PhillyDeals: Software conglomerate to buy Wayne's ColdLight
PTC, a Needham, Mass., software conglomerate that has focused on the Internet of Things - sensors and software that help machines share data so people don't have to - said Tuesday it had agreed to buy Wayne-based ColdLight Solutions L.L.C. and its Neuron data-analytics software platform for $105 million.
PTC
, a Needham, Mass., software conglomerate that has focused on the Internet of Things - sensors and software that help machines share data so people don't have to - said Tuesday it had agreed to buy Wayne-based
ColdLight Solutions L.L.C.
and its Neuron data-analytics software platform for $105 million.
The deal follows PTC's 2014 purchase of Exton-based ThingWorx, which helps corporate clients process user data from "smart connected products" for $112 million, plus a bonus if sales rise.
ColdLight, founded by Ryan Caplan, formerly of Center City tech design firm Electronic Ink, and serial tech-firm founder Eric Smith, reports a modest $2 million in quarterly software subscription revenues. The high sale price, compared with revenues, shows that PTC expects rapid growth. (Similarly, ThingWorx wasn't profitable when PTC bought it out last year.) ColdLight, led by Jim Heppelmann, raised $10 million from investors back in 2013, led by Intel Capital and Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors L.P.
ColdLight registered 23 current and former employees in a government filing last year. Caplan and PTC officials didn't immediately return calls seeking comment on long-term staffing plans.
In a statement, PTC said ColdLight would continue selling its "core data analytics" programs to manufacturing, health-care, communications, and retail companies so they can plan more efficient business and maintenance programs.
"The Internet of Things is clearly one of the hottest segments of the broader technology industry, and the recent acquisition strategy by PTC points to the strong business opportunity companies of all stripes are seeing in this area," Mike Harris, chief executive of Zonoff, a Malvern-based, IoT-focused home automation platform company, told me.
Not enough
Hill International, the construction- project and risk-management firm that plans to move its headquarters to Philadelphia from Marlton this spring, says its board has unanimously rejected a surprise $5.50-a-share takeover offer from DC Capital Partners L.L.C., an Alexandria, Va., firm that invests mostly in federal contractors. DC hoped to combine Hill with Michael Baker International, a Pittsburgh project manager that DC bought in 2013.
Hill's shares rose near $5 on news of the offer. Shares had been trading below $4 on disappointing sales and profits, as new deals with clients including the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the New Jersey Turnpike Commission, and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. failed to replace lost growth from stalled Hill contracts in war-torn Iraq and Libya. But DC's offer "substantially undervalues Hill's common stock" and its growth prospects. Hill chief executive David Richter told DC boss Thomas J. Campbell in a return letter Tuesday.
Hill's shares were above $7 last spring, and $19.30 at their 2009 high.
Campbell's firm did not return calls seeking comment on whether it would seek to mobilize Hill shareholders or sweeten its offer above $5.50 a share.