Links 9/30/2014: EBay to spin off PayPal; Neat partners with HP


EBay to Spin Off PayPal, Adopting Strategy Backed by Icahn
(New York Times: DealBook)

HP and Neat partner for home and small office organization (TUAW)

SAP, Customers Plan Joint Cloud SIS Project to Simplify Higher Education (MarketWatch)
Higher Ed space getting busy. This comes on top of Salesforce and Workday announcements last week, and Google is doing something (see below).

Google Launches Drive For Education With Unlimited Storage (TechCrunch)

Oracle speeds up software portfolio with big data, mobile in mind
(ZDNet)


MRO Announces Partnership with Imperial Capital Group Ltd. (Yahoo
Finance)

Comcast Shifts ‘Streampix’ Strategy (Multichannel News)
Not totally gone, but repositioned.

Ratings for Dodgers, Astros show the challenges of starting RSN (Sports
Business Daily)


Qubit Bags $26M To Grow Its Ecommerce Personalization Platform (TechCrunch)
A Monetate competitor.




Villanova-based RoundCorner partners with Salesforce.com Foundation for non-profit, higher ed SaaS




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Seven years ago, a little startup called Verticals onDemand got its start, headquartered in California and having an east coast office focused on sales and customer service located along the Main Line. Concentrating on the life sciences industry and using Saleforce.com's software as a service (SaaS) platform, Verticals onDemand eventually became Veeva Systems, which did an IPO last year and now has a market value of nearly $4 billion.

Then, in April of this year Salesforce.com laid out a strategy to enter specific verticals through partnerships, investments or acquisitions, using Veeva's success as a model to emulate.

One example of that strategy is based right here in Villanova. RoundCorner describes its mission as "changing the way people change the world" and aims to provide "lifetime constituent management for non-profits." In the past two weeks RoundCorner was featured in two major announcements by Salesforce.com and the Salesforce.com Foundation addressing two verticals: one for serving the non-profit market with an offering called NGO Connect, and the other for higher education recruitment, marketing and building lifetime relationships, under the label Salesforce1 for High Ed. That includes a app created by RoundCorner, Advancement Connect. NGO Connect's initial clients include the Girl Scouts of the USA and the Sierra Club. Salesforce1 for Higher Ed has started with the University of Southern California, Arizona State University, College for America at Southern New Hampshire University and Cornell University (also a Workday client).



Dan Lammot/LinkedIn

RoundCorner's President and one of its founding partners is Daniel Lammot, a Southern California native and Villanova graduate with a degree in psychology. Dan co-founded OKERE Inc., a New York-based implementer of Salesforce.com CRM installations that was acquired by Fujitsu in 2007. Lammot stayed on at Fujitsu for a while after the acquisition until leaving to start RoundCorner in 2009.

RoundCorner now has about 60 employees primarily in three offices; Villanova (headquarters), San Francisco and New York. In the non-profit market earlier this year RoundCorner acquired FoundationConnect, a cloud grants management application for non-profits, from NPower.

In the higher ed recruitment space, Lammot told me in a phone interview that RoundCorner was partnering with TargetX of Conshohocken, which also uses the Saleforce1 platform.

I asked if it was a coincidence that the Salesforce/RoundCorner higher ed announcement
occurred on the same day as Workday's announcement of a very similarly targeted product, and Lammot assured me it was merely that. Both Workday and Salesforce execs have experience with Oracle Peoplesoft (Workday's execs founded it), which was a leader in higher ed systems but has not transitioned well into the cloud and is seen as very vulnerable. Veeva has had much of its success taking share from another Oracle acquistion, Siebel Systems, which is also a legacy competitor in the non-profit CRM market. Larry Ellison is addressing Cloud and SaaS issues at this week's Oracle OpenWorld, but its not clear to what extent its aging product lines will be upgraded.

Workday's announcement Thursday was of one module of what is expected to be a full suite of higher ed offerings. I ask Lammot whether either RoundCorner or Salesforce could expand further into higher ed beyond the initial module, and he said that was certainly a possibility.

Salesforce made an investment in RoundCorner last year, the size of which is not known. The investment was the first time Salesforce.com (the corp entity) made an investment in a company (roundCorner) focused on the mission of the Salesforce Foundation. The Salesforce.com Foundation is actively involved in the RoundCorner partnership, offering incentives and discounts to new clients.

Lammot says he is happy to be back in the Villanova area with his family. He serves on the advisory board of the Villanova School of Business' Center for Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship, and is involved in other civic and charitable causes.


Links 9/29/2014: Ellison claims Oracle already dominates cloud





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Oracle's Larry Ellison throws down the cloud gauntlet (PC World)

Ellison: Oracle already dominates cloud computing
(Fortune)

Oracle rolls out analytics cloud services (PC World)


Tibco Taken Private at 21% Premium; FBR, Mizuho See Heating up of Software M&A (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)

Computer Sciences Said to Contact Buyout Funds for LBO (Bloomberg)


FCC Proposes Defining 'Linear' OVDs as MVPDs (Multichannel News)
Another option for Aereo?




Amazon North American Fulfillment Center September 2 2014 by ChannelAdvisor







Smartphone payment system changing business loans (Philly.com: Philly Deals)
Jack Dorsey in town. Hope Square's credit policies are better designed than Advanta's.

Who are the winners and losers in SAP's acquisition of Concur?
(SearchSAP)








Newtown company's system hacked, 300 eateries affected (Bucks County Courier Times)

As Oracle’s OpenWorld approaches and deck chairs shuffle, has Oracle finally figured out the cloud? (Gigaom)


Comcast posts letters to FCC, many from local businesses, expressing support for Time-Warner Cable Merger





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Comcast has submitted numerous letters in support of the Time Warner Cable merger to the
FCC, including many from Philadelphia area small businesses and associations. It has also
included them in an SEC filing and posted them on its website.

Among those submitting letters was Tracey Welson ‐ Rossman of Chariot Solutions, citing among other things Comcast's support for TechGirlz.org, the organization she founded;
Evan Urbania, CEO, ChatterBlast Media, who praises the expansion of Comcast's business services; and the CIO of Hanover-based Utz Quality Foods, who cites Comcast's assistance in
upgrading Utz' communications infrastucture.



Links 9/26: Comcast turns off Streampix, appoints new customer service chief








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Time Warner Cable merger critics take jabs at Comcast’s shots (NY
Post)

Comcast Turns Off Streampix (Light Reading)

Comcast seeks to fix awful customer service, admits “it may take a few years” (Ars Technica)

Bentley takes project management to the cloud (Graphic Speak)

Oracle, Salesforce.com trade moves in marketing software battle (PC World)







InstaMed: Another $15 million raised; total now $77 million, according to Crunchbase





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InstaMed, the Philadelphia-based healthcare payments platform, has raises another $15 million, the company announced yesterday.

I haven't keep count of all their financing events, but Crunchbase (which isn't always completely accurate), puts InstaMed's total raised now at $77.2 million in 15 rounds from 5 investors. As has been the case recently, InstaMed didn't name investors in this round, only to say that existing and new investors were in it. InstaMed says it is supported by a broad investor base, including four funds and four publicly traded companies. Osage Partners and Ashby Point Capital are two of them. Josh Kopelman was an early investor, as an individual. InstaMed only said that it "will deploy the new capital to meet the increasing demands of healthcare consumerism."

InstaMed says it proceesses more than $10 billion in healthcare payments a year. Earlier this year it launched a mobile app, InstaMed Go. Bill Marvin is InstaMed's CEO, and its
executive ranks and investor group have a heavy Penn orientation.

InstaMed calls Philadelphia its headquarters, and has another major office in Newport Beach. There are 108 InstaMed employees on LinkedIn, including 72 in Philadelphia.





Links 9/25/2014: Workday, Salesforce.com Foundation introduce higher ed recruitment packages on same day; Salesforce's in conjunction with local firm



N. Virginia Set to Overtake New York as Biggest Data Center Market by 2015 (Data Center Knowledge)

FinancialForce.com Appoints Former SAP Executive as Chief Financial Officer (Marketwire)
Big news. FinancialForce.com, the Salesforce1 platform-based and Salesforce.com-backed financial suite, is becoming an important player in the finance app cloud market.

UPDATE 2-Vista Equity, Thoma Bravo vie for TIBCO Software -sources (Reuters)
TIBCO in the past had been frequently rumored to be a SAP acquisition target. However, it has fallen off a growth track recently and is considered more of a PE play now. But its
Spotfire product line, which competes against Qlik and Tableau, remains a source of
considerable interest.

Apple Pay's tokenization has parallel significance for B2B, SAP says (FierceFinanceIT)

Workday Student Debuts With Higher-Ed Recruiting (Information Week)

Salesforce.com Foundation Announces Salesforce1 for Higher Ed (MarketWatch)
Teams up with roundCorner, which is partially based in Villanova. Same day as Workday
a coincidence?

Andreessen goes on epic tweet storm, advises tech community to “worry” (PE Hub)






Links 9/24/2014: Comcast: Discovery & other critics tried 'extortion' tactics in exchange for silence



Comcast: Discovery, Other Critics Tried ‘Extortion’ Tactics to Stay Quiet on Merger (Variety)

Comcast says it’s too expensive to compete against other cable companies (Ars Technica)
Cable companies are like mob families; although they can collaborate on things, they're
supposed to stay in their own territories.


Comcast Plans RDK-for-Broadband Gateway Trials in Q4 (Light Reading)
Arris collaboration with Comcast. The RDK joint venture is based in Philadelphia. Arris has operations in Horsham.



The past, present and future of enterprise mobility (Bill McDermott/Diginomica)

CRM has failed? I am so tired of hearing that (Paul Greenberg/ZDNet)

Bullpen Capital's Paul Martino likes his odds with online betting startups
(Silicon Valley Business Journal)
Paul Martino is an native of the Philadelphia area. Though bicoastal, I believe he still
maintains a residence in Bucks County.

Tibco Halted, Jumps 7%: Reviews Buyout Bids, Says Reuters (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)


$734M IPO for Radnor lab products supplier VWR (Philadelphia Business Journal)


Sage Group to acquire Mt Laurel-based PayChoice for $158 million




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Sage Group PLC, the UK's largest publicly traded software firm by market value, added to its US cloud business for SMEs yesterday by announcing an agreement to acquire Mt Laurel-based PayChoice, a more than twenty year-old provider of cloud-based payroll services.

The price was $157.8 million. PayChoice, with 260 employees in 16 offices in the US, had 2013 revenues of $38.9 million and has over 100,000 SMB customers. Robert Digby is CEO. PayChoice processses about 1.8 million paychecks each pay period. PayChoice is profitable and growth is in single digits, Sage says, but it expects to increase growth by cross selling among its customer base.

PayChoice licenses its software to others who operate their own service bureaus, though in the early 2000s several licensees were acquired and consolidated to establish the present
day PayChoice.

Sage Group, which has a significant US business, primarily serves small to medium-sized enterprises with accounting and ERP software. It has been seen by many as being behind the
curve in moving applications to the Cloud, a situation paticularly acute in the US. Sage has had basically flat revenue over the past four years. For FY 2013, total revenue was $2.147 billion, of which $623 million was from North America.

PayChoice has been backed by Great Hill Partners, Baird Venture Capital and North Hill Ventures.


Links 9/23/2014: Comcast's Werner: Triple-play is not enough








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Comcast Eyes Augmented Reality Tech (Light Reading)

Comcast's Werner: Triple-play is not enough, we must innovate
(FierceCable)

The battle for the hotel television (SNL)


Comcast to add over 1,000 miles of cable to network next year (Houston Business Journal)

Morgan Lewis & Bockius nears merger with major Boston firm (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Pa. House committee skips vote on ride-sharing legislation (Philadelphia Inquirer)



Aging Tech Giants Like EMC Look to Deals to Help Bolster Revenue
(NY Times)

Infor plots move into cloud financials in strike against Workday (PC World)



Links 9/22/2014: Sage buys Mt Laurel-based PayChoice; SAP's new CRM packages built around Hybris



Sage buys Mt Laurel-based PayChoice for $157.8 million, bolsters SMB base (ZDNet)

What's holding back in-memory databases? (Computing)

Hybris, SeeWhy, CRM, cloud: How SAP is pulling it all together (ZDNet)

EMC reportedly held merger talks with Hewlett-Packard
(PC World)

In EMC Talks, HP Was Interested Most in VMware (Re/code)



AT&T & Chernin Buy Fullscreen, the Big YouTube Video Network (Re/code)
Comcast participated in a major round last year, and NBCUniversal was said to be one of the companies pursuing Fullscreen.

Private search engine DuckDuckGo is blocked in China (VentureBeat)




Philly Tech People News 9/21/2014








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.
Former Qualcomm Exec to Head Google Fiber (Light Reading)

VC-backed ClearFit hires Beyond.com vet Chris Billetz (PE Hub)

Ex-Chief Data Officer Mark Headd is leaving Philadelphia (Technical.ly Philly)

Stuzo Adds Partner, Focuses On Scaling MEG.com (PR Web)

Revitas Prepares for Sales Growth with Appointment of New Senior Vice President, Sales (Business Wire)

Acting-CEO of medical device company resigns
(Philadelphia Business Journal)







Larry Ellison — Genius Leader, Terrible Copywriter (Re/code)

Oracle CEO changes — laying out the conspiracy theories (Gigaom)


The Concur Acquisition In Context: A SaaS MegaExit (Tomasz Tunguz/Redpoint Ventures)

A Clue in 2000 Ruling? (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Possible clue to ruling in Comcast/Time Warner deal?





University of Delaware wants a 'traditional' datacenter (ZDNet)

Home Depot ignored security warnings for years, employees say
(Ars Technica)


Cox acquires mobile app Experience, which adds Phillies to client roster





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Cox Enterprises, parent of Cox Communications (Cox Cable), the Atlanta Journal Constitution and several ecommerce businesses, has acquired Experience, an Atlanta-based provider of a mobile app that enables fans to purchase seat upgrades at games and events, and buy and sell tickets with season ticket holders. The app, which uses iBeacon technology for iOS users, also offers other features intended to enhance the spectator experience. The price was reported to be in excess of $200 million.


Experience was launched by Atlanta serial entrepreneur Tripp Rackley with the support of his unusual venture relationship with Cox. Rackley, who sits on Cox's board, has a $250 million fund from Cox dedicated to his venture activities.

It has relationships with over 170 professional and collegiate teams, as well as several live event brands. Teams it partners with include the Braves, Falcons, Orlando Magic, Dallas Cowboys, and the University of Alabama.

Experience has a partnership with MLB Advanced Media, and recently added the Phillies to its client roster, a company source tells me (confirmed by this tweet:)







Links 9/18/2014: Ellison to step down as CEO, but he'll still be there; SAP to buy Concur for $7.4 billion






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Larry Ellison Will Step Down as CEO of Oracle (Re/code)
But he's still very much there.

SAP to Acquire Concur, Expanding the World’s Largest Business Network (SAP Press Release)

SAP to Buy Concur for $7.4 Billion to Boost Cloud Sales (Bloomberg)


Netsuite Slams Rival SAP in Newspaper Ad (Re/code)

”Great ERP, worse PLM” – What SAP PLM needs to sharpen its competitive edge (Engineering)



Qlik courts the business manager with easier analytics (PC World)

Walter Isaacson on the women of ENIAC (Fortune)







Comcast CEO "Cautiously Optimistic" on Approval for Time Warner Cable Acquisition
(Hollywood Reporter)

Rally at Comcast building opposes cable merger (Philadelphia Inquirer)


Actua (formerly ICG Group) to buy Edison Partners-backed FolioDynamix for $199 million




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Radnor-based Actua (Nasdaq: ACTA), which earlier this month announced it was changing its name from ICG Group (I missed the memo), yesterday said it had agreed to acquire 97% of FolioDynamix, a New York cloud-based investment and wealth management platform, for about $199 million.


FolioDynamix "offers wealth service providers and investment advisors a comprehensive, secure, cloud-based wealth management technology platform and advisory solutions for managing the full wealth management lifecycle across all account types, including unified managed account (UMA) and unified managed household (UMH) programs. The company delivers comprehensive solutions to financial advisors, professionals and institutions", Actua said in a release.

Actua says FolioDynamix has a revenue run rate of over $30 million a year with positive cash flow and earnings, and is growing over 40% a year.

Lawrenceville, NJ-based Edison Partners was a major investor in FolioDynamix, investing $7.5 million in 2008 and participated in a $16 million round in 2011. PE Hub reported in May that FolioDynamix was looking for a buyer.

The rebranded Actua is focused on a vertical cloud strategy. Originally an offspring of
Safeguard Scientifics named Internet Capital Group, it has operated in a somewhat similar manner as a publicly traded venture capital portfolio although it may be becoming more of an operating company.

Update: Edison says it got 6x its investment back on FolioDynamix.



Philly Tech People News 9/13/2014







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Comcast Hires TWC Exec to Oversee Transaction Compliance (Multichannel News)

Relay Bolsters Management Team With Addition of Graham Barry as CTO (Globe Newswire)

Quintiq appoints new Vice President of Supply Chain Solutions (Supply Chain Digital)

Select Greater Philadelphia names new leader
(Philadelphia Business Journal)







Apple CEO Tim Cook says television is “stuck in the ’70s” (Quartz)


Lawyer: Tourism agency acted properly in fund flap
(Philadelphia Inquirer)
Neat. Agency sets its own rules, laws.




Links 9/12/2014: Report: Weather Channel PE owners considering sale



Voice Marketing Company Ifbyphone Raises $30M More, Acquires Competitor Mongoose Metrics (TechCrunch)
NewSpring Capital joins existing investors.

Weather Channel Talks to Banks on Options Including Sale (Bloomberg)
Interestingly, the article says nothing about what Comcast's (owns about 1/3 through NBCU) interests might be. Comcast's recent attitude towards joint ventures it is part of has either been to sell or buy the whole thing.



AT&T Eyes Late 2015 to Launch DirecTV, High-Speed Wireless Broadband Bundle (Variety)

Salesforce appears to be prepping a cloud-based analytics service (VentureBeat)

Why are private clouds failing? (Thomas Bittman/Gartner Blogs)`



Links 9/10/2014: Apple may buy Path; Apple may use OLED in watch, but no one's sure it will be Universal Display's



Apple Announces Mobile Payment Solution Called Apple Pay (TechCrunch)

Rumor: Apple in late-stage talks to buy Path social platform (Apple Insider)
Path, a First Round Capital portfolio company, achieved a valuation of about $400 million
in its last round, although its performance has generally been considered underwhelming.

Universal Display Rising: Apple May Use OLED Tech in Watch, Says Goldman (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)
Universal Display is based in Ewing, NJ.

Discovery CEO tells FCC he’s concerned about Comcast merger with Time Warner Cable (Washington Post)

Comcast: We Strongly Support Open Internet (Multichannel News)

Web-and-app-design firm branching into Center City studio (Philly.com)

Neighborhood data center seeks to draw small companies to the cloud (Philly.com: Philly Deals)


\


Report: Several cable execs will be at Apple event





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Dave Zatz, tech blogger (Zatz Not Funny!) and video tech expert, posted this tweet early this morning:




No further explanation at this time, but you might check his blog for more info.


Links 9/9/2014: Dassault Systemes completes Qunitiq acquisition; A look at Curalate's progress







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Dassault Systèmes Completes Quintiq Acquisition
(Business Wire)
See my article in which Quintig CEO Victor Allis discusses his company's acquisition by Dassault Systemes.

Gartner Positions InsPro Technologies in the “Leaders” Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for North American Life Insurance Policy Administration Systems (Business Wire)

The Absurd Opposition to Media Mergers (Leo Hindery/Wall Street Journal Opinion)

Media rivals begin to cite megamerger risks (New York Post)

Comcast, TWC Deal Approval Seen Delayed To Q2 2015 (Investor's Business Daily)

Shareholder voting set for Comcast and Time Warner Cable deal (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Curalate: Wharton Startups to Watch Redux (Wharton Magazine)

Oracle completes Micros acquisition, forms new global business unit (PC World)

Event Report: SAP Australian User Group Summit Highlights Systematic Concerns About SAP (Enterprise Irregulars)



Links 9/8: SAP to release apps for smart glasses; Salesforce forms dedicated VC fund focused on IoT



Salesforce.com is Silicon Valley's newest VC firm (Fortune)
Of course, Salesforce has been acting like a VC for some time.

SAP to release AR apps on Android Wear for smart glasses in the workplace (Computerworld)

Silicon Graphics: Ready to Return to Growth, SAP Partnership Positive, Says Davidson (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)

Tibco going up against Oracle, IBM and Adobe with new customer engagement platform (PC World)
May not produce much near-term revenue, but could fatten acquisition price.


Comcast Wi-Fi serving self-promotional ads via JavaScript injection

Wi-Fi Should Scare the Hell out of Verizon and AT&T (Bloomberg)


Comcast Revisits 'EveryBlock' (Multichannel News)

SCTE Broadens Its International Angle (Multichannel News)
The SCTE is based in Exton.


Philly Tech People News 9/7/2014: TierPoint names new management for former Philadelphia Technology Park







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TierPoint, LLC, recently announced it has appointed Jim Weller as Vice President, Mid-Atlantic Region and Jennifer Einhorn as General Manager, Philadelphia, effective immediately.

Bringing more than 30 years of technology expertise, Weller will be responsible for TierPoint’s overall business operations in the Mid-Atlantic Region, including data center operations in Baltimore and Philadelphia. Most recently, Weller served as General Manager for TierPoint in Baltimore and prior to that, served as CEO and co-founder of Enterprise Technology Parks. Enterprise Technology Parks was parent company to Philadelphia Technology Park prior to it being acquired by TierPoint earlier this year.
`

In her role as General Manager, Einhorn will oversee all sales, marketing and overall customer satisfaction in the Philadelphia marketplace. Previously, Einhorn served as Vice President of Sales for Recovery Networks (now KeepITsafe, a j2Global company), a Philadelphia-based business continuity and disaster recovery services provider. She brings strong leadership and management experience to her new position.

See Philly Tech News' earlier article, Philadelphia Technology Park acquired by St. Louis firm.

Monetate Appoints New CEO Lucinda Duncalfe to Help Company Meet Growing Demand for Digital Personalization (Monetate)


QVC (US) boss out (Philly.com: Philly Deals)


The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute Announces New Assistant Professor and Executive Director, Ellen Weber
(Temple Fox School)


LiquidHub Names Sean Narayanan as Chief Business Officer (Business Wire)

Edison Partners Announces Promotions (PR Web)

PointRoll Appoints John Galvin as Chief Technology Officer (Marketwire)








For Comcast, independent networks will be a merger issue (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Joan Rivers and her $1 billion fashion business (Fortune)

CenturyLink Said to Seek to Acquire Rackspace Hosting (Bloomberg)






Quintiq CEO Allis discusses his company's pending acquisition by Dassault Systemes





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I spoke with Dr. Victor Allis, co-founder and CEO of supply chain planning and optimization software firm Quintiq, following the announcement of his company's planned $336 million acquisition by Dassault Systemes of France in late July.

Dr. Victor Allis / Quintiq website

Dr. Allis co-founded Quintiq while a university professor in The Netherlands in 1997 (he holds a PHD in artificial intelligence). In 2005, the company established a US office in Philadelphia. Dr. Allis soon made Philadelphia his primary residence and in 2010 established a US headquarters in Radnor which became the company's co-headquarters, the other being in The Netherlands.

Quintiq now employs about 800 people, including 80 in Radnor and 100 overall in the US. Allis says the US is Quintiq's fastest growing region. Quintiq received a "substantial minority investment" from LLR Partners and NewSpring Capital in 2010, its only outside funding. During last year, Quintiq said it expected its 2013 revenue to be more than $100 million with 36% growth.

Allis said Quintiq's first objective in becoming part of Dasssault Systemes is to take on and possibly supplant the "big three" of supply chain planning software, SAP, Oracle and JDA (see Gartner's Magic Quadrant for supply chain software ). SAP and Oracle's supply chain software businesses are outgrowths of and extensions of their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suites, and JDA is a legacy provider which has accumulated several vendors over the years.

Dassault Systemes' US headquarters is in Massachusetts, but Qunitiq will report up through a group (Delmia Corporation) based outside Detroit. Within that group, Quintiq will work with Daussault's recent Apriso acquisition to integrate aspects of its product line with Apriso"s MES (manufacturing execution system) platform.

Dassault's vision in acquiring Quintiq is to marry its own Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software for manufacturing with Qunitiq's supply chain management (SCM) software, seeing PLM and SCP as one continuous process. Dassault Systemes, which describes itself as the world's 9th largest software company and grew out of the French aerospace company of the same name, was an early leader in CAD/CAM software developed to assist in Dassault's manufacturing process. It now uses the term "3DEXPERIENCE" to describe its offerings.

Quintiq will maintain its Radnor/The Netherlands dual headquarters, and Allis will continue to make the Philly area his primary residence, although of course he will probably be traveling a great deal.

Allis says a key factor in Quintiq's success has been using one common platform to serve all verticals. Customization varies, in some cases requiring only a few days and in other cases considerably longer. Another important aspect is that Quintiq has been in-memory from its beginnings, allowing for rapid reiterations in real time. Allis describes how Quintiq helps its customer Walmart. Quintiq's software, configured for the retail and distribution industry, allows Walmart logistics load managers to assign loads to driver-truck combinations to create the optimal sets of trips, and to dispatch those trips through an onboard computer to the driver. Based on real-time updates from the driver’s onboard computer, Quintiq’s optimization engine continuously re-optimizes the sequence of trips and provides recommendations to logistics load managers through its user interface.

Gartner says Quintiq is not strong over all verticals. Its primary strengths are in logistics and distribution for transportation applications, and in complex process manufacturing, according to Gartner.

Allis is proud that Quintiq was built organically to this point without a single acquisition, though he hints that future acquisitions are a possibility as part of Dassault.


LLR Partners and NewSpring Capital have not commented on the transaction. Responding to my email inquiry, LLR says it can't comment until the deal closes. Dassault Systemes, in announcing the deal, didn't give an expected date for closing, stating that "completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including antitrust clearances in Germany and Austria."

Quintiq and Dassault Systemes are planning a world tour to introduce their combined capabilities, including a stop in Philadelphia on October 15.


Pet360 being acquired by PetSmart for $130 million, plus potential $30 million earnout






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On August 19, while announcing its earnings, PetSmart confirmed it was acquiring Plymouth Meeting-based Pet360 for $130 million plus a potential $30 million earnout. At the same time, the company said it was exploring other strategic options, including a possible sale.

PetSmart's CEO said that even as the company considers a possible sale, it is acquiring
Pet360, an online merchant of pet food, supplies, meds and services, to leverage and expand its ecommerce business.

In 2011, Pet360 raised $18 million from Updata Partners and LLR Partners. LLR Partners took part in a previous $10 million round in 2007.

PetSmart has seen its sales slump recently and has been pushed by its primary investors, Longview Asset Management LLC and Jana Partners LLC, to explore options. PetSmart posted a profit of $98.1 million on revenue of $1.73 billion in the quarter ended August 3.

Pet360's revenue wasn't disclosed. Around 125 Pet360 employees will remain in Montgomery County after the sale, Pet360 CEO Brock Weatherup told Technical.ly.

The deal would be LLR Partners' second large announced exit in a month, the first being Quintiq's by Daassault Systemes for about $336 million announced in late July.




Links 9/04/2014: FCC chief questions lack of competition for high speed broadband; Charter, Comcast choose name for planned cable spinoff




FCC Chief Seeks Faster Speeds for U.S. Internet Service
(Bloomberg)

Charter, Comcast select name for new cable venture
(St Louis Business Journal)

Workday 23 – spotlight on financials and verticals
(Diginomica)


Workday continues push against Oracle, SAP in financial apps (PC World)


QVC (US) Boss is out (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Couple (SevOne founders) builds a thriving IT enterprise (University of Delaware Messenger)

Could DuckDuckGo Overtake Bing? (Search Engine Land)



Links 9/2/2014: Hasso lectures HANA doubters; NBC believes fantasy sports is big biz



What’s in a Story (and a Name)?
(BI Scoreboard)
Cindi Howson compares QlikTech, Tableau, SAP and SAS in their approach to story telling.

Concur Said to Explore Sale to Software Makers Including SAP
(Bloomberg)


The Benefits of the Business Suite on HANA (Hasso Plattner/SAP HANA Blog)
Plattner responds to those who've been questioning HANA's value and the strategy behind it.


Oracle's $5.3bn MICROS purchase gets EC thumbs-up (ZDNet)

Alibaba IPO planned for week of September 8, report says (CNET News)

Comcast Opens TV Everywhere App To Cellular Networks (Multichannel News)

FanDuel Scores $70 Million Funding Round (Re/code)
NBC, a major content partner of FanDuel, participated in round.




Why Uber must be stopped
(Salon)

Downloads From WICT Philly's 'Tech It Out' Cable WiFi Binge
(Multichannel News)


Aereo Tells Judge It Can Beat Lawsuit Despite Supreme Court Ruling
(Hollywood Reporter)