There is a growing list of alumni from Advertising.com who have gone on to start or take leadership roles in busy and growing startups.

As AOL plans its spinoff from Time Warner next month, company officials are planning on axing 2,500 employees from the workforce (a cut of about one-third). AOL is offering voluntary severance packages to its employees, which include the 400 at Advertising.com here in Baltimore.

We don't know yet if there's a target number for reductions in the Baltimore office. But I was told by a source this morning that as many as a dozen Advertising.com employees were already laid off last week.

So, are there any local companies that Advertising.com may instinctively turn to for jobs, especially in this tough economy? I've found three companies that have Advertising.com alumni and that may offer current Ad.com workers a safe haven if they have to leave:

1) Millennial Media -- Based in Canton's Can Factory complex, this 60-person company is growing fast and is at the top of its game, with several former Advertising.com execs in its ranks. It's an ad network that serves up content to mobile phones, and it's one of the biggest in the country, if not the world right now. Its main competitor, AdMob, was just snapped up by Google for $750 million last week. And Millennial is about to go on a hiring spree after raising $16 million in its latest venture capital financing round.

2) Lotame.com -- Located in Elkridge, this startup was founded in 2006 by Andy Monfried, a former senior executive of Advertising.com. The company mines social media networks and other online sites for demographic data and behavioral targeting campaigns, and has venture capital backing.

3) TidalTV -- This start-up online video advertising network, based here in Baltimore, was founded by Scott Ferber, who was one of the co-founders of Advertising.com. TidalTV, with a nine-person executive leadership team, also has an office in New York. It's in the middle of organizing a round of financing, but there's little doubt in observers' minds that Ferber would be interested in bringing about some former Advertising.com people.

Any other local companies out there in the Baltimore area that might offer a home for recent Advertising.com refugees?

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Employees at Baltimore's Advertising.com must be feeling a profound sense of personal and professional agony right about now as they face some tough decisions for their careers. Their parent company, AOL, is set to spin off next month from Time Warner, and AOL's CEO Tim Armstrong will cut one-third, or 2,500, of the one-time Internet giant's workforce.

AOL, which is trying to reposition itself as a content and advertising network, hopes to achieve most or all of those cuts through voluntary layoffs. But 2,500 volunteers? That's a lot of people who must consider voluntarily leaving a company in this economy.

The Wall Street Journal's Boomtown and MediaMemo blogs have some details of the layoff package that will be offered to AOL employees, which could include volunteers from Advertising.com.

Basically, if an Advertising.com employee chooses to leave, he or she could get anywhere from 3 months to 9 months of severance, "compared to one to four months for employees laid off in the first quarter of next year," according to the WSJ.

So, you can leave and take your chances in this economy, with some severance under your belt. Or stay and risk a layoff with about half the severance you would've gotten if you voluntarily left.

Ouch.

An AOL spokesman told me that Advertising.com employees were eligible for buyouts, but wouldn't say if there was a specific number of workers that needed to be cut here in Baltimore.

If any insider wishes to share information about what's happening at Advertising.com, feel free to email me at gus.sentementes@baltsun.com.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

UPDATE:

AOL will be trying to reduce its workforce next month by one-third through a voluntary layoff program that will be open to all employees, including 400 people in its Advertising.com office in Baltimore, according to a company spokeswoman.

The voluntary layoff program will begin Dec. 4 and last through Dec. 11. AOL's owner, Time Warner Inc., is expected to spin off AOL into an independent entity on Dec. 9.

The company is looking for 2,500 volunteers to leave, and if they don't reach that number, they will need to do an involuntary layoff, according to Tricia Primrose, the AOL spokeswoman.

[I am seeking tips and insight from anyone who knows what may happen to workers at AOL's Advertising.com division here in Baltimore. Email me at gus.sentementes@baltsun.com.]

News: The New York Times (via Reuters) is reporting this morning that AOL plans to cut one-third of its workforce, or about 2,500 jobs
AOL's owner, Time Warner, plans to spinoff the company on Dec. 9, and expects to take restructuring charges of up to $200 million.

Advertising.com is the company's advertising network and considered to be one of the "crown jewels" of AOL. It remains to be seen if any of Advertising.com's 400 employees in Baltimore will face the cuts.

I pondered these potential cuts in a blog post in June, when an AOL spokeswoman called Advertising.com "a jewel in our advertising portfolio."

According to the Reuters report, AOL has asked for volunteers and if enough people don't step up, they'll resort to involuntary terminations.

Anybody know what's gonna happen in Baltimore????

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: *NEWS*, Jobs & Recruiting
        

One of the more interesting nuggets to come out of Millennial Media's latest monthly report (called S.M.A.R.T.) on smartphone ad-market analystics was this above chart showing average click-through rates in five (not four) app categories: games, social, entertainment, utility and navigation.

The chart above compares the smartphone platforms of Apple, Google's Android and Research in Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry.

A click-through rate of 2 percent for ad campaigns is considered "very successful." So which category blows the others out of the water? That's right: utility. All three smartphone platforms showed a high click-through rate for advertisments that ran in utility apps.

I'm a newbie to these ad analytics for mobile, but I'm very curious to peel back a few more layers of this onion, to see why smartphone users are more inclined to click on in-app adds in the utility apps, compared to the other categories.

So how about that Millennial and MobClix? What are your theories on what's going on with these utlity apps and why are smartphone users more inclined to click on in-app advertising with them?

(Note: Millennial's monthly S.M.A.R.T. report was put together with statistics from MobClix. The above data are year-to-date figures.)

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Apps, Media, Research, Smartphones, Wireless
        

Maryland TechCrawl from ETC Baltimore on Vimeo.

Surprise: Another tech event!

The Emerging Technology Center (Baltimore's tech incubator) is partnering with two of its companies, SmartLogic Solutions and MP3Car.com, to host the first annual Maryland TechCrawl on Dec. 16.

They're calling it a technology show-and-tell event where 20 companies will give 60-second pitches to anyone who steps up to "the plate" in front of their booths to listen to the pitch. (Now do you understand the opening segment where the little Flip camera "walks" up to the plate?)

In the video above, a certain someone from Localist.com (ahem, Nate Mook) holds up a sign that says: "Why no love from Sun or BBJ" [Baltimore Business Journal], while MP3Car's Heather Sarkissian speaks.

Now, I can't speak for the BBJ, but consider this blog post to be some lovin', Mr. Mook. ;-)

I plan on attending.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

A.L. "Tom" Giannopoulos (left) is the CEO of MICROS Systems Inc., based in Columbia. The company has worldwide operations, with 4,700+ employees, and is a leader in the point-of-sale terminal hardware and software business.

There's a good chance that if you've stayed in a hotel or eaten at a restaurant, your reservation or food order was completed with the help of a MICROS system working in the background.

It's a company that's had steady growth in revenues and profits since the early 1990s, and now sits on $525 million in cash reserves.

So, in short: Giannopoulos and his people are working hard. Which is why I was recently surprised to see Giannopoulos's work phone number, cell phone number and email address at the bottom of the homepage of MICROS's Website.

"Is this for real?" I thought. The thought of dealing with the public riff-raff usually causes many CEOs to writhe like vampires in the sunlight. Here's one who sorta welcomes it.

So I called the cell one afternoon last week. I left a voicemail where I introduced myself and said I'd be interested in meeting with him to talk about his company.

The next morning, I had a message from an assistant who was ready to set up a time to meet.

That time turned out to be today. In a conference room with him earlier this morning, I asked him (among other questions) why he puts his contact information out there so publicly and if it's really his cell phone.

He insisted it was, and that he'll sometimes take calls from MICROS customers at 3 a.m. (Now I know when to call him.)

But it got me thinking: How many CEOs of large companies put themselves out there so publicly? Sure, we're seeing CEO and corporate leaders dipping their toes in the Twitter and Facebook waters, but how many are authentic about it?

Just a few weeks ago, Giannopoulos said he got a call at 1:30 a.m. from a hotel employee, who told him she called the first number she could find on the Website for support. He helped her by connecting her to right support hotline.

For Giannopoulos, putting his contact information out there is a deliberate tactic he employs to get close to any problems his customers may be having. It's an end-run around the command-and-control hierachy that MICROS, like any corporation, builds for information to flow from the bottom up to its leadership team.

"My staff don't want me to have the phone number, but what better tool to find out about problems," Giannopoulos told me. "It's a very nice vehicle to find out what you're organization is doing."

Most of the calls, though, are on the positive side, he said, and the public phone number also generates sales leads, believe it or not. An interested business owner called his cell two weeks ago, and a conversation with Giannopoulos led to a new deal for MICROS.

All because of a cellphone number and a Webpage.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Researchers at Towson University and the National Federation of the Blind, based here in Baltimore, have come up with a new and more accessible twist on the CAPTCHA services -- you know, those squiggly, hard-to-read letters us humans are forced to enter in a Web application to verify that we're human and not malicious bots.

CAPTCHA technology has been around for more than 10 years and its history has been a sort of arms race between security geeks and hackers. New types of CAPTCHAs are devised, but hackers can write programs that can "read" the letters and numbers. Meanwhile, people with disabilities can struggle with trying to get past the CAPTCHA security, because they have trouble seeing or hearing the CAPTCHA codes.

Computer viruses have an easier time than people with disabilities in getting past some CAPTCHA systems, according to Towson professor Jonathan Lazar, who worked on the new system with the NFB.

"Unfortunately what happens is it becomes very often not a test of if you're human, but a test of whether you can see," Lazar said. "Basically, computer viruses are twice as successful as blind people on the old captchas. It's a problem, and that's why we've been working on building this."

Here's how the Towson system works: The user is shown both a picture and a sound of an easy to identify object. In the case above, we see birds, drums, lion.

Corresponding sounds for each object are then played for the user, who types in what she hears. Lazar said their algorithms can accept variations of the user input, such as plurals, i.e. bird/birds, drum/drums, lion/lions. This type of security approach works because humans are still far better than computers at recognizing sounds and putting names to them, according to Lazar.

The Towson researchers recently filed a patent application for their system, which they call HIPUU (Human Interacting Proof Universally Usable.)

Who knows -- maybe sometime soon this will become the new standard.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: *NEWS*, University Tech, Web Dev & Apps
        

This is interesting semi-old news: The FBI details an investigation into a plot, started by hackers in Russia and Estonia, to break into ATM networks, create fake cards, and steal $9 million via simultaneous transactions around the world.

The plot was carried out a year ago. It's a good read:

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/nov09/atm_111609.html

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Luis Elizondo (right) and John Robert (left) haven't worked in the cargo shipping industry before, but they've studied it feverishly for the past four years. And they think they've come up with a game-changing idea.

Their thinking: Why not look at cargo ships the way we look at rail cars and tractor trailers? Rail cars get decoupled from their engines and trailers get decoupled from the tractors that pull them. Why can't ships' hulls -- in a similar fashion -- be decoupled from the superstructures (wheelhouses) that house the crew?

Their vision is a port that cuts down dramatically on wait times for ships to unload their cargo, and is turning around crew quickly and putting ships out to sail in a matter of hours, not days.

Watch a video animation of their idea here.

This year, Elizondo got a patent for the idea, and he and Robert formed a company called Never Ship Empty. They're about to start pitching it to leaders in the industry. And they're embarking on a feasibility study with the University of Houston to test out how efficient the new process could be for a port.

They'll have to persuade a lot of skeptics. But if the numbers and efficiencies hold up, we may be looking at a possible new way that the cargo shipping industry can go about its business -- thanks to these two guys from Maryland and their audacious idea.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Big Ideas
        

Today, Baltimore's Millennial Media, which started up in 2006, announced it raised $16 million in new financing from some venture capital firms, including New Enterprise Associates. (Check out my story here.)

Last week's news that Google was buying mobile advertiser AdMob for $750 million probably didn't cause venture capitalists to throw money at Millennial (such deals usually take more than a week to put together), but it also probably didn't hurt the growing little firm.

The conventional wisdom now is that Google's purchase of AdMob "validates" the nascent mobile advertising industry. When a big company like Google drops a ton of dough on a small company in a still-emerging market, you know that will attract many more serious investors and players to the industry.

According to eMarketer stats via the Interactive Advertising Bureau, here's what the mobile ad market looks like:  

I'm gonna bet that the Google-AdMob acquisition, though the first big one in the mobile ad space, won't be the last. My guess is we may be a few months, perhaps even weeks, away from similar acquisitions of smaller mobile ad firms by big Google-esque-like competitors. What do you think?

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Entrepreneurs & Risk Takers, Media, Online Advertising, Smartphones, Startups, Wireless
        

Here's part of a press release -- heads up: there's a $35 entrance fee to attend if you're not a MITEF member:

The MIT Enterprise Forum (MITEF) will hold a “Startup Lab” for emerging businesses and entrepreneurs. Presented by Rockville Economic Development (REDI) and the MIT Enterprise Forum, from 6:30- 9:00 pm at the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology (CARB), 9600 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville.

Continue reading "FYI: "Startup Lab" in Rockville....TONIGHT" »

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Many companies may continue to plow money into their R&D efforts, despite a weak economy, because they believe innovation and new products will help get them out of the slump.

Figuring I'd get a snapshot of how some local tech companies have reacted to the recession with regards to R&D spending, I pulled the 3rd quarter SEC filings of four public companies: Ciena Corp., of Linthicum; MICROS Systems Inc. and Sourcefire Inc., both of Columbia; and TeleCommunication Systems Inc., of Annapolis.

It's interesting to note that three of the four companies saw a relatively modest increase in R&D spending, while only Ciena saw a dip. Ciena swung from a profit to a loss in the quarter, a fact the company attributed to weak markets for their telecom gear since big companies were tightening their spending in the recession.

Some background on the companies (Note: I purposely did not target biotech companies -- their R&D efforts are worthy of another blog post):

* Ciena, which makes equipment and systems that increase the capacity of networks, had revenues of $164.8 million in the 3Q this year, compared with $253.2 million in last year's 3Q. The company lost $26.5 million in this year's 3rd quarter, compared to a profit of $11.7 million in the same quarter last year.

* MICROS makes point-of-sale purchasing software for the restaurant and hospitality industries. Their 3Q 2009 revenue was $212.5 million vs. $244 million in 3Q 2008. Their profit was virtually flat for the quarter: $25 million this year compared to $25.3 million a year ago.

* Sourcefire makes and sells intrusion prevention software and services, helping large networks -- including large government agencies -- maintain their security on the Internet. Their 3Q revenues were $27.4 million, an increase of 35 percent year-over-year, and profit was $2.7 million, compared to a $1.7 million loss in the 3Q of 2008.

* TeleCommunication Systems Inc. makes software and systems for mobile communication networks, and has been busy as the large wireless networks continue to add to their capacity to handle increasing phone, text message and data traffic. Their 3Q 2009 revenue was $71.6 million, compared with $56.5 million in the last quarter. Profit nearly doubled to $5.4 million in 3Q 2009, compared to $2.8 million in last year's 3Q.

Source: Corporate SEC filings, company websites

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Research
        

It's not all the marketing hype that's gotten to me when it comes to Bing, Microsoft's upgraded search engine (er, excuse me, I mean: decision engine.) It's the quality of the results.

More and more, I'm starting to feel lucky whenever I use the search engine. Yesterday, I noticed that it indexed a blog post I wrote for BaltTech quicker than Google did. If Bing can do that consistently with blog posts, that's a win for it.

It's nice to see Bing integrating with Twitter and offering robust video and image search options. But its meat and potatoes will have to be raw, un-gimmicky search. News that it's going to offer Wolfram Alpha search results (which broke yesterday) is nice, but I doubt that that feature will mean that much to most users.

I can't even estimate how often I use Google in a day to search through news, blog posts, videos, and images. But Google -- which seemingly has ventured into all sorts of new businesses this year -- has a competitor on its home turf, IMO.

Now it's time for a poll:

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Web Dev & Apps
        

It's not very often, I think, that you see higher ed officials put pride and bureaucracy to the side to work together on a project that is beneficial to students and the community.

In this case, I'm talking about the Life Sciences Institute, which opened its doors at the University of Maryland's BioPark on the west side of Baltimore.

The LSI is run by the Baltimore City Community College, though its new home is in the University of Maryland Baltimore's research park.

UMB wants to make the BioPark a "one-stop shop" for the biotech industry. Bringing in a program such as BCCC's LSI that could train a workforce of biotech workers was instrumental to UMB's long-term goal of offering it all -- from startup companies to research labs to students in training -- under one large roof.

On a recent tour, I saw earnest students working in labs and sitting in lectures in classrooms on the floor of the LSI.

There are jobs to be had in this field, and companies and research facilities are constantly soaking up trained and competent workers in the region, I was told by the LSI's director, Dr. Kathleen Kennedy Norris.

For more, check out my story today on the program and some of the people in it.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: BioTech
        

The formation of new businesses, in the form of corporations and limited liability companies, has been in decline in recent years, according to state figures.

New corporate charters were at a five-year high, back in fiscal 2005, with 16,127 filings, but have declined to 10,882 through fiscal 2009. (The fiscal year starts July 1 and ends June 30.)

New limited liability companies (LLCs) climbed to more than 29,000 in 2006 through 2008, but declined to 25,442 in fiscal 2009, the statistics show. The LLC is the preferred type of business entity in Maryland by filers.

These figures, which come from the state Department of Assessments and Taxation, show the impact that the recession has had on the formation of new businesses in Maryland.

Some may argue that the figures help prove the oft-mentioned point that Maryland has an anti-business climate. But the LLC figures, which reflect the preferred type of entity for business owners, really just took a dive in the last year after cresting the previous three years. 

What do you think?

UPDATE: I'm still unearthing similar new-business data from other neighboring states, which don't appear to offer such information on their websites. So, it's taking some phone calls. For Maryland, I got 2008 and 2009 via a telephone conversation with an SDAT official, and 2005-07 figures from the SDAT annual report, which is available online.

Update 2: Here's a link to some Virginia data that I did find online, for years 2007 and 2008: http://www.scc.state.va.us/comm/anrept/2008_AR.pdf

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: *NEWS*
        

Starting Monday, Nov. 16, Google will be offering free Wi-Fi at BWI Airport and 46 other airports across the country.

The free Wi-Fi program will last until Jan. 15, 2010, and is cast as a holiday promotion. Google is also giving passengers on Virgin America flights free Wi-Fi, as part of a promotion that was announced earlier.

You can get more details on the Google promo at FreeHolidayWiFi.com.

I'm gonna bet that Google will continue with these Wi-Fi promotions as they push to grow their mobile search business

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Are you a startup business in the tech arena that's been around a couple years? Help me tell your story. I'm looking for startup companies and entrepreneurs to feature in this space on Tuesdays. I'm able to feature companies from Northern Virginia to Philadelphia -- my focus for this feature is on the Mid-Atlantic region!

For past examples, check these out.

Contact me at gus.sentementes(at)baltsun.com. Thanks!

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Startup Tuesday
        

This Friday, you may want to stop by the Emerging Technology Center in Canton to catch Mark Lavelle speaking about his company, Bill Me Later.

Bill Me Later last year was bought by eBay for nearly $1 billion. It was a huge win for Baltimore's tech startup community and for this company that got its start about nine years ago.

Lavelle is head of corporate development for Bill Me Later. Personally, I'd like to stop by and listen to their startup story because, frankly, we have not written enough about this company's history and track record. (For a taste, read VentureBeat's Q&A with the CEO last year.)

The event starts at noon and requires registration. For more details, see here.

UPDATE: 4:20 p.m..... I just learned that Mark Lavelle of Bill Me Later can't make the Friday event and event organizers will have to reschedule, probably for December. Stay tuned!

Update #2 -- The event has been rescheduled for Dec. 4th, at NOON.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The beauty of TedxMidAtlantic wasn't just that it was a compelling, full-day event for the speakers and participants, with talks and presentations that were food for the mind.

The organizers and participants also did a great job of making the event resonate beyond the walls of MICA's theater where it was held. If you couldn't attend Tedx on Thursday, you could at least watch a live video stream of the event.

As each speaker finished, the organizers were able to instantly archive each talk, so that it was available on the Web site. Pretty impressive stuff.

A good, written play-by-play of the event can be found at the Inside Charm City blog, for those who want an indepth feel for how the event flowed through the day.

Over on Twitter, participants were posting their thoughts using the #tedx and #tedxmid hash tags.

The Flickr group for TedxMidAtlantic photos had 570 submissions as of this morning.

Several people blogged about the experience attending TedxMidAtlantic, including:

* Scott Paley

* Russell Heimlich

* Tyler Waldman

* Jim Doran

* Annmary Liu (handwritten notes!)

What other content is out there? Drop some links in the comments below! (Above, Flickr photo of Anna Vidovic by The Plan8 Podcast)

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Events (Baltimore area)
        

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case of Bilski vs. Kappos -- a critical case that could decide the future of how patents are issued in the 21st century as the Internet plays a larger role in technology and innovation.

At the heart of the issue is whether a patent can be issued for software, and business methods and processes that are part of the software. Dozens of big companies have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the case.

The Christian Science Monitor does a nice job of fleshing out the details of this story. Stay tuned.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: *NEWS*