Broadband Bill Meeting Planned For Saturday
Net Neutrality Stakeholders Are Expected To Discuss Bill To Clarify FCC Regulatory Authority

(Multichannel News)


Health Market Science receives more funding

Cross Atlantic Capital Partners of Radnor led a $6.1 million round of financing for King of Prussia's Health Market Science, a provider of healthcare marketing information services.

Edison Venture Fund of Lawrenceville NJ also participated with a $1.4 million follow-on investment, bringing its total capital invested in the company to $18.5 million, according to Edison.

As I noted earlier this week, HMS appeared to have a large number of open positions for which it was recruiting (see their "Careers" page). Health Market Science had revenue of $25.5 million in 2008, according to Inc. Magazine.




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SAP Completes Acquisition of Sybase, Inc. (PR Newswire)

Computer with patient data stolen from Jefferson (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Quality Systems Reports Fiscal 2011 First Quarter Results (Business Wire)
Quality Systems' primary business unit is NextGen Healthcare of Horsham.

Dish to File Comcast Complaint for Blocking Sports (Bloomberg Business Week)
Complaint over access to Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.

Retail tru2way devices are officially DOA, even Panasonic stops trial
(Engadget)

Appearance: PPUG meets tomorrow in Philadelphia (ZDNet Blogs)

Enterprise License Agreement Extends GIS Success for City of Philadelphia (ESRI Press Release via GISUser.com)




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Daily Links 7/29/2010: Comcast threatens disconnects over unpaid balances of $0.00 (Gizmodo)

Comcast Discussing Philly RSN Carriage With Dish, DirecTV: Sources (Multichannel News)


Comcast Flashes Cash at Biz Services, SDV
(Light Reading Cable)

Comcast To Customer: Pay Us $0.00 Or We'll Cancel Your Service (Gizmodo)

SCVNGR Launches Sophisticated Rewards Program (Mashable)
Program to launch first in Boston and Philly.

Even SAP is using more open source
SAP signs on for Black Duck Suite, a tool that manages use of open source software
(Network World)

Where Do You Buy Your Broadband? (Zatz Not Funny!)
Best Buy to become reseller of Clearwire WiMAX service under the brand name "Best Buy Connect".




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Comcast results beat estimates

Comcast Profit, Revenue Top Estimates on Premium-Product Sales (Bloomberg)
But profit falls 9% on NBC Universal expenses.

Moffett on Comcast 2Q: Sunny with Chance of Regulatory Clouds
Says NBCU deal conditions will affect future cash flow
(Broadcasting & Cable)

Comcast’s Burke: ‘With NBC, Our Ad Business Will Be Worth $10 Billion’ (paidContent)

A look at Comcast 2Q results by business segment (AP via Google News)

Comcast Corporation Q2 2010 Earnings Call Transcript (Seeking Alpha)




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Daily Links 7/27/2010: Apple to open Center City store on Friday

Apple to Open First Retail Store in Philadelphia (on Friday)
(Mac Rumors)

Lockheed surfs Pentagon changes; 2Q net up 12 pct (AP
via Google News)

Unisys Soars As Q2 Results Crush Street Rev, Profit Estimates
(Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
Unisys income triples on sale of health-information unit (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Unisys to Offer Mainframe Cloud Services (PC World)

Ametek Q2 results beats Street, sees strong FY10 (Reuters)

New ISP rank and cost data from Ookla, Comcast on top (Seattle Times)

Comcast's Target: 105-Meg D3 Downstream (Light Reading Cable)

UnitedHealth Said Near $1.5 Billion Purchase of Services Firm (Bloomberg)
Would acquire Newtown Square-based Executive Health Resources Inc.

Harleysville CIO Akhil Tripathi Resigns
Sources say Tripathi left the company for personal reasons.
(Insurance & Technology)




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SAP profits increase 15%, but short of estimates

SAP Second-Quarter Profit Rises 15%, Missing Estimates (Bloomberg)
Software revenue up 64 percent in the Americas, up 11 percent in Asia, but down 9 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

SAP reports healthier Q2 2010 (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Reports Revenue Up 12 Percent, Earnings Up 15 Percent (IDG via New York Times)

SAP Completes Tender Offer for Shares of Sybase, Inc. (PR Newswire)

Bayer Implements Global IT Strategy With SAP (PR Newswire)

SaaS Market Grows Spectacularly to the Detriment of the IT Kings (ReadWrite Cloud)




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Enterprise Software Is Sexy Again (TechCrunch)

Clicking on T-Commerce
Comcast to Deploy Shopping Channel QVC’s New EBIF App
(Multichannel News)

Franken: Comcast-NBCU, Net Neutrality are 'First Amendment' Issues of Our Time (The Wrap)

Pace Makes $475M Move on 2Wire (Light Reading Cable)


Dechert Must Pay Taxes for Canned Computer Software (The Legal Intelligencer via Law.com)
I'm not sure whether this Pa. Supreme Court ruling leaves a gray area as to whether SaaS or cloud computing services would be taxable.

Start-Ups Look To Disrupt Stodgy PC Management Space (Wall Street
Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
Fiberlink Communications of Blue Bell is one of the companies discussed.

Kenexa Announces Acquisition of The Centre for High Performance Development (Business Wire)

Sabre founder to speak about success at BDPA conference (Philadelphia Inquirer)




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Philly Tech Tidbits 7/25/2010

Drexel graduate Nathan Kuruna has been going all over America shooting interviews with gamers about Newgrounds, the Glenside-based Flash gaming site founded by Tom Kulp, with the goal of producing a video documentary titled "Everything, By Everyone", a site called Kokatu Australia reports. But he is going to need some funds to put the whole production together, so he has set up a KickStarter page where people can contribute. Right now he is about halfway to his $12,000 goal. Contributions of $100 or more will get you a personal tour of Newgrounds' offices.

Boomi, the Berwyn-based provider of cloud-based application integration systems, tweeted last week that they are looking to fill several new positions. Everyone in the business talks about how great Boomi is doing, but I haven't been able to find any information of how Boomi is actually doing in terms of metrics (such as revenue, growth or number of employees) although I am sure some industry analysts have a good idea. Boomi hasn't reported any additional venture capital infusions since an initial round of $4 million by FirstMark Capital in 2008. Competitor Cast Iron Systems was acquired by IBM in May.
Another company that appears to have several open positions is Health Market Science, the King of Prussia-based healthcare marketing information company.

Two upcoming events are of particular interest. The BDPA (Black Data Processing Associates), an organization founded in Philadelphia in 1975 by Earl A. Pace, Jr. and the late David Wimberly, will hold its National BDPA Technology Conference at the Philadelphia Downtown Marriot July 28 through July 31. And Tech cocktail, which hosts technology showcases in various US cities, is coming to Philadelphia for the first time. The event, to be held on the evening of August 12th at the Field House Sports Bar, will features companies in the DreamIt Ventures program as well as other local startups.

Applications to be Fellows for the initial year of Code for America, which will help Boulder, Philadelphia, Boston, Seattle and DC build Gov 2.0 apps, are due August 15, ReadWriteWeb reports. Fellows will spend most of their 11-month 2011 term in Code for America's home base of San Francisco and will spend one month in the city they are assigned to help. The program provides a stipend of $35,000, travel expenses and health benefits.

Alteva, the Philly-based provider of hosted VoIP and unified communications services, cites the the potential for significant energy savings and reduced carbon dioxide gas emissions from using hosted versus on-premise VoIP systems.

Collegeville-based mobile technology firm Movitas seems to have ramped up its online advertising since announcing a $3 million investment last week. I am seeing Movitas ads all over the place.

Geekadelphia reports that the Center City Apple store on Walnut Street now has an Apple logo, though it is still unclear when the store will be ready to open.




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A look at Philadelphia's MedAd Firms

Medical Marketing & Media's July 2010 issue should be of interest to anyyone in the Philly advertising, digital media or pharma/healthcare communities. This is MM & M's "Agency Issue", providing profiles of what it considers the top 75 advertising agencies in the business in terms of revenue. Philadelphia-area shops profiled include:

Cadient Group (King of Prussia)

CDM Princeton (Princeton)

Digitas Health (Philadelphia)

Dudnyk (Horsham)

nitrogen-formerly Dorland (Philadelphia)

Razorfish Health (Philadelphia)

Rosetta Healthcare (Hamilton, NJ)

Roska Healthcare Advertising (Montgomeryville)

Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare Innovations (Newtown)

Vox Medica (Philadelphia)

Others in the Top 75 with offices in the Philadelphia area include IMC2 Health & Wellness, evoke interaction, Eveo, and Blue Diesel.
Several others are in New York or further up the Jersey Turnpike.

The profiles give detailed information on each agency, including in some cases headcount, revenue, growth, account wins and losses, key new hires, and business mix (such as digital vs. non-digital). Some agencies prospered in 2009 while others did not do as well. While the overall economy and healthcare cost containment were factors, other industry-specific trends such as industry consolidation, shifts in category spending, salesforce cutbacks and an increasing emphasis on reaching both physicians and consumers through direct media were also important drivers. There appeared to be a growing use of social media, which Pharma has been slow to adopt to due to regulatory issues. Heavily digitally-oriented agencies probably tended to perform better than more traditional shops, several of which reported an emphasis on beefing up their digital capabilities. At the same time, some digital shops tried to add more full-service capabilities.

Cadient Group, which had been one of the faster growing companies in the area, reported a bit of a down year in 2009 with revenue declining 15%, mostly due to two customer roster consolidations and one merger, according to CEO Steven Wray, and it reduced staff by 30 people. However, Digitas Health reported 49% growth, althought its (independently managed) sister agency within the Publicis family Razorfish Health did not give specific figures for the year, perhaps because it was only broken out into a separate shop from the rest of Razorfish in March of this year. MediaBistro"s Agency Spy did report in April that Razorfish Health had "purged" its creative department. Publicis acquired Razorfish from Microsoft in August 2009.

Rosetta Marketing reported 10% growth overall and 33% in healthcare. Rosetta garners a good deal of M&A speculation, both as a possible acquirer and seller, given that it is one of the largest independent agencies out there with a strong digital heritage.

Blue Diesel is planning an expansion of its Newtown office, according to MM & M.




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Daily Links 7/22/2010: Comcast’s NBC Purchase May Mean Selling Stations (Bloomberg)

Comcast, GE: Character Assassins Shouldn't Shoot Down NBCU Deal
Parties Believe FCC Should 'Expeditiously' Approve The Union
(Multichannel News)

Comcast’s NBC Purchase May Mean Selling Stations or Arbitration (Bloomberg Business Week)

New DirecTV chief looks beyond the fizz (LA Times)

QlikTech Announces Closing of Initial Public Offering of Common Stock and Exercise of Over-Allotment Option (Business Wire)
Sold full over-allotment of 1,680,000 shares in addition to initial offering of 11,200,000 shares.

SAP-Sybase: What to Expect in the First 90 Days (PC World)

Tyco Electronics posts quarterly profit (Reuters)

SEI Investments reports 2Q income growth (AP via Bloomberg Business Week)

DreamIt Aims To Accelerate New Business Development (Forbes)

SeatGeek Lands $1 Million for Predictive Ticket Pricing (Digital Media Wire)
NY-based graduate of DreamIt Ventures program.

SunGard Acquires Fox River Execution (PR Web)

Cobblestone | Harris Williams Advises E-Mon, LLC, in its Sale to Strategic Buyer Honeywell International (Business Wire)
E-Mon, which is based in Langhorne, manufactures smart energy submeter systems and integrated energy intelligence software.

Dow Electronic Materials Inaugurates New Facility to Serve Fast Growing OLED Market (Business Wire)




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Qlik Tech IPOs; What Next? (Seeking Alpha)


QlikTech's Successful IPO

Radnor's Qlik Technologies (also called QlikTech) has successfully completed its long-awaited Initial Public Offering, selling at least 11.2 million shares at $10 per share, up from an estimated pricing of $8.50 to $9.50 in the prospectus. Subsequently, shares rose to over $13 and are currently just under $13, particularly impressive on a weak day for tech stocks. This gives QlikTech a market value of nearly $1 billion, and also gives the company more than $100 million in cash as well as stock it can use as a currency for acquisitions. It is trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol "QLIK".

This is the largest tech (IT) IPO in the Philly area for quite some time that I can recall, though QlikTech has Swedish roots and has a relatively small percentage of its employees in Radnor. The company maintained strong growth throughout the economic downturn and its revenue increased 66% in the first quarter of this year to $43.8 million.

QlikTech has major strategic choices: whether to remain focused on its niche of in-memory, relatively easy and rapid-deployment Business Intelligence solutions, or to expand its product portfolio through acquisition into other area of the BI space. It also faces challenges in terms of scalability for larger enterprise applications, and increasing competition. But anyone who has worked with BI technology as I have understands the significance of the breakthroughs QlikTech has achieved.

My own guess: they will inevitably be acquired, probably by either Oracle or SAP. But I could be wrong.


Qlik shares jump after IPO prices high (AP via Google News)

NBC Uni sees Q2 earnings leap 13% (The Hollywood Reporter)

Not invented here: Apple's secret applications (Computerworld Blogs)

What’s Really Going on in the VC Industry? What Does it Mean for Startups? (Both Sides of the Table)

Goodbye (Comcast Voices)
@ComcastCares guy, Frank Eliason, is leaving Comcast.


QlikTech Announces Pricing of its Initial Public Offering (Business Wire)
$10 a share, a little above the previously indicated range of $8.50 to $9.50.


Daily Links 7/13/2010: "Meaningful Use" regulations for EHRs finalized

Airclic and AirVersent Merge (PR Newswire)
Airclic had just raised about $18 million in a private equity offering related to the merger, according to an SEC filing.

Tyco Electronics buys ADC for $1.25 billion (Bloomberg via NJ.com)
Tyco Snaps Up ADC for $1.25B
(Light Reading Cable)
Tyco Electronics' operational headquarters is in Berwyn.

Comcast Empowers Customer-Care Crews
Listening to Front-Line Employees Leads to Bottom-Line Satisfaction Gains
(Multichannel News)
Comcast Says They're Doing Better At Support
Do you agree with them?
(Broadband Reports)

Comcast launches 100-meg internet service in N.J. (Newark Star-Ledger)

Sprint Considering LTE, Merger with T-Mobile (eWeek)

Meaningful Use’ Regs for Electronic Medical Records Finally Drop!
(Wall Street Journal: Health Blog)
Health and Human Services finalizes meaningful use for electronic health records (O'Reilly Radar)

Microsoft Dynamics Aims to Steal a Little Salesforce Thunder (Ecommerce Times)

How to Make Money in the Cloud: Microsoft, SAP, the Partner Dilemma and The Tools Solution (Enterprise Matters)




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First Round Capital invests in another local internet advertising startup

Having just seen portfolio company Invite Media sold to Google for a reported $81 million, First Round Capital has helped back another Philly/New York based internet advertising startup named AdCopy, along with angel investors. AdCopy says it "leverages existing, pre-approved creative assets, like logos, icons, slogans and short brand messages to engage the consumer before they access the desired content". Specifically, the company is planning to build an advertising platform around "Captchas", those screens that make people type in a few characters to verify they are not bots.
The Philadelphia office is on South Broad and they are advertising for a senior account exec for the Philly/New York area. AdCopy's co-founders include Doubleclick (Google) alum Stu Libby and VoiceStar (Marchex) co-founder Ari Jacoby, who also had previous experience with Google.




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Qlik Technologies (QLIK) Chief Executive Officer to Ring The NASDAQ Stock Market Opening Bell (Globe
Newswire via MarketWatch)

TV Everywhere Is All Hype: Comcast Raising Rates To Pay For "Free" Service (Silicon Alley Insider)

Showdown in Chicago over the Comcast-NBCU deal (Philadelphia Inquirer)

First Journalism Online Meter Starts Ticking: LancasterOnline Obits (paidContent)

Pittsburgh gives birth to tech firms, but can't keep them (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

WPC: Microsoft announces 'Windows Azure in a box' (Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Microsoft Blog)

Where’s the innovation around SAP maintenance and support?
(SearchSAP.com: SAP Watch)


Philly Tech Tidbits 7/12/2010

Our state-controlled liquor monopoly is more innovative than you might think. Oracle has recognized the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board as one of its 2010 Retail Excellence Awards honorees. The company says the PLCB uses Oracle Retail solutions "to help to improve inventory turns, increase multi-channel revenues, improve product availability and reduce costs associated with retail operations". Meanwhile, the Liquor Control Board has started testing self-serve wine kiosks in two central Pennsylvania grocery stores, using equipment from Conshohocken-based Simple Brands.

Internet Capital Group said it had purchased an additional 5% of King of Prussia-based ICG Commerce for $14.4 million, bringing its total ownership stake to 81%, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported. ICG indicated in May when it last increased its stake in the company to 76% that it would seek to purchase the remaining 5% not owned either by itself or employees, and this apparently accomplishes that. Both this and the previous deal value ICG Commerce at just under $300 million. There has been some speculation that ICG Commerce could be considering an IPO.

Huntingdon Valley-based email marketing firm AWeber released results of a survey it conducted of 2500 small businesses regarding email marketing and social media marketing efforts that highlights the increasing relationship between the two tools. According to the study, "almost 70 percent of small business marketers are employing some sort of social media tactics and a majority (77 percent) indicate that integrating email marketing and social media is either 'very important' or 'moderately important' ".

Wharton's Supernova Conference will be held in Philadelphia for the first time this year (in the past its been in San Franciso). Described as being focused on "the transformation of computing, communications, business, and society in the Network Age", Supernova appears to be half unconference and half a more tradtional conference structure. Speakers include Comcast's David Cohen, First Round Capital's Josh Kopelman, and Philly CIO Allen Frank, though it is much more than a local conference. It takes place on
July 29-30 at Wharton's Jon M. Huntsman Hall.

A recent Bloomberg Business Week piece on "virtual world" website Second Life discusses the experiences of Tim Allen, IT Director of Web Technologies for Wharton Research Data Services at Penn, who created a eBay type store for virtual items on Second Life before selling it to focus on his day job.

Richard Kahn, CEO of Middletown, Delaware-based interactive agency eZanga.com was named one of Ernst & Young's Entrepreneurs of the Year in the Philadelphia area last month. eZanga was ranked among the fastest growing companies in the Philly Metro area last year by Inc. Magazine.

Mason Wendell, Co-Owner and Principal Designer & Developer of Canary Promotion + Design since 2001, has joined Drupal/Alfresco shop Zivtech as Creative Director of a newly created design department. Megan Wendell will remain at the helm of what will now be called Canary Promotion.

GSI Commerce's interactive agency TrueAction apparently let eight employees go, according to the Times Leader of Wilkes Barre, although it is not clear where they were located.




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Comcast Shoots for 'DVR2Go' Trademark
(Light Reading Cable)

Tech community hoping to stem tide of state cuts (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Independence Blue Cross Launches Online Health Records (Insurance & Technology)

Radnor's Qlik Technologies is scheduled to launch its IPO some time next week, CNBC reports. Qlik Technologies is proposing to sell 11.2 million shares priced at $8.50 to $9.50, according to company filings. The stock would trade under the symbol "QLIK".


NetSuite pushes up market with SRP (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP: We will push all useful data to mobile devices (Network World)

EMC-Greenplum Deal Could Precede More Consolidation (PC World)

INetU Managed Hosting Commissions its Sixth and Largest Data Center (PR Newswire)


Tech customers question industry's takeover spree (Associated Press via Google News)

Delaware jobs: Sallie Mae says most hires local
Lender's CEO cites expertise of Del. work force
(Wilmington News Journal)

Edison Venture Targets Raising Seventh Fund (PE Hub)

SAP joins $10m Series C round for IT co (AltAssets.com)

Exton software maker growing, hiring; owners seek way out (Philly.com: Philly Deals)


Parole Board wants to forecast who will kill again (Allentown Morning Call)


Major Newspaper Chain Goes Open Source (Read Write Web)
Journal Register of Yardley.

LoCos, Leaders, and Lessons Learned: Pennsylvania Team (Ubuntu Pennsylvania)


SAP Ex-CEO Apotheker Plans Software, Telecommunications Fund
(Bloomberg Business Week)


Philly Tech People News 7/4/2010

Dr. Angelika Dammann Joins SAP as Newest Executive Board Member (PR Newswire)
This move was all but formally announced around the time of the major management changes in
the Spring.

SL Industries Names William T. Fejes Jr. Chief Executive Officer (PR Newswire)

EnerSys Appoints Todd M. Sechrist Senior Vice President - Americas (PR Newswire)

Jean Rankin Joins InterDigital Board as Independent Director (Business Wire)

EXTOL International Names Daniel Sapir Vice President of Worldwide Business Development (PR Newswire)


Comcast: 'AnyRoom DVR' is Live in 20+ Markets (Light Reading Cable)

Phanfare Reaches Profitability (Phanfare Blog)
Phanfare is based in Princeton.


Comcast reaches peace accord with CBS, ABC and Fox stations (LA Times: Company Town)

Comcast raising rates 5 percent, Happy Fourth! (Seattle Times)
Cable is a great business. You can always raise prices, regardless of what's happening with the economy or inflation.

Lockheed Martin Opens Expansion of Newtown, PA Facility (PR Newswire)

Lockheed Martin lab to look at social media in emergencies (Cherry Hill Courier-Post)

Wilmington Trust sure looks ripe for takeover, KBW says (Delaware Online: Delaware Inc)

SAP extends Sybase bid, awaits EU clearance (Associated Press via Google News)

Pushing high-tech in Pa. (Daily Local News)

Kenexa - SaaS Transition Update (Smart SaaS)

Drakontas Wireless Emergency Messaging Demo'd In Philly Subway (TMCnet)
Drakontas is based in Camden.


Daily Links 7/1/2010: Motorola details break-up plans

The NBA and GSI Commerce Extend E-Commerce Agreement to 2017 (Business Wire)

Fisker Gets Green Light for New Plant, Toils in Tesla’s Shadow (VentureBeat via New York Times)

SAP co-CEO talking innovation (CIO.com)

SAP Joins Microsoft in Technology Recovery as `Crystal Ball Looks Good' (Bloomberg)

SAP under EU scrutiny: the malaise continues (ZDNet Blogs)

Analyzing the Success of SAP Inside Tracks
(Feeding The SAP Ecosystem)

Motorola details break-up plans, including name split
Separation expected to be completed in first quarter of 2011
(MarketWatch)
The big question for this area is how committed will the new company be to maintaining operating management for Motorola Home (to be a part of Motorola Mobility) in Horsham. There has been some speculation of more of those functions moving to California.

AMETEK Acquires Haydon Enterprises (PR Newswire)
At $270 million, this is a rather pricey acquisition for Ametek, which more frequently makes very small deals.

Intel backs off WiMAX industry, dismisses WiMAX Program Office, say sources (DigiTimes)

Accel Invests in ModCloth, a Social Shopping Site (New York Times:
Bits)

Boy Scouts to use FreedomPay technology at Jamboree (Philly.com: Philly Inc)


Judge: Pa. man can name company 'I Choose Hell' (Associated Press via
Google News)




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