Telecoms

Following on from successes, such as eLong in China, and Expedia's former CEO Dara has a storied track record in using tools to keep its global edge.

The phone-based audio archiving software provider has been acquired for an undisclosed amount, allowing Swisscom Ventures and Vodafone Ventures to exit.

Francisco Partners has purchased a 16.7% stake in Iconectiv, a subsidiary of Ericsson that has developed technology to interconnect telecom networks.

Vision Fund's $2.5bn investment in Flipkart last week, together with its huge bets on Fanatics and Roivant, could indicate where it plans to invest in the longer term.

It is, as these deals in the past week show, a remarkable time in sports and content as the change in distribution routes also affects the $40bn advertising industry.

Altaeros, the developer of an aerial broadband provision system, has raised $7.5m from SoftBank, the investor that supplied $7m for it in 2014.

The pharmaceutical company's acquisition of Novartis-backed IFM Therapeutics, consisting of $300m upfront and up to $2bn in milestone payments, is its fourth purchase of a CVC-backed company in under four years.

More value and focus should be on the investors scaling up the business rather than those coming up with the idea and helping the entrepreneur set up a business.

Nobuyuki Akimoto's departure from NTT Docomo Ventures comes as insurance firm Sompo commits up to $80m to TransLink to manage its corporate venture capital fund.

Christie Pitts has departed from Verizon Ventures, where she was a venture development manager, to be partner and chief-of-staff at seed fund Backstage Capital.

Existing investors SoftBank and Didi Chuxing invested $2bn at a $6bn post-money valuation, and Grab aims to use the money to expand its services far beyond ride hailing.