ThingWorx parent PTC partners with Rockwell Automation ($ attached); Bulotta back in corporate fold at Microsoft
Tom Paine
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After seemingly getting close to GE, which is obviously dealing with its own share of problems lately, over the past few years, ThingWorx parent PTC found a new strategic partner last week; Rockwell Automation , which invested $1 billion in PTC for less than 1/10th ownership. And starting Monday, PTC will hold its annual IoT-oriented LiveWorx conference in Boston that is expected to attract about 6,000 attendees.
Where this will leave ThingWorx as a brand name and organization is hard to say; its center of gravity has been gradually moving north for some time, and now only 40 ThingWorx employees are still in Pennsylvania per LinkedIn.
PTC was a shrinking CAD/CAM software firm ( originally Parametric Technologies ) left over from the 1980s when it bought ThingWorx at the end of 2013 for $100 million plus. PTC's share price has more than doubled since then, perhaps more of a result of PTC's growing mindshare of industrial IoT rather than actual results. PTC is moving its headquarters from suburban Needham to Boston.
The Boston Globe has a piece on PTC's rebirth ( "How Boston software maker PTC came back from the brink") .
In related news, ThingWorx cofounder Rick Bulotta, who has been mostly freelancing since leaving PTC, has shown up in a new uniform: Microsoft's (H/T Technical.ly Philly). Microsoft has partnered with PTC in a number of IoT initiatives.
Its a small world.
Avalara has great IPO; is King of Prussia's Vertex keeping pace?
Tom Paine
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Seattle-based Avalara began trading yesterday following its IPO, and the offering was quite successful for the tax software company. Shares closed up 87 percent at $44.94 after opening at $35. Shares were priced at $24 in the company's $180 million IPO on Thursday. It ended up with a market capitalization in excess of $2 billion.
Revenue in 2017 climbed 27 percent to $213.2 million, though Avalara continued to lose money - $64 million.
Much like subscription billing services such as Zuora, Avatar depends heavily upon transactions, particularly in the rising digital economy. Avalara see its current US TAM (total addressable market) as being in excess of $8 billion.
Avalara CEO Scott McFarlane, who co-founded the company in 2004, told CNBC's "Squawk Alley" on Friday that in the next seven to 12 years, sales tax will have to be entirely automated.
Avalara CEO: We want to be a part of every internet transaction from CNBC.
The last revenue figure I've seen for Vertex was "in excess of $200 million", according to then-CEO Jeff Westphal two years ago. Vertex has 1,000 employees on LinkedIn; Avalatra has more than 1400 employees. These two aren't alone in the market; a Thomson Reuters unit, OneSource, and CCH are also players.
My sense of the matter is that Avalatra has been aggressive in attacking the boundaries in the enterprise tax software market, while Vertex had been more cautious. Vertex may have some catching up to do in the enterprise and international markets where Aavalara is strong.
Vertex had made some significant changes in recent years. Headquarters has moved from Berwyn to King of Prussia; Jeff Westphal turned over the CEO job to David DeStefano; it shuttered an income tax prep business in Florida; and expanded its Cloud Platform and capabilities.
Whether Vertex can or needs to go public in the near future is something I don't know; but the controlling Westphal family may need to expand or alter its capital structure to compete in an amped up market, perhaps yielding some control. Another outside possibility is hooking up with a company like Zuora.
One other point I found interesting: Vertex has a close relationship with Oracle , and Vertex' cloud is powered by Oracle.
This is the end of Time Warner
Tom Paine
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— Peter Kafka (@pkafka) June 15, 2018
Time Warner is kaput. RIP.
The modern Time Warner was put together by a somewhat questionable character named Steve Ross, who operated parking lots. It was one of New York's glamour businesses, an iconic piece of Americana with big perks and expense accounts, and a cool headquarters building. Time Warner knew how to sell advertising.
When I was in business school, Time Warner was much admired. A strong old media standout with things going on such as HBO, cable systems, and interactive prototypes that in some ways envisioned the Internet.
But as the Internet began to materialize in the early 1990, Time Warner didn't know how to react and made several missteps, the largest being getting taken by a rather shady AOL outfit, and getting bought with stock that would quickly implode. Time Warner had more of an internet solution than AOL did. And Time Warner Cable, in later years prior to being spunoff, seemed to lag behind the rest of the cable industry.
The one smart move Time Warner made in later years was buying Turner Broadcasting.
2016 Gettysburg Address: Trump: Would not approve an AT&T / Time Warner deal, and would seek to break up Comcast / NBCU
Tom Paine
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Subscribe in a readerIn his speech at Gettysburg today, Donald Trump began by criticizing, among other things, what he sees as a concentration of power in a few media companies.
He said that if an AT&T / Time Warner combination came before him as President, it would not be approved. He also said that Comcast + NBCU was too powerful, and his administration would move to break it up.
"Additionally, Comcast's purchase of NBC concentrates far too much power in one massive entity that is trying to tell the voters what to think and what to do. Deals like this destroy democracy," Trump said.
"We'll look at breaking those deals up like that and other deals like that. This should have never ever been approved in the first place. They are trying to poison the mind of the American voter."
Trump also attacked Amazon for not paying (he must have meant not collecting) taxes. Amazon customers are now required to pay sales tax on their Amazon purchases in 29 states.
Trump comment's followed his complaints about media bias, against his campaign specifically.
Trump has several gripes against NBC (including, presumably, whomever leaked that video), and has been a frequent critic of the coverage of him by CNN (Time Warner) and the Washington Post, owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
LLR Partners closes 5th fund at $1.2 billion; Three area firms among those already funded
Tom Paine
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LLR Partners, Philadelphia, announced the final closing of its latest buyout fund, LLR Equity Partners V, at $1.2 billion.
Its previous fund, LLR Equity Partners IV, closed at $950 million in March 2014.
LLR invests $15 to $100 million in companies having revenue up to $100 million.
LLR Equity Partners V has already invested in 8 companies, three of which are in the Philadelphia area: 3SI Security Systems (Malvern); eLocal (Conshohocken); and Professional Capital Services (Philadelphia).
Founded by Ira Lubert in 1999, LLR Partners says it has deployed $3.5 billion over 5 funds.
LLR Equity Partners V include the $54.8 billion Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System and the $30 billion Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System, according to the publication Pensions & Investments .
LLR recently published a video featuring managing director Michael Sala describing the firm's content strategy.
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