VentureBeat

Taylor Nelson Sofres, the world’s third largest market research company according to one measure, has acquired Compete, a company that tries to measure the traffic and types of people that visit certain web sites, for $75m (£37.8m).

TNS, based in London, apparently made the statement as it announced revenue growth today.

What’s eye-opening is the relatively low purchase price, considering how important traffic analysis technology has become these days and because venture capitalists had pumped $43 million into the company over the past eight years. For money to be tied up that long, investors typically expect to get a better return. Charles River Ventures, Idealab, Split Rock Partners and William Blair Capital Partners were backers of the company. However, if Compete meets certain revenue targets, it could bring up to an additional $75 million between 2008 and 2010, according to the deal.

Compete analyzes the internet clickstream data of almost two million people, weighted to match the US online population. That information is used to measure how visitors click on a company’s Web site, and for paying customers, Compete would also measure more details about how people engaged with the client’s web site.

However, Compete has never really been a reliable source of information, and has been overshadowed by stronger players such as Comscore, or newcomers like Quantcast, which have placed a tracker directly on Web sites to measure traffic — something that Compete always shied away from, inexplicably citing the fact that Netratings hold the patent for such technology (it hasn’t slowed down Quantcast).

Compete lost $4.5 million on about $15 million in revenue last year.

TNS said it will integrate Compete’s information into its own offering, beginning in the U.S., where TNS has its own research panel of of more than one million people.

Update: Tech Confidential says the sales price isn’t bad, based on a number of comparable deals.

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• CyberHeart pumps in $9M for cardiac-arrhythmia treatment (release)
• Incubator ForSight launches third device company with $6M funding (release)
• Primera Biosystems raises $21M for molecular diagnostics (release)
• Biogen Idec, PDL BioPharma take stakes in Ophthotech (release)
• Technitrol acquires medical-device component maker Sonion for $385M (release)
• DLJ Merchant Banking takes control of dentristy-product maker Den-Mat (release)
• SV Life Sciences appoints Hamish Cameron as venture partner (release)

CyberHeart pumps in $9M for cardiac-arrhythmia treatment – CyberHeart, a Menlo Park, Calif., startup developing a non-invasive treatment for heart arrhythmias, raised $9 million in a first funding round. Investors included Emergent Medical Ventures, United Investments, Venture Select and Mitsubishi.

Arrythmias, which are irregular heartbeats often caused by a malfunction in the heart’s electrical-signaling system, are often treated via a catheter-based procedure that burns away tissue where the unusual rhythms originate. CyberHeart is working on hardware and software modifications for the CyberKnife system, a robotic radiosurgery device produced by Accuray, in order to extend its use in heart applications. In other words, CyberHeart’s adaptations will, if all goes well, allow doctors to perform the same sort of procedure non-invasively with the CyberKnife, an external radiation device that is supposed to deliver high-energy beams with submillimeter accuracy.

Incubator ForSight launches third device company with $6M funding – ForSight Labs, a medical-device incubator in Menlo Park, Calif., founded its third company, ForSight VISION3 and announced that it had raised $6 million in a first funding round. Investors included Morgenthaler Ventures, Split Rock Partners and Versant Ventures — all of whom, coincidentally, back ForSight as well.

ForSight hasn’t disclosed anything about the technology or approach that the new company will take, and in fact often remains secretive about its incubated companies for quite some time. In fact, the incubator sold its second company to QLT for $42 million plus milestone payments last October — a time the startup was known only as ForSight NewCo II.

Primera Biosystems raises $21M for molecular diagnostics – Mansfield, Mass.-based Primera Biosystems, a biotech developing molecular diagnostics, raised $21 million in a second funding round. Investors included Abingworth, Interwest Partners, Malaysian Technology Development Corporation, MPM Capital, Burrill & Co. and the Invus Group.

Primera’s gene-analysis system, which it calls STAR (short for “scalable transcription analysis routine”), is designed to read the activity of up to 100 genes at once with much greater sensitivity and precision than existing microarray technologies permit. The company plans to use the funding to complete development of its system, design future diagnostic tests in cancer and infectious disease, and produce test kits for clinical research.

Evalve, a Menlo Park, Calif., developer of minimally invasive heart-valve repair implants, raised $60 million in a fourth funding round.

Evalve’s device is designed to replace risky open-heart surgery for patients whose mitral valve, which regulates blood flow between the left two chambers of the heart, fails to close properly. The device allows interventional cardiologists to thread an implant clip through the femoral artery of the leg to the heart, where it can pin together two “leaflets” on the mitral valve.

The images at left show the mitral valve prior to the procedure and following installation of the company’s MitraClip. (Obviously, these represent a somewhat idealized view of how this is all supposed to work.) Evalve also has a video illustrating the technique at its Web site here.

The company said the funding will lay the groundwork for commercial launch of its MitraClip device in Europe and to complete late-stage human tests of the device in the U.S. Evalve is still enrolling patients in that study, which will compare MitraClip to standard open-heart surgery. and expects to complete enrollment next year. Patients will be followed for 24 months following the procedure.

Investors included BBT Fund, Delphi Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Split Rock Partners and Abbott Laboratories. Evalve isn’t alone in this market, although it appears to be ahead of one rival we’ve previously covered, Cardiosolutions (see here).

Cardiosolutions aims to restore mitral-valve function with a paddle-type implant that pushes the valve’s leaflets closed during ventricular contraction. For additional — albeit somewhat dense — explanation, plus its own video of the process, see the company’s site here.

(Update: Turns out, Care.com, a very similarly named site, has just raised $2M. More below.)

Caring.com, a Silicon Valley web site aimed to help people care for aging parents, plans to launch its Web site Friday, and has raised $6 million in a first round of venture funding.

Split Rock Partners led the round. DCM, which previously backed the Palo Alto, Calif. company with $750,000 in seed capital, also participated according to VentureWire (subscription required).

Founder Andy Cohen conceived the idea last year after he had trouble finding information about how to care for his mother, who was sick with lung cancer.

Since that time, several health-related start-ups have launched or raised funding, including DailyStrength (see coverage ) and PatientsLikeMe, many of them including offering information about diseases and the symptoms people are feeling — and ways for people and relatives to share information and experiences about these diseases. Separately, regulatory filings show that Care.com (note the name is slightly different from Carling.com), a company that helps you search for caregivers, has just raised $2 million in another round led by Matrix Partners (adding to $3.5M already raised; see our coverage).

Caring.com, however, will offer specific information for the caretakers of people suffering from diseases — including not only information about diseases but practical information about care housing and legal tips (how to draw up a will) and sharing features.

“This will allow us to make sure we have the best content available to be able to market the site,” Cohen said of the Series A round. “Everybody needs this, but we want to make sure they know about it when they need it.”

(UPDATED at 7:40pm PT: See below.)

Featured companies: Adnexus Therapeutics, BioForm Medical, Confirma, Cardiovascular Systems, Mirabilis Medica, Neuromed Pharmaceuticals, PlaCor, Seno Medical Instruments, Vibrynt

BioForm Medical files $115M IPO for “medical aesthetics” — BioForm Medical, a San Mateo, Calif., developer of wrinkle fillers and other products for cosmetic procedures, filed to raise $115 million in an initial offering. BioForm’s major customers are plastic surgeons and dermatologists.

BioForm, however, takes pains to describe itself differently on its Web site. There, BioForm says it is “a privately-held medical device company developing and commercializing injectable implant products for soft and hard tissue augmentation.” It goes on to note that its main product, Radiesse, is marketed for “radiographic tissue marking, vocal cord insufficiency, craniofacial augmentation, and outside of the U.S for facial soft tissue augmentation.”

That all sounds pretty serious — nothing like expensive wrinkle treatments, right? But in its IPO filing, where stretching the truth could get it in trouble with the SEC, BioForm describes itself straightforwardly as “a medical aesthetics company focused on developing and commercializing products that are used by physicians to enhance a patient’s appearance.” As for Radiesse, it notes that “[w]e obtained FDA pre-market approval, or PMA, for our key commercial application of Radiesse, the correction of moderate to severe facial wrinkles and folds in December 2006.”

BioForm is not profitable, and its losses have widened over the past three years, although sales have increased over that period. The company accumulated a net loss of $35.2 million from 2005 to 2007 (its fiscal year ends June 30).

Stealthy Vibrynt raises $16M for medical devices — Vibrynt, a Mountain View, Calif., medical-device maker that has just spun out of the ExploraMed device incubator, raised $16 million in a first funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required), citing regulatory filings. Investors included New Enterprise Associates and Delphi Ventures; NEA backs ExploraMed.

The financing closed in April. Vibrynt doesn’t have a Web site and hasn’t yet disclosed details about its technology.

Cardiovascular Systems raises $12.5M against peripheral artery disease — Cardiovascular Systems, a St. Paul, Minn., device maker focused on the removal of arterial plaque, raised $12.5 million in a still-open extension of its first funding round, VentureWire reports. The funding reportedly came from “some” of the company’s original investors, a group that includes Easton Capital Group, Maverick Capital, Mitsui & Co. Venture Partners and ITX Institutional Holdings.

Cardiovascular Systems has developed a device that essentially “sands” artery-blocking deposits known as plaque from the inside surfaces of blood vessels. The catheter-based device uses a rotating, diamond-coated head to scrub plaque from arteries. The company told VentureWire it is anticipating FDA clearance of the device within the next few weeks.

Mirabilis Medica gets $10.5M for fibroid treatment — Seattle’s Mirabilis Medica, a medical-device company focused on women’s health, raised $10.5 million in an extension to its first funding round. Investors included Arboretum Ventures, Split Rock Partners, Dow Venture Capital, and an individual investor.

Mirabilis Medica uses high-intensity, focused ultrasound to destroy tumors such as uterine fibroids by denaturing cellular proteins and causing cells to collapse into piles of goo. The company says the device may ultimately useful in other applications as well, but hasn’t yet specified them.

Confirma gets $2 million for medical-image analysis — Bellevue, Wash.-based Confirma, a maker of computer systems that automate the interpretation of medical images, raised $2 million in bridge financing on its way to a potential $15 million third round, VentureWire reports. Fluke Venture Partners provided the funding. Confirma’s first product analyzes MRI breast scans, and the company plans to launch a similar system for prostate MRIs later this year.

PlaCor receives $3.5M for blood diagnostics — Plymouth, Minn.-based PlaCor, which just named a new CEO yesterday (see the last item in our briefing here), has also raised $3.5 million in a second funding round, VentureWire reports. Funding was provided by “accredited angel investors,” the company told VentureWire. PlaCor develops diagnostic tests of platelet reactivity, which can help physicians monitor patient response to blood-thinning drugs that help prevent or break up clots.

Neuromed raises $53M, some from mystery investors – Vancouver’s Neuromed Pharmaceuticals, battered earlier this month after it discontinued work on a new pain drug in collaboration with Merck (see our coverage in the third item of this daily briefing), raised $53.3 million in a fifth funding round. The company didn’t disclose the lead investors or new investors in the round, acknowledging only “significant participation” from existing investors including MPM Capital, James Richardson & Sons, Neuro Discovery LP, GrowthWorks Capital (Working Opportunity Fund), BDC Venture Capital, CMDF, and the Royal Bank of Canada.

Neuromed, whose partnership with Merck continues, also recently licensed another experimental pain drug from a J&J subsidiary. BioWorld has more here.

Adnexus files for $86M IPO to develop new targeted biologics — Adnexus Therapeutics, a Waltham, Mass., biotech working on a new class of drugs it calls “Adnectins,” filed to raise as much as $86.25 million in an IPO. The company’s Adnectin drug candidates are engineered proteins derived from human fibronectin, a natural protein that plays a role in wound healing and binding cell receptor proteins.

Adnexus has seven drug candidates in development, only one of which has proceeded to human testing. The company intends to target cancer and other conditions such as autoimmune and neurodegenerative disease. (See our earlier coverage of the company in the fourth item of this daily briefing.)

Seno receives $2M for early cancer detection — Seno Medical Instruments, a San Antonio, Tex., device maker focused on early cancer detection, received $2 million from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. Seno is developing “opto-acoustic” technology designed to indicate the presence of new blood vessels that feed tumors.

UPDATE (10:15am PT): Added items on Mirabilis Medica, Confirm and PlaCor.

UPDATE REDUX (7:40pm PT): Added items on Neuromed, Adnexus and Seno.