A natural fit: ImpactRX acquires TargetRX

ImpactRX of Mount Laurel has acquired TargetRX of Horsham, combining two companies that provide information to help Pharma companies better understand physicians' perscribing behavior. Terms were not disclosed. The new company will be known as ImpactRX.

Symphony Technology Group acquired a majority stake in ImpactRX in April (Merck Capital Ventures retains a minority stake). Late last month, ImpactRX appointed Gregory Ellis, who had been a Senior Partner with Rosetta Marketing, as President & CEO. TargetRX, founded in 1999, had raised at least $37 million; investors have included New Enterprise Asociates, Domain Associates, and Quaker BioVentures.

Press Release:

ImpactRx Acquires TargetRx

- Combined company to provide unparalleled insight into biopharma's sales and marketing effectiveness -

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J., Sept. 13, 2011 - ImpactRx, a Symphony Technology Group (STG) company and the pioneer in measuring the impact of promotion on physician prescribing behavior, announced today that it has acquired 100% of TargetRx, Inc., a leading provider of insight into the drivers of physician behavior for pharmaceutical companies, in order to combine the highly complementary capabilities of the two companies into a stronger solution offering for customers. The new company will be known as ImpactRx and new ImpactRx President and CEO, Gregory Ellis, will lead the combined company. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
"We are very excited to join forces with TargetRx," declared Ellis. "In the years we spent in the marketplace together, and from the feedback we received from customers, it's clear that the capabilities of these two companies are very complementary," Ellis stated. "ImpactRx specializes in helping clients understand the actual behavior of physicians in response to promotion, while TargetRx helps clients understand the underlying drivers of that behavior as they relate to physicians' attitudes, perceptions and beliefs," said Ellis. "Together, we will provide our clients with an unprecedented level of insight into what physicians do and why they do it," Ellis concluded.
Since its founding in 1999, TargetRx has served a majority of the top thirty pharmaceutical and biotech companies providing them insight into the drivers of product choice and the adoption of their brands. Powered by its unique AdvantageBuilder™ normative database and validated predictive models, TargetRx has developed proprietary analytical methodologies to provide clients critical insight into launch forecasting and positioning, physician segmentation and targeting for personal and non-personal promotion, professional marketing and message optimization, and sales and marketing execution and effectiveness.
"When we acquired ImpactRx earlier this year, our strategic intent was to build a differentiated solutions company in life sciences capable of delivering compelling value to clients through insights informed by data," said J.T. Treadwell, Managing Director with STG. "STG has a strong history of partnering with our companies to deliver innovation and growth, and we believe the addition of the TargetRx capabilities allows us to combine unique assets and complementary approaches, analytical talent, and a strong history of joint innovation as the foundation of a world-class solutions provider," Treadwell stated.
About ImpactRx
ImpactRx is the leading provider of consultative and analytically-based promotional effectiveness solutions to the healthcare industry. Powered by the ImpactData™ generated by its longitudinal panels of more than 4,000 targeted, iPhone-connected physicians (who through its proprietary technology are the exclusive source of continuously-captured promotion and treatment data) and combined with its industry-leading analytics and custom research capabilities, ImpactRx provides clients with unprecedented insight into the drivers of physician brand choice within a complete competitive context. These insights enable clients to improve brand performance by making more effective decisions around marketing strategy, field and channel execution and pre-launch and launch planning. ImpactRx is a Symphony Technology Group company. For more information, visit: www.impactrx.com.
About Symphony Technology Group
Symphony Technology Group (STG) is a strategic private equity firm with the mission of investing in and building great software and services companies. In addition to capital, STG provides transformation expertise to enable its portfolio companies to deliver maximum value to clients, to retain and attract the best talent, to drive growth through innovation, and to achieve best-in-class business performance. STG's current portfolio consists of fourteen global companies with combined revenue of $2.5 billion and 15,000 employees spread across North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit: www.symphonytg.com.



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CSC acquires Philly/Hyderabad-based AppLabs

Tom Paine

The Indian press is reporting (with confirmation from the companies) that CSC has acquired AppLabs, the software testing business based in Philadelphia and Hyderabad, India, for a price some report to be in excess of $300 million.

CSC had been competing with Capgemini in recent days to acquire the company, according to reports.

AppLabs was founded in 2001 by Sashi Reddi, a serial entrepreneur who received his PHD from Wharton. It says it is ranked as the largest independent testing company in the world with 2,500 test professionals worldwide. A very small percentage of its employees are based in Philadelphia.

The deal represents an exit for private equity firm Westbridge Capital, which held a 50% stake in AppLabs, Reddi told the Indian press.



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TicketLeap hits Inc. 500, introduces new mobile app; Plans for future growth

Tom Paine

Center City-based startup TicketLeap, which was just named to the
Inc. 500 (ranked #397), has positioned itself as a disruptive competitor to the large, entrenched players that have dominated pricing, distribution and technology in the event ticketing industry. Offering web-based technology that event hosts can easily configure themselves and services that are inexpensive (and sometimes free) for small events, the company hopes to gradually move up the chain to compete for larger events.

TicketLeap was founded in 2003 by South Jersey native Chris Stanchak while he was still an undergrad at Wharton. After spending time at GSI Commerce helping manage its eCommerce programs for major sports leagues like the NHL, Chris started focusing on TicketLeap full time in 2007 and has raised over $4.5 million in venture capital from MentorTech Ventures, Seneca Advisors, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, NextStage Capital and several prominent angel investors. TicketLeap had one period during which it may have ramped up too quickly, and had to cut back a little. It now has about 24 employees, according its website. Last year, $20 million in ticket sales were generated through TicketLeap and it had net revenue of $2.1 million; this year, Stanchak told me in a phone conversation, ticket sales should be in the $35 million range and TicketLeap's net revenue will be around $3 million. Stanchak expects the company to achieve positive cash flow in this year's 4th quarter.

TicketLeap had a learning experience on scaling up to handle larger events. Last winter it managed ticketing for Comic-Con 2011, the immensely popular event among the Geek crowd, and its servers failed to handle all the traffic for several hours after ticketing went live, causing considerable commotion since Comic-Con had turned to TicketLeap after having just experienced two previous ticketing failures with other vendors. The problem was not so much a failure on TicketLeap's part to anticipate and scale to demand properly, but a gliche due to a MySQL feature it was trying to use to speed transaction processing that Amazon Web Services' Relational Database Service did not support at the time. (See Vice President of Engineering Keith Fitzgerald's post on the TicketLeap Blog). TicketLeap was very responsive and straightforward, I believe, in explaining the problem publicly and rectifying it.

That specific issue has since been resolved, and Stanchak says TicketLeap remains very happy with AWS's services and its scalability, which enables it to adapt elastically to events of varying sizes without requiring a large IT infrastructure. TicketLeap was not impacted at all by the major AWS outage problems that occurred in April. It is also planning to deploy AWS's recently released in-memory Amazon ElastiCache, which can greatly reduce the number of disk lookups and also helps TicketLeap to rapidly increase or decrease its cache footprint in response to demand.


In August, TicketLeap introduced TicketLeap Mobile, what it calls "the first mobile ticketing platform that enables smartphone users to easily search and purchase event tickets, engage in social conversations, and check-in with their phones" in a single place. Each mobile ticket comes with a confirmation number and QR code, enabling faster entry into venues. (Back in March, it released an Android scanning application for event organizers to scan QR codes of printed etickets.) TicketLeap Mobile also emphasizes the social nature of events; users can post messages to Facebook or Twitter and communicate with other attendees. TicketLeap Mobile, now available on Android devices, is optimized for mobile devices, and works automatically when you access Ticketleap or any events from a mobile phone. TicketLeap plans to launch a universal iOS application for event organizers to scan and sell tickets via an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad this fall.


The market for event ticketing is huge and has many different competitors and segments. TicketLeap doesn't compete with Ticketmaster (or Ticketmonster as some might call it) that much directly right now, but more with the heavily funded Eventbrite and a number of other smaller firms like Pittsburgh-based ShowClix. Eventbrite has raised about $80 million in venture capital, according to Crunchbase. Its gross ticket sales were $200 million in 2010 and could reach $400 million in 2011, according to TicketNews. (Stanchak points out that comparing Eventbrite to TicketLeap based on gross billings is not quite apples to apples since Eventbrite's average ticket price point is much higher due to its focus on expensive professional conferences).

While TicketLeap is doing well at this stage, achieving more scale and broader distribution remain key issues. Barclays Bank/MBNA veteran Holly Flanagan was brought on recently as Vice President of Brand and Association Sales to help build strategic partnerships. Raising more funding could also be a possibility at some point in the future.



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Daily Links 9/13/2011: SAP to pay $20 million in Oracle criminal case

SAP will pay $20 million in Oracle criminal case (Reuters)

Rating the Comcast-NBCU Merger: The New Culture Settles In (The Wrap)

Comcast reacts to policy fights with big hires (Politico)

FCC's Internet rules clear a review hurdle (Reuters)


NBC Sports Network the favorite here to win new NFL package (Sports Business Journal)

QlikTech and Deloitte Join Forces to Bring QlikView Business Discovery Solutions to the U.S. (Business Wire)

Motorola Mobility Invests In Video Publishing Platform Ooyala (TechCrunch)

What to expect from SAP TechEd 2011 + Sybase TechWave (Computer Weekly)

SAP HARNESSES THE POWER OF SAP HANA™ PLATFORM TO DELIVER NEW REAL-TIME APPLICATIONS (SAP Press Release)

SAP's Sikka preaches HANA-led 'renewal'
In-memory computing will transform SAP's portfolio, according to executive board member Vishal Sikka (Computerworld)

Turntable.fm Closes That $7 Million Round, Fred Wilson Joins Board (TechCrunch)
First Round Capital was an early investor in what was then called Stickybits.

Tremor Video Lands $37 Million to Fuel Acquisitions (Ad Age)
Previous investor SAP Ventures participated again in this round. A First Round Capital portfolio company named SanScout merged with Tremor Video last year, although it is not known whether First Round currently has an equity stake in Tremor.

RCN not seeing strong demand for 60 Mbps service (Fierce Cable)

Philadelphia groups get federal money to aid startups (Philadelphia Business Journal)

In Newtown, U.S. Senator Casey pushes for GPS program to support national security and jobs at Lockheed Martin (Bucks Local News)



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Daily Links 9/12/2011: Philadelphia Media Network introduces Android Tablets

Internet Entrepreneur Michael G. Rubin Launches Kynetic
Company Includes Leading Online Commerce Brands Fanatics, Rue La La & ShopRunner (PR Newswire)

GSI Commerce founder launches a new e-retail company (Internet Retailer)

New Details on Philly Papers' Bold Tablet Plan Android tablets to spur digital content adoption (Adweek)
Philadelphia Media Network's press release.

Comcast names VP for public policy, adds to growing high-profile D.C. roster (Washington Post: Post Tech)

Vishay Intertechnology Reduces Guidance for the Third Quarter 2011 (Business Wire)
Sizeable reduction for this late in the quarter; could be related to resignation of its CFO late last month.
Update: Vishay is off less than 2% on the day, so this is something people who follow the company closely must of pretty much taken into account already.

The Other Google/Motorola Story (ABI Research)

Early SAP Business ByDesign adopters experience rocky upgrade to 2.6 (SearchSAP.com)

Philadelphia-Based Document Depository Corporation (DDC) Rebrands as DocDep (PR Web)

Online ad deal for GOP digital agent CampaignGrid (Philly.com: Philly Deals)



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Philly Tech People News 9/11/2011

Cohen Named to NBCU Finance Post
Former Time Warner Exec Named SVP, Assistant Controller (Multichannel News)

Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions Names Henry Prolog Vice President of Data Strategy, Acquisitions & Services
(PR Newswire)

Global Debt Registry (GDR) Hires Rachael Sokolowski as Managing Director of Mortgage Services (Business Wire)

24 Seven Opens New Office in Key City for Company's Global Expansion Plan (PR Newswire)

King of Prussia's new Kynetic L.L.C. among the top private Internet firms (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Computer problems mount for N.J. gov't. (Vineland Daily Journal)

A piece of Philly Tech history: Digital Access, Inc.

Private Equity Hub (published by Thomson Reuters) ran a piece this week, on the heels of solar panel maker Solyndra's bankruptcy filing, on what it calls the 10 of the largest VC busts over the last 20 years. (Its slideshow doesn't seem to be working). Third on its list was Bala Cynwyd-based Digital Access Inc., which raised $490 million between 1999 and 2001 before shutting down in 2001.


Digital Accees was building broadband fiber networks to compete with companies such as Comcast in several midwestern cities. As the telecom bubble burst, there was an oversupply of fiber capacity and the company simply could not raise more money. Digital Access also blamed regulatory delays that slowed buildouts in some cities. Investors included Goldman Sachs and Bala Cynwyd-based Bachow & Associates, which still has a website up but with very little information on it other than past investments. Joseph W. Cece, who previously ran Suburban Cable (acquired by Comcast in 1999), was its CEO.



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Daily Links 9/9/2011: SAP reportedly pleads to criminal charges in TomorrowNow case

SAP’s Ex-TomorrowNow Accused of Crimes for Oracle Downloads (Bloomberg)

Intel Said to Weigh InterDigital Bid (Bloomberg)
But Google may be losing interest.

SAP BusinessByDesign creates tensions with ecosystem partners (computing.co.uk)

Capgemini, CSC line up for AppLabs (Business Standard of India)
Says price for Philly/Hyderabad-based software testing leader could be in excess of $200 million.

QVC Thriving In A Tough Economy (CNBC Video)
Interview with QVC CEO Michael George.

Exclusive: NBC iPad App Now Broadcasts Full Episodes (Mashable)

Comcast Volleys 'Drop' Shots at Tennis Channel
Cable op says that FiOS, Cablevision drops undercut Tennis Channel's discrimination claim (Broadcasting & Cable)

Comcast test marketing new online TV guide (CED Magazine)

Charter Cancels L.A. Auction
Low Bids Prompt Action (Multichannel News)

Motorola Mobility: "We are still feeling our way with Google TV" (IPTV News)

Partners Behind Intelligent Trench Join Forces with PelicanCorp to Launch Most Complete and Accurate National Record-Sharing Service for Underground Assets in the U.K. (Business Wire)
Bentley Systems is one of the partners behind Intelligent Trench.



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Daily Links 9/8/2011: DreamIt Ventures launches Fall 2011 Philadelphia Class

DreamIt Ventures Launches Its Fall 2011 Philadelphia Class (TechCrunch)

CSC ‘in last leg' of AppLabs buy-out talks (Hindu Business Line)

Rick Sherlund Is Back! Analyst Likes MSFT, ORCL, CRM, SAP (Forbes: The Tech Trade)

IT pros heading to SAP TechEd 2011 packing questions for vendor (SearchSAP.com)

Dell’s golden opportunity isn’t in servers (Gigaom)

Infonetics Research: Pace overtakes Motorola in pay-TV set-top box (STB) market in 2Q11; STB market to peak in 2011 (Marketwire)

Comcast's thePlatform notches TV Everywhere deal with Liberty Global (CED Magazine)

TruePosition Acquires Intellectual Property from Rosum (Business Wire)
Buying for product development, or just adding to patent portfolio?

Philly tech, U-City to Old City (Philly.com: Philly Deals)
On Vuzit's Christopher Cera.

"It was a dumb idea": newspaper chain fires copyright troll Righthaven
(Ars Technica)
John Paton, on taking over as MediaNews CEO, makes decision.




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Philly Tech TidBits 9/8/2011: InstaMed raises another $5.5 million

InstaMed, the Philadelpia-based provider of healthcare payment systems, has raised an additional $5.5 million, according to an SEC Filing. Headed by Founder, President and CEO Bill Marvin, InstaMed raised $6 million in debt and equity one year ago and had prior funding rounds in 2009 ($6 million) and 2007 ($5 milion), so it has now raised at least $22.5 million. Investors have included Osage Partners, NJTC Venture Fund, US Bancorp, and Ashby Point Capital. Josh Kopelman was an early investor through his personal Midas Capital fund.
InstaMed has several Penn/Wharton connections among its management team, board and advisors; Marvin played on the varsity squash team at Penn (as did Comcast's Brian Roberts). Bill was an executive with Accenture’s Health and Life Sciences practice and founded a software company that was acquired by a Microsoft/ Pfizer joint venture.
I don't have any information about InstaMed's financial performance. It describes itself as a healthcare payments network connecting providers, payers and patients, and says it serves over 200,000 providers nationally with tens of billions of dollars in healthcare payments processed.


Speaking of Osage, they have raised $47 million for what appears to be a new private equity fund, Osage Venture Partners III, LP.


UPenn-related MentorTech Ventures has raised $10.75 million towards a $40 million offering for a new fund, MentorTech Ventures III L.P., according to an SEC filing. Though not large, MentorTech, managed by Michael B. Aronson and Boris Kalandar, takes small, usually early stage stakes in Penn-associated ventures; major successes have included Diaper.com (sold to Amazon), PayQuik (sold to Citi), Yodle, and Neat Company. With all of the entrepreneurial activity going on within Penn/Wharton, it should have plenty of opportunities ahead.


Penn Mezzanine LP of Wayne has raised $34.2 million in an offering, according to an SEC filing. Its not clear whether this is related to or completely separate from Safefuard Scientifics' announced acquisition of a 36% interest in Penn Mezzanine in July.
Penn Mezzanine, which was founded in 2010, is headed by Managing Partners Donald K. Rice and Darl A. Petty. It provides mezzanine financing to middle market companies using combinations of structured equity and debt.


Square One Bank has provided a a $2.5 million credit facility to ProfitPoint, Inc., a Clifton Heights-based provider of stored value and loyalty program solutions. NewSpring Ventures was an early investor in ProfitPoint.


Oaks, PA-based asset manager and investment processor SEI Investments teamed up with Greenwich Associates on a survey of institutional investors, consultants and fund managers globally. The first report (out of three installments) from the survey indicated that Private Equity exits were way up in the 2nd quarter, and that fund allocations to that area may increase. But SEI says that many of those exits represent “low hanging fruit” and the average holding period for a portfolio company has lengthened to five years.


Silicon Valley Research Group says it has opened a practice in Philadelphia, its fourth location. Marc Pitcher, the company’s Director of Client Services, is based in Philly. He also manages the firm's New York City practice. "Philadelphia has a burgeoning technology and venture capital scene, and the presence of the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, Temple and other highly respected centers of innovation make the city a natural fit for our company”, Pitcher said in a statement.



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