Philly Tech News Notable Tweets: 4/24 - 4/30



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



















































at 4:45 PM 0 comments

Weekend highlights: Yik Yak shuts down; John Gruber and pals shut down Vesper



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


Yik Yak, once valued at $400 million, shuts down and sells off engineers for $1 million (The Verge)

John Gruber and pals shut down Vesper, their syncing notes app for iOS (TechCrunch)

NBCUniversal Is Building Its Own Children’s Channel (NY Times)
Sprout, which NBCU gained full control of in 2013, will be rebranded as Universal Kids. DreamWorks Animation Television programming will be added. Sprout has offices in New York and Fort Washington.


Was there bribery involving Pennsylvania's pension system? SERS wants to know (Philly.com)


Amazon’s cloud gain could be Google’s cloud loss (Recode)

Amazon's moves beyond retail get Wall Street thumbs up, for now (Reuters)


Exclusive: Google Snags Former Salesforce Cloud Exec
(Fortune)

Siemens, SAP sign cooperation deals with Saudi Arabia: officials (Reuters)

This is the time to bet on enterprise tech
(VentureBeat)










at 10:31 AM 0 comments

4/28: CardioNet (BioTelemetry) $2.5M Settlement Is Wireless Health Privacy First; Comcast's CNBC faces a big threat from Fox Business Network



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Amazon: As Good As It Gets? Pac Crest Cuts to Hold on MSFT, WMT Competition (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)


Parsing the IBM Watson and Salesforce Einstein deal (James Governor / Enterprise Irregulars)

Comcast's CNBC faces a big threat from Fox Business Network (Philly.com)

Comcast, the Wallflower (Multichannel News)
Analyst makes case for cable giant sitting out merger dance

Sena Fitzmaurice Promoted at Comcast (Multichannel News)





Relative share performance of Comcast (CMCSA) v Verizon (VZ) - past 12 months (Chart)

CardioNet $2.5M Settlement Is Wireless Health Privacy First
(Bloomberg BNA)
CardioNet was the predecessor of Malvern-based BioTelemetry.
BioTelemetry (NASDAQ: BEAT), which was barely above water for a time a few years ago, now has a market capitalization of $924 million.

Google Fiber building in Louisville despite lawsuit from AT&T and Charter (Ars Technica)

All’s fair in love, war and ERP -- FinancialForce goes for NetSuite’s jugular (Computerworld)

SAP and Google Cloud: They actually need each other ( Tony Baer / ZDNet)



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Comcast earnings blow past estimates, driven by film business success (CNBC)
Roberts: "Its an exhilarating time to be in business"












Comcast Nears Launch of ‘xFi’ Home WiFi Platform (Multichannel News)
MSO now has nearly 1 million Xfinity Home subscribers.

Comcast, the largest broadband company in the U.S., is getting even bigger (Recode)

Why Comcast Already Sounds So Bored With Wireless (Fortune)

Comcast’s Watson: Too early to consider 5G a threat to fixed wireline broadband (FierceCable)

What Comcast bought and sold in the FCC auction (Philly.com)

Big telecom deals to watch (Axios)



Amazon surges on big earnings and sales beat (CNBC)
AWS sales increased 42 percent to $3.66 billion.







Purdue acquires for-profit Kaplan University (Washington Post)
Can they play football?

PayPal partnerships pay off, and Venmo could take off next (Marketwatch)

Apple is in talks to launch its own Venmo (Recode)
Venmo, if you don't know, originated in Philly.

Escalated Cord-Cutting, Rights Fees Among Reasons Cited For ESPN's Massive Layoffs (SportsBusinessDaily)





Grid operator urges cooperation if states want to preserve nuclear plants (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)




at 10:22 AM 0 comments

FCC Chair Ajit Pai speaking about the future of internet regulation, including possible changes to Obama administration net neutrality rules.





Click Here



at 1:43 PM 0 comments

4/26: Pai Launches Effort To Repeal Title II; HealthVerity raises $10M to support health data marketplace



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



FCC's Pai Launches Effort To Repeal Title II (Multichannel News)

Blog: Tim Wu on why undoing net neutrality may be harder than it looks (Marketplace)


HealthVerity raises $10M to support health data marketplace (Med City News)


BlackRock Forges Two-Tiered ETF Strategy to Fend Off Vanguard (Bloomberg)

Oracle's Mark Hurd builds a cloud arsenal to take on Amazon (USA Today)

How IBM can avoid the abyss ( Jason Perlow / ZDNet)


ServiceNow Rising: Q1 Beats; Q2, Year Views Top Consensus (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)




at 9:55 AM 0 comments

4/25: SAP’s Sales Again Top Estimates as Software Spending Grows; Infor Is Buying Birst



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



SAP’s Sales Again Top Estimates as Software Spending Grows (Bloomberg)

SAP Rising: Q1 Beats as ‘Hana’ Racks Up Customers (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)


Microsoft unveils LinkedIn as its secret weapon in war against Salesforce (The Register)

Oracle Plans Internal 'Startup' to Outpace Rivals' Innovation (Bloomberg)

Infor Is Buying This Business Intelligence Player [Birst] To Take On Oracle (Fortune)

SuiteWorld 17 – Oracle CEO seeks to reassure NetSuite buyers – ‘More, better, forever’ (Diginomica)


Hulu and the Fight for Real-Time TV
(Fortune)

U.S. FCC to launch 'comprehensive review' of media regulations
(Reuters)





at 8:50 AM 0 comments

4/24: Moffett: Verizon Fails Deal Sobriety Test; FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to unveil new net neutrality plans on Wednesday



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


Moffett: Verizon Fails Deal Sobriety Test (Multichannel News)


FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to unveil new net neutrality plans on Wednesday (Recode)

Verizon’s $70 gigabit Internet is half the price of older 750Mbps tier (Ars Technica)


Rapidly growing Baltimore software firm eOriginal taps new CEO (Baltimore Business Journal)
LLR Partners invested in eOriginal, and brought in Pilly-based Revitas' (sold to Model N) former CEO to run it.

Two TechVentures startups to move out to larger spaces (LVB.com)

QTS ‘Top Pick’ In Stifel Data Center REITS, Avoid Dupont-Fabros (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)


at 2:41 PM 0 comments

How Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us AllHow Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us All (The Atlantic)

How Dish Network could shake up your wireless service (CNET)

AT&T’s Words on Time Warner Deal Say ‘Underdog.’ Its Actions Speak Otherwise. (NY Times)


Comcast says customer service overhaul is showing results (OregonLive)






SAP commits more resources to SMB ERP portfolio (SearchSAP)



at 9:04 AM 0 comments

Weekend Highlights: Nasdaq PHLX Trading Floor Now Open at FMC Tower; SAP commits more resources to SMB ERP portfolio



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


Nasdaq PHLX Trading Floor Now Open at FMC Tower (PhillyMag)

FCC greenlights small cell free-for-all in the US (The Register)
Small cells vital to 5G.

MeetMe Completes If(We) Buyout, Rebrands to The Meet Group (Zacks)

Pennsylvania eyes leap to internet for casinos, lottery (AP via Madison.com)

How Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us AllHow Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us All (The Atlantic)

How Dish Network could shake up your wireless service (CNET)

AT&T’s Words on Time Warner Deal Say ‘Underdog.’ Its Actions Speak Otherwise. (NY Times)


Comcast says customer service overhaul is showing results (OregonLive)






SAP commits more resources to SMB ERP portfolio (SearchSAP)





at 9:23 AM 0 comments

4/21: Pa. awards $10M 'seed-to-sale' medical marijuana tracking contract; DuPont, U of Delaware ask $5M from taxpayers for new start-ups at old labs



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



These brothers just sold their company to Oracle for $850 million, and they have their fingers in dozens of other companies (Business Insider)






Bucks restaurant tech company acquires another based in Georgia (Philadelphia Business Journal)


Verizon could be the mystery company in on Time Inc. sale (NY Post)

Verizon: The ‘Tiffany Network’ Tarnished, Says Argus (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)


These are the biggest e-commerce acquisitions of all time (Recode)
Omitted Zulily, GSI Commerce, maybe others.


DuPont, U of Delaware ask $5M from taxpayers for new start-ups at old labs (Philly.com)

Pa. awards $10M 'seed-to-sale' medical marijuana tracking contract (PennLive)
Meanwhile, the vendor, MJ Freeway, picks up another $3 million from its existing investors.

What Top TV Techs Are Looking For At NAB (TVNewsCheck)

NBCUniversal Owned Television Station SVP Jeff Morris: “We are in the process of making a pretty technologically progressive facility in Philadelphia to be home to our Philadelphia businesses." “That will be our first station to ever adopt IP technology at its core,” says Morris, adding he can’t envision ever building a “facility in the future without IP at the heart of it.”


Uber exec "misspoke" about Pittsburgh startup (non)acquisition (Axios)


at 8:08 AM 0 comments

4/20: Analysts see Verizon-Comcast combination as a tough sell; Verizon earnings, revenue miss Street estimates as wireless sales fall year-over-year



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Analysts see Verizon-Comcast combination as a tough sell (SNL)

Verizon earnings, revenue miss Street estimates as wireless sales fall year-over-year (CNBC)

Verizon CEO Comments About Media M&A “Taken Out Of Context” – Update (Deadline)

Verizon Loses 13,000 FiOS Pay TV Subs in First Quarter (Hollywood Reporter)






Billtrust, CardConnect Partner To Support Invoice Payments Via Card (Pymnts)
Two leading area companies hook up.




Beacons help Waze users navigate Pittsburgh's tricky tunnel exits (Marketplace)

Comcast Joins LoRA Alliance (Multichannel News)
Will host IoT-focused organization’s all-members rendezvous in June in Philadelphia.

Oracle’s PaaS/IaaS progress – becoming real
(Brian Sommer / Diginomica)

Siemens Healthineers buys health tech firm
(Philly.com)

Baseball CFO Looks to Win with CPM Software (CFO)
Philly native, ex-Comcast guy.



at 7:52 AM 0 comments

Labels: , , ,

PetSmart acquiring Chewy for $3.35 billion; Where will that leave Pet360?

Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email






PetSmart is acquiring Florida-based Chewy.com for $3.35 billion in the largest e-commerce acquisition ever. Notably $50 million more than Walmart's acquisition of Jet.com.

PetSmart made a relatively small bet on ecommerce when it bought Plymouth Meeting-based Pet360 for $130 million plus incentives less than three years ago. This is obviously a much bigger bet.

Pet360 still has a fair number of people in Plymouth Meeting; it will be interesting to see how they fare.

PetSmart's release on the Chewy acquisition makes no mention of Pet360. I've seen no mention of it in any discussions of the Chewy deal.

I asked PetSmart if it had any comment on the role of Pet360 once the Chewy deal was completed, and a spokesperson said that was not something PetSmart would comment on.

In late March, Pet360 took a seven year lease on space for 20 near Grand Central Station NYC.

Mark Vadon, who sold Zulily to Liberty Media / QVC for $2.4 billion, was also behind the Chewy deal as an early investor and chairman.

Meanwhile, Pet360's former CEO Brock Weatherup has gone over to the other side, having sold his latest startup, PetCoach, to Petco and moved to San Diego to work with them as EVP, Strategic Innovation and Digital Experience.

Chewy has a fulfillment center in Mechanicsburg PA.


at 4:41 PM 0 comments

Labels: , , ,

Verizon's CEO Is Open to Deal Talks, From Comcast to Disney



Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Verizon CEO Lowell C. McAdam / Verizon Website



Verizon's CEO Is Open to Deal Talks, From Comcast to Disney (Bloomberg)

Verizon CEO said he may be interested in merger with Disney, Comcast or CBS (CNBC)

McAdam told Bloomberg, "If Brian [Roberts] came knocking on the door, I'd have a discussion with him about it."


Market Values (equity)

VZ $201.6bn
CMCSA $178.2bn
DIS $180.6bn


Does Mr McAdam have a strategy in mind? Comcast, Disney, & CBS would each lead to very different outcomes. Although the one common denominator seems to be a major network.

But its difficult to tell whether McAdam wants a 5G-centric strategy, a content-centric strategy, or both.

Verizon doesn't hold all the cards; As you can see from the above numbers, a Verizon merger between either Comcast or Disney would essentially be a marriage of equals.

The analysts I've followed are mostly unconvinced of the logic of a Verizon / Comcast combination in order to achieve 5G.

And any such merger, in the remote possibility it might happen, would have to maintain at least two significant broadband competitors.

Updates as warranted.

Comcast has not responded to McAdam's comments.

This IBD article might be helpful in comparing relative values of Comcast and Verizon.

Verizon's earnings are due out tomorrow morning.

Verizon CFO: McAdam's M&A commentstaken out of context (Deadline)




at 8:36 AM 0 comments

4/19: IBM sinks; IntegriChain acquires MontCo firm



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email




IBM Is Still Not Reaping Rewards from its Big Bets
(Fortune)

IBM Sinks Following 'Lackluster Performance' With Q1 Results, Analyst Cuts (IBD)


Center City health tech company [ IntegriChain] acquires MontCo firm following major investment (Philadelphia Business Journal)








This guy convinced cities to cater to tech-savvy millennials. Now he’s reconsidering. (Washington Post)

Oracle acquires ad measurement company Moat (TechCrunch)

Pai Praises Verizon Fiber Buy (Multichannel News)

Broadband Dominance A Better Stock Play Than Wireless: SunTrust (IBD)

‘Delco Proper’ gets series pilot order from Comedy Central, will film locally in May (Philly.com)

Zulily co-founder Mark Vadon strikes e-commerce gold yet again as pet supply retailer Chewy sells for $3.35B
(GeekWire)
Vadon sold Zulily to QVC.

Inside info: U.S. chases 'Unknown Traders (Philly Deals)

How Many Data Centers Needed World-Wide (Perspectives)
In case you were wondering.
The author is a Distinguished Engineer at Amazon Web Services.

Amazon cloud chief jabs Oracle: 'Customers are sick of it' (CNBC)










at 7:56 AM 0 comments

4/18: PTC introduces Kinex, built on ThingWorx: Behind Private Equity’s hunger for Tech Deals



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email






Steve Ballmer’s new project: find out how the government spends your money (The Verge)

with some help from Penn.











Moffett: 600 MHz Auction Results Suggest Cable Wireless Service Not Much of a Threat (Telecompetitor)

Verizon agrees to $1.05 billion fiber-optic cable deal to grow its Fios platform (CNBC)


Verizon fades from forerunner's namesake Philly tower, as rival Comcast's presence grows (Philly.com)


Dell Boomi teams with CRM Online to integrate field services data into ERP (Tech Day NZ)

Interesting angle.


Philly team that won Qualcomm Tricorder contest focused on human interaction first, diagnostics second (Med City News)

PLM This Week: PTC Introduces Kinex, a New Generation of IoT Applications Built on ThingWorx (Engineering.com)

Behind Private Equity’s Hunger for Tech Deals (Fortune)






at 7:31 AM 0 comments

Labels: , , ,

4/17: Lightower For Sale?; Huckabee's Comcast rant



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email






Lightower For Sale? The Rumor Resurfaces, Stronger Than Ever (Telecom Ramblings)

Is Comcast a potential buyer? In its current config, Lightower is more of an enterprise play than a consumer broadband buy, though its rich in fiber.

Netflix Nears 100 Million Subscribers, Stock Drops as Q1 Gains Fall Short of Expectations (Variety)



Dish Stock Falls On Auction; Could Internet Partner Surface? (IBD)







Comcast apologizes for being late to Mike Huckabee’s house (The Verge)






< Henry Hillman remembered for intellectual curiosity, moving Pittsburgh into future (TribeLive)

Marketing Technology May Never Consolidate (But That's a Good Thing) (Ad Age)


Oracle buys Wercker, a Dutch startup that automates code testing and deployment (VentureBeat)

Oracle Growing ERP in Cloud (Robert Kugel
Senior VP - Research Director at Ventana Research)

Ametek Buying Mocon in $182M Deal
(Twin Cities Business)



Automate this: NewSpring puts $14M in Bucks' Lynn Electronics update (Philly Deals)

Birchbox in the Black, Teams With MAC, Bolsters TV Spots (WWD)
>





at 8:35 AM 0 comments

Labels: , ,

Pa.'s ailing nuclear industry looks to Harrisburg for salvation (Philly.com)

Vanguard Is Growing Faster Than Everybody Else Combined (NY Times)


Princeton’s Ad-Blocking Superweapon May Put an End to the Ad-Blocking Arms Race (MotherBoard)


at 10:38 AM 0 comments

Nokia and Intel Working Together to Test 5G at Nokia Bell Labs’ Murray Hill Campus


Esther Surden
Publisher & Editor, NJTechWeekly.com



Marcus Weldon at NJ Tech Council 2017 Innovation Forecast event | Esther Surden


Nokia Bell Labs (Murray Hill), Nokia’s mobile-network business, and Intel (Santa Clara, Calif.) are collaborating to build an end-to-end test lab at Bell Labs’ Murray Hill campus to investigate real applications for 5G networks.

In its initial phase, 5G will be an outdoor technology. “Think of the 200-acre Murray Hill location as being developed as a 5G campus,” said Marcus Weldon president of Bell Labs and CTO at Nokia. “In its first incarnation, 5G will be hyperlocal, using a millimeter wave spectrum, which typically only propagates hundreds of meters.”

That’s why 5G will initially be a local-environment network, he explained. “The mobility parts and the more global aspects of 5G will be built out over time.”

The first places the public will see 5G will be campuses, stadiums, airports and inner cities, where its attributes should allow it to work well. “That’s what we’ll be building in Murray Hill,” Weldon said.

Intel will be contributing a number of pieces to the campus-wide laboratory. “They have test equipment they’ve been developing for 5G networks that we’ll be using to test the network. They have some customer-premises equipment. Think of it as the modem side for the home or, in the future, for handsets.”

Nokia will be adding its own networking equipment, including the core network that manages the roaming from cell to cell within a campus, the radio, and the modem that talks to the radio, Weldon said.

Bell Labs will also be contributing some experimental tools for emerging technologies, including some new air interfaces and massive MIMO, also known as “large-scale antenna systems,” he added.

“We will be building that all together so we can have anyone come and test out a 5G application or service that they imagine,” he said.

According to Nokia, Bell Labs will be working closely with communications service providers and other companies in the 5G ecosystem to support comprehensive integration and testing. This will help those providers derive deployment options and identify operational models needed to make 5G a commercial reality. This lab work will be done in accordance with Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards.

Among the 5G attributes are ultralow latency, down to a millisecond; ultrahigh capacity, from one to 10 gigabits per second; and hypermobility, known as “hyperlocal latency,” achieving speeds of more than 500 kilometers per hour, Weldon said.

“There won’t be anything moving around Murray Hill at those speeds,” Weldon joked. “You could quickly get from one side to another of the Murray Hill campus and not be able to stop.”

Another attribute of 5G is “hyperscale,” the ability to support millions of things. “That we will be able to test, although not millions, tens of thousands. … We will be equipping Murray Hill with all sorts of sensors and robotics, and moving things that we will attach to this network,” Weldon said.

Nokia Bell Labs hasn’t quite decided on the exact set of autonomous things it will be attaching to the network, he explained, but it will include some vehicles. “We have some race cars we race around that use 5G. You can imagine robots roaming the halls delivering things and drones flying doing some kind of drone delivery or monitoring task.”

It will be an outdoor lab, Weldon reiterated, and the whole campus will become the lab. “One of the annoying things about millimeter wave technology is that it doesn’t go through walls. It does go through windows. So you have to figure out how to optimize it and focus the beams through windows.” It can also go through foliage with a bit of attenuation, or loss of signal. “There’s a lot to be learned about how to make sure you have continuous connectivity.”

Near the end of the interview, Weldon issued an invitation to all the New Jersey gubernatorial candidates. “Come to Bell Labs,” he said, take a look at our technology and innovations as well as our 5G lab, then use our auditorium for a town hall meeting. Bell Labs, he said, can show the next governor what innovation in New Jersey looks like.



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




at 7:49 PM 0 comments

Weekend highlights: Penn Medicine launches a new Center for Digital Health; The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email





Could blockchain be the fabric that ties existing data siloes together? (Healthcare Informatics)


The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI
(MIT Technology Review)


Penn Medicine launches a new Center for Digital Health (iMedicalApps)


Intel Pulls Out of OpenStack Effort It Founded with Rackspace (Fortune)






Is American Retail at a Historic Tipping Point?
(NY Times)

Somewhat nilistic article; Where will it all end?


Pa.'s ailing nuclear industry looks to Harrisburg for salvation (Philly.com)

Vanguard Is Growing Faster Than Everybody Else Combined (NY Times)


Princeton’s Ad-Blocking Superweapon May Put an End to the Ad-Blocking Arms Race (MotherBoard)



at 9:33 AM 0 comments

Labels: , ,

4/14: Uber shows some numbers; NewSpring Capital invests in Bucks County telecom company



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



NewSpring Capital invests $14.3M in Bucks County telecom company (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Tiny WYBE-TV gets an offer - $131.5 million - it couldn't refuse (Philly.com)

Uber, Lifting Financial Veil, Says Sales Growth Outpaces Losses (Bloomberg)

Feds Arrest Former Susquehanna International Group Engineer For Theft Of Trading Code (Forbes)


Comcast Wins Spectrum – What's Next? (Light Reading)





Verizon considering topping AT&T's bid for Straight Path: source (Reuters)

Anaplan grows into a platform play – is that enough? (Brian Sommer / Diginomica)

Microsoft, Oracle, NetSuite: Why Some Cloud Deals Are Fake News (Fortune)





DC Sales AI company Afiniti valued at $1.6 billion, files for IPO (VentureBeat)

B2B PAYMENTS IBM Targets Pharmaceuticals With Blockchain Supply Chain Tech (Pymnts)


at 9:02 AM 0 comments

Labels: ,

Comcast Corporation Statement on FCC Broadcast Incentive Auction Results (Press Release)

Business Wire
Comcast Corporation Statement on FCC Broadcast Incentive Auction Results
April 13, 2017 03:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time
PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The FCC today announced the results of the Reverse and Forward auctions of its Broadcast Incentive Auction. Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) participated in both auctions.

In the Reverse Incentive Auction, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations relinquished spectrum in three of its duopoly markets – New York (NBC - WNBC), Philadelphia (Telemundo - WWSI), and Chicago (Telemundo - WSNS) – and received total proceeds of $481.6 million. In each of these markets, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations retained the channel with the superior coverage and sold the second station in order to channel share as provided in the FCC’s rules. Once the three relinquishing stations vacate their spectrum, WNBC will channel share with WNJU, WWSI will channel share with WCAU, and WSNS will channel share with WMAQ.

In the Forward auction, Comcast invested $1.7 billion to acquire spectrum in the markets identified in the FCC’s Public Notice. Comcast cannot comment further on the Forward auction results until the FCC’s anti-collusion quiet period ends.

About Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company with two primary businesses, Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is one of the nation’s largest video, high-speed Internet and phone providers to residential customers under the XFINITY brand and also provides these services to businesses. NBCUniversal operates news, entertainment and sports cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television production operations, television station groups, Universal Pictures and Universal Parks and Resorts. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.

Contacts
Comcast
Jenni Moyer, 215-286-3311
jenni_moyer@comcast.com




at 3:24 PM 0 comments

SAP Promotes Proven Leaders to Strengthen the Company (Press Release)





SAP Promotes Proven Leaders to Strengthen the Company

PR Newswire PR NewswireApril 13, 2017

WALLDORF, Germany, April 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (SAP) today announced newly expanded responsibilities of key executives. Robert Enslin and Bernd Leukert will shift and expand their portfolios as members of the Executive Board of SAP SE. The Supervisory Board of SAP SE has named Adaire Fox-Martin and Jennifer Morgan to the Executive Board. The moves underscore SAP's commitment to customers' ongoing digital transformation and its effort to foster top talent.


"I am pleased that executives such as Rob, Bernd, Adaire and Jen are stepping into bigger leadership roles to transform the way we drive innovations with our customers," said Hasso Plattner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

In addition, two new leadership assignments were announced for current EMEA President Franck Cohen and SAP Cloud Platform President Bjoern Goerke. Cohen will become chief commercial officer and Goerke chief technology officer.

"We have always considered it a privilege to nurture careers and leaders," said Bill McDermott, CEO and Member of the Executive Board. "SAP is a company focused on innovation, scale and growth. I'm proud of this leadership team and know they are poised to keep SAP on the rise."

The Supervisory Board has asked Enslin, head of Global Customer Operations, to be president of the new Cloud Business Group. He will oversee SAP® Ariba®, SAP Fieldglass®, Concur®, SAP SuccessFactors®, and SAP Hybris® solutions as well as the SMB Solutions Group organization. Leukert, head of Products & Innovation at SAP, will expand his portfolio to accelerate SAP's platform and digital transformation strategy. Enslin and Leukert will jointly lead key growth businesses at SAP, ensuring that development teams and customer-facing teams are in lockstep with one another from the design thinking and innovation process to customer-facing initiatives.

With Enslin's increased focus on cloud businesses at SAP, Fox-Martin and Morgan will ascend to the co-presidency of Global Customer Operations, overseeing all SAP regions and building on their success in the Asia-Pacific-Japan region and North America, respectively. Fox-Martin will oversee EMEA and Greater China. Morgan will oversee the Americas and Asia-Pacific-Japan regions. As chief commercial officer, Cohen will lead SAP's channel business as well as assume responsibility for all sales processes and go-to-market initiatives across SAP. As CTO, Goerke will advance the company's technology strategy and serve as a key external spokesperson.

All changes will be effective May 1, 2017.

Steve Singh, president of Business Networks and Applications, will leave SAP SE at the end of this month. Singh collaborated closely with Enslin, and together they transitioned Concur solutions into the SAP product family. Singh built a strong foundation for business networks at SAP and plans to focus on other entrepreneurial interests outside of SAP.

"Steve Singh's character and entrepreneurial spirit are greatly admired around the world," McDermott said. "When SAP acquired Concur Technologies, we knew Steve would play a significant role in strengthening the SAP cloud portfolio. We also knew he would eventually go back to his start-up roots. We could not be more grateful for everything Steve has done."

Read More

























at 2:42 PM 0 comments

4/13: Windstream to acquire Broadview Networks; Comcast Gets Unshackled With NBC Deal Curbs Expiring Next Year



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Free TV? Viacom, AMC, Discovery Said Eyeing Online Bundle (Bloomberg)

FCC Could Announce Broadcaster Auction Results on Thursday (Reuters via Fortune)

That's today. Big news could be what Comcast has won.

T-Mobile spends $8 billion for 45% of spectrum at FCC auction (Ars Technica)




T-Mobile wants to paint the country purple, or whatever shade that is.

Comcast will receive $481.6 million from auctioning spectrum it controlled in 3 TV markets; it invested $1.7 billion to acquire spectrum, less than some had anticipated.

Moffett: Comcast Bought Less Spectrum Than Expected (Multichannel News)

Comcast Gets Unshackled With NBC Deal Curbs Expiring Next Year (Bloomberg)

Hulu’s live TV service rumored to cost $39.99 per month (The Verge)



Windstream Strikes a Second Time, to Acquire Broadview (Telecom Ramblings)

Broadview has considerable operations in the Philly area, emanating mostly from its 2006 acquisition of ATX.

goTenna Series B fuels vision to make short-range communication possible anywhere on the planet (TechCrunch)

Penn-related MentorTech Ventures is one of its investors.

Former Flex CEO Wants to Upend the Multi-Trillion Dollar Construction Industry (Fortune)

A new Unicorn, interesting strategy.

NYC’s beleaguered startup scene looks for a win with Yext IPO (VentureBeat)





at 9:36 AM 0 comments

Labels: , ,

4/12: CEO Judy Faulkner on Epic Systems; Wireless Won’t Replace Cable, For Now, Says Moffett-Nathanson



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


Qualtrics raises pre-IPO round at $2.5 billion valuation (Dan Primack / Axios)

Her way: Epic Systems CEO Judy Faulkner talks about trusting her vision (Journal Times)
Faulkner grew up in New Jersey, and attended Dickinson College in Carlisle before heading to the midwest.


Paul Singer’s son screws up, hits ‘Send’ on email to merger target (NY Post)

Walmart Taps Jet.Com Playbook to Offer Discounts on Order Pick Up (Fortune)

Edge Giants Pitch Pai on Preserving Title II-Based Rules (Multichannel News)

Comcast Versus AT&T: Wireless Won’t Replace Cable, For Now, Says Moffett-Nathanson (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)





Trump Aides Talked to Oracle’s Safra Catz About an Administration Job (Fortune)

Oracle CEO: We Can Beat Amazon and Microsoft Without as Many Data Centers (Fortune)

NextGen Healthcare [ Horsham ] to acquire Entrada for $34 million (DotMed)

Southeastern Pa. medical device company files for bankruptcy (Philadelphia Business Journal)


Philly Parking Authority will kill pay-by-app system as firm mysteriously leaves town (Philly.com)












at 8:16 AM 0 comments

Anaplan: Who needs a CFO? Or a CEO for that matter


Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email










From The Information :

"The list of companies considered potential IPO candidates that don’t have CFO hires is long, and includes Tanium, Qualtrics, Cloudflare, Anaplan, Stitch Fix, Illumio, Gusto, Freshdesk and Jam City. Some of the largest private companies like Uber and Slack also have notably still not hired CFOs."



Of course, Anaplan went about a year without a CEO, before bringing on Frank Calderoni as CEO at the beginning of this year. Calderoni was once CFO of Cisco Systems, so perhaps the temporary lack of a CFO doesn't worry him much. But Anaplan is expected to IPO soon, perhaps this year, so arrival of a new CFO should be forthcoming.

Calderoni's brother, Bob Calderoni, who also has a CFO background, is chairman of the board at Anaplan, and was CEO of Ariba when it sold to SAP in 2012, later serving as president of SAP Cloud before leaving the company in 2014. Both Calderonis started out with IBM.

Philly guy and ex-iPipeline President ( also ex-Ariba and SAP) Paul Melchiorre was named Chief Revenue Officer of San Francisco-based Anaplan more than a year ago.

Actually founded in the UK, Anaplan is among a group of new breed cloud-based enterprise performance management platform vendors (Adaptive Insights, Tidemark and Host Analytics among the others) whose products enable enhanced cross-functional, dynamic business planning. It has raised over $200 million, was valued at slightly more than $1 billion in its last round, and achieved over 75 percent annual year-over-year subscription revenue growth and $120 million total revenue in its recently ended FY '17.

SAP is a competitor.

See Anaplan grows into a platform play – is that enough? by Brian Sommer in Diginomica.



at 7:56 AM 0 comments

4/11: Pennsylvania Issues Revised Ruling on Sales Tax Treatment of Software-Related Services; Altice USA Files IPO Documents



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email




Risks of New Technology Highlighted by Medication Errors in Pennsylvania Hospitals (Government Technology)

Pennsylvania Issues Revised Ruling on Sales Tax Treatment of Software-Related Services, Creating a Refund Opportunity for Some Taxpayers (Reed Smith LLP)

Altice USA Files IPO Documents
(Multichannel News)

Altice Files IPO Plans That Could Raise $1 Billion, Value At $20 Billion (IBD)


Comcast Cable's technology exec Kotay quits for personal reasons (Philly.com)


Deloitte upgrades to S/4HANA to align global financial processes (Computerworld)

LinkedIn steps closer to CRM as it gives Sales Navigator an enterprise boost (TechCrunch)


From The Information :

"The list of companies considered potential IPO candidates that don’t have CFO hires is long, and includes Tanium, Qualtrics, Cloudflare, Anaplan, Stitch Fix, Illumio, Gusto, Freshdesk and Jam City. Some of the largest private companies like Uber and Slack also have notably still not hired CFOs."

Of course, Anaplan went about a year without a CEO, before bringing on Frank Calderoni as CEO at the beginning of this year. Calderoni was once CFO of Cisco Systems, so perhaps the temporary lack of a CFO doesn't pain him. But Anaplan is expected to IPO soon, perhaps this year, so arrival of a new CFO should be forthcoming.

Calderoni's brother, Bob Calderoni, is chairman of the board at Anaplan, and was CEO of Ariba when it sold to SAP in 2012.

Philly guy and ex-iPipeline President ( also ex-Ariba and SAP) Paul Melchiorre was named Chief Revenue Officer of San Francisco-based Anaplan more than a year ago.

Actually founded in the UK, Anaplan is among a group of new wave cloud-based enterprise performance management platform vendors (Adaptive Insights and Host Analytics among the others) whose products enable enhanced cross-functional, dynamic business planning. It was valued at slightly more than $1 billion in its last round, and said it expected to exceed $100 million in revenue last year. SAP is a competitor.







at 9:30 AM 0 comments

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)