Corporate Report: June 15

Burger 21 signs deal for two Atlanta locations
Tampa-based restaurant company and franchise Burger 21 agreed to a two-unit franchise deal in the Atlanta area.

Corley and Meg Steward signed an agreement to open two Burger 21 locations in the North Alpharetta and Buford/Mall of Georgia areas. This deal comes after two signed deals for a total of three franchised units in Orlando earlier this year.

Last fall, the company launched an aggressive growth strategy to bring its line of restaurants to more cities across the United States.

“We are thrilled to have signed our first franchise deal in Atlanta just in time for our brand's latest growth initiative in the region,” Mark Johnston, Burger 21 president and president of the chain's management company Front Burner Brands, says in a press release.

Burger 21 is still seeking single- and multiunit operators with restaurant experience in Atlanta and throughout the country. Potential franchisees should have a minimum net worth of $500,000 and liquid assets of at least $200,000 per unit. Depending on the real estate site selected, franchisees can expect the total cost of investment for one restaurant to be $513,495 to $733,995. The initial franchise fee is $40,000, but fees are reduced for agreements to develop four or more units.

The franchise, founded by the owners of The Melting Pot Restaurants Inc., currently has two locations in Tampa and seven in development in Tampa, Orlando and Atlanta.

Brown & Brown promotes officers to COO, retail division president
Linda Downs, a Brown & Brown Inc. regional president, has been named chief operating officer of the Daytona Beach- and Tampa-based company. Charles Lydecker, another regional president, has been named to the newly created position of president of the company's largest division, retail.
Downs has assumed responsibility for leadership of internal operations and for oversight of the company's services division while continuing to be responsible for oversight of certain retail offices.

Both of the officers will report to the CEO.

Company President and CEO J. Powell Brown said the promotions were necessary for the company as it moves to exceed $2 billion in annual revenue.

“Linda and Charlie's respective records of success and breadth of experience within Brown & Brown uniquely qualify them for their new roles, both of which are critically important as we continue to grow,” he says in a press release. “Linda and Charlie understand and exemplify the best in our company's competitive, performance-driven culture, and each of them has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to help others deliver measurable results that are essential to our continued success.”

Downs began her career with Brown & Brown in 1980 with the creation of the Orlando retail office, which she led until 1998. She was promoted to regional president in January 2011, and prior to that, she held the titles of senior executive vice president (2010-11), executive vice president for leadership development (2006-10), and regional executive vice president (2001-06).

Lydecker has been with Brown & Brown since 1990. He has been promoted through several positions over the years and was elected regional president in January 2011. Prior to that, he served as regional executive vice president since 2002. Lydecker has worked in the Daytona Beach office of Brown & Brown since joining the company, and served as profit center leader of that office from 1999 until 2006.

Brown & Brown Inc. offers insurance and reinsurance products and services, as well as risk management, third-party administration, managed health care and Medicare set-aside services and programs.

Innovaro signs agreement to sell several divisions
red into a non-binding letter of intent to sell its pharmaceutical licensing/transfer, global licensing and knowledge express operating divisions to IPFlow International LLC.

The proposed buyer has announced plans to focus on expanding the divisions and extending the business model for licensing partnerships and new market opportunities.

The agreement calls for IPFlow International to pay $2 million for the divisions in installments over nine months. The letter of intent also includes a commission agreement for client leads provided by Innovaro.

“We believe the sale will provide us with a strong partner and an expanding business model that we can introduce to our innovation clients,” Asa Lanum, Innovaro's CEO, says in a press release. “The sale will also allow us to focus our investments on sales and marketing to promote the growth of our service and software businesses. Further, we expect the sale will strengthen our balance sheet and provide us with the ability to extend our information mining capabilities to deliver additional solutions for our clients' Big Data problems.”

The terms of the agreement call for the deal to be completed by Aug. 4.

Radio host Bruce Williams creating Made In America Broadcast Network
Radio Hall of Fame inductee and New Port Richey resident, has announced plans for a new radio broadcast network, called the Made In America Broadcast Network.

Along with providing radio programming, one of the goals of the new network is to promote American products and labor.

The Made In America Broadcast Network will only accept advertising for products and services that are at least 90% manufactured in America with American materials and American labor.

Beginning on the radio on WCTC in New Brunswick, N.J., Williams eventually moved to WMCA in New York City. In 1981, NBC hired him and Sally Jessie Raphael for an advice-oriented talk show. Williams, host of The Bruce Williams Show, still dispenses advice nightly on XM Radio.

Tech Data wins reader awards from ChannelPro-SMB
Clearwater-based Tech Data Corp. has been named a winner in the 2012 ChannelPro-SMB Readers' Choice Awards. Tech Data was recognized in the Distributors: Best Hardware/Software Catalog, and Distributors: Best Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) categories. The company was also named runner-up in the categories of Distributors: Best Cloud/MSP Service Offerings, Distributors: Best Financing Option, Distributors: Best Sales Support, and Distributors: Best Training Program.

“These awards reflect our focused efforts to make our SMB resellers a priority for Tech Data, as well as the hard work and dedication of our team to provide them with the products, solutions, support and training they need to grow successful businesses,” Pete Peterson, senior vice president of sales at Tech Data, says in a press release.

The Readers' Choice Awards survey was fielded in January and February, drawing participation from nearly 1,000 VARs, MSPs, systems integrators, custom builders, and IT consultants in the channel.

The ChannelPro Network provides targeted business and technology information.

Yippy agrees to buy Canadian Web app company
Fort Myers-based Yippy Inc. has entered into a binding letter of intent to acquire Macte! Labs, a Canadian toolbar and Web application company. Yippy said it would release terms after closing the deal June 30.

Much of the company's interest came from its NeoBar project, a subscriber-based Web system that offers enhanced and safe Web search capabilities. The NeoBar system is also highly customizable based on the subscriber's searches, geography, demographics or preferences.

Yippy plans to integrate the NeoBar platform into Yippy's existing Web systems.

“Macte! Labs depth in custom-designed browser extensions was quite apparent when we began talks back in early April 2012,” Rich Granville, CEO of Yippy, says in a press release. “Macte possesses significant advantages to competitors like Conduit and provides a more stable and user-friendly platform from which to engage consumers. The NeoBar project is the genesis for a new breed of toolbar extensions and we are only too happy to own this amazing technology.”

The NeoBar project includes but not limited to the following: Macte! Labs was founded in 2008.