Big-data company ColdLight gets acquired by PTC for $105M

Philly is becoming the “Internet of Things” hub for Boston-area manufacturing software company PTC.
PTC just made its second Philly tech business acquisition in as many years: it bought ThingWorx for $112 million in early 2014 and now it’s buying Wayne-based big data analytics company ColdLight for $105 million.
The two sales show how PTC, a publicly-traded company, is angling to be a leader in the “Internet of Things” market. With the ThingWorx acquisition, PTC made ThingWorx an offer they couldn’t refuse — even though they weren’t looking to sell, said ThingWorx CTO Rick Bulotta last fall. ColdLight wasn’t looking to sell either, according to a Philly Mag report. (PTC also bought another Massachusetts-based Internet of Things company, Axeda, for $170 million last summer.)
All 60 employees will remain in the company’s Wayne office.
When we last heard from ColdLight in the summer of 2014, it employed 40 and was looking to grow to 100 by early 2015, said VP of Marketing Rob Patterson via email. Those plans appear to have slowed and we’ve reached out to Patterson for comment about that.
ColdLight has gotten support from the state, both in the forms of R&D tax credits (more than $270,000 from 2012 to 2014, according to state records) and an early investment from state-backed investment firm Ben Franklin Technology Partners in 2010. (ThingWorx also got those R&D tax credits — a total of $326,643 from 2012 to 2014.)
The company had raised $10 million in late 2013, according to an SEC filing. Investors include Intel and Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, which has offices across the country, including in New York. At the time of the 2013 raise, J. Doyl Burkett, a partner at Kayne, was listed as a director on the company’s board, along with execs Bruce Katz, Eric Smith and Ryan Caplan.
ColdLight’s customers include GlaxoSmithKline, Comcast and McKesson Corporation.
Here’s a little more information from the Inquirer’s Joe DiStefano:

A person familiar with the company told me ColdLight was valued after that deal at around $30 million, and projected $10 million in annual software-as-a-service sales, implying an expected 50%+ annual growth to get to today’s price.