Warby Parker valued at $500 million (Fortune: Term Sheet)

Comcast’s ‘Streampix’ Multiscreen Video Service Adds Download Option (Multichannel News)

Netflix tests new price tiers, including $6.99 for single-stream (LA Times)


CDI Corp. Announces Corporate Realignment (PR Newswire)





Pre-New Year's Surprise: PTC acquiring Exton-based ThingWorx for $112 million + potential earnout (Updated with morning press conference)





Tom Paine



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Massachusetts-based PTC, Inc. announced today it has acquired Exton-based Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine to Machine (M2M) platform startup ThingWorx for $112 million, plus a potential earnout of up to $18 million.

I'm a bit surprised to see ThingWorx, founded only in 2009 with funding from its co-founders, exit so soon, but the price should bring a good return for its founders and primary investor Safeguard Scientifics, the market is hot, and PTC should give the ThingWorx platform broader acceptance among corporate partners.

As of December, Wayne-based Safeguard Scientifics reported holding a 40% stake in ThingWorx and had invested $10 million in it. PTC said in its release that "the acquisition is expected to add more than $10 million of revenue over the next 12 months, with $5 million to $7 million of revenue in FY'14" (ending 9/14).

ThingWorx had said it had raised $13 million in two rounds in 2011 and 2012. Whether the additional $3 million came from the founders or another private investor is not known. Safeguard says it expects a "4x cash-on-cash return" on the deal, which has already closed.

ThingWorx co-founders are Russell Fadel, CEO, Rick Bullotta, CTO, and John Richardson, COO.

PTC will host a conference call tomorrow morning (the 31st) at 8:30. I'll have more to add after that.

PTC, Inc. (formerly Parametric Technology Corporation) is a Needham, MA-based computer software company specializing in 2D & 3D design software, product lifecycle management (PLM), and service management solutions. PTC had revenue in FY '13 of just under $1.3
billion and a market value of about $4 billion.

Safeguard Scientifics has released its own press release on the deal.

Fadel and Bullotta had also been principals of another Exton-based startup, Lighthammer
Software Development Corporation, which was acquired by SAP in 2005.

PTC CEO Jim Heppelmann said during this morning's press conference that ThingWorx was not profitable and declined to say how many it employed (its LinkedIn page lists 36 employees). Heppelmann said the acquisition price reflects a "very hot" company.

The term of the earnout period is two years.

Fadel and Heppelmann both said they see ThingWorx as having a two-year lead on competition. Fadel stressed that ThingWorx primarily works with industrial, rather than
consumer, applications.

While ThingWorx will continue to operate independently out of Exton, a major priority
will be to integrate its technology with PTC's Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) and
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) offerings. Heppelmann says he sees "proactive service"
(trying to anticipate and service equipment before it fails) as being one of the first areas for major monetization.

Fadel said that while some applications require "big data" solutions, others are relatively simple in terms of the amount of data captured and do not. Fadel also said
the price of connecting to incremental devices is dropping towards zero.




Best- And Worst-Performing Cloud Computing Stocks Dec. 23 To Dec. 27 And Year-to-Date (Forbes)

In new Dynamics AX offensive, narrow view of SAP could hurt Microsoft's case (MSDynamicsWorld.com)






Deloitte Makes Big Cloud Move With SaaS-based CloudMix (CRN)

It's Personal: Shipping firms hard-pressed to meet holiday demands (Philadelphia Inquirer)

A&E calls off 'Duck Dynasty' suspension (USA Today)
That was fast.









2014 – an inflection point for SAP? (Diginomica)

Amazon Reveals a New Hint About Prime Membership Rolls (NY Times: Bits)
Kynetic LLC's Prime alternative ShopRunner said in October it had 1 million subscribers.

Universal takes writedown on new Keanu Reeves film (Reuters)

DirecTV issues veiled threat in talks with Weather Channel (LA Times)










Regulatory Barriers to Time Warner Cable Deal Limited Regardless of Buyer (Bloomberg)

4 cloud storage predictions for 2014 (VentureBeat)





SaaS predictions for 2014
News of hybrid SaaS, PaaS and happier customers is all on tap
(Computerworld)

Boscov's IT gurus developing growth online (Philly.com)




Links 12/23/2013: SAP Co-CEO’s Ex-Assistant Settles SEC Insider Claims; Broadcasters respond to Aereo's Supreme Court claims



SAP Co-CEO’s Ex-Assistant Settles SEC Insider Claims (Bloombeg)
SEC says traded ahead of SuccessFactors, Ariba deals.


Time Warner Cable Has Shareholder Backing as Takeover Bid Looms (Bloomberg)


Fandango Scores Record-Breaking Year (The Wrap)
Fandango is owned by Comcast.

TV Broadcasters Fire Back at Aereo's Supreme Court Claims (Hollywood Reporter)


SoftBank CEO meets banks to get finance for T-Mobile bid: Bloomberg (Reuters)

Fisker Won’t Make Cars at Former GM Plant, Carper Says
(Bloomberg)




Mobile app developers' interest in HTML5 is slipping (Infoworld)

Why Older Technology Companies May Attempt Desperate Deals
(NY Times: DealBook)

Can Salesforce.com Grow Into a $10 Billion Company?
(AllThingsD)


Karan Mehandru’s SaaS Predictions for 2014! (Trinity Ventures)

Elevator Pitch: Doug Pepper of InterWest Partners on the future of enterprise software (San Jose Mercury News)

$10M committed to Pittsburgh venture capital fund (Pittsburgh Business Times)




MeetMe Transitions Mobile Ad Inventory to Pinsight Media+ Platform (Business Wire)

Lockheed Martin Team Moves Forward In "Elite Eight" Following DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials (PR Newswire)





Philly Tech People News 12/22/2013












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Digitas Health appoints Michael Leis
Move backs up its social strategy drive
(PMLive)

Comcast arena unit hires SMG veteran (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Jack Redding Joins Halfpenny Technologies as the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing (Business Wire)

The Wistar Institute Names Andrew Peabody Chief Information Officer, Will Guide Expansion of Scientific Computing (Wistar Press Release(


Plex Names Enterprise Software Veteran Karl Ederle Vice President of Product Management (PR Newswire)





Solve Media's own year-end video: "To All Humans: Can You Meme It? Yes, We Can!"



Philly & New York-based Solve Media, a First Round Capital portfolio company born in Philadelphia, produced its own year-end video inhouse using Philadelphia talent. It took 600 hours with 30 people and one cat (the cat was not harmed during production) and was produced in the famous Metropolis Studios (now known as StudioA), a Solve Media spokesperson said via email.

Its entitled "To All Humans: Can You Meme It? Yes, We Can!."






Links 12/20/2013: Oracle acquires Responsys for $1.5 billion






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Oracle Acquires Cloud Marketing Player Responsys for $1.5 Billion
(AllThingsD)


Warby Parker raises $60 million (Fortune Tech)
First Round Capital, a seed investor in Warby Parker, participates again.

Knewton nabs $51 mln
(PE Hub)
First Round Capital re-upped here again also.

Comcast CEO meets with top U.S. communications regulator (Reuters)


InterDigital Loses U.S. Patent Case Against Nokia, Huawei
(Bloomberg)

BlackBerry stock rises 13% despite $4.4B loss (CBC)


The Top 10 Data Center M&A Deals of 2013 (Data Center Knowledge)

$30M post-incubator business project in limbo (Lehigh
Valley Business)





First Round Capital Holiday Video 2013


As the size of FRC's portfolio grows, it seems there is less time to feature individual companies.



Links 12/19/2013: EBay's strategy for taking on Amazon; Why TWC's NY biz could attract Comcast



EBay’s Strategy for Taking On Amazon
(NY Times Magazine)
Includes discussion of role of King of Prussia-based EBay Enterprise.

For Comcast, Time Warner Cable's New York unit could be big business (LA Times: Company Town)

NBCU’s Olympics Coverage To Rely Heavily on Digital (Variety)




BlackBerry’s CEO hires two more of his former colleagues (Globe & Mail)
More former SAP/Sybase executives. Follows announcement that former SAP mobile boss John Sims would lead its global enterprise business.

Two analytics start-ups say they to discern what consumers want (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Nevels, Comcast's Angelakis Appointed to Lead Philly Fed Board of Directors (Philly Fed)

December 2013 Business Outlook Survey (Philly Fed)

Philly Manufacturing index recovers slightly in December (Marketwatch)


IBM acquires Aspera and its tech for moving massive files to the cloud (Gigaom)

Building products company halts SAP project, citing strategy shift (PC World)











All in the Insight family: Unitrends buys PHD Virtual to compete against Veeam



Tom Paine



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There was an interesting comment by Unitrends CEO Mike Coney following the announcement of his company's acquisition of Philadelphia-based PHD Virtual yesterday, as quoted by TechTarget.com:

"Unitrends CEO Mike Coney said the addition of PHD gives the vendor a better chance of competing with virtual backup pioneer Veeam Software and makes it stronger in cloud backup."

The irony, perhaps, is that all three firms (Unitrends, PHD Virtual, and Veeam) have had the same VC firm, Insight Venture Partners, as their primary investor.

Unitrends, based in Columbia, SC, announced a major growth equity investment by Insight at the end of October.

Veeam, which is the largest of the three, received a secondary minority investment from
Insight this year. Veeam, which is based in Switzerland, has reported recent bookings growth of close to 100% and says it is shooting for $1 billion in annual revenue.

PHD Virtual, the smallest of the three, had received at least $8 million in venture capital from Insight and Citrix Systems by my count, plus $2 million venture debt financing from Wellington Financial this year.

PHD Virtual had its beginnings in New Jersey and still has many of its tech people in
Morris Plains. Insight got involved in 2010, put Thomas Charlton in as CEO and moved its
headquarters to Center City ( See my 2011 article on the company) . PHD Virtual grew to at least 80 employees (its LinkedIn page shows 82 currently). Charlton, who now heads his own Conshohocken-based firm, Goliath Technologies, was succeeded by James Legg last year. Coney says he expects PHD Virtual to remain in Philadelphia, and Legg to continue as CEO.

I had though that Insight might put PHD Virtual together with Veeam, but Insight is segmenting the market differently. The combined Unitrends/PHD Virtual will focus on the SMB market. Coney told TechTarget that PHD Virtual's biggest weakness was
the lack of a physical backup component, as PHD's offering was entirely virtual, and Unitrends' was the lack of a virtual solution.

"When we get into a competitive situation with Veeam -- especially if it's a 100 percent virtual account -- our win rates drop," Coney said. "The PHD team is successful against Veeam, but when they get into a situation where they need physical protection, their win rates drop. So there's a nice marriage of our go-to-market strategies."





Links 12/17/2013: Report - Comcast weighing options on Time Warner Cable






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Exclusive: Comcast weighs three options for Time Warner Cable deal: sources (Reuters)

Who's In, Who's Out at Obama's Meeting of Tech Execs? (Mashable)
Brian Roberts is in.


EveryBlock Is Back From The Dead
Comcast will be resurrecting the hyperlocal news site
(Chicago Grid)

Dish, Sprint to test a home broadband service using LTE (Gigaom)

AT&T Sells Connecticut Operations to Frontier for $2 Billion (Bloomberg)


Universal Display Surges 9%: JMP Encouraged by Samsung, LG, Apple Prospects (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Salesforce.com will adopt Openstack* (*says Rackspace) (Gigaom)

Source: Oracle Is Quietly Reorganizing Its Sales Force And Signing A Huge Agreement With HP
(Business Insider)



HarperCollins Publishers Selects RSuite CMS (RSI Content Solutions)


Links 12/16/2013: Fearing arrest, InterDigital execs won't meet with Chinese officials; PHD Virtual sold









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InterDigital execs fear arrest, won't meet China antitrust agency (Reuters)

Unitrends Acquires Philadelphia-based PHD Virtual; Builds Powerhouse in Data Protection and Disaster Recovery
Insight Venture Partners' portfolio companies join forces to create data protection platform ideally suited for small and mid-market organizations
(PR Newswire)

Chip-maker LSI to be bought for $6.6 billion (Allentown Morning Call)
In 2006, LSI acquired Lehigh Valley-based Agere Systems, a legacy business of the old
Bell Labs. LSI still employs more than 700 in the area.

Jason S. Armstrong to Join Comcast Corporation as Senior Vice President, Investor Relations (Business Wire)


Consolidation will cut cloud choice next year, Gartner says (PC World)

For Workday, payback comes at a price (Fortune)

Oracle's Q2: What to expect (PC World)

Inside Avon's Failed Order-Management Project (Information Week)


Cable, Wireless Players Try to Snare Piece of $4.2B Connected-Home Business (Ad Age)

Skift Q&A: Visit Philly CEO on Using New Media to Rebrand an Old City (Skift)


The NeatConnect Scanner Is a Cloud-Connected Guilty Pleasure (All Things D)



Philly Tech People News 12/15/2013











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Comcast hires a fourth executive VP (Philadelphia
Inquirer)

Victor Takes Key Role At Comcast Business (Multichannel News)

BioAgilytix Labs Names Jim Datin Chief Executive Officer (PR Newswire)
Datin was previously EVP and Managing Director at Safeguard Scientifics.

Campbell Appoints Yin Woon Rani Vice President, Integrated Marketing (Business Wire)

Tim Foster has joined LLR Partners as Vice President, Business Development, focused on
the New York metro area. A Penn graduate, he was previously with KPMG and Edison Ventures.


appMobi Announces Year-End Resignation of Leland A. Westerfield, Chief Financial Officer (PR Web)

Jim Seuffert Joins Wheelhouse Analytics (PR Web)

Axway Appoints IBM, Oracle and SAP Executives to Build on Strong Global Momentum (Business Wire)









Exclusive: Pa. pension officer retires; hidden $3M loss alleged (Philadelphia Inquirer)

HOW SEEIT SHOWCASES COMCAST'S LEADERSHIP IN SOCIAL TV (Comcast Voices/Official Corporate Blog)

Aereo Founder Explains Delayed Expansion Plans (TechCrunch)


Delaware's financial hit from Fisker comes into focus (Wilmington News Journal)






Links 12/13/2013: Charter said to prepare offer letter for Time Warner Cable








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Charter Said to Prepare Offer Letter for Time Warner Cable (Bloomberg)

Charter Prepares Takeover Offer for Time Warner Cable (New York Times: DealBook)


DirecTV CEO Talks Online Video Plans, Dish Deal Hurdles (Hollywood Reporter)

DirecTV Said Near Renewal of Deal for NFL Sunday Ticket (Bloomberg via Ad Age)

Sprint reportedly preparing bid to purchase T-Mobile in 2014 (The Verge)

Verizon In Advanced Talks to Buy Intel’s Internet TV Unit (Variety)



Time Warner Cable to drop Comcast's NECN (FierceCable)



The worst IT project disasters of 2013
The Healthcare.gov rollout leads a pack of painful projects including one from Australia
(CIO.com)

The Indian SMB gold rush (Information Week)

Deals of the Week: GSK's Stealth Move To The Coasts (IN VIVO Blog)

Nimble Storage soars: Stock up 49% following IPO (VentureBeat)

A younger version of PA Society (Philadelphia Daily News)








Epicor moves Americas ERP headquarters from Yardley to Bensalem & planning for growth; Grand Opening today (Friday)



Tom Paine



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Most tech professionals in the area know that enterprise software giant SAP has its headquarters for the Americas, and well over 2,000 employees, in Newtown Square. And in May of next year it will be the home base for SAP's sole CEO, although the company remains based in Germany.

But less are aware that another important, though smaller Tier II ERP provider, Epicor, has its headquarters for its Americas ERP business in Bucks County. And it is moving from Yardley to Bensalem and holding an open house tomorrow.

Epicor EVP Donna Troy
Epicor's presence in the area dates back to Activant Solutions' 2005 acquisition of Yardley-based Prophet 21 for $215 million. Activant was acquired by private equity firm Apax Partners in 2011, which at the same time also acquired Epicor and merged the two under the Epicor name. The total value of the two deals was about $2 billion, and Epicor currently has annual revenues in the $1 billion range. Epicor says its Bensalem location serves as its headquarters for its ERP business in the Americas, and it currently has about 200 employees there. Worldwide corporate headquarters are in California. Donna Troy, who had previous experience with Dell, SAP, McAfee and IBM, joined Epicor earlier this year as executive vice president and general manager for ERP Americas.

Epicor Director of Continuous Improvement Stuart Maxel, who coordinated the move, said in a phone interview with Philly Tech News that Epicor's key objectives here are to continue the migration of products to the Cloud (Epicor was traditionally on-premise, but now has a mix of on-premise and Software as a Service - SaaS), moving up from serving smaller and medium-sized enterprises to competing for more accounts in larger enterprises, and enhancing its vertical & niche offerings. Epicor's traditional core strengths have been in retail, distribution, and manufacturing.

Although Maxel couldn't talk specific numbers, he said part of the reason for the move
was to allow for expansion, and that is definitely in the plans. I mentioned that Epicor
has not been very visible on the Philly Tech Scene during the time I've covered it,
and he said increasing that was one of its goals.


Epicor's new Bensalem facility

The Yardley facility dated back to the Prophet 21 days (Epicor still uses the Prophet 21
name for some offerings). In the Bensalem facility at the LEED certified Horizon Corporate Center, Epicor is leasing 43,000 square feet on the second floor. Bensalem Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo, local representative Gene DiGirolamo, and state senator Tommy Tomlinson are expected to attend the open house today.




Links 12/12/2013: Comcast appoints new strategy chief; Aereo to Supreme Court - Bring it on









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Exclusive: Hellman & Friedman looks to sell HR software firm Kronos - sources (Reuters)
Report says SAP has shown little interest so far.

Avon slams the brakes on SAP deployment, proving once again that enterprise software is hard (Gigaom)

Wait, I Thought SAP Business ByDesign Was Dead? (ASUG News)



Google and fellow tech giants move into shopping malls (Inside Bay Area)

Oracle Seen Losing Share To Cloud Rivals, Downgraded (Investor's Business Daily)

Comcast's Future
Thinking outside the set-top box
(The Economist)


Comcast Appoints Strategy Chief Amid Industry Merger Speculation (Bloomberg)

Cablevision: Case against Aereo could destroy cloud computing (and our cloud DVR) (Engadget)

Aereo Won't Oppose Supreme Court Battle (Hollywood Reporter)

Cisco Is Keeping Its TV Set-Top Box Business, and That’s That (AllThingsD)


Pa. pension board: We'll hire investigators (Philly.com: Philly Deals)








Links 12/11/2013: Epicor moving 200 jobs from Yardley to Bensalem; DreamIt gets $3mm from Drexel







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Comcast Expands Silicon Valley Presence
MSO’s Innovation Center Now Employs About 250 Engineers
(Multichannel News)

Comcast to Bring More Nets, Cable Ops to ‘See It’ Social-Viewing Service on Twitter (Variety)



Comcast says Astros unwilling to put CSN Houston’s best interests first (Houston Chronicle)


Scripps Networks Interactive Shares Jump on Speculation Discovery Could Make Bid (Hollywood Reporter)


SAP finally solves developer licensing, launches SAP River, more open source (Denn Howlett/Diginomica)


HP pushes hybrid cloud with Windows Azure and SAP HANA support (v3.co.uk)


Is ERP technology going nowhere -- or everywhere? (SearchFinancialApplications)


Software firm Epicor moves 200 jobs from Yardley to Bensalem (Bucks County Courier Times)

DreamIt Ventures gets new home, $3M donation (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Horizon BCBS won't renew health plans cancelled under Obamacare (Newark Star-Ledger)




Reader Poll: Should PA Society Be Moved to PA? (Politics PA)

Square Acquires Evenly, A Venmo Competitor For Sending And Receiving Payments With Friends (TechCrunch)






Links 12/10/2013: Comcast expands Silicon Valley Innovation Center






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Verizon's McAdam: New FiOS markets are not in the cards (FierceTelecom)

Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia Says Company Selling Out Capacity in Some Cities (Hollywood Reporter)

Comcast Expands Silicon Valley Innovation Center to Foster Collaboration and Continued Product Innovation (PR Newswire)

Time Warner CEO Bewkes: Only Comcast and Verizon Do VOD Right (Variety)

Here’s how AT&T is going to build its gigabit service in Austin (Gigaom)


Norcross doubles holdings in Philly newspapers (AP via Philly.com)




SAP partners with Vancouver health care data startup (IT World
Canada)

Oracle becomes sponsor of OpenStack Foundation (PC World)


Magento offers retailers more services as part of eBay Enterprise
(Internet Retailer)


Philadelphia CIOs Reveal 2014 Hiring Plans
Robert Half Technology Survey Finds Continued IT Hiring
(PR Newswire)

Business, money, politics in Delaware - I and II (Philly.com: Philly Deals)







Publicis adds to area healthcare communications assets, buying Horsham-based Verilogue







Tom Paine



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Publicis, which already owns a number of heathcare communications assets in the area, today announced it was acquiring Horsham-based Verilogue (pdf), a healthcare analytics firm specializing in analyzing patient-physician communications.

By using technology to (confidentially and with patient approval) track and analyze patient-provider interactions, Verilogue may provide insights that can help improve healthcare communications and training.

Founded in 2006, Verilogue will maintain its current headquarters and 31 employees, the company said. It will continue to be run by co-founder and current CEO Jeff Kozloff.

Lead investor Edison Ventures will exit. Terms were not disclosed.

Publicis Health brands with a presence in the Phildelphia area include Saatchi & Saatchi Health, Publicis Life Brands, Digitas Health, Razorfish Healthware, Publicis Health Media, and Publicis Touchpoint Solutions. Another Publicis company, Princeton-based Rosetta, also has a sizeable healthcare practice.


Links 12/9/2013: AllThingsD editors said to complete NBCUniversal deal; IMS Health may go public again







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Verizon Is Acquiring Content Delivery Network EdgeCast For More Than $350 Million (TechCrunch)

IMS Health Said to Be Considering IPO in 2014 After 2010 Buyout (Bloomberg)
Headquartered in Connecticut, IMS Health maintains major facilities in Collegeville and
Plymouth Meeting.

AllThingsD Editors Are Said to Complete NBCUniversal Deal (Bloomberg)

Time Warner Cable Exec Addresses Sale Rumors (Hollywood Reporter)



Norcross-led firm boosts holdings in Inquirer parent
(Philadelphia Business Journal)


SAP InfiniteInsight® Solution Brings Predictive Analytics to Broad Spectrum of Users (PR Newswire)

SAP: Advanced Analytics Not Just For PhDs Anymore (Information Week)


IBM Announces Industry-Specific Cloud Services (CRM Daily)


CIOs question Meaningful Use Stage 2 extension (FierceHealthIT)

Life sciences IT execs plan business intelligence spending blitz (Fierce Biotech IT)

Unisys Scores Department of Energy Cloud Contract (Talkin' Cloud)



PhillyDeals: N.J. tech company feeling the lure of Philly (Philly.com: Philly Deals)







Philly Tech People News 12/8/2013










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Comcast Wholesale tabs Porch as VP & GM of AdDelivery (CED Magazine)

TWC Names Jain Chief Operating Officer (Multichannel News)

Time Warner Cable Names Deals Chief Amid Merger Speculation (Bloomberg)

Commonwealth CIO Named "Premier 100 IT Leader" by Computerworld Magazine (PR Newswire)

Willis Ware, 93, Engineer at Dawn of Computer Age, Dies (New York Times)


Buchanan Public Relations Promotes Five (Buchanan Public Relations)












Malvern firm making strides in home automation (Philly.com: Philly Deals)


Campbell Soup's Pearl Harbor Day SpaghettiOs tweet draws attention, mixed reaction (Update: tweet removed with apology)






Tom Paine



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Adam Kmiec, Director, Global Digital Marketing and Social Media, of Camden-based The Campbell Soup Company has received a good deal of attention for his efforts to try to elevate Campbell's social media footprint. See this profile on him from Marketing Land last month.

However, a graphic in a tweet for its SpaghettiOs brand posted late last night for Pearl Harbor Day has created some controversy and mixed feedback from the twittersphere:



Some criticize the tweet as being in bad taste for the way it commemorates (and perhaps commercializes) such a tragic event; others defend it as being appropriate and patriotic. In any event, the attention its attracted has refreshed brand awareness for an ancient brand, which may be a net positive. And some have inserted the graphic in the middle of
other important historical photographs:






Not to be overlooked is the fact that several of Campbell's brands worked long and hard to meet the food needs of US troops during World War II.

What do you think?

(Update: I'm not sure if the graphic is still up now.)

It does appear to be gone from the SpaghettiOs twitter account, but I've embedded it from
another account.




SpaghettiOs has indeed removed the tweet, and added this statement in a new tweet: "We apologize for our recent tweet in remembrance of Pearl Harbor Day. We meant to pay respect, not to offend".

Update 12/10: Adam Kmiec apparently left Campbell's sometime in early December, before the Pearl Harbor tweet was posted, according to Marketing Land.

Also, Campbell's announced on December 13 that Yin Woon Rani had been appointed Vice President, Integrated Marketing, a new position, with responsibilities including digital marketing and social media.




Links 12/6/2013: Commissioner predicts FCC would block Comcast-Time Warner deal; Top PA pension investment chief steps down facing inquiry






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Time Warner Cable’s Next CEO Ready to Sell If the Price Is Right (Bloomberg)

Commissioner predicts FCC would block Comcast-Time Warner deal (The Hill)

Facing investigation, top Pa. pension investment officer steps down (Philly.com: Philly Deals)


Accenture Closes Procurian Deal: May the 2014 Procurement BPO “Hunger Games” Begin (Spend Matters)

Supreme Court to review patents on software (Gigaom)

Opening the $112 million Box for global expansion (and IPO?) (Diginomica)

Veeva Systems Beats Third-Quarter Estimates (Investor's Business Daily)

SAP Plans to Bolster Korean Alliances to Hasten Cloud Switch (Bloomberg)

Heavy ERP customization no longer in vogue, experts and customers agree (SeachSAP)



IBM lays plans to be a cloud storage broker (PC World)


Wynn seeks Philly-based director of online gaming (PLANPHILLY via Philly.com)








Veeva Systems posts first public earnings report; revenue up 54%







Tom Paine



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Veeva Systems, the California-based life sciences SaaS company that completed its IPO in October, issued its first quarterly earnings report as a public company today. Veeva has a significant presence in Delaware and Montgomery counties.

Revenue was $55 million, up 54% year-over-year. The company maintained its pre-IPO profitability, with net (GAAP) income of $6.5 million, up 13% from last year.

“There are tremendous opportunities to move life sciences companies from legacy applications to the cloud,” said chief executive officer Peter Gassner in a statement.

Veeva cited its CRM market leadership as recognized by IDC, its 50th Veeva Vault customer,and the launching of its Veeva Network offering as being significant milestones for the quarter, in addition to the IPO.

Subscription services revenue, Veeva's most significant revenue metric, grew 95% year-over-year.

Full year revenue guidance was for $204-205 million, or annual growth of 58 to 59%.

In response to a question about Veeva's continued use of Salesforce's Force.com platform for its CRM offering during the earnings conference call, Gasser indicated that if Veeva had to change platforms it could, but he didn't think it would be in the best interests of customers.

Veeva priced its IPO shares at $20 and they ended yesterday trading at $41, giving the company a market value of about $5 billion.


How QlikTech built its QlikMarket using Amazon Web Services, Salesforce, Jive & Magento






Tom Paine



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Amazon Web Services (AWS) published a case study about how Radnor-based QlikTech used
AWS (in conjunction with Salesforce, Jive, and Magento) to build its QlikMarket marketplace application.

QlikTech used Model Metrics, a Salesforce company, to manage the project.

QlikMarket, which features applications from QlikTech partners leveraging the QlikView data discovery platform, launched in September 2012.


Links 12/5/2013: Fort Washington-based mortgage software firm LoanLogics raises VC funding of $11.2 million







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Prime time is increasingly becoming on-demand (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Comcast's digital movie sales effort off to solid start (LA Times: Company Town)


Comcast Plots National SIP Trunking in 2014 (Light Reading)

TV's Next Big Thing Turns Up Growth For Arris Group (Investor's Business Daily)


LoanLogics, offering technology for the mortgage industry, wins $11.2 million in venture capital (Keystone Edge)

Philadelphia Technology Park Announces Expansion of State of the Art Data Center in Philadelphia Navy Yard
(Business Wire)

M&A, IPOs, in-memory tech, and end of a feud mark top software stories (PC World)

Owners of Star-Ledger, NJ.com and sister newspapers studying possible consolidations (Newark Star-Ledger)

Specops Software Receives Business Entrepreneurial Award from Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce-Philadelphia (Newswire Today)







Aereo probably won't make it to Philly this year (Update: Baltimore to launch December 16)




Tom Paine



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It now appears likely that TV service Aereo will fall quite short of its original goal for 2013 of entering 22 markets (in addition to New York) by the end of 2013, including Philadelphia.

Aereo, backed primarily by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp (First Round Capital was an early investor), has launched so far in nine cities, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Aereo is planning its next launch in Wisconsin in early 2014.

Aereo uses tiny antennas to pick up over-the air signals and submit them over broadband
to individual residences, where the programming can be streamed over or stored on different devices.

Aereo has faced numerous legal challenges, particularly from broadcasters including Comcast's NBC, in cases which might ultimately end up in the Supreme Court. The total investment in Aereo to this point has been $63 million, according to CrunchBase.

In October, a Wall Street Journal Reporter estimated that Aereo could have about 100,000
subscribers
in the New York area, by counting the number of lit-up boxes in the company's Brooklyn facilities. Aereo may have benefitted in New York from the long struggle between CBS and Time Warner Cable over retrans fees.

Update: Aereo did announce today (December 5) it will launch in the Baltimore area on December 16. Aereo says it will announce additional launch dates for its expansion cities throughout the remainder of the year.



Links 12/4/2013: Monetate raises another $8 million; BioTelemetry falls on Medicare cuts






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Accel Leads $4.5M Series A In Trufa, An SAP HANA Startup Using Predictive Analytics For Opex Efficiency (TechCrunch)

Veeva Systems Seen Growing Vs. Rival Oracle (Investor's Business Daily)
Earnings due out tomorrow.

IBM’s Big Plans for Cloud Computing (New York Times: Bits)

Monetate takes an extra $8M to power holiday shopping online
(VentureBeat)



BioTelemetry, Inc. Announces Reduction to Medicare Reimbursement for Remote Cardiac Monitoring Services (Globe Newswire)
BioTelemetry (BEAT) down 22% for the day so far.

Tennis Appeals Comcast Decision to Supremes (Multichannel News)



Harris gears for over-the-top expansion with deal to acquire Imagine Communications (FierceCable)

Cyber Monday 2013 mobile shopping: PayPal sees 93.6% increase, eBay Enterprise sees orders rise 88% (The Next Web)

Philadelphia not prepared for IT disruption, says Butkovitz (Philadelphia Business Journal)



Beige Book - December 4, 2013: Third District - Philadelphia (Federal Reserve Board)

QlikTech Announces Winners of its “Take Action Open Data Challenge” (Business Wire)










Links 12/3/2013: Reddit co-founder Ohanian in Philly; Evolve IP makes acquisition






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Amazon Delivers Some Pie in the Sky (New York Times)

Charter CEO: Don't need to buy Time Warner Cable (CNBC)

Full day in Philly for Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian (Newsworks)

Evolve IP Acquires Midwest-Based Cloud Computing Company Paragrid (PR Newswire)

EvolveIP adds cloud-computing centers (Philly.com)


Google Cuts Cloud Prices, Rackspace Sinks, Amazon Slips; Battle Heating Up, Says Baird (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Google Compute Cloud Challenges Amazon (Information Week)


Does Salesforce.com Have An Analytics Gap? (Information Week)

SAP user group: Innovation agenda clear but for long haul
(Computer Weekly)

Amazon's Cloud Economics Are Now Disrupting The SaaS Disruptors (ReadWrite)

Cornerstone, Marketo Among FBR M&A Targets in Cloud ‘Frenzy’ (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)


Sports Teams Wire Up the Stadium to Pull Potatoes Off the Couch (Bloomberg)









Links 12/2/2013: Comcast testing new ad tech; Luukko resigns from Comcast-Spectacor






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Why Comcast and other cable ISPs aren’t selling you gigabit Internet (Ars Technica)

Comcast tests new ad tech to help networks capture binge viewers (Reuters via Chicago Tribune)

Luukko out as president of Comcast-Spectacor (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Luukko resigns from Flyers, Comcast-Spectacor (CSN Philly)


QVC chief bullish about Cyber Monday (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Digital wallets: Paypal, Amazon, and credit cards are top contenders (not Apple, Google) (VentureBeat)

QlikView.Next rollout is around the corner (Ovum)
New release critical to Radnor company's future.

Bentley Systems embraces the cloud (AEC Magazine)


Cognizant to Hire 10,000 U.S. Workers (Bloomberg)

Fund Helps Student Start-Up Test 'Blue Books' of the Future (Chronicle of Higher Education)
A First Round Capital Dorm Room Fund venture at Penn.

E La Carte Scores Deal With Applebee’s, Bringing 100,000 Tableside Tablets To All U.S. Locations By Year-End 2014 (TechCrunch)




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