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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