Philly Tech Tidbits 8/22/2010

Radnor-based business intelligence software provider Qlik Technologies has continued to do well since going public on July 15 at $10.00 per share. On Friday it closed at $16.50. QlikTech reported 56% revenue growth (62% growth in license revenue) last week for the quarter ended June 30.

The blog ERP Software Advice recently looked at large companies that could be potential Oracle acquisition targets over the next few years and put Wayne's SunGard on the list. SunGard, though, may be a bit out of the mode of Oracle's usual business model. The Inquirer's Joe DiStefano quotes SunGard CEO Cristobal Conde (on the subject of selling) from its recent earnings conference: "It comes up at every board meeting and we are constantly huddling and brainstorming, [but] as we continue to grow, it puts us more out of reach of everyone but the biggest" potential buyers. SunGard is beginning to see more growth after its financial systems business was particularly affected by the economic downturn, reporting 4% revenue growth in its most recent quarter.

Except for two rather sketchy press releases issued out of Philadelphia last week, (here and here), not much is known about Stream TV, which says it will introduce an Android-based iPad competitor this coming Tuesday (the 24th). The only clue I can see is that the name of the CEO given in the press releases is Mathu Rajan, which is the same name as the founder of Zero Technologies of Bensalem (Zero Water), though I do not know if it is indeed the same person.

Philadelphia-based Lincoln Financial Group was selected for CSC's Innovation in Policy Administration Award for the successful execution of a program to consolidate its life insurance administration systems. When the program is fully completed in 2011, Lincoln Financial expects to have reduced its number of platforms from 14 to three.

Philly mobile payment startup XIPWIRE is competing for a slot to present at next March's SXSW in Austin. XIPWIRE proposes to talk about reaching the 50 million underbanked Americans who it says are "off the grid" financially. You can vote here until August 27.

It's official: the previously reported acquisition of Brooklyn-based Hot Potato by Facebook has been confirmed by the two companies. Hot Potato's existing online service will be shut down; its founder and staff will be working for Facebook. First Round Capital was one of its early investors.

Philadelphia City Paper reports that Philadelphia seems to making a great effort to round up the publishers of even tiny little blogs with minimal revenue in order to charge them $300 for a business privilege license.




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