About me and my period of absence from Philly Tech News
Tom Paine
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So, for those who may have noticed, I was away from the site for a few months - roughly mid-April thruugh mid-August - I guess, though it was actually the end of August before I really started to write again.
And the problem was that I temporarily got very ill (infection) and recovery took a long time. In fact, even while recovering I didn't have much of an appetite for tech news frankly. as so much of it seemed mundane and repetitive at the time. And getting away from it was good for me. I tend to be a bit obsessive and perfectionistic, a "dot every i" type. And while I was getting bogged down in details too minute to be meaningful to some, I was missing the big picture - the shifting of tectonic plates in technology that really make things interestng. And I was not being true to myself or my abilities.
So I decided to start again. And while no change can or will be 100%, I'm confident I've got the background knowledge to see many issues in a deeper, historical, context. And I've tried to make some changes in the way I go about covering things. I don't see an important story as a single article with a beginning and end, but as part of an extended saga with numerous branches and connections to uncover.
I think I will leave to another installment something I was going to write about the events I missed while absent, and other things I experienced during my down time.
Sunday Morning Tech Fix 10/11/2015: Bubble Up? GE IoT & software moves
Tom Paine
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(Where I somehow try to answer questions I haven't been able to answer the rest of the week, at a time when I'm least capable of doing so.)
I'll be periodically posting updates on the so-called 'bubble scare' of 2015, trying to emphasize facts rather than gossip, mostly as it concerns private equity and private tech companies.
As always in a hot market, there are people who want to keep talking it up, and others who want to talk it down to cool off values a bit. And some (few) are straight shooters.
Fortune's Dan Primack, on his visit to Silicon Valley last week, said of the investment class there, speaking primaarily of unicorns (private startups valued at $1 billion or more), "As in the past, they are nearly unanimous in sentiment. The difference now is that their sentiment is fear."
Mattermark's (an emerging business information and research company) Danielle Morrill gets specific and names some unicorns that might be in trouble, including the FanDuel/DraftKings duo that have been spending huge amounts to batter each other's brains out. Some suggest that merging the two is the only solution.
Boston or Wilmington-based SevOne, which has very legitimate value, announced it had closed its latest round at $50 million (the Form D filed before the close indicated up to $60 million) and failed to indicate clearly to anyone whether it had reached unicorn status, which it was on the brink of. Which is probably just as well, since the attention that brings you may be more negative than positive now.
Of course, all of this is unicorn talk, and Philadelphia is neither Silicon Valley or New York. So I will try to focus future installmments on somewhat more micro indicators most of us need to know about.
I'm still trying to decipher all the moving parts involved in GE's enormous announcents about both its Internet of Things platform and its Predix software venture. Such as what it means for PTC's ThingWorx, which has a big role to play at least in IoT (not sure about Predix), and what it means for ERP players and the software industry in general. I think ThingWorx has to be fairly quiet, following the interests of GE and its own corporate parent.
I also noticed that ThingWorx had a presence at AWS re:Invent 2015, where it was a sponsor, though it wasn't prominently mentioned in AWS' releaeses about its new IoT platform, which was built upon the acqusition of anoter IoT platform vendor. But GE says it outsources much of its processing to AWS.
Also, waiting for some clarifcaion on Quentin Clark's new role at SAP. On SAP's website for at least the past few days, he has been listed as Chief Business Officer, rather than CTO (his prior position) though no trace of an external announcement has been found. SAP did post about two other significant appointments last week.
Philly Tech People News 10/11/2015: Bentley adds new General Counsel, First Chief Talent Officer
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Michael Kleinemeier to Join the Executive Board of SAP SE (PR Newswire)
SAP Names Lori Mitchell-Keller Executive Vice President and Global General Manager of Consumer Industries (SAP News)
Hank Summy Joins LiquidHub as Partner, Vertical Markets Lead
(Business Wire)
Bentley Systems Appoints David Shaman as General Counsel
In His New Role, Shaman Will Report to Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley (Business Wire)
Florence Zheng Named Bentley Systems’ First Chief Talent Officer
In Her New Role, Zheng Will Report to Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley (Business Wire)
Comcast Ups Soto to Global Chief Information Security Officer (Multichannel News)
OnGolf names vice president of sales
Amanda Koss will work to grow client roster in North America. (Golf Course Industry)
Previously with ThingWorx.
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