Saturday Highlights 11/30/2013: John Appleby on "the death of the database"; Mad rush to get Healthcare.gov ready for tomorrow



Le roi est mort: the death of the database (John Appleby/SAP HANA Blog)

37,000 accounts set up for NJ Internet gambling (AP via Business Week)
More than Healthcare.gov?

Health Care Site Rushing to Make Fixes by Sunday (New York Times)


Thanksgiving online sales top $1 billion for first time (USA Today)
Monetate says revenue for leading online retailers rose nearly 40% from last year.

eBay Debuts Shoppable Touchscreens And Digital Storefronts For Sony, Toms And Rebecca Minkoff In San Francisco (TechCrunch)







This Thanksgiving, Read SAP Customer Stories Aplenty (ASUG
News)
Includes stories on Day & Zimmerman, PSE&G, and AmerisourceBergen.

PR finger pointing: IBM and Bridgestone wrangle over failed ERP (ZDNet)

Pay-TV Prices Are at the Breaking Point — And They’re Only Going to Get Worse (Variety)

Deutsche Telekom CEO Says It’s Time for Europe Phone Mergers
(Bloomberg)

Online Startup Makes Website Editing Simple (Entrepreneur)
On Carbondale PA-startup Plain (Barley), of which Colin Devroe is a co-founder.





Healthcare Informatics on Virtua Health's HIE



Here is an interesting article from Healthcare Informatics on South Jersey's Virtua Health and how it is hosting its own health information exchange (HIE) and how it interacts with other systems (including software from locally-based vendors) and other healthcare institutions in the Philadelphia area.

Definitely worth the read if you are interested in the subject.




How Michael Rubin Went From Bankrupt to Billionaire (Entrepreneur via Reuters)

Healthcare.gov will soon be hosted by HP rather than Verizon (The Verge)


Former Susquehanna exec Noll surprises many by leaving Nasdaq




Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Eric Noll, a long-time executive with Bala Cynwyd-based Susquehanna International and former official with the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (now owned by Nasdaq), surprised many in the exchange industry by announcing on Monday he was departing Nasdaq, where he was considered next in line for the CEO job by many, to become chief executive officer of ConvergEx Group LLC. Noll's title at Nasdaq was executive vice president of U.S. and U.K. transaction services.

Although Noll remains highly respected in the industry, he caught some of the flack for Nasdaq's mishandling of Facebook's IPO last year, as well as a major technical glitch that caused a three hour trading delay three months ago. At the time of the Facebook offering, one (possibly irrelevant) criticism was that he was in Philadelphia at the time it launched.

ConvergEX provides trading services to institutional investors. Noll joined Nasdaq from Susquehanna in 2009.


Links 11/27/2013: SAP rejects suggestions for European Airbus-like IT consortium






 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


SAP rejects calls for a pan-European IT champion (Reuters via Chicago Tribune)

Burberry points to SAP as driver of ‘operational excellence’ (Computerworld UK)

UK & Ireland User Group to put pressure on SAP to help with new tech adoption (Computerworld UK)


SaaS is cloud computing's quiet killer app (David Linthicum/InfoWorld)

INE Ventures Launches Fund to Invest in Israeli Technology Startups (Business Wire)
Focus on transplanting Israeli startups to Philadelphia, New York.

Comcast Xfinity Broadband is now one the largest IPv6 network (Gigaom)

Comcast hiring engineers for Excalibur Back Office project (FierceCable)

Charter seeks to raise $25 billion to fund Time Warner Cable bid: report (Reuters)

Obamacare's Small Business Site Won't Work for Another Year
(Business Week)

Steve Duin: Ducking for cover in the Cover Oregon debacle (The Oregonian)
Is it Oracle's fault?

Fisker sale may be approved Jan. 3, bankruptcy judge says (Bloomberg via Automotive News)

How and Why to Launch LinkedIn Showcase Pages (PeopleLinx Blog)





Links 11/26/2013: Cox also reported interested in Time Warner Cable; Workday beats expectations






 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


Workday posts record revs, ups forecast and appoints Jerry Yang to board (Diginomica)

Workday Surges 13%: Bulls Charmed by Growth, Financials Progress (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)


SAP to announce simplification drive in January, says Hagemann Snabe (ComputerWeekly.com)
Don't they say that every year?

Comparing SAP HANA and Sybase IQ - real world performance tests (John Appleby/SAP Community Network)



Dell Boomi’s AtomSphere Right Prescription for Novartis Cloud, On-Premise Integration (Integration Developer News)

Pivitec Wins Ben Franklin Venture Idol (BFTP
NEP)

Druckenmiller Shorting IBM in Bet Cloud Computing to Win (Bloomberg)

Ray Wang on Big Blue’s Battle with AWS | #IBMIoD (Silicon Angle)

Privately held Cox looking at bid for Time Warner Cable: WSJ
(Reuters)


Intel Said to Be Asking $500 Million for Pay-TV Unit
(Bloomberg)

WYSIWYG Web Editor Barley now lets WordPress users edit their sites on the fly (The Next Web)
Barley is the product of Viddler alum Colin Devroe's startup Plain.

Evolve IP Positioned in "Visionaries" Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) (PR Newswire)

Universal Display and Philips Technologie GmbH Announce Collaboration and Evaluation Agreement for OLED Lighting (Business Wire)

PPG Expands OLED Production to Support Demand for Universal Display Products (Business Wire via Optics.com)












Fidato Partners, WRG opening Center City offices




Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


Fidato Partners, a Wayne-based consulting and services firm, is opening a new office at 2001 Market Street, Two Commerce Square, in Philadelphia at the beginning of the new year. Fidato, founded in 2010, primarily supports Fortune 500 companies in the areas of risk management, information technology, accounting services, and recruiting.

Fidato's founders include John Rapchinski, President and Chief Executive Officer, who was
previously founder and CEO of RL Corporation, parent company of Peopleflex and AC Lordi Consulting; Gene Kemp, Chief Information Officer and founding Partner, whose prior experience includes serving as Vice President of Information Technology at iPipeline; and Justin DiGaetano, Principal – Risk Management Services and Founding Partner, who came from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Clients have included Exelon, Aqua America, Shire, ViroPharma, GlaxoSmithKline, InterDigital, iPipline and Endo.

Kemp tells me that Fidato's headcount has grown about 30% this year to over 45 employees.

--------


UK-based WRG, an events management agency, has opened a Philadelphia office on South Broad which is expected to become its US headquarters. It has had an office in New York, but is looking to expand its presence here. The six-person office is headed up by Graeme Beavers, vice president, WRG North America. Locating in Philadelphia, the firm hopes to initially build upon strong existing relationships with healthcare firms such as Astra Zeneca and Alcon.

WRG doesn't just manage healthcare events, though. In the UK it has produced events such as the G20 Summit in 2009 and the Papal visit in 2010.







Links 11/25/2013: KoP-based EBay Enterprise absorbs Magento; ColdLight funding







 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



eBay Enterprise Absorbs Magento - Should Marketplace Sellers Care? (eCommerce Bytes)

For BYOD, gaining control is about letting go (ZDNet)
On Wayne-based Point.io.

Leader in Big Data Analytics, ColdLight Solutions, Receives Growth Capital from Kayne Partners (Business Wire)
ColdLight Solutions is based in Wayne.

The Battle For The Connected Home Is Heating Up (TechCrunch)

HealthQx Wins Marcum Innovator of the Year Award (PR Newswire)


Wall Street redemption: Jerry Yang joins the board of market darling Workday (PandoDaily)

Workday Jumps 6%: FYQ3 Rev, Net Loss Beat; Q4 Rev View Beats (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)


Comcast eyes Time Warner Cable and unprecented market power (Fortune Tech)

Comcast's Brian Roberts and Liberty's John Malone have history (LA Times: Company Town)






Philly Tech People News 11/24/2013: New SevOne CFO took Carbonite public; Pet360 brings new tech & product talent to area









Subscribe to Philly Tech People News by Email



Pet360 Brings Leading Technology and Product Talent to Philly Area
Ralph Kasuba Joins as Chief Technology Officer & Patrick Joyce as SVP of Product
(Marketwire)

SevOne Appoints Andrew Keenan as CFO (SevOne News)
Formerly CFO of Carbonite, which went public during his tenure.



Emtec Announces Appointment of Sunil Misra as President and Chief Operating Officer (Business Wire)


Sixers add Wharton grad to front office
(Philadelphia Business Journal)

VibeSec Appoints David Chavez to Board of Directors (Marketwire)

Apollo Group Announces New Chief Operating Officer (Business Wire)
Former Comcast exec Mitch Bowling.

Sandy Howe Takes On Expanded Role at Arris
(Multichannel News)



Cathy Oakes, Long-Time SCTE Executive, Dies at 48 (Multichannel News)





ORS Partners Recruits Industry Leader to Scale Innovative Outsourced Recruitment Solutions Business Model. (ORS Partners)

JetPay Payroll Services Announces National Sales Manager Wayne Hart (Business Wire)





Co-founder marks Comcast's 50 years: 'A natural monopoly' and how it grew (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Once Cable’s King, Malone Aims to Regain His Crown (New York Times: DealBook)

Woodcock Washburn acquired by 800-lawyer firm (Philadelphia Business Journal)





Comcast and Charter Reportedly Weighing Joint Bid for TWC (Bloomberg TV Video)





Saturday Highlights 11/23/2013: Fisker files for bankruptcy, to be bought by Hong Kong company; NBCU to invest in new tech site from AllThingsD founders



Hong Kong company to buy Fisker after bankruptcy (Wilmington News Journal)

Cloud Computing Seen Cutting 2014 IT Industry Sales (Investor's Business Daily)

NBCUniversal to invest in tech news site by Swisher, Mossberg
(USA Today)

Health care IT prominent among Technology Council honorees (NJBIZ)

Foxconn invests US$40 million in Pennsylvania to tap research, talent (IDG News)


Report: Comcast considering Time Warner Cable bid? Update: Could be joint bid with Charter



Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email

CNBC cites sources suggesting that Comcast may be considering a bid for Time Warner Cable, the nation's second largest cable provider.

My first reaction is that while its not surprising that Comcast would look at all its options for maintaining its leadership position as the industry consolidates, I doubt it would be allowed to swallow the whole thing. (Although the FCC has tried to impose a ceiling on what share of subscribers any one operator could own, those have been struck down and no absolute limit currently exists.) But the federal government has numerous levers it can use to try to stop a deal,including the fact that Comcast is still operating under Justice/FCC review following approval of its NBCU acquisition.

On the other hand, Comcast could try to buy TWC and sell off a considerable portion of
its subscribers, or submit a joint bid with another party.

The CNBC report says Comcast is not talking directly with TWC, but rather is seeking advice on the regulatory hurdles such a bid would face. CNBC also says TWC, which faces the possibility of a bid from Charter Cable with backing by John Malone, has made it clear
that Comcast would be a preferred bidder.

One should not discount the fact that Comcast has fostered close ties with the Obama administration.

See my post from July, Will Comcast respond to Malone's cable acquisition ambitions?


Update: Latest Bloomberg story suggests Comcast and Charter may be discussing a joint bid
for TWC.

Two Maps That Explain Why Comcast May Want To Buy Time Warner Cable
(BuzzFeed)

Time Warner stock pops on bidding war report (USA Today)

Wall Street would cheer Time Warner Cable sale but media watchdogs worry (LA Times: Company Town)

Comcast eyes Time Warner Cable and unprecented market power (Fortune Tech)

Comcast's Brian Roberts and Liberty's John Malone have history (LA Times: Company Town)










Links 11/22/2013: SAP considering faster cloud transition; Astros owner sues Comcast, prior owner McLane






 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



SAP debating faster move to cloud, impacting 2015 target (Reuters)

Coca-Cola swaps 'cumbersome' SAP for Salesforce mobile
The company is rolling out iPhones to 2,000 sales reps across Western Europe
(Computerworld UK)

The Facts of Life on SAP Suite on HANA (ASUG News)



Workday plans analytics push as PRISM fails to stop cloud use (V3.co.uk)

Why Comcast isn't worried about the Xbox One (The Verge)

SEEiT, The Feature That Turns Twitter Into A Remote Control For Comcast Subscribers, Rolls Out This Week (TechCrunch)


Astros owner sues Drayton McLane, Comcast and NBC claiming fraud (Houston Chronicle)


Charter Nears Bank Financing Deal for Time Warner Cable Bid (Report) (Hollywood Reporter)


New Jersey’s Internet Gambling Soft Launch is Tonight, Thursday, Nov. 21 (Atlantic City Weekly)

Instem Acquires Perceptive Instruments; Leader in Image Analysis and Data Management Solutions (Business Wire)



Pennsauken-based RCM Technologies in Heated Board of Directors Proxy Fight




Esther Surden
Publisher & Editor, NJTechWeekly.com




On Nov. 8, 2013, RCM Technologies filed a complaint against the Legion Partners in the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, claiming it is attempting to influence the results of the 2013 Annual Meeting by advancing false and misleading statements in violation of Sections 13(d), 14(a) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

RCM is a business and technology solutions provider whose goal is to enhance and maximize the operational performance of its customers through the adaptation and deployment of advanced information technology and engineering services.

The company's headquarters is in Pennsauken and its operations office is in Parsippany. It has satellite offices throughout the United States. The company reported $145 million in revenue for the year ending December 31, 2013.

Specifically, RCM claimed that Legion had failed to fully disclose its intent to eventually obtain control of RCM, seek to terminate the company's stockholder rights plan, and seek to initiate a review of strategic alternatives, including a sale of the company or other business combination.

Legion issued a statement saying it believes “there is no merit to the RCM's complaint,” adding specifically that it does not plan to take over RCM.

Nevertheless, Legion Stockholder Group, which RCM called a dissident stockholder group, is pursuing a proxy contest to elect its two handpicked nominees to the RCM board at the annual meeting to take place Dec. 5, 2013.

In a letter to stockholders, RCM emphatically recommended that they support experienced director nominees Robert B. Kerr and Michael E.S. Frankel. The company said it was being advised in connection with the proxy contest by Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.

RCM's board called the Legion Group nominees "problematic." Discussing Bradley S. Vizi, the board attacked his alleged lack of experience on a public company board or in management experience and claimed he had no experience overseeing management, directly developing or implementing strategies to enhance long-term stockholder value, or fulfilling the important fiduciary duties owed to stockholders by the directors of a public company.

The letter also alleged he has no experience in the information technology, engineering or health care industries.

The letter further attacked Vizi, saying “Mr. Vizi solicited our interest in discussing the sale of RCM to one or more members of the Legion Group and then shortly thereafter disavowed such interest – Earlier this year, Mr. Vizi indicated to RCM's CEO, Leon Kopyt, that the Legion Group may be interested in exploring a transaction with RCM but shortly thereafter sought to disavow his comments and now falsely claims that such conversation never took place.”

The company tells shareholders that “Mr. Vizi recently engaged in a ‘fishing expedition’ looking for ‘leverage’ to use over your board — Mr. Vizi recently sought to pressure your board by unearthing a 15-year-old immaterial disclosure error that he thought he could use to unduly impugn the integrity of an individual who has led RCM with steadfast dedication and commitment for over two decades and is largely responsible for our share price having increased by approximately 587 percent during the five years ended October 30, 2013, dramatically outperforming the S&P 500 during that same period.”

In the letter, RCM similarly attacked proposed board member Roger H. Ballou, who it said destroyed stockholder value as he led publicly traded Global Vacation group. "Ballou is also the former President and Chief Executive Officer of [Philadelphia-based] CDI Corporation, a publicly-traded company that is one of our major competitors" and previously made an attempt "to take control of RCM through a hostile takeover and at an inadequate price."

It also said that "During Mr. Ballou's tenure as CDI's President and CEO, CDI was the target of a number of governmental investigations that caused CDI to pay millions of dollars in settlements and fines.”

For its part, the Legion Group, a California-based organization, said that the group, representing 13.3 percent of the outstanding shares of RCM, is the company's largest shareholder.

In a press release, the group said it had serious concerns with the "continued financial deterioration of the company over the past decade, the board's ineffectiveness in producing returns for stockholders and the company's long maintained poor compensation and corporate governance practices."

The real issues, according to the dissident group, are that the board claims it has returned over 587 percent in total stockholder return over the past five years but fails to reveal that its starting point for this measurement was the peak of the financial crisis, when the company's stock was a mere 23 cents shy of its lowest closing price in the past 20 years.

“If one were to run that same five year return for RCM as of the date ending December 31, 2012 (the date corresponding to the company's proxy statement and the most relevant date for judging RCM's performance), RCM only returned 3.8 percent to stockholders, significantly underperforming the Russell 2000 and its Peer Set at 19.1 percent and 40.1 percent, respectively,” the Legion Group said in a press release.

Legion also alleges that the RCM board has approved “outrageous compensation arrangements” for its three top executives — over $8 million ($6.1 million for the chairman and CEO alone) despite the company's under-performance. “Mr. Kopyt's $6.1 million parachute payment can be triggered if even one of our nominees is elected to the board,” the press release said.

The group also said in a statement that it wanted “to set the record straight” about Ballou. “CDI's annual revenue was approximately $1 billion in 2011 and the fines highlighted by the company totaled just $4.9 million. Mr. Ballou was never implicated in the government investigations that led to the fines," the release said.

Speaking about Vizi, the Legion statement said, “We believe Mr. Vizi, a founder of Legion Partners, will bring relevant experience as an investor with regard to capital allocation, corporate governance and executive compensation.”

“As a member of the stockholder group led by Legion Partners, with a combined ownership of approximately 13.3 percent of the outstanding shares of RCM, Mr. Vizi has a vested interest in creating long-term value for all RCM's stockholders. We believe his interests are clearly aligned with all other stockholders to promote greater accountability and maximize stockholder value.”

For the press releases in this matter:

Legion Partners: RCMT Board Squanders Stockholder Money On Frivolous Lawsuit

RCM Calls on Legion Group to Stop Misleading Stockholders

RCM Issues Letter to Stockholders on Why the Legion Group's Nominees Would Be Wrong for RCM

RCM Files Lawsuit Against Legion Partners Asset Management Group Alleging Violations of Federal Securities Laws

Legion Partners: RCMT Board Culture Puts Director Preservation Above Stockholder Stewardship



Esther Surden is Publisher and Editor of NJTechWeekly, and a contributor to Philly Tech News. This article originally appeared in NJTechWeekly, and is republished here with her permission.


Links 11/21/2013: Comcast opens digital storefront, offers X2 previews







 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


Comcast Previews ‘X2’ (Again) (Multichannel News)

Comcast Opens Digital Storefront to Sell Movies and TV Shows (Variety)

Salesforce: Canaccord, Barclays Offer ‘Dreamforce’ Tidbits (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Salesforce.com says developer base almost doubled in a year
(PC World)

Making sense of Salesforce R&D (Den Howlett/Diginomica)

China Telecom and SAP to jointly deliver cloud services in China (Business Cloud News)

California sues SAP over payroll system failures (LA Times)


With its Healthcare Cloud, Veeva Shows the Power of Industry Clouds (Data Center Knowledge)



Apprenda, Helping Big Companies Embrace the Cloud, Lands $16 Million (All Things D)
Safeguard Scientifics led $16mm round.

Brace yourself for a mobile acquisition feeding frenzy (VentureBeat)

Violin Plunges 25%: FYQ3 Loss Much Deeper Than Expected, Q4 Rev View Misses by a Mile (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)


Soft Philly Fed survey raises manufacturing doubts (MarketWatch)

IPhone Maker Foxconn Said to Plan Pennsylvania Investment
(Bloomberg)







Links 11/20/2013: Safeguard Scientifics leads $16mm round in Apprenda; NY Times on why RJMetrics will start commission plan next year






 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


PaaS player Apprenda nets $16M to expand led by Safeguard Scientifics (Gigaom)

For Some, Paying Sales Commissions No Longer Makes Sense (New York Times)
But Philly-based RJMetrics is going in the other direction, implementing a commission plan
next year after not having one before, the Times reports.


SAP CEO Envisions Younger, Greener, Cloudier Company (Information Week)

Bridgestone files massive fraud and deception suit against IBM over SAP implementation (Nashville Post)


SAP Jam adds work patterns, processes (ZDNet)


Salesforce Finally Melds Itself With the Heroku Cloud (Wired)

Box strikes back at Dropbox with $100M raise at $2B valuation (VentureBeat)

Google Wallet debit card announced, available now (The Verge)

Insight: For Intel, Hollywood dreams prove a leap too far (Reuters)



Xbox One in the living room: The dazzling, erratic everything box (CNET News)

Broadcasters’ Fight Against Aereo Doesn’t Serve Their Interests (New York Times: DealBook)

About 520,000 Add Broadband in the Third Quarter of 2013
(Leichtman Research Group via FierceCable)

Inquirer owners' settlement talks break down (Philadelphia Inquirer)










On Comcast's website: "Our Story" celebrates Comcast's 50th



Comcast has published a feature on its website entitled "Our Story", which looks back at "50 Iconic Moments from Comcast and NBCUniversal" as the company prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary tomorrow (actually one week after the official date).

"Our Story" highlights include the opening of the Comcast Center and 30 Rockefeller Center, NBC's Olympics coverage, the beginnings of "Saturday Night Live", the NBCUniversal Merger, the founding of Comcast and NBC, Comcast's IPO, and the rollout of Comcast's X1 platform.


Aria Systems, with R&D in Delaware County, raises another $40 million




Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email




Aria Systems, a SaaS subscription billing vendor founded in Delaware County before migrating its headquarters to Silicon Valley, raised another $40 million in VC funds, it announced today. This brings the total it has raised to $83 million.

Aria still has its R&D based in Broomall, Delaware County. According to LinkedIn, it has 48 employees in the Philadelphia area.

The round was filled with heavyweight investors, led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from existing investors VMware, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Interwest Partners, Tugboat Ventures, and Venrock. Aria CEO Tom Dibble would not reveal the valuation, but was quoted by the San Francisco Business Times as saying it was a "significant increase" from the prior round.

Aria was founded in 2003 by Ed Sullivan, a Delaware County native and genuine serial entrepreneur who no longer is active in company management but remains on the board, according to Aria's website. He is currently CEO of G2Link, a Drexel Hill-based startup he founded along with his son.

Although Aria has several competitors, it is most closely identified with Zuora, which was
founded by former Salesforce exec Tien Tzuo. Both companies have a large presence at Dreamforce 2013.



Links 11/19/2013: Comcast SportsNet to provide coverage for NBC10



Salesforce opens new front against SAP/Oracle as it ups forecast (Den Howlett/Diginomica)

Salesforce Revenue May Top Some Estimates on Marketing Tools (Bloomberg)


Dreamforce '13: Salesforce.com touts 'golden age of enterprise apps'
(ZDNet)

Salesforce CEO admits ‘social enterprise’ pitch didn’t work (ZDNet)



Littoral Ship-to-Shore Communications Seen Deficient, GAO Says (Bloomberg)
A considerable portion of the Littoral Ship program has been conducted by Lockheed in Moorestown.

Urban Outfitters reports double-digit growth in Q3 (Philly.com)

Comcast SportsNet to provide coverage for NBC10 (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Trifecta Technologies celebrates high-tech project in Allentown (Allentown Morning Call)








Deloitte releases Fast 500: MeetMe #3?; Here are Philly area representatives




Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email

Deloitte recently released its Technology Fast 500 (pdf) for 2013. Prior to 2012, Deloitte had released Fast 50 rankings for major metro areas including Philadelphia, but switched last year to releasing just one Fast 500 covering North America.

New Hope-based MeetMe was ranked #3, with growth of 83,209% from 2008 to 2012. MeetMe has had impressive growth (it has declined this year due to the discontinuance of an unprofitable revenue stream and MeetMe has been transitioning from web to mobile advertising, though it has shown sequential growth each of the past two quarters). However, I think Deloitte's 2008-2012 growth rate for MeetMe reflects the addition of myYearbook's revenue to Quepasa's relatively small base after Quepasa (essentially a public shell) technically acquired myYeabook in 2010 though myYearbook was the much larger company. The merged company was subsequently renamed MeetMe. So MeetMe being so high on the list is something of an aberration.

A Deloitte spokesperson confirmed by email that its methodology in the case of public companies is to take revenue from the public company's 10-K and doesn't distinguish between organic and inorganic growth. It used a 2008 revenue base of $56,000 to calculate MeetMe's growth, but myYearbook had 2008 revenue in the $11 to $12 million range according to reports at the time. My only suggestion would be that Deloitte add asterisks with explanations in some cases.

Based on MeetMe's full year 2012 revenue of $46.7 million, a quadrupling since 2008 or growth of 300% would be more reasonable. That would rank about #300 on the Fast 500.

Note: I didn't write this as a knock on MeetMe, a company I admire and think has considerable potential. I just analytically saw a number that didn't make sense to me
and wanted to explain where it came from.

The other Philly area software/infotech companies on the Deloitte Fast 500 are:

#129 Centrak (Newtown)

#170 Universal Display (Ewing NJ)

#191 SevOne (Wilmington)

#201 InstaMed (Philadelphia)

#225 SkillSurvey (Wayne)

#235 iPipeline (Exton)

#260 Billtrust (Hamilton, NJ)

#345 QlikTech (Radnor)

#353 PHD Virtual (Philadelphia)

#373 Futura Mobility (Fort Washington)

#394 Halfpenny Technologies (Blue Bell)

#411 eMaint Enterprises (Marlton)

#430 EPAM Systems (Newtown)

#431 Beyond.com (King of Prussia)

#442 CRF Health (Plymouth Meeting)

#452 Education Management Solutions (Exton)

#483 Health Advocate (Plymouth Meeting)

Of course, several life sciences firms from the area also made the Deloitte rankings.


Wrapup: Philly at Dreamforce 13 (with more company news)



Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email






Saleforce's massive DreamForce 2013 kicks off tomorrow at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and there will be many exhibitors and attendees from the Philadelphia area. Here is one preview of the event (and events surrounding it) via Diginomica. Some estimates are for registration of up to 120,000 people.



Dell Boomi, Aria Systems (R&D in Bromall), Fiberlink Communications (just acquired last week by IBM), Hoopla (development in West Chester), QlikTech, Allentown-basd Trifecta Technologies (which has become a large Salesforce development shop), Conshohocken-based TargetX, and Ami Assayag's CRM Science will be among those exhibiting, presenting or attending.

The meetup group PhillyForce held a session the week before last for presenters to preview their Dreamforce presentations. Trial runs include two from CRM Science and one from PointRoll.


Let me know if any other Philly-companies or people have Dreamforce-related news to add.





Aria Systems, with R&D in Delaware County, raises another $40 million

Trifecta celebrates high-tech project in Allentown (Allentown Morning Call)




ThingWorx Brings the Internet of Things to Dreamforce (ThingWorx Blog)

Angie’s List Selects Hoopla via the Salesforce Platform (PR Web)

Dreamforce 2013 Wrap Up (Hoopla Blog)









Philly Tech People News 11/17/2013









Subscribe to Philly Tech People News by Email


Steve Reynolds Leaving Comcast, Joining Harris Broadcast
Exec With Close Ties to RDK Project To Become CTO of Harris Broadcast, Sources Say

(Multichannel News)

NBC News chief Deborah Turness taps former ITV colleague for key role (LA Times: Company Town)

SAP Announces Oliver Bierhoff as Brand Ambassador (SAP News)

New Jersey Technology Council to Honor Chris Sugden at the 2013 NJTC Awards Celebration (PR Web)

Recovery Networks Appoints Jennifer Einhorn, Vice President of Sales (pdf) (Recovery Networks)

Adrienne Choma, Co-Founder of Saladax Biomedical, Named One of National Winners of 2013 EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ Program (PR Newswire)



Familiar face new Reed Smith Philadelphia head (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Company that will run Convention Center names staff supervisor (Philadelphia Inquirer)







CIA CTO Gus Hunt joins LLR Partners




Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


Ira A. (Gus) Hunt

Back in March of this year, Ira A. (Gus) Hunt, Chief Technology Officer of the CIA, was slated to be a keynote speaker at the 2nd annual Philly Phorum event. This was to be briefly after news broke that the highly security-obsessed CIA was recommending Amazon Web Services for a huge private cloud contract over IBM. Hunt was said to be a key supporter of the Amazon bid, so there was considerable interest in what he might say.

Then a "last minute emergency" prevented Hunt from attending Phorum. IBM would vigorously contest the contract being awarded to Amazon, but the protest was denied and it appears that the contract with AWS will go forward.

Today, Philadelphia-based PE firm LLR Partners announced that the long-time CIA employee would be joining the firm's emerging Washington-based Security, Defense & Government Services practice as an operating partner.

“Gus transformed the intelligence community's use of technology. He was the first to understand the value that commercial innovations could bring to the U.S. government and led the adoption of game-changing technologies at the CIA, including the switch to cloud-based infrastructure,” said Jason Rigoli, principal at LLR Partners, in a statement.

No doubt the NSA will still be keeping close tabs on Mr. Hunt's communications.


Links 11/15/2013: Report - Comcast to sell digital movies through cable boxes, website





 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Comcast to sell digital movies through cable boxes, website (Reuters)

Is Verizon using Redbox Instant and Ellipsis to build a virtual pay TV platform? (FierceCable)

Dish-DirecTV Merger 'Makes A Lot Of Sense,' Says Ergen (Forbes)



Retailers take on Silicon Valley (Kansas City Star)
QVC is one of them.


Lockheed's Newtown facility upgraded in 2010 (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Two LLR Partners execs start Radnor-based software PE firm (PE Hub)

CaseWinn launches as software-focused private equity firm (Fortune TermSheet)


Gus Hunt to Help LLR Target New Govt Market Investments; Jason Rigoli Comments (GovConWire)

How Amazon is building substations, laying fiber and generally doing everything to keep cloud costs down (Gigaom)

Barclays Ups SAP To Buy As Cloud Strategy Takes Hold (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

IBM Faces a Crisis In the Cloud (Bloomberg Businessweek)


Online Casinos Hobbled as Credit-Card Issuers Reject Bets
(Bloomberg)







Links 11/14/2013: Lockheed planning to close Newtown facility, with 1,000 employees






 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email




Lockheed Martin to close 1,000-employee Newtown site
(Philadelphia Business Journal)

Lockheed Martin To Consolidate Facilities, Reduce Costs (PR Newswire)

Lockheed lays off 240 in Moorestown (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Alteva's CEO gets grilled on future of landline business
(Times Herald-Record)

NBCUniversal Takes Full Ownership of Sprout Cable Network (New York Times)
Sprout is based in Fort Washington.

Wealthcare Capital Management announces the signing of a definitive merger agreement with NewSpring Holdings as its strategic growth partner (Business Wire)

Coin Is One Credit Card to Rule Them All
(Mashable)

Salesforce.com customers making broader investments, survey says (PC World)


Zoho adds enterprise features to its CRM software, eyes Salesforce.com (PC World)

Edison Ventures Completes $5 Million Follow-on Investment in RedVision Supports Growth of NJ-based Real Property Research Provider (PR Web)

InsPro Technologies Corporation Announces Third Quarter 2013 Financial Results (Business Wire)










Today in Philly Tech History November 13, 1963; Comcast's predecessor founded






 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email




On November 13, 1963, Ralph J. Roberts purchased a 1,500-subscriber cable system in Tupelo, Miss., and two unbuilt Mississippi cable-TV franchises in nearby towns, for about $250,000.

At the time, cable tv systems existed mostly in rural or mountainous areas where picking up over-the-air channels via rabbit ears was difficult.

Today, Philadelphia-based Comcast is by far the largest US cable provider, with over 20 million video subscribers, millions more broadband and telephone subscribers, ownership of NBC Universal, annual revenue of more than $60 billion, and a stock market capitalization in excess of $120 billion.

Comcast will celebrate the anniversary internally on November 20. The Philadelphia Inquirer
wrote about the anniversary here
.

Although cable systems are often sold or swapped, Tupelo remains a Comcast franchise to this day.


Links 11/13/2013: IBM to acquire Blue Bell-based Fiberlink Communications; NBC buys out Sprout partners








 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



IBM to Acquire Fiberlink Communications, Transforming the Mobile Management and Security Market (PR Newswire)

IBM buys Fiberlink (Philly Deals)

With Fiberlink acquisition, IBM gets serious about mobile device management (VentureBeat)


RightCare Solutions Raises $5.0M in Series B Round Led By Domain Associates and Compass Partners (Business Wire)

NBCU Buys Full Ownership Of Sprout (Multichannel News)
Sprout is based in Fort Washington. NBC bought out partners PBS and HIT Television Ventures to get 100% control.



Clearleap Raises Additional $20 Million to Accelerate TV Everywhere Deployments (Videonuze)
Bala Cynwyd-based Susquehanna Growth Equity leads round in Atlanta company.


Hulu in talks with Time Warner, Comcast, and others about possible cable bundling deals: WSJ (The Verge)

Netflix Gives Most, but Not All, of Its TV Viewers a New Look (All Things D)


Verizon Cloud Video Unit Snaps Up Multiscreen Startup
(Multichannel News)

Brand.com launches a program for deleting false Web pages on Google, Yahoo and Bing (The Next Web)
Brand.com is based in Philadelphia.

Veeva Systems Introduces Mobile CRM and CLM Solution for Windows 8 (Business Wire)



Alteva Reports Third Quarter 2013 Financial Results (Marketwire)

Companion Property & Casualty Plugs in Acrometis’ CLAIMExpert to Drive Down Claim Costs (Business Wire)
Acrometis is based in Chesterbrook.



Amazon Launches WorkSpaces, A Virtual Desktop Service On AWS
(TechCrunch)

HP Chromebook 11 disappears from retailers everywhere without explanation (GeekWire)
The withdrawal was apparently due to overheating chargers.





Begin the IPO watch for Monetate


Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email




David Brussin / Monetate 
No one who has followed Conshohocken-based Monetate, the SaaS vendor whose products help retailers and other brands customize their websites to the needs of individual users, and its progress would be surprised to hear that they are thinking about going public. But timing is a key issue. A company has to demonstrate the revenue base, size of market opportunity and credibility (not necessarily immediate profits) to gain investor confidence.

Now CEO David Brussin has said something more definitive about the subject than I've heard him say before. In an interview with the Daily News appearing yesterday, Brussin said, "in a couple of years, we'll be a public company and a lot larger. We want to be here. I can't even imagine this company not being in Philadelphia."

If Monetate is going public within two years (assuming there are no drastic setbacks, or market turbulence, or someone makes an offer they can't refuse) that probably means the thought process and preliminary planning must be moving along.

Brussin also provided another useful piece of information in the Daily News story (credit
Daily News staff writer Michael Hinkelman with getting the story). He said, "a small [Monetate] client might be $75,000 a year. A large client - millions of customers - might be more than $1 million in fees annually". I'm not going to get into a guessing game about Monetate's revenues based on that information, although I am somewhat surprised to learn that it may have million dollar plus clients. Monetate said in a press release early
this year that it more than doubled its client base in 2012 and added over 100 brands
This would imply that it had somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 distinct accounts.
I asked a Monetate representative for an update on this but have yet to receive a response.

At mid-year 2013, Monetate said revenue for the first half of the year increased 127%
over the prior year. It expects to finish 2013 with at least 225 employees, and is offering generous bounties for successful referrals.



permalink


Links 11/12/2013: FirstMark closes on $225 million fund; Moffet: Cable broadband growth slowing








 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Moffett: Cable Broadband Growth Running Out of Steam (Multichannel News)

John Malone's Liberty Global in Talks to Acquire Intel Online TV Service (Report) (Hollywood Reporter)
Differs dramatically from yesterday's report by Multichannel News, which suggested that Verizon was trying to drag a reluctant Liberty Global into a joint bid for Intel's OnCue platform.

Aereo Challenge to Cable to Be Aided by Senate Proposal (Bloomberg)


Turnberry Solutions Announces the Market Availability of Two New Service and Order Management Solutions for the Cable Industry (Business Wire)
Turnberry Solutions is based in Blue Bell.

ANNOUNCING OUR NEWEST FUND (FirstMark Capital)
New York-based FirstMark has invested in Philadelphia startups Boomi (acquired by Dell), Artisan Mobile and Greenphire. Its third fund closed with $225 million.

Early Aereo, Pinterest Backer FirstMark Capital Raises $225M For Its Third Fund (TechCrunch)


Fanatics Created a $1 Billion Sports E-Commerce Powerhouse — Now Here Come the Apps (All Things D)
Fanatics, based in Jacksonville, is a part of Conshohocken-based Kynetic LLC.

Product Comparison: SevOne 5.3 vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor 10.5 (Network Management Software)
Great article if you want to understand what SevOne's products do.



Philadelphia law firm opens Silicon Valley office
(Philadelphia Business Journal)


SugarCRM goes after Salesforce.com with new interface, emphasis on lower cost (PC World)






Lam Cloud to hold Open House on November 14 to unveil 495,000 sf Cranbury Workplace Recovery/Technology Campus




Tom Paine




 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


Lam Cloud's Cranbury Workplace Recovery/Technology Center /Courtesy Lam Cloud



Cranbury, NJ-based Lam Cloud Solutions says it has created has created the largest Workplace Recovery Center in the Northeast United States, with a 495,000 square foot facility in Cranbury that can accommodate up to 275,000 square feet of scalable Colocation and enterprise data center space, provides 3,000 Workplace Recovery seats, scalable Colocation and enterprise data center space,as well as technology campus and conference space. Lam Cloud Management LLC, signed a 25-year lease for the facility earlier this year, which was previously occupied by Aetna.

Although the facility has been open since February, Lam Cloud will be having its official public unveiling with an Open House on Thursday, November 14th from 2 PM - 5 PM. at 1 Farr View Drive in Cranbury.

The privately funded company was founded in 2010 by Larry Lam, whose background was in architecture. His work on data center projects convinced him that a knowledge gap existed between consumers and providers of data center services, and Lam Cloud was started to address that gap by providing more than just space and physical objects.

The Open House will feature special guest speaker Andrew Blum, author of ‘Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet’, who will present on the ‘Grass-Fed Internet’, highlighting the Internet’s reach, vulnerability and utter dependence on the integrity, purpose and competence of the networks’ owners and operators. Other speakers will be Lam partners Marvin Wainschel, Founder and CEO of McWains Chelsea, Inc., and Paul Sullivan, VP and General Manager of Agility Recovery Services.

You can click here for more details on the event and free registration.