The Long Reach of Oracle’s Larry Ellison (All Things Digital)
SAP And Oracle Battle, Customers Avoid Choosing Sides (Information Week)
Why Amazon Should Buy Hulu (Read Write Web)
Quality Systems, QlikTech earnings reports
What are probably the two hottest publicly traded tech companies with a major presence in the Philadelphia area announced quarterly results yesterday.
Quality Systems, Inc. is not actually based here, but in Irvine, CA, though virtually all of its revenue generating business comes out of its Horsham-based NextGen Healthcare unit. NextGen provides electronic health record (EHR) systems to health practices and hospitals, though it has historically gotten most of its business from smaller practices. It has benefitted from the up to $19 billion in subsidies offered through the HITECH Act (part of the stimulus package) that go to physicians who convert to electronic records and achieve what the government defines as "Meaningful Use".
In its Q1 2012 results reported yesterday, Quality Systems announced its first $100 million quarter, as revenue grew 21% and net income increased 57%, beating estimates. The company also announced that its Board had approved a two-for-one stock split. Quality Systems is now trading at $89.30, giving it a market value of $2.6 billion.
The other significant announcement yesterday is that Quality Systems' President (and former NextGen President), Patrick B. Cline, is retiring at the end of the year. Cline, who is a fairly young guy, said during NextGen's conference call that his only plans for now were to spend more time with his family, although he might consider taking on something else in the future. Cline co-founded Clinitec, based in Horsham, in 1994; it was acquired by Quality Systems two years later and became the foundation of NextGen Healthcare. Cline is widely respected in the industry. No successor has been named.
QlikTech, the Radnor-based in-memory Business Intelligence vendor that did its IPO a year ago, announced that revenue grew 45% in its second quarter to $74 million. The company posted a small GAAP loss (and a tiny non-GAAP profit) as it continued to push the accelerator down to achieve growth. Headcount is now at 967, up 49% from a year ago, of which over 100 are based in Radnor, a company spokeperson says. (QlikTech was started in Sweeden before moving its headquarters here).
QlikTech now has 21,000 customers, up from 15,000 a year ago, and is seeing more deals in excess of $100,000, from both new and existing customers. As it moves more into the core of the enterprise, QlikTech has needed to enhance its higher level sales resources. It announced yesterday that it had named Joe DiBartolomeo as President of the Americas. DiBartolomeo was a long-time Oracle exec who most recently was heading a unit at Dun & Bradstreet.
QlikTech raised its revenue guidance for 2011; it now expects revenue in excess of $300 million. However, QlikTech also raised its full year operating expense outlook. While it is aggressively spending and expanding to go after the large market opportunity it sees, there are certainly some analysts who have concerns about the expense growth rate and think that maybe a $300 million software company ought to be showing a little more profit.
QlikTech is now trading at over $30, up about 5% on the day, and its market value is $2.45 billion.
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Daily Links 7/29/2011: Inquirer building is sold
Motorola Mobility Sees Home Unit's Sales Dipping In Q3
Full-Year 2011 Revenue of Cable-Centric Unit Projected to Be Flat With 2010 (Multichannel News)
Hulu Sued by Rovi for Infringement of Patents for Interactive Television (Bloomberg)
Comcast's Bill Stemper leads journey into the enterprise market (FierceCable)
Inquirer sells its building
The buyer is developer Bart Blatstein. Plans for the tower are unclear. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
L-3 profit rises, firm spinning off unit (MarketWatch)
L-3 has major operations in South Jersey.
ICG Announces Second Quarter Financial Results (Globe Newswire)
CDI Corp. Reports 2011 Second Quarter Results (PR Newswire)
Wolters Kluwer, betting on apps, plans sale of pharma-related unit (Medical Marketing & Media)
NetSuite's Q2 blows out all metrics (ZDNet Blogs)
SAP Co-Innovation Lab: Collaborative, open innovation (Gigaom)
Oracle Buys InQuira to Boost Fusion CRM (PC World)
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How people watch Hulu, Netflix (Nielsen)
Data recently released by Nielsen show starkly the differences in how people use Netflix versus how they use Hulu. Probably not a big surprise to people, but interesting nonetheless.
An overwhelming majority of Hulu viewers watch it directly on a computer, while less than half of Netflix viewers do. Also, notably, a whole lot more Neflix users connect via Wii, PS3 or Xbox Live.
Hulu users watch mostly TV shows, while Netflix viewers watch more movies.
Source: Nielsen Blog.
Judge threatens to hold up Comcast-NBCUniversal antitrust settlement
Judge Threatens to Hold up Comcast-NBCUniversal Merger Approval (Hollywood Reporter)
Actually, Federal Judge Richard Leon is threatening to hold up court approval of the antitrust
settlement that allowed the merger to go forward. His primary concern is that content producers can't appeal the outcome of binding arbitration with Comcast. At first glance, this may force some
minor modifications if necesaary, but probably won't be too big a deal.
Daily Links 7/28/2011: Quality Systems posts strong results; President Patrick Cline to retire
Quality Systems, Inc. Reports Record Fiscal 2012 First Quarter Results; Board Approves 2:1 Stock Split; and President Patrick B. Cline Plans to Retire (Business Wire)
Net income up 57% on revenue growth of 21%. Quality Systems' primary business is NextGen Healthcare of Horsham.
QlikTech Announces Second Quarter 2011 Financial Results (Business Wire)
Revenue up 45%, small GAAP loss; new President of the Americas named.
SunGard Announces Second Quarter 2011 Results (Business Wire)
Pac-12 to Kick Off Home-Grown TV Unit National network and six RSNs will launch in 2012 (Ad Week)
Comcast one of the cable systems it will launch on.
Comcast To FCC: We’re Complying With Merger Rules—Bloomberg’s Playing Games (paidContent)
Sharpton’s Push for Comcast Raises Issues About Possible MSNBC Job (New York Times)
Amazon Inks Deal With NBCUniversal To Stream 1,000 Movies & TV Shows (Mashable)
Kagan: Cable Subs Dip as Multichannel Subs Rise
Report says overall growth came despite increasing online video competition and weak housing market (Broadcasting & Cable)
CEO Geoff Cook: Why We Sold myYearbook (paidContent)
Heartland Payment Systems Reports 35% Increase in Second Quarter Adjusted Earnings Per Share (Business Wire)
SAP, Rent-a-Center in Battle Over Millions in Fees (PC World)
Clearwire's Future Unclear at Sprint (Light Reading Mobile)
DCED: New Round of Investments Spurs Creation and Application of New Technology Industries in Pennsylvania (PA DCED Press Release)
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Daily Links 7/27/2011: paidContent profiles Philadelphia newspaper owner Randall Smith
Safeguard Scientifics Announces Second Quarter 2011 Financial Results (Business Wire)
Jim Snabe, co-CEO SAP explains current business drivers (ZDNet Blogs)
SAP Co-CEO McDermott Talks up HANA, Mobility and SaaS (PC World)
Google and SAP Team-Up to Help You Visualize Big Data (ReadWriteWeb)
InterDigital Announces Second Quarter 2011 Financial Results (Business Wire)
Huawei 'puzzled' at InterDigital patent complaint (CNET News)
Who Is Randall Smith And Why Is He Buying Up Newspaper Companies? (paidContent)
About the mysterious character whose company controls Philadelphia Media Network and Journal Register (a Wharton MBA by the way); will Journal Register CEO John Paton have a new job soon?
Founder Office Hours With Chris Dixon And Josh Kopelman: Schedit (TechCrunch)
Gamma Basics Launches grayCAD, Groundbreaking New Medical Radiation Safety Software (PR Web)
Backed by Bentley family interests.
VITA Products Launches Innovative Contactless Payment Program (Business Wire)
The Pros and Cons of Moving Your Business Into the Cloud (Mashable)
Interviews Chris Cera, CTO for Philly-based Vuzit.
Comcast, Level 3 Still At Impasse Over Internet Connection Fees
Level 3 CEO Crowe: 'Huge Battle' With MSO Over Terms of Traffic Exchange (Multichannel News)
Quality Systems Leverages Fed Stimulus In Health IT (Investor's Business Daily)
Quality Systems' primary business, NextGen Healthcare, is based in Horsham.
Beige Book: Third District-Philadelphia, July 27, 2011 (Federal Reserve Board)
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Philly Tech News "Young Companies to Watch"
Young
Companies
To Watch
This is my somewhat objective, somewhat subjective, imperfect ranking of Philly area startups in terms of their potential, which is normally on the right sidebar. I use financial data when available, and other metrics that are indications of market acceptance. Also considered are factors such the background of founders, quality of investors, amount of investment (though not always a good indicator), the quality of their proprietary intellectual property, and industry recognition. Not interested in revenue for its own sake, but rather the potential for profitability, competitive advantage and market value.
I've found this has generally been a good representative sample, although I've probably completely missed the boat on a few and certainly some other companies should be on the list that aren't. Startups are funny; some take off like rockets almost from the beginning, while others lie fallow for several years before suddenly finding traction.
These are all privately held companies, or companies which are less than 50% owned by a public corporation. The order in which they are listed is not meant to be a precise ranking, but a general indicator of their potential market value. All these companies rely on information technologies for their core offerings, and have headquarters or co-headquarters in the Greater Philadelphia area. The rankings tend to emphasize product-oriented ventures over agencies or consultancies. I update them regularly based upon new information. Four of these companies have been acquired in the last month.
Octagon Research Solutions (Wayne) Life Sciences clinical data management systems company recently announced it was adding 100 employees.
myYearbook (New Hope) Teen-oriented social networking site says it has $30 million annual revenue run rate. Acquisition announced by Quepasa for $100 million in stock and cash (mostly stock) on July 20. Backed by First Round Capital among others.
Portico Systems (Blue Bell) Provider Management solutions for Healthcare payers, recently acquired by McKesson for $90 million; backed by Safeguard Scientifics and Edison Ventures.
AppLabs (Philadelphia, Hyderabad, and London) Though most of its employees are elsewhere, AppLabs is a huge player in the applications software testing business.
InstaMed (Philadelphia) Though very different from Portico, another company focused on processing medical payments.
iPipeline (Exton) SaaS applications for marketing and CRM in the insurance industry.
StarCite (Philadelphia) Corporate event management site is 36% owned by Internet Capital Group. After a period a rapid growth, experienced declining revenue and losses over the past three years, although ICG claims there is "vibrant growth" in 2011 (though it doesn't cite financial figures). Starcite has reportedly hired an advisor to seek new investors or possibly sell the company. Underscoring its dilemna, competitor Cvent just raised $136 million.
ISGN (Bensalem) Mortgage processing and management systems; started building up around time housing bubble burst, but expanded through acquisition and has apparently done allright; raised $25 million from New Enterprise Associates and others in 2007.
Quintiq (Radnor & The Netherlands) Supply chain software vendor just sold reported 48% stake to LLR Partners and NewSpring Capital; says its revenue was $48 million last year, with 40% growth.
Neat Company (Philadelphia) Digital scanning and filing solutions. Much more of a software company than a hardware company.
SevOne (Wilmington) Sophisticated network performance management tools; Comcast was an early customer.
AWeber (Huntingdon Valley) A leader in the hot email marketing management software market for small businesses.
appMobi (Lancaster) appMobi has made waves with its mobile apps development platform. Grew out of Internet-based music service FlyTunes.
LifeShield Security (Yardley) Originally named Ingrid Home Security, IP-based home security system vendor has raised more than $30 million (just closed $8 million round) and is headed by former Nutrisystem CEO Michael Hagan; will they need a bigger partner?
Fiberlink Communications (Blue Bell) Offers cloud-based SaaS app for mobile device security (MaaS360), recently named to AlwaysOn Mobile 100 though I haven't seen any recent financial data for them.
NextDocs (King of Prussia) Uses Microsoft SharePoint to deliver Life Sciences document management solutions software; says it has 85 employees and revenue will be over $10 million this year.
Evolve IP (Wayne) Raised $16 million in 2008 and another $9 million in 2010; provides communications as a service to businesses.
Monetate (Conshohocken) First Round Capital-backed advertising technology firm serving ecommerce sites just moved into larger Conshy offices, says it hopes to double employment from 50 to 100 in 12 months.
Smarter Agent (Camden) Mobile real estate apps developer recently raised $6 million more, bringing its total funding to $18 million; investors include Ira Lubert.
Alteva (Philadelphia) Hosted VoIP & Unified Communications provider just acquired by Warwick Valley Telephone (NY) for $17 million.
Viridity Energy (Conshohocken) Developing software and systems to enable institutions and enterprises to create mini-smart grids. Raised $14 million from investors including Intel Capital early this year. Founded by ex-PJM Interconnection execs.
Safend (Philadelphia & Tel Aviv) Provides endpoint security tools, somewhat similar to Fiberlink Communications. Backing from Intel Capital.
MobileMD (Yardley) Provides HIE (Health Information Exchange) systems to providers such as Main Line Health.
TicketLeap (Philadelphia) Online ticketing platform; started off serving mostly smaller events but tested scaling up by handling ticketing for Comic-Con 2011.
Venmo (Philadelphia) Easy to use mobile payments system. All the big guys are getting in the market, but recent Accel Partners (Facebook etc) press release confirms some earlier but unconfirmed reports that they are an investor in Venmo.
Movitas (Bryn Mawr) Mobile apps for travel, tourism and meetings industries; acquired PhindMe, another local mobile startup, in 2010.
ClickEquations (Conshohocken) Search advertising software firm backed by First Round Capital and Internet Capital Group; recently acquired by another ICG partner, Channel Intelligence, for an undisclosed amount.
PHD Virtual (Philadelphia) Virtual backup system for VMWare and Citrix; Citrix is an investor.
RJMetrics (Philadelphia) Self-funded startup helps Internet-based companies analyze all the data generated by their websites; still small but seems to be on a nice growth path. Now has 11 employees, and moved from Camden to Philly in the beginning of this year.
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Daily Links 7/26/2011: SAP posts strong earnings; InterDigital files patent complaint
InterDigital Gains on Apple-Google Patent Rush (Bloomberg)
Suggests that InterDigital may fetch as much as $5 billion.
InterDigital Files Complaint Against Nokia, Huawei and ZTE With International Trade Commission
Company Seeks Importation Ban for 3G Wireless Products that Infringe on U.S. Patents (Business Wire)
With Bidders Watching, Interdigital Goes On A Mobile Patent Offensive (MocoNews)
SAP AG: SAP REFINES OUTLOOK FOR NON-IFRS SOFTWARE AND SOFTWARE-RELATED SERVICE REVENUE AT CONSTANT CURRENCIES AND NON-IFRS OPERATING PROFIT AT CONSTANT CURRENCIES (DGAP)
Pre-release update: SAP sees annual results at higher end of previously forecasted range based on strong second quarter.
SAP Reports 35% Growth in Software Revenue at Constant Currencies and 20% Growth in Non-IFRS Software and Software-Related Service Revenue at Constant Currencies for the Second Quarter (PR Newswire via MarketWatch)
SAP Q2 Revenue Rises 14 Percent (PC World)
SAP users not readily adopting BusinessObjects, user group finds (Computerword UK)
Lockheed Profit Rises 3.9% on F-35 Orders (Bloomberg)
AMETEK ANNOUNCES RECORD RESULTS (PR Newswire)
Comcast, NBCU Bring Dynamic Ads to VOD
Kraft, Chrysler are initial sponsors (Broadcasting & Cable)
Netflix proclaims Internet as future, but data caps loom as threat (Washington Post: Post Tech)
Quotes Wharton Prof Kevin Werbach.
Safeguard Scientifics Partner Company Portico Systems Closes Sale to McKesson (Business Wire)
Commonwealth to Host Meeting to Discuss Statewide Health Information Exchange (PR Newswire)
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Daily Links 7/25/2011: Comcast teams with Elemental Technologies for OTT technology; Netflix expects slower subscriber growth
Comcast Teams With Elemental Technologies to Stay Ahead of Netflix and Hulu (ReadWriteWeb)
Former Comcaster Kunkel Joins Microsoft's Entertainment Unit
Exec Previously Headed Up GuideWorks Joint Venture (Multichannel News)
Netflix, you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do! (Gigaom)
Netflix Says Its Price Hike Will Clip Revenues For a Quarter (All Things Digital)
Netflix expects subscriber growth to slow in Q3 (VentureBeat)
DVL Announces New Data Center Installation At The Microsoft Technology Center In Malvern, PA (Business Wire)
appMobi’s cloudKey Revolutionizes E-Commerce Security by Eliminating Credit Card Databases
Patent-pending "Distributed Key" technology stores personal information locally, locked with secure keys delivered from the cloud (Business Wire)
Healthcare Disruption: Pharma 3.0 Will Drive Shift from Life Science to HealthTech Investing (Part I of III) (TechCrunch)
Behind Wharton's record-breaking female enrollment (Fortune)
Unisys Announces Second-Quarter 2011 Financial Results (PR Newswire)
Revenue down 10% despite 5% positive foreign currency impact.
Walker brothers are fast-moving entrepreneurs (Philly.com:
Philly Inc)
CDI IT Solutions Moves to New Office in Charlotte, North Carolina (PR Newswire)
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