Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (1/2/2012 to 1/8/2012) : StarCite, DailyWorth, Novotorium & more
Philly-based SaaS corporate meeting management service StarCite, which had struggled during the recession but was showing signs of recovery, was acquired by San Diego-based Active Network for about $57 million in cash and stock. Active Network says it bought StarCite for both its customer base and its technology, and is not planning any cuts, reports the Business Journal's Peter Key, although some senior management will depart. StarCite has over 300 employees including over 50 in Center City. Active Network expects revenue before some accounting adjustments of $47 million attributable to StarCite in 2012. The combined company will hopefully be better positioned to compete with Cvent, which raised $136 million last year. Wayne-based ICG was StarCite's largest equity holder, with a reported 36% stake.
Philly Tech News reported on Bucks County incubator Novotorium accepting its first venture partner: online restaurant portal Zuppler.
DailyWorth, the email newsletter started by Philadelphian Amanda Steinberg (though based in New York now) raised $2 million from a prestigious list of investors, although some media reports failed to mention the round was actually led by Philadelphia's Robin Hood Ventures.
Coursekit, which was founded at Penn but also migrated to New York, raised $5 million as it seeks to revolutionize learning management systems in higher education.
SAP Ventures participated in a $53.4 million round for enterprise social media vendor Lithium Technologies, perhaps indicating another possible option for SAP's long-term social media strategy.
New Jersey Tech Weekly contributed a post on its top stories of its inaugural year of 2011.
And Center City's RJMetrics, provider of ecommerce business intelligence software, having done an amazing job of bootstrapping for about 3 years finally broke down and took in $1.2 million to fund accelerating growth.
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