Author: Serkadis

e-Rewards Inc., a Dallas-based provider of online market research panels, has agreed to acquire Research Now PLC, a UK-based online fieldwork and panel firm that is publicly traded on London’s AIM. The deal is valued at over £85 million. TA Associates last year acquired a minority stake in e-Rewards, in exchange for a $60 million investment.

PRESS RELEASE
e-Rewards, Inc., the United States’ largest online market research panel provider, today announced it has reached an agreement on the terms of a Recommended Acquisition of Research Now PLC, one of the research industry’s leading international online fieldwork and panel firms. Research Now, an independent public company listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of e-Rewards, Inc. upon completion of the transaction.

Beneficial Combination For Market Researchers

“The acquisition of Research Now by e-Rewards represents the coming together of two well regarded companies to form a truly global firm that will be well positioned to serve the online panel needs of the market research industry,” said Hal Brierley, Chairman and CEO of e-Rewards, Inc. “This is extremely good news for clients of both e-Rewards and Research Now since the merger will offer clients expanded global reach, coupled with outstanding customer service and panel quality.”

“The entire management team of Research Now is excited about the opportunity to join forces with e-Rewards,” said Chris Havemann, Chief Executive of Research Now. “This transaction is consistent with the vision that all of us at Research Now have had from day one — to become the recognized global industry leader for quality one-stop shopping for International Online Fieldwork and Panels.”

Senior Leadership Of Combined Company

Hal Brierley, currently the Chairman and CEO of e-Rewards, will continue to serve as the Chairman of the Board. Chris Havemann, currently the Chief Executive of Research Now, will serve as the CEO. “Chris has a proven track record leading a rapidly growing global company that has been customer-focused and has a reputation for consistently delivering high quality service to its clients around the world,” said Hal Brierley.

Business As Usual Until Transaction Complete

“While we are excited about how well our combined organizations will be able to serve researchers on completion of the acquisition, the two companies will continue to operate independently until the transaction is completed,” explained Hal Brierley.

About e-Rewards, Inc.

e-Rewards, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, is the world’s largest “by-invitation-only” online research panel provider, serving nearly 1,000 market research clients. With millions of participating panelists, the e-Rewards® Opinion Panels provide research firms with quality respondents — enabling them to interact with real consumers and business decision-makers in a timely manner. Launched in 1999, and named by Inc. magazine as one of America’s fastest growing companies for the past three years, e-Rewards employs more than 350 professionals located in Dallas, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Paris and Frankfurt. For more information, visit www.e-rewardsresearch.com.

e-Rewards is being advised by Jefferies & Company, Inc. on this transaction. Jefferies is a global securities and investment banking firm providing clients with capital markets and financial advisory services, institutional brokerage, securities research and asset management.

About Research Now, PLC

Research Now is one of the leading international online fieldwork and panel specialists to the global market research industry and some of the world’s best known companies with offices in London, Paris, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Athens, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Toronto, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Singapore and Shanghai. Research Now operates 36 proprietary, research-only online panels across Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific which are used by leading research agencies and some of the world’s best known companies. Research Now is an independent public company traded on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. For more information, visit www.researchnow.co.uk.

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Keraderm Corp., a Blacksburg, Va.-based developer of phototherapy technology to treat nail and skin infections, has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding from NewVa Capital Partners.

PRESS RELEASE
Keraderm Corp. announced the closing today of a $2.5 million dollar Series A investment by NewVa Capital Partners, LP. Currently starting clinical trials, the company’s platform harnesses phototherapy technology to treat nail and skin infections. NewVa Capital Partners is a private equity and venture capital fund managed by Third Security, LLC and provides early stage investments in companies located or considering location in the NewVa region of southwest Virginia. This is Keraderm’s first institutional investment round.

“This commitment by NewVa Capital Partners provides us with the capital and resources we need to complete our clinical trial, obtain approval for our device from the Food and Drug Administration and begin rolling out our product,” says Bill Cumbie, President and CEO of Keraderm. “We’re looking forward to this partnership with Third Security. Third Security really works alongside the management of their portfolio companies to create value and they have a lot of experience bringing products in the life sciences to market.”

Onychomycosis, a fungal infection of the nail, is a common disorder. In the United States during the past twelve months, 2.3 million prescriptions were written to treat this disease. Current pharmaceutical therapies have limited efficacy and result in relatively high recurrence rates. In some cases, the drugs prescribed can have serious side effects. Keraderm’s device, which uses bursts of pulsed light to destroy the fungal infection, has demonstrated positive results in prior clinical trials. The company is currently preparing for a pivotal trial designed to meet the requirements for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. There are no approved non-invasive, non-drug based treatments for this disease.

“We are excited to be working with Keraderm to help bring their device to market. We think they have a great approach to addressing a large market that is not well served by current treatment options,” said Rob Patzig, chair of NewVa Capital Partners and Chief Investment Officer of Third Security. “We believe Keraderm’s device is an effective, more convenient, and safe alternative for patients.”

Keraderm represents the final investment by NewVa Capital Partners, LP, which is invested in four other companies in the biotech, life sciences, and technology sectors.

About Keraderm

Keraderm Corp., headquartered in Blacksburg Virginia, is an early stage medical device company that has developed a patented, innovative, and effective treatment for nail infections. The treatment eliminates the potential serious side effects of current medications and has shown encouraging results in preclinical and early clinical testing. The Company believes that the ability to safely and effectively treat nail infections, the low cost, and the shortened treatment time of the Keraderm light-based solution will rapidly transform this billion-dollar-plus market. For more information, visit www.keraderm.com

About NewVa Capital Partners, LP

NewVa Capital Partners, LP is a private equity/venture capital fund created to make investments in companies that are considering initiating operations in, currently operating in, or willing to relocate all or a significant portion of their business to, the NewVa region of southwestern Virginia. The fund was created in 2004 by its founding partners: Virginia Tech Foundation, Carilion Clinic and Third Security, LLC. Third Security RNR LLC is the general partner and manager of the Fund. Third Security, LLC is the manager and operator of Third Security RNR LLC. For more information, visit www.newvafund.com.

About Third Security, LLC

Third Security is an independent private equity and venture capital firm formed in 1999 to manage investments in public and private companies. Third Security evaluates opportunities in a wide range of industries, but principally focuses on emerging through late-stage investments in life sciences and information technology. For more information, visit www.thirdsecurity.com.

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Who wants to buy a $2,000 netbook? Well, if you’d like to walk away with one for $299.99 and a $60/mo AT&T data plan for 2 years, you can. Otherwise the smarter move would be to purchase it at retail price of around $599.99 and get a data plan from AT&T without a two-year commitment. But regardless of the method of purchase, if you want a Nokia Booklet, Best Buy has got ‘em. Will they sell you one before November 15th? Probably not, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. One more shot after the break.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Commercial real estate company Capmark Financial filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday, weighed on by declines in the sector and a heavy debt load related to its leveraged buyout.

Capmark, which was created out of the commercial real estate assets of General Motors’ finance arm GMAC in March of 2006, had indicated earlier this year that it might file for bankruptcy.

It had said that it was negotiating with lenders, bondholders and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Its creditors include banks Citigroup (C.N) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N).

The move wipes out the private equity investments of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co [KKR.UL], Goldman Sachs Group’s (GS.N) Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Five Mile Capital, which bought Capmark for $1.5 billion in cash and more than $7 billion in debt.

According to the bankruptcy filing, the group owned 75.4 percent of the company while GMAC, or the General Motors Acceptance Corp, owned 21.3 percent. Employees and directors owned most of the remaining stock. Equity investors are typically wiped out in bankruptcy.

KKR already wrote down its investment in Capmark to zero earlier this year. KKR has had other failed equity investments this year, including its 2005 purchase of doormaker Masonite, which filed for bankruptcy in March and has since emerged from court.

In order to raise cash, the company signed a deal in September to sell its loan servicing and mortgage business to Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) and Leucadia National (LUK.N) for $490 million. That deal can still take place in bankruptcy.

Capmark listed $20.1 billion in assets and $21 billion in liabilities as of June 30, 2009 in the bankruptcy filing, which was made in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

(Reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Richard Chang)

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Disclaimer: Jeremy Kessel has a J.D., but is still waiting for his (July 2009) California Bar Exam results. Thus, he is not (yet) a licensed attorney. Barry L. Cohen, who also shares some insights below, is a licensed attorney. Regardless, this post is not meant as legal advice or analysis and should not be construed as such.

As many of you are aware, Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple last week in the Federal District Court in Delaware. Nokia’s complaint alleges that Apple has infringed on 10 of Nokia’s patents for various, “fundamental” GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN (WLAN) technologies. In particular, the patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption. Nokia believes that all 10 patents have been infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced back in 2007.

This brings up the question: Why wait until now, Nokia, to sue Apple? Clearly, without speaking directly to Nokia’s legal team, all of the following is pure (albeit educated) conjecture. Nonetheless, with intellectual property (i.e. copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets) becoming increasingly important and relevant to (technology) companies around the globe, it is worth taking a few minutes to explore some of the possible motives/strategies behind Nokia’s latest legal muscle flexing.

As I am not yet a licensed attorney (I find out next month), we turned to Barry L. Cohen, Esq., who specializes in commercial and business litigation and intellectual property litigation and licensing at Thorp Reed & Armstrong, for his thoughts on the Nokia v. Apple matter at large. According to Mr. Cohen, because Nokia has been successful in licensing the patents at issue with dozens of other companies, the Finnish company most likely felt confident that it would be able to reach an agreement with Apple as well. When the negotiations reached an impasse, Nokia was essentially left with no other choice but to pursue legal recourse.

Filing the lawsuit against Apple is most likely, at least in part, a deliberate strategy to put more pressure on Apple to agree to the terms that Nokia has requested with regards to licensing the patented technologies. Because the 10 patents at issue include “fundamental” cellular technologies, the lawsuit may also have been motivated by some (or many) of the other companies who are already paying licensing fees to Nokia and want Apple to do the same.

Alright, now that we have explored (somewhat superficially) why Nokia has prompted the suit against Apple, this in turn leads to another question: Why would Apple refuse to license the technologies if they are imperative for the operation of its iPhone? Again, without speaking directly to Apple, we can only speculate. It is possible that Apple has licensed similar technologies from Ericsson (who, along with Nokia and Qualcomm hold some of the largest mobile technology patent portfolios in the world), thereby eliminating the need to license the patents at issue from Nokia. Or alternatively, Apple may believe that it is not infringing or that Nokia’s patents should be invalidated. However, considering that some 40 other mobile companies have licensed these key patents, this is extremely unlikely (possibly even impossible, depending on which company holds what patents).

According to Mr. Cohen, it is more likely a money issue. The longer that Apple goes without paying licensing fees, the cheaper Apple can sell its iPhone and the bigger market share it can build up. Alternatively, Apple may not have wanted to pay or could not agree on the amount of the royalty rate that Nokia was requesting. Given the scale (i.e. millions of devices), even a tiny discrepancy in price could result in hundreds of millions of dollars, going one way or the other.

Regardless of the actual motivation behind the lawsuit, considering that less than 1% of cases go to trial, it is most likely that Nokia is using the suit as a bargaining chip. Both companies, whether they actually like it or not, can afford to see cases like this through to the end, as the legal costs, even in the mutltiple millions of dollars, are relatively insignificant in the big picture for Nokia and Apple. Rather, suing Apple will provide Nokia more leverage in obtaining some variety of settlement (i.e. receiving royalties for its patents), and on the flip side, might even help Apple save a few bucks if a third-party mediator is brought in to help resolve the dispute.

Some may argue that Nokia is a total hypocrite, given its recent expensive and drawn-out legal clash with fellow mobile big shot, Qualcomm. But, as Mr. Cohen points out, Nokia is clearly no dummy (yup, that is a legitimate legal term). Nokia has clearly weighed the pros and cons of filing the lawsuit and what it will mean to their licensing strategy. Whether or not the strategy works, will depend in part on Apple, who is also not a fool.

Finally, I do not believe (as John does) that this suit was directly motivated by Nokia’s recent financial struggles. As someone who has studied intellectual property and has a general sense of the value that a company’s IP assets hold, I agree with Mr. Cohen and everyone else who thinks that this is ultimately a negotiation. Nokia is an enormously powerful mobile technologies company. Sure it is facing increased competition from the likes of Apple, HTC, Samsung, etc, but I do not believe this lawsuit signifies some sort of last gasp, or in the words of John (no disrespect, of course), a “mercenary approach, [a way to] cash in on some of the iPhone’s success.” For better or for worse, this is the new way of the technology road. Companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars developing and obtaining IP assets, and at the end of the day, they will continue to do whatever it takes (i.e. sue each other on an endless merry-go-round) to protect and enforce their IP rights.

Veterans have gathered at Westminster Abbey to mark 65 years since the Normandy landings.

The Prime Minister and Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth were among those who attended the Normandy Veterans Association’s evensong service to remember the operation.

The landings in June 1944 saw British, American and Canadian forces land at five points along the Normandy coast to begin the liberation of France.

Reverend Michael Macey, Minor Canon of Westminster, told the congregation:

“Here we are united with those who have gone before us.”

At the end of the service, Gordon Brown, the Duke of Gloucester – who is patron of the Normandy Veterans Association – and the president and chairman of the association stood at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior as the Last Post sounded.

So what transpired in the world of Sony’s PS3 this week? Nate Drake’s newest adventure is certainly off to a good start. And then there’s word that th…

In an effort to proactively address the ongoing pandemic, the President signed a National Emergency Declaration on H1N1 that allows healthcare systems to quickly implement disaster plans should they become overwhelmed.
 
As experts expected, H1N1 flu is moving rapidly throughout the country and the majority of states now have widespread influenza activity.  This declaration gives authority for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to waive certain regulatory requirements for healthcare facilities in response the ongoing pandemic. Specifically, healthcare facilities will be able to submit waivers to establish alternate care sites, and modified patient triage protocols, patient transfer procedures and other actions that occur when they fully implement disaster operations plans.
 
Under Section 1135 of the Social Security Act [42 USC §1320b–5] healthcare facilities may petition for HHS approval of waivers in response to particular needs within the geographic and temporal limits of the emergency declarations.  Before HHS has the authority to approve such “1135 Waivers” two conditions must be met: first, the Secretary must have declared a Public Health Emergency, and second, the President must have declared a National Emergency either through a Stafford Act Declaration or National Emergencies Act Declaration. 1135 Waivers still require specific requests be submitted to HHS and processed, and some State laws may need to be addressed as well.
 
The Secretary may tailor authorities granted under Section 1135 waivers to match the specific situational needs, but the requirements that may be waived include those related to Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
 
Past instances where authority to grant Section 1135 waivers was enabled include:

Hurricane Katrina (2005)
56th Presidential Inauguration (2009)
Hurricanes Ike and Gustav (2008)
North Dakota flooding (2009)

 Learn more about this National Emergency Declaration and get information on H1N1 and seasonal flu at Flu.gov.

Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology has showcased its most spectacular robot at the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo today, the “cybernetic human” HRP-4C. The humanoid can’t move her legs, but the way she moves her arms, head and facial muscles is unbelievably human-like. Or you could say unbelievably creepy.

She usually works as a model, bridezilla and a singer by the way.

Here are two videos I took at the event today, showing the 158cm tall HRP-4C in action. In the videos, she’s “acting” in case you wonder what she’s saying.

Video 1:

Video 2:

Here’s a look at what happened on CrunchGear this week:

The real life Burger King Windows 7 Whopper is a disgusting joke to humanity
Quick Look: 13.3-inch Acer Timeline
Orchestral movements by LCD light
The $259, dual-screen Barnes & Noble Nook reader gets official
Wait, wait, don’t tell me. NPR has its own radio.

We’ve been following T-Mobile’s Project Dark ever since it was a little twinkle in the eyes of Robert Dotson’s crew, but now the day has come for it all to become official. There are a lot of different options to chose from, but for simplicities sake we’re going to focus on the two biggies. Individuals will be able to get unlimited talk, texts and web for $99.99 with Even More (Contract) and $79.99 with Even More Plus (no contract). We admit that the plans aren’t anywhere near as good as we or anyone else had initially thought, and no doubt a lot of people who sign a contract aren’t going to be thrilled at paying a lot more than their contract-free counterparts, but hey, at least another major carrier has entered the unlimited business for the second time. Now where are those new handsets at?

Thanks, Achilles!

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Things always get a little chippy between Apple and Microsoft when Microsoft one company is preparing for a large OS release, and with Windows 7 it has been no different. Justin Long and John Hodgman have been all over our televisions throwing subtle digs at the newest OS to come out of Redmond. However, Apple is — from a support standpoint — singing a different tune as the Mac maker has announced plans to fully support Windows 7 in its Boot Camp software before the end of this calendar year. The announcement (if you can call it that) came via a knowledge base article on Apple’s support website and states a software update to the Boot Camp software and an Intel Mac will be required. All this bickering reminds us of a scene in The Dark Knight where the Joker explains to Batman, “I don’t want to kill you! What would I do without you? No, no, NO! No. You…you…complete me.”

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I stumbled upon this strange thing today at the at the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo, a virtual reality capsule chair developed by the Iwata-Yano Laboratory at the University of Tsukuba. The so-called “Media Vehicle” mounts a spherical display and is supposed to let passengers move around both in the real world (it has 5 wheels) and a virtual reality environment.

The vehicle looks like it’s coming straight out of cult anime Akira, but I am too heavy to be able to use it and so couldn’t try it out myself.

LOS ANGELES, Oct 24 (Reuters) – The real estate investment manager who led the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the nation’s largest pension fund, into a money-losing land venture has resigned as an adviser to the fund, a spokeswoman for MacFarlane Partners said on Saturday.

Victor MacFarlane, chief executive of MacFarlane Partners, terminated his relationship with the $200 billion pension fund, spokeswoman Julie Chase said via email.

“I can confirm MacFarlane Partners, on its own initiative, resigned as manager of California Urban Investment Partners, LLC, for reasons agreed to and accepted by Calpers,” Chase said.

California Urban Partners was set up in 1995 as an investment vehicle for Calpers, former basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson and MacFarlane to acquire and develop retail properties in urban markets in California, most with high concentrations of minority residents, a Calpers news release said.

MacFarlane Partners Inc is a real estate investment management firm in San Francisco that manages $10 billion in assets for some of the world’s largest pension plans and institutions, according to its website.

The firm came under fire for a $970 million investment it managed for Calpers into LandSource Communities Development LLC, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

LandSource filed for bankruptcy in 2008, about 18 months after Calpers had bought into company, whose primary investment was a 15,000-acre (6100-hectare) tract of undeveloped land outside Los Angeles.

Calpers had invested in the development through its investment partner, MW Housing Partners, which was jointly managed by MacFarlane Housing and Weyerhaeuser Realty Investors, Calpers said in a 2008 press release said.

MW Housing held a 68 percent interest in LandSource, whose holdings were hit hard by the California real estate bust, it said.

The separation comes as Calpers examines its relationships with private equity firm Apollo Global Management and other outside money managers.

Calpers said earlier this month that its probe centers on around $50 million in payments that outside managers made over a five-year period to ARVCO Financial Ventures LLC, a firm headed by former Calpers board member Al Villalobos, to win the pension fund’s business.

A Calpers representative could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

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Sony is demoing a 3D display at the Digital Contents Expo that takes place in Tokyo right now, and today I went there and made a few pictures and shot a video of the device, too. Two of the 360 stereoscopic displays were displayed to the general public, and the tech is pretty impressive.

The specs aren’t that great (96×128 resolution, 24-bit color palette), but this is just a first prototype.

Here’s how Sony thinks we one day could use the display:

I took the following video at the expo today:

Amy Hennig of Naughty Dog has said that Uncharted 2 has been performing beyond expectations. If you’re the type who needs actual statistics before you…

A recent laboratory study indicates that do-it-yourself teeth bleaching
products may cause some weakening of teeth enamel, as well as the enamel’s
ability to recover from normal wear and tear. These home teeth bleach kits
have been written about in the March 2009 “Journal of Dentistry”.

According to Dr. Shereen S. Azer from the Ohio State University College of
Dentistry, “the public should not be alarmed of the bleaching process.”

“Human enamel has been shown to heal itself and ‘remineralize’ over time,”
meaning it has the ability to restore back the levels of surface calcium that
has been lost due to bleaching.”

A nanometer scale (one billionth of a meter) was employed by Azer and his
colleagues to measure the hardness and elasticity of tooth enamel both before
and after laboratory exposures to over-the-counter teeth bleaching solutions.

The researchers exposed 50 human tooth samples to 2 types of whitening strip
and 3 types of nightguard home bleaching systems,

Ten tooth samples each underwent bleaching regimens according to either the
3-week or 10-day manufacturer recommended treatment protocol. The 5 remaining
tooth samples served as unbleached “controls.”

Compared with before bleaching and versus unbleached controls, the bleached
enamel showed significant decreases in hardness on the nanometer scale, the
investigators report in the Journal of Dentistry.

The researchers also observed a significant decrease in enamel elasticity in
most bleached tooth samples compared with unbleached controls.

More study into the long term effects of bleaching agents and remineralization
of tooth enamel would be worthwhile, the researchers conclude.

They wouldn’t say which hardware their service will be coming to, but it sure did wonders for their stocks. Netflix just sent out word Friday that the…