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With more than 75 companies now offering tools under the wide umbrella of DCIM, it isn’t easy for a new player to make a splash. Unless that new player is global electronics and electrical engineering powerhouse Siemens, which has focused its ambitions on the data center and heading into DCIM in a big way.

Datacenter Clarity LC is the company’s foray into the world of DCIM (data center infrastructure management), a suite that combines management and facilities management functions. The company has thrown its muscle into this effort, boosted by a broad existing portfolio of data center solutions, a history in efficiency, as well as a global talent pool of engineers in support.

Meeting point between IT and Facilities

The DCIM solution unveiled last month, Datacenter Clarity LC, consists of engineering and lifecycle management software tools that ensure uptime while optimizing energy and operational efficiencies to accommodate the rapidly changing needs of today’s data centers.  It integrates information from both IT and facility assets, workflows and work orders, and conducts “what if” analyses.

“Datacenter Clarity LC can help you optimize capacity planning while driving operation and energy efficiencies,” said John Kovach, Siemens’ new Global Head of Data Centers.

Datacenter Clarity has an open API architecture facilitates interoperability with other systems. “Our vendor neutral solution supports more than 400 protocols from both the IT and facility perspective, giving customers total visibility of their data centers,” said Kovach.

Siemens Ripe for DCIM Play

Siemens’ DCIM power play wasn’t out of the blue. Siemens has an established track record in facility/enterprise infrastructure development, separately providing different aspects of data center infrastructure to customers over the years. The list of what the company provides isn’t short:

• Medium Voltage gear that connects the building to the utility grid.
• Low Voltage gear that distributes the power throughout the building.
• All the interconnecting controls to enable the Emergency Generators and UPS equipment.
• Complete Power Monitoring system that provides detail on the usage, power balance and consumption of the entire facility.
• Building Automation and temperature controls for the cooling of the facility.
• Fire and Life Safety systems to protect the people and equipment within in the building.
• Perimeter and physical security of the building to control access to the building, CCTV systems to provide visual images of the critical locations within the facility

The company sees a formal DCIM play as the logical evolution of its data center strategy, and is setting out to bridge the divide of IT and facilities management.

“The exponential growth and importance of data centers was leading to a need to bridge the growing “silos” of IT and facilities’ management of data centers,” said Kovach. “Having the two areas collaborate and work together was a constant challenge requiring a central system that would eliminate the inefficiencies that were developing from those separate silos.  This is the purpose of DCIM – and Siemens’ existing expertise in the different infrastructure areas, coupled with our established leadership in energy and operational efficiency, seemed a perfect fit.”

Erickson Air-Crane Inc., a publicly traded helicopter operator and manufacturer backed by Centre Lane Partners, has announced that it will acquire Evergreen Helicopters Inc. from Evergreen International Aviation Inc. Evergreen Helicopters is baced in McMinnville, Oregon. Evergreen Helicopters is being acquired for $250 million, consisting of $185 million in cash, $17.5 million in unsecured promissory notes issued by Erickson Air-Crane, and approximately four million convertible preferred shares of Erickson Air-Crane valued at $47.5 million.

PRESS RELEASE
Erickson Air-Crane Incorporated (NASDAQ: EAC) (“Erickson Air-Crane”, the “Company”, “we”, “us” and “our”), a leading operator and the manufacturer of the powerful Erickson S-64 Aircrane heavy-lift helicopter, today announced that it has executed a stock purchase agreement for the purchase of Evergreen Helicopters, Inc. (“EHI”) from Evergreen International Aviation, Inc. (“EIA”).

EHI, based in McMinnville, Oregon, is a diversified global provider of air transport services for cargo and personnel to government and commercial customers. EHI was founded by aviation pioneer Mr. Delford Smith. At closing, this transaction would provide Erickson Air-Crane with an incremental fleet of 64 aircraft, consisting of both helicopters and fixed-wing airplanes. This diverse fleet serves a wide range of customers, including significant passenger transport and airlift services for the US military. EHI’s operations span the globe, including a presence in North America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific.

In calendar year 2012 EHI’s unaudited revenue was $196.0 million and Adjusted EBITDA was $56.2 million, representing an Adjusted EBITDA margin of over 25%. The Company noted that when calculating EBITDA, EHI, in line with certain other aviation companies, adds back the amortization of certain capitalized overhaul costs. We are conforming our Adjusted EBITDA presentation, and adding back amortization of certain capitalized overhaul costs. For purposes of comparability, our 2012 Adjusted EBITDA, which was reported as $44.5 million, is $57.2 million under the new presentation. There is no change to the Company’s reported 2012 income statement or net cash flows due to this change in non-GAAP presentation. For a reconciliation of this non-GAAP financial measure, see “Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” in this press release.

Udo Rieder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Erickson Air-Crane, said, “We are very excited to be on the cusp of truly transforming our business. We are successfully transcending our market position as a leader in heavy-lift operations to build a diverse, global aviation services provider. Our combined company will offer a comprehensive set of capabilities, a world-class customer base, a diverse portfolio of aircraft, and the ability to service nearly every corner of the globe.”

Under the terms of the purchase agreement, EHI is being acquired from EIA for $250.0 million, consisting of $185.0 million in cash, $17.5 million in unsecured promissory notes issued by Erickson Air-Crane, and approximately four million mandatorily convertible preferred shares of Erickson Air-Crane valued at $47.5 million (based on an agreed value of $11.85 per share). The preferred shares are convertible, at the option of the Company, into an equal number of common shares, subject to shareholder approval under NASDAQ marketplace rules, which the Company intends to seek following the closing of the EHI acquisition. In addition, up to $26.3 million in contingent consideration may be payable by Erickson Air-Crane (in cash or promissory notes) to EIA based on certain revenue targets for the calendar years 2013, 2014 and 2015. Successful completion of the acquisition is contingent upon the Company obtaining financing, and subject to other customary closing conditions.

Rieder remarked, “At a purchase price multiple of less than 5.0x EHI’s 2012 Adjusted EBITDA, the acquisition of EHI is expected to be immediately accretive to EAC’s earnings per share.”

The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2013. For further information regarding all terms and conditions contained in the stock purchase agreement, please see Erickson Air-Crane’s current report on Form 8-K, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with this transaction.

The combination of Erickson Air-Crane’s stand-alone business with the planned acquisitions of Air Amazonia and EHI would, if both transactions close, create a business with pro forma 2012 revenues of approximately $430 million and EBITDA margins of approximately 25%. The combined business would operate a diverse fleet of 100 aircraft.

Rieder commented, “We believe that there are significant opportunities for incremental growth and efficiency embedded within the global operational platform we are assembling. We view these acquisitions as complementary and highly synergistic, and we are looking forward to taking the necessary steps to close the transactions during the second quarter of 2013. The combination of these three businesses would diversify our end-markets, regions serviced, mission capabilities and aircraft types. In addition to significant growth, we believe the combinations carry significant hard cost synergies that could be leveraged throughout the system to increase efficiency, fleet and MRO capacity utilization, and overall economies of scale.”

Rieder concluded, “As we look to the future of our company it is clear that we have begun a new chapter. Never has our vision been broader, our opportunities greater, or our missions more important. Together, our combined companies will leverage our exceptional talent, existing infrastructure, and proven track record of operational efficiency and fleet utilization to better serve our customers and create greater opportunities for our collective vendors and employees. We look forward to welcoming the employees and partners of Air Amazonia and EHI to the Erickson Air-Crane team and we are both grateful and pleased for the ongoing support we receive from our employees, customers, partners and shareholders. We believe our strategy positions us to continue to create value for each of these important constituencies both immediately and over the long-term.”

Conference Call
Management will host a conference call on Wednesday March 20, at 8:30 a.m. ET to discuss the acquisition of Evergreen Helicopters, Inc. To access the call, please dial into the conference at least 10 minutes prior to the beginning of the call at 888-503-8169. International callers should dial 719-785-1765. The access code is 6498798. A live webcast with slides will also be available at investors.ericksonaircrane.com.

The audio webcast replay will be available afterward on our investor relations site, and a telephone replay of the call will be available by dialing 877-870-5176 and entering access code 6498798. International callers can listen to the replay by dialing 858-384-5517 using the same access code above. The conference call replay will be available for five business days, beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, March 20.

About Erickson Air-Crane Incorporated
Erickson Air-Crane specializes in the operation and manufacture of the Erickson S-64 Aircrane (the “Aircrane”), a versatile and powerful heavy-lift helicopter. The Aircrane has a lift capacity of up to 25,000 pounds and is the only commercial aircraft built specifically as a flying crane without a fuselage for internal loads. The Aircrane is also the only commercial heavy-lift helicopter with a rear load-facing cockpit, combining an unobstructed view and complete aircraft control for precision lift and load placement capabilities. Erickson Air-Crane owns and operates a fleet of 18 Aircranes, which are used to support a wide variety of government and commercial customers worldwide across a broad range of aerial services, including firefighting, timber harvesting, infrastructure construction, and crewing. Erickson Air-Crane also manufactures Aircranes and related components for sale to government and commercial customers and provides aftermarket support and maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for the Aircrane and other aircraft. Founded in 1971, Erickson Air-Crane is headquartered in Portland, Oregon with its principal manufacturing facility based in Central Point, Oregon. For more information, please visit http://www.ericksonaircrane.com.

About Evergreen International Aviation, Inc.
Evergreen International Aviation, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides air freight and aviation services to air carriers, aviation companies, and governmental agencies worldwide. With international operating authority and a network of global offices and affiliates, Evergreen consists of an international cargo airline that owns and operates a fleet of Boeing 747s, an unlimited aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility, an aircraft ground handling company, and an aircraft sales and leasing company. In addition to these endeavors, Evergreen owns and operates Evergreen Agricultural Enterprises and is headquartered near the not-for-profit Evergreen Aviation Museum, home of the Spruce Goose. The company was founded by Delford M. Smith and is based in McMinnville, Oregon. For more information, please visit http://www.evergreenaviation.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. You can identify forward-looking statements by words such as “believe,” “may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “expect,” “predict,” “potential,” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations but they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of risks and uncertainties, which include the possibility that we do not complete the acquisition of the Air Amazonia business or EHI, or realize the benefits of these acquisitions, on a timely basis or at all, the ability to integrate these businesses successfully or in a timely and cost-efficient manner, the ability to successfully enter new markets and manage international expansion, failure to obtain any required financing on favorable terms, including the possibility that the commitment letter from Wells Fargo Bank expires, our safety record, the hazards associated with operating Aircranes, compliance with debt obligations, cancellations, reductions or delays in customer orders, ability to collect on customer receivables, weather and seasonal fluctuations that impact Aircrane activities, competition, reliance on a small number of large customers, the impact of short-term contracts, the availability and size of the Aircrane fleet, the ability to implement production rate changes, the impact of government spending, the impact of product liability and product warranties, the ability to attract and retain qualified personnel, the impact of environmental regulations, the ability to accurately forecast financial guidance, convert backlog into revenues, and appropriately plan expenses, worldwide economic conditions (including conditions in Greece and Italy), government regulation, ability to attract and retain key personnel, reliance on a small number of manufacturers, the necessity to provide components or services to owners and operators of aircraft, effectively manage growth, keep pace with changes in technology, adequately protect our intellectual property, successfully enter new markets, manage international expansion, expand and diversify its customer base, expand and market manufacturing and maintenance, repair and overhaul services, the potential unionization of employees, the fluctuation in the price of fuel, the ability to access public or private debt markets, the obligations of being a new public company, the impact of equipment failures or other events impacting the operation of our factories, and successfully manage any future acquisitions, and other risks and uncertainties more fully described under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K as well as the other reports Erickson Air-Crane has filed with the SEC.

You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Erickson Air-Crane assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions, or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information, except to the extent required by applicable laws.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The Company uses adjusted EBITDA (“Adjusted EBITDA”) in managing our business. We define EBITDA as net income (loss) before interest expense, net, provision for (benefit from) income taxes, and depreciation and amortization and the adjustments to EBITDA to be non-cash unrealized mark-to-market foreign exchange gains (losses), specified litigation expenses, certain management fees, gains from sale of equipment, non-cash charges arising from awards to employees relating to equity interests, non-cash charges relating to financings, initial public offering-related non-capitalized expenses, acquisition due diligence and transaction related expenses, and other unusual, extraordinary, non-recurring non-cash costs. This is a financial measure not prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”). We have provided a reconciliation below of EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure. We are also providing a reconciliation of our Adjusted EBITDA which is defined as EBITDA plus adding back the amortization of certain capitalized overhaul costs. In addition, we are presenting a reconciliation below of the EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA of EHI, to its net income as reported in its unaudited management accounts for 2012. Neither EBITDA nor Adjusted EBITDA should be considered an alternative to revenue or net income (loss) as a measure of operating performance, to cash flows from operating activities as a measure of liquidity, or to any other measure of financial performance presented in accordance with GAAP. We present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA because we believe they are important measures of our operating performance and provide more comparability between our historical results and the unaudited management accounts of EHI’s historical results by taking into account our capital structure including (i) changes in our asset base (depreciation and amortization) from acquisitions and from capital expenditures, and (ii) changes in interest expense and amortization of financing costs. Because not all companies use identical calculations, our presentation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies.

The post Erickson Air-Crane Buys Evergreen Helicopters appeared first on peHUB.

A popular nude beach located on a river in Wisconsin will now be closed to the public on weekdays.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) stated the new policy has been put in place to stop beachgoers from enjoying sex and drugs in the area.

On Tuesday the DNR announced that the beach, the islands off the beach, and the woods surrounding the beach will be closed on weekdays. The new rules take effect immediately and last from now until September 15. The closure will last from March 1 to September 15 in future years. The beach area will be opened on Saturday and Sunday, from 6 am to 8 pm.

“The goal of this closure is to make Mazomanie Beach a safe and enjoyable environment for everyone who visits or floats past the area.” said Nate Kroeplin, DNR conservation warden. ” It is clear from our records that the majority of illicit activity is taking place on weekdays. Along with the closure we will add extra law enforcement presence.”

Twitter – the actual concept of Twitter – is now patented.

U.S. Patent 8,401,009 just went through, with Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone listed as inventors. It’s a vague and overarching concept of a “device independent message distribution platform,” first filed in 2007.

Here’s the abstract (aptly titled, in the situation):

A system (and method) for device-independent point to multipoint communication is disclosed. The system is configured to receive a message addressed to one or more destination users, the message type being, for example, Short Message Service (SMS), Instant Messaging (IM), E-mail, web form input, or Application Program Interface (API) function call. The system also is configured to determine information about the destination users, the information comprising preferred devices and interfaces for receiving messages, the information further comprising message receiving preferences.

The system applies rules to the message based on destination user information to determine the message endpoints, the message endpoints being, for example, Short Message Service (SMS), Instant Messaging (IM), E-mail, web page output, or Application Program Interface (API) function call. The system translates the message based on the destination user information and message endpoints and transmits the message to each endpoint of the message.

The patent makes it clear that the service is for messages that don’t have specific recipients themselves – messages that are maintained by a system and broadcast to all users, or “followers.”

“Like many companies, we apply for patents on a bunch of our inventions. We also think a lot about how those patents may be used in the future, which is why we introduced the Innovator’s Patent Agreement to keep control of those patents in the hands of engineers and designers,” said Twitter in a statement, confirming the patent.

“Look Ma, I’m officially an inventor (my dream as a kid)!” said Biz Stone in a tweet.

[USPTO via The Verge]

Yummly is releasing its semantic food search technology into the wild, announcing on Wednesday that it is selling developers access to its database of more than 1 million web-sourced recipes as well as the technology it uses to parse them.

The launch is timely, considering Punchfork is shutting down its API at the end of the month after it was bought by Pinterest. Several sites and apps tap Punchfork’s recipe content and search capabilities – for instance, Punchfork powered Evernote Food’s Explore Recipes feature – so it will soon be looking for an alternative.

Yummly’s API, though, isn’t just a Punchfork clone, said Brian Witlin, the search portal’s new head of platform and mobile. Punchfork aggregated content from member food blogs and organized its recipes on social principles. Yummly on the other hand delves deep into the ingredients, cooking methods and the science behind each of the recipes it categorizes. It teases nutritional data out of its recipes, and its algorithms can even infer if a particular dish will be spicy, bitter or sweet. Users, for instance, can use Yummly to search specifically for low-fat or gluten-free dish options or find meals guaranteed to blow the socks off even the most jaded spice fiend.

“There are so many ways we can slice and dice the data we have,” Witlin said. “We plan to offer even more options in the next couple of months.” Yummly, however, doesn’t yet have tools to replace the social context Punchfork provides its customers, but Witlin said it’s in the works.

Initially customers most likely will use the Yummly API to provide more generic recipe content and search in their sites and apps. One of Yummly’s early API testers, search engine DuckDuckGo, uses the API to answer specific recipe queries, basically extending Yummly’s search portal onto its own site.

But developers will eventually be able to tap into Yummly’s technology to make their recipe and cooking services smarter. For instance recipe aggregation apps such as Evernote, Paprika and BigOven store recipes scrapped from all over the web, most of them drawn from the same sites Yummly categorizes. Those companies could use Yummly’s API to organize their customers personal recipe boxes into much more useful categories.

Instead of sorting your recipe library by generic soup, salad, meat and poultry labels, you could sort them by calorie level, salt use, level of spiciness or any of hundreds of different categories that aren’t spelled out in the recipes themselves.

Of course, Yummly can only sort the recipes it catalogs so any recipe you enter manually or from a site Yummly doesn’t aggregate won’t benefit from the API. But Witlin said Yummly eventually plans to amp up its recipe parsing technology so it will immediately scan any new recipe it encounters, adding it to its database.  When that happens, there won’t be any recipe Yummly can’t categorize, Witlin said.

Featured image courtesy of Flickr user lilivanili

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Evernote Corporation has unveiled Skitch for Desktop 2.0 for Windows, a brand new version of its photo annotation and sketch tool. The new version boasts a major update to its user interface, plus offers streamlined sharing options.

Skitch is designed to be used in conjunction with Evernote, allowing users to store annotated photos within their notes for future viewing and editing. Images can also be saved to the user’s hard drive.

Skitch 2.0 shows off a majorly streamlined user interface, with minimalist controls and a stripped back feel. One tool brought front and center is the capture menu, allowing content to be added to the sketch quickly and easily, whether through a screen capture, or via a new file or pasted in from the clipboard.

Also prominently featured are the undo/redo buttons to the left, and a new Share button to the right. The Share button — a new feature in Skitch 2.0 — works in conjunction with the user’s Evernote account. The button provides quick and easy links for sharing sketches via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Users must be signed into their Evernote account in Skitch before the feature is accessible.

Evernote also promises the stripped back interface is accompanied by streamlined performance and better stability over the previous release. It now closely resembles that found in the Mac build, which is currently at version 2.0.5.

Skitch for Desktop 2.0 is available now as a freeware download for Windows and Mac. Also available are Skitch for iOS 2.0.5 and Skitch for Android 2.0.6.1.

SynCardia Systems Inc., maker of an artificial heart used as bridge to transplant for people suffering from end-stage heart failure, has raised $19 million in new capital. The funding includes a $15 million structured financing from Athyrium Opportunities Fund, as well as a $4 million follow-on equity investment from existing shareholders.

PRESS RELEASE
SynCardia Systems, Inc. (www.syncardia.com), the privately-held manufacturer of the world’s first and only FDA, Health Canada and CE (Europe) approved Total Artificial Heart, announced today the raise of $19 million of long-term growth capital, including a $15 million structured financing from Athyrium Opportunities Fund, as well as a $4 million follow-on equity investment from existing shareholders.

“The proceeds will help support commercialization of our Freedom® portable driver*, the world’s first wearable power supply for the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart, and accelerate the launch of our new, smaller 50cc Total Artificial Heart**, designed for patients of smaller stature, including women and adolescents,” said Michael Garippa, SynCardia Chairman/CEO/President. “In 2012, we generated $25 million in revenue and a record-breaking 125 implants at more than 50 SynCardia Certified Centers worldwide.”

“SynCardia’s recent growth is likely the beginning of a longer-term trend,” said Laurent Hermouet, a Partner of Athyrium. “The Total Artificial Heart will soon be able to address the entire biventricular heart failure market thanks to newer offerings like the Freedom driver as well as the 50cc version of the Total Artificial Heart. This broader product offering coupled with convincing clinical and INTERMACS data makes partnering with SynCardia a compelling opportunity. We look forward to expanding this initial relationship as might be needed in upcoming quarters.”

SynCardia is an innovative, 85-employee company focused on advanced medical technology targeting the NYHA Class IV heart failure market. The company certifies and supports the top transplant centers around the world, including Texas Heart Institute in Houston, Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, La Pitie Hospital in Paris and the Heart & Diabetes Center NRW in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany. There are currently 80 SynCardia Certified Centers worldwide with an additional 32 hospitals undergoing the company’s four-phase certification program.

Athyrium Opportunities Fund (“Athyrium”) is a New York-based fund focusing on investment opportunities in the global healthcare sector. The Athyrium investment team has substantial healthcare investment experience across a wide range of asset classes, including public equity, private equity, fixed income, royalties, and other structured securities. Athyrium invests across healthcare verticals, including biopharma, medical devices and products, and healthcare services. The team partners with management teams to implement creative financing solutions to companies’ capital needs. For more information, please visit www.athyrium.com.

*CAUTION – The Freedom portable driver is an investigational device, limited by United States law to investigational use.

**In January, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two Humanitarian Use Device (HUD) designations for SynCardia’s smaller 50cc Total Artificial Heart to be used for destination therapy and pediatric bridge to transplant. The next step is for SynCardia to submit a Humanitarian Device Exemption application for each indication to the FDA for approval. Once approved, the HDEs will allow up to 4,000 U.S. patients annually to receive the 50cc Total Artificial Heart as destination therapy, and an additional 4,000 pediatric patients to receive the device as a bridge to transplant.

About the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial HeartSynCardia Systems, Inc. (Tucson, AZ) is the privately-held manufacturer of the world’s first and only FDA, Health Canada and CE approved Total Artificial Heart. Originally used as a permanent replacement heart, the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart is currently approved as a bridge to transplant for people suffering from end-stage heart failure affecting both sides of the heart (biventricular failure). There have been more than 1,100 implants of the Total Artificial Heart, accounting for more than 300 patient years of life.

Similar to a heart transplant, the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart replaces both failing heart ventricles and the four heart valves, eliminating the symptoms and source of end-stage biventricular failure. Unlike a donor heart, the Total Artificial Heart is immediately available at SynCardia Certified Centers. It is the only device that provides immediate, safe blood flow of up to 9.5 liters per minute through each ventricle. This high volume of safe blood flow helps speed the recovery of vital organs, helping make the patient a better transplant candidate.

Forbes Ranks SynCardia #69 Among “America’s Most Promising Companies” In its February 2013 issue, Forbes selected SynCardia as one of “America’s Most Promising Companies” for the second consecutive year. On the list of 100 privately held, high-growth companies with bright futures, SynCardia was selected #69, moving up eight spots from its #77 ranking last year. See the full list of SynCardia Awards & Recognition here.

The post SynCardia Systems Scores $19M for Artificial Heart appeared first on peHUB.

Most corporations consist of multiple divisions, which set their own strategy (what we generally refer to as “business strategy”). But more often than not, these dvisions have very little to do with one another. Take Philips Electronics with its lighting, medical equipment, and consumer electronics divisions; ThyssenKrupp with its steel, elevators, and engineering services units; or smaller companies such as Trinity Mirror, which offers newspapers, printing, and digital services. They may not be like the big conglomerates of the 1960s — you can see how their portfolio of somewhat related business came about — but, in reality, the various divisions and business units do operate completely independently from one another.

Yet corporate top management invariably tries hard to force each unit into an overarching strategy. It endeavors to stimulate cooperation across divisions (by repeatedly shouting really loudly that this should happen), sets up corporate shared services (which invariably are seen as a mere cost and nuisance by its divisional heads), and gives a lot of lip service to creating “cross-divisional synergies.”

I say, don’t go there; don’t even try.

It’s artificial; it won’t work (because it never does); and, most of all, there’s just no need for it. Just forget about it.

“But, what then could possibly be the rationale and justification for these various business to be together in one corporation?!” I hear a cacophony of voices — of analysts, investors, board members, and business school professors — shout. “There must be something; otherwise the corporation should be broken up, because shareholders can do the diversification themselves.” It is firmly rooted in our minds that there must be some sort of a rationale for why these various businesses are grouped together into one firm.

That’s true; there is a rationale. But it’s different than the one we’ve been assuming it is, and seeing it requires a significant change of mindset of what a corporation is and does, and should do.

Once companies grow they often start moving into adjacent business areas. For example, a firm may move from steel into engineering products because they require steel, then into engineering services, and then become big in elevators causing them to set up a separate division for that too. These four divisions set their own strategy — e.g. the business strategy for engineering services, the strategy for elevators, et cetera — and have their own management teams and P&L.

Any corporate finance course will then tell you — probably on day one — that somehow these four divisions must create extra value by being grouped together; otherwise they should be split up into four separate companies, because you then save the costs of an expensive corporate head office, and investors themselves can easily do the diversification across different businesses — including these four — better, cheaper, and more customized to their own needs.

And therefore corporate top management teams come up with some contrived idea of a joint strategy to suggest synergies and justify their own existence.

But what the real value of a corporate top management is — or can be — is very different. But it requires these executives to see their task and themselves in a different light: corporations are not there to set strategy, but they simply exist as investment vehicles, with the senior executives as its managers. Overall, I see three related roles for them:

1. First, corporate C-suite executives are portfolio managers. But they differ from fund managers in a significant way: they actually know the business. Fund managers, equity analysts, hedge fund managers, and so on can analyze the numbers perfectly well and listen to the PowerPoint presentation of the CEO on his or her road show. But corporate executives, who may have grown up in the business, work on it every day, and have an authoritative relationship with their divisional managers are better able to really grasp the in-depth and tacit aspects of the business’ strategy and competitive advantage. This makes them better portfolio managers, in the sense that they see things that external investors miss. Analysts are easily fooled by nice numbers and charismatic CEOs; after all, it was Goldman Sachs analysts who wrote “Enron is still the best of the best. We recently spoke with most of top management; our confidence level is high” a mere six weeks before it filed for bankruptcy.

2. From this also follows their second role: they can play the role of a board of directors — but also better informed. In reality, boards are severely limited in terms of their knowledge of the corporation they are governing — not the least because external directors are of course no more than a collection of part-timers and amateurs. It is nearly impossible to really grasp the inner workings of a multinational, diversified corporation for an outsider who spends a couple of days per year on it. The top management of the corporation can actually conduct this task; hence, they are probably the company’s real governance mechanism, assuring that shareholders’ money is spent wisely, strategies are genuinely set, and the numbers justified. Moreover, unlike boards, they can staff the divisional management teams with people they actually know and select.

3. Finally, a corporation’s head office can provide funds, much like an in-house bank. This might sound trivial, because lots of parties can provide money, but the advantage is again the superior insider knowledge and accompanying speed of operation. For example, where it is well-known that the majority of public acquisitions destroy value, research by professor Laurence Capron from INSEAD shows that private deals, on average, do create value. Most companies are private but, unlike public firms, there is not a lot of information about them available. Therefore, it requires someone knowledgeable of the business to identify attractive targets, and be able to make the funds swiftly available. The top management of corporations can provide such insight, funds, and speed of allocation, giving a business that is part of larger, well-endowed corporation a potential advantage. Hence, a corporation’s top management team is a way to internalize portfolio management, governance, and resource allocation.

I often attend yearly conferences of corporations in which they bring together their top 50 or 100 executives to discuss the corporation’s strategy (which invariably is a mixture of amorphous capability statements and financial goals, i.e. not really a strategy), proclaim once more the need for cross-divisional synergies and cooperation, and listen to some keynote speaker (such as yours truly) in an attempt to provoke ideas on how to get there. Stop doing this (including the keynote speaker). There is no need for an overarching corporate strategy. It is invariably contrived, never creates any real value, and is simply not necessary.

Corporations comprising different businesses in separate divisions can exist for good reason. Creating corporate strategy is not needed for such corporations to rightfully exist. It does require a fundamental rethink of what your corporation is for, and what you — as corporate manager — are for. Understanding the real advantage of corporations is paramount to making them work. It usually means getting out of the way of divisional strategy, rather than trying to set it.

ViaWest’s new Lone Mountain data center features a cooling system that can alternate between three methodologies, dependent upon weather conditions. The “Super-CRAC” unit in front managed a chilled water loop. (Photo: ViaWest)

ViaWest recently opened the doors at its new Lone Mountain Data Center in north Las Vegas. The facility will offer 74,000 square feet of raised floor space within a 110,000 square foot building. The Lone Mountain facility is the first Tier IV designed colocation facility in North America, according to the Uptime Institute. Check out our photo feature, Closer Look: ViaWest’s Tier IV Las Vegas Data Center, for details.

When it comes to shopping for prescription drugs, you likely know that generic is cheaper than brand-name. But there are other ways to save costs on pharmacy spending and, with its new tool launched Wednesday, Castlight Health hopes consumers won’t just be more cost-conscious about buying their meds but proactive when it comes to all of their medical purchases.

The San Francisco-based company, which provides employers with health cost comparison products, said its new pharmacy tool is meant to help users shop for the best prices on their prescriptions. It allows them to search across different variables, including pharmacies, mail-order, generic/brand, quantity and other factors.

According to Consumer Reports, the average American spends $708 out-of-pocket annually on pharmaceuticals, and Castlight says people make drug-related purchases three times as often as they go to the doctor — so savings on pharmacy costs aren’t insignificant. But Ethan Prater, Castlight’s vice president of product, said that while cost savings was a factor, a larger goal of the product is to encourage consumers to be more engaged when it comes to shopping for their health care services and products.

“It’s a stepping stone to broader healthcare consumerism,” he said.

Pharmaceuticals comprise just 15 percent of what employers pay in healthcare costs. But if being mindful about drug costs helps employees become more savvy about general health care costs, the savings could be meaningful to employers and employees.

As health care costs rise and employers shift to high-deductible health plans that require their employees to bear a greater share of health care costs, companies like Castlight are trying to boost transparency and bring a new wave of consumerism to health care. Castlight, which has raised $181 million in venture capital and is believed by many to be the next digital health company to go public, is a leader in this space. But other companies addressing transparency issues in healthcare include ClearCost Health, Clear Health Costs and HealthInReach.

With Castlight’s mobile app, users can search from their doctor’s office to see if a less expensive therapeutic alternative (or drug in the same class) exists for a medication recommended by a doctor. Other savings could come from mail-order sites or pill-splitting, Prater said. While not all employers support the practice of buying larger, possibly cheaper, doses of a medication and then splitting it into the prescribed amount, Prater said that for those that do, Castlight provides the option. The tool also alerts users when it spots opportunities for cost savings.

Castlight, which counts companies like ConAgra as customers, says it works with employers who collectively cover 3.7 million people.

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Basho has done pretty well positioning its Riak CS distributed storage technology  in the open source cloud world. It’s not really part of either the OpenStack nor the CloudStack organizations but it will run in both environments. This was a tad unusual because, strictly speaking, Riak CS itself was not open source.

At least until now. As of Wednesday, Riak CS will be available under the Apache 2 license.

This is part of an evolution, said Basho CTO Justin Sheehy (pictured above.) Last fall, Basho said it would work with Citrix to integrate Apache Cloudstack effort to integrate Riak CS into Cloudstack.

“We are not part of the OpenStack Foundation but we have deployed Riak CS in OpenStack environments with OpenStack components,” Sheehy said. OpenStack also includes its own storage subsystem as an option.  The work with Cloudstack is a little more explicit since Cloudstack is mostly a compute cloud with networking elements but does not itself offer a real storage subsystem analogous to Amazon’s S3 storage, he said.

One of Riak CS’s key draws is that customers can use it to build private or public cloud storage that is API-compatible with Amazon S3, the 800-lb gorilla in public cloud storage.

Along with its licensing news, Basho also unveiled new features for the open source version including multipart uploads to ease the movement of very large files in pieces into the store; per-bucket policies to restrict access to some data based on its source IP; and Riak Control, a standalone web administration tool for managing users (see screenshot below.)

Basho continues to offer Riak CS Enterprise as a commercial product with around-the-clock support.  To be clear, Basho’s Riak, the distributed database underlying Riak CS was already an open source product.

Sheehy will be talking big data and other hot topics at GigaOM’s Structure: Data event in New York on Wednesday.

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Withings has built quite a name for itself since launching its first Wi-Fi Body Scale in 2009, and the new Withings Smart Body Scale is perhaps the biggest update yet released for its original connected scale tech. The new hardware monitors and tracks not only weight, but also body fat percentage, blood pressure and environmental air quality. I tested the Smart Body Analyzer over the course of the past week, so if you’re looking to invest in one of the newly available scales, here’s how it performs.

The Withings Smart Body Analyser (or WS-50, as it’s known more technically) is a very attractive piece of hardware as far as scales go, which is good because Withings wants you to keep it in the bedroom for maximum effectiveness. That’s because of the new air quality monitor, which works best when it’s placed somewhere where you actually spend a lot of time. The air quality meter, combined with the body fat and heart rate measurement are the big selling points here, since they provide the reasons to spend $50 more vs. the standard WS-30 Withings wireless scale.

As mentioned, it’s a good looking scale. It’s glass-topped, which is also necessary for the sensors to connect with your bare feet to deliver accurate readings. But it also feels very solidly constructed, and the readout is legible and bright, opting for low-res output that’s probably easier on battery life (the scale should get a full year on just four AAA alkalines) and on the eyes from the distance you’ll be viewing it at when standing. The bottom line is that the Withings Smart Body Analyzer inspires confidence with its construction, and looks like the type of scale Apple might make were it to produce such a gadget.

The Smart Analyzer is pretty simple to set up. There’s a button on the back (actually more like a pressure sensitive groove) and you hold that down to pair it with your smart phone. A second button controls what units your weight is displayed in on the scale itself (settings within an app control readouts there). The pairing process went smoothly for me on an iPhone 5, and I was then able to transfer Wi-Fi network settings for my home network from the phone, meaning I didn’t have to reenter (or even remember) my complicated password.

The pairing process will also prompt you to install the Withings Health Mate app on your device. It’s here that you’ll create a profile to track your statistics from the scale (and any other Withings devices associated with your account). You can very quickly get up and running with the app, after entering your initial height, weight and age, and you can also set up multiple people to track under a single account if you’re sharing the scale in the household.

The Withings Analyzer does a great job measuring weight, and communicates with the app seamlessly via Wi-Fi (the Bluetooth connection isn’t required after your initial setup). And air quality tracking appears to be fairly accurate, in so far as it definitely saw marked increases in CO2 levels when the room was occupied versus when it wasn’t, and a lot less when no one was home versus when they were.

With body fat percentage and heart rate tracking, I saw some variances since I was lucky enough to be able to test against outside measures. The Withings Smart Analyzer reported both as high compared to tests done on professional measurement tools owned by my local gym. The higher numbers were, however, consistently higher, which means that although they might not have been as accurate as expensive pro-grade hardware, they’re still very useful as a relative measure over time, which is really the important thing from a home health monitoring device like this anyways. And the convenience of having it right there in your own home for daily measurement outweighs the downsides of it delivering slightly inflated readings.

The Smart Body Analyzer is an impressive piece of hardware, and builds on the already useful Withings line. Its data can be used by an increasing pool of apps (now at over 80, according to Withings) in addition to the company’s own, and at $150, you’re not paying too much of a premium for the added metrics of body fat percentage, resting heart rate and air quality. Data reported may not be 100 percent accurate, but I feel it’s plenty accurate enough to meet the needs of the vast majority of consumers.

Facebook has just pushed an update for their Android app that mirrors changes pushed to their iOS app earlier this week.

First off, the new version of Facebook for Android allows users to change their profile picture. This follows last month’s update, which gave users the ability to change their cover photos directly from the app. Earlier this week, Facebook finally gave iOS users the ability to change their cover photos.

Facebook says that there are now fewer taps involved when users want to start a group message. Facebook also updated iOS to improve messaging, tweaking this same thing as well as making it easier to name and find group conversations.

Lastly, Facebook now lets Android users hide stories and report spam from the news feed.

Like with its iOS app, Facebook is keeping to the regular update schedule with its Android app. Ever since announcing that they would push app updates every 4 to 8 weeks, Facebook has, for the most part, made good on their word.

You can grab the update right now over on Google Play.

It’s another edition of the weekly call-in show where we answer your tech questions. We start off the show with some commentary on Samsung’s reported smartwatch and then answer questions about a merger between Chrome OS and Android, unsubsidized phones and software updates, Google Reader options and Galaxy S 4 features finding their way to the Galaxy Note 2.

To be a part of the show, just call in and leave a voicemail at 262-KCTOFEL. If you do, we’ll play back the question on the show and answer it. Or you can tweet me at @kevinctofel on Twitter. Each week, I’ll answer as many questions as I can while keeping the podcast to a manageable amount of time: 20 to 30 minutes at most.

This episode of GigaOM Podcast is brought to you by Squarespace – the best way create a modern and professional website, with all the features you need integrated into one platform. Every Squarespace website is mobile ready, and includes e-commerce, 24/7 customer support, and a free domain name. Start your free trial today, at squarsepace.com/gigaom.

Show notes:
Hosts: Chris Albrecht and Kevin C. Tofel

• Is Samsung working on a smartwatch? Probably.
• What might a merger of Chrome OS and Android look like?
• Thoughts on Google Reader going away, along with some alternatives.
• How many Galaxy S 4 functions could make their way into the Galaxy Note 2?

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Welcome yet again to the collision between the virtual and real worlds. Amazon has been slapped down by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over a listing on Amazon.co.uk for a rude Christmas card. Although Amazon tried to claim that listings aren’t ads and shouldn’t be covered by the regulator, the regulator disagreed.

The card in question, from a company called SmellYourMum (SYM), read, “You’re a c*nt. Sorry, I meant to say ‘Merry Christmas,’” although without the asterisk I inserted (this is a family website, after all). This was shown in an image, with the text alongside it including the aforementioned asterisk.

SYM claimed the ad wasn’t offensive because of “the specific context of it appearing on a humorous card intended for close friends or family.” Amazon chimed in saying the card was “meant as a bit of light-hearted, irreverent fun,” but also went a step further, arguing that the ad in question wasn’t an ad at all, but a product listing.

Nonetheless, the ASA said it qualified as an ad and therefore fell under its remit. It said the use of the c-word was “so likely to offend that it should not be used at all in marketing communications even when it was relevant to the name of the product.”

Interestingly, part of the problem here is that Amazon doesn’t have an adults-only category for products carried on its site. SYM also noted that Amazon didn’t provide a way for it to censor the image, which showed the asterisk-free version of the card’s message (that said, the ASA said even the asterisked version was too offensive).

There are many products in Amazon’s UK store that would probably fall foul of the precedent here. So the question is, is this just excessive censorship, or does the regulator have a point here?

If a physical shop carried a poster for such a card in its window, there is little doubt that people would complain. And although the ASA said the offensive word should not even be used in marketing communications, I suspect that the card’s listing in a printed catalog would not have elicited such a complaint to the advertising regulator in the first place.

The ruling leaves Amazon in a difficult position, due to the breadth of third-party products carried in its store. It doesn’t help that the ruling also comes in the same month in which Amazon U.S. was found to be advertising algorithmically-generated but nonetheless appalling “Keep calm and rape a lot” T-shirts. If there’s much more of this kind of pressure, Amazon may have to be a bit more proactive about screening the products it carries, or at least adjust the way in which it advertises them.

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Resilience Capital Partners has acquired a majority stake in Aerospace Products International Inc., an aviation parts and equipment distribution and supply chain management firm. The seller was First Aviation Services Inc. Resilience is based in Cleveland, Ohio. Terms of the deal were not released.

PRESS RELEASE
Resilience Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in lower mid-market companies in a broad range of industries, has acquired a majority interest in Aerospace Products International, Inc. (API), a global aviation parts and equipment distribution and supply chain management firm, from First Aviation Services Inc. (FAVS.PK).

“Aerospace Products International is well-positioned to take advantage of the industry’s trend toward the outsourcing of after-market product distribution and other critical functions. We will make a significant investment of capital to execute on our strategy of enhancing API’s capabilities and competitiveness and build it into a truly great international company,” said Steven H. Rosen, Co-CEO of Resilience.

The acquisition of a majority interest in API is the sixth platform investment in The Resilience Fund III, L.P. In 2012, Resilience closed the Resilience Fund III, L.P., with $222.5 million of committed capital.

API distributes aircraft parts and accessories to manufacturers, maintenance providers and operators of widely used military, commercial, corporate and general aviation aircraft. API focuses on increasing product availability, minimizing time-to-delivery and reducing process and working capital costs for its customers. It also supplies key business data and metrics to help customers control costs and manage their operations more efficiently. Based in Memphis, Tennessee, API operates through distribution centers and partnerships on every continent.

Kenneth C. Ricci, a longtime aviation entrepreneur and Chairman of Flight Options, and Ulf Buergel, both operating partners with Resilience, will oversee the investment in API, working closely with the firm’s management team. “Aviation services is a complex and capital-intensive industry, but it is one that we know well from our other investments,” said Buergel. “We have the experience, management expertise and capital resources to help Aerospace Products International build upon its strong foundation and benefit from the growing aviation market.”

Andrew Trosper will continue to serve as API’s president and chief executive officer. He took on those roles in June 2012 after serving as API’s senior vice president. Trosper joined API in 2010 after a 22-year career at Honeywell Aerospace.

“Although air travel is increasing as the economy picks up, carriers have not been buying as many new planes as in the past, and they have outsourced many functions related to parts and maintenance,” Trosper said. “We have a great market opportunity, and the additional resources that we will have available to us through Resilience ensure that we will be able to make the most of this opportunity.”

Resilience invests in niche-oriented manufacturing, distribution, consumer product and business services companies located in the Midwest and throughout North America.

Resilience’s portfolio companies include Cleveland-based Flight Options, which has grown into the world’s second-largest private aviation company since its acquisition in 2008. Recent acquisitions include Canton, Michigan-based Aero Communications Inc. (formerly Advanced Communications, Inc.), a leading provider of telecommunications infrastructure services acquired in 2012, and CR Brands, a West Chester, Ohio-based manufacturer and marketer of branded and private label household cleaning and laundry products acquired in 2012.

About Resilience Capital Partners

Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Resilience Capital Partners invests in niche-oriented manufacturing and business service companies located in the Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic United States with sustainable market positions and a clear path to cash flow improvement. Resilience targets platform businesses with $25 million to $250 million in revenues across a broad range of industries where it can improve a company’s operations, competitive positioning and profitability. Since its founding in 2001, Resilience Capital has invested in 28 companies under 20 platforms. Its portfolio companies today employ more than 5,000 people in 14 states and collectively represent over $2 billion in revenues. Resilience manages in excess of $320 million for its global investor base which includes pension funds, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, fund of funds, wealth managers, and investment consultants.

The post Resilience Capital Partners Acquires Aerospace Products appeared first on peHUB.

ShareThis has acquired Socialize, a maker of technology for app developers, and also announced that it has raised $23 million in Series C financing. The new round is led by T-Venture, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom, and includes participation from Harbourton, Blue Chip Venture Company, DFJ, Illinois Ventures, Matthew Pritzker Company, Mercury Fund and RPM Ventures. Bernhard Gold of T-Venture will join the company’s board.

PRESS RELEASE
ShareThis today announced that it has acquired Socialize and secured $23M in Series C financing. Socialize provides app developers with a drop-in social solution that generates greater user engagement and more downloads by making apps more social. With this acquisition, ShareThis creates a unified platform across desktop, mobile web browser and in-app environments, extending its massive reach of 200 million US internet users to the mobile app ecosystem.

“We’ve seen mobile sharing traffic double over the past year so there’s a massive opportunity to combine our deep knowledge of social audiences and the most engaging content to create truly compelling mobile ad executions,” said Kurt Abrahamson, CEO of ShareThis. “The acquisition of Socialize and our new round of funding will accelerate our efforts to deliver an enhanced digital advertising solution for brands, content optimization offerings for publishers and of course, the choice and flexibility consumers want in sharing content that moves them.”

ShareThis’ new round of funding is led by T-Venture, the venture capital company of Deutsche Telekom, and includes new investors Harbourton and corporate funds represented by West Capital Advisors. Existing investors Blue Chip Venture Company, DFJ, Illinois Ventures, Matthew Pritzker Company, Mercury Fund and RPM Ventures participated. Bernhard Gold of T-Venture will join the company’s Board of Directors. The company plans to use the new funding for product development and market expansion. With this Series C round, ShareThis’ total funding is $54 million.

“Any time you have a chance to work closely with a team that has an unparalleled understanding of consumer behavior across all social channels and devices, it’s going to be an exciting opportunity,” said Bernhard Gold, Investment Director, T-Venture. “ShareThis is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the exploding cross-platform advertising opportunity and T-Venture is delighted to lead this round of funding to further support and leverage the growth of the company.”

Turning the Spotlight on Mobile Sharing

Socialize’s social solutions have been integrated into hundreds of iOS and Android apps, which have been installed on more than 67 million devices. This acquisition will extend ShareThis’ proprietary measure of the social quality of online content (SQI) to include in-app mobile social actions. As a result, publishers will be able to use ShareThis to get specific sharing analytics on desktop and mobile in a single dashboard with an industry-trusted measure. Both publishers and app developers will benefit from enhanced ways to optimize and monetize their apps.

“Mobile app users typically have no idea who the other users of the same app are. It’s like everyone’s in the same room… with the lights off. We ‘turn the lights on’ by allowing users of the same app to socialize with each other and have vibrant conversations and engagement between users around shared interests,” says Daniel Odio, CEO of Socialize. “Together with ShareThis, we’ll enable app users to easily extend activity out to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ — any social channel of their choice — in addition to socializing in-app regardless of friend status.”

Delivering Unified and Creative Solutions for Advertisers

With Socialize, ShareThis will be able to capitalize on the growing U.S. mobile advertising market, which is forecast to reach $4 billion in 2013. With its extended reach, the company will gain better insights into how users engage and influence others resulting in more effective advertising wherever and on whatever device it’s delivered. By combining unified audience insights along with creative executions that leverage the mobile form factor, ShareThis will reach new verticals and cement its leadership in the sharing and mobile economies.

About ShareThis

ShareThis powers the social web, touching the lives of 95% of U.S. Internet users across more than 2 million publisher sites and 120+ social media channels. It makes content more engaging for publishers and marketing more effective for brands by tapping into the purest expression of interest-based social activity. ShareThis is the company for those wanting to make the world more connected, trusted and valuable through sharing. Based in Palo Alto, CA, the company is privately held.

The post ShareThis Buys Socialize, Inks $23M Series C appeared first on peHUB.