NJ Company News Roundup: ADP, Connotate, Avaya, MD On-Line, PromoVerse

In early March, Roseland-based Automatic Data Processing (ADP), with 54,000 employees worldwide, agreed to acquire SHPS Human Resource Solutions, a Louisville, Ky.-based human-resource solutions provider. Rishabh Mehrotra, SHPS president, said, “The business to be acquired includes proprietary platforms for administering health spending accounts and total absence management that provide employers of all sizes with more options and unprecedented flexibility.” Mehrotra will remain president and CEO of SHPS and, with the exception of some executives, the current leadership team will stay in place.

Almost 50 percent of SHPS employees, 840 people, will become ADP employees upon the transaction’s closing. Of the 840 who join ADP, 650 will work in the remaining SHPS Louisville offices, expanding ADP’s Louisville workforce, currently at 350.

Also earlier this month, Connotate (New Brunswick) bought Fetch Technologies, a Calif. company in a similar business—big data analysis. In February the web data and extraction company also brought in a new CEO, Keith Cooper. Looking at both events, Outsell lead analyst Bill Trippe said, “In moves clearly designed to drive the company’s next stage of development … Connotate has hired a new CEO with significant growth and exit experience, and acquired its direct competitor.” Fetch’s former CEO has become president of Connotate.

Last week Avaya (Basking Ridge) agreed to acquire Fair Lawn-based Radvision (international headquarters in Tel Aviv) in a deal worth some $230 million. The purchase has to be approved by both companies’ boards of directors. Avaya plans to integrate Radvision’s enterprise video infrastructure and high-value endpoints with its Aura Unified Communications platform. “With this acquisition we will seek to extend videoconferencing to any device, anytime, anywhere, making it as easy as a phone call, seizing the opportunity to deliver a fully-integrated solution and architecture that we believe sets us apart from the competition,” Kevin Kennedy, Avaya president and CEO, said.

Recently, Parsippany-based MD On-Line said it had acquired MD Technologies, a Baton Rouge-based healthcare tech company. MD Technologies adds a suite of user-friendly solutions to help customers deal with mandated industry reforms, the firm said. The company would not release additional details about the deal’s size or whether employees would be staying in N.J.

An enthusiastic young bunch of entrepreneurs from the Areli Group (Asbury, N.J.) launched thePromoVerse.com in March. In a refreshing twist they told NJTechWeekly.com they are not looking for seed money, since they’ve already been funded. Founder Steven Chiocchi said, “The hunt for funding was surprisingly short. The first investor I approached loved our idea, and we quickly hired one of the top mobile development firms in the country to handle the project.”

A take on daily deals coupon sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, the Promoverse free-to-download mobile app not only consolidates deals and coupon offers based on location, it provides directions to the store or event offering the deal from where you are. Users redeem a promotion by scanning a Quick Response (QR) code at the store, then get invited to local events by using the application more frequently or referring their friends. Right now the deals are available only in central N.J.