers. The software uses machine learning to analyze customer location data to help businesses better understand how customers interact with the firm’s space. Cisco hopes to use July’s software to enhance their ability to track indoor locations and improve safety and efficiency for health care buildings and government offices.

• Nebraska-based Great Plains Communications, a telecommunications firm offering residential services, such as digital phone, cable television and Internet, was bought out by Grain Management, a Sarasota, Florida-based private equity firm. Grain will purchase Great Plains from the descendants of the original founding families for an undisclosed price. By using Grain Management’s resources, Great Plains intends to enhance its presence throughout the Midwest and expand and improve its network for customers.