Acquisitions in California in 2011

Nextag, the San Mateo-based shopping and product comparison website, acquired Thingbuzz, a Bay Area real-time social shopping platform, to integrate social media product conversations and reviews into Nextag's shopping experience. The acquisition is intended to add social shopping and real-time product discovery capabilities to Nextag's site; financial terms were not disclosed.

Blackford Capital, a Grand Rapids-based private equity firm, has acquired Key Health Medical Solutions, a Westlake Village, California-based medical-legal funding and medical debt purchaser. Blackford partnered with Convergent Capital and financing from Comerica Bank to complete the buyout and plans to grow Key Health organically and via add-ons to scale its portfolio assets.

Reply! Inc. agreed to acquire MerchantCircle for $60 million in cash and stock to combine Reply!'s marketplace with MerchantCircle's network of local merchants. The deal (expected to close in Q3 2011) will create a combined company focused on locally-targeted online marketing, with projected combined 2012 revenues of over $100 million.

Momomi Group, the U.S. arm of Japanese stainless-steel fabricator Momomi Kosan Co., Ltd., has completed the acquisition of Tru-Form Metals, Inc., a California-based architectural metal fabricator. The deal gives Momomi greater access to the U.S. market while providing Tru-Form Metals with additional resources and long-term stability; Tru-Form will continue to operate independently under its current management.

Rovi Corporation has acquired TV-tracking site SideReel (terms not disclosed) and is using the acquisition to launch AllRovi.com, a consumer-facing video and music discovery site. The move combines Rovi's search, recommendation technology and extensive media library with SideReel's TV show-tracking and streaming aggregation capabilities to broaden Rovi's consumer offerings.