Philly Tech News VentureWatch 6/29/2012
Tom Paine
ISGN, the heavily funded and expanding mortgage technology company that had been based in Bensalem, apparently picked up and moved its headquarters early this year to Melbourne, Florida. I can find no trace of the company in Pennsylvania now (other than a location in Pittsburgh), and received no response to an email to the Florida headquarters. My guess is that the headcount in Bensalem wasn't that large, since many of its operations were acquired and located in various parts of the country, as well as in India. ISGN's most recent announced equity raise was a $30 million round announced last August. Another promising startup that departed the Philly scene (actually last year-I'm late in catching up on that one) is Venmo, the company that created the peer-to-peer mobile payments app of the same name that launched this Spring and is backed by Accel Ventures. Its headquarters is now in New York.
To replace these two on Philly Tech News' "Young Companies to Watch" list, I've added two other promising companies: Unirisx, the Philadelphia-based SaaS property & casualty-oriented insurance platform headed by former Harleysville Group CIO Akhil Tripathi, and CloudMine, the Philly-based "backend as a service" provider for mobile and web apps, which though still early stage appears to have generated considerable traction.
A couple of items relating to Radnor-based NewSpring Capital: the Boston Business Journal reported earlier this month that Bedford, MA-based FirstBest Systems, in which NewSpring is an investor, is "well into the double digit millions" for revenue, according to its CEO, and looking toward an eventual public offering. It aims to serve as the "Bloomberg for insurance". Also, LLR Partners' recent investment in Columbia, MD-based Message Systems returned an unspecified amout of liquidity in a partial exit for NewSpring, which had invested in 2010. LLR paid double the price NewSpring paid in 2010 on a per-share basis, reported the Inquirer's Joe DiStefano, citing sources.
Princeton-based DoughMain, a startup that helps families and children learn how to better manage money, has received an investment of unspecified size from a private equity fund managed by former auto executive Lee Iacocca’s family. DoughMain recently acquired Allowance-Plus, a similar company founded by Iacocca son-in-law Ned Hentz, who will serve as Chief Creative Officer and have a board seat.
phillytechnews twitter feed 6/24 to 6/25/2012
Posted: 25 Jun 2012 09:41 AM PDT phillytechnews: Comcast Gets U.S. High Court Hearing on Consumer Lawsuit - Bloomberg http://t.co/K0W10bjR |
Posted: 25 Jun 2012 08:54 AM PDT phillytechnews: NextDocs leaves KofP for Conshy tower (Philly Deals) http://t.co/WodNddiJ |
Posted: 25 Jun 2012 08:24 AM PDT phillytechnews: PTN Post: DIA 2012 begins in Philly today (Sunday) http://t.co/v8c6jkdS |
Daily Links 6/29/2012: NBC's 'Today' struggles; who would buy Motorola Home?
State's new e-health authority won't slow IT providers (Central Penn Business Journal)
Processing in the iPipeline (Money Marketing)
What I've Learned: QlikTech's CEO Lars Björk (Wired UK)
FCC wasting time and taxpayer money on Comcast (ZDNet Blogs)
Boxee and Comcast Agree To Something (Zatz Not Funny!)
Daily Links 6/28/2012: News Corp. to split into two; Dan Moloney leaves Motorola
Rupert Murdoch Announces The News Corp. Divorce: The Full Memo (All Things D)
Latest hacker dump looks like Comcast, AT&T data
Hackers kick off "WikiBoatWednesday" with apparent leak of Comcast and AT&T data. (CNET News)
Comcast data reported to include Comcast employee names, ages and salaries.
Comcast, Boxee Hammer Out Crypto Deal
Initial Solution Entails Development of HD Adapter With an Ethernet Port (Multichannel News)
Moloney Out At Motorola, Fawaz To Take Reins At Home Unit
Former Charter CTO Will Be EVP Of Cable-Focused Division (Multichannel News)
Google Compute Engine Challenges Amazon (InformationWeek)
Google and Graphene Frontiers Move Into Science Center Port Business Incubator (GlobeNewswire)
Google office to focus on working with local businesses to develop Google+ presence.
City Says You Won’t See ‘.philly’ Anytime Soon (CBS Philly)
Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (6/18/2012 to 6/24/2012)
A little late on last week's highlights, but here goes:
I reported that the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue issued a letter indicating cloud software is subject to a sales or use tax, as long as the user(s) are located in Pennsylvania. There's no escaping the tax man.
West Chester-based Hoopla Software, which I reported on at the beginning of the year, announced it had closed on its $ 2.8 Series A Round, led by Safeguard Scientifics with Salesforce.com also participating.
King of Prussia-based InterDigital sold a whole bunch of 3G, LTE, and Wi-Fi patents to Intel for $375 million, but they have plenty left over. In a less publicized move, a Warren, New Jersey-based firm, Magnolia Broadband, sold over 50 mobile patents to Google for an undisclosed price. Magnolia's largest shareholder is Wayne, PA-based SCP Partners.
DIA 2012, the annual meeting of the Horsham-based Drug Information Association, opened at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Sunday and runs through tomorrow. Among other things, it draws many companies from the Philly area's large Clinical IT industry.
phillytechnews twitter feed 6/23 to 6/24/2012
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Posted: 24 Jun 2012 09:42 AM PDT
phillytechnews: @deborahyao But what about those unfortunate souls who don't (won't) get FiOS? Oh, I guess they buy from Verizon's cable partners #nochoice
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Posted: 24 Jun 2012 08:06 AM PDT
phillytechnews: At University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson claimed by all parties in presidency fight - Campus Overload / Washington … http://t.co/42tDTPGx
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Posted: 24 Jun 2012 06:36 AM PDT
phillytechnews: So I guess Rubio and Romney could give each other the secret LDS handshake
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Posted: 24 Jun 2012 06:23 AM PDT
phillytechnews: Marco Rubio was briefly LDS Church member as youth
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phillytechnews: NY Times article on eCommerce customization focuses on Monetate http://t.co/W4WO63Hp
Posted: 24 Jun 2012 05:01 AM PDT
phillytechnews: NY Times article on eCommerce customization focuses on Monetate http://t.co/W4WO63Hp |
Daily Links 6/27/2012: Proxy battle at USA Technologies board meeting tomorrow
Google's Nexus 7 could force Apple's hand on 'iPad Mini' (Computerworld)
Greenwich investor activists go after USA Tech on Thursday (Connecticut Post)
Unisys Gets Homeland Security Job Worth Up To $3B; Shrs Spike (Forbes)
Unisys Reaches for the Clouds with New IT Service Management Solutions to Help Organizations Improve End-User Experience (PR Newswire)
SAP Systems and Big Data: Big Deal or No Biggee? (Thomas Wailgum/ASUG News)
NBC's Ebersol adviser for Olympics telecasts (AP via NECN)
Bradford Media Group is doing interesting things in West ChesterTightly integrating video and social media marketing
Tom Paine
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| Brad Heureux and Matt McGlynn in BMG's studio (Source: BMG) |
Bradford Media Group, located in the middle of West Chester near the corner of Market and High Streets, has a model that's different from many social media agencies. The innovative agency has a passion for integrating social media with video production to meet its client's needs, and is trying out new formats that marry the combination.
It is perhaps not surprising that BMG's founder & CEO, Brad Heureux, has a multimedia emphasis in his background, having had considerable experience with Comcast, where among other things he help build what ultimately became known as Comcast Spotlight (its cable advertising sales unit) into an industry juggernaut. He also founded and ultimately sold Off The Wall Productions, a pioneering multi-platform marketing company, and helped launch PAXTV, a TV Network later acquired by NBC. He started up BMG in 2009.
BMG defines itself as having three primary components: Studio BMG, which creates original media production including branded entertainment series, product videos, and episodic programming for multiple platforms including social media and television; BMG Social, the agency’s social media platform management arm utilizing social strategy and custom application development; and BMG Reach, which specializes in creating individualized and targeted online advertising campaigns designed to drive specific audiences to the customized video and social content. In other words, the three parts are all intended to function in a tightly integrated manner together in support of meeting customers' objectives. BMG also has its own inhouse production studio.
BMG is big on using Facebook, although they employ other social media platforms as well; Pinterest is becoming very important for them, they tell me. It manages Facebook Fan Pages for about 80 clients, Heureux told me in a phone interview, and each one includes a Studio BMG-produced video element. BMG doesn't target a specific vertical niche, and works with both consumer-facing and business to business brands. Heureux says there are probably some 12 million companies (in the US), who need to have brand pages with a professional image on Facebook, and BMG is out to help many of those who don't have the inhouse resources to maintain that kind of presence by themselves.
BMG's senior staff, in addition to Heureux, includes Matthew McGlynn, Director of Operations and a Temple (Tyler School of Art) grad, who might be described as the chief digital person; Rachel Burke, another Temple graduate who was just promoted to Director of Social Media; and Leslie Nichols, a Conestoga High grad with some Hollywood TV producing credits who returned home and, after working for WPVI and running her own company, joined Bradford as executive video producer for Studio BMG (see recent MainLine Times profile). Lara (Toscani) Weems, another Conestoga alum who had previously worked for Comcast Spectacor and has also handled some assignments for the Harlem Globetrotters, serves as Marketing Manager. BMG currently has 16 employees, and also has a New York outpost.
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| Julie Roehm |
Julie Roehm, who became Senior Vice President - Marketing for SAP early this year, is a Partner at BMG (
Two projects are good examples of where BMG may be heading. One is the Studio BMG-produced social media-driven TV show, "Life Around Home", which launched in April on the digital channel NBC Philadelphia Nonstop. The lifestyle show, which covers subject such as organic living, do-it-yourself projects, home organization, fitness, style and fashion, and parenting, chooses its content based on posts to its Facebook page and other social network presences, and also responds to other posts. BMG hopes to roll the concept out to other markets. CEO Heureux calls it "a completely new model of show production".
Another example is the hyper-local approach BMG is taking in developing a Facebook Fan Page for its home town of West Chester. Studio BMG will use original video production to tell the stories of public and advertiser events, all housed in custom applications within the community created by the company’s social media arm, BMG Social. BMG Reach, the marketing arm, will place online adverting and promotional campaigns to drive traffic to these West Chester stories. The page will also include a (free) directory of businesses, restaurants, and events located in the West Chester area, to be launch within a few weeks. It sounds almost as if BMG wants to reinvent the Yellow Pages on Facebook, something Yellow Page publishers have never been very successful in doing .
Heureux is watching the M&A activity involving many of the big players in the social media business with interest. For example, one company he works with is Vitrue, which Oracle recently announced it would acquire. But BMG is not heavily dependent on any one social media marketing platform. In terms of its own strategy, while BMG may develop some proprietary technology, my sense is they are much more focused on creating proprietary content vehicles, through which customer content can be packaged and distributed.
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Daily Links 6/26/2012: T-Mobile drops opposition to Verizon/Cable deal after spectrum swap
T-Mobile drops opposition to Verizon-cable deal (The Hill)
Following agreement on spectrum deal with Verizon Wireless.
Supreme Court takes on damaged-class issue in suit against Comcast (Philadelphia Inquirer)
New Issue-Comcast Corp sells $2.25 bln 2-pt notes (Reuters)
GRUBER: 'Something Big Is Going On With Apple TV In Cupertino, But It’s Still Being Cooked' (Silicon Alley Insider)
‘PayPal for business’ Traxpay gets $4m to take on US (Gigaom)
Health records support genetics research at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (O'Reilly Radar)
TCTV: Interact’s Anthony Coombs Talks About The Philly Tech Scene (TechCrunch)
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Nat Turner & Zachary Weinberg's new startup: Flatiron Health
Tom Paine
Invite Media co-founders Nat Turner and Zachary Weinberg have a website for their new healthcare IT startup live now.
Its called Flatiron Health, its located in New York City, and the site doesn't give a clue yet of what they might do in healthcare IT (but maybe they don't really know yet; that was the story of Invite Media, which pivoted a few times before finding the formula that led to an $81 million exit to Google). One open position is listed; a software engineer.
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Mobile App Boom Faces Serious Obstacles, NJTC Panel Says
Alan Skontra
The mobile app boom has great potential for growth but faces some serious hurdles, according to an expert panel meeting during the New Jersey Technology Council (NJTC) Mobile Application Forum, held at Princeton University on June 14, 2012.
The panel, the first of two that met during the forum, included Mung Chiang, professor of electrical engineering at Princeton University; Bryce Hunter, a mobile and gaming specialist at Canadian company DHX Media; Bert Navarrete, cofounder of Princeton-based Connected Sports Ventures; Paul Nolting, senior legal counsel at Verizon Wireless; Guy Story, chief technical officer at Audible (Newark); and Jordan Usdan, deputy director of public and private partnerships at the Federal Communications Commission (Washington). Ian Goldstein, a Princeton-based partner at the national law firm Drinker Biddle, which cosponsored the forum, moderated.
The panelists reached the consensus that while developers are rushing to meet increasing consumer demand, rising costs for both consumers using data and carriers building infrastructure threaten to stall the app boom.
“Growth and demand outrun the growth of supply,” Chiang said. “The creativity of app developers will lead the wave; the supply of capacity will be behind. It's a major issue that we create a win-win for everyone; otherwise, this exponential growth will come to a stop.”
Chiang said app data has become too expensive for consumers, even citing his own high phone bill as an example. He asked how many in the audience still pay for unlimited data plans, then said no carrier will be able to offer that option in two years. “Restaurants charge by how much we eat, and carriers will have to do the same,” he noted.
Representing prominent carrier Verizon, Nolting said as carriers rush to meet rising demand, they will have to pass on their costs to consumers. “It's no secret that appetite for data has outstripped delivery,” he said. “There are questions about availability of spectrum. Cellphone towers involve difficult engineering and are expensive. Everyone is worried about access to capital.”
Hunter, whose company produces television and other interactive content for popular children's shows like “Yo Gabba Gabba!” and “iCarly,” used DHX as an example when discussing the problems content providers and developers face in getting their products to consumers.
Daily Links 6/25/2012: Comcast gets Supreme Court hearing on class action antitrust suit
Comcast Gets U.S. High Court Hearing On Consumer Lawsuit (Bloomberg)
Verizon, T-Mobile swap spectrum for mutual LTE growth
The Big Four's largest and smallest carriers strike a deal for AWS spectrum (CNET News)
Gives T-Mobile more AWS spectrum in Philly area. See my previous article on T-Mobile's spectrum holdings in the Philly region.
It’s Official: Microsoft Confirms It Has Acquired Yammer For $1.2 Billion In Cash (TechCrunch)
Quest Gets $27.50-A-Share Bid, Topping Insight’s Offer (Bloomberg)
Dell presumed to be bidder.
TicketLeap relaunches with deeper social integration, better mobile apps, & more (VentureBeat)
Help wanted at SAP: Mobile, cloud, big-data practitioners (Philadelphia Business Journal)
Cisco, Citrix link arms for VDI partner push
Virty desktops are like ERP in the 1990s (The Register: The Channel)
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DIA 2012 begins in Philly today
Tom Paine
The DIA (no, not the Defense Intelligence Agency) is a global trade and research organization with its US headquarters located in Horsham. DIA stands for Drug Information Association (not to be confused with the DEA-Drug Enforcement Agency), although it usually refers to itself just by its initials. The DIA says it "is a nonprofit, member, and volunteer-driven association that provides knowledge resources across the full spectrum of medical product development".
It will hold its annual meeting, DIA 2012, kicking off today at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and continuing through the 28th. The DIA tells me it expects 7,000 attendees, 550 exhibitors, and 895 speakers.
The DIA is a big event for many Philly area companies in the Clinical IT side of the business, such as Octagon Research Solutions, NextDocs, BioClinica, and numerous others. The meeting on the whole is very scientific and quite expensive, although there are plans for individual days or specific sessions (still expensive). I think there are more affordable Exhibit Hall-only options available, although I haven't been able to confirm the specifics on those.
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Philly Tech People News 6/24/2012: Brussin, Hirsch among E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winners
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You can see all the award recipients here, and a list of all the regional finalists here.
Monetate Opens London Office to Meet Demand From EMEA Companies
Mike Harris, Vice President EMEA, Will Head Monetate's Overseas Presence (Marketwire)
Specops Software Appoints New CEO and Expands North American Presence with new Philadelphia office (Marketwire)
Electronic Ink Welcomes John Scarpato as Chief Operating Officer (Electronic Ink Press Release)
Rockify Adds Mark H. Tuttle as Chief Content Officer
Tuttle will be based in Philadelphia (Rockify Press Release)
Heartland Payment Systems Adds Three Senior Executive Positions to Drive Company’s Future Growth (Business Wire)
Acsis, Inc. Appoints Stephanie Seibel to Chief Financial Officer
Stephanie Seibel Recognized for Contribution to the Acsis Organization (Business Wire)
CardioNet, Inc. Appoints Michael Geldart Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Business Development (Business Wire)
InterDigital Adds Pieter Knook to Technical Advisory Council
Veteran Microsoft and Vodafone Executive Joins Team of Senior Communications Executives Advising Wireless Technology Leader (Business Wire)
Marty Michael Named Chief Executive Officer of Miria Systems
Miria Systems Acquires Cloud Computing Firm; Calls It “Key Step” In Bringing Together the Interconnected Technology World of the 21st Century (Miria Systems Press Release)
Bradford Media Group promotes Lancaster native, Temple alum Rachel Burke To Director of Social Media (Philly Ad Club News)
WebiMax founder and CEO Kenneth Wisnefski Announces Addition of Bill Slawski to the WebiMax Team (PR Web)
Former Comcast and Brightcove exec building multiscreen apps for Cainkade (FierceCable)
Subscribe to Philly Tech People News by Email
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E-Tailer Customization: Convenient or Creepy? (New York Times)
Article focuses on Conshohocken-based Monetate.
Online video brings new antitrust concerns to Comcast's door (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Internet rivals Comcast, EPB slug it out in Chattanooga market (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
Imagine having three broadband suppliers (including AT&T U-Verse) fighting for your business.
phillytechnews twitter feed 6/21 to 6/22/2012
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Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:42 AM PDT
phillytechnews: Schilling takes blame for 38 Studios failure - Mass High Tech Business News http://t.co/zXSmKW9l
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Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:12 AM PDT
phillytechnews: Report that Turkish jet shot down over Syria
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Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:24 AM PDT
phillytechnews: RT @cloudmine: We're launching out of Beta and bringing the #BaaS! http://t.co/RRyRCo3n
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Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:11 AM PDT
phillytechnews: Interesting take on QlikTech's Expressor deal, albeit from competitor http://t.co/p3yyI62S |
Why Are B2B Social Media Firms So Hot? (Mashable)
Cable road to nowhere (Claire Atkinson/NY Post)
Insta-cloud: CloudMine makes big data super-simple for apps and enterprise (VentureBeat)
Daily Links 6/22/2012: CloudMine officially launches CloudMine 1.0
Comcast 'Invents' Its Own Private Internet (Bloomberg Business Week)
Dish Network, Netflix, NCTA execs set to clash at House hearing (FierceCable)
Bringing the BaaS (CloudMine Blog)
Officially launches CloudMine 1.0.
Google to launch Amazon, Microsoft cloud rival at Google I/O (Gigaom)
Don't expect a kinder, gentler Oracle after sales exec's departure (InfoWorld)
QlikTech Jumps the Shark (Paul Staelin/Birst Blog)
Interesting point of view on QlikTech's recent Expressor acquisition, though keep in mind it is written by a competitor that's trying to move into QlikTech's space.
phillytechnews twitter feed 6/18 to 6/19/2012
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Posted: 19 Jun 2012 02:10 PM PDT
phillytechnews: RT @MLB: BREAKING: Phillies 2B Freddy Galvis suspended 50 games after testing positive for a banned substance.
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Posted: 19 Jun 2012 01:43 PM PDT
phillytechnews: Who's Next to Fundraise? Try LLR Partners -peHUB http://t.co/xcceZkzH |
Daily Links 6/21/2012: Philly Fed Survey "Suggests Weaker Business Conditions"
Survey Suggests Weaker Business Conditions (Philly Fed)
Philly Fed factory gauge plunges in June (MarketWatch)
TC Mini Meetup Philly: The Recap (TechCrunch)
Ditch Your Hackathon, Have A Napkin Pitch Contest Like Today’s Uncubed Philadelphia Talent Fair (TechCrunch)
Philly publisher Bob Hall to staff: ‘We will probably experience another substantial loss this year’ (Poynter)
Advertising revenue down "in excess of 10%" so far this year.
First Round's Morgan on VC Investing, Strategy (Bloomberg via Washington Post)
Healthcare IT M&A 2011 (Healthcare Informatics)
West Chester-based Hoopla Software closes $2.8 million Series A; Salesforce.com is an investor
Tom Paine
West Chester-based Hoopla Software, which I wrote about early this year, announced today the closing of a $2.8 million Series A Financing, This is the completion of the round announced late last year, which at the time totaled $2.3 million including $1.3 million from Safeguard Scientifics.
Today's announcement also identified two other investors: California-based VC firm Illuminate Ventures and Salesforce.com., which frequently invests in startups operating within its ecosystem.
Founded by CEO and veteran Philly area technology executive Michael Smalls in 2009, Hoopla provides digital scoreboards and gamification techniques to enhance the performance of employees in sales, call centers, and support organizations. Hoopla leverages integration with the Salesforce platform and Salesforce's Chatter social networking tool.
The company says that "proceeds from this financing are being used to further build out Hoopla Software's gamified performance platform and to expand marketing initiatives". Hoopla also says it has added more than 25 new customers to its platform over the past two months, including Box, Marketo, and Zillow.
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Daily Links 6/20/2012: Verizon Wireless says its expanding 4G LTE network in Philadelphia Area tomorrow
Philly UNCUBED Talent Fair tomorrow (Philly UNCUBED)
NBC Sports: Comcast Sharpens Network Branding Ahead of London Olympics (BrandChannel)
On Demand Summit: Strauss Says 'Personalization' Is Key at Comcast
On-Demand World Is Here, Exec Says. Now It Needs To Be Tailored To Everyone (Multichannel News)
Comcast crushes porn owner’s “shakedown” of subscribers (paidContent)
Counting to 100 the Ellison way as Oracle Cloud takes on Workday and Salesforce.com (BusinessCloud9)
Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (6/11/2012 to 6/17/2012)
California-based game developer RockYou acquired Philly-based Ryzing, maker of "Bingo by Ryzing" for Facebook. The Ryzing team will remain in Philadelphia, and in fact is looking for more people. Ryzing has been backed by area VC firm Artists & Instigators. RockYou had entered into a publishing arrangement with Ryzing earlier this year.
I looked at which tech firms are moving or expanding in the Philly area, including Zivtech's new offices, Comcast's expansion of R&D facilities for its Business Services group in Mount Laurel, and QlikTech's new lease in New York.
QlikTech also made its first acquisition as a public company, acquiring Massachusetts-based Expressor Software, a metadata intelligence solution that helps users track data lineage and data governance.
The Department of Justice is reported to be conducting a probe into the behavior of Comcast and other cable operators to determine whether they are engaging in practices that may be harmful to online video competitors such as Netflix.
Comcast is partnering with PayPal and TiVo to deploy a system for enabling T-Commerce, a term referring to interactive shopping apps accessible directly from the TV interface.
Perhaps the biggest news from Apple's WWDC was that it didn't really have an announcement on AppleTV, though that doesn't mean there isn't any progress in that area.
Microsoft was reported to have reached an agreement to acquire enterprise social networking tool Yammer for more than $1 billion, though there has been no public confirmation of the deal yet. Such a deal raises questions as to what SAP's next move in that space might be.
Dell laid out its software strategy last week in a presentation at its Analyst Day, and Dell Boomi plays a key role in it.
DreamIt Ventures is now accepting applications for its Fall 2012 Philadelphia class, and Comcast Ventures has committed to being part of two more cycles of DreamIt Access, the minority-focused program, as part of this year's Philly program and next year's in New York. Fast Company nicely lumped Philly in with 14 other mostly second-tier cities in terms of tech startup activity, and the Wall Street Journal looked at why startups such as Stylitics, which originated in Philly, are drawn to New York.
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Google buys mobile patents from NJ-based Magnolia Broadband, which is backed by SCP Partners of Wayne
Tom Paine
While InterDigital's $375 million patent sale to Intel received most of the attention yesterday, there was another mobile technology patent sale by an area firm to a prominent buyer.
Warren, NJ-based Magnolia Broadband, Inc. has sold its "beam forming Mobile Transmit Diversity" (“MTD”) patent portfolio, including more than 50 patents, to Google, the company announced yesterday. These patents cover "methods for increasing spectrum utilization (network capacity), expanding coverage, improving uplink transmission speeds at the cell edge, and improving device battery life", Magnolia said in a statement.
The software developed in relationship to those patents remain the property of Magnolia. Terms were not disclosed. Maagnolia said the proceeds from the sale will help finance its on-going R&D. Venture capital firm SCP Partners of Wayne, PA is Magnolia's largest shareholder. Yaron Eitan, Chairman of the Board of Magnolia Broadband, Inc. is also a Partner in SCP Partners, an interesting though fairly quiet firm headed by Managing General Partner Winston J. Churchill (no relation to the former Prime Minister). SCP Partners says it has $1 billion under management.
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Daily Links 6/19/2012: Report: LLR Partners to begin raising new fund later this year
Who’s Next to Fundraise? Try LLR Partners (PE Hub)
Says Philly-based LLR is expected to begin raising money for its fourth fund later this year.
Oracle sales exec departs: reorg, or rebuke? (ZDNet Blogs)
Oracle Rushes Out Q4 Results, Top Exec Departs (Information Week)
SAP Looking to Create 'distinguished Engineers' for Its HANA Database (PC World)
Data and Information Governance at Johnson & Johnson (ASUG News)
Why health IT systems integrate poorly today, and what future EHRs can do about it
The push for health data interoperability won't work unless the approach is modernized. (O'Reilly Radar)
phillytechnews twitter feed 6/18/2012
phillytechnews: Confused why Microsoft using same name as Microsoft Surface Table
Posted: 18 Jun 2012 05:27 PM PDT
phillytechnews: Confused why Microsoft using same name as Microsoft Surface Table
Posted: 18 Jun 2012 05:16 PM PDT
phillytechnews: Yep, it's a tablet: Microsoft introduces the Surface — paidContent http://t.co/AYRtuVUI
Posted: 18 Jun 2012 03:38 PM PDT
phillytechnews: Microsoft Unveils Its Mystery Device [LIVE BLOG] (Mashable) http://t.co/e6gYudoG
Posted: 18 Jun 2012 03:33 PM PDT
phillytechnews: Daily Links 6/18/2012: Oracle reports earnings early; Verizon launches FiOS Quantum with 300Mbps down http://t.co/smGU58CD
Pennsylvania wants to tax the Cloud
Tom Paine
The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue issued a new letter ruling on May 31 (Sales and Tax No. SUT-12-001(pdf)) stating that a Pennsylvania user accessing cloud software over the Internet is subject to sales or use tax. The ruling states that accessing “canned software” on remote servers is subject to sales or use tax, as long as the user is based in Pennsylvania, no matter where the software or servers are located. The logic behind the ruling is that using cloud software from a Pennsylvania location is the same as the purchase of tangible personal property in the state.
The ruling appears to reverse a 2010 ruling that stated "access to software solely through the Internet is not a taxable transfer of software unless the server or data center resides in Pennsylvania". That ruling is no longer on the Department of Revenue's website.
InterDigital (IDCC) up 27% on partial patent sale to Intel
Tom Paine
King of Prussia-based InterDigital (NASDAQ: IDCC) saw its stock soar as much as 30% today after announcing the sale of some 1700 patents to Intel for $375 million in cash. This intellectual property represents only a portion of InterDigital's total trove of some 20,000 patents. The patents sold cover 3G and LTE wireless technology and WiFi connectivity.
Last year, InterDigital considered selling its entire patent portfolio, but wasn't satisfied with the bids it received.
“This transaction, which involves a small portion of our overall patent portfolio, marks an important milestone of InterDigital’s stated strategy of expanding the monetization of its large and growing intellectual property portfolio", said Scott McQuilkin, Senior Executive Vice President, Strategy and Finance for InterDigital, in a statement.
Separately, InterDigital also announced today that it was doubling its share repurchase program to $200 million.
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Daily Links 6/18/2012: Oracle reports earnings early; Verizon launches FiOS Quantum with 300Mbps down
Don’t Forget: TechCrunch Is In Philadelphia Tomorrow (TechCrunch)
Oracle Reports Q4 GAAP EPS Up 11% to 69 Cents; Q4 Non-GAAP EPS Up 10% to 82 Cents (Marketwire)
GAAP revenue up 1%. Oracle moved earnings release up from Thursday, as reports surfaced that a key exec (said to be North American sales chief Keith Block) is leaving company. Block's emails critical of Mark Hurd and Sun's hardware business came out during HP trial.
Oracle's sales and profit rise in latest earnings report (San Jose Mercury News)
Yep, it’s a tablet: Microsoft introduces the Surface (paidContent)
Verizon debuts FiOS Quantum with crazy 300Mbps download speeds (VentureBeat)
Ivan Seidenberg Joins Perella Weinberg Partners as Advisory Partner (Business Wire)
GSI in the New York state of mind (GSI Commerce Blog)
Oracle reportedly revealing 'key resignation' this week (ZDNet Blogs)
Philly Tech People News 6/17/2012
Microsoft Veteran Nitin Bhatia Joins NextDocs to Further Drive Growth in Global Services
Bhatia brings decades of experience at Microsoft to his new role as leader of NextDocs’ Global Services team (Business Wire)
SunGard Announces Chief Financial Officer Transition (Business Wire)
SAP Ventures hires Clarkson as COO, managing director (San Jose Business Journal)
JK Group Names Robert E. Farina as Chief Executive Officer
Top Software Executive Joins Industry Pioneer to Drive Growth and Expand Product Portfolios (Marketwire)
iPipeline Increases Focus on Canadian Marketplace
Hires Canadian Insurance Expert to Support New Business Development Activities (Business Wire)
Universal Display Corporation Strengthens Management Team with Addition of New Vice President Mauro Premutico
Premutico, patent protection and intellectual property law expert, will support Universal Display’s continued growth as leading OLED technology licensing and materials supply company (Business Wire)
Ex-Canoe Exec Orduña Joins PayPal
Former Chief Product Officer of Cable's Ad Venture Aims to Strike Deals With MSOs, Others (Multichannel News)
John Schanz Receives InfoWorld Technology Leadership Award (Comcast Voices/Official Comcast Blog)
Minority-Focused Startup Incubator DreamIt Access Gets Renewed Investment, Will Continue For Two More Cycles (TechCrunch)
DreamIt now accepting applications for Fall class in Philly.
15 Tech Scenes In Places You'd Never Think To Look (Fast Company)
According to Fast Company, Philly ranks with tech powerhouses like Savannah, Greenville SC, Grand Rapids and Hobbs NM.
New York: Techie Magnet (Wall Street Journal: Metro Money)
"Stylitics investor Kirsten Green, managing partner of Forerunner Ventures, told me she'd be less inclined to fund a start-up based in Philly, simply because of the logistical hassles."
The Great Replacement: Microsoft, Yammer, and a New World in Enterprise Computing (PandoDaily)
Will social software startups "collapse into the orbit" of the big vendors? (Dion Hinchcliffe/ZDNet Blogs)
Infonautics alumni meet to share experiences and what followed
Tom Paine
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| Former Infonauts (L to R) Edwin Watkeys, Alan Preston, Ron Berg, Lucinda Duncalfe, Rick Mosenkis, Josh Kopelman, Marvin Weinberger, Andrea Michalek, Rich Gallagher, Mike Krupit (photo courtesy of John Ashmead) |
"The Infonautics Team & A Generation of Startups" was held this past Tuesday at Quorom at University Science Center. I had written a brief background piece on Infonautic's history prior to the event. Although I wasn't able to cover the event, Mike Armstrong of the Inquirer and Technically Philly's Juliana Reyes both provided excellent reports.
Although this event was certainly most worthwhile, co-sponsors Novotorium and Seed Philly subsequently announced they had decided to cancel most of the remaining "Entrepreneur Summer Camp" schedule, of which this was the kickoff event, citing what might have been an overly ambitious program competing with many other activities for a sometimes sparse summer crowd, as Novotorium's Mike Krupit explains. However, the Summer Camp Not-a-Hack-a-Thon Entrepreneur Sleepover on June 27 & 28 is definitely a go.
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Daily Links 6/15/2012: Microsoft reportedly in $1 billion deal for Yammer
Microsoft reportedly in $1 billion deal for Yammer (CNET News)
Take That Larry Ellison! Workday Is Expected To File For Its IPO This Month (SAI: Enterprise)
QlikTech Buys Expressor To Nix Scripting
Deal gives QlikView business intelligence software a graphical user interface to ease and speed data loading. (Cindi Howson/InformationWeek)
Exit Interview: Nitin Bhatia On Sharepoint, Yammer, Leaving Microsoft And Joining NextDocs (TechCrunch)
Obviously, they wanted to talk with Bhatia mostly about Yammer; NextDocs is hardly mentioned.
Hey, Comcast, the Rich Aren't That Different (Bloomberg Business Week)
Comcast's problem with Chappaquiddick.
ShopRunner picks up the pace
The shipping program offers members a way to make purchases in two clicks. (Internet Retailer)
Uber Wants To Drive You To The Philly Mini Meet-Up (TechCrunch)
What good is a 20% discount if their variable pricing just hikes up the price at the time?
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RockYou acquires Philly social game developer Ryzing (and its staying put)
Tom Paine
California-based social game maker RockYou, in which First Round Capital was an early stage investor, announced yesterday it was acquiring Ryzing, a Philly-based social game developer backed by area VC firm Artists & Instigators (formerly SeventySix Capital). Terms were not disclosed.
Ryzing's primary product is "Bingo by Ryzing" on Facebook, with more than 75,000 daily users. Ryzing's gaming platform gives players a chance at winning prizes through sweepstakes drawings. RockYou had already taken over distribution responsibilities for the game, which was released in 2011, earlier this year. Although RockYou's sweepstakes format enables it to avoid restrictions on cash payouts, if online gambling were to be legalized it has the potential to skyrocket.
Wayne D. Kimmel, founder and managing partner of Artists & Instigators, told me via Twitter DM that Ryzing's 6 person team was staying in Philadelphia and, in fact, they are looking to hire more people. Kimmel will also be joining RockYou's board.
Ryzing's team is led by Manu Gambhir, who has Wharton and Computer Science degrees from UPenn,and ran Cantor Fitzgerald's online gaming business in the United Kingdom (I had no idea Cantor Fitzgerald ever had an online gaming business). Dr. Dmitry Cherkassky, a UPenn Computer and Information Science PHD, led the design of the gaming system's architecture.
RockYou also announced yesterday it was relocating its headquarters from Redwood City, CA to San Francisco. It has raised $129 million, according to Crunchbase. First Round Capital participated only in the seed round; later, larger investors have included Softbank, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and Doll Capital Management.
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Daily Links 6/14/2012: Microsoft said to be in talks to buy Yammer
HP and SAP: What we need is a MASHED UP cloud
'We've moved away from doing it cheaper' (Thank god) (The Register)
Microsoft Said To Be In Talks To Acquire Yammer Social Network (Bloomberg)
Raises question again as to whether SAP will make a major move.
Yammer Acquisition Rumors Push Jive Shares Up (All Things D)
As I was saying....
Comcast Bids For .Xfinity, While Dish Wants .Direct And .DTV Web Names (Multichannel News)
U.S. is probing how pay-TV industry affects online competitors (LA Times)
Eagles, Rovio announce an Angry Birds deal (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Philly Tech News Facilities Roundup: Who's moving or expanding? (6/13/2012)
Tom Paine
Real estate decisions (leases, expansions, new buildings or offices) are often a good indicator of what's happening within a company, industry or region. This periodic Philly Tech News feature is a roundup of recent facilities news involving Philly area tech firms.
Zivtech, the Philadelphia development shop focused on content management systems such as Drupal and Alfresco and headed by partners Alex Urevick-Acelsberg and Jody Hamilton, moved this week from its old office on Strawberry Street to new digs in the Philadelphia Building on Walnut Street, where they have taken about half of the 15th floor-RJMetrics has the other half. They tell me they've just about doubled their square footage.
The old office, now available, was Indy Hall's original location. Zivtech also has people located in Madison, WI, and New York City.
Zivtech got Drupaldelphia off the ground a few years ago, and its fifth edition will be held on Saturday (correction: that's Friday), June 22 at Temple. There will be other events during the weekend, including the Drupaldelphia After / Zivtech Office Opening Party Jawn on Friday night.
Comcast has extended and expanded its lease at a former data center in Mount Laurel, going from 44,000 to 72,500 square feet. Comcast currently employs about 200 in the space at the former SunGard Data Systems facility, at Executive Park at East Gate on West Park Drive, which it first moved into in 2007. Comcast says it is expanding its research and development operations in Mount Laurel, which are apparently related to its rapidly growing Business Services segment.
Bethlehem-based online video service Viddler announced in April the opening of its second data center in New York City. Its existing data center in Phoenix now serves as a redundant backup. In what it described as a "six figure investment", Viddler said its "new, redundant, premium hardware assures the performance boost along with the ability to serve even more traffic at high speeds". "Lastly, we’ve enhanced our security and monitoring capabilities to provide a faster response to any potential problems."
Radnor-based Business Intelligence software vendor QlikTech has taken a seven-year lease on a pre-built 6,000 square foot space in the newly rennovated building at 292 Madison Avenue in New York, the Commercial Observer reported last week.
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| MSNBC's Chris Matthews cutting ribbon at opening of VideoLink's new Philadelphia facility (Source: VideoLink) |
At Media, the social media-oriented branding agency, moved its offices in early March from Cherry Street to 222B Race Street. The new office provides ground level storefront space and two levels.
King of Prussia-based GSI Commerce, a unit of EBay, has opened a new office in New York. It houses staff from GSI Commerce's marketing services businesses including mobile advertising, ad retargeting, ad analytics, affiliate, and email. The office will have about 150 employees.
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Daily Links 6/13/2012: DOJ reported to be investigating Cable moves in online video
Constant Contact Acquires Business Listings Startup SinglePlatform, Deal Worth Up To $100M (TechCrunch)
SinglePlatform is a First Round Capital portfolio company.
Congratulations: Single Platform Acquired by Constant Contact (Howard Morgan/Way Too Early)
FCC to let cable firms stop carrying local TV in analog (LA Times)
U.S. Probing If Cable Operators Hamper Netflix, Online Video (Report) (Hollywood Reporter)
First GPS III Launch Delayed by Up to a Year, OCX by Two Years (Inside GNSS)
Doesn't appear to be Lockheed's fault.
Quality Systems, Inc. Reports Fiscal 2012 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results (Business Wire)
Quality Systems' principal business is NextGen Healthcare of Horsham.
What do Qliktech customers gain from Expressor? (Research with Results/Aberdeen Group Blog)
Daily Links 6/12/2012: Radnor's QlikTech makes acquisition; Comcast to work with PayPal, TiVo on T-Commerce
QlikTech Acquires Expressor Software to Deliver the Data Users Need with the Governance IT Requires (Business Wire)
QlikTech's first acquisition, at least in recent times. QlikTech's CFO had hinted that some small acquisitions might be in the pipeline during the company's last earnings call.
PayPal To Offer E-Commerce On TV Sets With Comcast, TiVo (Bloomberg)
TiVo Treads Into T-Commerce With PayPal Pact
Solution to Be Available to DVR Maker's Cable Operator Customers (Multichannel News)
Comcast Kicks Tires On ActiveVideo's Web-Based VOD Interface
MSO Licenses Vendor's CloudTV H5 Platform For Trial in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Multichannel News)
Comcast Must Back Off Internet Speed Claims
Ad assertions examined after Verizon complaint (Adweek)
Verizon's sharing plans: Confusing but inevitable (Comp
phillytechnews twitterfeed 6/8 to 6/10 2012
phillytechnews: Philly Tech People News 6/10/2012 http://t.co/8H498NRS
Posted: 10 Jun 2012 04:35 PM PDT
phillytechnews: Philly Tech People News 6/10/2012 http://t.co/8H498NRS
Posted: 10 Jun 2012 11:48 AM PDT
phillytechnews: Intel's plans for virtual TV come into focus | Reuters http://t.co/1HGDokZJ
Posted: 10 Jun 2012 10:05 AM PDT
phillytechnews: PTN Post: "Entrepreneur Summer Camp" to kick off events with look back at Infonautics (June 12) http://t.co/RhA1Ylv3
Posted: 10 Jun 2012 06:19 AM PDT
phillytechnews: Football players may have been among victims of Auburn shooting
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