Daily Links 9/23/2011: Comcast developing "AnyPlay" iPad TV streaming service

Newton's BigBelly Solar is building an Internet of trash cans (Boston Globe)
BigBelly has many of its trash bins in Philadelphia.

Amazon air conditions centers after criticism (MarketWatch)

Dish’s ‘Blockbuster Movie Pass’ Aimed More Towards Subs, Not Netflix (paidContent)

Dish misses out on opportunity to cash in on Netflix missteps (Ars Technica)

Comcast Working on iPad TV Streaming Service Called AnyPlay (Mac Rumors)

Vishal Sikka Gets Real on SAP HANA Benefits and Barriers (ASUG News)

The Oracle Mark Hurd Wants You To Know
As Oracle has reshaped its business, some misconceptions have arisen, Hurd says. He wants to set you straight. (Information Week)

HP: How to polish a Silicon Valley gem (EE Times)

Nationwide Said to Be in Talks to Buy Harleysville (Bloomberg)

Stylish Eyewear Maker Warby Parker Tries On $12M In Funding (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
New York-based online eyeglass retailer founded by Wharton students; First Round Capital an investor.



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OpenView Venture Partners invests $11.5 million in Valley Forge Cloud Services company Xtium

Tom Paine

Valley Forge-based Xtium announced today that it had received a $11.5 million Series A round from OpenView Venture Partners of Boston. Xtium provides IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) virtual private cloud service solutions to mid-market companies. Xtium says it is one of only three companies certified to be a hosting service provider for VMware, SAP, and Riverbed

Peter Ritz, co-founder and President of Xtium, has been a serial entrepreneur in the Philadelphia area involved in the founding of NTERA of Radnor (nanotech electronic inks for digital displays) and mobile business app provider AirClic of Trevose, and also directed legal operations for Ikon Technology Services.

For OpenView Partners, this represents its third major investment in the Philadelphia area announced in the past two months for a total of nearly $40 million, Monetate and NextDocs being the others. When I asked OpenView partner Firas Raou after the NextDocs investment was announced whether the firm had placed a particular emphasis on the area, he said it was only a coincidence. But now OpenView has close to one sixth of the $240 million it currently has under management invested here (at startups within a few miles of each other), so one would have to consider there might be some kind of connection. Valuations, I would guess, can be reasonably attractive for investors here since the market is not as overheated as places like Boston, New York and Silicon Valley.




View OpenView Venture Partners' local investments in a larger map
OpenView partners can easily visit each of their Philly-area portfolio companies in short, leisurely (non-rush hour) drive

Xtium raises $11.5M to expand pay-as-you-grow virtual private cloud services (VentureBeat)



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