Software

We may not be seeing a rush of blockbuster acquisitions as 2010 draws to a close, but each December day seems to bring word of a small deal here and there. On Monday, three transactions involved local companies. Just like some of those Christmas gifts you may have tossed into your shopping cart, they were missing price tags. Quinnova Pharmaceuticals Inc. , of Newtown, Bucks County, was acquired by a unit of Amneal Enterprises L.L.C. , a Bridgewater, N.J., maker of generic and specialty pharmaceuticals.

Dell Inc. has followed Oracle Corp., Google Inc. , and other big computer-based companies that have expanded to the Philadelphia area by buying specialized local firms. "We weren't looking to sell," Bob Moul , chief executive officer of Boomi Inc. , said after Dell confirmed it was buying the Berwyn business-software-maker. Boomi had been negotiating since early this year on a deal to refer Dell clients. Boomi hooks up business-enterprise software made by Oracle, SAP AG , and other giant companies, to new applications such as Salesforce sales-data software, and does so cheaply and quickly.

Got a tip about a Gloucester County crime? Not inclined to give your name? Information that could help investigators may now be sent anonymously through a text-message service, the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office announced Wednesday. The "text-a-tip" software makes the messages impossible to trace, Prosecutor Sean Dalton said. Authorities hope texting encourages young people to help solve or prevent crimes discreetly. Tipsters may get in touch with police about anything from a "playground" crime to drug dealing or homicide, Dalton said.

Kenexa Corp., a human resources software and research company in Wayne, said today that it completed its acquisition of Salary.com Inc. Kenexa announced last month it would acquire the Needham, Mass., firm for $80 million in cash. Salaray.com, which provides on-demand compensation and talent management software, is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kenexa, the company said.    - Reid Kanaley

Unisys Corp., Blue Bell, today said it won a contract worth up to $18 million to provide security software and support for the 29 agencies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The project will result in a virtual Agriculture Security Operations Center for real-time monitoring and response to security incidents, Unisys said. The first year of the contract is for $8 million, the company said, and four one-year options are worth about $2.5 million each. Unisys has revenue of about $4.5 billion yearly.

Instem, a Conshohocken software firm, said Wednesday that it will supply software for the collection, management and maintenance of certain studies overseen by the National Institutes of Health. The value of the deal is $656,100, Instem said. The company said its Provantis software will be used by the NIH's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for reproductive, perinatal and developmental National Toxicology Program studies conducted predominantly at contractor laboratories around the United States.

Singularity is a thrilling, provocative, yet oddly familiar journey through the fabric of time. In this alternative take on historical events, Joseph Stalin's role in the Cold War is heightened when Russian scientists discover a new element on the island of Katorga-12. This element holds untold power, and even though it's unstable, Stalin accelerates the experiments. Death, contamination, and unexplainable phenomena are all Russia has to show for its efforts. Katorga-12 is quarantined and forgotten.

Shares of Qlik Technologies Inc., a Radnor business-software company, soared 28 percent Friday after their initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock market. Morgan Stanley and other brokers sold 11.2 million shares at $10, beating Qlik's estimate of about $9. The stock closed at $12.80, setting a value for the company's total 84 million shares - most of which aren't traded - at well above $1 billion. "Very, very exciting," Qlik chief executive Lars Bjork said in an interview during the day as the shares rose.

During her 18 years in office, District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham insisted she would not "do justice by the numbers. " And the Philadelphia court system's administrator, David C. Lawrence, similarly said, "We're not in the research business. " That meant overall conviction rates for violent-crime cases in the Philadelphia courts were unknown - until The Inquirer drew on raw court data to report that nearly two-thirds of all defendants accused of violent crimes walked free of all charges.

GSI Commerce Inc., King of Prussia, said Wednesday it acquired VendorNet, a Boynton Beach, Fla., provider of software to manage e-commerce supply-chain solutions, such as inventory management. VendorNet's clients include the Franklin Mint, Neiman Marcus, David's Bridal, Spiegel, Nine West and Lands' End. The purchase price was not disclosed, but privately held VendorNet has 32 employees, a GSI Commerce spokeswoman said. GSI operates websites for retailers, manufacturers and other companies.