Links 10/30/2014: LiquidHub acquires digital marketing agency Foundry9; Uber urges Philly to follow DC model

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SAP's Bill McDermott provides a CEO's plan to defy disruption (Fortune)

Forrester Shows Little Love for SAP, Marketo in Marketing Wave (CMS Wire)

Concur CEO says SAP acquisition is a ‘big bet’ that will accelerate company growth (GeekWire)
How many times have you heard this before an acquisition?
"Singh said that the tie-up between SAP and Concur won’t be a typical acquisition deal. He emphatically stressed that his company won’t disappear as a result of the acquisition closing. Instead, Concur’s partnership with SAP will provide tools and funding to expand the business."

Security Is Focus in SAP's Government Cloud Portfolio (CIO Today)


LiquidHub Acquires Digital Marketing Agency Foundry9
(Business Wire)


Uber exec Plouffe urges Philadelphia to model D.C.'s laws (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Time Warner Cable Misses Estimates on Drop in TV Users (Bloomberg)

Arris Beats The Street In Q3 (Multichannel News)
Arris acquired the Horsham-based business formerly known as Motorola Home from Google last year.

Study: Comcast and Verizon connections to Cogent dropped below 0.5Mbps (Ars Technica)


Verizon Ventures Seeks To Double Portfolio And Investment Capital (TechCrunch)

Execs From Apple Pay Competitor Finally Speak, but Big Questions Remain (Re/code)


Merger reflects growth in retail-store data analytics (Crain's New York)
First Round Capital-backed NOMi (New York) merges with Brickstream.

Blackstone’s Tac-Ops Adds Philadelphia Insurer in Blitzer’s Bet (Bloomberg)

ChargeItSpot: The Next Indispensable Retail Service? (Wharton Entrepreneurship Blog)

Delaware native, Obama vet Plouffe named Uber's "campaign manager"

Tom Paine

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Uber yesterday announced it had hired what it referred to in a blog post as the "leader of Uber's campaign", former Obama aid and campaign manager David Plouffe.

David Plouffe / Wikipedia

Plouffe, 47, was born in Wilmington, and attended St. Marks High School and the University of Delaware. He left the University prior to graduation in 1989 to begin his full time political career, but later completed his degree there in 2010.

Plouffe's actual title will be senior vice president of policy and strategy. The move reflects Uber's intent to mount a massive campaign to take on the regulatory agencies of the world who often defend traditional taxi businesses. Plouffe said he planned to run Uber’s communications efforts much like a political race. Traces of that have already been evident, with a heavy emphasis on social media as was used in the Obama campaigns.

Just got press release from @uber w/ testimonials from politicians about @davidplouffe. Uber's not a company. It's one big campaign.
— Jessica Lessin (@Jessicalessin) August 20, 2014

Plouffe's role might be compared to that of David Cohen of Comcast, although Cohen is also
an attorney in addition to having considerable political experience.

Uber, which was recently funded at an $18 billion valuation, received an early seed round
led by First Round Capital. Its cofounder and chairman, Garret Camp, had worked with
Josh Kopelman as founder of StumbleUpon, in which First Round Capital was (and is) an investor.