1/31: Comcast Is About to Sell You Cable TV Without the Cable Box?: Arris briefly plunges, but has own response



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Taxi Medallion Prices Are Plummeting, Endangering Loans (Bloomberg)

Comcast Is About to Sell You Cable TV Without the Cable Box (Bloomberg)
#Arris International PLC down as much as 9.3 percent today before recovering most of that.

Arris Builds Next-Gen TiVo (Donahue Report)
Arris' answer?


The FCC won’t force cable companies to unlock their set-top boxes after all (Recode)









Concur co-founders on their new healthcare tech adventure, and why the space is so interesting to disrupt (GeekWire)


AT&T's multi-gigabit wireless over power lines heading to trials this year (Ars Technica)

Softbank Is Reportedly Considering a $1 Billion Investment in WeWork (Fortune)

Walmart Unleashes an Ingenious New Way to Beat Down Amazon (The Street via Philly.com)

PayPal Has Been Talking With Amazon on Payments, CEO Says (Bloomberg)
Venmo could be major beneficiary.


SAP starts making Slack bots for its enterprise software (VentureBeat)

Thoma Bravo explores sale of Global Health Exchange-sources (Reuters)



1/30: P&G tells Digital to clean up act; SAP CEO reassures staff alarmed by Trump travel ban



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P&G Tells Digital to Clean Up, Lays Down New Rules for Agencies and Ad Tech to Get Paid (Ad Age)

Philly's top landlord: Despite good intent, City Council drives jobs away (Philly.com)

European tech giant SAP reassures staff alarmed by Trump travel ban (Reuters)

Siemens chairman to nominate former SAP co-CEO Snabe as successor: Manager Magazin (Reuters)


FCC’s new chairman introduces plan to scale back net neutrality transparency rules (The Verge)

Novartis to Sell Genoptix Lab Business to Investment Group (GenomeWeb)
Philadelphia's 1315 Capital invests.





Connection control technology for LTE and wi-fi to improve communication speed in wi-fi areas (Phys.Org)




Why can't the Phillies get a deal like that?


Sunday highlights: Are Philly's many hiring laws really driving employers away?; Megyn Kelly 'Today' shakeup possible at NBC



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Are Philly's many hiring laws really driving employers away? (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

CoverMyMeds' sale for $1.1 billion touted as 'seminal' for central Ohio (Columbus Dispatch)

Byko: Philly eyeglass retailer has a lens to grind with Warby Parker (Philly.com)

Megyn Kelly 'Today' shakeup possible at NBC (amNewYork)


West Deptford firms plan layoffs (Courier-Post)
But Comcast planning to shift warehouse ops to huge outside logistics firm, XPO Logistics.





Edison Partners Wraps Up Stellar 2016, Begins 2017 with Partnership Promotions (Press Release)


Saturday, January 28, 2017 RSS Email Newsletters Put PRWeb on your site
Edison Partners Wraps Up Stellar 2016, Begins 2017 with Partnership Promotions

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Advancements of Tom Vander Schaaff to General Partner, David Nevas to Partner Bolsters Leadership Team & Recognizes Strong Track Records
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PRINCETON, NJ (PRWEB) JANUARY 18, 2017
Edison Partners today announced the promotions of Tom Vander Schaaff to General Partner and David Nevas to Partner. The moves, coming on the heels of a highly active 2016, including 12 investments and 8 exits, will support Edison’s expanding investment portfolio and the continued growth of its value-added platform, the Edison Edge.

“Edison Partners celebrated our thirtieth anniversary in 2016 with a truly stellar year of new investments and exits, and we are excited to kick off 2017 with these two well-deserved promotions,” said Chris Sugden, Managing Partner. The promotions of Vander Schaaff and Nevas reflect their contributions to these strong results and expanded roles going forward.

Vander Schaaff joined Edison in 2003, became a partner in 2011, and has led Edison’s Analysis team for more than 10 years. As a General Partner, Tom focuses on leading the evaluation of investment opportunities and co-leads the firm’s investment and portfolio strategy with the firm’s Managing Partner. “Tom has been critical in setting our strategy and leading our diligence efforts. His analytical and critical thinking are valued assets across the Edison team and portfolio,” said Chris Sugden, Managing Partner.

General Partner Tom Vander Schaaff’s full bio can be found here.

Nevas joined Edison in 2008 and was promoted to Principal in 2011. He is an active board member for investments in emerging Digital Marketing, Mobile, and Enterprise companies and will continue to focus primarily on the Marketing Technology sector as a Partner. “David has been a rising star at Edison since he joined our deal origination team eight years ago. His track record includes sourcing and diligence of several strong exits, such as Netprospex and Uptivity. In addition, David led a number of initial investments over the last few years that have tremendous return potential,” noted Sugden.

Partner David Nevas’ full bio can be found here.

The firm is investing from its latest fund, Edison Partners VIII, and continues to see excellent investment opportunities across its four target industry sectors, and the Edison Edge is recognized by management teams for the depth and breadth of its value-add programs. Edison Partners VIII closed 12 new investments in 2016 including All Traffic Solutions, Axial, Big Cloud Analytics, ItemMaster, Jornaya, LookBookHQ, MoneyLion, PreData, Solovis, Terminus, Virtual Health and Zagster. Exits included PHX, Operative, RedVision, Logfire, Telarix, Softgate Systems, Clinverse, and Clearpoint Learning.

About Edison Partners
For 30 years, Edison Partners has been helping CEOs and their executive teams navigate the entrepreneurial journey and build successful companies. Through the unique combination of growth capital and the Edison Edge platform, consisting of operating leverage, the Edison Director Network, and executive education, Edison employs a holistic approach to accelerating growth and creating value for businesses ($5 to $20 million in revenue) in financial, healthcare, enterprise and marketing technology sectors. Edison investment objectives also include: buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts and secondary stock purchases.
Edison’s active portfolio has created aggregate market value exceeding $10 billion. Its long-tenured team based in Princeton, NJ manages more than $1 billion in assets throughout the eastern United States.
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KELLY FORD
Edison Partners
+1 6098739243
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Origin: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/01/prweb13990868.htm


Friday 1/27: Ex-DreamWorks boss raises almost $600M for investment startup; Walmart Layoffs Hit Ecommerce Division



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Apple strategy in 'smart home' race threatened by Amazon (Reuters)

InsideSales CEO – ‘There is no true AI in the market and data scientists aren’t a thing’ (Diginomica)

Ex-DreamWorks boss raises almost $600M for investment startup (NY Post)

Google CEO Mum on CBS Deal (Multichannel News)

Why Verizon Investors Are Worried by Charter Merger Rumors
(Reuters)


Walmart Layoffs Hit Ecommerce Division (Fortune)
Memo from Marc Lore.

Wal-Mart Tackles Food Safety With Trial of Blockchain (Bloomberg)


Unisys CEO: Our Federal Business Focus, Particularly Around Border Security, Aligns Well With The Trump Administration (CRN)







The last time a phone company bought a cable company from John Malone

Tom Paine



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On December 20, 2001, Comcast reached an agreement to acquire AT&T Broadband, created through AT&T's acquisitions of MediaOne and TCI, for $52 billion. AT&T acquired TCI from John Malone in 1999 for $55 billion. The deal would almost triple the number of Comcast subscribers to 22 million, clearly establishing it as the leading US cable operator. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts cited the potential for products such as "video on demand, interactive services, high-speed data services, cable modems … the most attractive way to get the internet in your home is with a cable modem."




Comcast Earnings beat expectations: Expanding X1, looking to wireless launch

Tom Paine



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On a morning where the big question was the extent to which Verizon and Charter might be engaged in M&A talks, Comcast released its earnings for Q4 2016 and the full year.


Revenue grew 9.2% and adjusted EPS grew 9.9% for the quarter, beating expectations. Continuing the reversal of a long-term trend, video customer net additions were 80,000 for the quarter, and for 2017 Comcast had its best video customer results in 10 Years, with 161,000 net additions.

Programming expense rose just a tick over 10% in 2016, but Comcast expects it to rise 13% in 2017 due to the latest round of rights agreements before moderating the following year.

NBCU revenue grew 13.0% in the quarter, as Theme Parks continued gushing growth and profits.

Business Services, which grew by 16.1% for the year, is now at a $5.5 billion annual run rate.

Comcast is increasing its dividend by 15% per share, splitting its stock two-for-one, and expects to repurchase $5 billion of stock this year.

Comcast said penetration of its X1 interface is expected to increase from 48% at year-end to the low 60s over the next year.


Comcast indicated a mid-year launch for its wireless offering (likely in just a few areas to begin with). Chairman & CEO Brian Roberts said he expects "most popular mobile devices" to be available for the service. Roberts also said that after reaching limited scale, Comcast expected each incremental customer to be NPV (Net Present Value) profitable. CFO Mike Cavanagh said to expect a $200 to $300 million drag on operating cash flow from wireless until Comcast starts breaking it out separately. Beyond that, the company was rather tight-lipped about wireless.

There seems to be a developing consensus that wireless and cable assets, in some combination, are the best way to provide 5G LTE. Cable's backhaul capacity, and its indoors networking capabilities ( where cellular is weak on its own) are valuable assets to the wireless industry.


Round Numbers


Charter: Marketcap - $90bn LTD - $35bn

Comcast: Marketcap - $181bn LTD - $49bn

Verizon: Marketcap - $200bn LTD - $104bn

AT&T: Marketcap -$260bn LTD -$113bn


Source: Yahoo Finance as of close 1/26/2017. AT&T as of 1/27 morning.

Comcast beats on earnings and revenue
(CNBC)

Comcast Backs Bet on X1
Plans to expand X1 penetration beyond 60% in 2017, seek more licensing opportunities
(Multichannel News)

Comcast Chief Pressed on Wireless Rollout Plan, Regulatory Environment Under Trump (Variety)

Cox thanks white-label X1 for best video performance since 2008 (FierceCable)

Verizon, Charter Talks Heating Up? Malone Vision Key (IBD)


Verizon Exploring Potential Charter Merger (Report) (Variety)

Verizon CEO Said to Approach Maffei About Possible Charter Deal (Bloomberg)

Verizon: Reasons Charter Speculation Makes No Sense, Per Wells (Barron's Tech Trader Daily0





Verizon CEO Said to Approach Charter on Combination (Bloomberg / Video)



Thursday highlights: Alibaba’s online payments affiliate eyes U.S.acquisition (done deal); Violin Memory faces the music



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Trump tells Republican lawmakers in Philly: Enough talk. Time to deliver. (Reuters)


Alibaba’s Online Payments Affiliate Is Said to Eye U.S. Acquisition
(Reuters via Fortune)
Done Deal.








Streamlining pharma-HCP communications with a common identity standard (Pharmaceutical Commerce)

Time to face the music, Violin Memory: Upstart's asset auction is over (The Register)
SAP Ventures was an investor pre-IPO.





Oracle to launch Adaptive Intelligent Apps this spring, status of Oracle Data Cloud less certain (ZDNet)

FCC approves $170 million for New York broadband rollout (Engadget)

Google Maps for iOS gets real-time 'Popular Times' in latest update (AppleInsider)




Wednesday highlights: McKinsey measures B2B’s digital gap; Comcast makes use of SAP HANA



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Qlik Sense provides tempting prices and contract terms with group offering (Diginomica)

iPipeline buys Resonant, seeks more deals (Philly.com)

Funny, the two companies above are both owned by Thoma Bravo.

Measuring B2B’s digital gap (McKinsey Quarterly)

SAP Rises: OpCo Likes Everything But the Margin Hit (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)

Exclusive: SAP dips its toes in the healthcare startup world (Med City News)


IBM Reorg Forges Cognitive Systems, Merges Cloud And Analytics (NextPlatform)

Button, the marketplace for app integrations, lands $20 million in Series B funding (TechCrunch)


Verizon’s Foray Into Hollywood Is Already Getting a Reboot (Bloomberg)

Connected doorbell startup Ring raises $109 million from DFJ, Goldman Sachs, Qualcomm, others (VentureBeat)

McKesson Will Acquire CoverMyMeds for $1.1 Billion (HISTalk)



Comcast uses SAP HANA:










HTH did this happen? (clickbait)




here's an explanation.


Chamber Says Salary History Law Hurts Job Growth, Hampers Global Business Recruitment (Press Release) / The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia

The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia

Chamber Says Salary History Law Hurts Job Growth, Hampers Global Business Recruitment
Posted Tuesday, January 24th, 2017


ADVOCACY, ECONOMY, MEMBER NEWS, PRESS RELEASES, PUBLIC POLICY

With the signing of a salary history bill, the City of Philadelphia continues its record of passing legislation that hurts job growth and business expansion. While this bill is supposedly an attempt to improve wage equity, there is in fact no evidence whatsoever that asking prospective employees about their current compensation contributes in any way to wage inequities. Unfortunately, the City government has rejected a proposal by the business community to discuss and enact a real wage equity ordinance.

“While the Chamber is deeply committed to highly diverse and inclusive workplaces and will not tolerate wage inequity, we believe passage of this measure says Philadelphia is not open for business,” said Chamber President and CEO Rob Wonderling. “Philadelphia has a reputation around the country and world for having a high cost of doing business. With this bill, we have reinforced our unfortunate anti-business reputation of having a City government that tells companies how to run their business.”

As a matter of policy, the Chamber stands against discrimination in any way on the basis of gender in the payment of wages, or to pay any person a salary or wage rate less than the rates paid to employees of a different gender for comparable work, provided that variation in wages are not prohibited due to seniority, and that seniority is not affected by pregnancy-related conditions, protected parental, or family and medical leave; commission-based systems; geography and/or education, training or experience; or travel.

This ordinance does not result in wage equity. Nor does it provide any evidence to suggest that removing this question from the hiring process results in wage equity.
“Tragically, we are finding that when global enterprises are looking to locate their business in America, Philadelphia is quickly falling off the list,” says Wonderling. “The cumulative effect of city ordinances restricting businesses is having a negative impact on job growth in Philadelphia. In addition, existing businesses located in the City will begin to look elsewhere as they plan for job growth.”

In fact, data of annual private sector wage and salary jobs from 2010 to 2015 shows the nation’s 25 largest cities grew by 2.8%, with Philadelphia in last place at 1.1%.

Below are some of the restrictive, anti-job growth measures taken up by Philadelphia City Council over the last few years:
2011: “Ban the box legislation,” which barred an employer from inquiring about criminal background until after the first interview.
2012: “First Source Jobs Policy” which requires recipients of financial assistance from the city to “hire first” for entry-level jobs from a registry of unemployed Philadelphians.
2013: Prerequisites to City Contracts: Requires contractors to disclose, as part of the bidding process: (i) The current percentage of female executive officers in the company and the current percentage of females on the company’s executive and full boards; (ii) The company’s aspirational goals for the inclusion of females in executive positions and on the executive and full boards; and (iii) The intended efforts by the contractor to achieve the aspirational goals.
2013: Legislation to prohibit employers from requesting access to employees’ social media profiles.
2014: Minimum Wage executive order to increase to $12/hour for city contractors and subcontractors.
2015: Mandatory paid sick leave legislation.
2015: Wage theft law that imposes higher penalties than state law and adds private right of action for alleged violations.
2015: Amendments to “Ban the box legislation” barring employer from inquiring about criminal background until after conditional offer of employment. Also limits look back to 7 years.
2016: Ordinance limiting employer ability to obtain credit checks as part of applicant background check process.
2016: Minimum Wage Ordinance Amendment Bill – Amends the 21st Century Ordinance to increase the minimum wage to the higher of 150% of the federal minimum ($10.87) or $12.00 with a CPI multiplier, for new contracts or renewals of existing contracts.

The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia stands committed to aggressively advocating on behalf of its members and for the benefit of those working to bring more jobs to Philadelphia, and looks forward to working with the Mayor and City Council on a jobs growth agenda for all citizens.


Origin: http://news.chamberphl.com/2017/01/chamber-says-salary-history-law-hurts-job-growth-hampers-global-business-recruitment/



Scott McAllister joins Comcast as SVP of Digital Transformation

Tom Paine



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Scott McAllister / LinkedIn



Scott McAllister posts on LinkedIn that he's "joined Comcast to help lead the Digital transformation of their consumer touch points across their life cycle as SVP of Digital Transformation."

He will also lead digital analytics.

In his last position, he was SVP, Consumer Digital Marketing at Time Inc.


McAllister has an MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill.



Tuesday highlights: Verizon Misses Subscriber Growth Projections; Qlik announces SMB cloud solution



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SAP nudges up multi-year outlook after posting in-line 2016 result (Reuters via CNBC)

SAP Takes on More Cloud Customers as It Seeks Smaller Deals (Bloomberg)

What's the purpose of 4 year out revenue projections? Is it a Euro reporting requirement or an SAP thing?










Verizon Misses Subscriber Growth Projections Amid Stiff Competition
(Reuters via Fortune)

Verizon Adds 21,000 FiOS Pay TV Subs, Still Assessing Impact of Yahoo Data Breaches (Hollywood Reporter)
Company confirmed Monday that it is laying off 155 employees who work on its go90 streaming service, most cuts coming from Verizon's San Jose, Calif. office.





Alibaba Raises Forecast as Chinese Consumers Continue to Spend (Bloomberg)
Revenue at Alibaba's cloud unit more than doubled.

Why Salesforce Is Snapping Up AI Startups (and Passing on Marketing Ones) (Fortune)

Qlik announces SMB cloud solution
(ZDNet)

More Comcast Buybacks Coming As Stock Trades Near All-Time High? (Investor's Business Daily)

A Philly venture-capital firm finds few deals here (Philly.com)

After years of talk, Camden school headquarters goes to bid (Philly Voice)
Former RCA Victor HQ.




Highlights 1/23: Campbell's joins the Today Show and Vox Media for branded content; Union League members form Broad Street Angels investor fund



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Campbell's Joins the Today Show and Vox Media for a Branded Content Series (Adweek)
In Comcast's tent.

Warby Parker debuts first Philly store on Saturday (Philly.com)

Union League members form Broad Street Angels investor fund (Philly.com: Philly Deals)




Comcast's Cohen on Pai:

“We congratulate Ajit Pai on his appointment as Chair of the Federal Communications Commission. He has served with great distinction as a Commissioner over the past four and a half years, and has demonstrated that he is highly qualified to lead the Commission. We commend his tireless efforts to develop and support policies that benefit American consumers and spur greater investment and innovation in broadband technologies to connect all Americans and drive job creation. This is a terrific appointment for the American consumer and the companies the FCC regulates and we look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Pai in his new role.”

https://twitter.com/ComcastPolicy/status/823652336916631553


Verizon, Comcast Merger Talk A 'Nonstarter,' Says JPMorgan (Investor's Business Daily)













Dish Upgraded, Stock Rises On Verizon Takeout Scenarios (Investor's Business Daily)

Should we want a bipartisan FCC? (Mark Jamison / TechPolicyDaily)




Analyst: Finisar 'Disqualified' From Big China Customer Hauwei, Stock Falls (Investor's Business Daily)
Finisar still has a presence in the Philly area from its 2008 acquisition of Horsham-based Optium.

IBM Touts Trump-Pleasing Hiring Plans While Firing Thousands (Bloomberg)




OpenText Buys Documentum, Faces Competition as Veeva Goes Bigger on ECM (CMSWire)



Mark Hurd co-CEO Oracle provides NetSuite update
(Diginomica)


iPhone maker Foxconn to set up shop in Pennsylvania (satire)



Tom Paine



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No, this actually hasn't happened yet, but it might.

Wonder what the IBEW would think about Foxconn opening a megaplant in Pennsylvania?

More accurate story is here .





A history of the Amiga, part 10: The downfall of Commodore (Ars Technica)

A history of the Amiga, part 10: The downfall of Commodore (Ars Technica)


Foxconn says may build $7 billion display plant in US; PA is a state it would prioritize, CEO says



Tom Paine



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Foxconn's CEO said on Sunday that investment for a display plant which it might build in the U.S. would exceed $7 Billion and could create about 30,000-50,000 job (though that number seems high).

Foxconn has existing cooperation with and operations in Pennsylvania, which is a state Foxconn would prioritize, says Foxconn chairman & CEO Terry Gou. However, no promise has been made to build such a plant.








Apparently, Foxconn business partner Masayoshi Son of SoftBank revealed Foxcomm's tentative plans, inadvertently or not, after a December meeting with then President-elect Trump.

The plant would produce LCD displays, according to reports.

What Foxconn is doing now in Pennsylvania is unclear. It does have some kind of facility in the Harrisburg area, and it recently posted this job listing for a Sr. Commodity Manager in Breinigsville, near Allentown. (Update: That's for the former CyOptics business, which Foxcomm bought from Avago in 2015.)

However, the Inquirer's Joe DiStefano has questioned Foxconn's willingness to follow through on commitments its made in the past.


In 2013, Foxconn announced it would invest $40 miilion in Pennsylvania, including a manufacturing facility near Harrisburg. A LinkedIn search indicates that Foxconn employs numerous people in Harrisburg.


Meanwhile, here's a somewhat off the wall video about Foxconn's interest in the US manufacturing:




Saturday Highlights: Alibaba is now the official cloud services provider of the Olympics; Pennsylvania to work with Ohio, Michigan on self-driving vehicle work



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Alibaba is now the official cloud services provider of the Olympics
(TechCrunch)

Trump Taps Net-Neutrality Foe Ajit Pai to Lead FCC, Source Says (Bloomberg)








Blockchain: The Next Evolution of Supply Chains (Industry Week)

Pennsylvania to work with Ohio, Michigan on self-driving vehicle work
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

GE – ‘Uber of the candle’ – targets developers in $220bn IIoT push (Internet of Business)


OroCommerce Takes on 'Subpar' Magento in the B2B Ecommerce Space (CMSWire)


Links 1/20: Pai to Be FCC Chair; SAP CEO on Trump: 'You have to give people a chance'



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Pai to Be FCC Chair (Multichannel News)


SAP CEO on Trump: 'You have to give people a chance' (Yahoo Finance)

SAP’s Leonardo points towards Applied Data Science as a Service (Diginomica)

Thoma Bravo Buys Enterprise Software Developer Planview; SaaS M&A Continues (Mergers & Acquisitions)


Taxi companies' lawsuit against Newark over Uber is tossed (AP via Philly.com)



AGI and Bentley Systems Announce Cesium Consortium
Bentley Systems Joins the Creators of Cesium to Accelerate Open-Source Development for Cesium’s Virtual Globe Technology

AGI and Bentley Systems Announce Cesium Consortium
Bentley Systems Joins the Creators of Cesium to Accelerate Open-Source Development for Cesium’s Virtual Globe Technology



January 18, 2017 10:30 AM Eastern Standard Time
EXTON, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Analytical Graphics Inc. (AGI) and Bentley Systems are pleased to announce Bentley Systems as a co-founder of the new Cesium Consortium. Cesium is an open source, browser-based virtual globe, first developed by AGI in 2011 for the aerospace and defense communities. Cesium’s unparalleled performance in streaming very large datasets through a browser to desktops, tablets, and smart phones has enabled it to become the virtual globe of choice for geospatial viewing. The consortium will now enable AGI and Bentley to collaborate on the Cesium roadmap to better accelerate and support the requirements for building infrastructure modeling (BIM) and for owners of infrastructure assets. In addition, the consortium will support feature development, priority bug fixes, expansion of outreach efforts, and the hosting of social coding events such as code sprints and bug bashes.

“We are very excited to collaborate with Bentley. Bentley shares our vision and technical approach and has already done some fantastic work with Cesium and 3D Tiles”
Tweet this
Bentley Systems is adopting Cesium to visualize and interact with highly detailed infrastructure engineering models set in the reality context of their surrounding environment. The digital engineering models are created with Bentley’s MicroStation and BIM applications, and the context is provided through reality meshes, created from digital photography and scanning devices using Bentley’s ContextCapture.

Keith Bentley, founder and CTO of Bentley Systems, said, “We are thrilled to join the Cesium Consortium as a founding member. I commend AGI for their leadership and vision, not only for creating an open source solution for highly performant 3D web-based applications but, more importantly, for fostering an ecosystem to leverage it. I expect Bentley and our users will build Cesium-based Web clients for immersively viewing BIM models, reality context, asset databases, IoT streams, and myriad other ‘Geo3D’ services. We look forward to working hand in hand with AGI and future members of the consortium to expand Cesium as an open standard.”

Bentley’s work to date illustrates the advantages that the infrastructure community can expect from Cesium. Data created with both MicroStation and ContextCapture can be exported to 3D Tiles, an open format developed by the Cesium team to stream massive geo-coordinated 3D datasets. Cesium will enable Bentley users to stream their digital engineering models over the Web to desktop and mobile devices with unprecedented performance and precision.

“We are very excited to collaborate with Bentley. Bentley shares our vision and technical approach and has already done some fantastic work with Cesium and 3D Tiles,” said Patrick Cozzi, Cesium founder. “Bentley’s support will be key within our submission team proposing 3D Tiles as an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Community Standard.”

For more information on how to join and accelerate the Cesium Consortium, please contact info@agi.com.

About Cesium

Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI) is the incubator of the Cesium team, which is the founder and primary contributor to the Cesium open source project. In addition, the Cesium team also builds cesium.com, which is available as a hosted or on-premise solution for the rapid creation of 3D worlds and dissemination of geospatial datasets. For more information, visit www.cesiumjs.org.

About Bentley Systems

Bentley Systems is a global leader in providing architects, engineers, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software solutions for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure. Bentley users leverage information mobility across disciplines and throughout the infrastructure lifecycle to deliver better-performing projects and assets. Founded in 1984, Bentley has more than 3,000 colleagues in over 50 countries, more than $600 million in annual revenues, and since 2009 has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions. Additional information about Bentley is available at www.bentley.com.

Bentley, the “B” Bentley logo, Be, MicroStation, and ContextCapture are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries. All other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

Download Related Images:

https://www.bentley.com/~/asset/4/12651.ashx
Beaver Stadium at Penn State

https://www.bentley.com/~/asset/4/12652.ashx
HUB-Robeson Center at Penn State

Image Attribution: Image courtesy of the Cesium Consortium.

Contacts
Bentley Systems
Gail McGrew, +1 610 458 2752
gail.mcgrew@bentley.com
Follow us on Twitter: @BentleySystems
or
Analytical Graphics Inc.
Stephanie Eftimiades, +1 610 981 8531
seftimiades@agi.com



Philly Tech People News 1/19: Local guy Patterson making good at PTC ThingWorx




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Previous: Philly Tech People News 12/26: RevZilla co-founder Bucci to depart; New leadership joins Ben Franklin Tech's board



Rob Patterson
Rob Patterson was recently named VP, Strategic Marketing at PTC, responsible for a portion of ThingWorx' market. Before that, he was VP, Product Marketing, and he joined PTC through its acquisition of Wayne-based of ColdLight Solutions (where he was in marketing and corporate strategy roles) in 2015. ColdLight was acquired as an integral part of ThingWorx' strategy.

He continues to work from Philly's western burbs (Exton) where ThingWorx also remains based. PTC ((NASDAQ: PTC), which acquired ThingWorx in late 2013 and made it and IoT one of the centerpieces of its corporate strategy (and made 4 other acquisitions around it), is headquartered in Needham, MA.

Since graduating from St.Joe's with a food marketing degree, Patterson has climbed through the ranks at a veritable who's who of Philly area employers, including Wawa, Microsoft Malvern, and Qlik Technologies. When he started with Qlik there were only 10 employees at its Radnor headquarters, Patterson told me in a phone conservation (Qlik originated in Sweeden), and from a marketing point of view they must have been starting from scratch. He was there when Qlik did its 2010 IPO.


Through this experience, Patterson gained expertise in BtoB marketing, not so much the mass market variety, but very targeted at a smaller universe of potential buyers. He applies this knowledge with ThingWorx, where he leads marketing for oil & gas, utilities, and "smart cities", the latter segment getting considerable publicity of late. ThingWorx' industrial marketing, and the management of its important GE relationship, are separate from that.

ThingWorx largely set the standard for industrial IoT by building an operating platform for it. It is not in consumer-related IoT, which is usually quite different in terms of standards, networks and applications. Although PTC's alliance with GE and its Predix software has gotten the most ink for ThingWorx over the past couple of years, the work of Patterson and others shows that it continues to develop the rest of the market as well.

From PTC's earnings report released yesterday:

"Bookings results were driven by strong performance in IoT, including one IoT mega deal (>$5m in bookings) and one IoT large deal (>$1m in bookings)."

Also this from the Boston Business Journal yesterday: Needham tech firm PTC hits highest stock price in 17 years.











Jet.com founder shakes up Wal-Mart staff
(CNBC)
Marc Lore makes some changes.

Wurtzel Stepping Down as NBCU Research Chief (Multichannel News)
Alan Wurtzel is considered the dean of TV network ratings analysts.

Sandy Wax Named COO of Lieberman Research Worldwide (Multichannel News)

Comcast Promotes Ed Brassel to Executive Vice President of Enterprise Business Intelligence for Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal


Comcast Promotes Lisa Bonnell to Senior Vice President and General Auditor

Kai Bond to Helm Comcast Ventures Catalyst Fund (Multichannel News)

Matt Aden is joining Exton-based SCTE/ISBE as VP of sales and sales operations (CED Magazine)

Monetate Promotes Adam Litle to VP Sales, North America

​​​Unisys Names Ann Sung Ruckstuhl as Chief Marketing Officer​
Ruckstuhl will be based out of Silicon Valley.

FinancialForce selects former Salesforce and Heroku exec to be new CEO (TechCrunch)
FinancialForce is a rapidly growing Salesforce-native ERP/Financials suite.


Honeywell President & COO Darius Adamczyk Joins Board of Directors (GovCon Executive)
Adamczyk joined Honeywell when it acquired South Jersey's Metrologic Instruments in 2008.

Edison Partners Wraps Up Stellar 2016, Begins 2017 with Partnership Promotions


SeventySix Capital taps sports media exec to be 1st entrepreneur-in-residence (Philadelphia Business Journal)

P’unk Ave Founder and Indy Hall Co-Founder Geoff DiMasi is the New Entrepreneur In Quorum


Prophet Hires Christine Cox as a Partner in its Digital Transformation Practice

Former Comcast Technology Leader Appointed Chief Technology Officer at BuildSourced

Instem Appoints MaryBeth Thompson as Chief Operating Officer

Optymyze Continues Global Expansion, Expands Presence in U.K.

Eastern Standard Caps Off Year of Growth With
Appointment of New Partner, Move to Larger Office Space


TechXtend Promotes Kevin Askew to Vice President and General Manager



Links 1/19:Who leased the most data center space in 2016?; Comcast SportsNet to begin streaming Phillies games online this year



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Verizon’s Response to the Digital Revolution (Fortune)
"As of yesterday, AT&T was the 12th-most-valuable public company in the world; Verizon was 19th, and Comcast was 25th."

Oracle outlines plans to take on Amazon in cloud (Network World)

Who Leased the Most Data Center Space in 2016? (Data Center Knowledge)
Microsoft and Oracle?

Dell Boomi hires David Tavolaro to strengthen partner channel (ARN)
Tavolaro joins Dell Boomi from Anexinet.









Krebs Calls Out Rutgers University Student As Author Of Mirai DDoS Botnet (HotHardware)


Kenney stands with women, says no to business coalition (Philly.com)
Dumb law will be counterproductive.

Bentley Systems joins Cesium Consortium (AEC Magazine)



Exclusive: Derek Jeter’s Star-Studded Startup Just Raised Another $40 Million (Fortune)

China's Oceanwide, IDG Capital to buy tech publisher IDG (Reuters)


Comcast SportsNet to begin streaming Phillies games online this year (Philly.com)
Apparently applies to all Comcast RSNs with MLB rights.

DirecTV Now Peaking at 35K Simultaneous Streams: Analyst (Multichannel News)

Amazon opens joins tech companies with Pittsburgh office (AP via Lancaster Online)
Why not Philly?


Links 1/18: Netflix' explosive international growth; Hulu says its cable TV competitor will be 'sports-centric'



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STP Investment Services moves office to West Chester
(Daily Local News)

UBS extends agreement with EPAM Systems worth $300m (Banking Technology)
EPAM is based in Newtown, Bucks County.

Sales CRM startup Pipedrive raises $17 million from Atomico and others (VentureBeat)

AT&T's deal with Nielsen promises more accurate TV ratings (Engadget)


Trump vs. Comcast? Don't believe the hype, says analyst
(Philly.com)


Netflix Surges 8%: Adds 7M Members, Highest Ever
(Barron's Tech Trader Daily)

Rumor Patrol: Would Disney Acquiring Netflix Even Make Sense? (Variety)

Hulu says its under-$40-a-month cable TV competitor will be 'sports-centric' (Business Insider)

Do NBC & Charter Have a Deal? Internal Memo Says Yes (TVPredictions)


Cable One to Buy NewWave for $735M
(Multichannel News)

Oracle Sued by U.S. Over Alleged Discriminatory Pay, Hiring (Bloomberg)


Bain: Is Container Use Optional? Probably Not (Information Week)




Trump and the Future for AT&T, Time Warner Deal (Bloomberg Video)



Links 1/18: Radial challenges Amazon with expanded fulfillment service; After 10 years, Business ByDesign finds niche



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Is IoT the next App Store? (Scott A. Snyder, Safeguard Scientifics, & Rick Bulotta, founder, Next Big Thing, LLC / CIO Review)
Clue as to where Bulotta's next startup may be heading?

Verizon mulling acquisition of big cable company (NY Post)

Radial challenges Amazon with expanded fulfillment service (DCVelocity)

Oracle and Google Refine Their Cloud Pitches to Take On Amazon (Fortune)
Oracle Cloud World opens this morning in New York.

Oracle's Hurd: Cloud migration driven by business reality; there will be two SaaS suites (ZDNet)

Oracle Joins Cloud Data Center Expansion Race (Fortune)

And finally, SAP Business ByDesign is relevant to SME (Brian Sommer / Diginomica)

T-Mobile CEO Sees 'Craziness' & Big Deals (Light Reading)

Elliott teams up with ex-TXU CEO for NRG Energy shake-up (Reuters)
Paul Singer strikes again. NRG is dual-headquartered in West Windsor Township, New Jersey, and Houston.

Wall Street is witnessing a 'third wave of computerization' (Business Insider)

Why these tech start-up founders are moving to Camden (Philly.com)

3675 Market Street, 1st new building at uCity Square, to break ground (Curbed Philly)




Why Arris might bid on Ruckus Wireless assets? For its own customers, of course



Tom Paine



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Arris International, the ambitious strategic technologies vendor to the cable industry, and in particular to its two largest customers - Comcast and Charter, is said to be making a bid for up to $1 billion for the network equipment assets of Brocade Communications (NASDAQ: BRCD), primarily composed of the Ruckus Wireless business acquired by Brocade just this past August for $1.5 billion.

Subsequent to that acquisition, Broadcom, (NASDAQ: AVGO) announced in November that it was acquiring Brocade for $5.9 billion. Broadcom indicated that it didn't want to hold on to parts of Brocade's business for which it had overlapping products, or products that competed with its customers, and that Ruckus Wireless was among the assets it would shed.


But Ruckus itself is no ugly duckling, having built some of the most innovative solutions in the WiFi Network space.

Arris, based outside of Atlanta, has a large presence in Horsham from its acquisition of Motorola Home from Google in 2013. It also maintains a small office in downtown Philly to stay close to Comcast headquarters. Arris (NASDAQ: ARRS) has warrant agreements with both Comcast and Charter through which the two companies will buy a small percentage of Arris shares depending upon factors such as how much they purchase key products from it.

Arris made another big splash at the beginning of 2016 by acquiring UK-based Pace plc for $2.1 billion.

So with Comcast and Charter both moving into the wireless space, Arris started thinking, perhaps encouraged by its major customers, that maybe it ought to as well. On Thursday, Arris CFO David Potts, speaking at a Needham investor event, said: “As we continue to grow, we believe that it’s possible that we could get into adjacent markets. As an example, wireless … what happens in wireless, WiFi should we be more involved in that?" On Friday, Reuters ran the report, citing sources, that Arris would bid on the Ruckus Wireless business.

Why is this important to Arris? Comcast, and presumably Charter, are planning to enter wireless with a hybrid system, utilizing their dense and widespread WiFi networks in conjunction with their MVNO leased access from Verizon (and Sprint in Comcast's case), and other spectrum they may acquire or lease. But hybrid is tricky, and takes complex technology to make it function well. Google's Project Fi is one example of a hybrid system that is operational.

Ruckus is one of the leaders in the hybrid field. Its worked closely with Google on WiFi initiatives, though I can't confirm what role it may play in Project Fi.

Ruckus also sees the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) as an opportunity for cable providers to offer a stronger indoor 5G LTE solution, with boosts from small cells. Robust indoor LTE is difficult to maintain, and this might give cable more leverage over mobile providers.

A decision by Broadcom is expected by the end of the month. PE firms have interest, and other network equipment vendors could bid but none have been publicly identified to my knowledge.





Links 1/16: SAP says Europe's new privacy law will hurt startups; Intel launches new IoT retail platform, plans $100 million retail tech investment



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SAP says Europe's new privacy law will hurt startups (Business Insider)


SAP software company to bring 242 new jobs and facility to Pittsburgh (NextPittsburgh)


Sage signs X3 trio to cloud 'big business' ERP combo (The Register)

Marketo CEO Steve Lucas on theCUBE: Massive consolidation is coming to marketing tech (Silicon Angle)

Rutgers catching up on 12K unpaid bills after tech glitches (NJ.com)


Intel launches new IoT retail platform, plans $100 million retail tech investment (ZDNet)





Sunday Highlights: Trump team's FCC plans; Marijuana dispensaries hit by hack of sales software



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Exclusive: Trump Team Embraces FCC Remake Blueprint (Multichannel News)


SAP SuccessFactors migration to HANA begins in earnest (Diginomica)

Marijuana dispensaries hit by hack of sales system (Boston Globe)



Iron Mountain's Pennsylvania mine expands to hold data secure (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via Allentown Morning Call)

Yellow Cab, Long a Fixture of City Life, Is for Many a Thing of the Past (New York Times)

Why I’m NOT a ‘B2B SaaS’ investor (VentureBeat)

SaaS Startup One-Slide Financials Dashboard (Dave Kellogg / Enterprise Irregulars)