(Update) Report: SunGard Availability Services up for sale?





Tom Paine



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A story from Reuters suggests that Wayne-based SunGard Data Systems is looking to sell all or part of its $1.4 billion (revenue) SunGard Availability unit. The story is, in fact, confusing and not precise regarding whether SunGard would sell all of SunGard Availability or only the "Managed Servics" portion of it.

Reuters cites sources as saying the sale could raise up to $2 billion, ten times the unit's (to be sold) earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of around $200 million.

SunGard Data Systems was taken private in a $11.4 billion leveraged buyout (LBO) in 2005.

SunGard Data Systems sold its Malvern-based SunGard Higher Education unit to Datatel (now Ellucian) for $1.7 billion in early 2012. SunGard Data Systems' largest remaining unit is SunGard Financial Systems, which accounted for 62% of its $4.3 billion in revenue in 2012. SunGard Fnancial, which is run out of New York, is a powerful force in the banking & finance industries, but it also has not grown much recently due to the financial crisis and other factors.

There had been talk in recent years (fueled by the company itself at times) of spinning off SunGard Availability in an IPO, but the unit has probably not shown enough growth momentum to make such an offering attractive. SunGard Availability's overall revenue has been essentially flat over the past several years, although some areas of the business are
growing while others are declining. SunGard Availability is based in Wayne, and has major data center operations in (the city of) Philadelphia and many other locations in North America and Europe. It provides disaster recovery and business continuity services, as well as cloud hosting services.

SunGard has not commented on the Reuters story.


MentorTech Ventures joins MissionOG in CloudMine round





Tom Paine



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UPenn-connected MentorTech Ventures has joined MissionOG in a new investment round in Philly-based startup CloudMine, MentorTech Managing Director Brett Topoche said via a tweet yesterday and confirmed to Philly Tech News via email. The Form D filing related to the offering dated in March said it was for up to $750,000, and that $505,000 had been raised at that time. I can't confirm the total amount raised to date, or whether there were any other investors in this round. The financing was in the form of convertible debt. MissionOG's investment had already been made public. Topoche says he will join CloudMine's board as an advisor.

CloudMine was in DreamIt Venture's 2011 Philadelphia class and raised an additional $480,000 in 2012 from investors that included Ben Franklin Technology Partners SEP and RobinHood Ventures. MentorTech's investments always have some Penn connection, and CloudMine CEO Brendan McCorkle received his Master of Science in Engineering in Computer and Information Science (a program sponsored by the school of engineering and Wharton) from there.

CloudMine competes in a hot, emerging market: backend-as-a-service (BaaS). It provides a cloud-based platorm that helps enterprises build mobile & web-based backend solutions and connect data sources such as Salesforce.com and SharePoint.




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Daily Links 6/19/2013: Unisys to help Dept of Interior move SAP ERP to cloud





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Telecom Industry Could See Biggest Merger Spree Since ’06 (Bloomberg)

Dish Says It Won’t Submit a New Offer for Sprint Ahead of Deadline (New York Times: Dealbook)

Special Report: Bad Karma: How Fisker burned through $1.4 billion on a 'green' car (Reuters)

Unisys nabs $44M task order to move Interior financial system to the cloud
(Washington Technology)
Involves moving Interior's SAP-based ERP system to cloud, partnering with cloud-hosting firm Virtustream.

Pindrop Security raises $11M from A16Z and others to help prevent phone fraud (PandoDaily)
Based in Atlanta, but also has people in Philly and Boston.

Fab.com Raises $150 Million, Valuing Retailer at $1 Billion (Bloomberg)
First Round Capital was an early investor.

MemSQL makes it easier to import historical data and query it all under one roof (Gigaom)
This is an interesting company. Based in San Francisco; investors include First Round Capital and New Enterprise Associates.

Chinese businessman gets 12 years for software piracy
(Philadelphia Inquirer)
Targets included Exton-based Analytical Graphics.



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