Links 9/17/2013: Comcast Raises Top-End Residential Broadband Tier to 505 Mbps for some

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Ex-Soviet programmers take on India in $48 billion market (Bloomberg via Livemint)
Focuses on Newtown-based Epam Systems and its founder, Arkadiy Dobkin.

Basking In Success Has Its Limits At Epam Systems (Investor's Business Daily)


AT&T And SAP Simplify Mobile Application Development For Businesses (PR Newswire)

Oracle to put on its innovation game face at OpenWorld (PC World)

Violin Plans IPO With Losses Mounting as HP Business Dips
(Bloomberg)
Violin Memory began life in Iselin, NJ. SAP Ventures has been a major investor.


Salesforce.com funds Apttus, its profitable platform partner (VentureBeat)


Comcast Raises Top-End Residential Broadband Tier to 505 Mbps (Multichannel News)
Still trying to clarify how widespread this is; doubt Comcast is building fiber to the premise to individual residences.



IBM hopes to Power cloud, analytics with $1 billion Linux investment (PC World)


As Amazon Preps its Apple TV Killer, it Plays Nicely with Apple TV
(All Things D)

Marcus: CBS blackout 'definitely' had impact on Time Warner Cable subscriber count (FierceCable)

Local genetics firm up for IBM Entrepreneur of the Year award
(Philadelphia Business Journal)

Newtown-based EPAM Systems acquires Conshohocken-based Empathy Lab

Tom Paine

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An acquisition announced yesterday passed me by, perhaps because it came out first over the Thomson Reuters One wire, which is rather obscure here (thanks to Technically Philly for picking up on it). Newtown-based EPAM Systems has acquired Conshohocken-based Empathy Labs. Terms were not disclosed in an SEC filing by EPAM.

The pairing might seem a little odd at first. Empathy Lab, founded in 2005, focuses on digital strategy and designs customer websites with an eCommerce focus, having clients such as The American Red Cross and Wilmington-based 21st Century Insurance. But it also has significant business in the cable and home entertainment industry, with clients such as Rogers Communications (the Comcast of Canada), NBC Universal, DirecTV, and Comcast itself. Empathy has also been heavily involved in developing TV-Everywhere applications for John Malone's Liberty Global, a largely Europe-focused cable operator, and other cable systems. I don't know how much this segment accounts for out of its total business, but it seems to be substantial. In EPAM's release, its CEO Arkadiy Dobkin cited Empathy's "proven expertise in two important growth areas - development and execution of enterprise-wide Commerce initiatives and transformation of Media consumption and distribution channels". I would guess another reason for EPAM buying Empathy is to acquire higher-level client-facing, strategy level executives to deal with major prospects in the US and Europe.

Flying Kite Media reported last year that Empathy was on target for 2011 revenue of $14 million, with about 70 employees at the time. Just last week Empathy announced several interesting new hires. Its CEO is co-founder Kevin Labick.

EPAM Systems went public in February of this year. Sometimes referred to as the Cognizant of Eastern Europe, because most of its technology wokforce is based there, its customers include Google, SAP, Barclays Capital and Coca-Cola. Dobkin came from Belarus and after migrating to the US worked for Colgate-Palmolive and SAP Labs before starting EPAM.

EPAM (NYSE: EPAM), founded in 1993, now says it has over 8,000 employees; at the time of its IPO the company told me it had about 150 employees in Newtown. In its third quarter 2012 results released in November, EPAM reported revenue of $110.1 million, up 27.4%, and GAAP net income of $14.1 million. Its market value is approaching $900 million.



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EPAM Systems completes IPO after cutting offering price and size

Tom Paine





Newtown-based EPAM Systems, Inc., a provider of outsourced informations system development services, has completed its IPO. It is trading on the NYSE under the symbol EPAM.

EPAM had to cut back sharply on the size of its offering. It sold only 6 million shares at $12 per share; originally it planned to float 7.4 million shares at $16-18 per share. Only 1.5 million of the shares were sold by the company, with the rest being offered by existing shareholders, meaning that proceeds to the company would be about $18 million. EPAM opened at $13.75 and closed at $14.00, up 17% from the original offering price. Its market value is in the $600 million range.

Sometimes referred to as the Cognizant of Eastern Europe, most of EPAM's developers are located in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. Half of its revenue in the first nine months of 2011 came from North America; clients include several major tech and financial giants such as Google, SAP, Oracle, Barclays Plc and Citigroup. It has over 7,000 employees. Arkadiy Dobkin, EPAM's cofounder, CEO and President, came from Belarus and after migrating to the US worked for Colgate-Palmolive and SAP Labs before starting EPAM. Its services include end-to-end development capabilities, technology consulting, Infrastructure and hosting, QA & testing, and maintenance and support. Revenue for the first nine months 0f 2011 was $239 million, and net income was $32 million.

It is the first significant information technology IPO in the Philadelphia area since Radnor-based QlikTech went public in July of 2010.

(Update 2/13/2012: In response to an email, an EPAM spokesperson tells Phiily Tech News that EPAM has about 150 employees located at its Newtown headquarters.)




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