Showing posts with label ICG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ICG. Show all posts

Links 10/31/2013: Time Warner Cable earnings show impact from CBS fight, but shares rise on M&A speculation








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Comcast could license tech to other U.S. cable operators: executive (Reuters)

Time Warner Cable Loses 306,000 TV Subscribers Amid CBS Dispute (Hollywood Reporter)

TWC Shares Rise On M&A Spec (Multichannel News)

Goldman Sachs’s Armstrong Is Said to Leave Firm for Comcast Job (Bloomberg)
Would head up IR.


Pa. bill would deregulate phone companies (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Q&A: Stephen Goodman, the Entrepreneurship Guru
(Keystone Edge)

InterDigital Announces Third Quarter 2013 Financial Results
Success in Arbitrations Drives Revenue of $110.6 Million, Net Income of $26.7 Million

(InterDigital Press Release)



ICG Announces Third Quarter Financial Results
Announcement of Procurian Transaction Marks Evolution into Pure-Play Cloud Company
(Globe Newswire)

Bolt Solutions Acquires Online Aggregator Superior Access (SAIS) (Insurance Journal)
New York-based Bolt is 53% owned by ICG.


Google, Oracle Workers Enlisted for Obamacare 'Tech Surge'
(Bloomberg)










Philly Tech News Three big deals: Veeva prices IPO; Accenture buys Procurian; Comcast buys Universal City tower





Tom Paine



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California-based Veeva Systems, which has a significant presence in the Philadelphia area, indicated its pricing range for its planned IPO in a regulatory filing.

The company and existing shareholders are offering 13 million shares at $12 to $14 each, which could raise as much as $183 million. At the midpoint of that range, Veeva would be valued at about $1.6 billion. The price range and number of shares is not final and can be adjusted as the offering date approaches. No word on when it might be scheduled yet.

Veeva is a SaaS life sciences vendor that started with CRM, but appears to be taking broader aim at the large vertical market, with Oracle its primary competitor. It has offices in Radnor and Fort Washington. I've written about the planned offering here and also here.



Accenture, already a leading force in the third-party procurement space, today announced plans to acquire another leader, King of Prussia-based Procurian, for $375 million.

Procurian, mostly owned by Wayne-based ICG, was considered by many to be best-of-breed among procurement outsourcing vendors. Founded in 1999 as ICG Commerce near the height of the VerticalNet bubble (ICG was also an investor in that company), it changed its name to Procurian in early 2012. I'm not an expert on its history, but my recollection is that it struggled for a while before honing in on a strategy that clicked. ICG gradually bought out most other investors, including Cross Atlantic Capital Partners.

Spend Matters, an authoritative website covering the procurement industry, provides more insight into the deal and says it establishes a benchmark price for top companies in that sector of about 3x revenue, which presumably would put Procurian's revenue at roughly $125 million.

In its own statement, ICG said it expected to realize approximately $324 million from the transaction and that it (ICG) will emerge "as a high-growth, pure-play cloud computing company, with market-leading positions in the public sector, compliance and insurance markets."

Procurian has approximately 780 employees and all are expected to join Accenture, the acquiring company says.


Universal City Plaza (Wikipedia)

Does Comcast have an edifice complex, or does it simply prefer buying to leasing? Comcast is buying the 35 story Universal City Plaza, the tallest building in the Valley, for a reported $420 million. NBCU is already the majority tenant there, but according to one source the building is almost 30% vacant. Earlier this year Comcast purchased a big part of 30 Rock, and there has also been seemingly well-grounded speculation that it is looking at building one or more additional towers in Center City.


Daily Links 5/3/2013: NewSpring Capital Raises $250 Million Growth Equity Fund





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Here's Why Cloud Startups Are Not A Threat To Enterprise Software Giants Like Oracle And SAP (Business Insider)
According to Bill McDermott, anyway.

Teradata’s Q1 weak, outlook cut (ZDNet)

Sprout Launches on Cablevision's Optimum TV
Pre-School Channel Launches On Digital Basic, TV Everywhere
(Multichannel News)
Comcast NBCU's Sprout is based in Philadelphia.

After break for good life, it's back to software (Philadelphia Inquirer)

NewSpring Capital Raises $250 Million Growth Equity Fund (NewSpring
Capital Website)

ICG Announces First Quarter Financial Results
Increased Revenue 34%, Doubled Sales and Marketing Investment and is on Track to Meet Guidance
(Globe Newswire)




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Daily Links 2/19/2013: Comcast trying out prepaid Internet Service in Philly





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ICG Increases Ownership in SeaPass Solutions (Globe Newswire)

Curalate Pairs Pinterest, Instagram Analytics Also adds promotions tool for photo-sharing service (Adweek)

Company News: TicketLeap Names Tim Raybould as President and COO; Chris Stanchak as Chairman of the Board
(TicketLeap Blog)

Business Modelling And Planning Solution Anaplan Acquires Vue Analytics, Hires Ex-SAP France COO To Head Up Its European HQ (TechCrunch)

Synygy Rolls Out New Data Management Application for Optymyze (Business Wire)

AppExchange Seven Years On (Denis Pombriant/Enterprise Irregulars)

NBC's 44% Plunge Reveals: Football Has Become TV's Addiction
Pigskin Carried the Peacock in Fourth Quarter, Showing TV's Reliance on Sports
(Ad Age)

Comcast Pitches Pre-Paid Internet Service (Light Reading Cable)

CAN AEREO DISRUPT THE TV BUSINESS? (KEN AULETTA/The New Yorker)

Bloomberg’s parting gift to NYC tech: an online hub to make doing tech in NY easier (PandoDaily)

Berwyn-based Diagonal Consulting acquired (Philadelphia Inquirer)
SAP consultant in quick sale after UK parent 2e2 goes bust.


Unisys Awarded Contract to Support IRS Mission-Critical Computing Systems (PR Newswire)

Get ready for a credit-card war in Wilmington (Delaware Online: Delaware Inc.)




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Google acquires ICG's majority-owned Channel Intelligence for $125 million




Google has acquired Radnor-based ICG's 52%-owned Channel Intelligence for $125 million, ICG announced this morning.

Orlando-based Channel Intelligence helps marketers track where their products are being sold online. It cites as major customers Target, Philips, HP, Neiman Marcus, Best Buy and Kimberly-Clark. It was founded in 1999.

Early last year ICG increased its stake slightly to exceed 50% and appointed ICG President Doug Alexander as Channel Intelligence CEO. Channel Intelligence's other owner is Aweida Capital Management.

I'll be looking for more details.



Daily Links 1/23/2013: ICG agrees to sell InvestorForce for $23.5 million




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SAP Forecasts At Least 12% Profit Gain on Software Demand (Bloomberg)

SAP CEO: Software Industry Being Split in Two (CNBC)

SAP's 2012 earnings mask challenges (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet)

Why Microsoft May Want to Invest in Dell (Wall Street Journal: The CIO Report)

Google: Motorola Home Had $820 Million in Q4 Sales
Internet Giant Reports Motorola Home as 'Discontinued Operation' with Pending Arris Deal
(Multichannel News)

Google Fiber 'not a hobby,' could expand, tech giant's execs say (LA Times)

Netflix Subscriber Gain of 2.05 Million Beats View; Shares Surge (Bloomberg)

ICG Agrees to Sale of InvestorForce to MSCI for $23.5 million (Globe Newswire)
InvestorForce is based in Conshohocken.



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SAP's Ariba acquisition brings back memories of Verticalnet


Tom Paine







SAP's $4.3 billion acquisition of SaaS business commerce exchange Ariba, announced this past Tuesday, brings back memories of one famous (perhaps infamous to some) Philly area startup, Verticalnet.

Founded in 1995 in Horsham as Water Online by Michael Hagan and Michael McNulty and later boosted by an investment from Internet Capital Group (which in turn had backing from Safeguard Scientifics), Verticalnet set out hoping to be what Ariba eventually became; a portal connecting buyers and sellers in different business to business vertical markets to streamline procurement and electronic transaction processesing between them. At the time, the idea of applying the Internet to B2B commerce was very new and exciting to investors, although few had more than the vaguest idea of what it actually might involve.

Verticalnet went public in February 1999 and its shares rose from $16 to over $45 in the first day of trading, giving it a market value of $738 milliion. At that time, I think Verticalnet had little more than a rough roadmap of where it was going; its website as I remember it from that period consisted of little more than a collection of online trade pubs aimed at various verticals. There were few tools that actually helped automate buying and selling. The company went out after the IPO and made several acquisitions, none of them huge, and even though it was still a rather tiny business its market value continued to soar, reaching over $12 billion at the height of the Tech Bubble in 2000, even though its revenue at the time was only slightly over $100 million with huge operating losses. But its share price, which briefly exceeded $130, was in the $1 range by 2001 after the bubble burst. The company lost its main currency, a high stock price, for acquiring other companies to build out its strategy, as well as its ability to raise significant capital. A deal with Microsoft help keep it above water for awhile, but Verticalnet was soon fighting for its survival.





Internet Capital Group (now ICG), which at one point during the bubble was valued at over $80 billion, also saw its share price collapse, as did its backer Safeguard Scientific and many other prominent investors, several with Philly area ties (this Fortune article from 2001 tells the story well.) While Verticalnet wasn't the sole reason for the collapse of those firms' value, it was, to me at the time, the epitome of the bubble: a startup with a $12 billion market cap with few real assets, a vague strategy, and limited technology.

To get an idea of what happened to Verticalnet after the crash, I turned to Jason Busch, Executive Editor of Spend Matters, probably the leading website covering the procurement and what is referred to as "spend management" spaces. A Philly native now based in Chicago who is putting his degrees from UPenn (undergrad and MA History) to good use, Busch knows the industry. He once worked for a competitor acquired by Ariba, and covers the business with a passion for detail that's reflected in his extensive analysis of the SAP/Ariba deal. He also writes about how Ariba came back almost from the dead (it was caught up, though not quite as severely, in the same market collapse that hit Verticalnet) to become the leader in cloud-based collaborative commerce applications.

Verticalnet, Busch said in a phone interview with Philly Tech News, did ultimately produce some solid technology, much of it gained through the acquisition at the end of 2001 of Atlas Commerce, a Malvern-based company backed by Safeguard Scientifics that made Verticalnet a competitive private e-marketplace software provider. Busch also said Verticalnet had some very talented people who contributed considerably to the "thought leadership" of the industry. But the constant lack of financial stability hindered its ability to win large enterprise deals.

Utlimately, while Verticalnet developed some credible offerings it was never able to gain the scale it needed to compete with Ariba and other larger, growing competitors. It was finally acquired in 2007 by spend analysis vendor BravoSolution SpA, a subsidiary of Italcementi, SpA, the world's fifth-largest cement make, for $15.2 million. Verticalnet gave BravoSolution an entry point into the North American market. BravoSoution, which has global revenue of about $80 million, has its US headquarters in Chicago now and still has an office in Malvern, although that is a relatively small part of its operations today, Busch tells me.

Verticalnet had many good and talented people; quite a few of them still contribute to the Philly Tech scene (see Verticalnet alumni page on Facebook). I am not trying to disparage the people who founded and funded Verticalnet, because obviously there was a market to go after there. Safeguard, which back then dominated the Philly venture capital scene through a keiretsu-like network, has recovered as a more focused firm with bright people making what appear to be intelligent, farsighted investment decisions. ICG is still around, although with a much smaller footprint. But back in the bubble days there was almost a "Masters of the Universe" atmosphere around Safeguard & ICG, a belief they could create enormous wealth out of almost nothing. And it took Philly's tech ecosystem years to recover from the aftermath of the bubble bursting.

If you are concerned about a new tech bubble forming today, that might be happening in some areas. But we are nowhere near the type of irrational exuberance that was reflected in Verticalnet's market capitalization.

Any feedback?



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Daily Links 5/3/2012: Uber soft launches in Philadelphia



Rob Van Der Merwe Steps Down as Checkpoint Systems, Inc. Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer (Business Wire)

Checkpoint Systems, Inc. Announces First Quarter 2012 Results (Business Wire)

Warwick Valley Telephone aims to answer customers' shifting needs (Middletown Time Herald-Record)
Alteva's upstate New York-based parent, which held its annual shareholders meeting in Philadelphia yesterday.

Set-top revenue declines at Motorola Mobility (FierceCable)

Cablevision Falls After Discounting Leads to Cash Flow Drop (Bloomberg)
Cable competition is a great thing, where it exists.

Multiplatform TV: Comcast Set To Launch Live ESPN, Disney 'TV Everywhere' Services (Multichannel News)


ICG Announces First Quarter Financial Results (Globe Newswire)

Quepasa Corporation Reports Record Results for the First Quarter of 2012 (Marketwire)

Oracle, SAP Battle Over 'hypothetical License' Damages (PC World)

LogiStar Partners with Futura Mobility to Extend MDM Services to its Integrated SAP Practice (Business Wire)
Both companies are based in Fort Washington.

Uber Feels The Brotherly Love, Begins Testing Its On-Demand Car Service In Philadelphia (TechCrunch)

Devon IT Demos New Thin Client and VDI Solutions at Citrix Synergy 2012 (Business Wire)


Daily Links 4/18/2012: InterDigital may move some jobs to Delaware; Five Below files for IPO



InterDigital eyes Delaware
Patent-rich wireless technology company looks to add jobs in state
(Wilmington News Journal)
No, the entire company is not moving from King of Prussia.

Five Below, Inc. Files Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering (Business Wire)

Five Below initial public offering to raise $150 million (AP via USA Today)

Five Below: Another winner for First Round's Kopelman? (Philly Tech News)
Reposted from last month.

eBay’s Stock Jumps Thanks to Double-Digit Revenue Gains (All Things Digital)
Says GSI Commerce business generated $715 million in merchandise sales, up 26 percent from the same period last year.

Bill McDermott Talks Jobs on Fox Business (Video/SAP TV)

Software maker SAP eyes cloud acquisitions: report (MarketWatch)

SAP Designs Facility for 'aGile' Cloud Application Development (CIO)

Wow Buys Knology for $750 Million (New York Times: DealBook)

Rockefeller Tees Up Online Video Hearing
Meeting to Focus on Migration from Traditional TV to Online
(Multichannel News)

Verizon selling 700MHz spectrum, but only if government approves its AWS purchase (Engadget)

Sony, AU Optronics in talks on OLED TV production: report (Reuters)
What might this mean for Universal Display?

Chariot Solutions Launches Scholars Program to Increase Diversity of Software Engineers in the Philadelphia Region; Scholarship Recipients to Receive Mentoring, Training, and Continuing Education (PR Web)

ICG Company Procurian Demonstrates Strong Q1 Traction
ICG Increases 2012 Annual Guidance
(Globe Newswire)



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Daily Links 4/2/2012: Philadelphia Media Network sold; Dell Acquires Wyse



Local group to buy Phila. Media Network for $55 million (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Dell Buys Cloud Client Computing Company Wyse To Expand Desktop Virtualization Products (TechCrunch)
Wonder what this means for King of Prussia-based Devon IT, a key Dell supplier in this market.

Dell To Acquire Virtual Desktop Player Wyse Technology (All Things D)
One analyst pegs price at between $350 and $400 million on estimated revenue of $375 million.

Dell plans to acquire Wyse. (It's about time!) (BrianMadden.com)

Apple Jumps to #2 Position in New IDC Health Insights Life Sciences Survey; a 220% Increase Since 2009
Dell leads hardware category while Oracle maintains position as #1 software vendor of choice
(Business Wire)

SAP Celebrates 40 Years of Innovation (PR Newswire)



SAP structures specialized unit for national security clients (Washington Technology)

WorldGate files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy (phillyBurbs.com)
The end of the line for WorldGate; an interesting piece of Philly Tech history.

ICG Acquires MSDSonline, a Cloud-Based Environmental, Health and Safety Compliance Solution (Globe Newswire)
Pays $48 million for 96%.

Will telcos and MSOs lose SMEs to upstart hosted service providers? (FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Rue La La bulks up on warehouse space (Internet Retailer)
Buys 400,000 square foot Louisville warehouse from GSI Commerce. Michael Rubin reacquires one of his old properties.



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Daily Links 11/3/2011: SAP says Cloud strategy coming, while Oracle defends its own and criticizes Salesforce

SAP Readies Comprehensive Cloud Strategy
Co-CEO Bill McDermott says SAP is ready to "unleash the tiger" in the cloud computing market in 2012.
(Information Week)

Oracle defends its cloud, tears into Salesforce.com (Ars Technica)

NetSuite Q3 better than expected (ZDNet Blogs)

HDS to release converged computing platform for SAP
SAP HANA will be available later this year
(Computerworld)

Competition and a weak economy plague cable TV (CNET News)

DirecTV Reports Third-Quarter Subs, Profit Increase (Hollywood Reporter)

How Much Does an NBC Turnaround Even Matter Any More? (Ad Age)

TE Connectivity beats, warns on consumer markets (Reuters)
TE Connectivity, formerly Tyco Electronics, has its operational headquarters in Berwyn.

ICG Announces Third Quarter Financial Results (Globe Newswire)
Says delays in contract signings impacting second half, lowers revenue guidance.

Business Intelligence Decisions and Directions (Sandhill)
Interview with Radnor-based QlikTech's Donald Farmer.

Intel Capital Leads $35.5M Round In TV E-Commerce Platform Delivery Agent (TechCrunch)

VCs Turn Gloomy About Their Prospects: Report (PE Hub)



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Daily Links 2/25/2011: Drexel to get five times the bandwith

Comcast Preps a Docsis 3.0 Boost (Light Reading Cable)
For upload speeds.

Peers or not? Comcast and Level 3 slug it out at FCC's doorstep (Ars Technica)

NBCU Local Strategy: Balancing Individualism And Uniform Qualities (paidContent)

Is Verizon's FiOS Deployment Freeze Thawing?
Verizon Tells Wilmington, Delaware New Deployments Loom
(Broadband Reports)
Update: One more reason why blogs are no substitute for newspapers (Delaware Online: Delaware Inc.)
While the Broadband Reports article above is wrong (sometimes old articles pop up in search engines or RSS Feeds), there is still a certain irony in going back and reading what the Verizon
exec said two years ago and what hasn't happened since then.

Salesforce wins bet on the cloud, doubles down on social (Fortune)

SAP Announces Blockbuster BusinessObjects Upgrade (Information Week)

Alcatel Lucent to help bring metering technology to Pennsylvania (PennEnergy)

Philadelphia Business Journal’s Social Media Stars announced (Philadelphia Business Journal)

ICG Announces 2010 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Financial Results
Core Consolidated Revenue Increases 27% in 2010
Metastorm Sale Completed
(Globe Newswire)

Demand for Accelerated Cost Savings Fuels Continued Growth for ICG Commerce
Comprehensive Procurement Solution Provider Sees 20 Percent-Plus Revenue Growth for Sixth Consecutive Year
(Globe Newswire)

Network to be upgraded
Five times more bandwidth for campus
(The Triangle)



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