MoneyTree: US Venture Capital investment way up, but Philly area down

While venture capital investment nationwide showed a signicant increase in Q2 2011, in the Philly area VC funding was down, acoording to data released today in the MoneyTree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA.)

Nationally, venture capital investments rose 19% in Q2 2011 to $7.5 billion in 966 deals, up 19% over Q1 2011. Internet-specific investments were reported to be at a ten year high, and investments in the Life Sciences sector also rose 37% from the previous quarter.

However, VC investment in the Philadelphia Metro area in Q2 2011 was $89 miliion, on 29 deals, down from $128 million in the previous quarter and the lowest amount since Q1 2010.

Of that $89 million, $30 million went to Neuronetics of Malvern, a company that uses magnetic fields to treat depression. There were few large IT or Internet-related deals; the largest was $18 million for Pet360 of Plymouth Meeting, a deal I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.


Other significant investments were in ProtonMedia of Lansdale ($4.5 million) led by Kaplan VC LLC, InstaMed Comunications of Philadelphia ($4 million) from the New Jersey Technology Council and US Bancorp, Collections Marketing Center, Inc. of Wilmington ($2.6 million) led by Milestone Venture Partners and Osage Partners, LLC, Agilence Inc. of Camden ($2.6 million) from MMV Financial, Inc., Aklero Risk Analytics, Inc. of Fort Washington ($1.2 million) led by Robin Hood Ventures, and TimeSight Systems, Inc. of Mount Laurel ($1.1 million) led by Contour Venture Partners and New Venture Partners LLC.

Smaller amounts went to Ryzing LLC (Philadelphia), Sanovia Corporation (Philadelphia), Careerminds Group, Inc. (Hockessin, Delaware), CityRyde LLC (Philadelphia), Yorn LLC (Conshohocken), and AlignAlytics (Wayne), formerly AlineGRC.

Daily Links 7/20/2011: myYearbook acquired for $100 million

Latino Social Net Quepasa Buys myYearbook For $100 million (paidContent)
Perhaps a bit less than I thought it might be worth.

This 21-Year-Old Just Sold Her Startup For $100 Million (Silicon Alley Insider)

Facebook For Latinos Quepasa Buys myYearbook For $100 Million In Cash And Stock (TechCrunch)
Includes letter from CEO Geoff Cook to employees.

Meet Google’s Latest Takeover Target: InterDigital (Wall Street Journal: Deal Journal)
Apple is also interested, according to this Bloomberg report.

TruePosition® Lawsuit Alleges Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Qualcomm Conspired to Eliminate a Predominant Mobile Positioning Technology Used in Emergency Response and Law Enforcement (Business Wire)

Exclusive: Dotcom Era Survivor Cvent Raises $136 Million Round (TechCrunch)
Competes against Philly-based and ICG-backed Starcite in the corporate meetings management software business.

SAIC To Acquire Vitalize Consulting Solutions (HISTalk)
Based in Reading, MA, Healthcare IT consulting firm Vitalize has offices in Chadds Ford Kennett Square.


eBay Beats The Street; Revenue Up 25 Percent To $2.8B; PayPal Posts First $1B Quarter (TechCrunch)
Takes some charges from GSI Commerce acquisition.


Study: Sharp Rise in ERP Users Mulling Support Alternatives (PC World)

Lockheed Martin offers buyouts to 6,500 employees (Washington Post)
About 300 Valley Forge employees among those eligible for buyouts.

Lifeshield Security Locks Up More Than $8 Million in Third Round of Funding (Globe Newswire)

Unlock or unplug remotely with home automation (Philadelphia Daily News)

TE Connectivity profit beats forecasts (Reuters)
TE Connectivity (formerly Tyco Electronics) has its operational headquarters in Berwyn.

Warwick buys Alteva: Are hosted VoIP valuations rising? (NPRG Insights)

Oracle Makes Fusion Applications 'available' (PC World)



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Daily Links 7/19/2011: InterDigital to seek acquisition offers or sale of some IP assets

LLR Partners and NewSpring Capital Invest in Quintiq, Supporting its Continued Drive for Market Leadership (PR Newswire)

Quintiq raises capital from LLR, NewSpring (Philly.com: Philly Inc)
Says new investors' stake is 48%.

InterDigital Exploring Potential Strategic Alternatives (Business Wire)
InterDigital up 24% so far today on the news.

InterDigital explores ways to sell patents or company (Reuters)

Celtics-CSNNE deal includes an equity stake (Boston Globe)

Yahoo Would Buy Hulu For $2 Billion – But Only If It Came With Four Years Of Exclusive Rights (Silicon Alley Insider)

Oh no he didn’t: AT&T’s CEO calls DSL obsolete (Gigaom)

Cable Calls for Backup (Light Reading Cable)
Backup system co-developed by and tested at SCTE headquarters in Exton.

Comcast partners with ColoHouse for Fla. disaster recovery (CED
Magazine)

Battelle Places Order with Instem for Provantis Preclinical and submit-SEND Software Solutions
Instem Solutions to Automate Full Range of R&D Processes (Business Wire)

Greenlink Changing the Daily Deal Market with New Social Couponing Product (Business Wire)

Winshuttle acquires Calif. software company ShareVis (TechFlash)

How SAP Business ByDesign fits into the SaaS ERP landscape (SearchSAP.com)

SunGard Availability Services Announces Expansion into India (PR Newswire)

Texting While Walking Could Get You Fined in Philly (PC World)
Apparently, the story is not accurate; there will be no citations or fines for texting while walking, the Nutter Administration says.



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Yuengling turns to Wayne-based Deacom for ERP System

Pottsville-based D.G. Yuengling & Son, which is said to be the oldest continously operating brewery in the US (founded in 1829) and the fourth largest by volume according to The Brewing Association, has a name that is almost generic for lager in much of Pennsylvania. And its growth, particularly over the past 15 years, has seen its distribution area expand to include most of the East Coast (it just recently announced it is moving into Ohio).


Although the Yuengling family, which still owns and runs the company, has historically been conservative about pursuing growth, consumer demand in a sense has pushed the company to grow with it; Yuengling now produces about 2.2 million barrels per year, up from less than 500,000 in the early 1990s. Yuengling has three brewing facilities now: two in Pottsville-the historic building and a larger one built in 2000-and one in Tampa. It came close to purchasing another in Memphis last year but decided against it, expanding its newer Pottsville brewery instead. (See a recent profile from the Allentown Morning Call).


Yuengling's expansion had stretched its old information systems, consisting mostly of a Unix-based system and various spreadsheets, which in turn may have limited its ability to pursue new opportunities. So it turned to Deacom Inc. of Wayne to increease its ability to manage mutiple functions across the enterprise by implementing Deacom's ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software. The system went live in June. Functions implemented include accounting, sales order management, regulatory reporting, purchasing, production scheduling, inventory, order entry, and retail point of sale (POS). Wendy Yuengling, Project manager at D.G. Yuengling & Son, said in a statement, "“We wanted a system that would reduce the redundancy in our work and minimize much of the manual data entry, which exposed us to the potential for human error. In addition, we needed the ability to work within one system of shared data that would give us greater control and enhanced reporting capabilities".


A key to Deacom being chosen is that it is designed to handle the specific requirements of batch process manufacturing, as opposed to discrete manufacturing. Deacom, which was founded in 1995, says it has over 100 customers in industry segments including lumber and building supplies, food processing, paint, specialty chemicals and pharmacuetical manufacturing. Founder Jay Deakin, who grew up in Gladwyne and played on the golf team at the University of Miami (FLA) back when they had one, started Deacom out of his mother-in-law's basement. In a telephone interview with Philly Tech News, he said that he learned about the specific needs of batch process manufacturers when he built a system inhouse for a previous company he managed because he could not find a adequate solution off-the-shelf. Deacom's application modules are based on proprietary software it developed, though the tools under the hood are mostly Microsoft, such as SQL Server and .Net.


Deakin says he often goes up against the big guys (SAP, Oracle) in competitive situations. The company has no debt or VC money, according to Deakin, and is looking at a period of accelerating growth after being fairly conservative about expansion for a while. Headcount is now 30, and he sees that increasing to about 40 over the next 12 months. While he says Yuengling is not Deacom's largest account, it is probably its most visible to the public.



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Daily Links 7/18/2011: CNN goes to "TV Everywhere" for streaming

Where Canoe Goes From Here
With Exit of CEO Verklin, Industry Reasseses Cable’s Advanced-Ad Venture (Multichannel News)

Rovi Confirms DigiForge Acquisition
Deal Closed June 1, Bringing 45 Employees to Rovi (Multichannel News)

Why Time Warner’s “TV Everywhere” Means “Except For Time Warner Cable” (All Things Digital)

Cisco signs over Mexico manufacturing facility to Foxconn (ZDNet Blogs)
Manufactures set-top boxes and other equipment for the cable industry.

Cisco Slashes Workforce By 11,500, Including 15% Of Execs
(Silicon Alley Insider)


Publicis Adds Big Fuel to Vivaki Wing (ClickZ)

Photonic neuron may compute a billion times faster than brain circuits (News at Princeton)

The succession malaise at Big Enterprise Vendors (ZDNet Blogs)

The elephants not in the SaaS room (ZDNet Blogs)

Blackboard Buyer Providence Equity Acquires Personalized Online Learning Platform From PrepMe (TechCrunch)

Hungry for growth, Comcast sets sights on small business (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

How Alden Global Capital has become a major player in the media business (Poynter)

Jane Fonda jabs at QVC over canceled TV appearance (Reuter via LA Times)

Philly Tech People News 7/17/2011

Time Warner Cable Names Zelesko SVP Web Services And Technology
Responsibilities Include TWCable TV Efforts to Reach Connected-TV Devices (Multichannel News)
Former head of engineering at Comcast Interactive Media.

Harleysville Group Names Herenstein Chief Information Officer (Business Wire)

Washington Metro hires new social media manager
(Washington Post)
Former SEPTA manager of communications Brian Anderson moves to DC.

Electronic Ink Appoints Jeffrey A. Judd Vice President of Client Strategy and Midwest Managing Director (Electronic Ink Press Release)

Janney grabs a Merrill star (Philly.com: Philly Deals)


NBCU Promotes Jodi Kahn to President of iVilliage
Will focus on expanding brand's presence to multiple platforms (Broadcasting & Cable)

Jennifer Salke Named NBC Entertainment President
Exec joins net from 20th Century Fox Television (Broadcasting & Cable)

Drexel University Online Introduces New President and Senior Management Team
Kenneth Hartman, Mark Shay and Todd Lucca make up new senior leadership. (PR Web)

Apollo Health Street Adds Four Healthcare Veterans to Sales Team
(Business Wire)

Haverford Trust Adds to 'Entrepreneur Appeal,' Appoints Award-Winning Entrepreneur to Board
Leading Business Technology Entrepreneur, Diego F. Calderin, Joins Board of Directors (Marketwire)

ICG Commerce Forms Executive Advisory Board for Manufacturing Industry (Globe Newswire)

Todd Kuhn Joins Viamedia as VP/GM for Pennsylvania Sales Operations (PR Newswire)

Building a New Kind of Software Company (Sandhill.com)
By Lars Bjork, CEO of Radnor-based QlikTech.

Working Separately, Together
(New York Times)
Features Philly's Indy Hall.

Get excited, people! Microsoft Store may be coming somewhere near Philly area by 2014

I'm sure everyone in the Philly area feels a void from not having an official Microsoft store nearby.

But one might be coming-by 2014, perhaps.

At the 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner outlined the company's plans to expand its branded store chain to 86 stores by 2014. Specific locations were not named, but this somewhat fuzzy map from a slide show he presented shows possible locations:

If your eyes are sharp, maybe you can pinpoint their placement better than I can, but it looks to me like a couple of them might be in (or near) the Greater Philadelphia area. One looks like its in Delaware.

More on the Alteva acquisition

I listened to the conference call today with Warwick Valley Telephone President & CEO Duane W. Albro regarding its acquisition of Philly-based hosted VoIP and Unified Communications provider
Alteva, which was announced yesterday. He stuck very close to the wording of the press release, adding very little new information.

Warwick Valley plans to merge Alteva with its CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) business US Datanet, which appears to be based in Syracuse. Which raises the question, what will happen to Alteva's operations here?


"Alteva absolutely plans to stay in Philadelphia", Alteva CEO David Cuthbert said today in a statement sent to Philly Tech News. "This is our home and where we grew our business and will continue to grow our business". Cuthbert also says, "Regarding our employees, there will be no job cuts whatsoever as it pertains to this new relationship. We expect our Philadelphia based team, and Alteva based team to continue to grow in the months ahead. In fact, we are in the process of hiring multiple account managers and additional positions throughout our organization".

Cuthbert also emphasized that Alteva is "completely dedicated" to continiung to serve the needs of its clients and partners in the area.

Though publicly traded (NASDAQ: WWVY) , Warwick Valley is not a very large company; its quarterly revenues seem to be running at a flat $6 million per quarter rate. Albro did say during the conference call that Warwick was paying 3.1 x current revenue for Alteva and the acquisition would increase its revenue base by 30%, so presumably Alteva's revenue is around $6 to $7 million. Warwick Valley has not yet broken out its existing CLEC revenues in its financial statements.

Update 7/18: An Alteva spokesperson says David Cuthbert will continue to serve as CEO of Alteva, in addition to being President & COO of Warwick Valley, Louis Hayner will also have a duel role as Chief Sales Officer of both Warwick Valley and Alteva, and Alteva founder Bill Bumbernick will continue to assist the company as a consultant. Mark Marquez, Chief Technology Officer/Systems Architect at Alteva, will become Chief Network Officer for Warwick Valley.



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Daily Links 7/15/2011: QlikTech off 10% on downgrade

Waiting for Canoe (SNL Blogs)
Is Canoe Ventures adrift?

Invidi Preps 'SnapPing' TV Tags For Second-Screen Interactivity
Addressable-Ad Firm Solution Allows Audio, Speech, Text and Image Recognition (Multichannel News)

Is Comcast Headquartered Near Lake Woebegon? (Forbes Blogs)

Hedge fund buys local publisher Journal Register (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Alden Global Capital also holds a "significant stake" in Philadelphia Media Networks (owner of the Inquirer and Daily News), which raises the possibility of more cooperation between them in the future, the Inquirer reports.

Qlik Technologies shares tumble after downgrade (AP via Forbes)

Guardian Capital Partners Acquires R&D Circuits (Business Wire)

Boathouse Capital Closes $120M Debt Fund (PE Hub)

Quality Systems Inc. Opens Innovation Centre in India (Business Wire India)
Quality Systems is parent of Horsham-based NextGen Healthcare.



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