It's time to catch up on recent news from the Boston-area tech sector, including a pair of acquisitions; investments in digital health, artificial intelligence, and wastewater analytics; and scenes from this year's "Star Wars"-themed NEVY Awards. LogoMix CEO and founder Craig Bloem previously co-founded Performable, a Boston-area marketing automation startup sold to HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS) in 2011. Financial terms weren't disclosed, but a spokesperson said Hiptest's 15 employees will be joining SmartBear. Private equity firm Francisco Partners acquired a majority stake in SmartBear last year; a source told Xconomy the deal had an enterprise value of $410 million. SmartBear is currently profitable and generating more than $100 million in annual revenue, the spokesperson said.

Microsoft has acquired Semantic Machines, a "conversational AI" startup in Berkley, Calif., to further its work in building machines that can converse naturally with humans. Semantic aims to advance the state of voice-based AI, like virtual assistants Alexa, Siri, Cortana and others, from understanding and responding to commands to being able to have compete conversations. The company is led by accomplished startup entrepreneurs, a former chief speech scientist for Apple's Siri and leading AI researchers and professors from Stanford and University of California Berkley. With the acquisition, Microsoft will set up a "center of excellence" focused on pushing "forward the boundaries of what is possible in language interfaces," David Ku, corporate vice president and chief technology officer of Microsoft AI & Research, wrote in a blog post announcing the acquisition. "Combining Semantic Machines' technology with Microsoft's own AI advances, we aim to deliver powerful, natural and more productive user experiences that will take conversational computing to a new level," Ku wrote.

For California-based Infinera, 2017 was not an easy year. The manufacturer of telecom equipment saw revenue drop from $870 million in 2016 to $740 million in 2017. Gross margin went down from 45 percent to 33 percent. In the end, the company, which employs about 2,000 people across the U.S., Canada, China, India, and Sweden, reported a net loss of $195 million for the year, compared to a net loss of $24 million in 2016. To turn things around, one of the things the company is focused on is technological improvements, CEO Thomas Fallon told investors earlier this year.

A similar share of companies who are already benefiting from machine learning also expect revenue growth of more than 6 percent for the two-year period of 2018-2019, the study showed. The study was conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and written in discussion with SAP. "Making the Most of Machine Learning: 5 Lessons from Fast Learners" is based on survey results from 360 senior executives across four geographic regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. The study identifies the opportunities, value and implications for companies that look at machine learning in a holistic way. The results also reveal leading companies -- called Fast Learners -- that are already seeing substantial benefits from machine learning.

Dialpad CEO Craig Walker, left, is joining forces with TalkIQ boss Dan O'Connell. Artificial intelligence is one of Silicon Valley's favorite buzzwords. Artificial intelligence, specifically in how it can quickly analyze the human voice, is at the core of Dialpad acquiring TalkIQ in a deal announced on Wednesday. Both startups had gotten some buzz in recent months, but Dialpad, the acquirer, was far bigger, having raised $70 million and carrying a valuation of about $250 million, according to PitchBook. TalkIQ had raised about $22 million in funding.

Oracle announced today that it has acquired DataScience.com, Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. In the near term, not much will change for customers of Datascience.com But Oracle envisions combining its Cloud Infrastructure service with Datascience.com's "Every organization is now exploring data science and machine learning as a key way to proactively develop competitive advantage, but the lack of comprehensive tooling and integrated machine learning capabilities can cause these projects to fall short," Amit Zavery, vice president of Oracle's Cloud Platform, said in a statement.

Weather Analytics, a US-based provider of risk information for insurance carriers, has acquired and merged with Athenium. The new entity will operate as Athenium Analytics. Athenium software currently helps carriers assess performance of both claims and underwriting. Following the deal, the combined companies will invest $25 million to build a new decision-support software for insurers, enabled by artificial intelligence and computer-vision capabilities. These new programmes will include advanced mobile applications for crop insurance, tools to more efficiently insure small businesses, and models to assess risk in workers' comp for diverse business classifications.

WIRE)-- 8x8, Inc. (NYSE:EGHT), a leading provider of cloud phone, meeting, collaboration and contact center solutions, today announced the acquisition of MarianaIQ (MIQ), a high-growth Silicon Valley startup, as part of the strategic investments it has been making in AI and Machine Learning. MIQ brings deep learning capabilities to the newly announced X Series to transform both employee and customer experience. The MIQ team, including founders Soumyadeb Mitra and Venkat Nagaswamy, have been leaders in applying AI and deep learning to practical business problems since 2013, and join 8x8 to strengthen AI capabilities for enterprise communications. "8x8 has continuously evolved itself to provide best-in-class enterprise communications to our customers. With the acquisition of MarianaIQ, we are fundamentally transforming how customers and employees interact through one system of engagement, and how companies optimize valuable moments of customer engagement with one set of data in one system of intelligence," said Dejan Deklich, Chief Product Officer, 8x8.

The business has been lucrative for the biggest player, InterActiveCorp and its listed subsidiary, Match Group, which owns Tinder, OkCupid and Match.com. That explains why shares of IAC and Match nose-dived 20% and 25%, respectively, when Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook would enter the dating scene. IAC and Match just offered a strong retort, posting first-quarter earnings that beat analysts' expectations. IAC, which owns 22% of Match and brands including ANGI Homeservices and Vimeo, reported revenue of $995 million, topping estimates for $922 million. Match Group, its largest subsidiary, grew 36% year-over-year to $407 million, notching the highest quarterly revenue growth since it went public in November 2015.

We are in the midst of a technological revolution. The increased use of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, blockchain, and big data technologies is rapidly changing the asset management industry. A recent survey on the future of the hedge fund industry by the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) found that new "statistical and computational tools, including advanced quantitative techniques and artificial intelligence is forcing hedge fund firms to re-evaluate how they operate and invest." So how are manager selection and due diligence changing as a result of these new technologies? For insight on this question, we met with Michael Oliver Weinberg, CFA, chief investment officer of MOV37 and Protégé Partners, to discuss the evolution of the manager selection and due diligence processes. Protégé and MOV37 are specialized asset management firms that invest in smaller hedge funds and selected emerging managers. Founded in 2002, Protégé has been a key market player in supporting the growth of the hedge fund industry through seed deals and capital allocations to discretionary managers.