Archive for December 2013
Autodesk
December 13, 2013 — SyncDev Applications: New Product Development N+1 Development Buy-side M&A Autodesk started out in two-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) software that they sold through dealers for $2,500 per seat. A few years later they needed to expand into 3D CAD, seemingly a straightforward transition.... Read More
The Learning Company
December 9, 2013 — SyncDev Applications: Package design In its heyday The Learning Company was a new-product factory, producing multiple learning-software products for children per year. The chairman and principal investor decided at the outset of his involvement with TLC to use SyncDev for all products as a business-practice... Read More
KLA-Tencor
December 9, 2013 — SyncDev Applications: New Products N+1 Products Buy-side M&A A major semiconductor chip manufacturer was angry when KT showed them their completed third-generation inspection system that spots microscopic flaws on wafers. “How dare you design without consulting with us, especially when it’s missing... Read More
Intuit
December 9, 2013 — SyncDev Applications: New product New Company Sell-side M&A Personal News, Inc., a start up, used SyncDev to develop a new-to-the-world financial software and data product for consumers, which Intuit bought after a battle with Dow Jones. The founders of Personal news were a garage-based start-up.... Read More
Informatica
December 9, 2013 — SyncDev Applications: New products N+1 Products Informatica had been pigeonholed as a “flat” company in the data warehousing industry. When Sohaib Abbasi took over as CEO from the founder in 2004, he set out to fight this perception and expand the company into higher value data integration products... Read More
GlobalEnglish
December 9, 2013 — SyncDev Applications: Startup GlobalEnglish was formed to teach reading, writing, and speaking English to employees of companies in countries whose native language was not English but who did business with English speaking countries. The founders recruited a small team of language-arts experts from their... Read More
Freescale
December 9, 2013 — SyncDev Applications: Campaign Selling New Market Development N+1 Development CodeWarrior IDE was a popular software development tool that Motorola had acquired from Metrowerks. Motorola used Campaign Selling to acquire new customers for the current and next generation product. Success here led Motorola... Read More
Financial Engines
December 9, 2013 — SyncDev Applications: Startup N+1 Stanford Professor William Sharpe won the Nobel Prize in Finance 1992. In addition to teaching he was also a practitioner — a pension consultant to CALPERS, HP, and AT&T. His investment algorithms worked so well that he began codifying them for consumers,... Read More
Camstar
December 9, 2013 — SyncDev Applications: Campaign Selling New Market Development Camstar had successfully penetrated the electronic-device manufacturing software market, but market growth was slowing. They decided to augment it by entering the medical device market. They used Campaign Selling to kick-start the program... Read More
Beckman Coulter
December 9, 2013 — SyncDev Applications: Startup M&A Infinitek, a Silicon Valley start up, was developing a drug-discovery lab robot for use in biotech and pharmaceutical companies like Amgen, Genentech, Pfizer, and Merck. It had so far developed a pre-production prototype. Infinitek’s venture investor faced making... Read More