On IoT Strategies: AWS, GE, Siemens

Siemens and General Electric gear up for the internet of things (The Economist)

Why the Computing Cloud Will Keep Growing and Growing (NY Times: Bits)

Lux Research: Is GE too dependent on ThingWorx? (Update: GE partners with Microsoft on cloud services for Predix)

Tom Paine

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Update 6/11: GE Partners with Microsoft on Azure Cloud for Predix.

Fortune has an item this morning about a report by an outfit named Lux Research knocking GE's IoT software strategy and questioning the market readiness of its Predix software.

I have no firm basis for either dismissing or accepting Lux' conclusions. But I have often rolled my eyes at GE's projections for Predix. Perhaps much like IBM's Watson, GE is trying soften up the turf ahead with a heavy dose of PR artillery.

What's interesting is that report acknowledges and questions GE's dependence on PTC (primarily ThingWorx) for its go to market IoT platform.

"Predix is not as fully developed as GE represents it to be, has minimal market penetration, and has not been battle-tested at scale," said Isaac Brown, Lux Research Analyst and lead author of the report titled, "A Tale of Two IoT Titans: The Curious Case of the GE-PTC Partnership," in a statement.

"In contrast, the PTC solution has millions of connected devices across hundreds of scale customers", Brown added.

GE responded, saying claims in the report “are not based on fact or objective research,” and contain “numerous factual errors.”



It seems to me that if GE decides that the ThingWorx IoT platform is suitable for a longer term relationship, then the acquisition of all or part of PTC (NASDAQ:PTC) might be in order. PTC, which made its name by selling CAD/CAM software on workstations back when that was a novel concept, has declining revenue, and IoT constitutes only a small portion of that. But PTC has a market capitalization of only $4.3 billion, and GE could swallow it like a minnow if it wanted to. ThingWorx is headquartered in Boston now, closer to both GE and PTC.

Links 6/8: Salesforce's Demandware buy : Good or bad; Comcast & Amazon, Aereo's ghost

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Salesforce acquires Demandware. Good? Bad? Buy! (Paul Greenberg/ZDNet)

Salesforce acquires Demandware to add Commerce Cloud (Diginomica)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and GE are teaming up on the Internet of Things (Re/code)
No mention of GE IoT partner PTC ThingWorx, but that doesn't imply anything. Reading through the PR, HP's main role seems
to be supplying hardware and support, not IP snd software.

Aereo Assets Live On (Light Reading)

Amazon, Comcast Fire Up Tablet Promo (Multichannel News)


Pega CEO Alan Trefler and his conflict with public cloud (Diginomica)

I want India to be the most innovative place for SAP: Dilipkumar Khandelwal
(Business Standard India)

Comcast Business, ABC's 'Shark Tank' team up for casting call in Philly (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Subaru SelectsDemand Aria Systems to Monetize Its Connected Car Initiatives (Press Release)

An early hint that GE might move to Boston?

Tom Paine

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Perhaps this announcement by GE, as described by NJ.com on June 2, 2014, was a precursor for GE's announcement this week that it was picking up its toys and moving its headquarters from Fairfield, CT to Boston. Perhaps the move was already in the early planning stages. Major corporate moves of that size usually require a five year planning horizon.

GE subsidiary to move jobs from Princeton, Piscataway


"GE Healthcare Life Sciences confirmed today its plan to consolidate operations near Boston, which will impact many of its 400 New Jersey employees — including job loss for some.
The facilities that will be closed next year are in Princeton and Piscataway. Operations in Livingston and South Plainfield will be unaffected by the plan, according to a company spokesman.
Of the Princeton and Piscataway employees, some will be invited to relocate to the Massachusetts facility, some may end up working remotely, while the third category would be laid off."

Though I feel little sympathy for Connecticut, whose inflexibility helped lose GE according to reports, knowing a bit about how the power structure works in that state. However, Connecticut apparently offered considerable incentives to Comcast in order for NBC Sports to relocate there three years ago.

Coincidentally, GE's move will bring it closer to PTC, headquartered in Needham, which is GE's primary IoT partner, with a significant contribution from its Exton-based ThingWorx unit. The geographical proximity doesn't mean anything in particular, but GE could snap up PTC in a minute if it wanted to.

Note: PTC announced another acquistion today to support ThingWorx and its IoT strategy.

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.

Daily Links 4/25/2013: Verizon said to be preparing bid to buyout Vodafone's Verizon Wireless stake

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Verizon eyes $100 billion bid for Vodafone's Wireless stake (Reuters)

Safeguard Scientifics Announces First Quarter 2013 Financial Results
Capital deployments in Pneuron and Sotera Wireless bring partner company roster to 20
(Business Wire)

QlikTech Announces First Quarter 2013 Financial Results
Total revenue of $96.5 million increases 22% compared to first quarter of 2012 (QlikTech Press Release)

InterDigital Announces First Quarter 2013 Financial Results (Globe Newswire)

Mixed Q1 For Time Warner Cable
OIBDA Growth In Line, But Video Sub Losses Rise (Multichannel News)

Arris Sees Video Gateway Market Start to Open Up (Multichannel News)

GE Puts $105M Into Pivotal, The New EMC And VMware Platform Initiative, But Here’s What It Is Missing (TechCrunch)

AWeber Announces New Headquarters in Chalfont, Pa.
Renovated 71,000-square foot building to be revealed with April 30th ribbon-cutting ceremony (PRWeb)





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Daily Links 4/24/2013: GE drops $105 mm into EMC/VMware cloud spinoff; Unisys plummets after earnings release

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Amazon: Hard luck Microsoft, AWS will always be cheaper
We're in the driving seat and the only way is down (The Register)

Pivotal’s Audacious Plan (New York Times: Bits)
GE invests $105 million (yes, thats right) in EMC/VMware cloud spinoff.

Salesforce.com seeks more advertising, marketing revenue from social (Gigaom)

Red ink flows in difficult first quarter for Unisys (Philly.com: Philly Inc)
Unisys shares are down 20% on the day.

Comcast: Unlicensed Spectrum Now Top Route to Web Access
Exec to Tell Senate to Do More to Free Up Spectrum (Multichannel News)

Here Comes Amazon's Kindle TV Set-Top Box (Bloomberg Business Week)

Harry Potter coming to Universal Studios Hollywood (LA Daily News)

NBCUniversal Celebrates New Digital Efforts (Hollywood Reporter)

Publicis Groupe to Spend $4 Billion on Acquisitions Over Next Five Years
Maurice Levy Says Small and Midsize Digital Firms Are Next Targets (Ad Age)


Smart-phone app for runners wins Villanova contests (Philadelphia Business Journal)




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Daily Links 1/16/2012: Report suggests Comcast may buy out GE NBCU stake sooner rather than laterComcast encouraged Arris to acquire Motorola Home

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Comcast, GE Seen Fast-Tracking NBCU In $16 Bil Deal
(Investor's Business Daily)

Comcast (and Others) Urged Arris to Buy Moto Home (Multichannel News)

Cox Enterprises Invests $250 Million With Board Member Rackley (Bloomberg)

SAP earnings fall short of expectations (Reuters via Yahoo News)


Salesforce Partners Stir Pot (Denis Pombriant/Enterprise Irregulars)

Hoopla Establishes New Silicon Valley Headquarters
Leading provider of business gamification solutions expands operations to meet demand (Business Wire)
Hoopla was originally founded in West Chester. Hoopla CEO Michael Smalls tells me by email: "We are doing all software development in West Chester and will continue to expand that office in the coming year." Hoopla investors include Safeguard Scientifics and Salesforce.com

Doug Pelletier/Founder, Trifecta Technologies (Keystone Edge)

CRM Slips on SEC Note; Nothing to Worry About, Says Morgan Stanley (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania Announces Third Class of Project Liberty Digital Incubator (Ben Franklin Press Release)

EHRs Continue To Take A Beating (Information Week Healthcare)

Up in the Cloud: Hype and High Expectations for Cloud Computing (Knowledge@Wharton)
Knowledge@Wharton and SAP team up on survey.




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Daily Links 11/30/2012: More on HP's Autonomy debacle

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Insight: How a desperate HP suspended disbelief for Autonomy deal (Reuters UK)

M&A The HP Way – Why the Autonomy deal was doomed, and what can’t be done to save HP (Josh Greenbaum/Enterprise Irregulars)

SaaS now replacing legacy apps as well as extending them, Gartner says (Computerworld UK)

One-Third Of SAP's Sales Are Now Through The Channel (CRN)

Unisys unveils new cloud application migration service (CloudPro)

NBCU gets some love from Wall Street: Retrans and network turnaround shift sentiment (Variety)


Scoop: Key pricing and launch details of Redbox Instant revealed (Gigaom)

Network Giants Argue In Appeals Court: Aereo Should Be Treated Like A Cable Company (TechCrunch)
First Round Capital was a seed investor in Aereo.

GE Plans Silicon Valley Venture Stakes Along With Hiring (Bloomberg)

MetroPCS Climbs After Analyst Says Sprint May Counterbid (Bloomberg)

Google Acquires Shopping Locker Service BufferBox (All Things D)
Small potatoes, but interesting as a clue to Google's e-commerce ambitions. Competes with Amazon, Conshohocken-based ShopRunner.




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Comcast results beat estimates; contain other positive signs

Tom Paine


Normally, it is difficult to get too excited when a giant corporation reports quarterly revenue growth of 3% (apples to apples) over the prior year with adjusted operating cash flow growth of 4.2%. But Comcast's results announced this morning exceeded analysts' estimates, and perhaps contain other positive signs that could point to increased growth, although NBCU remains an area of uncertainty.

Perhaps the most important number was the decline in video subscriber losses. Net losses in Q4 2011 were 17,000, versus 135,00 in Q4 2010. During Comcast's earnings conference call, management indicated a belief that they have stabilized video subscriber losses, despite the lack of new housing starts, although they are not yet predicting growth. Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit cited an improving competitive environment, including the slowing RBOC (Verizon, AT&T) buildout as well as Comcast's own marketing efforts. Another positive area was High-Speed Internet services, where Comcast added over 1 million (net) new customers in 2011 and revenue grew by 10.1%.

While the NBC broadcast network and Universal Studios continued to lag, NBCU's cable networks produced solid results. The real star of the NBCU side of the businesss was the Universal Theme Parks business, where revenue grew 24% and operating cash flow grew 41% for the year. This reflects a full year comparison to 2010, although Comcast only acquired full ownership on July 1, 2011. In terms of the NBC broadcast network, management emphasized that 2011 was a year for investment and integration, with the hoped for payoff coming further down the road.

Business Services revenue grew at a 37% rate in the 4th quarter, and that segment is now at a $2 billion annual run rate. Comcast believes it is well positioned for further expansion in a market that has $20 to 30 billion potential.

Comcast Chairman & CEO Brian Roberts spoke of the rollout of the new Xcalibur initiative, which now been branded as the X1 platform. Roberts said the goal for 2012 was to get X1 into "hundreds of thousands of homes in multiple markets". Roberts emphasized that XCalibur would move many capabilities "out of the box and into the cloud", and change the way users interact with their TVs and other consumer electronics devices.

Although the controversial Comcast/Verizon Wireless joint marketing arrangement is now active in four markets, Comcast execs didn't seem anxious to discuss details about it, other than saying they hoped to get regulatory approval for the spectrum sale part of the arrangement later this year.

Comcast also spoke of expanding its WiFi initiative, which now is mostly running in the Philadelphia/New Jersey area, into other markets, with an emphasis on data rather than voice.

Key cost pressures were sales & marketing, up 11.8%, and programming expenses, up 5.8%. Programming cost increases are expected to remain a major issue.

In terms of its financial strategy, Comcast boosted its dividend by 44% and announced a $6.5 billion share repurchase plan. The company emphasizes that through these two means most of its free operating cash flow from the cable business is being returned to shareholders, while cash flow from NBCU is being accumulated toward the possible eventual buyout of GE's interest in the NBCU joint venture.

Comcast shares are up 4.73% in mid-day trading today.



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Daily Links 12/8/2011: Verizon Ditches DirecTV LTE Plans for Cable

G.E.-Microsoft Venture to Create ‘Windows’ for Health Care (New York Times: Bits)

Microsoft, HP team to sell public and private cloud services (ZDNet Blogs)

HCM is the new Cloud apps frontline - buyers beware! (BusinesCloud9)

Enterprise software's maintenance model faces triple threat (ZDNet Blogs)

CDI Corp. Announces Strategic Plan to Enhance Long-Term Growth (PR Newswire)
To let go 200 employees.

Verizon ends satellite deal, FiOS expansion as it partners with cable (Washington Post:
Post Tech)

Verizon Ditches DirecTV LTE Plans for Cable (Light Reading Cable)

Verizon And RedBox Planning Major Partnership For Early 2012 Launch (TechCrunch)

Comcast elevates cable systems chief Neil Smit (LA Times: Company Town)

When Will Comcast Demand Our Firstborn?
The NBC 10/WHYY partnership is great for the cable giant. For Philly, not so much. (Philadelphia Magazine: The Philly Post)

NBC Sports Network Plans a Long Game Against ESPN (Ad Age)

Fisker Karma deliveries still parked at zero (Yahoo! Autos)
Fisker is supposed to begin producing one line of automobile in Delaware some time next year.

New Co-Working Space Opens at Science Center Port Business Incubator (Business Wire)

Analysis: Venture capital funding doubles for online retail (Reuters)



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Daily Links 1/26/2011: Lancaster's appMobi raises $6 million

SAP raises dividend 20 percent, upbeat on 2011 (Reuters)

Germany's SAP sees Q4 earnings fall 36 per cent after charge for Oracle battle (The Canadian Press)

A Chat With SAP’s Bill McDermott (Forbes: Upside Potential)

General Electric Buys Stake in NBC Universal From Vivendi for $3.8 Billion (Bloomberg)
Clears way for completing Comcast/NBCU transaction.

JVP Leads $50 Million Secondary and Primary Transaction in Photonic Integrated Circuit Company CyOptics, Inc. (PR Newswire)
CyOptics is based in the Lehigh Valley near Allentown.

appMobi Closes $6 Million Series B Financing (Business Wire)
Lancaster-based Mobile Apps platform company says funding came entirely from Angels. appMobi grew out of another Lancaster startup, streaming music service FlyCast.
TechCrunch article.

Startup Accelerator DreamIt Ventures Takes Manhattan (TechCrunch)

RES Software Caps 2010 with Record Bookings of $12.9 million in Q4 (Business Wire)

Charter Passes Over the Cable-Tech Duopoly
(Multichannel News)

Netflix: Here's What We Think About ISPs And Net Neutrality (Silicon Alley Insider)

Netflix Passes 20 Million Subscribers But Doesn't Give Full-Year Guidance (Silicon Alley Insider)




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