Zune Freeze Result of Leap Year: Microsoft
(Wired Blogs: Gadget Lab)




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GMAC Raises $21.2 Billion in Debt Swap (Associated Press via New York Times)




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Dow has limited leverage in Rohm & Haas deal (Reuters)
Fitch Places Short-Term IDRs of Dow Chemical and Rohm & Haas on Watch Negative (Business Wire)

Comcast, FCC's Chief Battle One Last Time (Wall Street Journal)

3-1-1 Is Up and Running (Philadelphia Daily News)

Motorola cutting 400 more jobs as troubles continue (MarketWatch)

Winning in the Broadband Business (Motorola: Media Experiences 2 Go)

The Promise of Broadband–Is the Umpteenth Time a Charm? (All Things Digital: Boomtown)



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Guggenheim Partners Raises Early-Stage VC Fund (PE Hub)




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Kuwait cancels $17 bln deal with Dow Chemical (Reuters)
Nail in the coffin of Rohm & Haas acquisition?
Rohm and Haas Issues Statement on Merger with Dow (Business Wire via Philly.com)


H.P. Pushes Forward in Data Warehousing Project (New York Times)




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People News



Carty-Sipp Upped at Comcast Sports Group
Promoted to senior VP of creative services, overseeing on-air look of regional sports networks
(Broadcasting & Cable)

Business People
(Wilmington News Journal)
Motorola's Ray Sokola honored.

Delaware Valley HR Person of the Year Promoted
Vertex Promotes Barbara Dyson to Vice President of Human Resources
(Business Wire)

Vishay Elects Ronald M. Ruzic to Board of Directors
(Business Wire)




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Infoworld recently named its top 100 global IT projects of 2008. Three projects by Philly-area companies made the cut:

CSL Behring (King of Prussia): Real Time Patient Reporting Project

"CSL Behring developed HeliTraxSM to help physicians track the self-administered treatment progress of hemophilia patients remotely, tapping and encrypting an Internet-based database, an electronic diary, AT&T smartphones, and security software from Trust Digital to ensure HIPAA compliance."

Project lead: Sheila Burke, Director of Communications & PR, Worldwide Commercial Operations
http://www.cslbehring.com



Scientific Division of Thomson Reuters (Philadelphia): IP Research and Analysis

"Thomson Reuters developed Thomson Innovation, an intellectual property research and analysis tool that required Thomson Reuters to develop a new information architecture, search functionality, and RIA interface, then integrate the resultant system with data, identity, e-commerce, and order fulfillment infrastructures."

Project lead: Eftim Pop-Lazarov, VP of Technology
http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com


Unisys (Blue Bell): Information Sharing Initiative

Used "Microsoft Office SharePoint Server to develop its Portfolio Center platform, integrating the company's engagement knowledge database and its 3-D blueprint repository, plus additional sales and delivery assets, to disseminate up-to-date information and expertise to field staff ".

Project lead: Dr. Suzanne Taylor, Portfolio Director
http://www.unisys.com




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Which SAP Industry Solution is the Hottest? A JonERP.com Exclusive (JonERP.com)


No word yet whether GMAC has cleared final hurdle for bailout money (Canadian Press via Google News)





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Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania: Video Wall of Fame (YouTube)
A seven-part series.









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Comcast sued for not selling set-top boxes, CableCARDs (ars technica)

Wal-Mart confirms iPhone 3G for Sunday, $2 off (VentureBeat)

Oracle's edge (Fortune)

Amid Tech's Bleating, SAP's Got Bark (TheStreet.com)

TelVue gets new CEO
(Philadelphia Inquirer)




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Merger Worries Undercut Rohm & Haas Shares (Wall Street Journal: MarketBeat)





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Muni WiFi flop a bad omen for FCC's free wireless plan
Philadelphia freedom
(ars technica)

Fed grants GMAC ability to seek bailout funds (Associated Press via via Google News)
Hard to tell what will be left of its mortgage operations in Montgomery County.


Aria Systems is singing its own praises
Software company to use round of venture capital to impress customers
(Philadelphia Business Journal)

Rewarded For Recycling
What's the reward for recycling? How about groceries?
(Forbes)
Interview with co-founder of RecycleBank.

Princeton researchers discover new type of laser (News at Princeton)

MBA Student Venture Capital Fund Seeking Startups For Investment Consideration
(Penn State Smeal College of Business)




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Unisys Announces Actions to Reduce Cost Base by More Than $225 Million Annually (Business Wire)

Real Estate Wrap: Unisys exploring way to escape move to Center City (Philadelphia Business Journal)

The top SAP stories of 2008 (SearchSAP.com)

Maverick raises $1.5M in first VC raising (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Newspapers to sell buildings, but who's buying? (Associated Press via Google News)

Zycus Posts 122 Percent Growth in First Half (Business Wire via Philly.com)




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GeoData Explorations: Open Street Map's Growth (O'Reilly Radar)
There is growing interest in Open Street Map locally, and a Philly Meetup group seems to be gaining some traction. Next meetup on January 13.




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CIO Values: Donald H. Hopkins, SunGard Availability Services (Information Week)

Philadelphia's newspapers: A public trust (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Orbius: Social Computing for Business
(Intranet Journal)
Orbius is based in Newtown Square.




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FCC cancels meeting for free Internet vote
(CNET News)

Action Line: Comcast complaint? E-mail the boss (San Jose Mercury News)


Testing the marketing waters
(Mode of Being)

US investors seek out Israeli high-tech opportunities (Israel21c)

Safend, mentioned in the above article, apparently laid off 8 employees in late November, according to the TechCrunch Layoff Tracker citing TheMarker. The Marker appears to be written in Hebrew, which I can't read it, so I'm not sure whether the cuts were in Israel or in its US headquarters in Philly.

Locavestors (NY Times Magazine)

Ideablob Interviews from SoCap08 (Social Capital Markets 2008)

Getting technical (Delco Times)
Article dup is paper's doing, not mine.




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SunGard Higher Education cut about 200 positions last week, according to edu1world.org . I haven't heard anything specific about cuts at SunGard Financial. though I certainly would expect that some would occur if it hasn't happened already.




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WorldGate Announces Strategic Investment Agreement (Business Wire)
WorldGate and ACN Announce that ACN, Inc. Will Purchase in Excess of $50M in Video Phones (Business Wire)





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Portal economy to lead the way
Philadelphia’s economic strength derives from its niche as a circulator of money, people, goods, ideas and data bytes.
(Philadelphia Inquirer)

SAP: Pacific Crest Cuts Ests; Sees Layoffs Ahead (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
“another round of significant layoffs” after the fourth quarter? Did I miss something? When was the first round ?

SAP: “We made a mistake” (ZDNet Blogs)

Leading Ventures Keep Their Cool (Keystone Edge)

The world is rocky
But India’s computer-services firms are in good shape to survive the financial crisis
(The Economist)

No funds for fun@workplace (Times of India)

Comcast Wraps Up '08 Wideband Rollout (Light Reading: Cable Digital News)

TiVo Reveals Comcast Tab (Light Reading: Cable Digital News)

Bush administration urges FCC to vote against free broadband mandate (BetaNews)

Verizon Philly FiOS deal by end of year derailed (FierceTelecom)

Change of guard at BofA
MBNA pioneer Struthers replaces Hammonds as credit card chief
(Wilmington News Journal)

Placer County approves Drexel campus (Sacremento Business Journal)

Digitas Restructures, Cuts Staff In U.S. (Silicon Alley Insider)

NeatReceipts for Mac is Almost Here! (Neat Company Blog)




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PTC Advances Green Product Design and Environmental Regulatory Compliance Solution with Acquisition of Synapsis Technology (Business Wire)
Synapsis is based in Spring House.

Verizon Speeds Up LTE Launch (GigaOM)

Verizon defends honor in Wilmington FiOS talks (FierceTelecom)

Checkpoint CEO van der Merwe named board chairman (Associated Press via MSN Money)

Lockheed Martin Technology Significantly Increases Situation Awareness for Small Unit Forces
(PR Newswire)

Business Objects Fleshes Out SAAS BI with More Salesforce.com Support (eWEEK)

GMAC Rescue Plan Falters, Raising Bankruptcy Concern (Bloomberg)

Project Management on Demand (eWEEK)
Interview with Clarizen CEO Avinoam Nowogrodski.

Lighting Science rises in Burlington County (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Devon IT Sees Substantial Growth in Thin Client Industry (Business Wire)

Haydenfilms Significantly Upgrades Website With Latest Technology; Opens Public Judging for 4.0 Festival Finalists (PR Newswire)

An Introduction to Aklero (Slidshare)
Aklero, based in Radnor, provides information systems for finding deficiences in mortgage documents, which would seem
like a timely solution.

Human errors caused police radio failure, report finds (Philadelphia Inquirer)


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Breaking: Brian Tierney’s Message Of Christmas Cheer — See Ya, Wouldn’t Wanna Be Ya (Philebrity)




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Aria Systems Completes $10 Million in Series B Funding
Leader in SaaS Billing Looks Ahead to Launch of Its A+ Billing Platform
(Marketwire)
Aria Systems raises $10M more for online billing (Venture Beat)

Comcast sees slowing effects of economy (Associated Press via Business Week)

Dow committed to closing Rohm & Haas buy (Reuters)

Tyco Electronics cuts jobs, some local (Harrisburg Patriot-News)

Tribune Files Bankruptcy One Year After Zell Bailout (Bloomberg)
Properties in eastern Pennsylvania owned by Tribune include the Allentown Morning Call and TV stations in Philadelphia (WPHL) and Harrisburg (WPMT).

CONFIRMED: Two iPhone models to sell at Walmart (this month!) (ZDNet Blogs)

Intel develops fast, cheap optical links on silicon
(CNET News)

5 Reasons To Avoid GSI Commerce (GSIC) (Investopedia)
Though I don't play stock-picker here, I generally agree with this assessment.

Successful exit for Textronics Inc (fibre2fashion)
Textronics is based in Wilmington

Fresh Thinking: Harvard Business Review Article Explores When and How Companies Must Reinvent Their Businesses (PR Newswire)
Article by Clayton Christensen and SAP co-CEO Henning Kagermann in HBR.

inTEST (INTT) Cuts 10 Employees from Tester Interface Product Segment (StreetInsider.com)
inTEST is based in Cherry Hill.

Emtec, Inc. Announces Fiscal 2008 Results (PR Newswire)

C&D Technologies turns profit
(Philadelphia Business Journal)




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An Interview With @comcastcares (John Battelle's Searchblog)

Bentley Systems and MicroStation V8i - interview (JTB
World Blog)

Auditorium game combines music, lights and puzzles (Macworld)

Web site focuses on fun and games
(pillyBurbs.com)




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People News



New president to lead PNC unit
Wolcott joins business that provides services, information worldwide
(Wilmington News Journal)

StarCite Taps Industry Veteran Kevin Iwamoto As Vice President, Enterprise Strategy (Business Wire)

Riepe to step down as trustee chairman
Cohen will head the Board of Trustees beginning in Nov. 2009
(Daily Pennsylvanian)

Ex-Comcast exec Doyle joins WPCS (Philadelphia Inquirer)

FiOS’s Denson Crosses Over
Telco Programming Chief Expands Responsibilities Across Platforms
(Multichannel News)

Rowan grad makes Philly 100 (South Jersey Life)

BioNanomatrix Appoints Gary Zweiger, Ph.D., as Vice President of Business Development
(PR Newswire)

Chris Beiswenger Joins Axon Americas as Executive Vice President of Delivery
Former CSC Global SAP Practice leader rounds out seasoned executive leadership team
(PR Newswire)

Matthews & Rubin Appointed Engagement Managers for ISA Consulting (Business Wire)

INVIDI Taps Scanzoni, Scheppach, Manning for Board (Media
Week)

Janney Continues Building Research Expertise with Hires from Wachovia and Citigroup (Business Wire)
Janney Lands Oppenheimer Analyst and Continues Research Expansion (Business Wire)

Award-Winning Visual Effects Arts, Ed Mendez, Joins Dive Staff, Division of Shooters Post (Philly Ad Club)

Power Medical Interventions Announces Executive Management Change (Surgistrategies)




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Comcast attacks Verizon’s HD claims (Philadelphia Inquirer)


Groups push for net neutrality in Obama administration (Macworld)

Cable Operators Want FCC Cap Ruling Reversed
Saying FCC failed to perform a crucial market-power analysis on the industry
(Broadcasting & Cable)

Comcast to launch meter to track Web usage (ZDNet Blogs)

Verizon Promises Not To Cherry Pick Philadelphia
Insists that FiOS deployments will reach entire city...
(Broadband Reports)

PJM Board Authorizes $1.6 Billion in Transmission Additions, Upgrades (PR Newswire)

Gutmann responds to U.'s budget problems (Daily Pennsylvanian)


Tweeter abruptly shut; workers fired (Philadelphia Inquirer)

rVibe bringing live music concerts to the Web (KeyStone Edge)

I2 Technologies ends merger deal with JDA Software (Thomson Financial via Forbes)

SAP Exec: Belt-tightening to Continue, but Business Better (PC World)

Angel investors collaborate, pump $1.1M into NanoPack Inc. (Keystone Edge)

Barack Obama Uses a Zune (Wired Blogs:
Gadget Lab)

Judge Sides With University Against Student-Teacher With 'Drunken Pirate' Photo (Chronicles of Higher
Education)

Police: sibs hacked PC, used GPS to track—and maybe kill—father (ars technica)

Marchex cuts 10 percent of workforce (TechFlash)
No word on whether the cuts involved anyone from Marchex's Philadelphia-based VoiceStar unit, but VoiceStar cofounder Ari
Jacoby seems eager to drum up some new business.

CSC Announces Social Networking Community for Property and Casualty Insurance Clients
(PR Newswire)

Network engineers and developers must collaborate on WAN applications (SearchNetworking.com)




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Comcast Tries To Slow Verizon's Philly Entry
Cable giant works city council to protect home turf..
(Broadband Reports)

Clearwire CEO: Co Will Be Independently Run (Dow Jones via CNN Money)
Clearwire may slow WiMax build to cut funding gap (Thomson Financial via Forbes)

Canoe's David Verklin Navigates Tough Waters
Canoe Ventues CEO discusses the challenges of heading the new cable-advertising consortium
(Broadcasting & Cable)


SAP Pays Price for SaaS Maturation (Intelligent Enterprise)

In bad economy, students worried about internships (Philadelphia Inquirer)
SAP cuts out paid interns for now.

A Scenario for the Future of News (The Huffington Post: Jeff Jarvis)
Can the Inky run with a newsroom staff of 35 people?

Dow Chemical, partner reaffirm Kuwait deal
K-Dow, a 50-50 joint venture, is slated to start operations by January
(MarketWatch)

Rohm and Haas Uses Elemica's Terminal and Warehouse Solution to Drive Efficiency & Accelerate Time to Invoice
Automation of Manual Processes Reduces Costs in Supply Chain
(PR Newswire)

MEDecision Adds Key Executives to Further Strengthen Operations, Sales (Business Wire)

IS&S Takes $6 Million Hit On Loss Of Eclipse Work (Aero-News.Net)

New Prospects for Payment Card Application
in Health Care
(Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)

Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. The Wall Street Analyst Forum Call Transcript (Seeking Alpha)




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