Get excited, people! Microsoft Store may be coming somewhere near Philly area by 2014

I'm sure everyone in the Philly area feels a void from not having an official Microsoft store nearby.

But one might be coming-by 2014, perhaps.

At the 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner outlined the company's plans to expand its branded store chain to 86 stores by 2014. Specific locations were not named, but this somewhat fuzzy map from a slide show he presented shows possible locations:






If your eyes are sharp, maybe you can pinpoint their placement better than I can, but it looks to me like a couple of them might be in (or near) the Greater Philadelphia area. One looks like its in Delaware.


More on the Alteva acquisition

I listened to the conference call today with Warwick Valley Telephone President & CEO Duane W. Albro regarding its acquisition of Philly-based hosted VoIP and Unified Communications provider
Alteva, which was announced yesterday. He stuck very close to the wording of the press release, adding very little new information.

Warwick Valley plans to merge Alteva with its CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) business US Datanet, which appears to be based in Syracuse. Which raises the question, what will happen to Alteva's operations here?


"Alteva absolutely plans to stay in Philadelphia", Alteva CEO David Cuthbert said today in a statement sent to Philly Tech News. "This is our home and where we grew our business and will continue to grow our business". Cuthbert also says, "Regarding our employees, there will be no job cuts whatsoever as it pertains to this new relationship. We expect our Philadelphia based team, and Alteva based team to continue to grow in the months ahead. In fact, we are in the process of hiring multiple account managers and additional positions throughout our organization".

Cuthbert also emphasized that Alteva is "completely dedicated" to continiung to serve the needs of its clients and partners in the area.

Though publicly traded (NASDAQ: WWVY) , Warwick Valley is not a very large company; its quarterly revenues seem to be running at a flat $6 million per quarter rate. Albro did say during the conference call that Warwick was paying 3.1 x current revenue for Alteva and the acquisition would increase its revenue base by 30%, so presumably Alteva's revenue is around $6 to $7 million. Warwick Valley has not yet broken out its existing CLEC revenues in its financial statements.

Update 7/18: An Alteva spokesperson says David Cuthbert will continue to serve as CEO of Alteva, in addition to being President & COO of Warwick Valley, Louis Hayner will also have a duel role as Chief Sales Officer of both Warwick Valley and Alteva, and Alteva founder Bill Bumbernick will continue to assist the company as a consultant. Mark Marquez, Chief Technology Officer/Systems Architect at Alteva, will become Chief Network Officer for Warwick Valley.



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Daily Links 7/15/2011: QlikTech off 10% on downgrade

Waiting for Canoe (SNL Blogs)
Is Canoe Ventures adrift?

Invidi Preps 'SnapPing' TV Tags For Second-Screen Interactivity
Addressable-Ad Firm Solution Allows Audio, Speech, Text and Image Recognition
(Multichannel News)

Is Comcast Headquartered Near Lake Woebegon? (Forbes Blogs)

Hedge fund buys local publisher Journal Register (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Alden Global Capital also holds a "significant stake" in Philadelphia Media Networks (owner of the Inquirer and Daily News), which raises the possibility of more cooperation between them in the future, the Inquirer reports.

Qlik Technologies shares tumble after downgrade (AP via Forbes)

Guardian Capital Partners Acquires R&D Circuits (Business Wire)

Boathouse Capital Closes $120M Debt Fund (PE Hub)

Quality Systems Inc. Opens Innovation Centre in India (Business Wire India)
Quality Systems is parent of Horsham-based NextGen Healthcare.



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