Company Roundup: Verisk, pdvWireless, Marathon Data Systems, FieldView, Exigent and More

Verisk Analytics: Verisk Analytics, a Jersey City data analytics provider, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Wood Mackenzie from Hellman & Friedman and other Wood Mackenzie shareholders for an estimated price of £1.850 billion (approximately $2.8 billion), to be funded with about $2 billion in debt and up to $800 million in equity.

Wood Mackenzie (Edinburgh, Scotland) is a global leader in data analytics and commercial intelligence for the energy, chemicals, metals and mining verticals. The acquisition establishes Verisk as a trusted data analytics provider at the center of the global energy market, similar to its position in the property/casualty insurance industry.

This acquisition is in line with Verisk’s strategy to expand internationally, and positions the company in markets that relate closely to the company’s existing supply chain and climate risk initiatives. Wood Mackenzie has approximately 1,000 employees worldwide. Verisk currently employs  approximately 7,000 people worldwide.

PvdWireless: Pacific DataVision, a Woodland Park provider of mobile workforce management solutions, announced that it will conduct business under the name pdvWireless, effective immediately.  The company also unveiled the name of its upcoming state-of-the-art two-way radio solution —  DispatchPlus. We covered pdvWireless when it raised $218 million to build a private push-to-talk network.

DispatchPlus is a next-generation push-to-talk solution that uses state-of-the-art digital two-way radio technology integrated with pdvWireless’ proprietary cloud-based mobile resource management solutions, including worker tracking, status mapping and the company’s patented intelligent call prioritization.

Since we covered this company, it has initiated the process, together with industry support, of requesting the FCC authorization to permit broadband services on the spectrum it has acquired. PvdWireless is qualified to be a U.S. public reporting company, and has listed its common stock for trading on The Nasdaq Capital Market.

Marathon Data Systems: Marathon Data Systems (Neptune) a provider of Software-as-a-Service solutions for the field-service and transportation-and-logistics industries, appointed Bill Fahrbach as vice president, financial planning and analysis. Fahrbach will lead the finance team in building and sustaining a strong analytic framework to support key business decisions, pairing strategy and operations with finance to support scalable growth for the company, Marathon said. Fahrbach comes to Marathon from Mobile Commons, a provider of SaaS platforms for managing mobile and text-messaging campaigns, where he led the company through its merger with Upland Software, a leader in cloud-based Enterprise Work Management applications.

FieldView Solutions: FieldView Solutions (Edison) a developer of Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software and big data analytics for optimizing the power, thermal and operational efficiency of data centers, has a new product called “FieldView 2015 DCIM.”

The solution aims to help improve data center resilience by capturing, correlating and analyzing massive amounts of live data, enabling “What if?” simulations of potential failures, contemplated changes and planned maintenance downtime.  Customizable dashboards enable the visualization and  presentation of operational patterns and trends, while APIs and a data warehouse enable interconnection with other DCIM and IT Service Management tools, orchestrators, control systems, dashboards, “big data” clusters and other applications.

Ocean Power Technologies: Ocean Power Technologies (Pennington) reported that it was advancing towards commercial status and putting behind it the setbacks of the past year. George H. Kirby, president and chief executive, said that during the third quarter the company completed the relocation and reassembly of the PB40 PowerBuoy in Bayonne. “We expect the PB40 PowerBuoy to be fully tested and ready for deployment this month. Actual deployment will occur as soon as final permits are received an acceptable weather window opens.”

The company said it had also made progress on the development of the optimized APB-350 PowerBuoy, consistent with its strategic shift to “capitalize on the growing market for off-grid power production at smaller scales.” OPT expects to deploy a prototype this summer.

For the three months ending on January 31, 2015, OPT reported revenue of $0.3 million, compared with $0.2 million for the three months ending on January 31, 2014. The increase in revenue was primarily related to increased billable work under the current phase of OPT’s project with Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding. The MES project is currently undergoing a stage-gate review. OPT’s net loss during the three months ending in January 2015 was $2.2 million, whereas the net loss the year before was $0.8 million.

Exigent Technologies and Information Architects: Exigent Technologies, a Mount Arlington-based managed IT and cloud-services company, acquired Information Architects, a Morris County-based IT services company specializing in systems integration, core-platform technologies, managed services and virtualization.

According to the press release, the founders of Exigent Technologies and Information Architects met several years ago at an Ingram Micro VTN Invitational. The two firms maintained a friendly, yet competitive relationship over the years. Exigent President Dan Haurey approached Information Architects cofounders Eric Burke and Frank Vizzuso about a potential merger in early 2014. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Information Architects team is moving into Exigent headquarters, and a company spokesperson said that no jobs would be lost, as all the members of the team would be going over to Exigent. Burke is now Exigent VP of technology and Vizzuso is VP of sales.

Computer Design and Integration: Teterboro-based Computer Design and Integration said that it had achieved Platinum status in EMC’s 2015 Business Partner Program. The 2015 BPP features a new tier structure — Platinum, Gold and Silver — with all the tiers offering significant rewards. The program supports business partners in their current space while also providing tools they need to succeed in the dynamic “third platform,” which comprises mobile, cloud, big data and social technologies. CDI said that the EMC relationship is pivotal to the success of CDI’s growth and business solution offerings.