3/15: Larry Ellison talks smack about AWS again; A look at FDA nominee Gottlieb

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FinancialForce Hires Oracle, NetSuite, Veteran as Marketing Chief (Fortune)

Oracle earnings: more licensing declines expected as cloud transition continues (Marketwatch)

Oracle shares pop after earnings beat (CNBC)

Larry Ellison talks smack about AWS again, claims Oracle cloud is faster and cheaper (VentureBeat)

Ellison: "Both our SaaS and PaaS businesses are doing great, but I’m even more excited about our second generation IaaS business. Our new Gen2 IaaS is both faster and lower cost than Amazon Web Services. And now our biggest customers can run their largest and most demanding Oracle database workloads in the Oracle Cloud — something that is absolutely impossible to do in the Amazon Cloud."

Its no wonder Ellison owns an NBA team; he can trashtalk with the best of them.

Mulesoft's upsized IPO likely to be better for tech IPOs than Snapchat's success (Silicon Valley Business Journal)


SAP is now hosting VMs in its cloud. Just don't call it HANA (The Register)

The return of Parker Conrad (Dan Primack / Axios)

San Francisco reveals latest #Resist effort – resisting sub-gigabit internet access (The Register)

A statistical guide to Scott Gottlieb, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the FDA (Med City News)


How 'populism' in Europe pushed France's Suez to pay $3.4 billion for Philly's GE Water (Philly.com)

PayPal's Venmo Beats Back Facebook; Next Up: Google (IBD)

Mobile payment app Nooch, incubated at Drexel, launched; Available from App Store

Tom Paine

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Nooch, a Venmo-like social mobile payment app, is now available for free in the App Store.

Nooch was incubated at Drexel's Baiada Institute. It won first place in the Baiada Institute's 2012 Incubator Competition. Nooch’s founders are group of Duke and Drexel alums & students led by Cliff Canan, a Duke grad.

Canan told me by email: "We completed a pilot last year and launched our app publicly last month (for iPhones, Android next year in the spring). So we're just beginning our marketing efforts, and focusing on the Philly region and college students in particular."

You need a reference code to sign up. Use "PAYME", or "PTNEWS".

Cash Is for Losers! (Bloomberg Business Week)
Detailed article on Philly-born Venmo, including its early days, how its acquisition by Braintree (in turn acquired by PayPal) was almost out of desperation, the fact that despite the enormous volume of mobile payments it processes it generates minimal revenue, and how its co-founders' current roles at Venmo appear unclear.

The planned spinoff of PayPal by EBay will likely increase the attention Venmo receives.

Links 8/18/2014: TWC/Bright House relationship complicates Comcast bid; AppNexus (#FRC portfolio) raises $60mm, valued at $1.2 billion

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Bright House costs could go up in midst of big cable merger (Tampa Bay Business Journal)

HANA has SAP cuddling up to 'smaller partners' (The Register)

Millennials Say ‘Venmo Me’ to Fuel Mobile-Payment Surge: Tech
(Bloomberg)

Aereo’s on the ropes, and now broadcasters are trying for a knockout punch (Washington Post)

AppNexus Raises Another $60 Million (WSJ: CMO Report)
First Round Capital was early investor; Round values company at $1.2 billion.

From the field to the cloud, SAP champions big data as new MVP in sports (ZDNet)

Data visualisation is a Qlik away: CEO Lars Björk sets his sight on Tableau (Information Age)

Azure services down again (PC World)


Delaware becomes first state to give heirs broad digital assets access (Ars Technica)

Did Venmo founders get payout they deserve?

Tom Paine

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The announcement yesterday that EBay's PayPal was acquiring payment processing platform Braintree for $800 million in cash, combined with the fact that so much attention was being lavished on Braintree's Venmo mobile payment unit (as I discussed yesterday and PayPal President David Marcus also emphasized to TechCrunch) left me pondering why Venmo only sold for $26.2 million when Braintree acquired it just 15 months ago (the deal was done by June 2012 though it didn't become public knowledge until August) if it was such a valuable part of an $800 million deal now. And did the co-founders, Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail, who started Venmo as undergrads at Penn, get a good deal from Braintree?

Of course, valuations are always a bit tricky when the same party is on both sides. Accel Partners had led Venmo's largest round, and was also a lead investor in Braintree. I'm just mentioning that fact, not inferring in any way that Accel did not take proper steps too see that the interests of both companies were fully represented in the transaction.

But I do hope Kortina and Magdon-Ismail had some kind of earnout provision or equity kicker from Braintree that will give them the type of return they deserve for their efforts.

Philadelphia-born Venmo considered prize in Ebay's Braintree acquisition

Tom Paine

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Ebay announced today it was acquiring Chicago-based Braintree, a web and mobile payments processor, for $800 million in cash. It will become part of Ebay's PayPal unit.

Speculation about Braintree being a target has been heavy for a least a month. Much of the talk has focused on Venmo, the Philadelphia-born mobile payments startup that later moved to New York. Braintree's growth in mobile payments has been said to have been phenomenal paricularly since it acquired Venmo last year for $26.2 million; mobile payments now account for about one-third of Braintree's total payments processing of about $12 billion annually, PandoDaily reported recently. Venmo provides an easy to use tool to send payments via mobile; many are excited about the potential of its new Venmo Touch app.


Venmo's co-founders, Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail, both attended Penn, where the two were originally randomly paired as freshman roommates. Venmo was founded in 2009; it received a round of funding led by Accel Partners in 2011 and relocated to New York.

See also PayPal’s David Marcus: Braintree Keeps Its Brand And Ops Intact; Venmo Will Be Used For Big P2P Push from TechCrunch.


Also this week, King of Prussia-based Ebay Enterprise (formerly GSI Commerce) made several
significant announcements at its Client Summit in New York.

Daily Links 8/16/2012: Verizon-Cable Agreement Wins DOJ Approval Today (With Some Restrictions)

Verizon, Comcast Airwaves Accord Wins Antitrust Approval (Bloomberg)

Comcast Statement Regarding U.S. Department of Justice Verizon Wireless-SpectrumCo Commercial Agreements Consent Decree (Comcast Voices/Official Comcast Blog)

Critics Slam SpectrumCo Approval
Say Conditions Not Enough to Protect Consumers (Multichannel News)


NBCUniversal can count its sprawling, multi-platform Olympics coverage as a win (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Is Apple's iTV television plan in trouble? (Computerworld Blogs)

Philly Fed factory activity shrinks for fourth month in August (Reuters)
But slightly improved from last month.
Philly Fed Press Release

Braintree expands mobile payment ambitions; acquires Venmo (Gigaom)
Venmo started in Philly, received backing from Accel Ventures, and moved to New York last year. Braintree is paying $26.2 million for it. Accel is also an investor in Braintree.

IMS Health Acquires Philly-based TTC, Strengthening Pharma R&D Services Capabilities
Delivers Industry-Leading Clinical Trial Cost Benchmarking Solutions (Business Wire)
This is the second deal IMS Health has announced this week, the first being UK-based PharmaVentures Ltd, which maintains a database of Pharma industry transactions. While IMS Health's global headquarters are in Parsippany NJ, its US unit is based in Collegeville.

A New Day at Quewey (Quewey Blog)
Philly-based Q&A site pivots.

Peco suspends smart-meter installations after Bucks fire (Philadelphia Inquirer)



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Philly Tech News VentureWatch 6/29/2012

Tom Paine

ISGN, the heavily funded and expanding mortgage technology company that had been based in Bensalem, apparently picked up and moved its headquarters early this year to Melbourne, Florida. I can find no trace of the company in Pennsylvania now (other than a location in Pittsburgh), and received no response to an email to the Florida headquarters. My guess is that the headcount in Bensalem wasn't that large, since many of its operations were acquired and located in various parts of the country, as well as in India. ISGN's most recent announced equity raise was a $30 million round announced last August. Another promising startup that departed the Philly scene (actually last year-I'm late in catching up on that one) is Venmo, the company that created the peer-to-peer mobile payments app of the same name that launched this Spring and is backed by Accel Ventures. Its headquarters is now in New York.

To replace these two on Philly Tech News' "Young Companies to Watch" list, I've added two other promising companies: Unirisx, the Philadelphia-based SaaS property & casualty-oriented insurance platform headed by former Harleysville Group CIO Akhil Tripathi, and CloudMine, the Philly-based "backend as a service" provider for mobile and web apps, which though still early stage appears to have generated considerable traction.

A couple of items relating to Radnor-based NewSpring Capital: the Boston Business Journal reported earlier this month that Bedford, MA-based FirstBest Systems, in which NewSpring is an investor, is "well into the double digit millions" for revenue, according to its CEO, and looking toward an eventual public offering. It aims to serve as the "Bloomberg for insurance". Also, LLR Partners' recent investment in Columbia, MD-based Message Systems returned an unspecified amout of liquidity in a partial exit for NewSpring, which had invested in 2010. LLR paid double the price NewSpring paid in 2010 on a per-share basis, reported the Inquirer's Joe DiStefano, citing sources.

Princeton-based DoughMain, a startup that helps families and children learn how to better manage money, has received an investment of unspecified size from a private equity fund managed by former auto executive Lee Iacocca’s family. DoughMain recently acquired Allowance-Plus, a similar company founded by Iacocca son-in-law Ned Hentz, who will serve as Chief Creative Officer and have a board seat.

Continue Reading

Daily Links 3/20/2012: Philly's Venmo in public launch

After 2 Years of Testing, Venmo Opens Payment Service to Public (New York Times: Bits)
Venmo is based in Philly; investors include Accel Partners (though Times reporter apparently couldn't find that out).

Oracle Reports Q3 GAAP EPS Up 20% to 49 Cents; Q3 Non-GAAP EPS Up 15% to 62 Cents (Marketwire)
Meets revenue guidance, exceeds soft EPS guidance. Hardware revenue continues sharp decline.

Oracle Exceeds Estimates on Corporate Demand
(Bloomberg)

QVC Announces China Joint Venture (PR Newswire)

Google Says Motorola Buyout Boosts Choice as China Extends Probe (Bloomberg)

Motorola Hops Into CDN Market With EdgeCast
Vendor Targets Cable Operators Worldwide With Content Delivery Network Offering (Multichannel News)

Comcast Presents Consumer Benefits of Spectrum Assignment to Senate (Comcast Voices/Official Comcast Blog)


Amazon Acquires Kiva Systems in Second-Biggest Takeover (Bloomberg)
The key purpose of Amazon's acquisition of Quidsi in 2010 was probably to learn from what Quidsi was doing to automate the warehouse. Getting the warehouse inventory picking process under control is critical to Amazon's mass distribution strategy. Quidsi was deploying Kiva's products.
Meanwhile, Amazon and New Jersey are reported to be close to a deal that would give Amazon a sales tax exemption in the state in return for building warehouses that would provide up to 1500 jobs.

Edmund Optics “Goes Live” With SAP® Business All-in-One and Other Solutions From SAP, Deployed by Answerthink (Business Wire)
Edmund Optics is based in Barrington, NJ.

Leading Professional Services Company Launches New ARAMARK Healthcare Technologies Brand (PR Newswire)

Thomson Reuters Healthcare Unit, We’ve Been Here Before
(Wall Street Journal: Deal Journal)



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Daily Links 11/9/2011: Comcast begins rollout of IPv6 network

SAP Pumps up Its In-memory, Mobile and Cloud Strategies (PC World)

Universal Display posts Q3 profit, shares rise (Reuters)

Comcast begins rollout of IPv6 production network (Network World)
Comcast Blog Post.

Comcast and the Multiscreen Play (Pipeline Magazine)

Lazarus: NBC Sports Network Changes Will Be 'Done Well, Not Fast'
NBC Sports Group Chairman Says Network Will Look To Build Trust With Viewers, Advertisers, Distributors (Multichannel News)

The children are our future, and they’re not paying for TV (Gigaom)

Senate Debates Net Neutrality Regs
Sens. Hutchison and Rockefeller square off on joint resolution to nullify rules (Broadcasting & Cable)

U.S. web sales grow 16% for QVC in Q3 (Internet Retailer)

Fan (Richmond) tech firm expands in NoVa, Philly (Richmond BizSense)

Unisys Strengthens Enterprise-Class Cloud Offerings with New Version of Secure Private Cloud Solution (PR Newswire)

SunGard Availability Services Announces Managed Recovery Program to Deliver Expert Management of Recovery Lifecycle (PR Newswire)

A more grown-up CRM for BusinessOne users (SAP Watch)

The Lawmakers Sponsoring a Very Facebook-Friendly Bill (The Atlantic Wire)
Toomey, Carper cite Wawa, W. L. Gore as possible beneficiaries.

Hey, Siri, send Jenn $5 (VentureBeat)
Venmo's app for Siri.

BioClinica Announces Third Quarter 2011 Financial Results (Business Wire)



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Daily Links 2/17/2011: Philly Fed’s factory index hits seven-year high

Venmo Refreshes iPhone & Android Apps With Social & Location Features (Mashable)

Internet service map data show no broadband access for up to 10% in U.S. (Washington Post: Post Tech)

SAP Hopes to Boost StreamWork Sales With OpenSocial (PC World)

SunGard Announces Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2010 Results (Business Wire)

Philly Fed’s factory index hits seven-year high
Gauge of current activity at 35.9 for February, eclipsing 20.8 forecast (MarketWatch)
Philly Fed Firms Report Increased Business Activity (Business Wire)

NBC weighs value of broadcasting future Olympics (LA Times)

FCC defends net neutrality to lawmakers, says Level 3-Comcast not covered by rules (Washington Post: Post Tech)

CLWR Up 5%: Sees Profit In 2012; Spectrum Decision In Q2 (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

CardioNet, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2010 Financial Results (Business Wire)

O'Malley's venture fund draws tough questions
Lawmakers concerned Maryland would lose money (Baltimore Sun)



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Daily Links 9/28/2010: Venmo introduces Gifi

The Wall Street Journal today has a story on the difficulties SAP has faced in getting Business byDesign off the ground (subscription required).
Also, the SAP acquisition rumor de jour centers on British-based Sage Group, which provides Financial and CRM software to the SME market.
MARKET REPORT: Sage chief looks to a future fight
(Mail Online)


Gifi lets you hide money for your friends to encourage Foursquare check-ins (VentureBeat)
Venmo's new app introduced at TechCrunch Disrupt.

TechCrunch Scooped Up By AOL
(Wired Blogs: Epicenter)

NBC Universal-Comcast prep Olympic bid (Hollywood Reporter via Reuters)

FCC denies delays in Comcast-NBC Uni review
Tells THR: 'We have not announced a timetable' (Hollywood Reporter)

Comcast Shakes Up Speed Tiers
16 Mbps users get 20 Mbps upgrade, 22 Mbps tier goes away (Broadband Reports)

Canoe's Verklin: National ITV Ads Are Here Now
MSO Ad Venture Targeting 25 Million Households By End Of 2010 (Multichannel News)

HDNET Coming To New Comcast Markets This Week? (Zatz Not Funny!)

The Long Goodbye: Xmarks Tried to Sell Twice, Before Closing Down With Class (All Things Digital: BoomTown)
Xmarks had been backed by Mitch Kapor; First Round Capital was also an early seed investor.

Evidently IBM bought Cast Iron Systems for $190 million (DBMS2)
I wonder what this implies for the valuation of Cast Iron competitor Boomi of Berwyn.

SDI plans on high job growth over time (Philadelphia Business Journal)


Connectify Releases Version 2.1 - Extends Wi-Fi Sharing to Major Gaming Systems (PR Newswire)




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Daily Links 8/11/2010: DreamIt Ventures Graduates 14 Startups

Philly-Based Incubator DreamIt Ventures Graduates 14 Startups (TechCrunch)

SMB Innovator: Brown Coffee Company Let's You Pay Via Text Message (PC Magazine)
Using Venmo.

Boomi Extends Lead in Enterprise Cloud Integration With Key Wins, Record Growth and Continued Innovation
Company Notes Accelerated Adoption of Cloud Integration by Large Enterprises (Marketwire)
Reports "more than tripling its subscription revenues (in the first six months of 2010) versus the same period in 2009"

Facebook's Foursquare competitor is imminent (CNET News)
Facebook also reportedly acquires First Round Capital-backed Hot Potato, primarily for founder's abilities, CNET reports.

Comcast spending multimillions to fight for NBCU merger (Philadelphia Inquirer)


AT&T: Verizon's FiOS Slowdown Justifies Our U-Verse Plan
'Investment strategy and the network strategy was the right one.' (Broadband Reports)

Broadband Additions Hit a New Low in the U.S (GigaOM)

Mistras Group, Inc. Announces FY2010 Results: Demonstrates Continued Growth in Revenue and Profitability - Provides FY2011 Guidance
FY2010 Revenue Grows 30% and Adjusted EBITDA* Increases 25% (Globe Newswire)

MedQuist Reports Second Quarter 2010 Results with Revenue Up 26% Primarily Due to Spheris Asset Acquisition in April 2010 (PR Newswire)

IBM Datacap buy is a health care play (ZDNet Blogs)




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Daily Links 7/19/2010: Verizon preparing for LTE rollout

As Niche Gets Crowded, Studio Watches Its Back (New York Times)
Comcast rumored as possible suitor for DreamWorks.

Verizon's LTE rollout is imminent, computers updated for 4G SIM cards (Engadget)

NSN to Buy Moto's Wireless Biz for $1.2B (Light Reading Mobile)

Worst VC investment year since ’96 (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Google's growth in city puts Pittsburgh in top tier of regional sites (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail, Founders of Venmo (Inc.: 30 Under 30)

Swift to acquire SunGard's Ambit Messaging Hub (Finextra)

SAP Walks Tightrope Selling Business ByDesign (CIO.com)

SAP extends offer period for Sybase buy to July 26 (Reuters)

Down To Business: Oracle Suit Casts Shadow On Rimini Gains
Alternative provider of software support services gaining enterprise customers, despite Oracle suit's chilling effect. (Information Week)

Epocrates plans $75 million IPO, again (Mobile Health News)




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Daily Links 3/22/2010: Journal Register CEO John Paton: We're Hiring

Journal Register CEO John Paton: We're Hiring (Editor & Publisher)

Philly Newspaper Creditors Can't Bid With Credit (Associated Press
via New York Times)

Peter Bohlin designs first Apple store in Philadelphia (ZDNet Blogs: The Apple Core)

The rise of the app entrepreneur (BBC News)

SunGard Availability Services Expands Enterprise-Grade Cloud Computing Solutions (PR Newswire)

Forrester: Uncertain Future for SAP's NetWeaver (PC World)

Could a stronger partnership with Microsoft be in SAP’s future? (SAP Watch)


Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley to Share Success Story with Science Center Entrepreneurs (Business Wire)

Unisys Expands Support for Modernized Applications and Mobile Devices on ClearPath Mainframes (PR Newswire)

Clone Systems, Inc. Debuts Cloud-Based Virtual Data Center Solutions (PR Web)

Getting a look at next high-tech (Philadelphia Inquirer)
A look at SXSW, including a Philadelphia startup that was there.

Verizon Wireless Enters Online Payment Space
(GigaOM)

MOBILITY IN HEALTHCARE – EVENT RECAP (Mobile Monday
Mid-Atlantic)

3-D glasses to be made in Shamokin Global demand will produce 100 jobs (Shamokin News-Item via Boston Herald)






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Daily Links 3/2/2010: Venmo gets funded

Rovi Pulls Out Of GuideWorks Venture With Comcast
Vendor Also Expands Deal With MSO for Metadata and Patents Across Mobile, Online (Multichannel News)

SAP co-CEOs hope for love on promises of continuity
* Co-CEOs reiterate targets, strategy (Reuters)

SAP, Sybase Release Joint Mobile Apps
Sales and workflow apps developed on the Sybase mobile platform extend SAP CRM and Business Suite to iPhone and Windows devices. (Information Week)

Venmo Wants You To Pay Your Pal, Over the Phone. What Will the Carriers Think? (All Things Digital: Media Memo)

E-mail Marketer ExactTarget Buys Twitter Enterprise Client CoTweet (paidContent)
CoTweet originally started out of Central Pennsylvania and was backed by First Round Capital, among others.
CoTweet, Internet start-up from central Pennsylvania, bought by ExactTarget (Harrisburg Patriot-News)

Ben Franklin group to invest in 5 Phila.-area companies (Philadelphia Business Journal)

USDA International Technology Services Awards Emtec Federal a Contract with Ceiling Value of $82.5 Million (Business Wire)

Registration Now Open for 'Be Together: The Be Communities LIVE Conference,' Being Held May 17-20, 2010, in Philadelphia (PR Newswire)

HIMSS: Meaningful Use Goes Over The Top (Information
Week: Heathcare Blogs)

Siemens' Dillione is HIMSS' smartest executive
(ZDNet Healthcare)

Pew Study: Philadelphia’s 311 System Shows Progress; Philly311 Made Contacting City Hall Easier but Challenges Remain in Handling Service Requests (PR Web)

Sungard earnings weeks behind past schedule (Philly.com: Philly Deals)
SunGard has since announced its earnings will
be released on March 15.





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Daily Links 2/17/2010: GigaOM on Philly mobile startup Venmo

Nutter to test two new business-tax policies (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Changes could aid research & development, video game developers and "computer systems design" firms

SAP's 'Timeless' Future (Forbes)

SAP and Open Text Expand Global Reseller Agreement to Include Digital Asset Management (PR Newswire)

CardioNet, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter, Full Year 2009 Financial Results and 2010 Outlook (Business Wire)

A forgotten giant, remembered
Scientist Nikola Tesla's time has returned. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Venmo’s Simple, Loaded Premise: Pay Your Friends From Your Phone (GigaOM)

Upcoming: Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference 2010 (The Green Skeptic)

HBO Go launches for Verizon FiOS customers, streams HBO content over the web (VentureBeat: DigitalBeat)

Comcast Spotlight, Starcom Report Ad Trial Results (Cable360)

FiOS TV Launches Ad Zones In NY, Rhode Island
Verizon Delivering Geotargeted Ads Using Invidi Technologies' System (Multichannel News)

Vanguard leader to build on predecessors' work (Daily Local News)

Portico Systems and SDI Announce Partnership Using Actionable Business Intelligence for Targeted Provider Recruitment, Provider Performance Management, and Member Decision Support (Business Wire)

IntegriChain Launches DNA: Dynamic NextGen Analytics(TM) Platform (PR Newswire)

Metro Philadelphia Newspaper and Calkins Media Incorporated Form Strategic Classified Advertising Alliance (Business Wire)




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