HP names former SAP CEO Apotheker as its CEO

This is strange (I've used that word twice today). Gets booted (pretty much) at SAP, goes on to a bigger job.

HP Names Former SAP CEO Léo Apotheker As Their New CEO And President (TechCrunch)

Surprise! HP names Leo Apotheker CEO; Can he rewrite his legacy? (ZDNet Blogs)

Edison Venture sells two stakes

Edison Venture Fund of Lawrenceville, NJ, announced yesterday that they have sold their stake in CambridgeSoft, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based provider of software for the life sciences industry, back to the company. Edison says it received $40 million on a $5 million investment; 11x its initial investment and 3x a follow-on investment in CambridgeSoft. The Wall Street Journal's Venture Capital Dispatch dicusses Edison's exit strategy.

This follows an announcement earlier this week that Edison portfolio company TrueCommerce of Cranberry Township PA (near Pittsburgh), a supply chain software firm, had been acquired by HighJump Software of Eden Prairie, Minnesota. In that deal, the terms were not disclosed, but Edison said it received (pdf) a 4X return on investment and achieved a 30% IRR, which in VC terms is OK but not outstanding.




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Daily Links 9/30/2010: Sprint Execs quit Clearwire board

Plosser Opposes More Fed Bond Buying, Sees Small Deflation Risk (Bloomberg)
Plosser goes to Vineland (of all places).

The John Malone-Barry Diller throwdown (Hollywood Reporter)

Sprint Leaders Quit Clearwire Board (IDG via New York
Times)
Apparently due to Clearwire's antitrust concerns, though strange since Sprint owns a majority of Clearwire. One possible explanation of what's really going on from Light Reading Mobile.

Comcast: We will meet our IPv6 deadline
ISP to release more open source code, begin test of standard this fall (Network World)

Comcast takes free anti-botnet service nationwide (CNET News)

Comcast Interactive Shifts Fandango’s Budkofsky To Run Mobile Ads (paidContent)

Snarls in labor talks with key unions at papers (Philadelphia Inquirer)
The Inquirer's latest update sounds more optimistic.

Nicusa Capital Calls for Leadership Changes at BioClinica
(PR Newswire)
BioClinica's response

SAP Torn Between the Old World and the New (CIO.com)

Global CIO: Tibco Surges And CEO Flips Off IBM, Oracle, And SAP (Information Week)


Announcing the Winners of the $10,000 Grant! (Gigabit Genius Grant)




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Daily Links 9/29/2010: SunGard Higher Ed getting into course management software

Course-Management Software Deal Marks a First for SunGard (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Software firm seeks to close road in Upper Uwchlan corporate park (Daily Local News)
Bentley Systems looks to expand.

Cisco to Unveil an Affordable Home TelePresence Product for Consumers Next Week (All Things Digital: BoomTown)
May start rollout with Comcast, Verizon.

NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker on Content, Convergence, Comcast -- and Conan (Knowledge@Wharton)

Motorists on N.J. Turnpike, Garden State Parkway to get high-tech traffic 'forecasts' (Newark Star-Ledger)

Clearwire throttling at-home WiMAX users? (Engadget)
Clearwire Unclear About Customer Throttling
Many users still confused about Clear's definitions of "unlimited," "excessive" (Broadband Reports)

SAP to buy Sage? (AccMan)

TruePosition talks up commercial proposition for mission-critical LBS (Total Telecom)

Off-Site Options for Mission-Critical Data (Signal Scape)
On the opening of the Philadelphia Technology Park.

PAETEC’s risky business (Inorganic Growth)

Oracle, Sun Labs Form Health Sciences Institute (eWeek)




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Daily Links 9/28/2010: Venmo introduces Gifi

The Wall Street Journal today has a story on the difficulties SAP has faced in getting Business byDesign off the ground (subscription required).
Also, the SAP acquisition rumor de jour centers on British-based Sage Group, which provides Financial and CRM software to the SME market.
MARKET REPORT: Sage chief looks to a future fight
(Mail Online)


Gifi lets you hide money for your friends to encourage Foursquare check-ins (VentureBeat)
Venmo's new app introduced at TechCrunch Disrupt.

TechCrunch Scooped Up By AOL
(Wired Blogs: Epicenter)

NBC Universal-Comcast prep Olympic bid (Hollywood Reporter via Reuters)

FCC denies delays in Comcast-NBC Uni review
Tells THR: 'We have not announced a timetable' (Hollywood Reporter)

Comcast Shakes Up Speed Tiers
16 Mbps users get 20 Mbps upgrade, 22 Mbps tier goes away (Broadband Reports)

Canoe's Verklin: National ITV Ads Are Here Now
MSO Ad Venture Targeting 25 Million Households By End Of 2010 (Multichannel News)

HDNET Coming To New Comcast Markets This Week? (Zatz Not Funny!)

The Long Goodbye: Xmarks Tried to Sell Twice, Before Closing Down With Class (All Things Digital: BoomTown)
Xmarks had been backed by Mitch Kapor; First Round Capital was also an early seed investor.

Evidently IBM bought Cast Iron Systems for $190 million (DBMS2)
I wonder what this implies for the valuation of Cast Iron competitor Boomi of Berwyn.

SDI plans on high job growth over time (Philadelphia Business Journal)


Connectify Releases Version 2.1 - Extends Wi-Fi Sharing to Major Gaming Systems (PR Newswire)




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Meet Steve Burke: NBCU's Prudent Risk-Taker, Zucker Antidote (The Wrap)

Vivendi sells $2 bln NBC stake to GE (Reuters)

Sony, Warner, Disney Planning $30 Home Film-Viewing Option
(Bloomberg)

Will These Guys Kill The Next Google? (Knowledge@Wharton via
Forbes)

Boomi is making some noise with its move to the cloud
Internet software service simplifies applications integration (Philadelphia Business Journal)
39 employees, according to the article, which is less than I would have thought at this point (though that is not necessarily a bad thing).




Unilever SAP integration looming with £2.3bn Alberto Culver acquisition (Computerworld UK)

Infosys to develop a SAP Business ByDesign practice (ZDNet Blogs)



Novell Launches SUSE Linux for SAP (eWeek)

Answering Our Own Questions About Oracle's Social Acquisition Plans (Read Write Cloud)

Burke to head NBC Universal following merger

Burke Will Head NBC Universal Following Comcast Merger (paidContent)

Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb's top challenge is complacency (USA Today)

Philly Tech People News 9/26/2010

Philip Emond Named as CIGNA’s Chief Information Officer (Business Wire)

Bentley Appoints Norbert Young, Jim Porter, and Patrick McCrory to New
Bentley Infrastructure Ambassadors Council (Bentley Systems Press Release)

Monetate Welcomes Dell Veteran and Bazaarvoice CMO Sam Decker to Board of Directors (PR Newswire)

Ben Franklin (NE) names Beste new chairman (Allentown Morning Call)

Executive Anna M. Seal Elected to CDI Corp. Board of Directors (PR Newswire)

Supply Chain Consultants Announces the Retirement of Dr. Bibi Singh, President and Co-Founder of the Corporation
Dr. Singh Has Been Appointed Chair of the Board of Directors (Business Wire)

Razorfish Health Hires 4 Executives (Press Release via PharmaLive)

tierney Announces New Hires; Evolves Digital Focus (Philly Ad Club)

RDC Appoints Technology Leader (Business Wire)


Acurian Announces Kim Basciani as Director of eRecruitment (Business Wire)



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Daily Links 9/24/2010: Clearwire in discussions with T-Mobile; Zucker to leave NBCU

Official: Jeff Zucker leaving NBC Universal
Says he'll step down once Comcast deal is finalized (Hollywood Reporter)

Did Comcast Boot the Best Guy To Run Its Cable Networks? (GigaOM: NewTeeVee)

Comcast’s Burke: NBC Title Contender or Behind the Scenes Power? (Wall Street Journal: Deal Journal)

Clearwire open to funding from T-Mobile USA (FierceWireless)

Hackers who disrupted Comcast.net site sentenced (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Kenexa: Piper Upgrades (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Oracle Wants a Chip Company? Which One? (All Things Digital: Digital Daily)

MLB Beefs up At Bat App With New Ballpark Features (PC World)

ETC’ 293% boost in gov’t sales boosts 2Q (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Holy Redeemer Partners with MobileMD to Deliver Health Information Exchange Services to Care Community
(PR Newswire)




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myYearbook on Silicon Alley Insider's Digital 100

Social Networking site myYearbook of New Hope is the only company from the Philadelphia area (though some think of New Hope as a distant New York suburb) that I see on Silicon Alley Insider's Digital 100: The World's Most Valuable Startups. myYearbook is ranked 68th with estimated market value of $185 miliion, which may seem a little high, but perhaps not with some people talking about Facebook being worth $25 to $30 bilion. myYearbook's backers include First Round Capital and Northwest Venture Partners.

Recyclebank, which started in Philadelphia before moving its HQ to New York and still has significant operations here, has an estimated market value of $100 million, SAI says. Recyclebank has recieved investments of over $70 miliion, according to CrunchBase, so $100 million would be a marginal return. I've always had some questions about the long-term economic viability of Recyclebank's business model.

A relatively small fund, PENN-related MentorTech Ventures, has two of its portfolio companies in the top 100: Jersey City's Diapers.com and New York's Yodle, which I think actually started out in Philly.

Who else from the Philly area might belong on this list? Four possibilities that come to mind are Cloud software integrator Boomi of Berwyn, corporate meeting management site StarCite of Philadelphia (an ICG portfolio company), and two Healthcare IT firms: Portico Systems of Blue Bell (Safeguard Scientifics) and Octagon Research Solutions of Wayne. The SAI rankings are very consumer-centric, though, and don't pay much attention to enterprise-oriented applications.




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Daily Links 9/23/2010: QlikTech says its launching aggressive Global Recruitment Initiative

QlikTech Launches Aggressive Global Recruitment Initiative (Business Wire via MarketWatch)

Hey Cable Guys! Cord Cutting is Real, and It’s a Problem, Says Verizon CEO (All Things Digital: MediaMemo)

Comcast Tees Up TV Everywhere Relaunch (Light Reading)

Zucker: Comcast Integration Top Priority
Says NBC Turnaround Has Begun (Multichannel News)

Perelman Bids $85 Million for Philadelphia Inquirer and Sister Newspaper (Bloomberg)
Lenders again win auction of Philadelphia newpapers (Reuters)

Ellison jabs at Salesforce, recaps Exalogic before finally previewing Fusion in closing keynote (ZDNet Blogs)

Hara: 40 Customers, New Software and Growing Fast
The city of Philadelphia is the company’s latest customer. (Greentech Media)

Kopelman cancels on TechCrunch (Wonder Why)

“Ask A VC” Guest Swap: Kopelman Out; Hirshland In (TechCrunch)
Didn't know First Round Capital was raising a new fund. But perhaps this has something to do with it:

After Quiet Dinner, Angels Get Indigestion (New York Times: DealBoook)
Collusion in Silicon Valley Investing? (New York Times: DealBook)
Angel investors fire back at Arrington.

Daily Links 9/22/2010: Comcast Not Likely to Boost Investment in Clearwire

QlikTech Succeeds By Keeping It Simple (TheStreet)

Oracle Growth Plans Worry Rivals and Customers (New York Times)

Java Creator James Gosling: Why I Quit Oracle (eWeek)

SAP Rolls out Wave of 'rapid Deployment' Apps (PC World)

SAP Analytics - Part One (ZDNet Blogs)

Siemens to Take Health-Care Unit Charge as Growth Misses Targets (Bloomberg)

Comcast Unlikely to Boost Investment in Clearwire (Wall Street Journal: Digits)

Beyond NBC Universal: Comcast Talks Growth (CNNBC)

2 bids received for Phila. newspapers (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Philadelphia Reporters Want Scoop on Auction (Wall Street Journal: Bankruptcy Beat)


Motorola exec struts Medios TV guide platform capabilities in IBC video (Engadget)




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Daily Links 9/21/2010: Oracle, SAP, SunGard advance Cloud strategies

Exclusive: Comcast Reshuffles Its Digital Deck Before NBC Comes Aboard (All Things Digital: MediaMemo)



CableLabs Eyes a Super-Sized Upstream (Light Reading Cable)

Oracle, HP Settle Hurd Lawsuit (Information Week)

Hasso Plattner Ventures Invests $6 Million in Panaya
New Investor will be Instrumental in SAP Upgrade Automation Leader's Expansion Plans (Business Wire)

When Group Buying Met Check-In: SCVNGR Hooks Up With BuyWithMe On Local Deals (TechCrunch)

Loan Quality Firms Merge to Form Aklero Risk Analytics (Aklero Press Release)

USA Technologies Reports Results for Fiscal Year 2010 Highlighted by Record Gross Profit for Its Fiscal Fourth Quarter (Business Wire)


MetroPCS Launches First LTE Network in U.S. (PC Magazine)

Oracle Unveils Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management 8 (Marketwire)
I didn't realize Primavera founder Joel Koppelman was still with Oracle. Bala Cynwyd-based Primavera was acquired by Oracle in 2008.

Exalogic: Larry Gets the Cloud Now & He Wants It All (GigaOM)

Exclusive: Sungard to launch public cloud services (Computer Business Review)

SAP Moves an OnDemand Service to Amazon (PC World)






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First Round-backed Solve Media (formerly AdCopy) officially launches

Two months ago I wrote about First Round Capital's investment in a startup called AdCopy, which was seeking to monetize CAPTCHAs (those letters you type in on many websites to verify you are not a bot) as an advertising vehicle. AdCopy had offices in New York and Philly, according to its website. There hasn't been much news about them since then.

But today the company, now renamed Solve Media, officially launched. It has reportedly raised about $6 million, from First Round, AOL, New Atlantic Ventures, and individual angel investors. CEO Ari Jacoby was previously a founder of VoiceStar, the Philadelphia pay per call advertising service sold to Marchex in 2007. VoiceStar was also a First Round portfolio company.

Daily Links 9/20/2010: Rosetta buys digital agency Level Studios

I.B.M. to Buy Analytics Firm for $1.7 Billion (New York Times: DealBook)
Right in the middle of Oracle's big party.
Global CIO: Will Larry Ellison Launch Bidding War With IBM For Netezza? (Information Week)

Digital Agency Rosetta Bulks Up, Acquires Mobile Firm Level Studios
N.J.-Based Shop Adds 215 Employees, $45 Million in Revenue (Ad Age)
Rosetta is based in Hamilton, NJ.

Who Will Run NBC? (The Daily Beast)

John Malone Heaps Praise on Roberts (Multichannel News)

Verizon Lines Up Seidenberg's Successor (Light Reading)

Philly Tech Tidbits 9/20/2010: SCVNGR, IDEA2010, Tedx Philly

The New York Times on Saturday had an indepth article on the psychology of entrepreneurs, focused on SCVNGR founder Seth Priebatsch. SCVNGR started as a project at Princeton, went through Philly's DreamIt Ventures incubator in 20008, before being backed by Highland Capital Partners and eventually, Google Ventures. The company is now based in Cambridge.

IDEA2010 is coming to Philadelphia September 30
through October 2. The annual conference of the Information Architecture Institute, which serves User Interface Design professionals, will be held at the Independence Seaport Museum.

Philly finally gets its own TEDx. TEDx Philly will be held on November 18 at the Kimmel Center.

Philly area entrepreneur Gabriel Weinberg (search engine Duck Duck Go) is part of an informal group of angel investors called Hacker Angels, who describe themselves as hackers "in the good sense." The group's website says "we may provide feedback, advice, mentorship, hacking, investment and/or serve as advisors or independent board members, on an individual basis". Other members include AOL executive Roy Rodenstein, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter, Hotornot's Jim Young, and Punchfork founder Jeff Miller. Four of the five members recently participated in a funding of Boston-based Locately, which provides consumer location analytics using GPS data.

Microsoft Windows Phone 7 is supposedly going to be launched on October 11, and it faces a difficult challenge getting developer mindshare away from Google's Android and Apple. To get things going in Philadelphia, Microsoft has scheduled two events: a Windows Phone 7 Firestarter event this Wednesday the 22nd at Penn's Houston Hall (there is also an evening workshop that night), and a Windows Phone 7 Developer Launch on October 6 at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia.

Chattersource, a new website created by two Wharton students, Amy Cooper and Kristina Anderson, is intended to be a sort of Yelp targeted initially at Philadelphia-area college students. A school email address is required for each account.

Philly Tech People News 9/19/2010

Comcast hires Dobrow from T-Mobile (PR Week)

Canoe Hires Four More Crew Members
Cable Joint Venture Adds to Technology, Product Management Roster (Multichannel News)

ONPATH Technologies Appoints New Chief Executive Officer
Brian McCann accelerates company's growth strategy (PR Newswire)

ONPATH Technologies Announces New Global Vice President of Sales (PR Newswire)

Brad Bernard promoted to Vice President Online Media & Analytics at Harmelin Media (Philly Ad Club News)

Ascent Media Group Promotes Donna Thomas to Senior Vice President, Sales for Cable, Telco & New Media Initiatives (Business Wire)

Vanguard Group #1 on 2010 Information Week 500

The new Information Week 500 is out, and although it often tends to read pretty much the same from year to year, one interesting move is that the Vanguard Group of Malvern, the giant mutual fund, now has the top ranking (though it has been highly ranked in previous years). See detailed profile here. I'll do a rundown of the other area companies included soon.





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NBC's fall guys
Comcast assembling exec army for autumn run (New York Post)

Nemours Tops in the Nation for Health Information Technology (PR Newswire)

Motorola 'eager' to get into tablet market, but won't do so until next year (Engadget)

Oracle posts strong first quarter: Hurd makes debut; Exadata the focus (ZDNet Blogs)
Also, Oracle's Larry Ellison suggests his company is way ahead of SAP in developing in-memory database technology.

Apple, Google and Others: Vying for Prime Time in the Digital Living Room (Knowledge@Wharton)



Potential buyer gives WPCS International ultimatum (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Daily Links 9/16/2010: Comcast sees huge opportunity in business services

Angelakis: Big Opportunities in Commercial
NBCU On Track for Year-End Close (Multichannel News)

Coalition Seeks Another Comcast/NBCU Hearing
Argues deal deserves another vetting because it will 'set the benchmark' for future consolidation (Broadcasting & Cable)

Netflix. Meet Hulu. Now, How About Merging Together? (Fast Company)

Sprint CFO: Clearwire buyout too expensive for now (Reuters)

Motorola Mobility: Westward, Ha! (Light Reading Mobile)
Not sure what this is going to mean for Horsham-based Motorola Home, which is to be spun off as part of Motorola Mobility.

Philly Fed Index Shows Contracting Manufacturing in Mid-Atlantic Region (Wall Street Journal: Real Times Economics Blog)
Philly Fed Business Outlook Survey

Oracle FY Q1 Revs, Profits Exceed Street Estimates (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
Oracle Earnings Top Estimates on Software, Sun Sales (Bloomberg)


Philly's Newspapers Are Going Back on the Block (Daily Finance)

Checkpoint Systems Creates RFID-centric 'Visibility' Division (RFID Journal)

Alteva helps channel partners with no money down UC rental plan (FierceVoIP)
Alteva is based in Philadelphia.

Taleo Powers Talent Exchange With Aria Billing and Subscription Management Platform (Marketwire)
Aria is based in Media.




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Daily Links 9/15/2010: InstaMed raises $6 million

New auction set for Philadelphia newspapers (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Air Products Nominees Win Three Seats on Airgas Board (Bloomberg Business Week)

InstaMed Raises $6 Million in Growth Capital
Capital will support InstaMed’s triple digit growth and enhance its bi-coastal data centers (Business Wire)


The World According to Dick Ebersol
The 2010 Broadcaster of the Year reflects on his accomplishments, a successful 2010 and what lies ahead (Broadcasting & Cable)

Comcast CFO warns that programming costs will continue to go up (LA Times: Company Town)

Canoe CTO: 'T-Commerce' Coming in 2011 (Light Reading Cable)

Main Line tech stock keeps rising (Philly.com: Philly Deals)
On QlikTech.

Microsoft Questions Salesforce.com Cloud Computing Growth Prospects (Intelligent Enterprise)

The making of the Technology Park deal (Philadelphia Business Journal: Real Estate Blog)

Google Health--Rumors of its death have been somewhat exaggerated (The Health Care Blog)

WPCS Reports FY2011 First Quarter Financial Results (PR Newswire)

C&D Technologies Reaches Agreement in Principle with Group of Major Noteholders on Financial Restructuring Plan (PR Newswire)



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Daily Links 9/14/2010: Philadelphia Technology Park Opens in The Navy Yard

SCVNGR Launches Rewards in Philadelphia (Marketwire)

Newspaper buyers have until noon to reach deal with drivers (Philadelphia Daily News)
Philadelphia Inquirer Buyer Said to Cancel Purchase, Forcing New Auction (Bloomberg)

Philadelphia Technology Park Opens in The Navy Yard
Philadelphia Technology Park Debuts $25 Million Data Center to House Computer System IT Infrastructure for Philadelphia Area Organizations (Business Wire)

Evolve IP Completes Financing of $8.7 Million in Growth Capital
(Business Wire)

GSI Commerce Appoints Deann Harvey Chief Sales Officer for Global Marketing Services Division
Harvey to lead global sales to extend reach and drive revenue for clients (Business Wire)
Yesterday's post about PointRoll and GSI by Jim Hopkins on his Gannett Blog seems prescient now.


SAP Finds A Message And Messenger (Forbes Blogs: Upside Potential)

DEMO: SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott says ‘The device changes everything’ (VentureBeat)
SAP Press Release

IBM CEO Shreds HP, Mark Hurd (Silicon Alley Insider)

Airgas's McCausland Takes `Pugnacious' Tack in His $5 Billion Proxy Fight (Bloomberg)

Cox, Time Warner Cable in Swap Talks?
(Light Reading Cable)

UniTek Global Services Announces Public Offering of 6,250,000 Shares of Common Stock (PR Newswire)

Journal Register Company Expands Advertising Partnership With Yahoo! Into Philadelphia Market (Marketwire)

Ben Franklin Technology Partners (NE) lists new investments (Allentown Morning Call)




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Daily Links 9/13/2010: Post-Saridakis, pointed questions about PointRoll

Post-Saridakis, pointed questions about PointRoll (Gannett Blog)
PointRoll, based in Conshohocken, is owned by Gannett.

Drivers vote down latest contract offer from Philadelphia newspapers (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Paetec buying rival telecom Cavalier for $460M (AP via Google News)
Both Paetec and Cavalier have operations in the Philadelphia area.

Cable’s Fall Agenda in D.C.
Industry Thrust Into ‘Vortex’ of Broadband Policy Issues (Multichannel News)

Will Oracle Buy Informatica Next? (IDG via New York Times)

SAP New-Product Blitz Tomorrow (Information Week: Global CIO Blog)

Ojo Video Phone Lives! Er, Again! (Zatz Not Funny!)

Chattanooga, TN beats Google to 1Gbps—for $350 a month (Ars Technica)

Cable-TV slowly steps into stereo 3-D (EE Times)

Ex-Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz Launches Health IT Firm
Picture of Health is recruiting staff for a firm that aims to "leverage technology in pursuit of better health." (Information Week)

TiVo down but not out; turnaround could be coming (San Jose Mercury News)

Clearwire 'Finally in New York City' (Light Reading Mobile)

Philly Tech People News 9/12/2010

Jaffe leaves Ballard Spahr for Duane Morris (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Merkel Taps Former SAP Chief Henning Kagermann to Head Panel on Innovation (Bloomberg)

ERT Announces Upcoming Retirement of Michael McKelvey as Chief Executive Officer (PR Newswire)

Garry D. Johnson Joins BioClinica as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
- New Position to Support Global Customer Strategy and Accelerate Growth - (Business Wire)

Comcast Names Cynthia Hook Senior Vice President and General Auditor
(Business Wire)

VIST Financial Hires Chief Information Officer (PR Newswire)

Razorfish Health promotes three in its creative department (Philly Ad Club News)

Daily Links 9/10/2010: Key Wall Street analyst questions growth outlook for consumer Pay TV spending

QlikTech opens Hong Kong office (Computerworld Hong Kong)

Motorola MZ600 Tablet Appears in Verizon Inventory (Phandroid)

Mass-mailing 'Here you have' worm hits in-boxes (CNET News)

Moffett: Where Will Money Come From For Pay TV Price Increases?
Cable, Satellite Face Years Of Reduced Discretionary Consumer Spending (Multichannel News)

Business Groups Question Net Neutrality Rules
(IDG via New York Times)

Everyone's Mad About the iPad (Light Reading Cable)

Instem Announces Centrus Solution Suite for Early Drug Development (Business Wire)

Carpe Diem SAP: Hit Oracle While Its Dazed and Confused (CIO.com)

Global CIO: Gunning For IBM & Oracle, HP Plans Optimized-Systems Blitz (Information Week)

SunGard Appoints Young & Rubicam for New Brand Advertising Campaign (Marketwire)

Social Media Savvy Cities: The 17 Most 'Social' Cities Ranked By NetProspex (Huffington Post)
Philadelphia ranks 14th for whatever reason; HuffPost has its own poll along side its article where you can weigh in.




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Daily Links 9/9/2010: SAP Rules Out Hardware Company Acquisitions

SAP Rules Out Hardware Company Acquisitions, Co-CEO McDermott Tells CNBC (Bloomberg)

SAP Looks to Benefit From the Oracle Tempest (New York Times: Bits)

City, bloggers talk taxes over drinks (Philadelphia Inquirer)

XIPWIRE Announces Mobile Bill-Pay Program for University City Residents (Business Wire)

QVC coming back to NY Fashion Week with first-ever pop-up store at Rockefeller Plaza (Home
Textiles Today)

Private Equity in 5th Set With Tennis Channel (New York Times: DealBook)

Q&A with David Grubb, CTO, Motorola Home and Networks Mobility Business (FierceCable)

Verizon Keen On Offering Home Automation Services
Endless new possibilities for strange new fees... (Broadband Reports)


President Obama plans 'robust investment' in NextGen technology (Press of Atlantic City)

Harrisburg University plans social media blackout (Washington Post: Campus Overload)




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Daily Links 9/8/2010: RIGHTNETWORK launches

Network for conservative entertainment launches (AP via Google News)
RIGHTNETWORK Launches Nationwide
Multi-Platform Entertainment Network for Right-Minded Americans Delivers New VOD Programming, Online Portal and Mobile Content (PR Newswire)
No, Comcast is not behind this, though Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Ed Snider is as an individual investor. And Philly's Red Tettemer has handled the launch campaign.
(Update: A RIGHTNETWORK media representative confirms that it will be based in Philadelphia.)

Careerminds Receives Venture Capital Funding (PR Newswire)

SAP To Deploy Up To 17,000 iPads In 12 Months (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP partner launches cloud-based mobile app service
Leapfactor announces several free App Store enterprise apps (Computerworld)

Comcast Gets Texty
Operator Launches COMCAST4U SMS Text Messaging Service (Multichannel News)

Court allows warrantless cell location tracking (CNET News)
Decision of a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit in Philadelphia.

Federal Reserve Board Beige Book: Third District--Philadelphia, September 8, 2010 (Federal Reserve Board)

Knowledge Rules Implements Innovative Cloud Computing Solution to Refactor Legacy Applications for BNP Paribas Global Banking Network (PR Newswire)




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Daily Links 9/7/2010: Susquehanna Growth Equity, LLC and Brad Galle Acquire JK Group

Resurrecting Mark Hurd: Larry Ellison's War With IBM (Information Week: Global CIO)

Can Oracle, Hurd topple HP, IBM without services? (ZDNet Blogs)

HP Sues Mark Hurd For Violating Severance Agreement (By Joining Oracle) (Silicon Alley Insider)

QlikTech looking at major expansion in India (Economic Times of India)

Susquehanna Growth Equity, LLC and Brad Galle Acquire JK Group (PR Newswire)

Allbritton Cites Comcast Harm (Multichannel News)

It's Not Always Sunny for Philadelphia and New York Sports Fans (Huffington Post)

Fall to bring Google TV, just in time for Apple TV faceoff (Ars Technica)

DVIRC Awarded $300,000 National Science Foundation Grant to Connect Regional Assets and Spur Innovation
Project will explore how visual analytics software can help to organize and connect STEM assets in the tri-state area (Business Wire)

Web Host MyHost Expands Name Server Infrastructure to Europe
(Web Host Industry Review)




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Former H.P. Exec Hurd joins Oracle

Former H.P. Chief Joins Oracle as Co-President (New York Times)

Philly Tech Tidbits 9/6/2010

SAP has already distributed over 1,000 iPads to its employees, according to a tweet by SAP CIO Oliver Bussmann, who
promises "more to come". ZDNet talks about what they are doing with them.

Scott McNulty, who joined Comcast last year as Chief Blogger to help the corporation get its Comcast Voices blog started, announced last week he is leaving to join Wharton Computing at Penn.

The anonymous publisher of the well-read Healthcare IT blog HIStalk remarked in one recent post that "I keep hearing that Comcast will make some big healthcare moves soon", though he is not specific as to what they might be.

Now a Philly tradition, (the 4th annual) PodCamp Philly 2010 is
scheduled for October 2-3 at Temple U. Its website describes it as a "Barcamp-style community unconference for anyone interested in podcasting, blogging, video-casting and social media". I know it was very helpful to me when I was just starting to blog, and the price is right also.

UpNext, a 3D mapping startup out of New York, has added a
version of its iPad app for Philadelphia (its also available on the iPhone). UpNext lets you navigate through a city interactively and do things like tapping on a building to see which businesses are located inside of it. The app is free (see demo).

Temple University was one of five schools this year to test out RoomBug, a Facebook app from a company named U-Match LLC
that helps students find compatible roommates.

The mortgage business is tough right now, but one unnamed Philadelphia mortgage banker was working so hard to keep up that she reportedly came down with what's called "BlackBerry Thumb" from texting clients 12 hours per day, though she was using an iPhone. She needed surgery on her thumb to remove inflamed tendons.

The Philadelphia Metro Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication is seeking entries for its annual Technical Communication Competition. The deadline for submissions is October 4. All english language entries are acceptable, regardless of geographical origin.




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Philly Tech People News 9/6/2010

Comcast-Spectacor taps Comcast Cable for new CFO (Philadelphia Business Journal)

SL Industries Names Louis J. Belardi Chief Financial Office
(PR Newswire)

Rajant Adds Two Software Engineers (Business Wire)

Mark Hurd in Discussions to Join Oracle as a `Top Executive,' WSJ Reports (Bloomberg)

Virtual Public Art Comes to Philadelphia (Arts, Culture and Creative Economy)

The Struggle for What We Already Have (New York Times)
On Net neutrality.

VC Profile: Radnor's Cross Atlantic Capital Partners

Cross Atlantic Capital Partners has been a relatively quiet venture capital firm compared to some others located in the Philadelphia area. But the Radnor-based firm (also known for short as XACP), with more than $500 million in assets under management, has had its share of major success stories.

Cross Atlantic truly spans the Atlantic, with offices in Ireland and Scotland, and portfolio companies based over there as well. A significant portion of its capital base comes from two co-investment funds it manages for the the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS). It focuses on the commercialization of patented or specialty know-how in early to mid-stage technology companies. The firm was founded by Chairman and CEO Donald Caldwell, who had previously served as President & COO of Safeguard Scientifics. It raised its first fund in 1999.

Significant exits have included leading software as a service (SaaS) provider Netsuite (IPO), Rubicon Technology, which manufactures materials for light-emitting diodes (IPO), Kanbay International, a technology consulting firm (sold to Capgemini), and Ecount, a provider of internet-based payment systems(sold to Citi). It also recently sold a small stake in ICG Commerce of King of Prussia, a once struggling but now successful procurement outsourcing provider, back to its founder Internet Capital Group.

Cross Atlantic recently lead a $6.1 million Series B funding round in King of Prussia's Health Market Science (HMS), which provides an extensive database on healthcare providers. Cross Atlantic invested $4 million, and was joined by return investor Edison Venture Fund of Lawrenceville, New Jersey and other institutional investors. This was XACP's first investment in HMS; Edison has invested a cumulative total of $18.5 million in the company. XACP Managing Director Richard Fox joined the HMS Board of Directors.


Although HMS has traditionally focused on serving the marketing function in the healthcare industry, Cross Atlantic sees opportunities for significant growth due to changes in the healthcare regulatory environment, the Healthcare Reform Act and the HITECH Act. One example is real-time prescriber eligibility validation services, which helps prescibers meet federal, state, Medicaid and scope of practice eligibility attributes. A major area of potential growth is Master Data Management, in which HMS uses proprietary tools to help match and integrate various sources of data for the customer, and maintain the database on an ongoing basis, either on the customers's premise or via a cloud-type service.

Health Market Science reported revenue of $22.1 million in 2009, compared with $28.7 million in 2008,according to Inc. Magazine's Inc. 5000 issue. (These figures are presumably correct as they are self-reported by the company.) This followed several prior years of strong growth. In a telephone interview, Fox declined to discuss HMS' current financial position except to say that they expected growth of 15 to 20% this year (and have recently posted several open positions).

Another recent XACP investment that Fox is enthusiastic about is Interactions Corporation, a Massachusetts-based provider of interactive voice response (IVR) systems for call center management.

Other Philly-area companies in the XACP portfolio include Voxware, a Hamilton, New Jersey provider of voice-directed systems for warehouse picking applications, and NTERA, a Radnor-based producer of printable electrochromic materials for display and color-changing applications used in Smart Cards, Smart Packaging, and Smart Objects. MobileAware, which is based in Ireland, has its US offices in South Jersey.

Another interesting fact about XACP is that it has an outstanding patent lawsuit against Facebook. The suit, Cross Atlantic Capital Partners Inc. v. Facebook Inc, was filed in 2007 on the basis of a patent XACP owns via a former startup entitled "System for creating a community for users with common interests to interact in" that was filed and issued before Facebook was launched. In September 2009, the Patent & Trademark Office examiners issued a decision that reaffirmed the validity of XACP's patent; Facebook is currently challenging that decision before the Patent Office Board of Patent Appeals (though even if Cross Atlantic's patent claim is upheld, the process will be far from over).




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