More good news for a Baltimore startup today: Gliknik Inc., which is based in the University of Maryland BioPark, announced that it completed a $3.5 million equity financing raise. The money was raised over the course of the past seven months, the company said.

Gliknik is a biopharmaceuticals company that plans on using the new funds to initiate a clinical program in autoimmune diseases for its Stradomer platform, which are recombinant drugs. The company is working to create new treatments for cancer and immune disorders.

"An infusion of investor funding highlights a growing vote of confidence as we continue to develop new therapies for patients with cancer and autoimmune/inflammatory diseases," said David S. Block, Gliknik's president and chief executive officer. (Block is pictured above.)

Over the past six months, Gliknik has also received an additional $1 million in competitive grant funding from a federal program, a U.S. Army subcontract, and a Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development research award.

Gliknik also announced that it received a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for one of its drug programs for fighting cancer.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: *NEWS*, BioTech, Entrepreneurs & Risk Takers, Research, Venture Cap
        

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 ads 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 utility 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
        

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
        

The news that Connecticut-based Stanley Works is buying (er... merging with) Black & Decker, based in Towson, dropped like a big bomb yesterday afternoon. We covered it and so did just about everybody else with half an interest in business news.

One angle that we've pursued is the potential local impact that the move of the corporate headquarters from Baltimore County to Connecticut may mean. Black & Decker has been a prolific innovator in the realm of power tools and hardware, and such innovation typically means smart people and well-paying jobs for a region.

The companies said Monday that Black & Decker's Power Tools division will remain based in Towson. But it remains to be seen whether its Maryland location will continue to innovate at the same level after next year's merger.

I pulled some patent data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and discovered that Black & Decker ranks third in the state in terms of patents granted from 2004 to 2008. See the full state figures below.

Maryland Patent Grants, 2004 to 2008

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Coast, Research
        

Our guest blogger for today is Mike Subelsky, an organizer with Ignite (which David Troy just wrote about in a BaltTech guest post) and co-founder of OtherInbox.com. Chime in with your ideas on what the Baltimore tech scene needs to thrive.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that Baltimore has a vital and thriving technology culture. We have many good companies, events and organizations in town in various stages of growth, and it's a very creative time for starting new things. The activation energy for a new tech culture project is getting lower all the time!

This is my attempt to add fuel to the fire: a list of things our tech culture would use. I don't claim ownership or authorship of any of these ideas, and I really hope someone will see one of these and get it going. If you do you'll find a great deal of support and encouragement from the whole scene!

Continue reading "What does our local tech culture need?" »

Posted by Liz Hacken at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Big Ideas, Entrepreneurs & Risk Takers, Geeks, Research, Startups
        

Just got the news that Maryland's Technology Development Corp. (TEDCO) awarded $599,934 in funding through a partnership through Fort Detrick (under the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command) and the Frederick County Office of Economic Development.

Check out the jump to find the list of companies -- each of which received a $50,000 infusion over the past year -- and a description of what they're developing. It's an interesting mix of work.

Continue reading "Maryland's latest funding for military/biotech-related companies" »

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: BioTech, Government Tech, Research