Good News x 2

There’s more evidence Pittsburgh is firmly established as a “high tech” locale.  This past week, two Pittsburgh start-ups were purchased by publicly traded “new economy” behemoths.  Thar Pharmaceuticals was purchased by privately held pharmaceutical company Grunenthal GmbH.  Headquartered in Aachen, Germany, Grunenthal has operations in Europe, Australia and Latin America, and reports 2015 revenues of approximately US$1.3 billion.  That news was followed by Pittsburgh-based startup FacioMetrics being purchased by Menlo Park, CA based Facebook which needs little introduction.

The acquisition of innovative startups by larger, more established and better capitalized companies is one of the ways technology progresses. Acquisition of the region’s creative startups by large, established companies is one of the ways that Pittsburgh’s high tech community progresses, growing larger and establishing its bona fides in the global economy.  Here’s hoping that both acquisitions result in the establishment of local Pittsburgh offices for Grunenthal and Facebook.  Equally as important, let’s hope an additional outcome of these purchases will provide Thar Pharmaceutical’s and FacioMetrics’ founding entrepreneurs with new capital to pursue future ideas and dreams here in western Pennsylvania.