Convenience Big Store: Highspot merging with Seismic in major sales software deal

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Highspot is merging with San Diego software company Seismic in a deal that will combine two of the biggest players in sales and revenue enablement software.

Once the transaction closes, the combined company will operate under the Seismic name and be led by Seismic CEO Rob Tarkoff, who was hired in October. Highspot co-founder and CEO Robert Wahbe will join the board of directors of the combined company.
Highspot is one of Seattle’s most prominent enterprise software companies and has raised $650 million since launching in 2011. For more than a year it's held the No. 1 spot on the GeekWire 200, our list of privately held technology companies in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.

Microsoft closes Visitor Center: The hands-on tech showcase and historical exhibit in Redmond’s Building 92, a destination for guests and employees for more than 15 years, has permanently closed. The move follows last month's library closure in the same building, leaving a standalone Microsoft Store as the last public-facing space there. Read more.

Bellevue’s new mayor wants to move “at the speed of innovation” in the growing AI hub. Mo Malakoutian (above, center) is a tech vet who spent eight years at Amazon and he’s also an engineer who is executive director of the Consulting and Business Development Center at the University of Washington. We caught up to talk about how his tech background informs his leadership style and how he hopes to manage Bellevue's significant growth as major AI players including OpenAI and xAI establish outposts in the city. Read the Q&A.

Cleveland's mayor weighs in: Meanwhile, in Ohio, a GeekWire guest column warning Seattle not to become "the next Cleveland" drew a thoughtful response from Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, who says his city's comeback story is the real lesson. Read more.

“Prompts are the new software,” Prom founder and CEO Heather Jackson says as the Seattle startup emerged from stealth with $1.5 million in funding to build a platform for sharing and discovering AI prompts. Read more.

Seattle’s Allen Institute for AI launched Asta AutoDiscovery, an AI tool that scans scientific datasets and proposes research questions on its own. Early users in cancer, population health, and climate science say it has already surfaced credible, testable findings in days instead of weeks. It’s available as an experimental feature in Ai2’s AstaLabs platform. (Ai2 Blog)

Pacific Science Center is selling a wedge of its Seattle campus as the educational nonprofit centered on innovation and discovery aims to keep operations afloat and to start funding the development of a new star attraction. Read more.

Previously: A former jewel of the 1962 World’s Fair needs upgrades.

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Thanks for subscribing to the GeekWire newsletter and have a great day. — GeekWire editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com; co-founder Todd Bishop, todd@geekwire.com; and reporter Kurt Schlosser, kurt@geekwire.com.

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