Exit in Japan

Little known Japanese language service provider Rozetta just set a somewhat odd valuation benchmark for translation startups when it acquired crowdsourcer Conyac for USD 14m.

At 5.3x 2015 earnings, the multiple paid seems low for a tech-driven crowdsourcing platform. One could argue that, in the year prior, Conyac earned just a fraction (USD 0.23m); which raises the question of why the founders have decided to sell at the exact moment the business has started to take off. Sources tell us the sale came as a complete surprise to Conyac’s staff, who were informed of the transaction along with the general press release. We shall provide an update when we hear from the founders.

Meanwhile, Lionbridge has gone silo. The world’s still largest LSP by revenues abandoned its existing organization, which was structured along functional lines, in favor of nine separate P&L fiefdoms, each run by a General Manager.“Functional orgs just don’t scale,” Lionbridge CEO Rory Cowan told analysts. Investors like what they see with the stock up 10% since the announcement.

If you think court interpretation in the UK is expensive (read: MoJ deal), take a look at California. The Golden State just announced a 10% hike in funds earmarked for court interpretation—which brings total annual spend beyond the USD-100m mark. Wow.