Comcast partnership with Braves on new stadium includes establishing major Atlanta R&D center

Tom Paine

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Comcast today announced a partnership with the Atlanta Braves, in which it will provide all its technology goodies for the Braves' new stadium in suburban Cobb County, SunTrust Park, and the office and entertainment complex surrounding it. Comcast will also be an anchor tenant for an office tower in the complex. The stadium is scheduled to open in 2017.

What surprised me was that its plans for the office space are not only for it to house local employees serving the Atlanta market, where it is the major cable system incumbent. It also will have an Innovation Lab that will serve as a primary technology development hub for Comcast, along with the company's other major R&D centers in Silicon Valley, Philadelphia, and Denver.

Comcast plans to base about 1,000 employees at the new office, but its not known how many will be in the R&D workforce. (A Comcast spokesperson said they didn't have any numbers on that yet.)

A little back story: The Braves are currently owned by John Malone's Liberty Media. Cable pioneer Malone has been through the years both a frequent business partner and sometime nemesis to Comcast. He is currently involved in the pending Comcast / Time Warner Cable / Charter deal, through which Charter, in which Liberty Media owns a large stake, will acquire some of the subs Comcast plans to shed and enter into a joint venture with Comcast that will acquire other Comcast and TWC subs.

Comcast could also be interested in a cable rights deal with the Braves similar to the one it has with the Phillies. But last year Liberty Media renegotiated its previously subpar local cable package with Fox channels Fox Sports South and SportSouth. Its a long-term contract but of unknown length, and I don't know if it has any opt-out clauses that would allow the Braves to seek another deal. But the very fact that Liberty Media and Comcast are working together on the Braves makes me think other arrangements could be possible in the future.

See also Wall Street Journal blog article, Braves Hit Home Run With Comcast Deal.

Liberty Interactive reaffims intent to create QVC tracking stock, but doesn't say when

Tom Paine

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Liberty Interactive had announced late last year (I believe) its intent to create one of its separate tracking stocks for its West Chester-based QVC business named the QVC Group. Tracking stocks, which Liberty Interactive's John Malone employs frequently, do not carry ownership of a company's assets but are intended to reflect the underlying value of the asset.

Little more had been said and no action had been taken since then. But today Liberty Interactive said it still planned on creating the QVC Group tracking stock, consisting of its interests in QVC and HSN (38%). However, Liberty said it has delayed the move "in light of the pending Provide Commerce transaction (agreed to be acquired by FTD), and other factors. As a result, "Liberty is reevaluating the optimal structure and best alignment of the Liberty Digital Commerce Group assets," and "the timing of the transition to the QVC Group has been delayed".

No word on when it will happen, but when it does the QVC entity will trade separately on the market with a value likely in excess of $10 billion. It may also facilitate the oft-discussed merger of QVC and HSN.

Comcast's objectives in acquiring Time Warner Cable

Tom Paine

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Comcast's proposed deal to acquire Time Warner Cable for $45 billion (if approved) could accomplish four primary objectives:

First, it would assure in terms of nationwide economies of scale in the video content business, that Comcast would continue to maintain a considerable size advantage. This is important for achieving technological leadership, the ability to spread technology investment costs across as many customers as possible, greater marketing power, and bargaining power with content providers as well as technology vendors. Some cable execs have tried to downplay the value of the latter because they don't want those words used against them in front of an FCC or congressional hearing, but it is important.

While Charter backer John Malone has options, he couldn't come close to matching the scale of a combined Comcast/Time Warner Cable. Lets say he were to pick up the all of the three million subs Comcast says it would shed as part of the deal and somehow buy out the next five largest systems and add them to Charter's base subscribers. That would give Charter approximately 20 million subs versus Comcast's forecasted nearly 30 million. And that's unlikely to happen for a number of reasons.

In broadband, it gives Comcast the ability to build a stronger network, particularly along the east coast but also one with nationwide reach. This will make it more competitive with the telcos, including Verizon and AT&T. Some industry observers consider broadband to be a more attractive future market than delivering packaged video content.

If you look at Comcast's existing markets plus the ones it is likely to pick up from
Time Warner Cable, you can see how many of them are major national or regional communications hubs. It would put Comcast in a very powerful position in the telco world.

Regionally, it will strengthen Comcast's position in key metros such as New York,
Los Angeles, and Charlotte. In New York, Comcast already has some pieces in the area in
Connecticut and New Jersey. However, a combined Comcast/TWC would face strong competition there from Verizon's FiOS (often for the same subs) and in terms of regional presence from Cablevision (on Long Island and in Connecticut and New Jersey). Could Cablevision be Comcast's next target to round out its New York footprint? Remember what it did in the Philly market.

The fourth objective is to build an infrastructure capable of competing for larger enterprise accounts in business services.

A fifth tentacle of the octopus may be wireless. The cable industry has largely given up
on trying to build its own 4G LTE-type network, and I don't think much has come out of the joint product marketing agreement with Verizon Wireless. But cable operators see Wi-Fi
as a increasingly valuable option, not just for in-home or near-range network extension but possibly for building significant networks on the back of Wi-Fi hotspots, of which both Comcast and TWC have an ample supply.

What's next: Unless Comcast wants to buy a fill-in cable acquisition (such as Cablevision), my guess is its next large acquisition will be outside of the US.

Charter makes opening bid of more than $61 billion for Time Warner Cable; will & when Comcast get involved?

Tom Paine

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Charter Communications has made its widely anticipated opening bid for the much larger Time Warner Cable, an offer that values TWC at $132.50 per share, or more than $61 billion including debt.

Charter has had discussions with Time Warner Cable but has said that TWC has been largely
unresponsive to its suggestions, and this bid is not expected to be accepted. Charter's goal, with the backing of John Malone's Liberty Media (which owns 27% of Charter), is to get the issue in front of TWC shareholders.

A combined Charter/TWC would be about 80% as large as Comcast's cable business in terms of video subscribers. Comcast is expected to show its cards on this deal at some point. Although Comcast hasn't publicly said its interested in acquiring all of or part of Time Warner Cable, sources have indicated that its been carefully surveying the landscape in preparation of such a possibility.

Malone built TCI into a giant cable operator that was sold to AT&T for $48 billion in 1998. AT&T subsequently agreed to merge its cable business with Comcast's in 2001 in a transaction valued at $72 billion.

Links 11/25/2013: KoP-based EBay Enterprise absorbs Magento; ColdLight funding

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eBay Enterprise Absorbs Magento - Should Marketplace Sellers Care? (eCommerce Bytes)

For BYOD, gaining control is about letting go (ZDNet)
On Wayne-based Point.io.

Leader in Big Data Analytics, ColdLight Solutions, Receives Growth Capital from Kayne Partners (Business Wire)
ColdLight Solutions is based in Wayne.

The Battle For The Connected Home Is Heating Up (TechCrunch)

HealthQx Wins Marcum Innovator of the Year Award (PR Newswire)


Wall Street redemption: Jerry Yang joins the board of market darling Workday (PandoDaily)

Workday Jumps 6%: FYQ3 Rev, Net Loss Beat; Q4 Rev View Beats (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)


Comcast eyes Time Warner Cable and unprecented market power (Fortune Tech)

Comcast's Brian Roberts and Liberty's John Malone have history (LA Times: Company Town)

Report: Comcast considering Time Warner Cable bid? Update: Could be joint bid with Charter

Tom Paine

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CNBC cites sources suggesting that Comcast may be considering a bid for Time Warner Cable, the nation's second largest cable provider.

My first reaction is that while its not surprising that Comcast would look at all its options for maintaining its leadership position as the industry consolidates, I doubt it would be allowed to swallow the whole thing. (Although the FCC has tried to impose a ceiling on what share of subscribers any one operator could own, those have been struck down and no absolute limit currently exists.) But the federal government has numerous levers it can use to try to stop a deal,including the fact that Comcast is still operating under Justice/FCC review following approval of its NBCU acquisition.

On the other hand, Comcast could try to buy TWC and sell off a considerable portion of
its subscribers, or submit a joint bid with another party.

The CNBC report says Comcast is not talking directly with TWC, but rather is seeking advice on the regulatory hurdles such a bid would face. CNBC also says TWC, which faces the possibility of a bid from Charter Cable with backing by John Malone, has made it clear
that Comcast would be a preferred bidder.

One should not discount the fact that Comcast has fostered close ties with the Obama administration.

See my post from July, Will Comcast respond to Malone's cable acquisition ambitions?


Update: Latest Bloomberg story suggests Comcast and Charter may be discussing a joint bid
for TWC.

Two Maps That Explain Why Comcast May Want To Buy Time Warner Cable
(BuzzFeed)

Time Warner stock pops on bidding war report (USA Today)

Wall Street would cheer Time Warner Cable sale but media watchdogs worry (LA Times: Company Town)

Comcast eyes Time Warner Cable and unprecented market power (Fortune Tech)

Comcast's Brian Roberts and Liberty's John Malone have history (LA Times: Company Town)

Links 10/22/2013: Comcast tests 1 Tbps link; SAP partners with SAS in analytics

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How virtual cable and CableWiFi may have killed the Verizon Wireless – Comcast joint innovation lab (FierceCable)

Comcast Testing Small Cells – Sources
(Light Reading)

Look it’s the next generation network! Comcast tests a 1 Tbps link
(Gigaom)


Liberty Media's John Malone addresses cable industry challenges (LA Times: Company Town)

Phillies new TV deal coming soon, according to report (NJ.com)

NBA Will Let Cable Subscribers Stream Local Games for Free (Mashable)


iPipeline Acquires Aplifi
Acquisition Creates the Insurance Industry’s Largest Life and Annuities Customer Base and Most Powerful Platform (Business Wire)

Philadelphia police chief warns of potential curse of technology (Reuters)

Unisys Announces Third-Quarter 2013 Financial Results (Unisys Press Release)



SAP, SAS forge analytics, HANA partnership (ZDNet)

SAP set to preach the HANA gospel to developers (Infoworld)

SAP bets on HTML5, open source for its mobile app platform (PC World)


SAP cuts back on development of Business ByDesign software unit (The Register)

NetSuite buys TribeHR, enters HR software market (ZDNet)


Online Retail Leader Rue La La Enlists Artisan for Mobile App Optimization (Business Wire)

Links 10/11/2013: Veeva Systems boosts offering range to $16-$18 per share; Broadcast nets petition Supreme Court to shutter Aereo

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Veeva Systems increases range to $16 to $18, proposed deal size is now $222 million (Renaissance Capital)
Deal expected to price next week. Based in California, Veeva has a significant presence in
the Philadelphia area.

John Malone Doesn’t See Cablevision as Cable-Merger Target (Bloomberg)

Cable Stocks Soar on Malone Talk (Multichannel News)

‘Malone’s Melodies’ and More From Liberty Media’s Presentation (Wall Street Journal: Corporate Intelligence)

Broadcasters could bring Aereo fight to Supreme Court: sources
(Reuters)

Update: CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox File Supreme Court Petition to Shut Down Aereo (Mashable)


Comcast Says X1 Box Distribution Limitations Are Temporary, Isolated (Multichannel News)



Google to sunset Google TV brand as its smart TV platform merges with Android (Gigaom)


Heartland Payment Systems and Tabbedout Serve Up Integrated Mobile Payment Solution to Drive Consumer Engagement (Business Wire)


Forrester's First Wave Report on B2B e-Commerce Vendors: IBM Is Tops (CMS Wire)

CIOs see Google as more innovative than current enterprise vendors (ZDNet)

Links 10/10/2013: Ailibaba leads reported $206 million financing in Kynetic's ShopRunner

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Alibaba leads $206M financing in Amazon rival ShopRunner (CNET News)
This explains alot.

QVC Group To Be Launched as New Tracking Stock of Liberty Interactive Corporation (PR Newswire)

Liberty Media Buys 5.2% Stake of Its Own Shares From Comcast
(Bloomberg)

Malone: No reason Xfinity or Hulu can't be syndicated (FierceCable)



Comcast, NBCU Connect With Twitter (Multichannel News)

Comcast: Twitter Just The Start For ‘See It’ Button (Multichannel News)



As deadline nears, many New Yorkers still can't get Verizon's fiber internet (The Verge)
Got an update on FiOS progress in Philly, Verizon?

U.S. cable companies home in on security (Reuters)

2 PHILLY INQUIRER OWNERS SUE COMPANY, PUBLISHER (AP)



BlackBerry Is Said to Warm to Idea of a Breakup (Bloomberg)
SAP's possible interests discussed.

How Jeff Bezos Crushed Diapers.com So Amazon Could Buy Diapers.com
(AllThingsD)

Makerspace 3rd Ward unexpectedly closes (Newsworks)

Is Crowdfunding Coming to New Jersey? (NJ.com)

Workday ‘Steals Show,’ At HR Tech Conference, Adoption Could ‘Skyrocket’: Piper Jaffray (Barron's:
Tech Trader Daily)




Two-tier ERP destined to become just one tier in time (ZDNet)

Links 9/25/2013: Ellison skips out on own keynote for America's Cup race, but in the end Team Oracle USA wins out

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City office that lobbies for jobs defends record (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Pennsylvania state Treasurer Rob McCord tweaks Gov. Tom Corbett in announcing run for governor (Allentown Morning Call)

Ascensus Enters into Agreement to Acquire 529 Plan Administration Business from Sallie Mae (Business Wire)
Ascensus is based in Dresher.



EBay Partners With Mercent to Improve Google Results (Wall Street Journal: Digits)

eBay Enterprise Unveils New Suite of Commerce Technologies to Enable Retailers and Brands to Win With Today's Omnichannel Consumer (Business Wire)
Formerly GSI Commerce, Ebay Enterprise laid out new strategy and tools at its annual Client Summit yesterday in New York.

QlikTech Unveils Roadmap to Next Generation Business Discovery Platform to Replace Traditional Business Intelligence (Business Wire)

Oracle OpenWorld attendees fume over Ellison keynote (PC World)
Perhaps justified by Team Oracle USA's remarkable comeback to win the America's Cup.


Oracle's cloud strategy: Does it trump Fusion? (ZDNet)


X1 Expands To 85% of Comcast's Footprint (Multichannel News)

John Malone Says Time Warner Cable Deal Still Makes Sense
(Bloomberg)

Can Intel Handle HBO, TBS? Time Warner’s Bewkes Has Doubts
(Variety)


Insurers Blame Tech for Clogging Health Exchange Implementation: PwC (Insurance & Technology)

T-Mobile CFO makes case for U.S. consolidation, Sprint deal (Reuters)

Reported Charter-Cox talks, Cablevision comments raise cable M&A speculation; Comcast's view

Tom Paine

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Talk of cable industry consolidation, spurred by John Malone's stated desire to roll up other operators with Charter Communications (in which his Liberty Media holds a 27% stake) to create a company with near Comcast-like scale, gained momentum today on two fronts.

One is a Bloomberg article that reports that Charter (#4 in subscribers) is in talks with #3 Cox Communications about a possible deal. Also, the Chairman of Cox Communications parent Cox Enterprises recently asked a court to dissolve a trust that controls 49% of the company, a step that may be a necessary precondition to a sale.
Update: An internal Cox Communications memo obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution(which is owned by Cox Enterprises) denied that any talks had taken place.

The other involves comments by #5 Cablevision CEO Jim Dolan, during that company's earnings conference call today, that appeared not to close the door completely on Cablevision being a seller.

I had wondered last month whether Comcast would (or could) take any steps to try to maintain the unique scale it currently has in the industry.

Comcast, which reported solid 2nd quarter results (better than most others in the industry) on Wednesday, with revenue growing 7% and operating cash flow growing 8.4%, had some questions come up during its conference call Q&A about whether it had an interest in buying other cable companies.


My interpretation is that Comcast's answer was not an absolute no. CEO Brian Roberts responded: "I think you can tell by the results we have just posted, we are really focused on executing our business plan and we really think there is a lot of organic growth opportunities in the business. That being said, we always want to look at everything, we want to be educated, we really want to spend time internationally."

The international reference seemed to be more about expanding content (NBCU related) opportunities than in buying cable systems overseas.

When asked if there was an absolute (legal) limit on how big Comcast could get in the US cable business, Roberts said "I don't think there really is. There's been a number of rulemakings that have been knocked down, but obviously that's a gray area."

CFO Michael Angelakis said Comcast did not want to leverage itself financially to extent that Malone said he might, and that Comcast is more comfortable with a leverage ratio of 1.5 to 2 times rather than the 4 times Malone says he might consider, which doesn't seem to leave much room for adding leverage at present. Angelakis said that as of the end of Q2 it was 2.3 times.


Cablevision shares were up 5.2% today and the company has a market value of $5.2 billion, though it also has almost $10 billion of long-term debt.

The transcript of Comcast's earnings conference call was provided by Seeking Alpha.

Daily Links 7/19/2013: Charter said to be working with Goldman on Time Warner Cable offer

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SAP vs. Oracle: Let's play dueling BS banjos (ZDNet)

SAP reveals road map details for its HANA in-memory platform (Computerworld)

Charter Said to Work With Goldman on Time Warner Cable Offer (Bloomberg)

Exclusive: John Malone bets on broadband in return to U.S. cable (Denver Post)


How Google or Apple Could Make Web TV a Reality: Spend Billions on the NFL (Peter Kafka/All Things D)

Cable's pay-TV share falls as satellite and telecom grow, FCC says (LA Times: Company Town)

VC investment continues to rebound in Q2 (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Microsoft Experiences Its Biggest Drop Of The Century As Shares Fall 12 Percent (TechCrunch)

ModCloth’s Vintage Threads Lift Sales Past $100 Million (Bloomberg)

Daily Links 7/15/2013: More pokes at Big Cable plans

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Big Cable’s Sauron-Like Plan for One Infrastructure to Rule Us All (SusanCrawford/Wired Opinion)
Don't agree with everything Crawford says (never do), but an interesting read.

Pay-TV consolidation won't necessarily be good for consumers (LA Times: Company Town)

Is This the Beginning of the End of Overpaying for Sports on TV?
(The Atlantic Wire)

6 reasons you can’t ignore the new SAP, and 1 huge caveat (Donnie Berkholz/RedMonk)


Oracle ups memory, storage of Exalytics analytics appliance
Version X3-4 doubles the RAM, adds flash and boosts disk capacity (Computerworld)

Oracle to halt development of Sun virtualization technologies (ZDNet)

Google wants to own enterprise, but it’ll do it Google style (PandoDaily)

NBCU's Fandango, Pacific Theatres in deal (LA Times: Company Town)

Daily Links 7/11/2013: Roberts, Cook reportedly talk about something at Sun Valley

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Cooking up a deal
Apple, Comcast CEOs talk turkey (New York Post)

Malone Urges Ergen to Merge Dish With DirecTV (Bloomberg TV Video)
Malone's got free advice for everybody.

Microsoft Revamping Structure and Management to Foster Collaboration (New York Times: Bits)

Carl Icahn Says He Will Add to His Bid on Dell Tomorrow (All Things D)

VC-Backed Veeva Quietly Files IPO, Credits Salesforce’s AppExchange (PE Hub)
Surprisingly little coverage of Veeva Systems' announcement in late June that it had filed for its IPO, although the S-1 is still under review by the SEC right now. I wrote about it on the day it was announced. Although based in California, Veeva has a significant presence in the Philly area, and this could be a fairly sizable offering, based on the multiples to revenue that similar SaaS/Cloud companies have received. The fact that Veeva has actually been profitable is another plus.



EMC to buy ScaleIO and boost its flash savvy (Gigaom)

Workday parades new customers from push into Europe (ZDNet)

New Hostess IT Centralizes Twinkie Control and Oversight
(Wall Street Journal: CIO Report)
Upgrades SAP system.

Jeff Gelles: Phila. start-up scores with a photo tech turn (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Curalate opens new offices.


College IPTV Service Makes Grade (Light Reading)
Raises $6.3 million from investors including Home Box Office (HBO) and Larry Cuban.




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Daily Links 7/10/2013: Coursera raises another $43 million; Sun Valley conference prelude to cable deals?

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Arena now the SAP Center — and a few words from owner Hasso Plattner after today’s official name change (San Jose Mercury News)

Coursera, an Online Education Company, Raises Another $43 Million (New York Times: Bits)
UPenn had invested in a previous round and is an active participant.

Malone, Cable Deals in Spotlight at Sun Valley Conference (Reuters via CNBC)

Microsoft switches up CRM Online licensing model, aims at Salesforce.com (PC World)

iControl Sues Alarm.com
Comcast, Cox, TW Cable and Rogers are Among iControl’s Top MSO Clients (Multichannel News)

The SoftBank deal is done: Sprint, Clearwire officially turn Japanese (Gigaom)


Andesa Services Positioned in the Challengers Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for North American Life Insurance Policy Administration Systems
Evaluation Based on Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute (Business Wire)




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Will Comcast respond to Malone's cable acquisition ambitions?

Tom Paine

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John Malone's quest to roll up some smaller cable operators, using the 27% stake owned by his Liberty Media in Charter Communications as a starting point, to create a company that might be almost comparable to Comcast in scale is creating a buzz in the industry. Comcast, which is in the unique and enviable position of being almost twice as large as any other cable operator, presumably has advantages from that in terms of economies of scale, buying power over programmers, and the ability to lead in technology investments that it would like to maintain. So whether it would welcome Malone, with whom it has long done business but has at times been the target of his criticism, in his efforts to create a Comcast lookalike is uncertain. Through Liberty Global, Malone has already built a cable operator in Europe that's larger than Comcast in terms of subscribers.



US Multi-channel Video Provider Subscribers at End of Q1 2013


Cable Companies

Comcast 21,935,000

Time Warner 12,100,000

Charter 4,124,000

Cablevision 3,191,000

Suddenlink 1,211,900

Mediacom 999,000

Cable ONE 588,180

Other Major Private Cable Companies* 6,895,000
Total Top Cable 51,044,080


Satellite TV Companies (DBS)

DirecTV 20,105,000

Dish Network 14,092,000

Total Top DBS 34,197,000


Telephone Companies

Verizon FiOS 4,895,000

AT&T U-verse 4,768,000

Total Top Phone 9,663,000

Total Multi-channel Video 94,904,080


(Top multi-channel video providers represent approximately 94% of all subscribers)

Source: Leichtman Research Group, Inc.


On the other hand, Comcast needs to be careful not to appear to be getting in Malone's way because it would be certain to raise red flags with industry watchdogs and agencies like the FCC and DOJ. The FCC tried a few years ago to impose a cap limiting any one company to 30% of the total US pay TV market (including satellite and phone company services) only to see that struck down in the courts. Comcast's overall share of total pay TV subscribers has actually declined in recent years, as satellite and telco providers have continued to grow while Comcast and other cable operators have been essentially flat in terms of video subscribers; it is now about 22%. While no absolute legal limit exist on Comcast, realistically it would face strict regulatory scrutiny, as well as its own financial constraints. It is still on a short rope with the Feds due to the conditions attached to the NBCU deal, although those conditions did not (to the best of my knowledge) include explicit limits on buying other cable properties. Also, it has been generally assumed that Comcast doesn't feel it needs to significantly expand its market share (through acquisition) to achieve its strategic aims, although it has always wanted to maintain the flexibility to do so. The NBCU acquisition was in part an effort on Comcast's part to diversify its assets away from a heavy dependence on distribution and its cable infrastructure.

So if Comcast were going to acquire, who would it target? There is no way it would be allowed to swallow #2 Time Warner Cable, even if it somehow could. All or part of Long Island-based Cablevision certainly could be a possibility, and there have been reports that the Dolan family that controls it might have some interest in a sale. It is presumed by industry insiders that Cablevision's more natural partner would be Time Warner Cable, since they both have New York City area bases. But geographically, Cablevision might be attractive to Comcast as well, with its service areas in New Jersey and Connecticut potentially being good fits. Cablevision, which has climbed in recent days because of the takeover speculation, has a market value of about $5 billion, although its also carrying about $10 billion in debt.

There are certainly other scenarios that could occur involving horse trading among the major cable operators, and all of this is simply hypothetical at this point. But with Malone sounding poised, according to recent reports, to move sooner rather than later, it will be interesting to see if Comcast gets into the fray or remains on the sidelines.



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Daily Links 6/27/2013: Reports suggest Malone may try to make move for Time Warner Cable sooner rather than later

Why First Round Capital invested in a satellite company (Rob Hayes/First Round Capital Blog)

Inside John Malone's Strategy to Corner Broadband (Analysis) (Hollywood Reporter)

Malone Said to Explore Scenarios for Time Warner Cable Deal (Bloomberg)

Dish Gives Up on Clearwire (Multichannel News)

A week of Oracle announcements (so far) and what
it means to software buyers (Brian Sommer/Enterprise Irregulars)

Oracle, Salesforce.com CEOs team up to discuss new cloud deal
(ZDNet)

Looking for a job? Safeguard Scientifics is hiring after reorganization leads to Executive VP exit (Med City News)

What do you after making it big in online advertising? Try to cure cancer, of course (Gigaom)
On Invite Media co-founders Zach Weinberg and Nat Turner and their new startup Flatiron
Health.

Oracle, SAP To Benefit From Analytics Software Growth (Investor's Business Daily)

Cloud upstart Host Analytics is a ‘cloud piranha’ taking big bites out of Oracle’s enterprise sales (VentureBeat)

Daily Links 6/24/2013: Oracle, Microsoft meet in the cloud

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Suite revenge
Rutledge a ‘Charter’ member of move to merge (Claire Atkinson/New York Post)

Vodafone in $10.1 Billion Deal for German Cable Giant Kabel Deutschland (Hollywood Reporter)

Oracle databases head to Microsoft's Hyper-V, Azure (ZDNet)

Microsoft Joins Oracle in Cloud-Computing, Rivalry Thaws (Bloomberg)


Solve Media Launches Effective Mobile Advertising Platform That Delivers Measurable Results Across All Screens (Business Wire)
Could be significant expansion of product line; Solve also entering EMEA market.

Greenphire and Oracle Work Together to Automate Clinical Trial Planning, Budgeting and Payments (Applied Clinical Trials)

New Cloud-Based Investigator Portal from Veeva Systems Speeds Clinical Study Start-Up
Single source for sponsor, CRO and investigator collaboration (PR Newswire)



Fab.com’s Ascent to $1 Billion Valuation Brings Missteps (Bloomberg)

Zeebox Gets Personal with Digitalsmiths
Digitlasmiths Brings Video Discovery to the Zeebox TV Companion App (Multichannel
News)

US tech firms look abroad for engineers (BBC News)

AgileSwitch helps lead digital energy revolution (Philadelphia Daily News)

Clear Align Acquires irZoom, Computer Optics, and Hudson Machining (PR Newswire)



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Daily Links 6/20/2013: NY Times compares RJMetrics' funding strategy to GoodData's

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Self-Finance or Raise Money? A Quandary for Start-Ups (New York Times)
Comparing Philly startup RJMetrics' approach to GoodData's.

How John Malone Could Start a War Between Broadband and Web Content (Wall Street Journal: Corporate Intelligence)

Amazon’s Invasion of the CIA Is a Seismic Shift in Cloud Computing (Wired)

Microsoft sees itself as one of the public-cloud horsemen, but time will tell (Gigaom)

Oracle Shares Fall On Weaker Than Expected Q4 Sales (All Things D)

Integration between SAP Data Services, Business Warehouse on the rise (SearchSAP)


Philly Fed Notes Rebound in Manufacturing (Wall Street Journal:
Real Time Economics)

Reed Technology Announces Launch of USPTO Public Data Dissemination Site, Expansion of Reed Tech Patent Advisor Service (Business Wire)
Reed Technology is based in Horsham.





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Daily Links 6/18/2013: Inky on Loren Brichter; Neat updates mobile app

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He's the 'high priest' of app design (Philadelphia Inquirer)
On Philly resident Loren Brichter.

Neat Announces Comprehensive Mobile App Update for its Cloud-Based Digital Filing System
Neat's mobile app creates expense reports and offers other time saving features (PR Newswire)

Liberty Global Offers $10B For Kabel Deutschland (Multichannel News)

Set-top box is not dead, says Arris (Digital TV Europe)

Oracle's Q4 results: What to expect (Computerworld)

SAP users slack, slow and backward on security
Some systems unpatched since 2005, says researcher (The Register)

How SAP hopes to win from the Internet of Things (CiteWorld)


Yahoo Offer to Buy Contact Startup Xobni Is at a Price of $30M to $40M (All Things D)
First Round Capital is an investor in Xobni; Yahoo's purchase price may be less than capital invested in it.

Gartner Predicts CRM Will Be A $36B Market By 2017 (Enterprise Irregulars)
Huge revision from prior estimate.

Salesforce, Others in Race to Create One-Stop Shop for Marketing Data (Ad Age)

Dish abandons Sprint bid for now to focus on Clearwire (Reuters via Yahoo Finance)




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