Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (1/23/2012 to 1/29/2012)



I interviewed Joseph Budner Elad, founder of Quantum Leap Innovations of Newark, Delaware, on the launch of its new software, twitter analytics tool Quantum Leap Buzz.

An Italian firm, Datalogic S.p.A., completed the acquisition of Telford, PA-based Accu-Sort from Danaher Corp. for $135 million. Datalogic says the acquisition will enable it to double its leading market share in the industrial stationary scanners segment.

New Jersey Tech Weekly's Esther Surden contributed an article on Susquehanna Growth Equity's $35 million minority investment in Hazlet, NJ-based human resources software as a service (SaaS) provider iCIMS.

The merger of Datatel and Malvern-based SunGard Higher Education closed. The combined company, temporarily named Datatel+SGHE, will be based in Northern Virginia. Datatel+SGHE subsequently said that "less than 40" existing employees would be eliminated at the present time.

Newtown-based EPAM Systems launched an IPO seeking to raise as much as $133 million. EPAM provides system development services using personnel mostly located in Eastern and Central Europe.

King of Prussia-based InterDigital announced it was ending its effort to auction off its entire patent portfolio, though it still may sell off pieces of it in the coming months. Bids that came in were not for the entire portfolio and didn't meet InterDigital's expectations.

Hot off the momentum SAP AG reported in its quarterly results for its HANA platform, the company continued to make bold predictions for it, restating a goal of challenging or even upending Oracle in the database software market, and also revealing that it intends to have ERP running on Hana by Q4 of this year.

A story in the New York Post suggested that Phildelphia Media Network, owner of the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com, is on the block again for $100 million, and that Randy Smith’s Alden Global, which has a reported 30% stake and has made large investments in other distressed newspaper properties, is on the sellers' side.

And the Phillie Phanatic made a cameo on 30 Rock, which included a speaking role (well, sort of) that presumably will result in higher compensation. Which is good, because I think the Phillies give him only peanuts and beer.



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Daily Links 1/31/2012: Facebook reported ready to file for IPO in morning



Alden Global maneuver sets off speculation about Philly newspapers (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Facebook to file for $5 billion IPO: IFR (Reuters)

Amazon’s Sales Miss Estimates, Profit Drops 57% (Bloomberg)


Amazon S3 Reports Staggering Growth in 2011 (ReadWriteWeb)

Dell plans to expand Silicon Valley staff as it looks to innovate (Dow Jones via Total Telecom)

Unisys Announces Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2011 Financial Results; Third Consecutive Year of Profitability and Positive Free Cash Flow (PR Newswire)

Infor Revamps Support Services, Heightens Competition Against SAP, Oracle (CIO.com)

SAP 2011 Earnings Call with Bill McDermott (You Tube)

Internet Essentials Progress Report (Comcast Voices|Official Comcast Blog)
Enhancements in response to criticisms of program's shortcomings?

Music Choice Rebrands As 'MC'
New Logo, Brand Strategy to Span Linear, VOD and Online Properties
(Multichannel News)

Comcast snags another customer for its Metro Ethernet service (Communications, Engineering & Design Magazine)
Widener University.

Panasonic Exits US Cable Set-Top Biz (Light Reading Cable)

PSC, Drexel Light Up Cross-State Optical Link (HPC Wire)

Mobile SharePoint: Infragistics Acquires SouthLabs for End-to-End iPad, Android & Blackberry SharePoint Experience (Infragistics Blog)

Multiband calls off WPCS acquisition (Philadelphia Inquirer)



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Comcast CEO looking to expand global reach (Bob Fernandez/Philadelphia Inquirer)

Hedger pausing on print (New York Post)
Sounds like Philadelphia Media Network may be on the block, again.


Phillies Phanatic appearance on 30 Rock







Wall Street Reflects on Comcast-NBCUniversal Ahead of Deal’s First Anniversary (Hollywood Reporter)

If You're Waiting on FiOS, You Could Be Waiting a While
30% of Verizon Customers May Wait Years for Upgrades
(Broadband Reports)


$35 Million Investment in iCIMS Means More Monmouth County Jobs: Minority investment made by Bala Cynwyd-based Susquehanna Growth Equity



Esther Surden


Hazlet-based iCIMS received a $35 million minority investment from Susquehanna Growth Equity (SGE, Bala Cynwyd, Pa.) last month. The company, which provides human resources software as a service (SaaS), says it sees tremendous growth in the small and medium business market and will use the investment to address that market.


According to Susan Vitale, chief strategic officer, iCIMS plans to use some of the investment to hire in New Jersey. The company now has about 200 employees across its operations, with approximately 140 in N.J. By the end of 2012 it expects to add 85 more positions, 75 percent of them in N.J., Vitale said. The firm is looking to add software engineers and marketing and product management personnel.

Vitale said company headquarters will remain in Monmouth County, although "I can't commit 100 percent to staying in Hazlet, because we are bursting at the seams", she noted. Much of the company's talent pool consists of New York commuters tired of traveling to the city. "iCIMS does a lot of college recruiting as well. We do a really good job of bringing in young, hungry talent from Monmouth County who may have gone to school elsewhere … We have a great corporate culture,” which makes iCIMS competitive for software engineers, she added.

iCIMS experienced explosive growth in 2011, adding an average of one new customer every business day, Vitale said. The firm was included in the Inc. 500|5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies for the sixth consecutive year. Profitable and privately held since 2003, iCIMS had been pouring money back into its operations. “There is a huge opportunity right now. Ours is an $11.1 billion dollar industry, and among small- and medium-sized businesses there is a lot of greenfield [opportunity] out there in terms of folks who do not yet have a system. We felt this was the right time to approach the market aggressively,” Vitale said.

Colin Day, iCIMS president and CEO, said while the company could have achieved growth on its own, the investment “will help us dramatically accelerate our aggressive expansion plans. We look forward to offering deeper and broader services and support to our users.”

SGE's Scott Feldman, Amir Goldman and Jonathan Klahr will join the iCIMS board of directors. All three currently serve on the boards of multiple software companies. iCIMS was represented in the transaction by Raymond James & Associates.

(Editor's note: iCIMS reported 2010 revenue of $25.6 million, according to its listing in Inc. Magazine's 2011 Inc.500/5000 issue.)


Esther Surden is Publisher and Editor of   New Jersey Tech Weekly , and a contributor to Philly Tech News. This article originally appeared in New Jersey Tech Weekly.



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Daily Links 1/27/2012: Datatel says 'fewer than 40' cuts after SunGard HE deal closes



Datatel cuts 'fewer than 40' after deal with SunGard Higher Ed closes (Washington Business Journal)

Motorola Mobility's Cable Sales Fall 11% In Q4
Set-Top Shipments Down 3% in Fourth Quarter But Up 6% for Full-Year 2011
(Multichannel News)

Like Sports On Cable? Pay Up. Don’t Like Sports On Cable? Pay Up, Anyway (Peter Kafka/All Things D)

Comcast's Split-Personality Problem (Jonathan Takiff/Philadelphia Daily News)

SAP Takes On Oracle Database, Salesforce Cloud
(Information Week)

SAP Extends Offer For SuccessFactors While Government Entity Investigates (CRN)

Ametek Q4 beats Street, sees strong 2012 (Reuters)
Also acquires O'Brien for about $175 million from Industrial Growth Partners.


Investors bet $16 million on growth in application delivery market (Computerworld)
On Kemp Technologies, New York-based firm in which Edison Ventures just led $16 million round.

The Neat Company Is Putting Paperless in the Cloud [Macworld / iWorld 2012] (Cult of Mac)
Neat's soon to be launched Cloud services may open new opportunities for it.

More Venture Capital Dollars Flow To Health IT (Information Week)

FiOS Being Installed in East Mt. Airy (Mt. Airy Patch)


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Italian firm completes purchase of Telford-based Accu-Sort from Danaher for $135 million



Tom Paine


Telford (Montgomery County) based Accu-Sort has been acquired by Datalogic S.p.A. of Italy from DC-based Danaher Corp. for $135 million. The deal, which was originally announced in November, closed on January 20.

Accu-Sort provides Auto ID Systems for the Material Handling Industry, including barcode systems, dimensioning systems, label print and apply systems, and sortation systems. It employs approximately 250 people. Founded in 1971, Accu-Sort holds about 80 patents. 57 of which are registered in the US. Some 79% of its revenue comes from the US, so further international expansion is a key opportunity. To that end, Accu-Sort opened new offices in China and India late last year.

In 2010, Accu-Sort generated revenue of $92.3 million, while in the first half of 2011 revenue was $51.4 million. The company has EBITDA margins of about 20%.

Datalogic says the acquisition will enable it to improve its global leadership in the industrial stationary scanners segment, with a market share of 31% compared to 16% previously.

Danaher, a $12.8 billion (revenue) industrial manufacturer, acquired Accu-Sort in 2003 for $63 million plus a potential earnout. At the time, Danaher cited Accu-Sort revenue as being about $90 million, so the company does not appear to have grown much over the past decade.



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Daily Links 1/26/2012: SAP says its HANA in-memory database will be able to run ERP by 4th quarter of 2012



SAP's HANA In-memory Database Will Gain Ability to Run ERP This Year (PC World)

The Guy That Created SAP's Hottest Product Ever Thinks It Will Squash Oracle Like A Bug (Silicon Alley Insider: Enterprise)

Steve Case: Washington is No Also-Ran (PE Hub)

Motorola Mobility's Larry Robinson on the move to video gateways over DVRs (FierceCable)

Motorola Mobility Announces Fourth Quarter and Full-Year Financial Results (Press Realease)
Home business revenue for 4th Quarter down 11% from prior year.


Guidewire lights up Wall Street (San Mateo Daily Journal)

When Metadata Comes to Twitter (PC World)
On filtering out Chris Lehmann's (head of Philly's Science Leadership Academy) sports tweets.

Quality Systems, Inc. Reports Record Fiscal 2012 Third Quarter Results (Business Wire)
Revenue up 23%, net income up 20%. Quality Systems' primary business is NextGen Healthcare of Horsham.


TW Cable Sheds Video Subs, Gains in Broadband (Light Reading Cable)

AT&T Punches Up TV, Recedes On Wireline Broadband In Q4
Telco Completes U-verse Buildout At 30 Million Households
(Multichannel News)

Cable Supplier Pulls a Gold Brick From the Wall (Philadelphia Inquirer)

FCC Enforcement Bureau Says Comcast's Tennis Channel Order Is In Effect
Cable Operator Should Be Required to Comply Immediately with ALJ's Decision on Carriage
(Multichannel News)

Fab.com gears up for huge expansions: open doors, new shops, international ops (VentureBeat)
Sounds great, but is Fab.com immune from some of the problems hitting other flash sales sites? First Round Capital was an early backer.



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Daily Links 1/25/2012: SAP has big plans for HANA, database software, mobile, Newtown Square



SAP Sees Higher Profit on Mobile Software (Bloomberg)

SAP bullish on 2012 after record results (Reuters)

Why is SAP bullish about 2012? (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)
Definite read.

Fighting Words from SAP (Wall Street Journal: Tech Europe)
Snabe reiterates highly ambitious goals for Database Management software market. Realistic, or just trying to scare Oracle?

SAP AG: Flush from 2011 financials and hiring hundreds, including about 500 in Newtown Square (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Objections due Feb. 21 on Verizon Wireless, Comcast deal (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Amazon looking into taking on Netflix (New York Post)

Netflix earnings beat expectations, stock jumps more than 10 percent (San Jose Mercury News)

Netflix streaming users now outnumber DVD subscribers 2:1 (Gigaom)

Apple's first fiscal quarter, by the numbers (ZDNet Blogs)

Why Apple's Restrictive iBooks Author Rules May Not Be Legally Enforceable (Read Write Web)
Two Philly area experts weigh in.

Philly Gamification Start-Up Hiring Dozen Employees (FINS)
I recently profiled Hoopla Software here.

SevOne Announces Record Revenues and Growth for 2011 (Marketwire)
These year end press releases by private companies are often short on hard facts (their right), but SevOne does say that revenue grew "almost 70%" in 2011, which would put it at around $15 million based on the $8.9 million it reported for 2010 for the Inc. 500.

TE Connectivity 1st-period net down 1.9% (MarketWatch)
TE Connectivity, formerly Tyco Electronics, has its operational headquarters in Berwyn.

SEI Investments' 4Q profit tumbles 29 pct. (AP via CBS News)

Paying for Public Transit in Philadelphia: as Simple as Tapping a Credit Card or Waving a Smartphone
ACS, A Xerox Company, Helps Philadelphia Install One of the Nation’s First Open Fare Payment Systems for Public Transit

(Business Wire)



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Newark, Delaware-based Quantum Leap Innovations launches Buzz, a different approach to social media analytics



Tom Paine


Joseph Budner Elad has spent much of the past 12 years developing a "Pattern Based Analytics" engine, which uses a combination of statistical, mathematical, heuristic and other tools to discover patterns in data that otherwise might not be seen by different methodologies. Elad, born in Israel, came to the US to do graduate studies at the Univesity of Delaware before getting drawn into the entrepreneurial world. The company he founded, Quantum Leap Innovations, has about 15 employees and is based in the Delaware Technology Park in Newark. Up until now, most of Quantum Leap's work has been project-oriented, particularly for the Department of Defense, and also for corporations such as DuPont and and Verizon, and Life Sciences companies. Examples of major projects include tracking pandemic influenza outbreaks, discovering patterns in Health Care fraud, and analyzing the trading patterns of individual traders. Quantum Leap says its approach allows "flexible discovery, visualization and analysis of informative patterns in large, complex data environments". Gartner named Quantum Leap one of its "Cool Vendors" in the Life Sciences sector for 2011.

Now Elad is making a pivot; while not walking away from the project business that currently pays the bills, Quantum Leap last week introduced Quantum Leap Buzz, a desktop app for analyzing trends and connections from the information posted on Twitter. Its available for Mac or PC for $10 per year beginning on February 29; until then a beta version can be downloaded for free. A more sophisticated version geared towards businesses is planned for release in the Spring with a price in the $500 per year range. The present version works only with Twitter, though Quantum Leap may eventually expand the software to work with Facebook and Google+ also. I used the beta version this past weekend to try to keep track of and separate all the rumors and facts coming out about Joe Paterno's declining health on Twitter, and found it helpful.

Moving from a project-oriented business to providing a software tool to a broad user base (Elad would like to have a million users) involves significant challenges. Though he is not taking on venture funds now, telling me in a phone interview that Quantum Leap is profitable and has no debt, Elad does have a powerful braintrust helping as advisors. Board of Directors members include Rick Bennett, a marketing consultant who contributed to Oracle's and Salesforce's early market succeesses and specializes in using guerilla maketing techniques to get early stage products noticed; he is also a member of Safeguard Scientifics' Technology Advisory Board. Others are Stephen H. Coltrin, a Bucks County resident and founder of Coltrin & Associates, Inc., a New York public relations firm which helped launch Palm Computing and the Salt Lake Winter Olympics, and Michael A. Cusumano, Ph.D., Sloan Management Review Distinguished Professor of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. I asked Elad if he had considered forming partnerships with more established business intelligence software providers such as QlikTech or Tableau, but he says Quantum Leap is determined to build its own brand. Bennett says the company seeks to take a viral marketing approach to spread product adoption.

Social Media Analytics is a hot field right now. Salesforce acquired Radian6 for $326 million last year, and SAP recently formed a partnership with NetBase. SAS Institute is a major player, IBM has some excellent technology, and there are many startups focused on different segments of the market.







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Daily Links 1/24/2012: EPAM Systems commences IPO



EPAM Systems, Inc. (Newtown) Commences Initial Public Offering of Common Stock (Business Wire)

Verizon Posts Loss on Pension Costs as IPhone Boosts Expenses (Bloomberg)

Verizon Adds More FiOS TV Subscribers in Fourth Quarter (Hollywood Reporter)

Verizon's FiOS TV Passes Charter In Q4
Telco Adds 194,000 Net Video Subs, 201,000 FiOS Internet Despite DSL, Landline Losses
(Multichannel News)


TAGSYS Ramps up Its Go-to-Market Strategy for the Americas
New executive leadership will spearhead expansion of TAGSYS' footprint in North and South America
(Business Wire)
Tagsys' headquarters for the Americas is in King of Prussia.

Fledgling tech firm seeks NYC space (Crain's New York Business)
KEMP Technologies recently raised $7.5 million led by Edison Ventures. (Correction: It was actually $16 million, led by $7.5 million from Edison Ventures.)

Software AG plots Valley invasion by Terracotta army (The Register)

SAP Reaches Target for ByDesign Software, Euro am Sonntag Says (Bloomberg)
I've never considered that target to be that meaningful by itself, without some reference to the number of seats involved.

Philly's Red Tettemer, PopTent nail Super Bowl ads (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Fisker having trouble delivering its hybrid cars (USA Today)



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Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (1/16/2012 to 1/22/2012)



The PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA MoneyTree Venture Capital report for the 4th quarter of 2011 came out, and as I noted it wasn't a very strong quarter for VC investments in information technology ventures in the Philadelphia area.

IBM acquired Green Hat, a software testing automation vendor with dual headquarters in London and Wilmington.

Scrutiny of the proposed Verizon Wireless spectrum purchase, resale agreement and technology joint venture with Comcast and other cable operators picked up. Comcast EVP David Cohen wrote a blog posted explaining Comcast's decision not to build out its spectrum, in part to explain Vice Chairman & CFO Michael Angelakis' recent comment that "[w]e never really intended to build that spectrum." Meanwhile, the companies submitted their marketing plans (carefully worded, I'm sure) to the FCC for a confidential review, while competitors and other critics insisted they be released publicly.
On the lighter side, the similarity between Comcast's and the FCC's logos made me wonder if there was some type of secret connection between the two.

Exton-based SaaS insurance vendor iPipeline announced a "significant investment" from Technology Crossover Ventures. iPipline raised $18 million in 2008 and $15 million in 2009, mostly from NewSpring Capital of Radnor and Fidelity Ventures of Boston (or Volition Capital LLC as its successor is known). Technology Crossover Ventures usually invests in big chunks, so it would not be surprising if this investment was also in the eight digits (Crunchbase shows the size of several recent rounds it has been involved in) . That means iPipeline's valuation must be getting pretty steep.

SAP AG, still waiting for its SuccessFactors acquisition to close, announced two other much smaller acquisitions: datango AG, a provider of software training tools, and SAF Simulation, Analysis and Forecasting AG , which has software that helps retailers better see into and manage their supply chains.

New York-based Charlie O'Donnell left First Round Capital to launch a new Brooklyn-based venture firm, appropriately named Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. And Rick Nucci, co-founder and former CTO of Dell Boomi, is now General Manager , succeeding Bob Moul who left at the end of the year and now heads up Philly Startup Leaders while exploring other entrepreneurial opportunities.

Philadelphia-based PE firm LLR Partners acquired a majority interest in Paragon Technology Group , a Northern Virginia-based supplier of information technology services to the Federal government. Scott Friedlander, former CEO of GTSI, also invested and was named CEO of Paragon.



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Daily Links 1/23/2012: Datatel, SunGard Higher Education close transactions to combine businesses



Datatel and SunGard Higher Education Close Transactions to Combine their Businesses (Business Wire)
Company will temporarily be called Datatel+SGHE ; headquarters will be in Northern Virginia, according to FAQ on website
according to FAQ on website. (pdf)

InterDigital Calls Off Patent Sale (New York Times: DealBook)
May still sell off pieces. InterDigital down almost 16% in after hours to $37.50.
InterDigital press release on concluding strategic alternatives review (Business Wire)
InterDigital Announces Preliminary and Unaudited Fourth Quarter 2011 Financial Results (Business Wire)

Newtown-based Epam Systems files to raise up to $133 million in IPO (Bloomberg)


TargetX: Helping colleges recruit (Philly.com: Philly Inc.)
A Conshohocken-based SaaS CRM vendor that built its offering on Salesforce's Force.com platform.

San Francisco-based Joyent gets $85 million for cloud expansion (Gigaom)

If Comcast can’t make it in the wireless biz, who can? (Gigaom)

Verizon spectrum deal faces scrutiny (New York Post)

VIDEO: Comcast Xfinity Commercials Interrupt Giants Vs. 49ers Game (SB Nation DC)
Report says its not clear yet whether it was Comcast or Fox who made the error.
(Update: It turned out to be an error on the part of DC Fox affiliate WTTG.)

Apply to Open Angel Forum Philly III (Gabriel Weinberg's Blog)

XBRL: A New Language for the Large Data Challenge (Safeguard Scientifics Blog)

Scala Introduces New Consumer Device Controlled Screen Communication Solution at ISE 2012 (PR Web)


Philly Tech People News 1/22/2012



Although there has been no public announcement that I have seen, co-founder Rick Nucci is now referred to as General Manager of Dell Boomi, succeeding Bob Moul who departed at the end of the year. Nucci was formerly CTO.


SAP Taps North American Channel Chief For Global Post (CRN)

SAP Names Exec To Lead North American Channel Efforts (CRN)

CES: Verizon Wireless Names Zafar CTO For MSO Joint Venture
Carrier to Work With Comcast, TWC, Cox and BHN to Develop Products That Integrate Wireless and Wireline
(Multichannel News)
Report says joint venture likely to be based in Piscataway , rather than Philadelphia as some earlier reports indicated.

Dzuban Extends SCTE Contract Through 2017
Cable and Telecom Vet Originally Named President and CEO in 2009
(Multichannel News)
The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers is based in Exton.

Bianchi Named WTXF Philly GM
Moves across town to take over Fox station
(Broadcasting & Cable)

Board of Directors for Ben Franklin Elects New Chairman and Vice Chairman, Two New Members (Ben Franklin Technology Partners)

Ben Franklin Board of Directors Honors Members (Ben Franklin Technology Partners)

USA Technologies Appoints Two New Directors (Business Wire)

Titan promotes Jeff Randazzo, Jon Roche and adds Matt Clark (Philly Ad Club News)



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New Jersey man turns campaign stint into software success (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Disruptions: The Sloshing Sound of Tech Valuations (Nick Bilton/New York Times: Bits)




TV's next killer app: Weather
(CNN)


Software & Internet VC for Q4 2011 in Philly area not too strong



Tom Paine

Fourth Quarter 2011 VC investment in the Greater Philadelphia region totaled $132.7 million involving 30 deals, according to the MoneyTree report issued today by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on Thomson Reuters data. For the full year 2011, VCs invested $492.2 million in 122 deals here. Although the total investment represented 8% growth over 2010, it is still well below levels that prevailed for several years prior to 2009, and did not grow as much as investment nationally.

Looking at the VC picture for Internet, software and digital technologies in the region reveals larger concerns. In the fourth quarter, the four largest investments totaling $103 million were for companies with food processing and water purification technologies and for Pharma startups. Much less than the remaining $30 million went to Internet or software ventures. In fact, the largest Internet investment listed, slightly more than $4 million, was for SolveMedia, a company that's actually New York-based now though it still has a Philly office. The next largest was probably PHD Virtual Technologies; though the amount of its recent round is not shown in the MoneyTree report, CEO Thomas Charlton told me in a December interview it was for $4 million. DuckDuckGo raise $3 million, Sidecar (formerly Snipi) raised $2.52 million and Quik Inc of Blue Bell raised $2 million. One company I hadn't heard about before is LogoGarden of Wilmington, a site that helps people create custom logos, which was reported to have raised $2 million.

The remaining investments reported were all for well under $1 million, many of which were included in Ben Franklin Technology Partners' recent funding announcement.

The MoneyTree report may not capture some important dynamics, particularly in the seed/angel investment area. Although MoneyTree reports a decline of 48% in seed funding by VCs nationwide in 2011, many angels and private investors are not part of the reporting system used to collect this data, and their paticipation may not be fully reflected.

Nationwide, in 2011 venture capitalists invested $28.4 billion in 3,673 deals, an increase of 22% in dollars and 4% in deals, according to MoneyTree. One factor that could impact future investment is that VC firms raised $10 billion less than they invested last year, a pace that obviously can't continue forever. Further cuts in Ben Franklin's 2012-2013 funding could also have a negative impact locally.

Dow Jones VentureSource released its own set of numbers today released its own set of numbers today, which are somewhat different.



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Comcast & the FCC: Is the secret in their logos?

Tom Paine

For those conspiracy theorists out there who believe the FCC takes its marching orders from Comcast, I offer Exhibit A: note the eerie similarity between their respective logos. Maybe its a secret sign indicating that the two are, indeed, joined at the hip.










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DirecTV "Don't end up in a roadside ditch" ad



Tagline: See what happens when you make bad decisions. Get rid of cable and upgrade to DIRECTV.



Daily Links 1/20/2012: Verizon, Comcast Send Marketing Deals to FCC in Spectrum Review



Verizon, Comcast Send Marketing Deals to FCC in Airwaves Review (Bloomberg)
FCC Docket: Verizon Wireless and SpectrumCo, Verizon Wireless and Cox

Comcast Challenges FCC's Program Carriage Ruling That Landed in Tennis Channel's Court (Multichannel News)


Audrey Zibelman's Energy-Saving Software
Her startup Viridity Energy makes software used by buildings and factories to manage their power use. It also lets them sell energy back to the grid
(Bloomberg Business Week)

Philadelphia-based online ticketing service TicketLeap’s beginnings couldn’t have been more humble (Ben Franklin Technology Partners SEP: KEYnotes)

After Laying Off 60 People, RueLaLa Raises $22 Million (TechCrunch)
Boston-based RueLaLa is part of Michael Rubin's Kynetic LLC holding company.

Update: RueLaLa says filing is about options, not new funding (Mass High Tech)

Salesforce's happy workforce
(Fortune Tech)

SAP Acquires Datango's Software, Entering Enterprise Training Race
Now SAP faces the huge task of convincing the jaded enterprise training market to invest in training.
(Information Week)

ING Direct deal should close soon, Capital One says (Wilmington News Journal: Delaware Inc.)



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Daily Links 1/19/2012: iPipeline Receives "Significant" Investment from Technology Crossover Ventures




iPipeline Announces "Significant" Investment by Technology Crossover Ventures (Business Wire)
iPipline raised $18 million in 2008 and $15 million in 2009, mostly from NewSpring Capital of Radnor and Fidelity Ventures of Boston (or Volition Capital LLC as its successor is known). Technology Crossover Ventures usually invests in big chunks, so it would not be surprising if this investment was also in the eight digits (Crunchbase shows the size of several recent rounds it has been involved in) . That means iPipeline's valuation must be getting pretty steep.

EBay Sales Exceed Estimates on PayPal, Holiday Shopping (Bloomberg)

eBay Marketplaces GMV up 10 Percent, New Products in Pipeline (EcommerceBytes.com)
Some more detail on GSI Commerce.

Apple announces iBooks 2, iBooks Author to "reinvent textbooks" (Ars Technica)

Comcast's Web-Slinging Set-Top Visits the FCC (Light Reading Cable)

Comcast patents technology for recommending alternative TV programming to subscribers (FierceCable)

Sprint, DirecTV ask FCC for Verizon cable deal info (Reuters via Yahoo Finance)

Bloomberg jabs at Comcast on anniversary of NBC deal approval (LA Times: Company Town)

EU to decide on Google, Motorola Mobility deal Feb 13 (Reuters)

Tech Giants Join Forces To Fight Amazon's Cloud (Silicon Alley Insider: Enterprise)
SAP is one of them.

Philadelphia-Area Manufacturing Increases (Bloomberg)
Below economists' expectations, though.
Philly Fed Press Release.

Former GTSI CEO Friedlander makes deal (along with Philly's LLR Partners) for new company (Washington Technology)

Citi Ventures Backs Gift Card Exchange Plastic Jungle (TechCrunch)
First Round Capital was early backer.

Philadelphia’s Computer Methods Corporation Purchased by Atlanta-Based Premier Logic (Business Wire)



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Daily Links 1/18/2012: Comcast clarifies its spectrum position



Fundamental Oracle Flaw Revealed (PC World)

Amazon launches home-grown NoSQL database (Gigaom)

Apple Said to Plan More Educational Content to Bolster IPad Use in Schools (Bloomberg)

Regarding the Scope of Apple’s Education Initiative
(John Gruber/Daily Fireball)

Clarifying Comcast's Spectrum Position (Comcast Voices|Official Comcast Blog)
Comcast EVP David Cohen tries to walk back Vice Chairman Michael Angelakis' comment at a Citi conference early this month that "[w]e never really intended to build that spectrum".

SOPA fighters vs Comcast (Joe DiStefano/Philly.com: PhillyDeals)

World IPv6 switch-over event scheduled for June 6 (Gigaom)

Pa. Federal Judge Tosses Antitrust Suit Over 3G Standards (American Lawyer via Law.com)
Judge rejects TruePosition's claim of conspiracy by competitors in setting standards; TruePosition plans to refile.

PennApps hackathon grand prize went to 'ScratchTable'
Programmers designed apps around the theme of simplicity this year
(Daily Pennsylvanian)

Quantum Leap Innovations® Launches First-Ever Pattern Based Analytics (Business Wire)
Quantum Leap is based in Newark, DE.

Paragon Technology Group Acquired by LLR Partners (PR Newswire)

A Beginner’s Guide to SAPanese (ASUG News)

PANL: Goldman Encouraged by Panasonic, Lumiotec Deals (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
On Ewing, NJ-based Universal Display.



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IBM acquires software testing automator Green Hat, with joint headquarters in the UK and Wilmington



Tom Paine


IBM announced last week it had closed on the acquisition of Green Hat, which it announced a week earlier. It is the first acquisition under new IBM CEO Ginni Rometty. IBM says Green Hat has joint headquarters in London and Wilmington. Its Delaware presence grew out of its acquisition of Solstice Software in 2008.

Green Hat, which was founded in 1996, helps customers automate aspects of software testing and quality control by enabling developers to conduct testing in a virtual environment rather than having to build out physical testing labs. Green Hat makes testing solutions for complex, often service oriented systems relying on the Cloud, Web Services, messaging, SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), ESB (Enterprise Service Bus), BPM (Business Process Management), CEP (Complex Event Processing), and SAP.

Green Hat will operate as part of IBM's Rational Software business; it was already a Rational business partner. The company has 45 employees, the majority of which are in the UK, but the IBM acquisition certainly could increase the possibility of more growth in Delaware. Terms have not been disclosed. IBM says it intends to maintain Green Hat's broad focus rather than making it a more narrow tool for its own proprietary products.

Solstice, which also was founded in 1996 as Class IQ , received an investment of $3.8 million in 2003
from Core Capital Partners and Anthem Capital Management.



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Daily Links 1/17/2012: CliqSearch raises $840,000, releases Beta



Former First Round Capital VC Charlie O’Donnell Launches New Brooklyn-Based Venture Firm (TechCrunch)

Good Luck Charlie (Redeye VC)

Comcast and Verizon Wireless join forces, test combo deal (GeekWire)

Comcast raising cable rates twice in 10-month period (Boston Globe)

How good were SAP's 2011 results? (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)

Amazon to Launch Cloud Search Service, Possibly Tomorrow (PandoDaily)

How cloud decentralizes our world (in a good way) (Rick Nucci/Dell Boomi Blog)

Taleo Selects Dell Boomi to Integrate Customer Data in World’s Largest Talent Management Cloud (Business Wire)

DreamIt Ventures Launches First Israel-U.S. Accelerator (TechCrunch)

Philly-based CliqSearch Releases New Social Search App In Beta, Raises $840,000 (TechCrunch)

Ben Franklin (Northeastern PA) to Invest $315,582 in PA Technology Companies (Marketwire)

Health IT company with cancer treatment tool rebrands for expansion (Med City News)

Emtec, Inc. Enters into New $45 Million Credit Facility Raises Additional $3 Million in Mezzanine Financing (Business Wire)

Identropy Raises $4 Million in Series A Funding
Financing Led by Milestone Venture Partners and Osage Venture Partners
(Marketwire)




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Monetate Infographic: "A Programmer’s Guide to Getting Hired by a Startup",



Conshohocken-based Monetate has a more interesting blog than most companies, and its worth following. They put a good deal of effort into expressing ideas and concepts in a visual but simple manner.

This infographic, "A Programmer’s Guide to Getting Hired by a Startup", gives a picture of the landscape programmers face and the different paths they can take towards landing the right opportunity (with a couple of local references included). Monetate says most of the input for it came from its own Engineering staff. Click on twice to expand; I don't know why my software works this way but it does.

The other message in it is that Monetate is hiring.

The author is Rob Yoegel, Content Marketing Director at Monetate.





Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (1/9/2012 to 1/15/2012)



I profiled Hoopla Software, Inc. of West Chester and its founder, Mike Smalls. Hoopla, which makes scoreboard display software for Salesforce.com CRM systems, recently received $2.3 million in VC funding led by Safeguard Scientifics.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners SEP approved $1.7 million in funding for 11 Philly area startups.

SAP AG posted strong quarterly results exceeding estimates, which look especially good given the questionable economic climate in Europe and Oracle's disappointing results reported in December. And SAP hired a new marketing VP with an interesting background.

First Round Capital is reported to be closing in on its fourth fund which would be about the the same size of its previous fund, around $125 million.

Bala Cynwyd-based Susquehanna Growth Equity placed a $35 million bet on Hazlet, NJ-based SaaS Human Capital Management vendor iCIMS.

Boston-based Rue La La, a part of GSI Commerce founder Michael Rubin's holding company, Kynetic LLC., laid of 65 employees and folded its SmartBargains unit, which along with some announced reductions at Gilt Groupe raised some questions about the current health of the flash sales market.

And Wired did a fairly nice profile of Dell Boomi, but the author seemed incredulous that such an imaginative software business could come out of Philadelphia.



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Philly Tech People News 1/15/2012



QVC, Inc. Appoints Linda Dillman Chief Information Officer (PR Newswire)

Duane Morris Names Woody Jameson to Head Firmwide Intellectual Property Practice
(PR Newswire)
Practice will be based in Atlanta.

Robin Shallow Named Executive Vice President, Communications and Public Relations for Quepasa Corporation (Marketwire)
Joins myYearbook parent from Rodale.

Ed Snider honored by Sports Business Journal (Phanatic Magazine)
NFL Film's Steve Sabol honored also.

Reorganization and Recognition for DVL (Business Wire)

TMG Health Names New Senior Director of Cross-Functional Operations (PR Newswire)

MarketSphere Continues to Expand Oracle® Leadership
Philip Sabo Enriches Business Intelligence Practice
(Business Wire)



Melissa Staehle Promoted to Position of Director of Sales at Ancero (PR Web)




If you have a significant tech or digital media promotion or hire to announce, send it to phillytechnews@gmail.com. It will be more likely to be included if there is a link provided to an announcement.


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Digitizing Health Records, Before It Was Cool (New York Times)
On Healthcare IT giant Epic Systems.

Hulu plans to raise money to fund expansion into original shows (Bloomberg)


Dell Discovers Internet Mojo in … Philadelphia? (Wired)



Dell Discovers Internet Mojo in … Philadelphia? (Wired: Enterprise)
Good article on Boomi, but typical condescending, ignorant tech media attitude towards Philly.

DuckDuckGo Relaunches With New Visual Design (Search Engine Land)

SAP’s In-Memory Computing Catches On (NY Times: Bits)


West Chester-based Hoopla, developing CRM scoreboards, scores funding from Safeguard Scientifics, others



Tom Paine


Though not everyone is aware of it, there is a growing ecosystem in the Philly area around cloud-based SaaS CRM (Customer Relationship Management), the leading player in that space, Salesforce.com, and its Force.com platform. There is a large base of Salesforce.com customers, both for-profit and non-profit, and small companies as well as large enterprises such as Comcast and AmeriSourceBergen. There are also companies that have built their own SaaS offerings on top of the Force.com platform (Higher Ed recruitment tool TargetX of Conshohocken and life sciences CRM vendor Veeva Systems , which has much of its marketing and client side operations in Malvern though it is headquartered in California, are two that come to mind); and Salesforce.com consultants/installation experts such as Malvern-based CRM manager, in which Salesforce.com owns a stake, and Bluewolf, which has a Philadelphia office and provides consulting, training and recruiting. Another part of the ecosystem is for apps that complement and work with the Force.com platform, and can be sold through Salesforce.com's AppExchange.

In the latter category, one area venture that stands out is Hoopla Software Inc. of West Chester, which recently received $2.3 million in VC funding , including $1.3 million from Safeguard Scientifics and the rest from other yet to be named investors. Hoopla was founded in 2009 by Mike Smalls, a veteran of the Philadelphia technology scene. After spending several years with Symantec, he was with Philly startup Destiny WebSolutions, then Josh Kopelman-backed anti-spam software vendor TurnTide, where he headed up sales. After he helped it to achieve a rapid ramp-up in revenue, TurnTide was acquired by Symantec, and Smalls did a second tour of duty with that company for a couple of years. His next stop was as Executive Vice President with SEO software firm ClickEquations (now part of Acquisio) , which he left in 2009 to pursue his startup.



Hoopla Scoreboard Video on Vimeo.



Hoopla is targeted at doing something Smalls knows well how to do from his experience as a sales executive: motivating a sales or customer service organization to achieve its goals and measuring its performance towards them. Its primary product, Scoreboard, provides a visual dashboard generated from CRM sytem data showing how individuals are doing in reaching goals and relative to each other. It also provides a social layer through integration with Saleforce.com's Chatter social media tool, and provides gamification elements to enhance (hopefully) friendly competition among the group members. Scoreboard launched on the AppExchange in late 2010, and Smalls said in a phone interview with Philly Tech News that Hoopla now has more than 40 customers. Although focused on the Force.com platform now, Smalls says Hoopla may look at other CRM platforms or social media tools in the future.

Smalls declined to specify who the other investors are, saying they would be announced within a few weeks. He did say the other investors are not locally based. Hoopla's Form D filing indicates the round is still open for raising another possible $500,000.

Smalls will give a talk on Hoopla, gamification and on being part of Salesforce's Independent Software Vendor (ISV) partner program at the Philly Force.com meetup on the evening of January 18 at LiquidHub in Wayne.

For Safeguard, this investment represents another commitment to an early stage IT venture, something the firm
hadn't done too much of for a while. Early last year it invested in Exton-based "Internet of Things" startup
ThingWorx, and it announced along with the Hoopla funding an investment in another Internet of Things venture, Richmond, VA-based Crimson Informatics.

Salesforce.com reported revenue of $584 million in its most recent quarter, a gain of 36% over the prior year. It has a market value of $14 billion. In a blog post about its investment in Hoopla, Safeguard emphasized booming growth estimates for spending on gamification processes, although that is a very broad category including many different types of things.



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Daily Links 1/13/2012: SAP beats quarterly profit estimates



SAP Quarterly Profit Beats Estimates (Bloomberg)
Looks like very strong results in this environment, especially compared to Oracle's most recent quarter.

SAP Q4 Revenues Jump 11 Percent (PC World)


SAP Names New Marketing VP, One With a History (All Things D)

Rue La La operator lays off 65 workers, plans to shutter SmartBargains (Boston Business Journal)
An update on story posted yesterday, with company confirmation and actual numbers.

Retail Convergence closes the curtain on its longest running e-commerce show
Retail Convergence, part of Kynetic LLC, will consolidate SmartBargains.com.
(Internet Retailer)

Wharton MBA candidates size up online clothes shopping experience (Flying Kite)

FCC commissioner questions whether Comcast misled regulators (The Hill)

U.S. Air Force Awards Lockheed Martin Contract for Third and Fourth GPS III Satellites (PR Newswire)

Deacom Adds Supply Chain Execution Tools to ERP (TechMATCH Pro)

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Daily Links 1/12/2012: Report: Kynetic LLC's Rue La La to cut half of Boston staff, fold unit



Information inspiration: Siemens enters the HIE space (Healthcare IT News)
On Siemens' acquisition of MobileMD of Yardley. Chilmark Research estimates that Siemens may have paid in the area of $100 million for MobileMD.

Predictions 2012: Not What You Think (Chilmark Research)
Predictions for Healthcare IT market.

Rue La La operator lays off up to half of Boston staff, plans to shutter SmartBargains (Boston Business Journal)
Haven't seen official confirmation on this yet.

Tarpon Hill Capital Debuts to Provide Growth Private Equity Investments to Next-Stage Companies (PR Newswire)

New Buyout Shop In Philly? (PE Hub)

Dish Network "open" to acquisition as rumors swirl on possible T-Mobile bid (Bloomberg via Denver Post)

Comcast network upgrade blocks DNS blocking, could make SOPA self-incompatible (Engadget)

Universal Display Sees Its OLED Technology Shine through Samsung at CES (Xconomy)

FiOS: Look, Ma, No Set-Top! (Light Reading Cable)

Set-tops are a lot smarter than connected TVs (FierceCable)

Motorola Televation the next revelation (New York Post)

SAP's CIO: Embracing Mobile Device Chaos (Light Reading: Video)

Oracle Updates TimeTen In-memory Database, Aims at SAP HANA (PC World)

SAI Global to Acquire Compliance 360 (PR Newswire)

Zebra, OAT Partner on Solutions Combining Passive and Active Tags (RFID Journal)



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Ben Franklin Technology Partners SEP approves $1.7 million for 11 early stage companies



Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania today announced it had approved investments in 11 companies totaling $1.7 million. Ventures receiving investments include video game developer Burst Online Entertainment LLC, mobile app development platform CloudMine (which is in the Project Liberty incubator program), RFID tag maker RCD Technology, Inc. of Quakertown, and data analytics firm Plehn Analytics Corp. of Philadelphia.

Ben Franklin's press release is below:


Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania Approves $1.7 Million for 11 Early-Stage Companies

January 11, 2012

PHILADELPHIA, PA (www.sep.benfranklin.org) – Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP) recently approved $1,665,000 for 11 early-stage companies.

“These eleven biotechnology, mobile technology and advanced manufacturing companies are indicative of the entrepreneurial diversity of our region” said RoseAnn B. Rosenthal, President & CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Companies approved for funding:

Burst Online Entertainment LLC – Philadelphia – Approved Investment: $100,000

An independent video game and social network developer, Burst’s goal is to create a best-in-class social networking gaming platform for the global gamer community—one that facilitates the development, distribution, operation and monetization of high-quality, free, online multiplayer PC-based games.

Burst is on the cutting edge of the global games-as-a-service industry, and fosters a culture centered on collaboration, teamwork, creativity, and delivering high-quality entertainment experiences to gamers across the globe.

The company is led by Damon Alberts, President; Jordan Schwartz, COO; and David Bowman, Vice President of Product Development.


CD Diagnostics, LLC – Wynnewood – Montgomery County – Approved Investment: $275,000
CD Diagnostics is developing diagnostic tests for orthopedic surgeons and rheumatologists, to allow them to establish the best treatment for their patients more quickly and with less trial and error. Targeted diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, gout, and osteoarthritis.

The company’s first product in development is CygnaSure™, offering orthopaedic surgeons and rheumatologists a rapid, accurate and reliable diagnostic answer.

The company was founded by Dr. Carl Deirmengian, MD, and is led by CEO Richard Birmeyer, Ph.D.; and Michael Bear, Vice President of Sales and Marketing.


CloudMine – Philadelphia – Approved Investment: $100,000
CloudMine is a platform that eliminates the need for mobile app developers to build expensive and time-consuming custom backend solutions for their apps.

By allowing developers to focus on making their mobile apps “shine,” rather than the IT infrastructure development overhead, they can get their products to market faster, cheaper, and with fewer headaches; and enjoy full back-end support.
The company is led by its three co-founders: Brendan McCorkle, CEO; Marc Weil, CTO; and Ilya Braude, Technology Lead.

CloudMine is a member of the inaugural class of companies in the Project Liberty Digital Incubator, an effort among Philadelphia Media Network (PMN), the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Ben Franklin, Dreamit Ventures and Drexel University. The Incubator is designed to stimulate the establishment and growth of digital media startup companies in the Philadelphia region.


EyeIC, Inc. – West Conshohocken – Montgomery County – Approved Investment: $150,000 - (Ben Franklin previously invested $575,000)

EyeIC is a cutting-edge medical technology firm dedicated to commercializing imaging technologies for medical applications.

EyeIC was founded around patented technology developed by Dr. Jeffrey Berger and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine who were interested in the application of information technology to medical imaging. While the initial uses are in ophthalmology, MatchedFlicker has broader applications throughout medicine.

MatchedFlicker was recently approved for patient use by the Food and Drug Administration.

EyeIC is led by Philip Heifetz, President and CEO; and Steve Bakanov, MS, Ph.D., Technology Director.


Tadpoles – Philadelphia – Approved Investment: $50,000

Tadpoles utilizes both web-based and mobile app technology to link together childcare and education providers to parents. For providers, the app provides services including attendance records, medical and emergency information, and schedule streamlining. Parents can receive photos and videos of their kids, behavior reports, reminders, and more.

The service is free for providers, and parents pay a monthly subscription fee for photos and video, but notices are provided at no charge.

The company is led by co-founders Andrew Monroe and Bill McHugh.


Holganix LLC – Glen Mills – Delaware County – Approved Investment: $200,000
(Ben Franklin previously invested $250,000)

Holganix owns and markets the Holganix System, a turf health enhancer that is both more effective and less expensive than the leading fertilizer products on the market. In addition, Holganix eliminates the pesticides, nitrates and phosphates typically found in such fertilizers. Holganix’s holistic, organic approach leads to greener plants and bluer water than other products.

Holganix, LLC is led by Barrett Ersek, CEO; Stephen Lange, Vice President R&D; Paul Commons, CFO; and Dave Thompson, Vice President Operations.

Holganix was recently profiled on an Executive Leaders Radio show, hosted by Ben Franklin.


Plehn Analytics Corp. – Philadelphia – Approved Investment: $150,000

Plehn compiles unique economic and financial reports that enable its clients in the financial services industry to make more informed decisions. The reports contain information from publicly available U.S. government-supplied data.

Plehn’s capability stems from familiarity with complex government processes, access to more than 100 government agencies, a deep understanding of the underlying data, advanced statistical and econometric research, and the ability to ensure consistency in the resulting reports.

The company is led by Dr. Jose M. Plehn-Dujowich, Founder, Chairman, & Chief Research Officer; Dr. Ivan Ruzic, President & CEO; and Kevin Sheetz, Managing Director of Banking.


Prezacor, Inc. – Newtown – Bucks County – Approved Investment: $250,000

Prezacor® is a medical products company that is developing and marketing an innovative pain management technology used in patches applied to painful areas of the body.

The Prezacor® scientists created a thin, flexible semi-conductor device that can accept an electrical charge, act as a holding capacitor, then release the accumulated energy at lower frequencies and intensities.

The company is led by Dr. James Pachence, CEO; Dr. Gary Karpf, Founder & Chief Scientific Officer; and Dr. Robin Karpf, Vice President of Design & Development.


QR Pharma, Inc. – Berwyn – Montgomery County – Approved Investment: $110,000
(Ben Franklin previously invested $500,000)

QR Pharma is a specialty pharmaceutical company founded to develop novel treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative disorders. The company has two compounds in clinical development: Posiphen® targets early stage Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and may stop or slow the progression of the disease.

The company is led by Maria Maccecchini, Ph.D., Founder, CEO & President; and John Bennett, COO.

In 1992, Ben Franklin invested in Dr. Maccecchini’s Symphony Pharmaceuticals, which sold to Transgenomic in 2001. Dr. Maccecchini was recently profiled on an Executive Leaders Radio show, hosted by Ben Franklin.


RCD Technology, Inc. – Quakertown – Bucks County – Approved Investment: $160,000

RCD Technology develops and manufactures high performance RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags that are tailored to specific, high value, technically challenging applications.

The company has developed successful solutions in asset tracking, people tracking, vehicle access control, medical samples tracking, and national ID card markets for customers including the U.S. Department of State.

RCD is led by Dr. Robert Oberle, Ph.D., Founder & CTO; Sandra Garby, Founder & Vice President of Operations; and Ken Horton, Chief Executive Officer.


Stabiliz Orthopaedics, LLC – Philadelphia – Approved Investment: $120,000

Stabiliz Orthopaedics is a medical device company focused on developing, refining and bringing to market innovative and proprietary orthopedic medical devices. The primary applications for its principal technologies are in the treatment of traumatic bone fractures.

Stabiliz is led by Dr. Doug Cerynik, President & CEO; Dr. Susan Harding; Bradley Grossman, MBA, Vice President of Operations; and Michael Adelizzi, MBA, Vice President of Research & Development.


* * * *

About Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania is a national, award winning model for technology innovation, and a catalyst for Stimulating Entrepreneurial Potential. For more than 28 years, we have invested in innovative enterprises and created commercialization pathways and partnerships that generate wealth through science and technology. We offer entrepreneurs and established businesses the Capital, Knowledge and Networks to compete in the global marketplace. We have invested more than $150 million to grow more than 1,700 regional enterprises across all areas of technology.

Ben Franklin’s programs and partnerships with universities, corporations and investors strengthen the region’s innovation infrastructure. Together with partners across the region, we are fostering the formation of a Greater Philadelphia energy cluster…Power Valley. We are the commercialization partner for the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster (GPIC) national energy hub, and the founding partner of the Energy Commercialization Institute (ECI). We are founding partners of The Nanotechnology Institute (NTI), Emerald Stage2 Venture Fund, and numerous other programs and initiatives.

Ben Franklin is part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Technology Partnership.



For additional information, please visit www.sep.benfranklin.org, Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter.



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