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Dropbox, a service many people use to store files, announced this week that it will acquire Clementine, a company that provides communication services to enterprises. Many of Clemetine's existing services will be transitioned into Dropbox applications.

In addition to its individual usership, TechCrunch reports that 100,000 businesses have built Dropbox into their operations. As such purchasing a communications solutions provider improves the company's ability to accommodate a variety of business needs like conference calls and chat services.

As a meme, "there's an app for that" has come to fruition. Today, professionals and consumers rely on apps for virtually every area of their real and digital lives. As such, the platforms that power apps require management systems that are responsive, diagnostic and otherwise facilitate the implementation of many applications at one time.

One reason why companies merge and/or acquire smaller entities is to improve leadership on both sides. If your startup is on the verge of capitalizing through ecommerce or other sales, it's possible that current leadership doesn't have the expertise to bridge the transition. L

This week, it was announced that Arcadia Healthcare Solutions has acquired Sage Technologies for $28 million. Arcadia is a Burlington, Massachusetts-based analysis firm and Sage Technologies is headquartered in Illinois.

Uber, the popular ride-sharing app firm, has purchased digital-navigation technology from Microsoft and acquired 100 employees from the company. In a marketplace dominated by strong navigational abilities, Uber has made other deals over the last year to boost its in-house capabilities.

After announcing that it planned to sell its assets to Staples back in February, office supply chain Office Depot has finally gained the approval of its shareholders to go ahead with the merger. However, nothing is definite yet, as the two companies still have to get permission from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) before the merger can be completed, and the commission has previously declined to give the go-ahead for the two companies to merge.

On the surface, a company like Spotify looks like a glossy entertainment enterprise. From collaborations with popular artists to partnerships with music festivals, from the customer perspective, the focus is on music and access to streaming songs.

The company you founded has begun negotiations with a larger corporation that has an interest in acquiring your startup. After a series of phone calls and meetings, you determine a date when leadership from the corporation can visit your office to meet your team and see where the innovation happens.

It's a scene that could go comically awry in a movie. Just as showtime nears, your small shop proves it's not ready for primetime. Employees roll into the office late and disheveled, none of the presentation technology works and your well-rehearsed elevator pitch escapes you at the last minute. Mergers and acquisitions are full of moments that seem like defining turning points in the negotiation process, when you can either win over or put off your potential buyer. 

"I am excited about this big step forward in our company ambition to reinvent productivity and business process, and how it will deliver new value to our customers with organizational analytics," he explained. "We expect to launch an early preview program for Delve Organizational Analytics within the next month, and general availability of the initial release of the integrated Office 365 service by the end of this calendar year."

It was recently announced that AOL has acquired Millennial Media, a mobile ad network that places advertisements on tablet and smartphone screens. As AOL continues its progress from mail and browsing platform of the early internet into a fully-fledged content producer, the ability to effectively place ads is critical to expansion.

Many users adopted Pandora early in the music streaming wave. As competitors like Spotify rose with more on-demand options for listeners, Pandora's radio format has undergone some tweaks and changes designed to give paid subscribers more liberty to control what they listen to. With the decline of record sales over the last decade or more, lucrative headline tours have been the best way for artists and companies adjacent to the music industry to turn a major profit.

Take Yahoo's touchstone acquisition of Tumblr, for example. We've discussed the purchase on this blog before, but one of the most striking things about it is the fact that Yahoo was traditionally known as a search engine and email service provider. As the tech landscape diversified over the last decade, the pressure for Yahoo to compete and remain relevant caused CEO Marissa Meyer to seek new ways to position the company. Tumblr, a blogging platform, is a space to view anything from celebrity memes to personal essays.

"We will continue to publish under the same name and leadership, with editorial independence," Re/code founders Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg wrote in a note to readers. "This is the next big step in our mission to bring you quality tech journalism, because our work will now be amplified and enhanced by Vox Media's deep and broad skill set."

Machine learning is a cornerstone of tech development but sometimes training machines to absorb information can take time. Whetlab is a company that has pioneered systems to accelerate that process, reducing the amount of time it requires to get new machine learning systems off the ground.

This week, it was announced that Bloglovin', a blog reading platform, acquired social shopping startup called Finale. According to TechCrunch, this was in large part due to the firm's leader, Giordano Bruno Contestabile, who will become the new CEO of Bloglovin'.

One of the most lucrative and rapidly expanding tech fields is "ed tech," or startups and companies focused on improving educational experiences. From learning modules for secondary schools to coursework platforms for college students, solutions for teachers and administrators have become a hot commodity. One city where this is especially true is Boston, where colleges per capita outpaces every other metro area.

Perhaps you've explored M&A to discover whether now is when your company could benefit from such a deal. Through the discovery and negotiation process, it may become evident to you that there's more growth your startup can achieve on its own. In this case, it might be better to refocus your attention on research, development and other improvements that could position your company for a better deal down the road.

One of the struggles small, successful startups face when they've been acquired by larger companies is reassuring their customer bases. Customers and users want confirmation that the same excellent quality and service they've enjoyed will continue through the new business partnership.