Taney leaves Buchanan Ingersoll and Rooney for Stevens & Lee

Tom Paine

Francis X. (Frank) Taney Jr., an attorney who is well known in the Philadelphia entrepreneurial and VC world and known by his many followers on Twitter by the (somewhat) self-mocking handle @scarylawyer, has left Buchanan Ingersoll and Rooney, where he was a partner and served as chairman of the firm's Information Technology Litigation Practice Group. As of Monday, he is Of Counsel at Stevens & Lee, working out of its Philadelphia office at 1818 Market Street. Stevens & Lee is a regional law firm based in Reading.

Taney told Philly Tech News by email that there wasn't a single reason for the move. "First off, BIR was/is a great firm, so none of this is intended as disparaging of BIR. But I'd say that different people value different things in law firms, and I'm attracted by S&L's entrepreneurial ethos, full service platform, high profitability and lean cost structure. In addition, given my focus on emerging companies, I'm also particularly excited about the ability to offer my clients investment banking services and potential access to capital through S&L's non-law firm affiliate, Griffin Financial Group." His practice at S&L will continue to be a mix of litigation (tech, IP, antitrust, commercial) and tech related transactional/counseling.

Taney has been actively involved as a leader in many key initiatives, such as the Entrepreneurs Forum of Greater Philadelphia, PANMA and Seed Philly, as well as holding open office hours at various locations in the Philadelphia area. He also did some pioneering work on protecting virtual property in communities such as Second Life, a concept I've never fully understood. He will continue to be active and visible in the community; in fact, tomorrow he will be holding open office hours at Quorum (though I don't know if there is any open time left).

He received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.



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Daily Links 4/9/2012: FCC okays basic cable rate regulation in Boston

Comcast May Face Renewed Rate Regulation in Boston, FCC Says (Bloomberg)

Boston wins authority to control cable fees (Boston Globe)
Comcast says it will appeal.

Comcast spent heavily in support of anti-online piracy bills (The Hill)

TV Sets Are Connected To Internet In 38% Of Homes
Connected TVs in U.S. Increase from 24% Two Years Ago: Leichtman Research Group Survey (Multichannel News)

Comcast Files Patent Application for Web TV Tech (Zatz Not Funny!)

Home automation: Comcast to add Technicolor touchscreen (Communications, Engineering & Design Magazine)


Jack Leidlein, First Round’s New Head of Talent, Wants To Hire You
But only if you're exceptional. (BetaBeat)

BAT signs £132m deal for cloud-based SAP
Company wants single instance of SAP across 65 countries (Computerworld UK)

Oracle Database Systems Insufficient for ‘Big Data,’ Says WSJ (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Commodore founder Jack Tramiel dies at 83 (VentureBeat)

Move Over Eye Candy, Here Comes the Business Tech Boom (Bloomberg Business Week)

Fujikura Ltd. States Intent to Acquire Battelle Ventures’ New Jersey Portfolio Company Nistica, Inc.
Bridgewater-based developer of wavelength selective switches to network equipment manufacturers will operate as a Fujikura subsidiary (Business Wire)

RCD Technology is Now Vizinex RFID, the Way You Imagined (PR Web)

Philly Tech News Facilities Roundup: Who's moving or expanding? (4/9/2012)

Tom Paine

Real estate decisions (leases, expansions, new buildings or offices) are often a good indicator of what's happening within a company or industry. This periodic Philly Tech News feature is a roundup of recent facilities news involving Philly area tech firms.

NextFab Studio, Philadelphia 's high-tech workshop and prototyping center featuring 3D printers and other design and fabrication tools, will be holding a preview party for NextFab2, its larger second location on April 19 from 6 to 9pm. The building, at 2025 Washington Ave in the Southwest Center City / Graduate Hospital neighborhood, was formerly a custom ironwork shop which is being reconfigured by Philadelphia architecture and design firm inHabit. The new studio will feature more advanced and a greater variety of equipment, private studios with 24/7 facility access, and a cafe at street level. The original NextFab studio in University City will continue to operate and there may be expansion plans for it, a spokesperson for the organization indicates. NextFab2 plans to open in July. Tickets for the preview party are available here for a small fee.

Technically Philly's Yael Borofsky took an insightful look at the exploding co-working, incubator and accelerator scene in Philly and asks whether some of it, at least, is a sign that a bubble is emerging.

NJTechWeekly.com's Esther Surden (a Philly Tech News contributor) has an article on Synchronoss' move to a larger headquarters in Bridgewater, NJ. Synchronoss, the company that helps many consumers activate their smartphones and tablets, resisted overtures from other states to stay in New Jersey, CEO Stephen Waldis told NJTechWeekly.com. The publicly traded company has moved to an 88,000-square-foot space vacated by pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Aventis in the Bridgewater Crossing office park. Though Waldis said “typically our engineering is done out of our [Bethlehem] Pa. location and offshore”, they are also beginning to build an engineering team in New Jersey. The company has 1,000 employees worldwide, and a market capitalization of over $1 billion.

A bit further north in Jersey, HR SaaS vendor iCIMS has moved to a new headquarters in Matawan, NJ, just up the road from its previous location in Hazlet. iCims, which says it currently has 200+ employees, plans to increase staff by almost 25% in 2012. The company announced a $35 million minority investment from Bala Cynwyd-based Susquehanna Growth Equity, LLC (SGE) earlier in the year.

On Thursday April 12th at 11:30 AM, the Free Library of Philadelphia will launch its new Techmobile “Hot Spot on Wheels” at Rowan House in West Philadelphia, with the help of Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter and Adel Ebeid, The City of Philadelphia’s Chief Innovation Officer. The Free Library Techmobile is a 25-foot van outfitted with six computers, all necessary broadband equipment, and a trained assistant who will provide computer training classes as well as one-on-one assistance during open-access time. The Techmobile will help the Free Library reach areas of the Philadelphia community that are not close to a library branch or one of the six stationary hot spots the library began launching last April. It was made possible by funds from the Federal Broadband Technologies Opportunities (BTOP) grant.

Micro Strategies says it is in the final stages of completing the certification process to establish a Microsoft Experience Center in its Malvern office, as well as in Denville, NJ. Micro Strategies descibes Microsoft Experience Centers as giving "Business and Technology Decision Makers the opportunity to test-drive the Microsoft business productivity platform in a real-life environment. Designed to enhance an understanding of available Microsoft technologies, the hands-on sessions offer the best way to learn about Microsoft business productivity tools and technologies without any sales pressure, long demos, or redundant presentations".



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Inaugural Princeton Tech Meetup Draws Enthusiastic Crowd

Esther Surden
Publisher & Editor, NJTechWeekly.com

An enthusiastic bunch of tech professionals attended the Princeton Tech Meetup kickoff meeting, held in the basement of a Nassau Street bar, on March 19. It was a promising beginning for a group pulling together tech developers and entrepreneurs from the central Jersey area.

The first meeting was primarily a networking event, drawing 90 attendees and providing them plenty of low-cost drinks.

The organizers, Chris Boraski, a Montgomery County web developer, and Venu Moola, a marketing and advertising entrepreneur and technology executive who lives in the Princeton area, promised to try to get faculty and students from Princeton and other nearby institutions involved in their effort.

Their goal: to bring together tech types, creative folks, entrepreneurs and investors. Some we spoke to in the audience were on the business side of startups; others included marketing people looking for prospects and even an advertising rep.

David Deutsch, a Flemington-based chief strategist for SynergiSocial, provided an introduction to social media that was well received. When businesses use social media--Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the like--to promote their products or services, they generally don't get anywhere because social media is, at its core, not marketing, Deutsch said.

Businesses need to understand that “it is a conversation, a place to connect, collaborate, ask questions, answer questions and get to know people. Indeed, it is the world's largest global conversation taking place right now about every topic imaginable, and it is happening with or without you.”

Travis Kahn, the newly appointed executive director at TechLaunch, the NJ tech accelerator that will be based at Montclair State University, explained how accelerators work to nurture, as well as speed to market, seed-stage companies. He asked audience members who thought their companies might be a match for TechLaunch to contact him.

Jeff Blake, N.J.-based vice president of sales for E-Zassi (Fernandina Beach, Fla.), an integrated online business-network, decision-support software and technology marketplace, spoke about open innovation in the life-sciences device marketplace. “We provide analytics and security for medical-device and life-sciences customers by automating the idea-capture process,” he said.

If there was one complaint, it concerned the noise level. Speakers had to compete with the venue’s sound system, and many in the back of the room gave up on listening because it was too difficult. The organizers are working to remedy this. A lot of business introductions took place at the kickoff, so most attendees were satisfied with the outcome and are looking forward to the next meetup.

Esther Surden is Publisher and Editor of   New Jersey Tech Weekly , and a contributor to Philly Tech News. This article originally appeared in New Jersey Tech Weekly.

(Editor's Note: The next Princeton Tech Meetup is scheduled for April 16; location hasn't been determined yet.)


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