Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (10/31-11/6 2011)

Tom Paine


I reported on Comcast's 3rd quarter earnings release last week; a mixed bags perhaps, but don't worry about them. Comcast is making plenty of money, though its NBC Broadcast Networks don't appear to be making much of it.

Meanwhile, the city of Longmont, Colorado took a step, in theory, towards competing with Comcast, passing a referendum that would allow it to utilize a largely dark fiber network that runs through town to offer competing telecom services. However, no business plan or financing is in place.

I wrote about Publicis' decision to merge its Philly-based digital health agencies, Digitas Health and Razorfish Health, into its New York-based Publicis Healthcare Communications Group.

And I spoke with co-founder Aksel Güngör of Philly startup Ridaroo about his firm's efforts to develop the market for applications that help bring Carpoolers together in the US.

In other big stories last week, Malvern's Siemens Healthcare made a move into the Healthcare Information Exchange market by acquiring MobileMD of Yardley, SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott say SAP's Cloud strategy will be unveiled early next year, and Monetate said its 3rd quarter revenue increased by 387%.

And Ewing, NJ-based OLED technology firm Universal Display (NASDAQ:PANL) has been bouncing up and dowm on an almost daily basis buffeted by differing analyst reports, rumors, questions on whether Apple would incorporate its technology, and a possible European patent ruling, among other things.



Best Buy expands in IT services by acquiring mindSHIFT, which has significant Philly presence

Tom Paine

Best Buy geared up its efforts to provide IT services to small and medium sized enterprises by acquiring Waltham, Massachusetts-based mindSHIFT Technologies for $167 million, it announced today. mindSHIFT, which has 500 employees, provides cloud services, data center services and professional services mostly on the East coast, including Philadelphia.

mindSHIFT expanded into the Philly market by acquiring Dynamic Digital Services of Levittown in 2005, and in 2007 through the acquisition of Network Alternatives, Inc. of Langhorne, a provider of full-service technology solutions to small- and medium-sized enterprises in the legal and professional services markets. mindSHIFT had over 60 employees at its Langhorne facility, it said in a press release early this year. The Philadelphia Business Journal rank it as #24 on their list of Top Technology Providers and #12 on their list of Largest Systems Integrators for 2011.

The deal reflects an effort by Best Buy to reduce its reliance on Big Box electronic retailing, and increase its base of commercial customers.



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SAP seeks to speed up, facilitate HANA deployments (SAP Watch)

DuPont's AMOLED HDTV tech licensed by... someone, will likely be used to build HDTVs (Engadget)

Universal Display Not Likely To Get Apple OLED License Deal (Forbes: Tech Musings)

PANL: Key Patent Claims Denied In German Hearing, Says Watchdog Group (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
Story needs more interpretation/confirmation.

Dish Advances as Dividend Calms Concerns Over Network Spending (Bloomberg)

Time Warner Cable gets hit with 'large' outage (CNET News)
Update: Probably caused by outage at Level 3.

An “eHarmony For Voters” (TechCrunch)
On Philly startup ElectNext.

Google Ventures Takes A Sip Of Milk, Invests In Kevin Rose’s New Startup
(TechCrunch)
First Round Capital is also an investor.