Elemental Technologies acquired for a reported $300 million to $500 million.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
It appears September will not be much different after a red-hot August for Oregon companies being bought.
Elemental Technologies was acquired Thursday by Amazon for a reported $300 million to $500 million.
The deal’s scale is a milestone for Portland tech, which had long struggled to grow technology businesses. Elemental was at the forefront of a new generation of software-oriented businesses founded around the start of the Great Recession, and who thrived despite the economic upheaval.
Privately held Elemental had raised $44.1 million in investment and reported revenue of about $50 million last year. The company has more than 200 employees, most of them in downtown Portland. Elemental said it will keep its headquarters in Portland and chief executive Sam Blackman, who co-founded the company in 2006 while an engineer at Pixelworks, will continue to run the company.
(SOURCE: OregonLive.com)
CEO Sam Blackman told Malia Spencer of the Portland Business Journal that talks began in spring of 2014. He said that any move would have to be beneficial for Portland.
Looking forward, the amount of money Amazon is planning to invest in Portland over the next two years dwarfs what Elemental would have been able to do on its own, said Blackman. He sees the growth of Intel from its initial factory in Washington County in the mid-1970s to its campus of 18,500 employees today as inspiration.
“How many companies have that potential? Amazon is one of very, very few,” he said. “We will build a fantastic business on Amazon Web Services and prove this is a place to invest more dollars and invest in the talent in the city and the state.”
(SOURCE: Portland Business Journal)
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