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)

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