New Southwest Leader Keeps Dallas in Forefront of Technology Movement

The high-tech marketplace is rapidly expanding in The Dallas area, and PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P. is growing right along with it. The company’s Technology. Info/Comm, Entertainment and Media Group helps companies face the myriad of challenges that exist because of this revolution-such as managing rapid growth, containing and reducing costs, and developing e-business strategies, says Jean Hobby, Southwest Region Leader for the Technology Practice at Pricewaterhouse-Coopers. Dallas has a strong base of leading and established technology companies and a pipeline of new and promising emerging-growth enterprises, notes Hobby, fueled by the growth in venture capital that is pouring into the Lone Star state, For the last five years. Texas has ranked in the top five states for companies receiving venture capital dollars, according to the PricewaterhouseCoop-ers Money Tree? venture capital survey which tracks activity nationally.

“We plan to focus on the industry growth in the Southwest.” says Hobby, who has led the technology group for two years. “We’re starting to see more funding from venture capitalists in this area. My goal is for PricewaterhouseCoopers to become the No. 1 service provider to the technology industry in Dallas and the Southwest region,”

The group is well on its way to meet this goal, serving high-profile clients such as Dell, Ericsson, Nokia, ACS, Sevin Rosen. Fujitsu-ICL, Raytheon, Digital Convergence, MichaelHoligan.com, and Verizon Wireless, among others. “We service a good cross-section of the industry sectors that comprise the Dallas marketplace, which sets us apart from other firms,” Hobby says.

PricewaterhouseCoopers provides clients with solutions to meet the ever-changing demands of this new business landscape including Assurance (financial performance business operations). Global Risk Management Solutions (e-business services; management of the totality of risks), and Transaction Services (mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, spin-offs, strategic alliances).

“We are one of three strong markets in Texas-Austin, Dallas, and Houston,” she says. “Austin gels a lot of attention. Houston is up-and-coming, but Dallas has a much broader technological base- which spans many industry sectors. We’re here to help new and existing companies focus and expand, providing them with assurance services to not only grow, but grow well.”

Dallas companies are capturing the attention and financial commitment of top Silicon Valley and East Coast venture capital firms, who are playing big in Texas, according to the Money Tree survey results. With the addition of Silicon Valley Bank and Austin Ventures to the Dallas business scene, Dallas is well on its way to becoming a key national hub for technology financing.

“Dallas can look forward to more sources of creative Financing to help continue this amazing growth,” Hobby says. “Companies like Yahoo! , a PricewaterhouseCoopers client, have generated great success stories that have brought a great focus to the Dallas e-com-merce arena. At PricewaterhouseCoopers, we have a broad depth of e-commerce solutions to help these businesses successfully transition into this extremely exciting and competitive marketplace.”