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Polaris Wireless said Tuesday that it completed a recapitalizatoon of of existing equity interests on April 25. The recap included closing a Series C financing with $10 million from Industry Ventures. Victor Hwang, an Industry Ventures MD, joined the Polaris board. Mountain View, Calif.-based Polaris provides software-based wireless location solutions.

PRESS RELEASE

Polaris Wireless, the global leader in high-accuracy, software-based wireless location solutions, today announced that the company closed on a recapitalization of existing equity interests on April 25, 2013. As part of the recapitalization, Polaris Wireless completed a Series C financing with $10 million from Industry Ventures, a leading investment firm focused on the venture capital market, and Industry Ventures Managing Director Victor Hwang has joined the Polaris Wireless Board of Directors.

“Industry Ventures seeks to invest in market leading growth companies and we believe Polaris Wireless is a clear leader in the wireless location market,” said Hwang. “We are very excited about Polaris Wireless’ strong growth trajectory and global presence, and look forward to working with Manlio Allegra and the senior team at Polaris Wireless in their next chapter of growth.”

The investment by Industry Ventures also returned capital to Series A investor Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and will also be used to fund Polaris Wireless’ future international growth.

“We look forward to an exciting new growth chapter for our company with Industry Ventures by our side,” said Manlio Allegra, Polaris Wireless CEO and Co-founder.

Polaris Wireless has emerged as a leader in the wireless location services market, with a record increase in revenue and profitability in 2011 and 2012, driven by aggressive growth for its location solutions across the globe. Twenty-four U.S. wireless carriers, six managed services partners, and fifteen international deployments now rely on Polaris Wireless location solutions to enable emergency call applications, lawful and mass location surveillance, and other location-based services.

About Polaris Wireless

Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., Polaris Wireless is the global leader in providing high-accuracy, software-based wireless location solutions to wireless operators, law enforcement/government agencies and location-based application companies. Since 2003, Polaris Wireless has successfully completed 39 global deployments – 15 for lawful location surveillance and LBS in Asia and EMEA, and 24 to meet FCC E911 Phase II requirements in the US. The company has offices in Dubai, U.A.E., Bangalore, India, London, UK, and Santiago, Chile.

Polaris Wireless is the recipient of the prestigious Frost & Sullivan “2011 Enabling Technology of the Year” award and was named to the 2012 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies, recognizing the company’s accomplishments and leadership in developing location solutions. The company participates in location committees and other groups within the 3GPP and OMA standards setting bodies, and also participates in regulatory and industry bodies related to E911, lawful location surveillance, and location-based services. Polaris Wireless is located at 301 North Whisman Road, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA. For more information about Polaris Wireless, please visit http://www.polariswireless.com.

About Industry Ventures LLC

Industry Ventures is a leading investment firm focused on the venture capital market. The firm manages a family of funds that invest in secondary direct investments, limited partnership interests and other special situations. Founded in 2000, the firm manages over $1 billion of institutional capital and is headquartered in San Francisco with an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.industryventures.com.

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PineBridge Investments said Tuesday that Jason Fisher joined the firm as SVP, Head of Consultant Relations for the Americas and Europe. He will be based in Los Angeles and report to John Baumann, Head of Institutional Sales and Client Service, Americas and Europe. Most recently, Fisher was at J.P. Morgan Asset Management where he held a number of senior sales and consultant positions over the last decade.

PRESS RELEASE

PineBridge Investments (“PineBridge”), the global multi-asset class investment manager, today announced that Jason Fisher joined the firm as Senior Vice President, Head of Consultant Relations for the Americas and Europe. Mr. Fisher will work closely with PineBridge’s Sales and Client Service Teams to enhance the firm’s relationships with global institutional consulting firms. Mr. Fisher will be based in Los Angeles and report to John Baumann, Head of Institutional Sales and Client Service, Americas and Europe.

David Jiang, Chief Executive Officer at PineBridge said, “Jason’s strong business development acumen and experience will be instrumental in strengthening the firm’s relationships with the consultant community in the Americas and Europe. His appointment underscores our continued commitment to deepening our relationships with institutional investors and to growing our firm’s client base.”

John Baumann said, “I am pleased and excited that Jason will be joining our 38-person business development team in this key role. We are focused on strengthening our ties and expanding the growth of our consultant relationships. Jason has a long track record in the industry, and insightful knowledge of the different asset classes.”

“PineBridge is a world-class organization, with strong global products and capabilities. This will be an interesting role, and I look forward to working with the investment and business development teams to raise the knowledge base with consultants about PineBridge’s distinguished track record within the consultant community,” said Jason Fisher.

Mr. Fisher joins PineBridge from J.P. Morgan Asset Management where he held a number of senior sales and consultant positions over the last decade, most recently serving as Consultant Advisor and Executive Director of US Institutional Consultant Sales based in Los Angeles. Mr. Fisher holds FINRA securities licenses, including Series 3, 7 and 63, and earned a BBA in Marketing from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

About PineBridge Investments

PineBridge is an independent asset manager with over 60 years of experience in developed and emerging markets. We manage US $71.5 billion across our platform for institutional and individual investors worldwide as of 31 March 2013. Our globally integrated investment platform offers innovative, core and specialized alpha-oriented solutions across asset allocation, equities, fixed income, private equity and hedge funds. What differentiates us is our integration of on-the-ground investment teams across asset classes, bringing investors the combined benefits of global perspectives and structured insights.

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Every few months I hear rumors with these two words: HTC and tablet. On Tuesday, I heard them again with a source telling Phone Arena that HTC is expected to debut a pair of new tablets by year’s end. One is allegedly a 7-inch tablet while the other is expected to be a 12-inch device. A tablet isn’t what HTC needs to turn around its sales and profits problems.

HTC’s prior tablets and the market for Windows RT

HTC did create a 7-inch Intel Atom-powered tablet in 2007 called the HTC Shift. It had a hardware keyboard and ran Windows, but like many other UMPC models from that time, it was never a hit. The company doesn’t have expertise with Intel chips and the full version of Windows, however. A few Android tablets from HTC — the Flyer and the Jetstream — came and went without fanfare as well. Given HTC’s experience with ARM-powered chips in smartphones, it would likely build new tablets with similar silicon. That would mean both would run Windows RT and not the full Windows 8 software.

Unfortunately, I’m not yet convinced there’s a market for Windows RT devices. I fully understand that some readers may have purchased one and are quite happy with it. However, there’s no data to support that Windows RT is a success by any measure: Microsoft hasn’t yet broken out Windows RT license sales from Windows 8 sales.

And after spending time with Surface RT and other Windows RT slates, I haven’t been able to recommend them to anyone. It’s not because they’re bad products; I actually like the user interface and the hardware of the various models. But at a similar price point, it may make more sense to buy an Intel Atom slate that provides similar battery life and performance to RT tablets but also adds support for legacy Windows software.

HTC’s current issues stem from several problems

I can understand why HTC might want to expand its product line to include Windows tablets: The company’s smartphone sales have been falling and so too are HTC’s revenues and profits. Instead of leading the pack with Android phones like it used to, HTC is losing out to Samsung. So too are other companies that used be smartphone stars; HTC isn’t unique. As a result, HTC reported just $2.88 million profit on $1.45 billion in revenues last quarter and unless it can quickly reverse its fortunes with the new HTC One, it could see profits dip into losses.

We’ve previously discussed why HTC is in its current predicament. Stronger competition is one part of it. The relative lack of brand awareness and marketing is another big reason. And a lack of focus — too many different permutations and combinations of similar products — haven’t helped either. And therein lies the rub: all three of these issues would only be magnified in the market for Windows tablets.

Losing focus isn’t a winning strategy

A better idea for HTC might be to get its smartphone house in order. It’s definitely on the right path with the HTC One; it’s a top-notch Android smartphone. If the phone is successful, I supposed the company could re-invest profits into designing a Windows tablet or two, but it might be better to continue improving the smartphone line first.

Tablet sales are growing, even as PC sales are slowing, but the market for smartphones is still bigger than both. I’d hate to see HTC lose focus by entering an already crowded market for products that haven’t yet proven successful. It just seems like a big risk that HTC isn’t in a position to take right now.

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When testing your PC, you might sometimes want to see what happens over a period of time. Will your backup start when it should, for instance? Is your antivirus launcher working correctly? Will your alarm pop up? When will that trial version expire, and what happens when it does?

If you’re only looking to test just one of these actions, then manually resetting your system’s clock will probably be enough. But when your testing becomes more involved — you want to check out a program which adjusts screen brightness depending on the time of day, for instance — then you’ll benefit from a more automated approach. And there’s no simpler way to get this than with Accelerify.

The program is a tiny (7.26KB download) console-based tool which increments your PC clock at regular intervals — by default, moving it on an hour every 10 seconds — so making time seem to pass more quickly while you just monitor what’s happening; a very straightforward approach.

It’s easy to use, too. Launch the program from Explorer as an Administrator (right-click, select Run as Administrator) and it’ll pop up in a console window, and immediately begin incrementing your clock. You can return to your desktop, launch a program or otherwise monitor your system. And when you’re done, return to Accelerify, press a key, and the program will stop its work, restore your original time and close down.

If the default interval and increment don’t suit your needs, then that can be adjusted via command line switches. And so you could choose to step forward 30 minutes every 2 seconds, 3 hours every 15 seconds, or whatever you like (accelerify_Readme.txt has the details).

Be careful, though. We found that if we incremented the clock too rapidly — an hour every second, for instance — then some scheduled applications missed their cue, and didn’t pop up when we expected.

And you also need to be sure that you close the program via the approved, “press any key” route. If you just close the window then your clock will be left at its new setting, and you’ll have to restore the correct time yourself (in Windows 7, right-click the clock, select “Adjust date/time” > Internet Time > Change Settings > Update now).

Accelerify isn’t exactly a tool you’ll use every day, then, but if you’re testing anything based on time then it could be very useful. Take a look.

Photo Credit: Sukharevskyy Dmytro (nevodka)/Shutterstock

With Google’s annual I/O developer conference being just a week away, lots of people are busy trying to figure out what the company is going to announce this year. I’m gonna throw my hat in the ring with a bold guess: a second take on Android @Home, Google’s internet of things meets home entertainment initiative that never materialized despite being announced not once, but twice.

I have no inside knowledge on this, I have heard no juicy rumors — so I could be completely wrong. But I do think the timing is right for Android @Home.

False starts: connected lightbulbs and the Nexus Q

Remember the Nexus Q?

First, a bit of history. Google initially introduced Android @Home at its Google I/O conference in 2011. Back then, the company painted the picture of all kinds of household appliances being connected to a home gateway, controlled by Android devices. One of the first devices coming to market was supposed to be an Android-connected LED light bulb. The bulb was supposed to be manufactured by Lighting Science and come to market by the end of 2011.

That never happened, and there hasn’t been any official word about the status of the project since. Instead, Google introduced the ill-fated Nexus Q at its 2012 Google I/O conference. The music streamer was meant to compete with Sonos and deliver cloud-hosted whole-home audio – but overwhelmingly negative reception led Google to scrap the project, and give away thousands of units for free.

Third time’s a charm?

However, Android @Home is far from dead. Android enthusiasts recently found traces of Android @Home in the Android 4.2.2 update. And some casual searches on LinkedIn reveal that the company isn’t just maintaining the team, but actively hiring and adding people to the fold. There are industrial designers and software engineers “working on Android@Home cloud services,” managers who’ve been working on “Nexus Q and other fun things to come” and numerous other people listing Android@ Home as their current area of work. A bunch of them have actually been hired in 2013.

What exactly are they working on? It’s hard to tell from the resumes alone, and one guy even admits:

“My job is so secret, sometimes even I do not know what I do.”

However, it’s worth pointing out that quite a few people list Jawbone as a previous employer, hinting at the possibility of additional audio devices. I’ve also heard that Lighting Science is still working on the LED project, so we might actually see Android-connected lightbulbs make a comeback.

Android @home’s killer feature: speech recognition

Android @Home’s bigger vision has always been to connect everything in your home, not just a single lightbulb or a speaker system in your living room. Back in 2011, Android @Home hardware director Joe Britt told me:

“In thinking about accessories as devices that surround the phone, we started thinking about how far away from the phone you could migrate. Is a light bulb a potential accessory? Is a dishwasher a potential accessory?”

Google’s voice recognition already controls Google TV devices. Will it come to your lightbulbs next?

One of the key pieces to tie all of those things together could be Google’s voice recognition. The company’s cloud-based voice recognition features have advanced a lot in the last few years, to the point where voice has become one of the main input methods for Google TV.

The same capabilities could also be used to control your lighting, play your music or even adjust your thermostat. Check out this cool new demo video below, put together by home automation enthusiast Doug Gregory to get a sense of what’s possible when voice and home automation come together:

Gregory didn’t use Android @Home for this demo, but instead relied on a number of different tools. But Google has definitely been looking to utilize voice for Android @Home, as one software engineer professes on LinkedIn:

“Deliver speech recognition and natural language processing technologies (context aware, embedded and online) to the mobile ecosystem. Build client and server side infrastructure for integration across multiple Google products in all languages. Currently working in Google Now, Google Glass, Android@Home and others.”

Android @home’s other killer feature: Google Now and the knowledge graph

Here’s another feature that could set the 2013 version of Android @Home apart from its 2011 roots: Google’s new focus on the knowledge graph, and its pretty face that is Google Now. The Google Now app already pushes all kinds of relevant information to your mobile, including the time it will take you to get home and the weather in the city you’re going to visit tomorrow.

Google Now already keeps track of your packages and your commute – so why not your home appliances?

Now imagine Google would add data it gets from your Android @Home devices to the mix. Swipe up on your Android phone, and you’ll be able to check the settings of your thermostat, get more information about the band that’s been playing on your home stereo system (including tour dates) or check how much money you’re gonna spend on electricity this month. It’s a pretty compelling vision, and one that gets even more interesting once you feed data from your Android @Home devices back to the knowledge graph.

Granted, a pretty UI powered by Google Now cards and voice recognition isn’t all Android @Home needs to succeed – but both would definitely be big steps to make consumers feel more at home in their connected house.

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Today, President Obama welcomed President Park Geun-hye of the Republic of Korea to the White House to mark 60 years of bilateral partnership between our two nations.

Established following the Korean War, the US-ROK Alliance is a linchpin of peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the Asia Pacific region. And today, the two leaders affirmed that they would continue building on the past six decades of stability by strengthening and adapting the alliance to meet the security challenges of the 21st century.

“Guided by our joint vision, we’re investing in the shared capabilities and technologies and missile defenses that allow our forces to operate and succeed together,” President Obama said. “And we’re determined to be fully prepared for any challenge or threat to our security.”

President Barack Obama holds a bilateral meeting with President Park Geun-hye of the Republic of Korea, in the Oval Office, May 7, 2013.

(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama and President Park also agreed to continue implementing the historic trade agreement between the United States and South Korea, which is already yielding benefits for both countries, President Obama said.

read more

Greenbriar Equity Group said Tuesday that an affiliate has completed a tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of common stock of EDAC Technologies Corp. at a purchase price of $17.75 per share. GB Aero intends to delist and de-register EDAC common stock, Greenbriar. Farmington, Conn.-based EDAC makes aerospace and industrial components.

PRESS RELEASE

Greenbriar Equity Group LLC (“Greenbriar”) announced today the successful completion of the tender offer by its affiliate, GB Aero Engine Merger Sub, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of GB Aero Engine LLC, for all of the outstanding shares of common stock of EDAC Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: EDAC) (“EDAC”) at a purchase price of $17.75 per share. As of the expiration of the offer, 4,079,188 shares of common stock of EDAC were validly tendered and not withdrawn in the tender offer.

As part of the successful completion of the tender offer, GB Aero Engine LLC exercised its right granted under the merger agreement with EDAC pursuant to which the tender offer was made to purchase additional shares from EDAC which would allow GB Aero Engine LLC to complete the merger without stockholder approval. Today, GB Aero Engine LLC acquired all of the remaining outstanding shares of EDAC common stock by means of a “short form merger” in which all such shares, other than shares held by EDAC in treasury or shares held by EDAC’s shareholders who are entitled to and have properly exercised dissenters’ rights under Wisconsin law, were converted into the right to receive $17.75 per share, in cash and without interest, less any applicable withholding taxes. GB Aero Engine LLC intends to delist and de-register EDAC common stock as promptly as practicable following the effective time of the merger.

About Greenbriar Equity Group LLC

Greenbriar Equity Group LLC, a private equity firm with $1.5 billion of committed capital, focuses exclusively on the global transportation industry, including companies in aerospace and defense, automotive, freight and passenger transport, logistics and distribution, and related sectors. Greenbriar invests with proven management teams who are interested in being significant equity owners in their companies as well as with corporate partners who are interested in raising capital. Greenbriar’s partners bring many decades of experience at the highest levels within the transportation industry. Additional information may be found at www.greenbriarequity.com.

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New York-based Poppin Inc., an online retailer offering innovative office products, has raised US$11.1 million in a Series B financing round led by Canadian early stage venture capital firm TrilogyGrowth. Existing investors, including Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital and company founder J. Christopher Burch, also participated in the deal. TrilogyGrowth Managing Partner Joel Silver, who formerly served as president of Indigo Books & Music, will join Poppin’s board of directors.

PRESS RELEASE

Poppin Announces $11.1 Million Series B Financing

TrilogyGrowth, Shasta Ventures back innovative work-lifestyle company

Launched in September 2012, Poppin, Inc. intends to be the first consumer brand that makes buying, using, looking at and thinking about office products an extraordinary experience.

NEW YORK, May 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Poppin (http://www.poppin.com), an innovative office products company defined by original designs and an unparalleled customer experience, announced today it has raised $11.1 million in Series B financing. The funding will be used to expand the product selection and drive continued customer acquisition.

TrilogyGrowth, a Canadian growth stage investment fund run by former Indigo Books & Music president Joel Silver , led this round with continued participation from Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital and company founder J. Christopher Burch . There was additional participation from a small group of angel investors, including TechStars founder, David Tisch . Silver, Managing Partner of TrilogyGrowth, will be joining Poppin’s board.

“Having helped build Canada’s leading lifestyle retailer, Indigo Books & Music, to nearly $1 billion in annual sales, Joel brings with him extensive experience in both e-commerce and retail stores,” explained Randy Nicolau , CEO of Poppin. “His unique understanding of omni-channel retailing is particularly pertinent for Poppin in this period of growth.”

“I’m very excited about our investment in Poppin,” said Joel Silver . “TrilogyGrowth invests in companies focused on solving consumer needs through distinctive products and services. We seek investments in opportunistic companies building brands, Poppin is doing just that.”

Poppin launched in September 2012 to be the first consumer brand that makes buying, using, looking at and thinking about office products an extraordinary experience. Over the last six months the company has seen explosive growth with both consumer and business customers. In this period, Poppin has rapidly scaled to accommodate a growing direct-to-consumer business while building an impressive corporate client list that includes Fab.com, Kate Spade , LinkedIn, Pandora, Rachel Zoe Media Group, SalesForce Marketing Cloud and Warby Parker .

“Moving forward we will expand the product offering, with a particular focus on growing our nascent furniture collection,” noted Nicolau. “We will remain dedicated to creating an exceptional customer experience that surprises and delights at every touch point. Ultimately, with this investment, we aim to roll out new products that define the ‘WorkStyle’ space and help people to Work Happy.”

About Poppin
Poppin, Inc, is an innovative online retailer offering a distinctive collection of chic yet affordable workstyle products and an engaging shopping experience. Established with the unique mission to provide people with everything they need to work happy, Poppin intends to become the first company that makes buying, using, looking at, and thinking about office products an extraordinary experience. The company is privately held and financed by J. Christopher Burch , Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital, TrilogyGrowth and a group of angel investors, including David Tisch .
All Poppin products can be found at poppin.com, while fans and friends can follow the brand at facebook.com/poppin and twitter.com/poppin.

SOURCE Poppin

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

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TripAdvisor has a new service for businesses called Review Express, which sends bulk emails to customers on said businesses’ behalf.

While some have raised spam-related concerns about the product, as far as we can tell, it basically operates like other third-party email marketing products. Customers won’t be getting surprise spam from TripAdvisor.com. They’ll be getting emails from hotels they’ve stayed at, which they’ve agreed to get emails about (even if it’s TripAdvisor doing the actual sending behind the scenes). The emails just come with encouragement for guests to leave reviews on TripAdvisor.

The video shows the basic process:

Review Express lets businesses add their own logos and personalized messages, and includes the ability to bulk upload up to 1,000 email addresses. It also processes send requests within 24 hours, and provides automatic notification of successful and unsuccessful sends. It can send messages in 21 languages.

“With Review Express, TripAdvisor aims to extend the relationship between businesses and their guests to encourage them to write reviews. This is a time-saver for owners, providing them with a powerful system to manage multiple emails and requests at no cost to the business,” said Severine Philardeau, vice president of global partnerships, TripAdvisor. “Review Express has been developed and enhanced based on extensive user testing and is an invaluable service for hospitality business owners looking to build their online reputation. When used in conjunction with our free display offerings for owners, Review Express provides a great online marketing package for small and independent hospitality business owners to capture the value of user reviews for their property.”

Businesses will want to follow the best practices TripAdvisor has laid out.

When bombs in Boston went off last month, Jill Abramson went in minutes from being a “joyous executive editor” at a ceremony celebrating the New York Times‘ recent Pulitzer Prize wins to overseeing a major story.

Abramson is familiar with working on major news events, including 9/11, but said her primary concerns were different this time.

“In Boston, what was first and foremost was making sure our standards were understood,” Abramson said at the Wired Business conference in New York City on Tuesday.

Abramson said that, for major stories in the past, the only focus was the next day’s paper. This time around, she was preoccupied with ensuring that no one at the paper seized on one of the many thinly sourced rumors flying around on social media.

Abramson, speaking with Wired editor-in-chief Scott Dedich, also addressed other recent trends in media, including a popular marketing trend.

“Native advertising seems to be for the conference set. It’s the buzz word of 2013,” she said, pouring cold water on a term popularized by BuzzFeed and others.

Abramson spoke of the “months and months and months” of effort that went into producing the NYT’s Pulitzer Prize-winning multimedia story “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek,” but didn’t address how the paper will fund such projects in the future. She did note, though, that technical virtuosity isn’t enough for great journalism.

“I think that what a new editor needs first and foremost, and this sounds old-fashioned, is that gut sense of what’s a great NYT story.”

The discussion didn’t touch on a widely panned Politico report that Abramson was losing the newsroom, but did address her role as first female executive editor of the Times. She said that there was no point being the first woman in anything if there wasn’t going to be a second, but said she was pleased with overall gender roles at the Times.

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Some of the most important feedback I got after publishing my long investigative piece on Fisker Automotive (A look under the hood: why electric car startup Fisker crashed and burned) was that many people thought that Fisker’s struggles were such an anomaly that they wouldn’t likely affect the broader market for electric vehicles. That was also the majority opinion from the recent survey (subscription required) we conducted for GigaOM Pro, our premium research service, on the fate and implications of Fisker’s downfall.

According to our survey of 108 respondents, almost 60 percent think that Fisker’s problems will not have much of an affect on the greater electric car market. As evidence, you can look at how sales of electric cars have been slowly and steadily growing (see our 4 charts), and Tesla plans to announce a profitable quarter on Wednesday.

A little less than a third of our respondents, at 29 percent, thought Fisker’s problems would have a modest effect on electric car sales. And only 4.7 percent of our respondents thought that Fisker’s struggles would greatly affect the electric car market.

To see the rest of the responses to our survey, including how Fisker will affect government spending on cleantech innovation, as well as cleantech venture capital investing, check out the full report on GigaOM Pro (subscription required). The report is a 22-page report, highlighting our survey, and my analysis of what went wrong with Fisker. Survey respondents can get copies of the report complimentary — thanks for participating!

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Colleagues Mihaita Bamburic and Larry Seltzer both have stories today about Microsoft’s newest sales milestone. They make valid points in “Windows 8 is such a failure Microsoft sells 100M licenses” and “You wish you could fail like Microsoft“. However, 100 million is less than you might think and represents Windows 8’s failure.

Meanwhile, the announcement is Microsoft’s attempt to use seemingly good news to admit failure, by softballing step-backwards changes coming with Windows Blue.

Do the Math

Windows 8 shipped on October 26, but OEMs started buying licenses soon after the operating system released to manufacturing, first week of August. Being greatly generous to Microsoft, let’s use October 1, start of fourth quarter, as measure of license sales. According to IDC, for the two quarters ended March 31, manufacturers shipped 166.7 million PCs (90.4 million plus 76.3 million). By the most liberal assessment, Windows 8 shipped on 60 percent of new PCs over the first six months. But the real number is much less.

Microsoft’s 100 million figure is to date, which means at least five more weeks of sales, and honestly, another five weeks (or more) during third quarter, as OEMs bought licenses for new PCs. Most analysts put Windows PC market share at about 90 percent.

By that reckoning, Microsoft’s newest OS shipped on about 66 percent of Windows PCs for the six months, although when including those missing weeks my guesstimate is, best case, 50 percent of all and 54 percent for those with Microsoft’s OS.

Windows Dirt Cheap Edition

But wait! That’s still an overly gracious measure. Microsoft offered Windows 8 dirt cheap through January 31 — $39.95 Windows 8 Pro upgrade download, or $69.95 on DVD. The pricing is the lowest Microsoft has ever offered for the Professional product. The company doesn’t disclose how many of those licenses are cheap upgrades, but reasonable guesstimate is possible.

Based on Microsoft financial statements, cheap upgrade sales and volume-license ones to businesses were unusually brisk. For example, non-OEM revenue increased by 40 percent year over year during calendar first quarter (Microsoft’s fiscal third). Additionally, the percentage of revenue from OEM sales fell to 65 percent. Typical level is 75 percent to 80 percent. The two figures mean an increase of license sales outside the PC channel, and one unusually high for a new version during the initial launch.

Let’s cut the numbers differently, for shorter time period, so we can make better use of that 65 percent OEM figure. In January, Microsoft boasted 60 million Windows 8 license sales. Three months later, the number is 40 million more, which looks good at first glance. However during first quarter — and, again, generously ignoring that extra five weeks of calendar second quarter — 52 percent of all PCs and 58 percent running Windows. Real numbers are more likely closer to 50 percent and 55 percent, respectively.

Apple Pie a la Mode

Now let’s do some comparisons to other devices. During the same 6 months, Apple sold 85 million iPhones and 42 million iPads, or more higher-profit devices than Windows 8 licenses. Most analysts now acknowledge that smartphones and tablets displace, or even replace, PC sales; from that perspective, comparison is reasonable, while granted compared straight software to hardware and software. In calendar first quarter alone, combined revenue from the two iOS devices accounted for 73 percent of Apple’s $43.6 billion in revenue.

Heck, revenue for just the Mac nearly matched Microsoft’s Windows division — $5.4 billion to $5.7 billion, respectively. While some commenters will argue that’s an, ah, apples to oranges comparison, it represents two different business models competing for the same consumer dollars. However, when removing a one-time deferral, Windows division revenue was only $4.6 billion. So from computers representing about 5 percent of the global PC market, Apple generates more revenue than supplier of major operating system to most of the market.

Windows Blue in the Face

From where I sit typing this analysis, 100 million is great marketing, but much less when crunched. Strangely, the announcement means so much more. As a journalist I loathe Microsoft Q&As, where one employee gets to ask another softball questions. Concurrently with the license numbers, the company posted a Q&A with Tami Reller, Windows division CFO.

She says the next OS version is “opportunity for us to respond to the customer feedback that we’ve been closely listening to since the launch of Windows 8 and Windows RT”. That’s coded-language for Microsoft stepping back from some Modern UI capabilities, and the real reason for the numbers’ release: To soften the public relations blow for such action.

Reller granted an interview to the Financial Times, where she acknowledges “key aspects” of Windows 8/RT will change. Not that she says what. That’s admission of failure, something analysts have said for months.

In March, Bob O’Donnell, IDC vice president summed up the first quarter PC crisis:

At this point, unfortunately, it seems clear that the Windows 8 launch not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market. While some consumers appreciate the new form factors and touch capabilities of Windows 8, the radical changes to the UI, removal of the familiar Start button, and the costs associated with touch have made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices. Microsoft will have to make some very tough decisions moving forward if it wants to help reinvigorate the PC market.

Suffice to say those decisions are made.

Kelso & Company has acquired PowerTeam Services. Financial terms were not announced. The sellers were CIVC Partners and True North Equity. Plymouth, Mich.-based PowerTeam provides infrastructure services to the gas and electric utility industry. Harris Williams advised PowerTeam.

PRESS RELEASE

Harris Williams & Co., a preeminent middle market investment bank focused on the advisory needs of clients worldwide, announces the sale of PowerTeam Services, LLC (PTS), a leading provider of infrastructure services to the gas and electric utility industry, to Kelso & Company (Kelso), which will merge PTS with its existing portfolio company Power Holdings.  PTS was a portfolio company of CIVC Partners, LP (CIVC) and True North Equity (TNE).  Harris Williams & Co. acted as the exclusive advisor to PTS.  The transaction closed on May 6, 2013 and was led by John Arendale and Tiff Armstrong, Matt White and Luke Semple from the firm’s Energy & Power (E&P) Group.

“PTS is an exceptional utility services platform with a compelling track record of both organic and acquisition-based growth.  The management team has done an excellent job building a differentiated utility services provider of scale,” said John Arendale, managing director at Harris Williams & Co.  “We are in the early stages of a utility infrastructure investment cycle,” added Matt White, director at Harris Williams & Co. “PTS, in partnership with Kelso, is ideally positioned to capitalize on substantial industry growth.”

PTS provides a comprehensive suite of services for the recurring repair, replacement, maintenance and installation of natural gas and electric transmission and distribution infrastructure.  PTS provides services through three operating units: KS Energy Services, Southeast Connections and Distribution Construction.  Collectively, the company has more than 1,400 employees across 14 states from the upper Midwest to the Southeast.  The entire senior management team will remain with PTS and is committed to continuing to provide exceptional service to their customers.

CIVC is a Chicago-based private equity firm established in 1970 that provides growth and buyout capital to middle market companies and executives with a focus on the business services and financial services sectors. The current management team, which has worked together since 1989, has completed 54 platform transactions and dozens of add-on acquisitions.  CIVC manages over $1.2 billion in private equity capital and currently invests from Fund IV.

Kelso is a private equity firm with a track record of successful middle market investing that spans more than thirty years.  Since 1980, Kelso has made investments in over 115 companies in a broad range of industry sectors.  The firm is currently investing its eighth investment partnership, Kelso Investment Associates VIII, L.P., with $5.1 billion of committed capital.

Harris Williams & Co. (www.harriswilliams.com), a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC), is a preeminent middle market investment bank focused on the advisory needs of clients worldwide.  The firm has deep industry knowledge, global transaction expertise and an unwavering commitment to excellence.  Harris Williams & Co. provides sell-side and acquisition advisory, restructuring advisory, board advisory, private placements and capital markets advisory services.

The firm’s E&P Group has experience across a broad range of sectors, including oil and gas equipment and services, energy efficiency and clean tech, industrial and infrastructure services, power products and technology, engineering and construction and environmental services.  For more information on our energy and power experience, please contact Tiff Armstrong or Matt White at +1 (804) 648-0072.

Investment banking services are provided by Harris Williams LLC, a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC, and Harris Williams & Co. Ltd, which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.  Harris Williams & Co. is a trade name under which Harris Williams LLC and Harris Williams & Co. Ltd conduct business.

The post Kelso & Co. Buys PowerTeam Services appeared first on peHUB.

SAP, the enterprise software giant, has been beating the cloud drum for years. Last year it put its All-in-One ERP application on Amazon Web Services.  Five months later it did the same with HANA, its speedy in-memory database. So it’s not really surprising that it now intends to make HANA available from its own cloud. Oh, and from other partners’ clouds as well

There weren’t a ton of details on pricing and dates which could come at the company’s annual SAPPHIRE conference, next week, but according to the release, SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud will be delivered by SAP and its partners:

 ”SAP intends to adapt this open ecosystem strategy with its managed service providers to offer the capabilities of SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud from their data centers, as well as from multiple SAP data centers worldwide.”

In a research note, Nomura Securities analyst Rick Sherlund wrote:

“SAP indicates it will price its elastic cloud-computing service based size, scale of data, and application usage. The advantages are faster time to market and time to value, with lower total cost of ownership. Offering a service that delivers quick value and easy implementation should be a nice complement to the real-time capabilities users seek from HANA for a wide variety of new, real-time business processes, in addition to the Business Suite.”

SAP will continue to offer HANA via AWS, a spokesman said. But it’s clear that more contention is arising between legacy enterprise IT players and Amazon which is starting to compete with them by offering more higher-end services that compete with their products.  AWS has made no secret about its ambitions here —  it all but called out IBM, HP, Teradata, and Oracle by name when it announced its RedShift data warehousing service last November.

Meanwhile, SAP — along with these other legacy enterprise IT giants — has rushed to embrace cloud. Better to cannibalize your own on-premises business than to let Amazon do it after all. But, SAP got a rocky start in cloud. It launched Business ByDesign as a SaaS product four years ago to underwhelming response. But it vowed to do better and started buying up cloud expertise, with its $3.4 billion  acquisition of SuccessFactors, a SaaS provider of human resources management, two years later. But HANA, the hot in-memory database and analytics product  has become the company’s focal point in  cloud and big data efforts.

What would really be surprising is if SAP didn’t offer HANA from its own cloud.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Big data 2013: key trends and companies to watch
• Cloud computing 2013: how to navigate without a map
• Cloud computing infrastructure: 2012 and beyond

It seems that Justin Bieber isn’t the only pop star that is having trouble getting to concerts on time.

According to a Boston Magazine report, R&B star Rihanna was three hours late taking the stage at her Boston concert Monday night. As expected, fans gave her a hard time about the delay on Twitter using very colorful language.

What makes Rihanna’s tardiness worse is that the concert in question was actually a make-up concert. The singer had cancelled a concert in Boston in March, citing laryngitis as the cause.

Rihanna has not addressed being late through her social media accounts, though she has tweeted out an Instagram pic of the concert through her Twitter feed as if nothing odd has happened. She stated that “I will never forget this night!!!” and that she now has a deeper love of Boston:

Follow @rihanna

Rihanna
@rihanna

#BOSTON I will never forget this night!!! I truly have deeper love for you now!!! Thank you for making… http://t.co/bYHnsGwC9k

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
15 hours ago via Instagram · powered by @socialditto

In other Rihanna news, Chris Brown this week confirmed the rumor that he and Rihanna are no longer a couple. He told an Australian radio program that he is a “grown man” who is moving forward with his life.

(Image courtesy Marc Schiller/Wikimedia Commons)

News from the Blandin on Broadband Blog

Minnesota Broadband Task Force In April, the Broadband Task Force heard from broadband providers and supporters that offered reduced rate access and training to low income Minnesotans. Also there was some discussion of current broadband-related legislation, especially sales tax exemption for broadband deployment. The Task Force had recommended tax exemptions, but the Governor’s broader tax plan reduces exemptions. There was some discussion on the proposed Office of Broadband Deployment as well.http://wp.me/p3if7-2dt (An entrepreneur from the Iron Range voices his opinion on the tax issues as well, echoing opinions heard at Task Force. http://wp.me/p3if7-2e4)

The Governor’s Office recently appointed two new members to the Minnesota Broadband Task Force: Fred Underwood, Director of  Technology at the Fond Du Lac Reservation and Andrea Casselton, Director of the Office of Technology and Communications in St Paul.http://wp.me/p3if7-2dY

Minnesota Broadband Not World Class The latest Akamai report has been released, tracking worldwide broadband growth from Q4 2012. The US does not rank highly by international standards; Minnesota does even worse when compared to other states. We don’t do well with speed or adoption. We saw the same results last August. http://wp.me/p3if7-2dE

Update on Policy Broadband-Related Bills

• The Legislature learned more about the Minnesota Telecommunications Regulations Bills (HF 985/SF 584) inclduing enforcement authority, tariffs, alternative regulation plans, obsolete provisions and plans to meet with FCC plans for 2019.http://wp.me/p3if7-2d5
• The Legislature is looking at E-Government Advisory Council (SF804) to improve online government information services to citizens and businesses. (They are also looking at State procurement and solicitation provisions modifications.) http://wp.me/p3if7-2cZ
• Senator Klobuchar talks about unlocking cell phones so that consumers can change providers without steep penalties; she also speaks about the importance of enforcing call completion regulation to ensure that rural areas receive calls from all providers.http://wp.me/p3if7-2cT
• The House Taxes Committee met and quickly dismissed bills with potential to provide funding for broadband. Anything in HF1686 that related to fiber was dismissed once the legislators realized that this amendment might conflict with other policies. Legislators were not in favor of the broadband development grant program (HF389); perhaps relating to the tenuous connection between pre-paid phones and broadband more than the fund itself. http://wp.me/p3if7-2cP
• North Dakota passed legislation exempting telecommunications equipment purchases from the sales tax, creating an incentive for high tech firms to invest in North Dakota’s communications infrastructure. http://wp.me/p3if7-2dN

Local Broadband News

Cloquet Valley Some progress is being made toward better broadband in a group of townships north of Duluth known as the Cloquet Valley Internet Initiative. They are encouraging local collaboration and awareness. http://wp.me/p3if7-2cw

Eagan Joining an informal worldwide initiative of programmers who are working to teach students the language of computers, Thomson Reuters offers computer-coding classes for 50 middle-school-age children . http://wp.me/p3if7-2dQ

Lake County Lake County breathes a sign of relief as half of their ARRA-funded fiber network is complete and the incumbents who have opposed the network seem to be backing away from the project. http://wp.me/p3if7-2dr

Minneapolis The Minnesota High Tech Association hosts their annual Spring Conference. Hot topics included innovation and creativity. http://wp.me/p3if7-2dS

Minneapolis is named fifth nerdiest city. http://wp.me/p3if7-2d8

Monticello Monticello extends the statute of limitations on legal claims bondholders can file against the city (related to FiberNet broadband network), striving to reach a resolution with the temporary agreement, set to expire June 1, 2013. http://wp.me/p3if7-2d2

Redwood County The Redwood Area Development Corporation (RADC) posts their recent feasibility study. It indicates that residents in town have better access to broadband than residents in small communities or living on the outskirts of communities. http://wp.me/p3if7-2cj

Southwest Minnesota Thanks to a grant from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, portable Interactive Television systems will be placed in 36 elementary schools within in Southern Minnesota providing advanced educational opportunities for more than 9,000 K-6 children.http://wp.me/p3if7-2co

St Paul PetChatz is the ultimate petcam; it can be controlled from afar using a phone app or desktop browser. With the tap of a touchscreen or a keyboard, the owner can release a treat from within the device for Fido to enjoy. http://wp.me/p3if7-2dB

Events

May 14: Webniar – Broadband Adoption Toolkit – 2:00-3:30 p.m. EDThttp://wp.me/p3if7-2dV

May 16: Webniar – Economic Development Webinar: Planning, Benefits and Impact – 2:00-3:00 p.m. EDT http://wp.me/p3if7-2dV

May 22: Webniar – Broadband Adoption Toolkit Webinar with Toolkit Creatorshttp://wp.me/p3if7-2dV

June 1-2: Civic Hack Day (various locations TBA) http://wp.me/p3if7-26t

July 29-30: eLearning Summit (St Paul) http://wp.me/p3if7-2dj

Looking for more events? Check out TechDotMN’s calendar http://tech.mn/events/. Many events are based in the Twin Cities but it is a comprehensive list. (If you have an upcoming event, consider submitting it.)

Stirring the Pot

Question: What does our extended cold and snowy weather have in common with broadband?

Answer: The promise of 10-20 Mb ubiquitous broadband and 70 degrees and sunny weather both seem like they will never come!

We do know that 70 and sunny will be here sometime in the next 90 days, but the path to meeting the state broadband goal is much less certain.  The areas that lack wired broadband solutions that meet state broadband goals are clearly not easy to serve; densities and terrain ensure that private sector companies cannot invest in these areas and reach their ROI hurdles.  We know from the feasibility studies recently completed in some areas that the business case for these areas is marginal even with much longer public sector financing horizons and 100% adoption.   These areas with broadband are the same areas that needed significant subsidies to get telephone and electric utilities as those technologies emerged as standard requirements for quality of life and economic competitiveness.

The legislative session is almost over and once again, there are no signs of any new tools, financing programs or incentives to stimulate private or public sector investment, or a more defined or enabled public sector authority to stimulate broadband investments at the local or county level.

Even as we fail to reach the current state broadband goals, those very goals seem increasingly inadequate as Gb broadband is fast emerging as the new global standard.

What’s more, in Minnesota we still have health care, education, public safety all doing their own thing with no coordination in sight and not even on the task force agenda.

I am encouraged to see some regional planning emerging and hope that they can push their way forward to some new solutions – kudos to the east central broadband initiative and to the new group in Region Five!

Ali Lohan has quite a legacy to overcome as she begins her modeling career. Namely, she has to prove that she’s trustworthy and professional, two things Lindsay doesn’t seem to be.

19-year old Ali, who appeared in Lindsay’s music video “Confessions Of A Broken Heart” when she was considerably younger, says she aspires to be in the fashion world but doesn’t want to use her name to get ahead.

“I would just like to be known as my own person,” she says. “I don’t need to ride on any coattails. I just want to make my mark myself. I definitely have to prove myself — just showing up on time and doing everything that you’re supposed to do.”

Ooh, burn! Looks like the general public aren’t the only ones tiring of Lindsay’s escapades.

But no, Ali says, she’s proud of her sister and has gotten some good advice from her on how to get ahead in the industry (Lindsay must have read it in a magazine somewhere).

“She just says the main thing is to do your best and to do what you love,” Ali said. “We’re very close and speak very often. Well, the last time we spoke, I guess, was two weeks ago, so kind of often. But yeah, she’s awesome.”

T-Mobile recieved its first update for the Samsung Galaxy S 4 earlier today and AT&T seems to be following suit. The update is arriving as build number I337UCUAMDL. Neither AT&T nor Samsung have released a changelog, but at a small 21.39 MB, minor performance related improvements and basic tweaks are probably all that’s included.

AT&T S 4 users, you can update your phone by going to Settings > More > About device > Software update.  Once you have the latest build, let us know in the comments if you notice anything different. We will update you with more information once the official changelog arrives.

Source: Droidlife

Come comment on this article: AT&T’s Samsung Galaxy S 4 also receiving minor update