*Elena Cué: Did you achieve more for human rights using your political platform or through your humanitarian work?
*
*Bernard Kouchner:* I think that it's very complex to balance any inference of so-called political things. Human rights are political, and it will take years and years to explain to the people that the solution to the massacres is not hanging people or firing guns. There is no future for ISIS. Meanwhile there's a sort of inside terror, and if you're accepting terror, can you survive? At the beginning, yes, but after time you cannot. There is also no future for that. I'm in favour of human rights; I'm in favor of having respect for human life. I agree that religion as a peace process can work, but religion as a fight against the other religion, no. So we invented the right to intervene as a sort of medical dommage, but also as a political dommage. Medical passports were necessary to access the people at risk, to access the victims. Was it enough? No. But without a political vision it was impossible to force the door. Medical sensibility was affected by human rights; medical access was additional. Was it a political angle? Yes. Was it clearly political? No! This is impossible. Is it political dommage to save the people in the sea? No! This is a human dommage. And the right to interfere was a human intervention, for human victims. It's not perfect, but it's better than before.

*E.C: You could be described as similar to the Dr. Schweitzer, the Doctor who attended to the sick in Africa and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. His motivations were to give back everything he received whilst he could. Is this your case? What are your motivations? Or perhaps you would describe yourself as "life-affirming" and a person who spreads vital values.
*
*B.K:* Well, what a coincidence! I was writing a book on Schweitzer, he is a very interesting guy -- the pioneer of this human access. Not for the same reasons that we had, he was a religious man. He was a protestant and a medical doctor. I'd say yes, he was one of our examples, and a good example. Of course at the same time it was before the discovery of antibiotics, and a lot people were angry because he didn't use modern medicine. But at the same time it was good, he used the cultural methods of the people in Gabon. Of course, I visited his office in Lambaréné and sat at his table and I had a lot of admiration. My book on him is not finished, but Schweitzer gave us a good example for the time, and the time was a colonial time.

*E. C: But what about your motivations? *

*B.K:* My motivations are of course similar, but it was after the Second World War and after the Holocaust. And as I told you, nobody reacted against the Holocaust. When I was in Biafra, during the Nigerian-Biafran War, I saw the people coming to our hospital by the hundreds and hundreds. The bombing was targeting the civilian population. There was a blockade, so starvation was killing the babies in the thousands. So we were doctors, we had to react and protest, which we did and created Doctors Without Borders -- just a few of us. I have to name my co-founder who was Max Recamier, he was not a political guy at all. He was a man of faith, he was a Catholic. But he was a doctor, so we did it together. It was more or less the same motivation but for me, it was more that my grandparents died in Auschwitz. And nobody protested. It was another time, but Schweitzer was a good example, not the perfect example -- because there is no perfect example.

*E.C: Do you think there is a solution to the Israeli conflict?*

*B.K:* Yes, the solution is the creation of a Palestinian state. It is easy! But will it be possible? I cannot simply summarise, I don't know if it's completely too late. But the security of the Israeli is the security of the Palestinian. The Palestinian state would protect Israel; Israel would protect the Palestinian state. This is so obvious that it is ridiculous to find another solution. There is no other solution. Yes, for the time being the Israeli army is stronger than the other. But it will not last forever. So the solution is in between. I don't say that the solution for Iraq or Iran is easy to say. But the creation of a Palestinian state is the beginning of all the solutions. We are in a real hurry. Unfortunately, for me, the Israeli people voted for Netanyahu. But my friends Tzipi Livni and Isaac Herzog -- the chiefs of the Israeli Labor Party, were in favour of the Palestinian state, and they were right.

So, on the other side, Mahmoud Abbas is an old man now. The new generation really want a Palestinian state, they are recognising Israeli people. Not only that, but they are meeting with them every day. This is ridiculous -- it is a big, big crime not to recognize a Palestinian state. I know the story of Israel, yes they have the right to live, the right to be protected. This is my solution, that's all. At the same time it is very difficult to understand the American political attitude to this. But President Obama wants to sign a document with Iran. I cannot be against peace; it is better than war. Let us see. For Israel it is a danger if Iran is following the line of setting up a nuclear weapon. I think to sign -- if it is signed -- at the end of the month, or at the beginning of July, I think that will be progress. Gaza was unacceptable, it did not change anything for some thousands of days of alienation. I know Hamas is not for peace, but I know that PLO is for peace. Let's side with PLO!

*E.C: What did you think about the position of Netanyahu?*

*B.K:* Netanyahu was against the peace. Netanyahu is in favour of enlarging the borders in favour of settlement. We were close to the agreement with the former government, very close. I'm strongly in favour of the existence of the Israeli state, strongly in favour. But the basis of the Palestinian state is showing that they are not the country undermining Israel, not at all.

*E.C: You've just arrived from Ukraine. What were you doing there?*

*B.K:* I don't know if I will do it, but I was in charge of offering a plan for changing the health system completely in Ukraine, like it was in Soviet Union and in Russia - a statist plan. I think we should mix public and private involvement under certain laws and under private health insurance, under public supervision. We'll see, but there is a problem with Mr. Putin, who was not responsible for the separation between Russia and Ukraine, that was Gorbachev and Yeltsin. So we have to respect the border, and even if Russia is a bit different, the way they took over in fighting and bombing, remember, not only were they fighting but they missiled a Malaysian plane with Dutch people on board. It is not acceptable. I don't know, we have a problem, and the solution is not war against Russia, certainly not. So is it sanctioning - economical sanctions? Partly, yes. And talk and talk, as we used to say, diplomacy.

*E.C: Could you tell me more about how Doctors Without Borders originated?*

*B.K:* We were coming, young European doctors. French doctors. That's why we went, we were French doctors and we were coming from a rich country; a country where we had been highly educated and we were had diplomas and we were working in hospitals, good hospitals, in France. And we discovered what? The reality of the world. And we discovered that our education was unable then to tell us what we have to do...what we had to do. What was our behaviour? We discovered that there were people dying of starvation, they were dying of misery. Of course they were also dying from bombs. We discovered a word: bomb. They were bombing the villagers, they were machine gunning all the highways, and they targeted the children. Every day there were violations of human rights, of course it was a civil war. So what were we supposed to do? To take care of the victims. OK, we took care of the victims from the bombing.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 22 hours ago.

ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 22, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Getting access to health insurance, and getting access to a doctor, are two very different things. But a new University of Michigan study suggests that the two have gone hand-in-hand in the state of Michigan, despite a... Reported by PR Newswire 19 hours ago.

Business as usual is not enough in the application economy. In this new landscape, where software is at the center of everything, companies must offer different and better customer experiences, collaborate in real time across functional lines, and rethink their interactions with business partners to stay competitive. Transformation is unavoidable-but not always easy.

Is your company doing a good job at navigating this dynamic environment? Here, we offer five signs your organization still has more work to do before seeing success in the application economy, based on analysis of survey results from 200 business and IT executives and real-world examples from successful leading companies.

*You're still playing by the rules *

In the application economy, if you're resistant to change, your company will suffer. When undergoing such a large organizational change, it's likely rules will be bent, and change will happen fast. When change is executed the right way, nearly half of respondents believe that becoming a more software-driven business has had an impact on time-to-decision.

How to break the mold

At Lockheed Martin, software that speeds up the new-business proposal process works so well that senior leadership wants to make this same functionality available across the company. But not everyone waited for permission: several business units adopted it on their own. "It's happening organically," says Liz Michaud, Lockheed's director of business applications. "It's a sign about how important it is to keep up with the pace of business needs and the changes in the marketplace."

*You're missing the details that matter *

While your company might be comfortable with some aspects of marketing, 58% say they are very or highly effective at marketing directly to consumers-- having all of the details is essential to success. Luckily, software-driven enterprises know that data, such as tracking customer preferences can lead to improved customer experiences.

Knowing what your customer needs before they need it

Sportswear manufacturer Under Armour is cracking the code. For example, it uses data to let customers know when they need a new pair of running shoes. "Studies show that to avoid injury, if you run 400 to 500 miles in a pair of running shoes, it's time to buy a new pair of sneakers," says Chief Digital Officer Robin Thurston. "We're doing our customers a service by letting them know when that time comes. We're using data in a way that's contextually relevant, to improve the customer experience."

*Your customers are on their own when it comes to protecting data*

In today's hackable world, it's no longer enough to implement basic security measures and hope for the best. While over half of our respondents say they are spending more to protect customer data, making a big investment in your customers' protection is well worth the cost. Luckily, even more are also investing to safeguard internal information to protect employees too

Going a step beyond confidentiality requirements

Under Armour has made big investments to protect customer data, including health-related data from fitness apps. Right now, none of that information is covered under the confidentiality requirements of the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). But Mr. Thurston is preparing for that possibility. "Trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets," he says. "We take it all extremely seriously."

*Your security team is operating separately from your heads of business *

With security top of mind for businesses, it's no longer enough for IT to be in the basement while the C-Suite enjoys the penthouse view. For organizations to be successful, security executives need to be front and center. In fact, nearly half of respondents say that bringing together security executives with the heads of business units is enabling new business opportunities.

Breaking down silos

At DHL Supply Chain, software developers no longer use a linear, siloed process to create applications for business units. Instead, they use an overlapping, agile, and somewhat messy approach--and are bringing old-school execs along with them. Says Damien Pike, vice president of innovation, of getting senior people on board: "We will sit with them. We will do mockups. We will do sketches. We will do prototypes. We will do proof of concepts very quickly to get the right direction. Then we go into a number of sprint cycles where we do the development. At the end of each of those cycles we make sure that we have alignment with the operational business owners."

*Your customers' expectations are falling on deaf ears*

Today's customer expectations and demands for flawless, uninterrupted service are higher than ever. With the ability to deliver quick feedback, customers expect the same in return, all with a seamless and intuitive interaction. While yesterday you might have been able to skirt by with ignoring these demanding voices, today, a growing number of revenue is now being driven by customer interactions with apps, making listening to customers, and making sure their service is up 24/7 more critical than ever.

Switching direction in a snap

To deliver on customer expectations, Banque de France runs two data centers and uses duplicate sites for backup. "We switch from one site to the other on a regular basis," says Benoit Clouet, Banque de France's head of project integration. "When an application is not running, it is not providing its business value. And customers get quite sensitive when the applications are not running properly."

More than 40% of our respondents say using social media to interact with customers and partners is a must-have in the new environment. These tools are not just new ways to push information out--they are also great ways to capture intelligence.

When one large European bank was developing a mobile app, it listened in on social chats to learn that customers wanted to see their last 100 transactions - not just the last six as it believed. "The best changes to our mobile banking app have come straight out of the mouths of our customers commenting on social sites," says one of the bank's senior technology executives.

In the application economy, undergoing a digital transformation in your organization is difficult. While overcoming existing company culture and processes will not be easy, a true software-driven enterprise will make substantive and far-reaching changes, and recognize that the rules will continue to evolve. Playing by these new rules pays off in greater agility, speed-to-decision and market, and improved financial performance. The cost of inaction could be irrelevance.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 18 hours ago.

About 7.5 million Americans paid an average penalty of $200 for not having health insurance in 2014, the IRS says. Reported by CNNMoney 18 hours ago.

Supplemental life insurance is now being quoted through the agencies provided at the Insurance Pros company website online at http://insuranceprosusa.com/life-insurance.html.

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) July 22, 2015

Life coverage policies that are underwritten by companies in the U.S. may fall short on total dollar payouts to consumers who have insufficient coverage in a standard plan. The Insurance Pros company is now providing a way for consumers to quote supplemental life insurance policies on the web at http://insuranceprosusa.com/life-insurance.html.

Adults who may have gaps in coverage from a standard coverage plan will now be able to review and quote the supplemental policies that are offered from some of the leading insurers through the ISP website. Each of the plans available can be fully customized based on the needs of adults during the price calculation process.

"Some adults need a supplement to a regular plan of coverage due to accidental death, funeral expenses and credit card debts," one Insurance Pros rep said.

Because some adults are married or have minor children, a basic plan of coverage might not be enough protection against all scenarios if a sudden death occurs. The supplemental life plans now being quoted are in addition to the voluntary, universal and term insurance through the ISP quotation system in 2015.

"Things like mortgage protection are a very real concern for adults who are planning long-term or short-term protection plan purchases," said the rep.

Adults who make use of the Internet quotation system supplied at the Insurance Pros website have the ability to find several new coverage plans from nationwide providers this year. Senior care, dental and vision coverage providers are among the new agencies being introduced through the quotation center online.

About InsuranceProsUSA.com

The InsuranceProsUSA.com company supplies ways to find and quote vehicle, medical, business or health insurance plans from top companies in the United States. The web resources provided on the company portal help cut research time in half. The InsuranceProsUSA.com company has invested into different technologies to improve the search process for consumers using its website this year. Reported by PRWeb 18 hours ago.

The nation's big five health insurers will become the big three, with a $48 billion merger imminent between Cigna and Anthem, according to the Wall Street Journal.A merged company would serve 53 million people and is part of a dramatic, long-predicted reshaping of the health insurance landscape as a result of the Affordable Care Act. UnitedHealthcare has 45 million members, and Humana and Aetna announced they would merge in July, creating a company serving 33 million people. Reported by Washington Post 15 hours ago.

Anthem Inc. is nearing a deal to buy Cigna Corp. for more than $48 billion in a transaction that would dramatically reshape the health-insurance industry. Reported by Wall Street Journal 12 hours ago.

Photo Alex Cockroach/Flickr

*The good news is that you don't have to die to use your Life Insurance.
Here's how to put the new policies to work for you.*

Old school insurance: You die, your beneficiary gets your death benefit. A prime example of this is the free $50,000 term policy you may get from work. To be expected, you have to die to use it which is all well and good for your beneficiaries. But for you yourself? Not so much.

In contrast, newer kinds of life insurance policies offer several benefits that you can use while you are still breathing . . . think cash value, living benefits, and lifetime income options. It may sound crazy but you could even potentially retire off a life insurance policy.

I'm not pitching any specific product or company here but merely hitting the highlights. Of course, not all companies or all policies will offer the same benefits and you'll probably want some advice from a savvy financial professional who keeps up to date on what is available. (Fair warning: not all of them do.) But the right life insurance riders (additional added benefits) can provide more options than you may have previously imagined, increasing your odds of coming out ahead financially while you're still among the living.

Here are my three favorites:

*Option 1: RICH PEOPLE ROTH* - I basically call the cash value on permanent life insurance a "Rich People ROTH" because it's most useful for people who make too much money to use a regular Roth IRA, or for those who have already maxed out their other retirement accounts and want to save more money tax efficiently.

Essentially, if you set up the policy properly you could save any amount you want into the life insurance policy, and the cash value would be treated basically like a ROTH. That means your contributions not only grow tax-free but come out tax-free too.

*Option 2: LIVING BENEFITS *- There are a bevy of health-related living benefits and riders that can be added to policies at difference insurance companies. The three most common benefits cover *Terminal Illness, Chronic Illness and Critical Illness*. I won't bore you will all fun diseases and ailments that may be covered. Just know that financially it can be much more expensive to suffer for years with a chronic illness versus simply passing away too soon (which has some definite downsides too).

No one buys insurance hoping to get sick but rather to diminish the potential for financial devastation that can occur if you do, particularly later in life. Since health insurance can't do it all, these living benefits will help you have more options to cover costs that can grow exponentially.

*Option 3: PERSONAL PENSIONS* - You can also strategically use the cash value as a personal pension. Some policies will have a "lifetime income rider." If you plan ahead and stash enough cash into the policy, you can essentially create your very own pension that comes out to you tax-free.

*The LGBT Life Insurance Picture*
As a community, LGBT people tend to be underinsured at a greater rate than the rest of the country. But the new options on today's life insurance policies may make them a better fit for both the coupled and the single. I bought my first policy long before I met my handsome husband.

Also as life expectancy has increased, premiums have decreased. I've reviewed several policies sold in the 80's and was able to get lower premiums and better coverage on a new policy even with my client being nearly 30 years older. This means that even old policies may deserve a review.

Most of us hope to die peacefully in our sleep ¬- preferably after a lovely meal with lots of carbs and plenty of wine ¬- when we are 100+ years old. I wish this for myself and I wish this for my husband and I wish it for you. But meanwhile, since there are no guarantees, a good life insurance policy can make the best of the uncertainties that are part and parcel of being alive.

*DAVID RAE, CFP®, AIF® is a retirement planning specialist with Trilogy Financial Services which manages over $3 billion of client assets. He has been helping people reach their financial goals for over a decade. Follow him on Twitter @davidraecfp on Facebook or via his website, DavidRaeFP.com.* http://david.rae@trilogyfs.com

Securities and advisory services offered through National Planning Corporation (NPC), Member FINRA, SIPC, a Registered Investment Advisor. Trilogy and NPC are separate and unrelated entities.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 12 hours ago.

Partner company aggregate revenue grew 24% and 27% year-over-year during the three months and six months ended June 30, 2015, respectively; Conference call and webcast today at 9:00 a.m. EDT

Wayne, PA (PRWEB) July 23, 2015

Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE) today announced second quarter 2015 financial results. Safeguard’s partner companies achieved significant developmental milestones and recorded continued aggregate revenue growth for the three months and the six months ended June 30, 2015. Safeguard partner company aggregate revenue was $101.0 million, up 24% from $81.3 million for the same quarter of 2014. For the six months ended June 30, 2015, partner company aggregate revenue was $218.6 million, up 27% from $171.9 million for the same period in 2014. Revenue figures include all partner companies in which Safeguard had an interest at January 1, 2015, but excludes DriveFactor, which was sold in April 2015, and Quantia, which was sold in July 2015. Safeguard reports the revenue of its partner companies on a one-quarter-lag basis.

“Through our disciplined strategic focus and steady momentum, we expect Safeguard to achieve its goals and objectives for 2015—to realize continued growth in partner company aggregate revenue; to increase the total number of our partner companies to approximately 30; to deploy $35 million to $50 million in new partner companies and $30 million to $50 million in follow-on funding for current partner companies; and to execute a minimum of two profitable exits with a minimum aggregate cash value of $50 million,” said Safeguard President and CEO Stephen T. Zarrilli. “Our partner companies continue to grow revenue on an aggregate basis and achieve significant developmental milestones, including product launches, customer wins, patent issuances, strategic partnerships, as well as profile-raising industry awards and media coverage. Our success in the near-term bolsters our long-term commitment to drive significant increases in Safeguard’s assets under management.”

For the three months ended June 30, 2015, Safeguard’s net loss was $19.0 million, or $0.91 per share, compared with net loss of $7.3 million, or $0.35 per share, for the same quarter of 2014. For the six months ended June 30, 2015, Safeguard’s net loss was $33.6 million, or $1.61 per share, compared with net income of $24.0 million, or $1.13 per share, in the same period last year.

At June 30, 2015, Safeguard’s roster of 28 partner companies was comprised of 12 healthcare and 16 technology companies. “The cost of our interests in these companies totaled $282.7 million,” said Jeffrey B. McGroarty, Safeguard Senior Vice President and CFO. “Our net cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities at quarter-end totaled $54.4 million, after subtracting the total carrying value of debt outstanding of $51.1 million. During the second quarter of 2015, we deployed $18.9 million in three new partner companies and $10.1 million in follow-on funding to five existing partner companies. In addition, former partner company DriveFactor was sold in a previously announced exit transaction from which Safeguard received initial cash proceeds of $9.1 million, representing an approximate 2x cash-on-cash return and generating a $6.1 million gain in the second quarter. Subsequent to the second quarter of 2015, partner company Quantia was acquired by Physicians Interactive. Safeguard received initial cash proceeds of $7.8 million in connection with the transaction, excluding $1.2 million which will be held in escrow until July 2016. Safeguard recognized an impairment charge of $2.9 million in the second quarter related to Quantia.”

Significant accomplishments by Safeguard partner companies in the second quarter included:

>> Product Launches – Apprenda, Aventura, Bridgevine, Lumesis and Putney

>> Major Customer Wins – Aventura, Clutch Holdings, Syapse and WebLinc

>> Intellectual Property/Patent Issuance – Pneuron

>> Strategic Partnerships – Apprenda, Aventura, Beyond, Full Measure Education, Good Start Genetics, Lumesis, MediaMath, Pneuron, Propeller Health, Syapse, Transactis and WebLinc

>> Industry Awards/Media Recognition – Apprenda, Aventura, CloudMine, Clutch Holdings, Hoopla, MediaMath, NovaSom, Pneuron, Propeller Health, Syapse and Transactis

AGGREGATE PARTNER COMPANY REVENUE

For 2015, partner company aggregate revenue is projected to be between $430 million and $450 million, which includes revenue for all partner companies in which Safeguard had an interest at January 1, 2015, but excludes DriveFactor, which was sold in April 2015, and Quantia, which was sold in July 2015. Aggregate revenue for the same partner companies was $359 million for 2014 and $290 million for 2013. Aggregate revenue for all years reflects revenue on a net basis. Revenue data for certain partner companies pertains to periods prior to Safeguard’s involvement with those companies and are based solely on information provided to Safeguard by those companies.

PARTNER COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS

The following partner company highlights represent information as of June 30, 2015.

Partner Company Revenue Stages

Development Stage
>> Pre-revenue
>> Proving out technology
>> Developing prototype
>> Beta stage customers    

Initial Revenue Stage
>> Up to $5M in revenue
>> Initial customers
>> Early market penetration
>> Management team forming
>> Infrastructure being built    

Expansion Stage
>> $5M to $20M in revenue
>> Commercial grade solution
>> Growing market penetration
>> Management team built out
>> Infrastructure in place    

High Traction Stage
>> $20M+ in revenue
>> Significant commercial traction

HEALTHCARE

AdvantEdge Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (Warren, NJ — High Traction Stage)

AdvantEdge Healthcare Solutions (“AdvantEdge”) is a technology-enabled provider of healthcare revenue cycle and business management solutions that substantially improve decision-making, maximize financial performance, streamline operations and mitigate compliance risks for healthcare providers. AdvantEdge is recognized as one of the top-10 medical billing, coding and practice management companies in the U.S.; has nearly 600 employees in seven regional offices in the U.S. and one office in Bangalore, India; and collects more than $1 billion annually for its physician, hospital, ambulatory surgery, behavioral health and large office-based clients. Safeguard has deployed $16.3 million in AdvantEdge since November 2006 and has a 40% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — The market for AdvantEdge’s services is estimated to be more than $10 billion annually, which includes hospital-based physician revenue cycle management and office-based revenue cycle management. The ongoing pressures created by provider consolidations, reimbursement decreases and accountable care initiatives present challenges for players in the revenue-cycle management space particularly for the smaller companies in the industry that do not have the scale, technological capabilities or economic resources to meet the evolving needs of the market. AdvantEdge intends to capitalize on these industry dynamics to grow its franchise over the long-term.

Operating Highlights — AdvantEdge continues to pursue scale through organic growth and strategic acquisitions, completing eight M&A transactions since 2009. The company’s revenue in 2014 exceeded $40 million. In 2015, AdvantEdge is focused on accelerating organic growth.

Aventura, Inc. (Denver, CO — Initial Revenue Stage)

Aventura is a leading provider of awareness computing for the healthcare industry. Through its patented technology, Aventura delivers awareness of a user’s identity and role, the location within a facility, the device being used, and the patient being treating. Based on this awareness, Aventura immediately delivers a virtual desktop and dynamically provisions the applications and exact screens a user needs to care for that particular patient, eliminating wasteful clicks and keystrokes. As a result, Aventura helps customers achieve their important initiatives in the areas of electronic medical record (“EMR”) adoption and meaningful use requirements, protected health insurance security, mobility and cost containment. Safeguard deployed $6.0 million in Aventura in January 2015 and has a 20% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — Hospitals have invested heavily in EMR, driven largely by $36 billion in federal incentives. Despite significant investments in health information systems, efficiency, data security and workflow optimization, challenges around day-to-day access to patient data persist. Searching in multiple applications to compile a complete view of patient charts requires further investment to leverage the EMR spend. U.S.-based hospitals are estimated to spend $1.3 billion to optimize workflow for patient data access, and fewer than half of U.S. hospitals have implemented an optimization solution.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Aventura launched Sympatica™, the company’s lead software platform for integrating EMR with third-party applications (population health, care coordination and health information exchange) at the point of care. Three healthcare organizations have already selected Sympatica, which is expected to be more widely available in the third quarter of 2015. Aventura also announced a partnership with BIO-key International to develop a biometric-authentication solution for electronic prescription of controlled substances. Lastly, Aventura was named among the top 100 technology startup companies by Red Herring, a respected business publisher that evaluates innovative startups around the world.

Good Start Genetics, Inc. (Cambridge, MA — High Traction Stage)

Good Start Genetics is a commercial-stage molecular genetic information company focused on fundamentally transforming the standard of care in reproductive medicine by providing physicians and their patients with clinically relevant and actionable information concerning inherited genetic disorders. Through GoodStart Select™, the company provides a comprehensive and clinically actionable menu of genetic carrier screening tests for known and novel mutations that cause inherited genetic disorders. Through its exclusive relationship with IviGen and iGenomix in the U.S. and Canada, Good Start Genetics offers clinicians additional important tests designed to improve pregnancy success rates and the chances of having a healthy baby. Additionally, through two exclusive agreements with Johns Hopkins University, Good Start Genetics has obtained rights to Fast-SeqS technology, which may streamline the delivery and costs of providing pre-implantation genetic screening and non-invasive prenatal testing. Safeguard has deployed $12.0 million in Good Start Genetics since September 2010 and has a 30% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”), approximately 62 million women are within reproductive age range in the U.S.; and 6.6 million pregnancies occur annually in the U.S. This presents a total addressable U.S. market opportunity of $1.25 billion to $1.5 billion for carrier screening in reproductive health.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Good Start Genetics reported data from 70,000 patients in two studies that reinforce the accuracy and clinical utility of the company’s genetic screening technologies. A third study of nearly 23,000 individuals confirmed that Good Start Genetics’ robust screening process can detect a wider range of disease-causing genetic mutations with both high sensitivity and specificity. The company is expanding access to its GoodStart Select genetic carrier screening tests to the broader women’s health community, including obstetrics, gynecology and maternal fetal medicine physicians.

InfoBionic, Inc. (Lowell, MA — Development Stage)

InfoBionic is an emerging digital health company focused on creating superior patient monitoring solutions for chronic disease management with an initial market focus on cardiac arrhythmias. InfoBionic’s MoMe® Kardia system will empower physicians with control to transform the efficiency with which they manage cardiac arrhythmia detection and monitoring processes for their patients. Leveraging a comprehensive, cloud-based remote patient monitoring platform—the first and only of its kind—InfoBionic delivers on-demand, actionable monitoring data and analytics directly to the physicians themselves. The MoMe Kardia 3-in-1 device streams continuous electrocardiogram, respiration and motion data to the cloud for analysis and delivers automated reporting to any mobile device, tablet or web-based portal where physicians can access and interact with the data they need, in the detail they want—anytime, anywhere. Safeguard has deployed $8.0 million in InfoBionic since March 2014 and has a 28% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — The global addressable market for monitoring cardiac arrhythmia and related events is estimated to be approximately $3 billion worldwide, including $1 billion in the U.S.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Safeguard recognized an impairment charge of $3.2 million due to the discontinuation of InfoBionic’s first-generation device. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) clearances for InfoBionic’s newest software and hardware are expected in late 2015 and early 2016, respectively, with commercial launch expected in 2016. Safeguard intends to provide $3.5 million in follow-on funding as part of a $7.0 million Series B-1 financing to help InfoBionic capitalize on the significant opportunity in the cardiac arrhythmia market.

Medivo, Inc. (New York, NY — Expansion Stage)

Medivo is a healthcare data analytics company that unlocks the power of lab data to improve health. Medivo is the largest source of lab data in the U.S. with access to over 150 million patients through its nationwide network of partner labs. Medivo analyzes large data sets and shares its findings with the medical community at large, as well as with its life science, payer and lab partners, to ensure that appropriate available treatments are provided to patients sooner. Safeguard has deployed $11.6 million in Medivo since November 2011 and has a 35% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — Medivo generates revenue through targeting and analytics programs and clinical services. Based on current monetization strategies, the addressable healthcare analytics market for Medivo’s products is estimated to reach $10.8 billion.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Medivo emphasized its strategic focus on high-value data analytics and is working to strengthen its access to data by expanding its roster of laboratory, pharmaceutical and health insurance partners. Currently, six of the top 15 life sciences companies are under contract with Medivo. The company also demonstrated the importance of data analytics at the Executive War College annual meeting as well as at the Pharmaceutical Management Science Association annual meeting.

meQuilibrium, Inc. (Boston, MA — Initial Revenue)

meQuilibrium offers an individualized, online stress management program based on building resilience, defined as the capacity to rebound or bounce back from adversity, conflict, failure and also positive events, progress and increased responsibility. The clinically validated, HIPAA-compliant, software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform delivers an individualized digital coaching experience. The scientifically validated and clinically proven approach is based on 15 years of research showing the link between stress and resilience, and grew out of research on resilience at the University of Pennsylvania. Designed for mobile and desktop use, the scalable meQuilibrium platform guides users through a personalized assessment to develop a long-term roadmap focused on critical skills to boost resilience. Data from the aggregated meQuilibrium user base provide metrics and insights on workforce well-being informing human capital strategies and decision-making. Safeguard deployed $6.5 million in meQuilibrium in April 2015 and has a 32% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — Studies show that up to 95% of U.S. workers experience moderate to severe stress, propelling absenteeism, productivity, injury and turnover costs. These factors cost U.S. businesses an estimated $300 billion annually, and healthcare expenditures are estimated to be 50% greater for high-stress workers.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Safeguard led a $9 million Series B financing with participation by Chrysalis Ventures and others. meQuilibrium will use the proceeds to accelerate sales and marketing, and expand product development. meQuilibrium has a robust pipeline of well-developed opportunities and qualified leads. The company serves two key markets: large enterprise companies eager to mitigate employee absenteeism and lost productivity due to stress; and payors and health plans seeking to drive differentiation and innovation in an era of consumer-driven healthcare. meQuilibrium also serves individuals looking to improve the quality of their lives. Enterprise clients currently include Comcast, Hewlett Packard, Nemours and Meredith.

NovaSom, Inc. (Glen Burnie, MD — Expansion Stage)

NovaSom is a leader in Obstructive Sleep Apnea (“OSA”) home testing with the AccuSom® home sleep test, the only comprehensively supported home sleep test that provides continuous patient support and next-day test results and interpretation for health care professionals. The FDA-cleared AccuSom is as accurate as sleep-lab testing and significantly more convenient and comfortable for patients. Patients are able to test around their own schedules and can sleep in their own beds, which helps eliminate "first-night" effect and improves data collection. Safeguard has deployed $21.1 million in NovaSom since June 2011 and has a 32% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — The OSA diagnostic market in the U.S. is estimated to be approximately $4 billion and is growing more than 15% annually. Only 3 million sufferers in the U.S. have been diagnosed to date, out of an estimated 40 million moderate to severe OSA sufferers.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, the company announced that the AccuSom home sleep test will be featured in an episode of Innovations with Ed Begley Jr., airing on the Discovery Channel during the third quarter of 2015. AccuSom is currently covered for more than 150 million commercially insured U.S. lives. NovaSom is accredited by the Joint Commission as an Ambulatory Care Sleep Diagnostic Center & Telehealth Provider and is classified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as an Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility.

Propeller Health, Inc. (Madison, WI — Initial Revenue Stage)

Propeller Health provides digital solutions to measurably improve respiratory health. One of the first mobile platforms with FDA clearance, Propeller Health combines sensors, mobile apps and predictive analytics to monitor and engage patients, increase adherence and encourage effective self-management. Propeller Health partners with integrated delivery systems and health plans seeking new solutions to improve quality, strengthen care teams and reduce the cost of care for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (“COPD”), the fifth and sixth most expensive diseases in the U.S., respectively. Safeguard deployed $9.0 million in Propeller Health in August 2014 and has a 25% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — Asthma and COPD currently cost payers and patients in the U.S. more than $100 billion annually. By 2020, the CDC estimates that the cost of medical care for adults in the U.S. with COPD alone will increase 53% to more than $90 billion.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Propeller Health continued to expand its collaboration with the City of Louisville, Kentucky. The Air Louisville program builds on a public-private collaboration Propeller Health started with Louisville in 2012. The company’s sales funnel continues to expand as pilot programs are completed with several other health insurance providers. User data show that the Propeller Health system has significantly higher patient engagement and retention rates than other asthma and COPD apps.

Putney, Inc. (Portland, ME — High Traction Stage)

Putney is a rapidly growing pet pharmaceutical company focused on developing high-quality, generic prescription medicines for pets. Putney’s mission is to provide veterinary practices with FDA-approved veterinary generic medicines that meet pet medical needs and offer cost-effective alternatives for pet owners. Safeguard has deployed $14.9 million in Putney since September 2011 and has a 28% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — According to IMS Health, 86% of all human prescriptions in the U.S. are filled with a generic, yet very few generics exist for drugs prescribed for pets. Analysis of FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine approvals reveals that 91% of FDA-approved drugs for pets have no generic equivalent. The overall size of the pet pharmaceutical market is significant. Packaged Facts, in its April 2014 report entitled, “Pet Medications in the U.S.,” stated that U.S. retail sales of pet medications reached $8 billion in 2013 and projected that the market will grow to more than $10 billion in 2018, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 5%.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Putney continued to grow its portfolio of FDA-approved, high-quality generic medicines for pets, launching Tiletamine-Zolazepam, the only FDA-approved generic equivalent of Zoetis’ Telazol®. Tiletamine-Zolazepam is Putney’s fifth first-to-market veterinary generic and its sixth new product in the past seven months. Putney’s product portfolio now totals 10 generic equivalents of companion animal veterinary drugs. New product launches and growth in the base business are continuing to drive revenue increases at Putney.

Syapse, Inc. (Palo Alto, CA — Initial Revenue Stage)

Syapse is a software company that enables healthcare providers to deploy precision medicine programs. The Syapse Precision Medicine PlatformSM integrates complex genomic and clinical data with care pathways and medical knowledge bases, providing clinicians with actionable insights to enable diagnosis and treatment. In addition, it enables longitudinal tracking of patients, creating expansive sources of real-world evidence that will be used to power learning health systems across networks of affiliated health providers. The platform integrates data from electronic medical records, molecular testing labs and imaging and billing systems and is agnostic to the data source or system. Safeguard deployed $5.8 million in Syapse in June 2014 and has a 27% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — Syapse’s technology provides integral software infrastructure for any healthcare provider utilizing genomics, molecular and high-complexity clinical data in the care of their patients. While Syapse’s platform can be applied to any disease area, early customers have focused on oncology. United Health Group estimates that the annual addressable U.S. market for genetic and molecular diagnostic testing will reach $15 billion to $25 billion by 2021, while MarketsandMarkets reports that the global healthcare information technology market was $40.4 billion in 2012 and will grow to $56.7 billion by 2017.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Syapse Founder and President, Jonathan Hirsch, was interviewed on Fox Business by Maria Bartiromo, highlighting how Syapse enables health systems to use tumor profiling and targeted therapies to increase cancer patient survival. At the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (“ASCO”) Conference, Syapse customer Intermountain Healthcare, an integrated delivery network of 22 hospitals, 185 clinics, a medical group and a health plan, announced that its precision medicine program with Syapse has demonstrated significant survival improvements and cost reduction for patients with metastatic cancer. The first study of its kind, Intermountain’s program with Syapse resulted in the doubling of progression free survival and 10% total cost of care reduction, as compared with standard of care. Building on this success, the Syapse Precision Medicine Platform was selected by ASCO to automate clinical workflows for a clinical trial that will track treatment courses and outcomes of qualifying cancer patients who are provided access to molecularly targeted medications outside of their FDA-approved indications. Using the Syapse Precision Medicine Platform, practitioners in the trial will build evidence of the clinical utility of treating patients with off-label therapies targeted to their genomic test results. Sanford Health, a health system of 43 hospitals and 250 clinics in nine states and three countries, announced that it is using the Syapse Precision Medicine Platform to automate pharmacogenetic clinical decision support and the internal test process, tailoring real-time drug dosing and other care to a patient’s genetic profile. Syapse also added experienced executives in charge of sales, marketing and engineering with backgrounds in healthcare IT, applied genomics and scalable SaaS solutions.

Trice MedicalTM (King of Prussia, PA — Initial Revenue Stage)

Trice Medical is a sports medicine company focused on micro invasive technologies. Trice Medical has pioneered fully-integrated camera-enabled needle technologies that provide a clinical solution, optimized for use in the physician’s office. The company’s first product is mi-eye™, which is a single-use, streamlined visualization device that uses a standard 14-gauge needle with integrated optics to perform a diagnostic arthroscopy. Trice Medical’s mission is to provide more immediate and definitive patient care, shortening the timeline from injury to recovery significantly reducing the overall cost to the healthcare system. Safeguard has deployed $6.2 million in Trice Medical since July 2014 and has a 28% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — In the U.S., it is estimated that more than 32 million magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams are conducted each year, of which approximately 8 million are orthopedic in nature. Private insurers, which cover approximately 80% of all sports medicine injuries, often pay an average of $1,500 to $2,000 per MRI—all of which is paid to the facility that owns the MRI and an independent radiologist, not to the orthopedic surgeon who is treating the patient. As a result, Trice Medical’s addressable market opportunity is approximately $15 billion.

Operating Highlights — Trice Medical received FDA 510(k) clearance in 2014 for mi-eye, which is currently being sold through a limited launch. Broader commercialization is expected by year-end 2015.

TECHNOLOGY

AppFirst, Inc. (New York, NY — Initial Revenue Stage)

AppFirst's patented technology enables rapid and unintrusive collection of real-time foundational metrics, at the sub-nanosecond level, in conjunction with collecting and time synchronizing multiple other data types. AppFirst’s rich data set can be used for many purposes including security introspection, detailed forensics, regulatory compliance, real time transaction tracing, real time topology viewing, operations management, performance management, detailed cost tracking, and many other applications for both cloud and proprietary environments. Safeguard has deployed $10.6 million in AppFirst since December 2012 and has a 34% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — AppFirst competes in the $2.6 billion application-performance monitoring market, where existing vendors are growing 10% per year, according to 2013 Gartner estimates.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, AppFirst was named a finalist for the SIIA CODiE Award in the “Best IT Service Management Solution” category, providing independent validation that AppFirst’s Systems Integrity Platform is providing measurable business results for its customers. AppFirst continues to gain traction with the secure enterprise version of its platform, which the company introduced in 2014, for deployments on-premise, in the cloud or in a hybrid environment. AppFirst’s platform includes a patented data collection and aggregation offering to deliver visibility into all foundational interactions including, but not limited to, every application call, system event, log file entry, configuration change, third-party application or custom code event as well as data from thousands of plug-ins. AppFirst’s platform includes a big data correlation and aggregation engine providing a normalized and time synchronization view of all collected data across the enterprise in a way previously unavailable using traditional application performance management and polling solutions.

Apprenda, Inc. (Troy, NY — Initial Revenue Stage)

Apprenda is a leading enterprise platform-as-a-service (“PaaS”) company powering the next generation of enterprise software development in public, private and hybrid clouds. As a foundational software layer and application run-time environment, Apprenda abstracts away the complexities of building and delivering modern software applications, enabling enterprises to turn ideas into innovations more quickly. With Apprenda, enterprises can securely deliver an entire ecosystem of data, services, applications and application programming interfaces to both internal and external customers across any infrastructure. Safeguard deployed $12.1 million in Apprenda in November 2013 and has a 21% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — Apprenda was named by Gartner as an early leader for private cloud enabled application platforms (“CEAP”), a new category with a potential annual market opportunity of up to $4 billion. CEAP provides PaaS functionality as a software product, allowing an enterprise to write to a platform that can be deployed in-house on their servers or externally on another vendor’s cloud.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, market interest in Apprenda’s PaaS solutions remained strong, and the company initiated aggressive recruitment to expand its team to meet demand. In addition, the company was designated VMware Ready-vCloud® Air™ status, indicating technical validation and support of Apprenda on VMware platforms. Apprenda also announced that beginning in the fall of 2015, Apprenda solutions will be available in the Cisco Intercloud Marketplace. The Apprenda-Cisco collaboration builds upon recent partnerships with Piston Cloud (recently acquired by Cisco) and Microsoft Azure. Subsequent to the second quarter of 2015, Safeguard led a $24 million funding round, deploying $10.0 million in follow-on funding.

Beyond.com, Inc. (King of Prussia, PA — High Traction Stage)

Beyond.com (“Beyond”), The Career NetworkTM, helps millions of professionals find jobs and advance their careers while also serving as the premier destination for companies in need of top talent. This is achieved through more than 500 talent communities that use integrated social features to help members discover relevant jobs, career news, career advice and resources. Safeguard deployed $13.5 million of capital in Beyond in March 2007 and has a 38% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — The global human capital management market is estimated to be $85 billion. According to International Data Corporation, the U.S. recruiting market is estimated to be between $15 billion and $20 billion, while the U.S. online recruiting market is estimated to be approximately $5.3 billion.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Beyond received Clickcast certification from Appcast.io, a provider of a pay-per-applicant exchange and producers of Clickcast, a click-based programmatic ad-buying tool used by the majority of U.S. recruitment advertising agencies for buying and managing performance-based recruitment advertising campaigns. In addition, Beyond partnered with TextRecruit, LLC to allow recruiters to engage with Beyond’s text-ready members who want to receive personalized text messages about job opportunities.

Bridgevine, Inc. (Atlanta, GA — High Traction Stage)

Bridgevine provides a technology-enabled cross-sell and up-sell suite of solutions that enable customer acquisition and value-added services for enterprise customers. Bridgevine is relied upon by many of the largest and leading companies in energy, satellite, cable, telecom and home security. Providing a fully-managed service along with unique products in social, display and mobile marketing, Bridgevine continues to deepen existing relationships and broaden into new verticals. Supporting over 50 million consumer interactions annually, Bridgevine’s SaaS-based platform boasts the largest volume and scale of any of its competitors. Safeguard has deployed $10.0 million in Bridgevine since August 2007 and has a 17% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — Barclays PLC estimates that the online lead generation/e-mail marketing market is expected to grow to $2.0 billion in 2016. In addition, the market for online search-related marketing is estimated to grow from $17.7 billion in 2012 to $29.9 billion in 2016.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Bridgevine announced an enhanced programmatic marketing service that allows advertisers to identify and engage consumers who are moving. The Bridgevine movers program reaches an estimated 3.2 million movers each month with offers of telecom, home security, furnishings and other products and services. The company reported strong growth year to date in its utilities channel with expansion by several of the country’s largest utilities.

CloudMine, Inc. (Philadelphia, PA — Initial Revenue Stage)

CloudMine is a mobile backend-as-a-service (“mBaaS”) platform that empowers enterprise developers to build secure, compliant and performant applications up to 70% faster than do-it-yourself methods. At CloudMine, the mission is to reduce complexity, allowing mobile developers to build compelling app content without sacrificing security, data privacy, or the ability to deliver meaningful innovation. CloudMine’s secure mobile foundation is HIPAA and HITECH compliant, and used by world-class enterprises including Mylan, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Barnes & Noble College, and Digitas Health to drive end-user engagement and intelligence. These customers are able to build apps using best-of-breed tools centered on mobile-specific services (push notifications, geolocation, etc.), data security/encryption, app scale, audit ability, logging, and continuous availability. Moreover, CloudMine developers have the flexibility to build and deploy the apps on a variety of leading cloud infrastructure-as-a-service providers—Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, Microsoft, and CenturyLink—and select the optimal programming language to fit their resourcing, and technical requirements. As a leader in embracing JavaScript in the enterprise, CloudMine empowers customers to quickly repurpose resources with web skills to usher in a new era of app offerings for connected devices, while concurrently benefiting from the agility and power of the cloud. Safeguard deployed $2.9 million in CloudMine in February 2015 and has a 30% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — By 2017, the mobile mBaaS market is projected to be $7.7 billion, up from $216 million in 2012, according to MarketsandMarkets Research. Today, 50% of business processes that involve human tasks require near-real-time responses that are mobile-enabled, according to Gartner research.

Operating Highlights — CloudMine was recently featured on CNBC as a hot mobile startup to watch, describing CloudMine as “hoping to be the go-to provider for things like object storage, load balancing and analytics.” Mobile app development is essential to meeting expectations for customer engagement and business growth, according to a February 2015 study by Forrester Research. Adoption of mobile apps is high and increasing: more than 2 billion people will have smartphones and tablets by the end of 2015, Forrester says. By the end of 2017, market demand for mobile app development services will grow at least five times faster than internal IT organizations' capacity to deliver them, according to Gartner, Inc. Mobile developers and publishers sent more than 1 trillion push notifications to users in 2014 alone, according to a report by Venture Beat News.

Clutch Holdings, Inc. (Ambler, PA — Initial Revenue Stage)

Clutch Holdings (“Clutch”) is a leading provider of advanced consumer management technology that delivers customer intelligence and consumer engagement solutions to premium brands. Clutch’s comprehensive consumer management platform empowers customer-focused businesses to identify, understand and engage their most valuable customers. Clutch’s pioneering customer marketing technology integrates a brand’s first-party, cross-channel customer data spanning traditional point-of-sale systems, ecommerce platforms, mobile applications and social networks providing brands strategic understanding to personalize engagements to their customers. Clutch's solutions deliver exceptional experiences to more than 46 million customers of more than 750 brands across 14 countries. Safeguard has deployed $12.3 million in Clutch since February 2013 and has a 39% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — The consumer management category is an emerging, multi-billion dollar industry focused on delivering premier brands the ability to maximize relationships with, and the lifetime value of, their customers. Clutch’s advanced technology platform and consultative approach delivers multidimensional intelligence, sophisticated understanding, strategic engagement and powerful optimization to achieve this.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Clutch raised an additional $5.0 million to close its Series B financing, led by Safeguard, bringing Clutch’s total capital raised to $14.4 million. Proceeds will be used to accelerate sales and marketing initiatives, particularly in specialty retail, apparel, media, hospitality, and pharmaceutical/healthcare sectors. Recent client additions for Clutch include Meineke, Dylan’s Candy Bar, Marbles: The Brain Store, and Latitude360. Clutch’s Co-Founder and CEO, Ned Moore, was named a finalist for ‘Technology CEO of the Year’ Enterprise Award from the Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technology.

Full Measure Education, Inc. (Washington, DC — Initial Revenue Stage)

Full Measure Education offers colleges and universities a cost-effective SaaS student engagement platform to maximize student success. This system-wide infrastructure increases student persistence, engagement and goal accomplishments, delivering information to students when they want it and how they have come to expect it. With Full Measure Education, schools can redesign communication and student services to streamline administrative processes, automate steps where possible and deliver personalized support to each student. By delivering personalized, relevant and timely communications to students across the entire student lifecycle, students are inspired to achieve their academic goals and institutions can intervene when students exhibit at-risk behavior. Safeguard deployed $4.0 million in Full Measure Education in January 2015 and has a 25% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — In the community and junior college markets, there are more than 1,132 colleges. The average revenue per community college is $56 million, which means that the total annual revenue for the community and junior colleges market is approximately $60 billion. These colleges spend $2.5 billion of their budgets on student services, which is the opportunity that Full Measure Education targets.

Operating Highlights — Full Measure Education raised $5.5 million in a Series B financing led by Safeguard with participation from Bull City Venture Partners. Full Measure Education is utilizing proceeds to expand sales and marketing and to accelerate platform development. Full Measure Education has partnered with a number of key school and technology partners, including University of Pittsburgh-Bradford, Kansas City Kansas Community College and Parchment.

Hoopla Software, Inc. (San Jose, CA — Initial Revenue Stage)

Hoopla Software (“Hoopla”) provides cloud-based software that helps sales organizations inspire and motivate sales team performance. Hoopla's Sales Motivation Platform combines modern game mechanics, data analytics and broadcast-quality video in a cloud application that makes it easy for managers to motivate team performance and score more wins. Using Hoopla, managers can quickly create contests, competitions and leaderboards around any customer relationship management metric and can broadcast live performance updates to any TV, web or mobile screen, engaging the entire company in an exciting, play-to-win culture. Safeguard has deployed $3.1 million in Hoopla since December 2011 and has a 26% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — Hoopla is in the employee performance management market. U.S. companies spend approximately $5 billion on employee performance software and almost $38 billion on employee incentives every year. Hoopla’s platform takes advantage of data analytics and advanced gamification techniques to enhance performance.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Hoopla was credited with driving increased lead and sales activity at Glassdoor, a jobs and career site. Sales team participation in the Hoopla system increased from 50% to 100% and appointments booked jumped to 125% of the company goal, according to Glassdoor’s sales operations manager in an excerpt from the book, The Predictable Revenue Guide to Tripling Your Sales. Hoopla continues to expand its sales, marketing and product development efforts to meet the rapidly growing demand for its software.

InsideVault, Inc. (Redwood City, CA — Initial Revenue Stage)

InsideVault is a rapidly growing SaaS company that provides predictive advertising management software for search, social, and mobile, which is the largest digital advertising category in the world. InsideVault was founded with a vision to reinvent advertising management software for enterprise-level advertisers. InsideVault re-architected the foundation to bring together machine learning, distributed cloud, and in-memory processing technologies providing the most intelligent, most scalable, and fastest platform. A global community of sophisticated marketers like AOL, Ogilvy, and Glasses.com are making the switch to InsideVault to take advantage of its cutting-edge data science and big data engine. Safeguard deployed $7.0 million in InsideVault in June 2015 and has a 25% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — InsideVault competes in the addressable advertising management market that is estimated at $15 billion annually.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, InsideVault raised $10.3 million. Proceeds will be used for product development and to expand the company’s sales and marketing team. InsideVault’s clients currently include Advanced Auto Parts, HomeAdvisor, 1-800-Dentist, Shoedazzle, and Paychex.

Lumesis, Inc. (Stamford, CT — Initial Revenue Stage)

Lumesis is a financial technology company focused on providing business efficiency, data and regulatory solutions to the municipal bond marketplace. Lumesis serves the municipal market with industry-leading analysis and compliance solutions that meet the needs of an evolving regulatory environment. Lumesis’ DIVER platform helps more than 100 firms with more than 40,000 users efficiently meet credit, regulatory and risk needs. Safeguard has deployed $5.6 million in Lumesis since February 2012 and has a 45% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — Lumesis focuses on delivering its solutions to portfolio managers, investment advisors, compliance professionals, financial advisor networks and issuers/underwriters in the municipal bond marketplace, which has doubled over the past 10 years. Lumesis estimates that its current addressable market to this customer base is approximately $1 billion on an annual basis.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Lumesis announced a strategic relationship with Pershing, a BNY Mellon company. The content integration into Pershing’s platform for broker-dealers, wealth managers and advisors provides Pershing clients with enhanced access to required information for disclosure and ongoing portfolio surveillance. In addition, Lumesis and Build America Mutual (“BAM”), an insurer of U.S. municipal bonds, launched a joint initiative to provide BAM’s obligor disclosure briefs and capacity for secondary market insurance to Lumesis’ users. Lumesis and Ipreo, a global provider of workflow solutions and market intelligence to financial services and corporate professionals, announced that they are collaborating to launch DIVER Underwriter and make it available via Ipreo’s new issue calendar in response to continued regulatory focus on underwriting practices. DIVER Underwriter helps firms perform reasonable diligence consistent with their policies and procedures and delivers significant efficiencies, allowing firms to maximize the number of deals they can bid while meeting regulatory requirements. Lumesis and Ipreo are also offering direct access to DIVER Advisor Municipal Bond Reports directly from Ipreo's Bookrunning system.

MediaMath, Inc. (New York, NY — High Traction Stage)

MediaMath is a global technology company that is leading the movement to revolutionize traditional marketing and drive transformative results for marketers through its TerminalOne (T1) Marketing Operating System™. A pioneer in the industry introducing the first demand-side platform, MediaMath is the only company of its kind to empower marketers with an extensible, open platform to unleash the power of goal-based marketing at scale, transparently across the enterprise. T1 activates data, automates execution and optimizes interactions across all addressable media, delivering superior performance, transparency and control to all marketers with better, more individualized experiences for consumers. Safeguard has deployed $25.5 million in MediaMath since July 2009 and has a 21% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — According to eMarketer, total digital ad spending is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 14% between 2015 and 2018. Worldwide digital ad spending is estimated to be $578 billion in 2015, while programmatic direct ad spending is projected to be $171 billion in 2015.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, MediaMath and PubMatic, one of MediaMath’s gold-certified OPEN partners, expanded their relationship to include programmatic sales of premium mobile, video, and direct advertising inventory. In addition to its existing application program interface (“API”) integration, MediaMath will soon offer its clients API-based access to premium mobile and video inventory through PubMatic. As part of its continued expansion, MediaMath opened offices in Dallas and Berlin. MediaMath expanded its leadership team, hiring: Peter Piazza, General Counsel; Prasad Chalasani, SVP, Data Science; and Peter Davies, Head of North American Sales. MediaMath gained industry recognition, named by Business Insider as one of “the hottest pre-IPO ad tech startups,” while CEO Joe Zawadski was named one of the 25 highest rated chief executives of small and medium businesses in employee surveys conducted by Glassdoor for the year ended April 2015 and was recently featured on CNN Money.

Pneuron Corporation (Woburn, MA — Initial Revenue Stage)

Pneuron enables organizations to rapidly solve business problems through a groundbreaking, distributed approach that cuts across data, applications and processes. By targeting the right information at the data source, companies are no longer faced with the complex integration and infrastructure requirements of traditional approaches. Pneuron’s innovative Distributed Solutions Platform leverages a microservices-styled architecture to enable customers to accelerate business value and develop reports, products and applications in half the time and cost of traditional methods. Pneuron’s distributed approach is non-invasive, technology-agnostic and leverages an organization’s existing infrastructure, avoiding the deployment risks and IT concerns that are prevalent in today’s centralized data projects. Safeguard deployed $8.5 million in Pneuron since February 2013 and has a 35% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — The financial services industry spends approximately $10 billion per year on cloud enablement, information management software and business intelligence/analytics/collaboration, based on Forrester Research estimates. Analysts agree that Pneuron does not fit neatly into any category, and that the company is positioned to be a disruptive player across the financial services industry.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Pneuron successfully completed a $5 million Series B-1 funding, led by Safeguard. Inclusive of this additional capital, Pneuron has raised $13.25 million in funding. Proceeds will be used to hire key scale-up resources in sales, sales engineering and implementation to deliver on the significant growth over the last two years across the Distributed Analytics space and the new category of Analytics on the Edge. Pneuron also was granted a key patent (No. 9,020,868) by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office related to the company’s distributed analytics platform during the period. In addition, Gartner named Pneuron one of four “Cool Vendors in Big Data, 2015,” noting that “Pneuron helps companies realize the time to value and agility advantages of a distributed data and analytics approach. Businesses no longer spend triple the time and costs needed to solve problems.”

Sonobi, Inc. (New York, NY — Initial Revenue Stage)

Sonobi is an advertising technology developer that creates forward-thinking, data-driven tools and solutions to meet the evolving needs of demand- and sell-side organizations within the digital media marketplace. Sonobi helps its clients and strategic partners to forecast new market opportunity, enhance value delivery to clients, and create more profitable businesses through integration of progressive data procurement and user-centric sales management technologies. The company’s primary product is Sonobi Jetstream, a comprehensive online advertising marketplace platform. Safeguard deployed $5.4 million in Sonobi in May 2015 and has a 23% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — Premium online advertising is anticipated to grow to a $43 billion market, according to eMarketer, in which programmatic technology has not been fully applied, Sonobi is well-positioned to develop this important advertising segment, with strong technology, synergistic partnerships, a high-quality publisher base and a growing pipeline.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Sonobi raised a $5.4 million Series A financing round funded by Safeguard. Proceeds will be used to accelerate development of Sonobi Jetstream technology and to expand the company’s sales and marketing teams. Sonobi serves a number of tier-1 publishers including Hearst Magazines Digital Media, Reader’s Digest Association, Scripps, Bonnier Corp, MailOnline, and Intermarkets. Negotiations are underway with strategic partners on the buy-side, ahead of the full release of the Sonobi Jetstream platform.

Spongecell, Inc. (New York, NY — Expansion Stage)

Spongecell is a programmatic creative solution that leverages data-driven technology to automate the production and delivery of high-quality ads at scale across display, mobile and video. Spongecell’s creative management platform helps brands, along with their creative and media agencies, to create more meaningful consumer engagement without sacrificing speed or scale. Spongecell works with some of the biggest companies in the world to drive their digital advertising campaigns and bring more interactive, personalized and engaging ad experiences to potential customers. Safeguard has deployed $14.0 million in Spongecell since January 2012 and has a 23% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — The size of the U.S. Internet advertising market was approximately $49.5 billion in 2014, with a nine-year compound annual growth rate of 17%. Spongecell specifically addresses the high-growth mobile, video, rich media and display sub-markets, which represent approximately 40% of the total U.S. Internet advertising market.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, Michael Nevins, an advertising and marketing veteran with more than 20 years of experience, joined the company as vice president for global marketing to support product development and global expansion. Spongecell is realizing significant traction with its dynamic creative product, which allows ad content to be updated in real-time based on parameters such as weather, user location and consumer habits. Spongecell is working to help clients move from Flash to Spongecell’s HTML5 ad product, which offers interactive features and dynamic creative functionality in a multiscreen format. In addition, Spongecell is expanding its data partnerships, adding integrations with several major data management platforms to allow brands to access their first-party data to make smarter advertising decisions.

Transactis, Inc. (New York, NY — Expansion Stage)

Transactis is a leading provider of electronic billing and payment solutions. Transactis’ cloud-based electronic bill presentment and payment (“EBPP”) platform, BillerIQ, is a white-labeled solution that is offered “as-a-service,” enabling businesses to rapidly and securely deliver electronic bills, invoices and documents as well as accept payments online, by phone and via mobile device. BillerIQ is an extremely flexible and scalable platform for businesses ranging from 50 bills per month to Fortune 50 companies with hundreds of thousands of bills per month, across a variety of industries including property management, healthcare, insurance, public sector, utilities and financial services. The deep functionality of BillerIQ helps companies improve both their business-to-consumer and business-to-business payment management, increase collection yields and accelerate cash flow all while reducing costs. Safeguard deployed $9.5 million in Transactis in August 2014 and has a 25% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — Fewer than 20% of bills are presented electronically in the U.S. The majority of 1990s-vintage technology and products in this market are on site at a single biller and are client-server oriented. The channel-oriented Transactis model features up-to-date SaaS infrastructure and is positioned to grow with an EBPP market that is expanding at a compound annual rate of 16%, according to a 2013 report by marketing consultant Latente Group.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, research and advisory firm Gartner named Transactis among “Cool Vendors for 2015,” citing the company’s superior electronics payments solution. In addition, Transactis earned a Top 100 North America award from Red Herring. Transactis also ranked #420 on the Inc. 500 list and #121 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500.

WebLinc, Inc. (Philadelphia, PA — Expansion Stage)

WebLinc is a commerce platform provider for fast growing online retailers. WebLinc tailors its commerce platform to the needs and scale of mid to large retailers by leveraging extensive experience and success supporting clients’ need for fast growth and system flexibility. By building upon the latest technologies such as Ruby on Rails and MongoDB, WebLinc’s commerce platform has successfully supported some of the fastest growing online retailers. The company's clients include Do It Best Corp., The Mint Julep Boutique, Urban Outfitters’ brand Free People, U.S. Polo Assn., Thomas Scientific, Jeffers Pet, Hello Kitty and many more. Safeguard deployed $6.0 million in WebLinc in August 2014 and has a 29% primary ownership position.

Market Opportunity — According to comScore, eCommerce grew at a rate of 13% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2014, while offline retail was nearly flat, achieving 1% growth from the year before. As this trend continues, WebLinc is positioned to continue helping business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies provide the omnichannel experience that customers now expect. WebLinc accomplishes this through a highly scalable platform, which provides full brand control, depth of features and operational flexibility needed to run the most dynamic retail operations. WebLinc’s early adoption of responsive web design and expertise developing native mobile apps helps clients maximize multi-channel revenue and outperform the competition.

Operating Highlights — During the second quarter of 2015, WebLinc announced new engagements with domestic and international retailers Jordache, Estuyo of Colombia, and Urban Outfitters’ home and garden brand Terrain. WebLinc also announced technology partnerships with retail marketing provider Listrak; order management provider Jagged Peak; and International Checkout, Inc., which allows retailers to easily serve foreign markets. These strategic partnerships include pre-integrations with the WebLinc commerce platform to give WebLinc clients easy access to industry-leading solutions for critical eCommerce needs.

CONFERENCE CALL AND WEBCAST DETAILS

Please call 10-15 minutes prior to the call to register.

Date: Thursday, July 23, 2015

Time: 9:00am EDT

Webcast: http://www.safeguard.com/results

Live Number: 877-201-0168 // (International) +1 647-788-4901

Replay Number: 855-859-2056 // (International) +1 404-537-3406

Access Code: 72550967

Speakers: President and Chief Executive Officer, Stephen T. Zarrilli; and Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Jeffrey B. McGroarty.

Format: Discussion of second quarter 2015 financial results followed by Q&A.

Replay will be available through August 23, 2015 at 11:59pm EDT. For more information please contact IR(at)safeguard(dot)com.

ABOUT SAFEGUARD SCIENTIFICS

Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE) has a distinguished track record of fostering innovation and building market leaders. For six decades, Safeguard has been providing growth capital and operational support to entrepreneurs across an evolving spectrum of industries. Today, Safeguard is focused on two sectors—healthcare and technology. In these sectors, Safeguard specifically targets early- and growth-stage companies in advertising technology, digital media, financial technology, enterprise software, Internet of Things, devices, diagnostics, digital health and healthcare IT. For more information, please visit http://www.safeguard.com or Follow Us on Twitter @safeguard.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements contained in this release may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. The risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, our ability to make good decisions about the deployment of capital, the fact that our partner companies may vary from period to period, our substantial capital requirements and absence of liquidity from our partner company holdings, fluctuations in the market prices of our publicly traded partner company holdings, competition, our inability to obtain maximum value for our partner company holdings, our ability to attract and retain qualified employees, market valuations in sectors in which our partner companies operate, our inability to control our partner companies, our need to manage our assets to avoid registration under the Investment Company Act of 1940, and risks associated with our partner companies, including the fact that most of our partner companies have a limited history and a history of operating losses, face intense competition and may never be profitable, the effect of economic conditions in the business sectors in which Safeguard’s partner companies operate, and other uncertainties described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Many of these factors are beyond the Company’s ability to predict or control. As a result of these and other factors, the Company’s past financial performance should not be relied on as an indication of future performance. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements or other information contained in this press release.

CLICK HERE: Safeguard Scientifics Second Quarter 2015 Financial Results – Press Release and Financials Reported by PRWeb 5 hours ago.

· Greek PM keeps lid on party rebellion to pass bailout vote (Reuters)
· Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Remains Popular Despite Tough Bailout Deal (WSJ)
· Beijing's stock rescue has $800 billion bark, small market bite (Reuters)
· Capital exodus from China reaches $800bn as crisis deepens (Telegraph)
· Why Investors Shy Away From China’s $6.4 Trillion Bond Market (WSJ)
· Oil Rigs Left Idling Turn Caribbean Into Expensive Parking Lot (BBG)
· Bank of America replaces CFO in management shake-up (Reuters)
· The Financial Buzz? Pearson to sell Financial Times (Reuters)
· Doctors Object to High Cancer-Drug Prices (WSJ)
· Global CEOs Who Lack Language Skills Get Lost in Translation (BBG)
· New York moves to raise state minimum wage to $15 for fast-food workers (Reuters)
· Anthem Nears Deal to Buy Cigna for $48 Billion (WSJ)
· Republicans, pro-Israel groups step up campaign against Iran deal (Reuters)
· Tim Cook’s $181 Billion Headache: Apple’s Cash Held Overseas (BBG)
· China says Japan's East China Sea pictures provoke confrontation (Reuters)

 

*Overnight Media Digest*

WSJ

* Anthem Inc is nearing a deal to buy Cigna for more than $48 billion in a transaction that would dramatically reshape the health-insurance industry. (http://on.wsj.com/1HK0Q9A)

* Bank of America shook up its management team Wednesday, months after regulators chastised the firm's leadership after another flubbed "stress test" submission. (http://on.wsj.com/1LEftOe)

* Hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, an outspoken bull on China, says the country's recent stock-market rout will likely have broad, far-reaching repercussions. (http://on.wsj.com/1Jzj4Zx)

* Chinese oil firm Cnooc bought Canada's Nexen in 2013 for global reach. Now Nexen's poor productivity and a July spill place it high among soured bets by China's state-controlled oil companies. (http://on.wsj.com/1IfgiHO)

* The Pentagon is moving toward providing Ukraine with bigger, longer-range radar to help it counter artillery being used by Russia-backed rebels, as U.S. military officials signal a growing willingness to bolster the country's defenses. (http://on.wsj.com/1Jg1YUR)

* The White House's efforts to sell Congress on its nuclear accord with Iran produced a small uptick in support from the administration's allies this week, though many others remained on the fence. (http://on.wsj.com/1TSmApe)

 

FT

Credit Suisse Group AG's new Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam is sounding out investors for their backing on a potential deal to bolster the bank's asset management operations.

The head of BBC Trust, Rona Fairhead, called for "clear boundaries" around the government's involvement in BBC affairs, hitting out against suggestions that the broadcaster's realm should be curbed.

Bank of America Corp said on Wednesday it would replace its chief financial officer and its wealth management chief. CFO Bruce Thompson will be replaced by Paul Donofrio, who is currently the CFO of the consumer bank and wealth management.

 

NYT

* The labor protest movement that fast-food workers in New York City began nearly three years ago has led to higher wages for workers all across the country. The increase would represent a raise of more than 70 percent for fast-food workers earning the state's current minimum wage of $8.75 an hour.(http://nyti.ms/1JgprFq)

* Anthem Inc, one of the country's biggest health insurers, is closing in on a deal to buy Cigna Corp after slightly sweetening its previous takeover offer, people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. (http://nyti.ms/1OnDFnt)

*SGN, one of the largest mobile game studios in the United States, announces a $130 million investment from Netmarble Games, a mobile game publisher in South Korea. (http://nyti.ms/1SDqzDz)

* Donald Trump's financial disclosure form, made public on Wednesday, contained wide ranges for asset values and incomes that made it impossible to calculate his net worth or income with precision. (http://nyti.ms/1fnwSP4)

* The Greek Parliament approved a package of financial and judicial changes that the country's creditors had said must be in place before negotiations for a bailout could begin. (http://nyti.ms/1TQngeU)

* Qualcomm Inc's net income was down 47 percent from a year ago, and the company said it would eliminate 15 percent of its work force. (http://nyti.ms/1DwFRDo)

* Bank of America Corp's Chief Financial Officer, Bruce Thompson, who was once considered a candidate to replace the bank's chief, is stepping down by the end of the month. (http://nyti.ms/1IjXA6g)

* As the United Automobile Workers union enters talks on new contracts with the Detroit car companies, perhaps its biggest worry is losing vehicle production to lower-wage nations like Mexico. (http://nyti.ms/1OnDAQw)

 

China

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

- Bright Dairy & Food said its subsdiary companies were going to invest 1.1 billion yuan ($16.1 million) to extend its dairy business.

SECURITIES TIMES

- China Securities Finance Corp Ltd denied a rumour it reduced its holdings in listed dairy producer Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, saying it did not sell any shares of any listed companies.

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

- A friend of an executive from the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the Hefei Municipal Government is being investigated for insider trading in Fengle Seed, the newspaper reported.

CHINA DAILY

- Japan is escalating tensions in the East and South China Seas, rather than working towards maintaining stability, an editorial in the newspaper said, and added its recent white paper had "slandered China's legal patrols around the Diaoyu Islands inside China's territorial waters."

SHANGHAI DAILY

- China has banned "vulgar" reality tv shows, with the media regulator announcing shows should promote decent Chinese values and uphold core aspects of socialism, the newspaper said, citing Xinhua.

 

Britain

The Times

FIRED FCA BOSS MARTIN WHEATLEY HITS OUT AT OSBORNE AND BIG BANKS

The ousted boss of FCA, Martin Wheatley, on Wednesday made clear his unhappiness after Chancellor George Osborne refused to renew his contract as chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, despite levying billions of pounds in fines and making top-level attempts to reform the culture of trading floors. (http://thetim.es/1gP6MWa)

RBS BRINGS IN EXTERNAL INVESTIGATORS TO PROBE BUSINESS UNIT

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc has hired external advisers to conduct a fresh investigation into its controversial restructuring division, amid signs that the bank may pay compensation to mistreated businesses. (http://thetim.es/1Lv6pwT)

The Guardian

ECB RAISES CEILING ON EMERGENCY FUNDS FOR GREECE AHEAD OF BAILOUT VOTE

Athens has been thrown further emergency assistance after the European Central Bank (ECB) increased liquidity for Greek lenders ahead of a crucial vote on a third bailout programme for the debt-stricken nation. (http://bit.ly/1MIDYsh)

TALKTALK RENEWS CALL FOR BT BREAKUP AS IT WARNS OVER BROADBAND COMPETITION

TalkTalk has renewed calls for regulators to break up BT Group Plc and move its broadband and telephone network into a separate company. (http://bit.ly/1LEeKN9)

The Telegraph

LLOYDS SHAREHOLDERS LAUNCH 350 MLN STG HBOS LAWSUIT

Thousands of Lloyds Banking Group Plc shareholders have begun a 350 mln stg court compensation claim over the bank's takeover of HBOS at the height of the financial crisis. (http://bit.ly/1fnbOIh)

Sky News

PM'S ASIA TRIP TO PROMOTE FINTECH AND REGIONS

Prime Minister David Cameron is to bang the drum for Britain's fast-expanding financial technology sector during a trade mission to Asia that will be notable for its emphasis on SMEs and regional businesses. (http://bit.ly/1IjzNU2)

GREEK PM TSIPRAS SEEKS SUPPORT AS VOTE LOOMS

The coalition government in Greece may yet need the help of opposition parties to secure support for a new round of reforms crucial to its bailout prospects. The country's parliament has begun debating the next round of measures it must pass if it is to qualify for talks on a third international bailout. (http://bit.ly/1Jz4HVc)

The Independent

EASYJET OVERBOOKING THOUSANDS OF PEAK-SEASON FLIGHTS - AND FLOUTING EU RULES ON OFFLOADED PASSENGERS

Britain's biggest budget airline, easyJet, is overselling thousands of peak-season flights, breaking up family groups and telling some holidaymakers who bought tickets months ahead they must travel by circuitous routes to reach their destination. (http://ind.pn/1g6Bwlw) Reported by Zero Hedge 4 hours ago.

The game of health insurance musical chairs continues in a big way. The Wall Street Journal reports Anthem Inc. is nearing a deal to purchase Cigna Corp. for more than $48 billion. If the deal goes through, that would reduce the number of major U.S. health insurers from five to three. The deal, which could be announced as early as Thursday afternoon, comes on the heels of Aetna Inc.'s agreement to buy Humana Inc. for $34 billion. Cigna had also tried to buy Humana, but failed to put together a… Reported by bizjournals 3 hours ago.

Patch New Canaan, CT -- The grant was awarded to the Norwalk free clinic to support free primary care services for those with low-incomes and no health insurance. Reported by Patch 2 hours ago.

Delivers Network Security Protection and Monitoring as an Affordable Managed Service

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (PRWEB) July 23, 2015

EarthBend, a premier value-added distributor of business telecommunications and IT solutions, today announced that it has expanded its distribution portfolio to include the SimpleWAN hosted firewall service. The SimpleWAN solution delivers real-time intrusion defense as well as cloud management, Virtual Multiple Protocol Layer Switching (vMPLS) technology, and support for key compliance regulations, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

“Our distribution partnership with SimpleWAN enables EarthBend to provide its channel partners with a next-generation, professionally managed offering for addressing network security,” said Ryan Donovan, general manager and vice president of sales and service at EarthBend. “With the growing prevalence of corporate data security breaches, the SimpleWAN service is an especially timely and relevant technology addition that should be well received by our reseller partners and their customers.”    

SimpleWAN is a subscription and hardware-based firewall designed for small, medium and enterprise level businesses. Via the SimpleWAN platform, IT specialists can track real-time statistics and key network health indicators, such as temperature, traffic, latency and link connectivity, across multiple devices from an easy-to-use centralized dashboard.

“SimpleWAN offers a truly innovative system for defending against security breaches and ensuring compliance with regulatory mandates like PCI and HIPAA,” said Erik Knight, chief executive officer of SimpleWAN. “We look forward to introducing EarthBend’s channel partners to the SimpleWAN solution and the many network security advantages it offers to their customers.”

About EarthBend:
EarthBend has been distributing telephony peripherals and IT solutions to a vast group of telecommunication resellers since 1993. In addition to its North American distribution footprint, EarthBend has been serving clients directly in the Midwest for 32 years. Today, EarthBend serves as an extension of its 3,000 plus customers, providing highly qualified engineers with key certifications from some of the largest voice, data and technology manufacturers in the industry. EarthBend’s offerings are highly scalable, secure, easily managed and optimized to meet evolving customer needs, and with an extreme focus on delivering cost-effective solutions and best-in class customer satisfaction. For more information, please visit http://www.earthbend.com.

About SimpleWAN:
SimpleWAN is a cloud-based security monitored firewall designed for IT and Service Providers that is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. This technology allows service providers to locate, monitor, manage and quantify Broadband Internet connections. The SimpleWAN solution gives carriers and managed service providers the tools to increase their customers’ retention with advanced security monitoring and troubleshooting tools at a very low cost. SimpleWAN won Product of the Year for 2012 and 2014 by TMC Magazine. For more information, please visit http://www.simplewan.com. Reported by PRWeb 2 hours ago.

C*Nect’s Data Management Platform has enabled Transparent Healthcare to easily identify and correct data quality problems, thereby greatly improving the accuracy and quality of its data for improved Business Intelligence, ultimately resulting in improved efficiency, growth, and member service.

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 23, 2015

C*Nect has partnered with Transparent Healthcare to address two priorities. “With C*Nect's Data Management Platform, we were able to quickly view our customer and financial data in a single view. We immediately realized we had numerous data quality issues. Using C*Nect, we could address and fix data quality issues ourselves directly in a controlled and audited manner”, says Transparent Healthcare President and Co-Founder, Andy Rieger. “We have greatly improved both the accuracy and completeness of our customer data that better positions our company for accelerated growth and improved customer service.”

C*Nect CEO and Founder, Bill Gardner, states “We’re excited to be working with Transparent Healthcare in their mission to bring access to affordable Healthcare to people who can’t afford expensive and ineffective Insurance Plans that are available today. C*Nect was founded with the specific objective to help business users connect with their data in a self-service manner at a cost effective price without the complexity that typically requires extensive IT or Professional Services involvement and that’s exactly what we’re doing with Transparent Healthcare.”

The dramatic increase in Data Visualization and Business Intelligence solutions over the past few years have made it easier for management and business owners to understand data they generate as part of doing business. Yet, in many cases, the underlying data quality is poor and either leads to incorrect representation of what is really occurring, or, induces additional overhead in improving data quality. Too often, businesses rely on numerous data downloads to spreadsheets, which creates a complex and error-prone workflow for managing their data. “C*Nect’s purpose is to offer a self-service platform to work directly with data in a familiar ‘Excel-like’ manner that fits our customers’ comfort zone, but comes with the scalability, performance, and control expected of an enterprise technology solution. C*Nect’s Data Management Platform enables businesses to easily identify and correct data quality problems that can greatly improve data used in Business Intelligence and Data Visualization tools including Tableau, PowerBI, and Qlikview.” adds Mr. Gardner.

C*Nect is excited in this summer’s launch of its new visual Configurator, which allows business users to connect to data sources, explore data, and easily create their own custom data ‘collections’ for use and sharing with team members across an enterprise. “We’re really excited to start working with Configurator as this allows us to create our own specialized views without having to ask IT every time we need a new set of data or for tweaks to an existing set,” states Mr. Rieger.

“We believe that we have simplified the data exploration and creation phase with our Configurator product so that users can connect to and understand their data from different systems and utilize it effectively with C*Nect’s Platform. Poor Data Quality can now be addressed in a true self-service fashion without relying on IT or Professional Services staff to turn their data into real Business Intelligence”, adds Mr. Gardner.

About Transparent Healthcare
Transparent Healthcare delivers products and services that give the uninsured and underinsured access to affordable healthcare. Utilizing our proprietary Transparent Health Network, Transparent Healthcare delivers access to healthcare at affordable rates. Through our innovative Real Time Pricing Engine, Transparent Healthcare members can know, for the first time, the price of their care before they step foot in the provider’s office. Transparent Healthcare wraps the network and price transparency with industry leading customer service, ensuring a smooth healthcare experience. Transparent Healthcare is not health insurance, it’s access to affordable healthcare.

For more information visit http://www.transparenthealthgroup.com or email info(at)transparenthealthgroup(dot)com.

About C*Nect
C*Nect is a multi-faceted software solution that uniquely combines a central data repository, connections to almost any data source, and a powerful desktop application for viewing, analyzing, and transforming your information. It allows users to dive in and edit the transactional level data as needed. C*Nect’s experienced Professional Services Group can assist clients in developing a comprehensive strategy for managing Data Quality, Transformation, Reporting, and Compliance.

For more information, visit http://www.cnectdata.com or email info(at)cnectdata(dot)com. Reported by PRWeb 1 hour ago.

Instrument employees will have unlimited access to all ZOOM+ services, including expanded access to telemedicine through ZOOM+Video, ZOOM+Smile three-in-one dental exam, and soon-to-launch services in advanced, specialist, emergency and surgical care.

(PRWEB) July 23, 2015

ZOOM+, the innovator of on-demand healthcare and Performance Health Insurance, announced today that Instrument, the Portland-based digital creative agency, has selected ZOOM+ Performance Health Insurance as an employee option.

“ZOOM+ fills a huge unmet need with a simple solution to a complex problem, which has always been an integral part of Instrument's creative and business philosophy.” said Vince LaVecchia, Partner and Chief Operating Officer at Instrument. “Our employees who used ZOOM+ asked us to make access easier and ZOOM+Performance Health Insurance is an opportunity to do that. We love the flexibility, value and convenience that ZOOM+Performance Health Insurance will offer our people.”

Instrument employees will have unlimited access to all ZOOM+ services, including expanded access to telemedicine through ZOOM+Video, ZOOM+Smile three-in-one dental exam, cleaning and whitening launched in June, 2015, and soon-to-launch services in advanced, specialist, emergency and surgical care.

“We couldn’t have a better partner for our innovative model of ZOOM+ Performance Health Insurance than the far-seeing minds of Instrument,” said Dave Sanders, M.D., co-founder and CEO of ZOOM+. “Vince and his team immediately grasped how this new generation of healthcare, designed from the ground up to be used every day to help people on their journey to better health, is aligned with the aspirations and lifestyles of Instrument employees.”

About ZOOM+

ZOOM+, the Portland-based innovator of on-demand healthcare, is creating the nation’s first health insurance system built from the ground up to enhance human performance. By seamlessly combining the security of traditional health insurance with membership-based brain, cellular and strength/stamina training and coaching, ZOOM+ Performance Health Insurance is empowering people to reach their full potential. Co-founded in 2006 in Portland, Oregon by healthcare entrepreneurs David Sanders, M.D., and Albert DiPiero, M.D., ZOOM+ (formerly called ZoomCare) was built on the promise of delivering “Twice the Health At Half the Cost With Ten Times the Delight.” ZOOM+ is a privately held company currently operating 26 neighborhood clinics in Portland, Vancouver and Seattle. ZOOM+ was selected one of the most admired healthcare companies in Oregon in 2014 and has been a finalist for the Oregon Entrepreneur Network's Growth Company of the Year. Dave Sanders was an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2015 Award winner in the Pacific Northwest.

ZOOM+ has been responsible for many retail healthcare firsts. The company built the first mobile online scheduler with same-day access to more than 500 no-wait appointments; created the innovative neighborhood retail clinic format; invented the "Magic Minute" and "Painless Procedure;" helped pass legislation allowing clinics to provide prescription medications and for video medical visits to be paid for by insurance companies; published transparent prices on the website; offered convenient office hours 365 days a year, in some cases until midnight.

For additional information about ZOOM+, please visit zoomcare.com and our Facebook page.

About Instrument

Instrument is an independent digital creative agency in Portland, Oregon. They are a multidisciplinary team of strategists, designers, producers, writers, code artists and filmmakers. They combine design thinking and technical craft to launch brands, products, campaigns and interactive experiences for every screen. For more information visit instrument.com Reported by PRWeb 26 minutes ago.

Health insurer Anthem, the parent of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, is buying rival Cigna for $48 billion in a deal that would create the nation's largest health insurer by enrollment, covering about 53 million Americans

Anthem, based in Indianapolis, is currently the nation's second-largest health insurer, while Cigna ranks fourth in terms of enrollment

Anthem specializes in selling individual coverage and insurance to workers of small businesses. It also has grown its government business, which includes Medicare, Medicaid and coverage of federal employees.

Health insurance is Cigna's main business, but it also sells group disability and life coverage in the U.S., and it has a growing international segment that Anthem lacks. Much of Cigna's health insurance business involves coverage where the employer pays the claims and then hires Cigna to administer the plan, a growing and less-profitable form of coverage in employer-sponsored health care. Read more...

More about Business, Obamacare, Health Insurance, Cigna, and Anthem Inc Reported by Mashable 2 days ago.

Anthem (NYSE:ANTM) said it would buy Cigna (NYSE:CI) in a deal valued at $54.2 billion, creating the largest U.S. health insurer by membership.

Indianapolis, Indiana-based Anthem said it will pay $103.40 in cash and 0.5152 of its shares for every Cigna share. 

The deal is valued at $183.36 per share based on Anthem's yesterday close of $155.21.

Shares of Anthem were down 2.1 percent at $151.94 at 10:44 a.m. in New York. Shares of Cigna fell 4.6 percent to $147.30.

The transaction combines the second- and fifth-largest health insurers by revenue and merges two companies with a huge footprint in commercial insurance, the type of coverage provided to employers and consumers. Cigna had previously rejected bids for as much as $184 from Anthem, with disagreements over who would hold key positions after the merger.

The merged company is projected to have around $115 billion in annual revenue and cover about 53.2 million people. 

The deal is the biggest ever in the health insurance industry. It comes three weeks after Aetna (NYSE:AET) agreed to buy Humana (NYSE:HUM) for $37 billion and is part of an industry-wide consolidation following the roll-out of President Barack Obama's healthcare law.

The deal requires government approval, and legal experts have said regulators are likely take a close look at the recent deals in the health-insurance industry. 

The companies said today that they expect the deal to close in the second half of 2016.

Anthem chief executive officer Joseph Swedish will remain CEO and add the chairman title, while Cigna CEO David Cordani will become president and operations chief. 

"This transaction better positions us to serve the evolving health care market with increased participation by individual consumers and growth in the government business and the need for solutions that advance affordability, choice and quality," Swedish said.

Anthem has 52,000 employees, $78.5 billion in annual revenue and 38.5 million members, while Cigna has 37,000 employees, $36.5 billion in revenue and 14.5 million members. Anthem already runs Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance plans in 14 states and Medicaid offerings through the Amerigroup brand in 19 states.

Credit Suisse Group AG and UBS Group AG advised Anthem on the transaction, while Cigna got help from Morgan Stanley. Reported by Proactive Investors 2 days ago.

You've probably heard that there's merger mania in the health insurance world, with the latest domino to fall Friday when Anthem and Cigna announced a highly-anticipated $54.2 billion deal early Friday morning. Here's our guide for what you need to know: Reported by Washington Post 2 days ago.

In trading on Friday, life & health insurance shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 2%. Leading the group were shares of Stancorp Financial Group (SFG), up about 48.1% and shares of Symetra Financial (SYA) up about 4.5% on the day. Reported by Forbes.com 2 days ago.

U.S. shares extended declines to a fourth straight session, weighed by weak quarterly earnings that largely reflect a slowing growth in global economy. The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) skidded 0.5 percent to 2,092.39. The 30-company Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) slipped 0.5 percent to 17,643.76, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) lost 0.2 percent to 5,135.47. Most followed shares included Anthem, Cigna, Amazon, Starbucks, Visa, Xerox, Biogen, Newmont Mining, TripAdvisor, American Airlines, AT&T, and AbbVie.

In financials, Anthem (NYSE:ANTM) fell 2.9 percent to $150.79, after saying it will buy Cigna (NYSE:CI) in a deal valued at $54.2 billion, creating the largest U.S. health insurer by membership. Indianapolis, Indiana-based Anthem said it will pay $103.40 in cash and 0.5152 of its shares for every Cigna share. The transaction is valued at $183.36 per share based on Anthem's yesterday close of $155.21. The deal is the biggest ever in the health insurance industry. 

Visa (NYSE:V) rallied 4.5 percent to $75.01 after the world's largest payments network reported profit that beat predictions, fueled by double-digit growth in payment volume despite a similar rise in operating expenses. 

In consumer shares, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) surged 16.3 percent to $560.96. The online retailer reported an unexpected second-quarter profit, forecast third-quarter revenue above estimates, and reported strong sales in North America, and unprecedented growth in its popular Prime two-day unlimited shipping service. Net income was $92 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, for the April-to-June quarter, compared with a loss of $126 million, or $0.27 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 19.9 percent to $23.19 billion. Analysts on average had expected a loss of 14 cents per share and revenue of $22.39 billion, according to Capital IQ data. 

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) climbed 2 percent to $57.67 after the world’s biggest coffee-shop chain posted a 22 percent increase in quarterly profit and an 18 percent jump in revenue. Its board also authorized the repurchase of an additional 50 million shares–which would be worth about $2.78 billion based on yesterday’s closing price.

Xerox (NYSE:XRX) rose 3 percent to $11.14 even as the provider of printers and business services provided a downbeat outlook and reported revenue and profit fell in the latest quarter. Currency fluctuations and the company’s document-technology business dragged on results.

TripAdvisor (NASDAQ:TRIP) sank 12.1 percent to $82.02 after the online travel company reported earnings and sales fell short of projections as expenses soared. 

American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) fell 1.9 percent to $41.79 after the company's quarterly revenue slightly missed the Street consensus. The company also announced the authorization of an addition $2 billion in share buybacks. 

Lear (NYSE:LEA) added 2.1 percent to $101.10 after the world's second-largest maker of automobile seats said its profit grew 22 percent in the June quarter, helped by sales in its seating segment that benefited from an acquisition. 

In health-care stocks, Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) tumbled 18.6 percent to $313.30 after the maker of multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera cut its 2015 earnings forecast as sales growth for its key multiple-sclerosis drug continues to weaken.

AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) slipped 3.2 percent to $68.26 after reporting weaker-than-expected revenue growth in its latest quarter, though adjusted profit came in above expectations. 

In other stocks, Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM), the biggest U.S. gold miner, slipped 0.6 percent to $17.50 after quarterly results missed estimates. 

AT&T (NYSE:T) rose 3.2 percent to $35.03 after reporting better-than-expected adjusted earnings growth in the second quarter, though revenue narrowly missed expectations weighed down by foreign-exchange impacts. 

  Reported by Proactive Investors 2 days ago.