Josh Kopelman, SAP Ventures had LinkedIn stakes

First Round Capital's Josh Kopelman was a rather early investor in LinkedIn, which launched its IPO today. LinkedIn's offering was priced at $45, and the shares traded as high today as $122.70 before closing at $94.25; the company now has a market value of $9.1 billion. Kopelman invested in LinkedIn not through First Round but an earlier personal investment vehicle, Midas Capital. No word on the size of his stake, although it was presumably small, or when he invested.

Also, SAP Ventures, a unit of SAP AG, participated in a $22.7 million round in LinkedIn in late 2008. That round gave LinkedIn a valuation in excess of $1 billion at the time. SAP has worked with LinkedIn to develop applications to help connect its partner communities.

Wrapping up: SAPPHIRE Now 2011

SAP Chief Says Software Fees Fund Research (Bloomberg)

SAP's evolving cloud play (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Hana Overshadows BusinessObjects 4.0 At Sapphire (Information Week)

SAP's Big Mobility Moves Highlight Oracle, Microsoft Competition (eWeek)

SAP’s Partnership with China Telecom – a New Channel into the Chinese Market, and an Early Glimpse at Partner Hosting for Business ByDesign (Feeding the SAP Ecosystem)

SAP Cloud Partnerships Expand On-Demand Options (Information Week)

The Future of Business: SAP vs. Workday (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP innovating with cloud, mobile and in-memory computing (Constellation Research)

Daily Links 5/19/2011: Dick Ebersol leaves NBC Sports; Mark Lazarus named successor

DreamIt And Comcast Partner For New Program For Minority Entrepreneurs (TechCrunch)

Dick Ebersol to Leave NBC Sports (NY Times)
This New York Post article from about a month ago suggested this kind of conflict might have been brewing.

Dick Ebersol leaves NBC Sports; Mark Lazarus named successor (USA Today)

Comcast yanks funds for nonprofit after tweet about FCC Baker’s jump (Washington Post: Post Tech)
As I tweeted last week, it is Comcast's fate from now on to be thrown into one or two major media controversies each day. Comcast has now said this was a mistake and is trying to rectify
the situation, if the organization will accept.


Philly Fed Firms See Slight Growth in Business Activity (Business Wire)
Philadelphia Area’s Manufacturing Expands at Slowest Pace in Seven Months (Bloomberg)

Salesforce.com raises revenue outlook, shares rise (Reuters)

Liberty Media Makes $1 Billion Bid to Acquire Barnes & Noble (Mashable)
This is strange; not John Malone's typical kind of business.

Comcast Exec Wants 1-Terabit Optical Standard (Light Reading Cable)

Corning cites Verizon for fiber optic boom (Reuters)

Independent Mac retailers emerge from the Apple Store shadow (Computerworld)
Article features Philadelphia's Springboard Media.



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