Internet technology provider Google has entered talks to acquire D2iQ, a US-based cloud software and services provider backed by corporates Microsoft, Koch and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Axios reported yesterday.
The deal is expected to value the company, which was known as Mesosphere until August 2019, higher than the $251m in funding it has so far received but lower than the $775m valuation at which it last raised money in mid-2018, according to a source close to the situation.
D2iQ offers software and expertise covering a range of areas across data and cloud applications including Kubernetes, the open-source container-orchestration system originally designed by Google.
However, the company is being affected by the coronavirus slowdown and recently laid off 34 staff members due to internal projections estimating a 40% fall in sales, Business Insider reported late last month. The deal would potentially strengthen Google’s Cloud Platform product.
The 2018 round was a $125m series D co-led by chemicals and industrial group Koch Industries’ Koch Disruptive Technologies unit and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price, with backing from HPE.
Andreessen Horowitz, Fuel Capital, Khosla Ventures, SV Angel, Qatar Investment Authority, Disruptive Technology Advisers, Two Sigma Ventures, ZWC Ventures and Triangle Peak Partners also took part in the series D round.
HPE led D2iQ’s $73.5m series C round in 2016, investing with software producer Microsoft, Triangle Peak Partners, A Capital and existing backers Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Fuel Capital. Its other backers include Kleiner Perkins, Foundation Capital and Data Collective.
