Company Roundup: Marketsmith, Heartland, Universal Display, Datapipe and SITO Mobile

Marketsmith: The direct response and technology-based marketing company Marketsmith, which was #135 on the “Inc. 500” list for 2014, acquired 48-year-old marketing communications agency Brushfire. The agency will become a unit of Marketsmith, but will continue to operate under its own name.

According to NJ Biz, Marketsmith, which was located in Parsippany, is moving into Brushfire’s Cedar Knolls-based headquarters. The firms will offer clients marketing services, including analytic and creative capabilities.

Brushfire, an established  integrated marketing communications agency founded in 1966, has extensive experience in advertising; public relations; social media and experiential marketing; and digital, interactive and in-store merchandising. 

Heartland Payment Systems: Heartland Payment Systems, a large payment processor based in Princeton, says it is the first payment processor to offer a comprehensive merchant security breach warranty. The warranty, called “Heartland Secure,” available for no charge initially and for a monthly fee after a year, protects businesses against loss if they install and implement EMV, Heartland’s end-to-end encryption technology and tokenization product.

According to Michael English, executive director of product development at Heartland, “By combining EMV, encryption and tokenization, Heartland eliminates clear text-card data from the merchant’s point-of-sale system and network. As we have seen in recent breaches at major retailers and restaurants, it is difficult to maintain a secure network. Through encryption and tokenization, a merchant eliminates clear text-card data, so if their network is breached, there is no card data to steal and monetize.”

Universal Display: Universal Display Corporation (Ewing) and LG Display (Seoul, Republic of Korea), said they had signed an OLED technology license agreement and supplemental materialpPurchase agreement that run through Dec. 31, 2022.

Under the license agreement, Universal Display granted LG Display nonexclusive license rights under various patents owned or controlled by Universal Display to manufacture and sell OLED display products. LG Display agreed to pay Universal Display license fees and running royalties on its sales of these licensed products over the term of the agreement. Additionally, Universal Display will supply phosphorescent materials to LG Display for use in its licensed products.

Datapipe: Datapipe (Jersey City), a company specializing in managed hybrid IT solutions for businesses, announced that it has acquired GoGrid (San Francisco and Amsterdam, Netherlands), a company specializing in multi-cloud solutions for big-data deployments. In a release, Datapipe said that GoGrid’s proprietary orchestration and automation technologies are unique in the market, providing one-button deployment for big-data solutions that speed the creation and realization of new cloud projects.

Robb Allen, CEO of Datapipe, noted that “Datapipe customers will achieve significant value from the speed at which we can now create new big data projects in the cloud. This acquisition advances Datapipe’s strategy to help our enterprise clients architect, deploy and manage multi-cloud hybrid IT solutions. ”

New Jersey Fiber Exchange: The New Jersey Fiber Exchange (Montville), a data-center consulting and colocation company, announced that it was building a new data facility  to provide direct connectivity to international submarine cable systems. NJFX is partnering in this project with Tata Communications to provide colocation and other data-center services to global enterprises and carriers. 

The highly secure, Tier III data center in Wall Township is expected to go live in 2016, and will be open to carriers, enterprises, carrier-neutral operators and cable companies. Carriers and enterprises using the NJFX location will also have access to Tata Communications’ global connectivity, which operates on an advanced global subsea cable network, enabling them to connect to various locations around the world.

SITO Mobile: SITO Mobile, (Jersey City), formerly called “Single Touch,” a mobile engagement platform provider, said it had entered into an asset purchase agreement with Hipcricket, a mobile engagement and analytics company, for $4.5 million in cash, to acquire almost all its assets.

Hipcricket reported revenues of $26.7 million for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2014, and currently holds 21 U.S. patents for technology inventions. To facilitate the sale, Hipcricket filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, along with a motion seeking authorization to approve bid procedures under Section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

“As a result of this transaction, if approved, SITO Mobile will become one of the largest pure-play, publicly traded companies in the mobile marketing and advertising space,” said Jerry Hug, CEO of SITO Mobile. The agreement provides that SITO Mobile will offer employment to all of Hipcricket’s employees.