Monday, March 2, 2009

Qualcomm buys Matrix-backed Digital Fountain

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

Matrix Partners portfolio company Digital Fountain Inc. of California has sold to Qualcomm Inc. for an undisclosed amount.

Included in the deal, according to a report from PEHub, are “certain assets” and retention of Digital Fountain founder and CTO Michael Luby and other employees, who will work out of Qualcomm’s Santa Clara facility.

Digital Fountain is a maker of content delivery systems software, which allow companies to distribute online media, including video, faster and more efficiently over both private and public networks. The company competes in the content delivery space with Cambridge-based Akamai Technologies Inc. and California-based Limelight Networks Inc.

The company, founded in 1998, has raised $60 million in funding. Investors include venture firms such as Waltham-based Matrix Partners and San Francisco-based Granite Ventures, as well as a number of corporate investors, including Japan’s Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., Adobe Systems Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.

Matrix Partners, based in Boston, counts among its investments Digium Inc., OpenSpan Inc., Solidworks Corp., Unidesk Corp., VideoIQ Inc. and Virtual Iron Software Inc.