Archive for November, 2006

Intechra Acquires Gold Circuit; More Than Quadruples Recycling Capacity

Wednesday, November 15th, 2006

Jackson, Miss., – November 15, 2006 – Intechra Holding Corporation today announced the acquisition of Gold Circuit, an Arizona-based information technology asset disposition (ITAD) company with approximately $14 million in revenues. The acquisition brings Intechra’s annualized revenues to $55 million. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Gold Circuit has built a strong client base and will accelerate our ability to capture more of the recycling market, which we believe is increasingly important to our clients and prospects,” said Chip Slack, Intechra chief executive officer. “With the strength Intechra already has in processing electronic assets for remanufacturing or remarketing, the additional recycling capability gives us a clear competitive edge.”

Intechra, which currently operates facilities in Columbus, Ohio; Dallas and Phoenix, has the capacity to recycle about one million pounds of electronic assets monthly at its Dallas location. Gold Circuit’s facility in Casa Grande, Ariz., adds another five million pounds per month of capacity, bringing Intechra’s new capacity to six million pounds monthly. Intechra has the capacity to process up to 250,000 assets each month, including computer monitors, laptops, servers, routers, printers, etc.

Gold Circuit, founded in 1991 by its president, Jim Greenberg, has many large national organizations with multiple locations as clients. The company has 81 employees in two processing facilities in Arizona.

“Becoming part of the fastest growing ITAD company in North America makes a lot of sense for Gold Circuit,” Greenberg said. “The ITAD industry is consolidating rapidly, and Intechra is driving that consolidation. Having seen them successfully integrate an even larger company this past year, I am also very confident of their ability to successfully bring the two companies together.”

Intechra merged with RetroBox in January 2006, creating the largest vertically integrated ITAD company in the U.S.

With more than half of Gold Circuit’s assets originating east of the Mississippi River, Greenberg said his company’s clients will benefit from Intechra’s wider geographic distribution. Intechra is the only fully integrated ITAD provider with a national footprint in the Eastern, Central and Western sections of the United States. This distribution results in a cost savings for Intechra clients on shipping and speed to market for remarketed assets.

Intechra plans to merge the Gold Circuit facility in Chandler, Ariz., into the near-by Intechra processing facility in Phoenix. Gold Circuit’s facility in Casa Grande, Ariz., will remain open to handle shredding and e-waste processing for end-of-life materials.

By 2009, consumers are expected to replace more than 800 million PCs and dispose of or “retire” more than 512 million. Large national and multinational companies are paying more attention to IT asset disposition because of federal privacy laws, such as Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, as well as environmental legislation in 40 states addressing e-waste.

Slack said Intechra adheres to the strictest of standards in mitigating data security and environmental risks for clients. “Having significant in-house recycling capabilities reduces our reliance on downstream partners and will further enhance our ability to ensure environmental compliance,” he said.

Intechra will also put processes in place at the Casa Grande facility to achieve ISO quality certification over time. Intechra’s existing three facilities are ISO certified.

Intechra provides its clients liability indemnification, guaranteed security and auditable disposition reporting for all IT assets. The company offers all aspects of IT asset disposition, including:

  • Data destruction, which indemnifies owners by overwriting and erasing data on hard drives using Department of Defense standards.
  • Remarketing, which generates revenue for clients from retired assets that can be resold.
  • Environmental recycling, which eliminates a client’s environmental risks by extracting all recyclable materials from end-of-life assets and keeping toxic materials found in IT assets out of landfills.

The company’s significant investors are Chrysalis Ventures in Louisville, Ky.; Clayton Associates in Nashville, Tenn.; Votum Capital in Jackson, Miss.; WestWind Partners LLC in Quad Cities area of Illinois; and Richland Partners in Nashville, Tenn. No investor owns a majority of the company.


Intechra – Gold Circuit
Combined Company Fact Sheet
November 15, 2006

Size

  • $55 million in revenue
  • Largest IT asset disposition company in the U.S.
  • Only fully integrated company with processing facilities in the Eastern, Central, and Western United States
  • 10 sales offices nationwide

Employees (as of Oct. 31, 2006)

  • 184 – Intechra
  • 81 – Gold Circuit

Processing centers – size, capacity and geographic distribution

Location
Columbus,
Ohio
Dallas
Phoenix
Casa Grande,
Ariz.
Size
144,00
sq. ft.
153,000
sq. ft.
100,000
sq. ft.
72,000
sq. ft.
Processing
Capacity
75,000
units/mo.
100,000
units/mo.
75,000
units/mo.
Recycling
Capacity
1 million
lbs./mo.
5 million
lbs./mo.

IT Asset Disposition Services

  • Data destruction
  • Remarketing
  • Environmental recycling

Client Base

  • Global 2000
  • Small and medium-sized businesses
  • Municipalities providing electronics recycling for environmental purposes
  • Electronics manufacturers

Corporate Website

About Chrysalis Ventures Founded in 1993, Chrysalis Ventures is a leading source of equity capital for young growth companies in the Midwest and South. Chrysalis invests primarily in early-stage and expansion-stage companies in healthcare services and technology, media and communications, and business services. Based in Louisville, Kentucky, Chrysalis has more than $250 million under management and has made investments in over 50 companies. For more information, please visit www.chrysalisventures.com.

HealthMedia Strengthens Position as Global Leader of Online Behavior Change Solutions with Acquisition of MySelfHelp.com

Wednesday, November 1st, 2006

Enhances Product Line with Full Spectrum of Online Behavioral Health Programs

Ann Arbor, MI (November 1, 2006) – HealthMedia, Inc. announced today the acquisition of MySelfHelp.com, the world’s premier company for online behavioral health interventions including programs for depression and insomnia. MySelfHelp.com was built upon the premise that behavioral health problems cost employers and health plans billions of dollars each year in lost productivity, disability claims, and healthcare costs. Specifically:

• Over 30% of the U.S. population suffers from mental health problems at any given time, most commonly depression. 48% of the population will experience one or more mental health problems in the course of their lifetime.

• The average cost of medical treatment per depressed patient is $8,000, only $2,000 of which is treatment for depression. The additional costs are generated by depression-related medical problems resulting from lack of self care, non-compliance with recommended treatment and medication, and high-risk behaviors such as smoking and substance abuse.

• The presence of depression greatly increases the chances of being disabled by a medical condition – for some illnesses the risk of disability is more than doubled if the individual is also depressed.

• The economic burden of depression is over $83 billion per year. Depression is responsible for over $51 billion in workplace costs, including lost productivity and absenteeism each year, and is the number one cause for disability claims.

• 40% of the U.S. population suffers from sleep problems getting less than 7 hours of sleep per night.

This announcement is part of HealthMedia’s “blue ocean” approach designed to extend its leadership position for online delivery of behavior change interventions for wellness, disease management, medication compliance, and behavioral health. HealthMedia’s strategy:

• Raises the viability of the web to reach patients of all acuity levels, focusing on issues like doctor-patient relationships, depression, sleep problems, medication compliance, potential improvements in work productivity and creating the ability to provide an emotional connection;

• Eliminates the sole focus on ROI for high acuity patients;

• Reduces the absolute reliance on telephonic counseling, reduces distribution of generic content on the web or in brochures and reduces overall program expense; and

• Creates a reliance of behavior change science and a new ROI metric that incorporates productivity into the calculation.

“Consumers demand interventions that do not neatly fall into any single category. This creates the need for complementary products that cross multiple health issues. Our online behavior change interventions provide consistent, high-quality programming with outstanding efficacy rates, and increase the opportunities to create positive ROI for employers, health plans, pharmaceutical companies and behavioral health organizations,” comments Ted Dacko, President and CEO of HealthMedia, Inc.

MySelfHelp.com Rounds Out HealthMedia’s Behavioral Health Offerings

MySelfHelp.com has distinguished itself by offering a broad spectrum of highly interactive and clinically sophisticated behavioral health programs for combating depression, insomnia, binge eating and bulimia, and overcoming guilt and low self-esteem. To date, over a thousand people have engaged in MySelfHelp.com’s programs and HealthMedia anticipates rolling them out to hundreds of thousands of their current participants.

“Some combination of insomnia, depression, guilt and anxiety is typically prevalent with many diseases and conditions such as obesity, smoking, and chronic illness. We intend to offer MySelfHelp programs not only through the traditional behavioral healthcare and EAP channels, but to healthcare organizations and employers as part of our core health and disease management offering,” adds Ted Dacko. An analysis of HealthMedia’s outcomes validates this point:

• 20% of those enrolled in HealthMedia’s disease management program report being diagnosed with depression and 58% report sleep problems.

• 27% of those enrolled in HealthMedia’s diabetes self-management program report being diagnosed with depression.

• 19% of those enrolled in HealthMedia’s weight management program reported being diagnosed with depression.

• Lack of sleep is directly correlated to BMI. 38% of people who are obese and 44% of people who are extremely obese reported 6 or less hours of sleep per night.

• Obesity is directly correlated to depression. 28.5% of people who are obese and 32.5% of people who are extremely obese reported some depression over the past week.

The acquisition establishes a Boston area office for HealthMedia, Inc. The entire staff at MySelfHelp.com located in Northborough Massachusetts will be retained, and founder and president Dr. Richard Bedrosian Ph.D. will take on the position of Director of Behavioral Health Science reporting directly to Dacko. Says Dr. Bedrosian “We have great respect for HealthMedia’s programming and the tremendous outcomes their participants have achieved through the wellness, disease management, and medication compliance programs. The spirit, values, and constructs that power the MySelfHelp interventions are consistent with those at HealthMedia. We are thrilled to become a core component of their programming.”

About HealthMedia, Inc.
HealthMedia, Inc. is the global leader in online delivery of behavior change interventions. HealthMedia’s proven outcomes increase compliance, reduce medical utilization, and increase productivity in order to improve profitability for health plans, employers, pharmaceutical companies, and behavioral health organizations. With its powerful combination of proven behavior science, sophisticated technology and creative marketing, HealthMedia delivers individually tailored self-management interventions for health and wellness, disease management, medication compliance, and behavioral health. Notable clients include Kaiser Permanente, UPS, Cleveland Clinic, Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett Packard, GSK, and seven Blue Cross Blue Shield organizations across the United States. HealthMedia partners include APS Healthcare, Corphealth, Harris Health Trends, Health Dialog, and SHPS. For more information, visit www.healthmedia.com.

About MySelfHelp.com
MySelfHelp.com is the world’s premier company for online behavioral health interventions based upon behavioral science. MySelfHelp.com family of products includes online programs for depression, insomnia, binge eating, grief, self-esteem, guilt, and caregiver support programs and tools. MySelfHelp.com is staffed by a team of highly experienced and reputable healthcare professionals and other experts who are devoted to helping people improve the quality of their lives. MySelfHelp.com has grown through relationships with the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Health and Human Services.