Today in Philly Tech News history 10/30/1938: Orson Welles' broadcast stirs up real-life Grover's Mill, NJ


Tom Paine





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I've always been a great admirer of Orson Welles, and yesterday was the 75th anniversary of his famous "War of the Worlds" radio production.

What I did not know until reading an article a few years ago was that the place identified as the Martians' initial landing place, Grover's Mill, NJ, is a real place. Not really a town, as I understand it, but a location in West Windsor Township, not too far from Princeton. Quite a crowd reportedly actually showed up at Grover's Mill that night to see what was going on. There is a monument there, and there are events planned in the area this weekend to observe the anniversary.

Also see this piece the Inquirer ran yesterday.

This is as close as I can come to identifying the spot on Google Maps, Grover's Mill Road. There is also a Grover's Mill Pond.




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Links 10/31/2013: Time Warner Cable earnings show impact from CBS fight, but shares rise on M&A speculation








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Comcast could license tech to other U.S. cable operators: executive (Reuters)

Time Warner Cable Loses 306,000 TV Subscribers Amid CBS Dispute (Hollywood Reporter)

TWC Shares Rise On M&A Spec (Multichannel News)

Goldman Sachs’s Armstrong Is Said to Leave Firm for Comcast Job (Bloomberg)
Would head up IR.


Pa. bill would deregulate phone companies (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Q&A: Stephen Goodman, the Entrepreneurship Guru
(Keystone Edge)

InterDigital Announces Third Quarter 2013 Financial Results
Success in Arbitrations Drives Revenue of $110.6 Million, Net Income of $26.7 Million

(InterDigital Press Release)



ICG Announces Third Quarter Financial Results
Announcement of Procurian Transaction Marks Evolution into Pure-Play Cloud Company
(Globe Newswire)

Bolt Solutions Acquires Online Aggregator Superior Access (SAIS) (Insurance Journal)
New York-based Bolt is 53% owned by ICG.


Google, Oracle Workers Enlisted for Obamacare 'Tech Surge'
(Bloomberg)










Zavino owner Dodge & business partner O'Dea launch Schedule Cloud for restaurant and catering staffing management


Tom Paine




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Zavino window / Zavino website


Greg Dodge, a Gladwyne-based hospitality exec and owner of Center City's popular restaurant Zavino, and his business partner Frank O'Dea, who manages catering for major events, have worked with Pearl River, NY-based Superior Technology Solutions to create a software solution for the hospitality industry. Their new offering, Schedule Cloud, is a cloud-based, mobile app for workload and staffing planning designed specifically for the hospitality industry, although it may have uses elsewhere. Greg, founder of Philadelphia-based Brookwood Consulting Group, has served as the opening general manager of two of Stephen Starr’s Philadelphia restaurants; O"Dea was an executive with Wolfgang Puck Catering, and now operates his own firm with clients including Puck Catering, the Loews Hollywood Hotel, and the Honda Center.


Zavino's interior / Zavino website


Schedule Cloud is being beta tested at Zavino and by several catering locations and events managed by O' Dea, mostly on the west coast.

Anyone who has work at or managed a restaurant understands the challenge of managing workforce planning, scheduling and expense tracking. Schedule Cloud increases productivity by streamlining the scheduling process and eliminating the need for multiple spreadsheets, numerous emails and phone calls. The tool allows employees to directly interface with the application from mobile devices (both iOS and Android) -- by entering their availability they are matched with upcoming events. The program also features business intelligence reporting and electronic event employee time sheets.

A single restaurant may be a (relatively) more stable, predictable environment for workforce scheduling and planning over time, but the type of large catered events O'Dea manages are more difficult to plan for. They involved bringing large amounts of labor and resources together quickly, often for one time events. So the potential benefits of Schedule Cloud may be greater for the event/catering business than for the single restaurant.

Superior is backed by CEO Wes Wyatt, a Haverford resident who is also CEO and President of DF Young, Inc, a Philadelphia-based logistics management firm. “We are excited to bring our expertise to work on this new venture. We spent significant time researching and understanding our client’s requirements; a fundamental part to the successful implementation of any project," said John Luludis, President of Superior Technology.


O'Dea told Philly Tech News Schedule Cloud is currently running on servers at Superior, but will probably move to Amazon Web Services as it scales. Among the locations Schedule Cloud is talking to about adding to its beta period is Philadelphia's prestigious Union League, O'Dea adds.





Links 10/30/2013: Comcast reports earnings; will stream 35 live channels to mobile apps outside home







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COMCAST REPORTS 3RD QUARTER 2013 RESULTS (Business Wire)
Comps depend on whether Olympics and Super Bowl are included or excluded. Earnings decline
compared to prior year's quarter which included Olympics, but do beat street expectations.

Comcast to Stream 35 Live TV Channels to Mobile Apps Outside the Home (Variety)

Comcast, Astros Reach Accord Allowing Team to Seek Network Deals (Bloomberg)

Smit: Comcast could grow Xfinity footprint by licensing X1 to fellow cable MSOs (FierceCable)

Comcast Is Better Prepared in Wake of Sandy's Wrath (Multichannel
News)


Intel May Turn Over Its Web TV Project to Verizon (All Things D)

Pricewaterhouse to Buy Booz Consulting Firm (New York Times: DealBook)

IBM gives up fight to build CIA's $600m secret cloud, hands deal to Amazon (The Register)

Qliktech Looks To The Next Generation Of Discovery Tools (PAC Blog)


Unisys Selects Virtustream to Help US Department of the Interior Migrate SAP Environment to the Cloud (Business Wire)

SAP partner builds up cloud practice (ZDNet)
Wharfedale Technologies is based in Lawrenceville, NJ.

SAP confirms 20 customers live on HANA cloud, hundreds in the pipeline (Computerworld UK)

SAP: We couldn't POSSIBLY eat BlackBerry. We're stuffed with 'mobile solutions' (The Register)


Former publisher Tierney again out of Inquirer job (Philadelphia Inquirer)




Links 10/29/2013: WSJ: Aereo may have more NY subs than many thought






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NYC TV Week: Moffett: Cable Stocks Nearing Plateau (Multichannel News)

Comcast Profit Should Jump But Sales Dip Ex-Olympics (Investor's Business Daily)


Aereo may have 100K subscribers in New York – that could be trouble
(Gigaom)

Just what went wrong with Comcast SportsNet? (Houston Chronicle)
In-depth article exploring all parties' points of view.


More SEPTA stations getting Comcast WiFi (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Nextdoor, a Start-Up, Raises $60 Million (New York Times: DealBook)
Comcast Ventures participates in round. No revenue yet, but I can see potential of niche.
Different approach to hyperlocal, without so much in expensive editorial resources.





Healthcare.gov Outage Scars Verizon Terremark (Light Reading)

SunGard Announces Third Quarter 2013 Results (Business Wire)


eBay caters to large retailers with In-store Pickup (ecommerce Bytes)


Links 10/28/2013: Bentley extends its reach with Azure






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Philadelphia has the slowest 4G mobile broadband in America—and it’s Sprint’s fault (Quartz)
Not a completely fair headline - its just that Sprint drags down the average.

Bentley to ‘Complete Its Reach’ in Software Services (Business
Wire)

Microsoft’s Phone Sales May Be Low, But Its Cloud Revenue Is Up (Wired)

Salesforce.com’s Odd Decision To Close Do.com (TechCrunch)

SAP Q3 Results: The Evolution Will Be Televised (ASUG News)

Oracle moves aggressively to poach SAP Business ByDesign customers (PC World)

Is Oracle at a Junction Point in Its History? (Esteban Kolsky/Enterprise Irregulars)


SAP Consigns Everything Pre-HANA to history. In-memory First Development (James Governor/Enterprise Irregulars)


SAP can't restrict software resales, German court rules
(PC World)

Tableau Announces Third Quarter 2013 Financial Results (PR Newswire)
Not saying they should be compared apples-to-apples(at different stages), but Tableau revenue up 90% vs. 21% for Radnor-based QlikTech.


HHS says Obamacare web problem on Sunday linked to Verizon Terremark (Politico)

Meet the Exec Crafting Google’s Vision for the Future of Shopping (Maybe This Time It’ll Work!) (All Things D)


Philadelphia Venture Capital Community Expects Uptick in VC IPO Activity and Venture Investment in 2014, KPMG Survey Finds (Globe Newswire)

Windstream, Comcast Business and IPR build Delaware's new statewide network (FierceTelecom)














Amazon and the "profitless business model" fallacy (Remains of the Day)


Philly Tech People News 10/27/2013











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Arkieva Appoints Dr. Ken Fordyce to the Newly Created Position of Solutions Director, Semiconductor and Analytics (Business Wire)

Mobile Recruiting Technology Leader iMomentous Expands Leadership Team (Marketwire)



SAP Names Mark Gibbs President of SAP Greater China to Speed up Growth in the Leading Emerging Market
(PR Newswire via Jakarta Post)

From SAP to Infor: new mantle for Atul Sareen (CIOL)

IBB Consulting Promotes David Helfrick to Partner (Marketwire)

IBB Consulting Promotes Jefferson Wang to Senior Partner (Marketwire)





Saturday Highlights 10/26/2013: SAP CFO: BlackBerry not a strategic fit



Blackberry not a strategic fit for us: SAP CFO in magazine (Reuters)

Keeping an eye on software-defined networking: what will it break, and how will it perform? (Gigaom)
By Vess Bakalov, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Wilmington-based SevOne.


DirecTV, Time Warner Cable Are Said to Weigh Aereo-Type Services (Bloomberg)

500,000 WiFi Sites on Cable’s Agenda (Multichannel News)

Family manager AboutOne nets $1.8M for new apps (MobileHealthNews)






Links 10/25/2013: QlikTech falls nearly 20% on Europe & Asia weakness, guidance cut





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QlikTech says order delays to hurt quarter; shares sink (Reuters)
Shares fall 19% today.

NetSuite Reports Q3 Sales Growth, Declares Victory Over SAP (CRN)

NetSuite's Nelson mocks SAP for halting work on its, er, 'NetSuite-killer' (The Register)


SAP sees strong MDM demand to meet BYOD trend as BlackBerry use wanes (V3.co.uk)
Echoes this recent article that mentions Blue Bell-based Fiberlink moving in to replace BlackBerry (for MDM) in large Canadian auction house.

Amazon Web Services Revenue: New Details (Information Week)



Source: Oracle Paid Over $400 Million For BigMachines To Grab More Salesforce Customers (Business Insider)

Zients: HealthCare.gov's problems will be fixed in a month (USA Today)


Schiller to Leave NBCU For Twitter Post (Multichannel News)

Don't let the cheap Comcast HBO deal fool you, cord-cutters (CNET News)




Links 10/24/2013: Variety on changes at NBCU; Safeguard Scientifics takes hit on PixelOptics





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NBC Staff Unsettled As Steve Burke Reshapes the Top Exec Ranks
(Variety)

Comcast COO Watson: Virtual Xfinity 'opens a myriad of possibilities' (FierceCable)

Did Comcast just take a first step towards unbundling HBO? (Gigaom)


Arris RDK Boxes Coming Soon (Light Reading)



Safeguard Scientifics Announces Third Quarter 2013 Financial Results (Business Wire)
Safeguard may have hit dry well with $37 mm investment in Va-based PixelOptics, a developer of electronically focusing prescription eyewear. Safeguard wrote its carrying value down to $0 and says it "does not intend to deploy substantial additional capital", and that the company looking to recapitalize from other sources to launch its next generation product. The risk that comes with investing in bleeding edge technology.

Real Food Works Receives Investment From First Round Capital and StartUp PHL’s Innovative City-Backed Fund (PR Web)

QlikTech Delivers Solid Third Quarter Revenue Growth (Business Wire)

Amazon Web Services continue to tear it up (Gigaom)


Convercent, Compliance Software in the Cloud, Lands $10 Million From SAP Ventures (All Things D)

Quality Systems, Inc. Reports Fiscal 2014 Second Quarter Results (Business Wire)
Quality Systems' primary business unit is Horsham-based NextGen Healthcare.

SFX Buys Readability Developer Arc90, Fame House and Tunezy To Give Its Electronic Dance Music Business A Digital Content Spin (TechCrunch)
Fame House is based in Philadelphia.






Links 10/23/2013: SAP exec says Business ByDesign will live on













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SAP Business ByDesign will live on, exec says (Computerworld)

SAS and SAP – an important match (Diginomica)

Can Forward halt Unisys' decade of decline? (ZDNet)


Philly tech funding up for first time since 2008 (Philadelphia Business Journal)
According to data from EY, Philly PACT and BFTP-SEP.

Pa. gaming chief: No quick move to Internet gambling (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Labor shortage: Pa. software firm [Monetate] pays $5,000 to refer sales, tech help (Philly.com: Philly Deals)


Lockheed profit tops estimates; raises full-year outlook (Reuters)

Healthcare.gov: Latest Victim Of Federal Acquisition Problems? (Information Week)

IBX cancels 24,000 plans that don't meet Affordable Care Act rules (NewsWorks)


Netflix CEO hopeful for deals with Comcast, others (Reuters)

Rockets Side with Comcast in Petition for Chapter 11 Protection for CSN Houston (Multichannel News)



Pace Makes $310 Million Play for Aurora Networks (Multichannel News)

Oracle buys sales order automation specialist BigMachines
(PC World)








Bloomberg interview with Veeva Systems CEO Peter Gassner (video)



Bloomberg West interviews Veeva Systems founder & CEO Peter Gassner after its successful IPO
last week.




Links 10/22/2013: Comcast tests 1 Tbps link; SAP partners with SAS in analytics












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How virtual cable and CableWiFi may have killed the Verizon Wireless – Comcast joint innovation lab (FierceCable)

Comcast Testing Small Cells – Sources
(Light Reading)

Look it’s the next generation network! Comcast tests a 1 Tbps link
(Gigaom)


Liberty Media's John Malone addresses cable industry challenges (LA Times: Company Town)

Phillies new TV deal coming soon, according to report (NJ.com)

NBA Will Let Cable Subscribers Stream Local Games for Free (Mashable)


iPipeline Acquires Aplifi
Acquisition Creates the Insurance Industry’s Largest Life and Annuities Customer Base and Most Powerful Platform
(Business Wire)

Philadelphia police chief warns of potential curse of technology (Reuters)

Unisys Announces Third-Quarter 2013 Financial Results (Unisys Press Release)



SAP, SAS forge analytics, HANA partnership (ZDNet)

SAP set to preach the HANA gospel to developers (Infoworld)

SAP bets on HTML5, open source for its mobile app platform (PC World)


SAP cuts back on development of Business ByDesign software unit (The Register)

NetSuite buys TribeHR, enters HR software market (ZDNet)


Online Retail Leader Rue La La Enlists Artisan for Mobile App Optimization (Business Wire)









IMPACT 2013 Venture Summit in Philly, starting today, features 50 presenting ventures


Tom Paine




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The IMPACT 2013 Venture Summit, presented by The Greater Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (PACT), is coming up on October 22 & 23 at the The Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia. This year's summit is hosted by Fox Rothschild LLC.

This marks the 20th year of the Venture Summit. More importantly, it reflects the growing maturity of the Philadelphia tech and life sciences venture communities, in terms of the quality of presenting companies and number and geographic distribution of investors attending, according to Michael S. Harrington, Partner at Fox Rothschild LLC and Conference Host and Chairman, speaking in a phone interview with Philly Tech News. Fifty companies will be presenting this year including 16 early stage companies, 18 technology companies and 16 healthcare companies, six of them in the healthcare information technology space. The early stage companies reflect a significant expansion of a new category that was tested out last year.

Keynoters include co-founder of StubHub and Spreecast, Jeff Fluhr; the former CEO of WebMD and current chairman and CEO of Lumeris Corporation, Michael Long; and professional golfer and sometimes provocative (Augusta National once ordered CBS to take him off Masters coverage) CBS commentator, Gary McCord.

Harrington says that the Venture Summit has become much more than a show & tell, and is now an active marketplace for exchanging ideas, action and investment proposals between entrepreneurs and investors.

PACT's “200 for $200″ Entrepreneur Program returns this year and is still available, Harrington says. Qualified entrepreneurs can register for the entire program for $200, as opposed to the regular registration fee of $1100 for non-members, although there are some different options for partial attendance and out-of-town investors. (Entrepreneur Program admission does not include a presenter slot.)

A VC panel on Tuesday includes First Round Capital co-founder Howard Morgan, and two out of town VCs whose firms have made significant multiple Philadelphia area investments; First Mark Capital Managing Director Amish Jani, and OpenView Venture Partners Senior Managing Director & Founder Scott Maxwell.

Company presentations and more panels are on the docket for Wednesday. Some of the presenting companies you may have heard of and others you may not have, but a lot of the fun is discovering lesser known potential gems. One startup to watch is RackWare, a cloud solutions provider with offices in Santa Clara and Wayne that recently raised $3 million from investors including Osage Venture Partners. Other prominent ventures presenting include Philadelphia-based PeopleLinx (backed by MissionOG) and Horsham-based RightCare Solutions, which provides a software system originally developed at Penn Nursing that attempts to reduce hospital readmissions. RightCare raised $1.75 million last year from Domain Associates and Compass.

A full list of presenting companies can be found here.

As usual, the summit winds up Wednesday evening with a reception at the Crystal Tea Room. Over 1,000 attendees are expected to attend IMPACT 2013.


Links 10/21/2013: SAP results show progress in Cloud, HANA











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SAP Relieves Investors as New Products Help Boost Profit
(Bloomberg)

SAP’s Co-Head Is Into the Cloud (Wall Street Journal: Tech Europe)

SAP Rising: Bull, Bear Cheer Q3 Progress in Cloud, Hana (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)


Comcast’s Sree Kotay Sheds More Light On MSO’s Cloud-Based IP Video Distribution Platform (Multichannel News)

PhillyDeals: Enhancing the sports-fan experience (Philly.com)
Philly startup OneTwoSee.

Netflix’s Q3 Beats Analyst Estimates With 1.3M New Domestic Subscribers, $0.52 Earnings Per Share (TechCrunch)

Netflix Hits Its Numbers, Investors Go Nuts, Reed Hastings Tells Them to Chill Out (Peter Kafka/AllThingsD)



DrugDev acquires CFS to further process standardisation (PharmaTimes)
DrugDev is based in Princeton; CFS Clinical is based in Audubon, Pa.

Discovering the rewards of failure (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Interview with Science Center leader Stephen S. Tang.

Start-ups in N.J. see less money as venture capital funding falls (Bergen Record)






Clinical Ink, developer of eSource technology for clinical trials with Philly-area office, raises $4.3 million



Tom Paine




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Clinical Ink, a pioneer in the development of eSource technology for use in clinical trials with offices in Winston Salem and Philadelphia, has landed a $4.3M Series B Investment Round led by FCA Venture Partners.

Clinical Ink's platform mimics the look, feel and usability of a paper chart on a tablet device (including use of a stylus for input) and enables data entry during patient visits rather than afterwords. Clinical Ink says it has been recognized by the Society of Clinical Data Management, Microsoft, and Gartner Research as having "significant disruptive potential" to transform the current clinical trial business model.


FCA Venture Partners, the venture capital manager of Clayton Associates, was founded in 1996 by R. Clayton McWhorter, founder of HealthTrust, Inc. and former chairman of Hospital Corporation of America. Founded in 2007, Clinical Ink's Philadelphia office appears to be
located in Horsham.


Philly Tech People News 10/20/2013










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NBCUniversal & Comcast Appoint Maggie McLean Suniewick To Senior Vice President, Strategic Integration (PR Newswire)

Luka Mucic Promoted to SAP CFO (GovConWire)

BioTelemetry, Inc. Appoints Joseph A. Frick to Its Board of Directors (Globe Newswire)

AmeriHealth Caritas Appoints Information Technology Visionary Fred Dickson to Lead IT Team (Globe Newswire)

Drexel Looks To Boost Online Offerings With New Executive Hire (CBS Philly)

President Theobald Outlines Vision For Temple University At Inaugural (PR Newswire)



Comcast's thePlatform Adds An Exec, Promotes Another (Multichannel
News)


Sunday Highlights10/20/2013: NBC using Football to start massive pre-Olympic campaign



SAP Cutting Back on Development of Business ByDesign (All Things D)

NBC Uses Football to Jump-Start Massive Olympic Blitz
(Ad Age)

Set-Top Box Showdown: A graphical guide to your options (GeekWire)


University City Science Center going strong at 50 (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Ailing Obamacare site to get a "tech surge" (PC World)






Saturday Highlights 10/19/2013: Fiberlink may be benefitting from BlackBerry woes; Report - SAP may be softly killing Business By Design



BlackBerry faces dogfight as firm returns to its corporate roots (Globe & Mail)
Example of how Blue Bell-based Fiberlink Communications may be benefitting from BlackBerry's problems.

SAP to wind down software product for small businesses: magazine (Reuters)
A slow death for Business By Design?

What happened to the SAP I knew? (Vinnie Mirchandani/Enterprise Irregulars)

Science Center Celebrates 50th Anniversary - Launches Innovators Walk of Fame (Business Wire)


Glitches keep Obamacare NJ enrollment low (Asbury Park Press)





On heels of Veeva Systems' mega IPO, a look at its Philly ties and vision for life sciences IT


Tom Paine




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Veeva opening on NYSE / courtesy Veeva Systems



Pleasanton, CA-based Veeva Systems, a cloud computing company serving the life sciences industry, went public Wednesday at $20 per share, raising its offering price twice since its initial S-1 filing. As a result, the company raised $194 million, and after trading opened shares nearly doubled on the first day. On Thursday, Veeva (NYSE: VEEV) closed at $41.60, giving the company a $5 billion market capitalization.

Though based in Silicon Valley, Veeva has many roots and a major portion of its life sciences client base here. Veeva now has about 100 employees in the Philadelphia area, between its Eastern US office in Radnor and also from acquiring AdvantageMS in Fort Washington in June. And Matt Wallach, Veeva co-founder who is a native of Wallingford, is based out of Radnor. Wallach was recently named Veeva's President, reporting to CEO Peter Gassner. He issued the following statement on Wednesday:

“Today marks a very exciting day for Veeva employees, customers and partners. We founded the company to help life sciences companies solve their most strategic business challenges with our industry cloud solutions. Multitenant cloud technology has enabled Veeva to efficiently craft industry-specific solutions to help pharma companies educate physicians on new therapies, bring drugs to market more quickly and maintain compliance with government regulations. These are billion-dollar business challenges, and the IPO validates their importance.”


I had an opportunity to speak with Wallach the morning after the IPO by phone. He said a large part of what Veeva was trying to achieve through its IPO was to firmly establish itself as a life sciences cloud solutions company, as opposed to simply being a life sciences CRM vendor (its original offering). Secondly, although Veeva is already expanding into other sectors of the life sciences space and intends to do so further, Wallach wanted to emphasize that it doesn't intend to go head to head against everyone. Rather, when Veeva can partner with companies who are doing an excellent job of meeting customers needs to provide an integrated, enhanced offering that adds value, it will do so. However, there is a list of areas where Veeva feels customer needs are not being well served and it will consider developing solutions for these from scratch. Beyond products already launched or announced, however (Veeva Vault, Veeva Network), Wallach declined to name any of these.

We discussed areas such as regulatory documentation & submission (where it partners with companies including Accenture and its Wayne-based Octagon Research Solutions unit); clinical trial management systems (CTMS), where its partnering with Medidata Solutions which has a unit in Conshohocken; prescription data and related research, where Veeva is working with Horsham-based Symphony Health Solutions; and quality management, where Veeva recently announced a partnership with Hamilton, NJ-based Sparta Systems. As for ERP and HCM, Wallach said those were fairly generic applications that Veeva would not try to replicate, but that some type of partnership with a major cloud ERP player could be a possibility.

A key tenet of Veeva's strategy is to "crowdsource" (with appropriate permissions) data flowing through its CRM platform from contacts with physicians and other providers to provide feeds that update and improve the quality of other databases, Wallach says. This could have a scale effect if (as Veeva hopes) it continues to increase its share of the life sciences CRM market.

For Veeva Network, Veeva's newest offering built partly around its AdvantantageMS acquisition and running on top of its Network platform, Veeva also opened an office in Toronto for technical development to support ongoing work on the product in Fort Washington. Veeva Network, which seeks to provide an improved provider database and already has some active users, is expected to be formally released before the end of the year.

I also had a chance to speak with J. Bruce Daley, VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, a CRM veteran who has followed Veeva for a while. He compared Veeva's rise (in particular, versus Oracle) to that of Workday, though in a niche rather than a vertical. Of course, principal founders of both firms came from companies Oracle acquired. Daley commented: “The founders of Veeva and Workday are becoming like the Old Masters. Each new success in technology only inspires them to think of the next one.”

There are other details I could cover (and will do so later), but for now I'm just trying to give the broad picture, while also mentioning Veeva's rapid rise since being founded in 2007 and its tremendous capital efficiency and profitable status (unlike many cloud companies).

Veeva's vision for life sciences seems to be to achieve data integration across the enterprise at perhaps a higher level than has has been achieved in the past. Their ability to achieve this vision will depend partly on customers' ability to change and adopt. The cloud is only an enabler, but the functionality that Veeva is aiming for goes beyond a mere change in how you access your data.




Links 10/18/2013: Philly VC Investment declines



Venture capital investment declines (Philadelphia Business Journal)

InterDigital Announces Formation of Signal Trust (Globe Newswire)

Suit alleges illegal cartel on TV, Internet sports
(Philadelphia Inquirer)



CSN Houston ‘will not’ survive without bankruptcy, Comcast says (Houston Chronicle: Ultimate Astros)

Aereo comes to Detroit on October 28. Can it really hit 22 cities by the end of 2013? (Gigaom)
Original plans called for it to launch in Philly this year.

Hong Kong tycoon likely winner of U.S. loan to Fisker Auto-sources
(Reuters)

SAP’s Plattner Calls for Privacy Rules as Big Data Takes Off
(Bloomberg)




Links 10/17/2013: Verizon/Cable product joint venture has been dead for awhile










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Veeva stock skyrockets, Emergence and Salesforce bask in the glow (San Francisco Business Times)

Veeva a better VC deal than Twitter? (Fortune Term Sheet)


Philadelphia 100 Announces 2013 Winners; Celebrates 25th Anniversary (PR Web)
See the full Philadelphia 100.

Verizon posts $2.23B profit, adds 1.1M wireless connections (CNET News)

Verizon gains 135K FiOS TV and 173K FiOS Internet subs in Q3 2013 (FierceCable)



Comcast and Verizon Decide They Don’t Need to Compete With Apple, Google and Everyone Else, After All
(All Things D)

Failure of Verizon’s cable partnership kills secretive Nuon content-sharing project (Gigaom)


SAP Appoints Björn Goerke Chief Information Officer and Head of Global Cloud Delivery (SAP Newsbyte)



Security firm releases tool to audit SAP's HANA (PC World)

Salesforce, Google, Amazon Cloud Winners, Says Piper; Microsoft Straddles the Line (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

eBay Inc. Reports Strong Third Quarter 2013 Results (Business Wire)
KoP-based EBay Enterprise reports 5% revenue growth.


Inquirer owners to Guild: Expect a long battle (Philadelphia Inquirer)




Links 10/16/2013: Veeva Systems worth $4.5 billion following first day close after IPO









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Pleasanton software firm Veeva Systems rakes in $261 million in IPO (San Jose Mercury News)
Veeva, with significant presence and customer base in Philly area, initially valued at $2.4 billion pre-trading.

Shares of Veeva Systems soar in IPO (MarketWatch)


Veeva’s IPO Isn’t Twitter-Hot, but It Should Make One Investor Very Rich (Bloomberg)

Gordon Ritter: Veeva Systems is the next Salesforce (VentureBeat)


Veeva CEO: We were never going to delay IPO (Fortune Term Sheet)


Verizon Testing Same-Day Delivery for Phones Ordered Online (AllThingsD)
Testing it in Philadelphia.

Comcast and NBCU Tap Exec to Lead Cross-Company Promo Efforts (Variety)



Consumer interest in cable shifts
Subscribers seek customized bundles
(Philadelphia Inquirer)

Dominion Business Solutions Merges with Integrated Business Consulting (Business Wire)
Combined company's portfolio includes Philly-based EigenX.





This week in Phily Tech History: University City Science Center celebrates 50th


Tom Paine




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Philadelphia's University City Science Center, founded in 1963, has been remembering its 50th anniversary throughout 2013.


It will be holding a celebration of its anniversary this coming Thursday evening (October 17) at the Hotel Monaco. It appears to be sold out, according to its Eventbrite page. The event will feature a formal program highlighting the Science Center’s history and successes, and the announcement of the inaugural inductees into the Innovators Walk of Fame.


Based on information the Science Center shared with me, the nearest thing to an official
founding date may be October 28,1963:




  • January 1963, Gaylord P. Harnwell, President of both the University of Pennsylvania and the West Philadelphia Corporation, appointed a committee chaired by E.B. Shils, Professor of Industry in the Wharton School, to advise a course of action for the University to take on the possible development of a science center in University City.


  • 28 October 1963, Penn joined with Drexel, the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, Presbyterian Hospital, and Temple University to submit articles of incorporation for the University City Science Center (UCSC) and the University City Science Institute (UCSI) to the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.


The University of Pennsylvania archives contains this excellent,in-depth history of the UCSC written by MacKenzie S. Carlson.


"Building 1" at 3401 Market /
Courtesy University City Science Center

The Science Center was the first, and remains the largest, urban research park in the United States. Since it was founded in 1963, graduate organizations and current residents of the Port business incubator have created more than 15,000 jobs that remain in the Greater Philadelphia region today and contribute more than $9 billion to the regional economy annually, the organization says.

Stephen S. Tang PhD has served as President & CEO since 2008.

Update: Science Center Celebrates 50th Anniversary - Launches Innovators Walk of Fame





Links 10/14/2013: New York Times on Philly newspaper war








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Philadelphia Newspaper’s Owners at War (New York Times)

Oracle’s hardware business may be worse than we thought (Gigaom)

Red Hat Loves SAP, It's Official (Dr Dobbs)

Unisys launches mobile security solution for enterprises (Computerworld)



Comcast to Offer Netflix on Set-Tops? Three Reasons It Makes Sense (Variety)

How Alibaba Could Underprice Amazon, and Other Things You Should Know (Bloomberg)


Waywire, Cory Booker’s Attempt to Build a Web Video Startup, Sells to Magnify (All Things D)
Just in time before the election.

Yahoo Acquires Bread, Will Shut Down The URL Shortener That Earned You Money (TechCrunch)
Bread was a portfolio company of Wayne Kimmel's SeventySix Capital.


Penn Engineering Intro Class Gets a Power Boost (Penn News)



Philly Tech People News 10/13/2013








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Hulu Said to Be Close to Naming Fox’s Hopkins as CEO
(Bloomberg)

Arthur Sadoun Named CEO of Publicis Worldwide (Ad Age)


SunGard Announces Departure of Harold Finders (Business Wire)

EPAM Systems Announces CFO Transition - Raises Third Quarter and Full Year Guidance (Thomson Business One)

Epicor abruptly replaces CEO (San Francisco Business Time)
Epicor, a mid-level ERP supplier, has operations in the Philadelphia area.

Philly's biggest IP law firm loses two key partners (Philadelphia Business Journal)

IP law firm founder announces retirement (Philadelphia Business Journal)

QVC Appoints Matthew Goldberg As Senior Vice President Global Market Development (PR Newswire)

Dr. Ulrich Flatten to Retire as CEO, QVC Germany (PR Newswire)

QVC Names Gregg Bertoni CEO of QVC Italy (PR Newswire)


Edward Lorenti Appointed as Instem VP Global Sales (Business Wire)

Point.io Names Savana Inc. Chairman and CEO Michael Sanchez to Board of Directors (Marketwire)


Life Sciences Industry Leverages Expertise of Veeva’s Jennifer Goldsmith
Goldsmith appointed to Pennsylvania Bio’s Healthcare IT Advisory Committee

(Business Wire)

LeadiD Appoints Chief Financial Officer To Support Company’s Accelerated Growth (PR Web)





Sunday Highlights 10/13/2013: WSJ: Netflix talking to cable operators, including Comcast



The benefits of a move to the city (Philadelphia Inquirer)
NetPlus moves from Conshohocken to Philly.

Why US government IT fails so hard, so often (Ars Technica)

From the Start, Signs of Trouble at Health Portal
(NY Times)

Netflix in talks with U.S. cable companies: WSJ
(Reuters)


Saturday Highlights 10/12/2013: More on Alibaba/ShopRunner deal; Fisker goes on block & can't pay taxes



E-commerce shipping service ShopRunner raises more than $200 million
(Internet Retailer)
Gives some more detail on deal, including comments from CEO Scott Thompson.

ShopRunner’s Scott Thompson: We’re Building So Much More Than An Amazon Prime Competitor (All Things D)

It will be interesting to see what ShopRunner commitment to the Philly area will be as it grows.


‘The first one’s free, kid.’ Amazon launches AWS Activate to get startups hooked (VentureBeat)

Fisker loan heads to auction block as U.S. seeks bids
(Reuters via Automotive News)

Fisker owes $1 million in taxes (Wilmington News Journal)





Links 10/11/2013: Veeva Systems boosts offering range to $16-$18 per share; Broadcast nets petition Supreme Court to shutter Aereo







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Veeva Systems increases range to $16 to $18, proposed deal size is now $222 million (Renaissance Capital)
Deal expected to price next week. Based in California, Veeva has a significant presence in
the Philadelphia area.

John Malone Doesn’t See Cablevision as Cable-Merger Target (Bloomberg)

Cable Stocks Soar on Malone Talk (Multichannel News)

‘Malone’s Melodies’ and More From Liberty Media’s Presentation (Wall Street Journal: Corporate Intelligence)

Broadcasters could bring Aereo fight to Supreme Court: sources
(Reuters)

Update: CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox File Supreme Court Petition to Shut Down Aereo (Mashable)


Comcast Says X1 Box Distribution Limitations Are Temporary, Isolated (Multichannel News)



Google to sunset Google TV brand as its smart TV platform merges with Android (Gigaom)


Heartland Payment Systems and Tabbedout Serve Up Integrated Mobile Payment Solution to Drive Consumer Engagement (Business Wire)


Forrester's First Wave Report on B2B e-Commerce Vendors: IBM Is Tops (CMS Wire)

CIOs see Google as more innovative than current enterprise vendors (ZDNet)





The big deal: Alibaba leads $206 million round in ShopRunner




Tom Paine

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Alibaba has led a $206 million round in Amazon Prime competitor ShopRunner, which has offices in Conshohocken, San Francisco and New York, the Wall Street Journal reports. American Express also participated in the round, which values ShopRunner at $600 million. Reports in August had suggested the size of Alibaba's investment would be in the $70 to $75 million range.

As part of the transaction, the Journal says EBay, which had about a 30% stake in the venture, exited at a profit. This explains my confusion, as I reported last week, about EBay testing its own Amazon Prime competitor without ShopRunner's involvement. It may also reflect increasing competitive pressures globally between Alibaba and EBay.

A part of GSI Commerce founder Michael Rubin's Kynetic LLC holding company, ShopRunner's CEO is Scott Thompson, who briefly served as Yahoo CEO before being pushed out last year due to a resume discrepancy. Prior to that, he served as President of EBay's PayPal unit.

Alibaba also has a PayPal-like payment platform outside the US and there is a chance it could introduce it here. The Chinese internet giant is expected to file for an IPO in the US.

No word on whether EBay also exited its stake in Rue La La, another Kynetic holding.

A majority of ShopRunner employees listed on LinkedIn are based in the Philly area, although several of its senior executives are located in the Bay area.



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Philly to get a giant new ecommerce/retail tech stock, of sorts: QVC Group




Tom Paine

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Liberty Interactive Corp announced today plans to split itself into two separate tracking stocks, one for West Chester-based QVC and another for its other ecommerce holdings.

QVC Group, which will begin trading next year, will also include Liberty Interactive's 38% stake in HSN Inc. (formerly Home Shopping Network). The possibility of Liberty Interactive buying the rest of HSN and merging it with QVC has often been discussed by Liberty management and others.

Liberty Interactive Chairman John C. Malone has been a long-time fan of tracking stocks and frequently creates new ones as he sees the need arise. Tracking stocks can provide investor focus on a particular sector, financial flexibility, and possible tax advantages. Tracking stocks track the performance of a particular unit of a corporation without giving the holder a claim on the underlying assets of the unit or parent company. Liberty Interactive was already traded through a tracking stock, Liberty Interactive Group (LINTA).

This move reflects the parent company's previously stated desire to increase the strategic
focus on and visibility of QVC as a distinct entity. It also may open the door to other strategic transactions, including perhaps a deal with HSN.

But QVC has not really been a growing business for some time ($2 billion revenue in Q2 2013 vs. $1.8 billion in Q2 2010) , in spite of expansion into Italy and China. While broadcast remains an essential platform for it, QVC sees itself increasingly as an ecommerce company, with website orders now accounting for 42% of revenue, and two-thirds of that coming via mobile.

Liberty Interactive (NASDAQ: LINTA) currently has a market capitalization of $12.8 billion. HSN Inc.'s market capitalization is $2.77 billion, which would put the value of LINTA's 38% stake at about $1 billion (which should already be reflected in LINTA's market cap).