Adams to head Power Line board
Chantilly, Va.-based Communication Technologies Inc. said its vice
president for Commercial Services, Walter Adams, is the new president of
the Power Line Communications Association (PLCA) board of directors.
PLCA is an independent trade organization that promotes power line
communications as a viable means of high-speed, broadband delivery to
millions of homes and businesses throughout North America.
fCoder releases document converter
Dale City, Va.-based fCoder Group, Inc., a maker of products for digital
document conversion and digital image processing, released its Universal
Document Converter, a virtual printer that includes network printing
support.
Rather than sending documents to paper in the manner of a conventional
printer, the product converts documents into the image file format of
the user's choosing. It can convert Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word documents,
PowerPoint presentations, AutoCAD, and Visio drawings into JPEG, TIFF,
GIF, PNG or BMP images with resolutions of up to 1200 DPI.
Tedco donates to local companies
The Maryland Technology Development Corp. has awarded $170,000 to four
companies, including two Baltimore biotechs.
The Baltimore businesses, Alba Therapeutics and Aurora Analytics, each
received $50,000 from the Maryland Technology Transfer Fund, which helps
businesses transfer technology from universities and federal
laboratories to the marketplace.
Tedco, formed by the state's Department of Business and Economic
Development to help fund promising startups, accepts applications on a
continuous basis and makes decisions regarding awards monthly.
2004 was good for tech VC
The year 2004 proved to be a good one for venture capital-backed
information technology companies looking to attract a buyer.
Almost $14 billion was paid last year in 246 deals involving IT
companies funded by venture capital firms, according to new research by
VentureOne, which tracks the industry. That was the most money spent on
IT mergers and acquisitions since 2001, VentureOne said.
Overall, the number of mergers and acquisitions increased slightly, from
335 deals in 2003 to 376 last year. The total amount paid in those M&A
deals jumped significantly, however, from almost $13 billion to almost
$23 billion.
Also, 67 venture capital-backed companies went public last year, raising
almost $5 billion. In 2003, 22 companies went public and raised $1.4
billion.
VentureOne analysts said mergers and acquisitions will continue to be
the favored exit strategy for IT companies and their backers.
ManTech wins Navy IT contract
ManTech International of Fairfax, Va., won a contract from the Space and
Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego for information technology
training on Department of Defense-related systems.
The five-year base contract has eight six-month options and a potential
value of $76 million if all options are exercised.
ManTech will provide training support, including development and design
of curriculum and updating Navy Training System plans.
SI International buys Bridge Technology
Reston, Va.-based SI International completed its purchase of Bridge
Technology for $30 million.
Privately held Bridge Technology, which is based in Columbia, serves
defense intelligence agencies in areas such as program management,
acquisition management, logistics management, systems engineering,
software engineering and business process re-engineering.
CompuDyne buys Copperfire Software
CompuDyne announced that its Public Safety & Justice Unit has acquired
Copperfire Software Solutions of Cupertino, Calif. Terms of the
acquisition were not disclosed.
Copperfire provides software for customized report writing and forms
generation specifically for public safety and justice agencies. The
software enables agencies to turn hard-copy forms into digital images to
create a paperless report-writing system.
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