As ‘merger of equals’ closes, Affectiva CEO tells the story of her company getting acquired for $73.5M

In May this year, Affectiva Inc. CEO Rana el Kaliouby agreed to sell the Boston artificial-intelligence company she co-founded in 2009 to competitor Smart Eye for $73.5 million. The Business Journal’s Lucia Maffei reached out to el Kaliouby hours ahead of the release of the official closing announcement to talk about how the M&A process come together, her future role with the combined company and her recent appointment on the board of trustees of MassTLC, one of the largest technology associations in the region.