Deals of the Year: Despite the year, deals closed in 2020

While there were plenty of major mergers and deals during 2020 within the business scene of Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley worth recapping, they pale in comparison to the more than 300,000 Americans who have lost their lives to COVID-19 and the economic crises caused by the pandemic that are matched only by the Great Depression.

Instead of ranking the deals like we would have in prior years, following is a list of the biggest deals in the region in the past year, whether by dollar size or by impact to their industry.

Banking

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: PNC) buys BBVA: The $11.6 billion merger will lead multiple BBVA branches across the area to rebrand.

Colorado regulators deny Elevations Credit Union’s bid to buy Cache Bank assets: If approved, it would have been the first time a credit union acquired a state chartered bank in the state.

The Paycheck Protection Program: As part of the original CARES Act and a later disbursement from Congress, banks processed more than $7.3 billion in PPP loans for Colorado businesses in 2020.

Biotech

SomaLogic Inc.: The Boulder proteomics company was the largest raiser of venture capital dollars within any industry during the year, bringing in about $214 million in cash and non-cash contributions during its Series A.

ArcherDX Inc.: The Boulder company abandoned a $100 million initial public offering to take a buyout from Invitae Corp. (NYSE: NVTA) at a deal that could be valued as high as $1.4 billion based if the company hits certain performance targets.

Biodesix Inc. (Nasdaq: BDSX): Unlike its Boulder-based cancer-testing fellow ArcherDX, Biodesix executed its IPO and raised $63 million in the area’s biggest debut for a public company. However, that fell short of the company’s maximum fundraising target of $79 million.

Cannabis

Charlotte’s Web acquires Abacus Health Products for $68 million, making the Boulder company’s deal among the largest in the cannabis industry writ large this year.

Urban-gro Inc. filed to leave the over-the-counter markets and start trading on the Nasdaq in 2021, making it one of the few cannabis-adjacent companies listed on a major exchange if approved. The Lafayette company could raise as much as $13.8 million in the IPO.

AeroGrow, the maker of household hydroponics products, was fully bought by Scotts Miracle-Grow Inc. (NYSE: SMG) for a little more than $20.08 million. Scotts already held a majority stake in AeroGrow and bought out the remainder of its shares.

Economic Development

Economic developers throughout the region had their hands full this past year trying to support businesses hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in Loveland a group of private investors took things into their own hands to buy the Rocky Mountain Center for Innovation & Technology. RMCIT LLC paid $15.5 million, about half raised locally from investors, to buy the former 811,000 square-foot Hewlett-Packard facility. Then within 30 days, the new owners moved the occupancy rate from 16% to 41%.

Energy

Oil giant Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) bought out Noble Energy Inc. in a deal that amounts to $5 billion in an all-stock transaction and rises to $8 billion when accounting for Noble’s debt. The deal was the first major acquisition in the oil industry after stay-at-home orders across the world created a demand shock that tanked prices. Noble was the second-largest energy producer in Weld County in 2019.

Speaking of oil bankruptcies, Whiting Petroleum Inc. (NYSE: WLL) managed to shed $2.4 billion of long-term debt in its bankruptcy this spring. The company was the 10th-largest oil producer in Weld County last year.

Lightning eMotors Inc. said it plans to add $270 million in cash to its books when it debuts on the New York Stock Exchange this year in a reverse IPO, positioning it as the largest clean-tech deal in the region.

Health care

Loveland’s Heska Corp. (Nasdaq: HSKA) spent $125 million to acquire two European competitors early in the year and large shares of the veterinary diagnostic equipment market in France, Germany, Spain and other major economies on the continent.

Natural and organics

Meati Inc., formerly known as Emergy, raised a $28.2 million Series A that is the largest venture capital raise for a company in the Boulder-area natural foods sector. The company is trying to replicate the success of plant-based meat substitutes such as Impossible Foods, but with whole cuts rather than ground versions of real meat.

Lucky’s Market suffered a stunning fall from grace in the months before the pandemic struck after lead investor Kroger Inc. (NYSE: KG) pulled its financial backing for the Niwot-based chain of grocery stores. After it filed for bankruptcy, founders Bo and Trish Sharon managed to purchase seven stores in Colorado, Missouri, Florida, Ohio and Michigan, while the other 25 locations were sold off to help service Kroger’s $301 million claim against the chain.

Real Estate

Apartments fetched the largest single-deal prices in Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley this year, as the 288-unit Caliber @ Flatirons sold for $90.72 million and 276-unit The Vibe apartments in Fort Collins sold for $75 million. Those sales amount to $315,000 and $271,739 per unit respectively.

Technology

Internet infrastructure provider Zayo consummated a deal to leave the New York Stock Exchange in the spring and become a privately-held company co-owned by two private-equity firms for $14.3 billion.

Broomfield-based SaaS firm Conga was acquired by competitor Apttus Inc. in a deal backed by private-equity giant Thoma Bravo. The companies never disclosed the price of the combination, but it was reportedly valued at $715 million.

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