Indeshaw Adenaw

ABS Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on late-stage companies, said it has committed to invest $25 million in Syncapse, a developer of software and service designed to help clients build and manage their presence on social media networks. The first $20 million already has closed, making ABS the company’s first institutional investor. Syncapse said it will use the funds to bolster sales, marketing and product development. ABS Capital’s Ralph Terkowitz and Deric Emry, both general partners, will join the company’s board of directors. Syncapse’s tools are designed to help clients, such as BlackBerry and Electronic Arts (EA), bolster their social media marketing efforts across channels like Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, YouTube, WordPress and MovableType.

Access Intelligence, a publisher of newsletters, websites and magazines focused on the energy, healthcare management, communications and aerospace markets, said on Tuesday it has acquired Red7 Media, a publisher of business magazines and producer of executive conferences and trade shows in the event and media industries. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Access Intelligence said the move establishes a new division serving professionals in the media and event management industries, to be led by Red7 founder Kerry Smith. Red7 publishes Event Marketer, EXPO, Best Events and Event Design magazines, and also operates the Event Marketing Institute, several industry conferences and numerous websites. Access Intelligence said it plans to close other acquisitions in the sector over the coming months.

VBrick Systems, a provider of online video services for businesses, announced on Tuesday that it has acquired the assets of Fliqz, a provider of on-demand video services. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 2005, Emeryville, Calif.-based Fliqz offers video hosting and search optimization services. The company has raised over $12 million in venture capital, from backers including Triangle Peak Partners and Mohr Davidow Ventures. VBrick said the deal will bring with it Fliqz’s customer base, which includes Major League Baseball, Rackspace and T-Mobile.

A day after Apple launched a new subscription plan at its App Store, Google on Wednesday unveiled One Pass, its own service that newspapers, magazines and other content providers can use to charge consumers for digital subscriptions. The key difference between Apple’s service and Google’s is that Apple will take a 30% cut of revenues from publishers, while Google says it will only take 10%. One Pass will allow publishers to offer subscriptions, metered access, freemium content or single articles from their websites or mobile apps, in addition to providing a way for publishers to offer print subscribers free or discounted access to digital content. Google is initially making the service available for publishers in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, with plans to expand in coming months. Launch partners include Media General, Popular Science and Axel Springer AG.

PeopleCube, a provider of workplace management technology, announced on Thursday it has acquired BusinessSolve, a UK-based supplier of resource scheduling software. PeopleCube said the acquisition, more than triples its market penetration in the UK and establishes PeopleCube as the largest company in the workplace management market in terms of revenue, customers, and personnel. This is PeopleCube’s acquisition in eight years and its second in the UK in five years. Terms of the acquisition deal between the two privately held firms were not disclosed.

The University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services and the Massachusetts Connector Authority announced on Thursday they have received a $35.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop an online “health care exchange,” a resource through which consumers and small business owners can shop for health insurance plans. Massachusetts is one of seven “Early Innovator” states to receive grants from HHS as the nation prepares for implementation of federal health care reform. Starting in 2014, all states will be required to set up online health care exchanges to help individuals and small employers shop for, select and enroll in private health plans that fit their individual needs at competitive prices, according to the announcement.

Startup America, a new program announced by the White House last month that aims to expand access to capital and other key resources for start-ups, on Thursday named Timothy “Scott” Case, the co-founder of Priceline.com, as its CEO. Case — no relation to Startup America Chairman Steve Case — is currently the CEO of Malaria No More, a public-private partnership he helped start in 2006 to end malaria deaths in Africa by 2015. He will remain with the organization as a vice chair, and start his new job on March 14. “I’ve been an entrepreneur my entire life and have helped build hyper growth companies that transformed the lives of employees, customers and clients.” said Scott Case. “I’ve also experienced the challenges entrepreneurs face firsthand as they seek to build great companies.” Case served as the co-founder and CTO of “name your own price” company Priceline and previously helped build a portfolio of intellectual property at the Walker Digital Invention Laboratory. He also co-founded Precision Training Software, developer of the world’s first PC-based simulated flight instructor and photo-realistic flight simulator.