Links 7/10/2014: Arris (& its former Motorola Home unit) have big role to play in changing TV tech

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Arris Group Plays Big Role In TV's Next Revolution (Investor's Business Daily)

Complaints About Comcast-Time Warner Cable Deal Now Being Accepted
(Re/code)

As Moguls Descend on Sun Valley, Let the Deal-Making Commence (Wall Street Journal: Blogs)

Verizon Wireless adds more than 1.4 million contract customers (CNET)

It's a barnyard brawl between Comcast and RFD-TV (Philadelphia Inquirer)


Multiplatform TV: Comcast/TWC ‘Tipping Point’ For Advanced Ads (Broadcasting & Cable)


Kent Goldman’s New Seed-Stage Fund Is A Partnership Where Founders Share In The Upside
(TechCrunch)
Kent Goldman left First Round Capital as a Partner earlier this year.

Syapse Raises $10 Million Series B Financing Led by Safeguard Scientifics (Globe Newswire)

Gas attack: U of Delaware kills $1 billion data center/power plant (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Giant Creative/Strategy Opens Philadelphia Office
(Business Wire)


Amazon Goes After Box, Dropbox And Huddle, Launches Zocalo For Secure Enterprise Storage (TechCrunch)

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)

Valuations: How much is Verizon's landline business worth?

Tom Paine

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The value the market places on Verizon's ( (NYSE: VZ) non-wireless business (essentially, what is considered the landline business) has been difficult to determine. But perhaps its recent agreement to buy out Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless provides some clues. Then again, perhaps not.

The Vodafone deal values Verizon Wireless at about $290 billion. By that measure, Verizon's 55% stake would then presumably be valued at $159.5 billion.

The market cap for Verizon (which includes its Verizon Wireless stake) is about $134 billion. Acording to Capital IQ, Verizon's enterprise value, a measure that typically equates to market cap plus debt, minority interest and preferred shares, minus total cash and cash equivalents, is $184.1 billion.

Verizon's non-wireless assets include its advanced fiber FiOS footprint, its legacy copper telephone footprint, and a strong enterprise business, which includes its Terramark enterprise cloud business acquired in 2011.

At times, there has been speculation that the landline business could be spun off. Another, perhaps more likely, alternative would be an increased use of the wireless network to supplement, and in some cases replace the copper network using 4G LTE. The single ownership of the two businesses should make a more integrated approach to managing them possible. Broadband Reports' Karl Bode does suggest that Verizon may consider selling (or dumping) some non-core area, copper-based networks, as it did previously to Frontier and Fairpoint.

There has been considerable debate as to whether Verizon's FiOS investment, which has been somewhere in the $20 billion range, has paid off.

Links 8/16/2013: More questions about IBM cloud numbers; SAP billboard near Oracle HQ touts HANA

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Comcast, TWC Shoot for Video Unity (Multichannel News)

Judge Approves Verizon Deal Averting Monopoly (Courthouse News Service)

What is Verizon Wireless cooking up with its cable partners?
(FierceWireless)
Verizon Wireless exec suggested first product offering from JV might hit market in Q4.


Charter, Comcast SportsNet Northwest reach agreement to broadcast Trail Blazers games (Oregon Live)

NBCU's Steve Burke Gets Pay Raise in New Deal (Hollywood Reporter)

Sony Said to Win Rights to Viacom for TV Streaming Service (Bloomberg)

IBM's Cloud Business: Ex-Employee Divulges Shortfalls (Information Week)

Database Billboards: Times and Cars and Oracle Competitors Gone By (Dennis Moore/Enterprise Irregulars)

SAP’s UI makeover: Taking a measured approach to 300,000 screens
(Brian Sommer/ZDNet)


Peco to fast-track installing 'smart' meters (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Professors Jeffrey Popyack and William Mongan Receive IBM Award for Big Data and Analytics Project (Drexel University Computer Science)

Philly Newsrooms Innovating with Project Liberty Digital Incubators (MediaBistro)

Verizon Cloud for smartphones & tablets, introduced in April, now available for iOS

Tom Paine

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In late April, Verizon Wireless introduced Verizon Cloud for smartphones and tablets, a cloud storage service available only to Verizon Wireless customers. Originally it ran on only certain Android models, but Verizon Wireless announced in late May that it is now available for iOS devices and additional Android devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the DROID DNA by HTC. Verizon Cloud allows for up to 125 GB of storage, although only the first 500 MB are free. Beyond that, pricing ranges from $2.99 a month for a 25GB plan to $9.99 for 125GB. That's competitive with DropBox's 100GB plan, but is roughly double the price of 100GB offerings from Google Drive and Microsoft’s SkyDrive.

Verizon Wireless emphasizes Verizon Cloud's ability to store phone-centric files (for example, saving copies of contact lists, text messages and call logs, although these features reportedly don't work on the iOS version), and to transfer some content between Android and iOS devices. It also stresses its potential value to multiple users sharing a data plan across several devices.

Verizon Cloud appears to supplant an existing, more limited Verizon Wireless utility called Backup Assistant, although current Backup Assistant users are switched over to Verizon Cloud.

Verizon Cloud was panned by some reviewers as being a me-too, less than price competitive, offering. An interesting aspect of Verizon Cloud, however, is that its technology was developed by Terremark, David Samberg, National PR Manager for Verizon Wireless told me in a phone interview. Terremark is Verizon Communication's (not Verizon Wirless') enterprise-grade cloud services unit; Verizon Communications owns 55% of Verizon Wireless. Terremark's proficiency in cloud services suggests a possibility that Verizon may have broader ambitions for Verizon Cloud, both on the consumer and SME (Small & Medium Enterprise) markets in the future. See Verizon's Shammo: SMB cloud is a great opportunity for growth.




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Daily Links 1/8/2013: SAP's North American President departs; Aereo coming to Philly

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Verizon Says Buying Out Wireless Venture ‘Feasible’ (Wall Street Journal: Digits)

“The telephone network is obsolete”: Get ready for the all-IP telco
AT&T wants to get rid of obsolete PSTN equipment, and those pesky FCC rules.
(Ars Technica)

Aereo will take its TV distruption to 22 new cities this spring (Gigaom)
Philadelphia is one of them.

Google Brings Free Wi-Fi to Its Section of Manhattan (All Things D)

SAP Adds North America to Cardenuto’s Remit as Predecessor Quits (Bloomberg)

Lehigh Valley-based Cloud Services provider INetU Set to Expand After Private Equity Investment (Data Center Knowledge)
Will open new data center in Seattle.

Quintiq expands its North American headquarters (Quintiq
Press Release)
Expansion in Radnor triples Quintiq's US office space.

LLR Partners Invests in Alsbridge
Investment to fuel substantial growth for IT and telecom sourcing advisory leader
(PR Newswire)

Dish’s $5B Clearwire bid may throw a monkey wrench into Sprint’s plans (VentureBeat)

Amazon, Frontier expanding in Trenton, N.J. (AP via USA Today)



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Penn's Internet Law Symposium (October 19 & 20) worth the time

Tom Paine


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Tickets are still available for a symposium, "The Evolving Internet", presented by the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and UPenn's Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition, to be held this Friday and Saturday (the 19th & 20th) at Golkin 100, Michael A. Fitts Auditorium, on Penn's Campus. The event features a star-studded presenter list and the cost is extremely reasonable, even for private sector attorneys. A couple of receptions and meals are thrown in to boot; its probably the best value I've seen in Philly in some time.

New York Times Technology Columnist David Pogue will deliver the keynote. Other participants include Craig Partridge, Chief Scientist for Networking Research at BBN Technologies (which played a key role in developing the Internet), and Tim Wu, Columbia University telecom policy authority and author of The Master Switch. There will be several panels on evolving Internet technology and law, including discussions with executives from Google/Motorola Mobility, Verizon Wireless, and NBC Universal.

The event will run from 2pm to 6pm on Friday and 8:15am to 6pm on Saturday. CLE credits can be earned with an additional fee.



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More LTE choices coming to Philadelphia (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile)

Tom Paine

Up until now, Verizon Wireless has been the only LTE choice for most mobile device users in the Philadelphia area (it says its currently covers more than 70% of the Philadelphia region). Metro PCS also has LTE available in parts of the area, but its speeds have reported to be limited by the narrow slice of spectrum it currently has available. Now additional options are on the way.

On Friday, AT&T announced that it has officially turn on 4G LTE in the Philly area . Many in the area had reported picking up LTE signals from AT&T for some time during the pre-launch phase. And Philadelphia is on Sprint's recently released list of 100 cities that will receive Sprint's 4G LTE service "in the coming months". (Word is that Sprint will begin lighting up Boston and Chicago this week.) T-Mobile is expected to launch its LTE during 2013; it should be enhanced in the Philly area by its swap/purchase of large blocks of AWS band spectrum from Verizon as part of Verizon's effort to smooth the path for regulatory approval of its deal with cable operators, which was received from the DOJ and FCC last month.

Clearwire hopes to begin moving away from WiMAX and launch its own LTE network by 2014, but despite a wholesale purchase commitment from major shareholder Sprint its ability to accomplish that is in question. Cricket's LTE expansion plans (it is currently live in one market) are also uncertain.

For AT&T and Sprint, as well as Verizon Wireless, the introduction of the LTE capable iPhone 5 is a key to the timing for launching or enhancing LTE. T-Mobile is not directly offering the iPhone 5, but does plan to offer a SIM card for unlocked iPhone 5s by October, although there will be limitations for a while in some areas due to network incompatibility issues.



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Daily Links 8/23/2012: Quality Systems Elects Two Directors Nominated by Dissident Board Member

Quality Systems Elects Two Directors Nominated by Dissident Board Member (Dow Jones Newswires via Fox Business)

Google's audacious bet on fiber -- and why it could work (Fortune Tech)

Verizon-Cable Spectrum Deal Said to Get Unanimous FCC Vote (Bloomberg)

Verizon Wireless's Cable Cold Zones (Light Reading Cable)

Appeal could delay resolution of class action against Comcast (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Virginia Beach spokesman: Comcast guaranteed pro team (Sacramento Bee)


Comcast Adds Live Disney Channels to Xfinity.com/tv
Provides live online streams of Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD to authenticated subs (Broadcasting & Cable)

Salesforce.com Reports Q2 Revenues Up 34% With EPS Of 42 Cents (TechCrunch)

Salesforce.com Profit Forecast Misses Estimate as Rivals Move In (Bloomberg)

Ten ways Workday looks like the Apple for enterprise (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)

Analysis: Cisco, EMC partnership turning into rivalry (Reuters)

CEO Vs. CIO: Big Data Security Battle
Many execs don't see eye-to-eye on new cloud computing environments now, but who has the advantage in the long term? (Information Week)
Interview with Ryan Caplan, president and CEO of Wayne-based Coldlight Solutions.

Small-Business Finance Platform On Deck Raises $100 Million (All Things Digital)
First Round Capital was an early backer of On Deck, with SAP Ventures getting in later.



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My view: Verizon Wireless-Cable deal gets off light

Tom Paine

I see terms such as "stringent" or "tough" restrictions or "strict remedies" appearing in some of the headlines popping up about Department of Justice's blessing of the spectrum swap and joint marketing and technology development agreements between Verizon Wireless and a group of cable operators led by Comcast. In my view, the companies got everything they were after for now.

I'm a laissez-fare, anti-regulatory person generally who tends to oppose most antitrust enforcement in the technology area by the Federal government. For instance, IBM's virtual dominance of the computing market was ultimately dismantled by technological changes that would have happened anyway, and the same is largely true for Microsoft. I have no basic gripe about the spectrum sale. The cable consortium took a realistic look at the wireless market and determined they could not create another independent, viable competitor in that space, a view I agree with, so they decided to sell the spectrum rather than build it out. As a result, a vast quantity of prime spectrum will be available to meet soaring demand rather than being warehoused. Nor do I have a particular problem with the cable companies being able to resell Verizon Wireless service as part of a quad play.

But residential landline service still has an important utility element to it. And what does bother me is anything that threatens to further limit competition in broadband access. Many areas of the country only have one true choice for residential broadband service, some areas two, and very few have three. And many have relatively slow DSL as the only option, or in some rural areas not even that. (I don't consider satellite to be a realistic or competitive option for most.) And while some see wireless eventually replacing wired broadband for many applications, there will continue to be serious limits to wireless capacity. Wireless may ultimately surpass DSL, but it is unlikely in the forseeable future to match the types of gains in speed that Fiber To The Node (with Docsis) or Fiber To The Home (FiOS) networks will achieve.

The requirement that Verizon Wireless not sell the cable systems' services in areas where FiOS is already present is virtually meaningless; that's just asking a company not to compete against itself. Although Verizon management has often expressed a negative view of the economics of FiOS (something I don't necessarily accept, when looked at from the perspective of its impact on the entire enterprise value of Verizon's wireline business), certainly in areas where the capital costs are already sunk FiOS as a whole and even Video Service by itself must be cashflow positive. While I could envision a longer term scenario where Verizon might wish to get out of the video business (or perhaps even residential broadband all together) and sell the FiOS infrastructure to cable operators, that's not what was on the table right now.

Verizon has stated that it had already decided in 2009 not to expand FiOS further except for completing existing franchise agreements (and we will see how that works out in Philly), but we don't know for a fact that Verizon might not have considered further FiOS buildouts in the future. This deal essentially forecloses that possibility, making it more likely that much of Verizon's footprint will not have that other broadband choice. Unless you believe that Google Fiber or some other new competitor will emerge on a national level, which most analysts doubt.

The DOJ's language states that the joint marketing and technology ventures must be terminated after 4 years, but that really just means DOJ has the power to review them after four years. While that's nice, and makes long term planning for the joint ventures a bit cloudier, I'm not sure how meaningful it is. Its very difficult to unravel a fait accompli. I know I'm going against the grain of many in the financial community who believe that two complete, national high-speed residential broadband buildouts are economically impractical at this time, but I don't believe Verizon should be allowed such a incentive for not continuing to evolve as a competitor to Cable. This is not the outcome the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was expected to lead to. The precedent this agreement sets also opens the door for AT&T and other incumbent local carriers to reach their own agreements with cable operators in their areas.

Comcast has a tremendous lobbying organization and a great deal of political influence in Washington and with the White House right now. Just to be clear, I'm not implying anything undue, and in fact more Republicans will probably support this agreement than Democrats. Its just that I'm frankly surprised that DOJ (and apparently the FCC also) went so easy on it. The entire agreement between Verizon Wireless and the cable operators was carefully crafted to avoid many of possible legal challenges. Is there any room for state regulatory bodies to challenge the arrangement? I don't know, though I imagine what DOJ says takes precedence.

A couple of other outcomes from this might have a positive impact on the Philly area. One is that the technology joint venture between Verizon Wireless and and the cable operators will continue to develop. I've seen few details about it. The original announcement said it would be located in Philadelphia, but subsequent reports indicated it might be located in the New Brunswick area.

The other is that T-Mobile comes out of this a stronger competitor due to its acquiring AWS spectrum from Verizon Wireless, and this includes a big block in the Philly area. See my article from a few months on the spectrum dilemma T-Mobile faced as it moves to LTE.. This is a big part of the solution for them.

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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Daily Links 8/14/2012: Verizon Wireless spectrum deal near regulatory approval (WSJ)

Verizon Wireless spectrum deal near regulatory approval - WSJ (Reuters)

Talks Falter Between Stacey Snider, Comcast (Hollywood Reporter)

New York Surpasses Boston as Tech Hub says First Round Capital’s Howard Morgan (Startup Grind)

Conshohocken-based New Horizons Enters into Definitive Agreement to Be Acquired by an Investor Group Led by Camden Partners (Business Wire)

Salesforce’s Answer To Facebook? Communities: A Private Social Network For You And Your Customers (TechCrunch)

Considering mobile POS? How URBN (Urban Outfitters) leverages apps for a streamlined in-store checkout (National Retail Federation Blog)

Drexel law professor creates a virtual venue for getting real-world experience (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Uber Hit With Cease And Desist In Boston, Promises To Continue “Full Speed Ahead” (TechCrunch)

RevitasNOW™ Brings the Power of Enterprise Revenue Dynamics to the Cloud
Revitas introduces a powerful cloud solution for optimizing and managing complex contracts, pricing, and compliance scenarios (Business Wire)

S4 Worldwide Receives Investment from Ben Franklin Technology Partners (Business Wire)

Comcast reports earnings; Olympics may break even

Tom Paine

Comcast reported its 2nd quarter results this morning, with CEO Brian Roberts, Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smits, and NBCU CEO Steve Burke joining the conference call from London. Revenue grew 6.1%, while operating cash flow grew 4.2%. Second quarter pro forma results (apples to apples as if 100% of Universal Orlando results were included in the 2nd quarter 2011 instead of 50%) show revenue growth of 3.5% and operating cash flow growth of 0.9%. Not exactly heady growth numbers, but still enough to easily beat expectations and leave many investors satisfied. Earnings per share increased 35.1% from 2011, but only 19% when excluding a special charge from last year. Shares were up about 3.5% at midday.

Pro forma results for NBCU included a slight revenue decline and a 15.4% decline in operating cash flow. Results were affected by a $83 million operating cash flow loss in Filmed Entertainment, primarily due to the poor performance of Battleship. But the bigger story out of NBCU was Roberts reporting that the company will be "right around break-even" on this year's Olympics. Part of that result may be due to a rather arcane accounting issue, as CFO Michael Angelakis explained on the call that since the deal to broadcast the 2012 Olympics was reached before Comcast acquired its stake in NBCU, "some of the loss was eliminated through purchase accounting" (in other words, book costs written down) and the company should show a small profit from the event in the 3rd quarter. Roberts said that because of the time zone factor, NBCU had based its ratings forecasts more on Athens than on Bejing, but ratings were in fact exceeding those of Bejing. NBCU is also hoping for a boost for all of its programming efforts from the Olympics, and also cited specifically the broader exposure its NBC Sports cable channel (formerly Versus) is receiving.

On the Cable Communications side of the business, high-speed internet services revenue grew 8.9%, video 2.8%, and voice 1.2%. The closely watched video subscriber metric showed a net loss of 176,000, down from 238,000 a year ago, in a quarter that often reflects a higher level of disconnects from students. Business Services continued to grow rapidly, at a 34.2% pace for the quarter. Overall, Cable Communications revenue grew 6%.

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Daily Links 7/5/2012: Verizon Wireless says cable deal won't affect backhaul

Building and dismantling the Windows advantage (ASYMCO)
Though losing ground on the client side, Microsoft still has tremendous strengths in providing much of the backend plumbing that enterprises rely on.

News Analysis: UsedSoft Vs Oracle Ruling Opens Up Monopolistic Practices By Software Vendors (Ray Wang/Enterprise Irregulars)

Oracle’s ‘Exalytics’ No Threat to SAP’s ‘HANA,’ Says Bernstein (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Fans Howl After Weather Site Buys Out Rival (New York Times)
The Weather Channel is partly owned by Comcast.

CBS, NBC and Fox head to court over Dish ad-skipping feature (LA Times)

NBC Sports Network's Olympic Ambitions (Bloomberg)

VZW: AWS deal with cable ops won't affect backhaul (Wireless Week)
Comcast is big in backhaul, which is critical to providing wireless bandwidth.


Luring Online Shoppers Offline (New York Times)

PA DCED: Venture Capital Investments Support New Companies, Job Growth (PR Newswire)

3D Printer Used to Print Vascular Networks (Medgadget)
Research done at UPenn and MIT.



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Daily Links 6/26/2012: T-Mobile drops opposition to Verizon/Cable deal after spectrum swap

T-Mobile drops opposition to Verizon-cable deal (The Hill)
Following agreement on spectrum deal with Verizon Wireless.

Supreme Court takes on damaged-class issue in suit against Comcast (Philadelphia Inquirer)

New Issue-Comcast Corp sells $2.25 bln 2-pt notes (Reuters)

GRUBER: 'Something Big Is Going On With Apple TV In Cupertino, But It’s Still Being Cooked' (Silicon Alley Insider)


‘PayPal for business’ Traxpay gets $4m to take on US (Gigaom)

Health records support genetics research at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (O'Reilly Radar)

TCTV: Interact’s Anthony Coombs Talks About The Philly Tech Scene (TechCrunch)



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Daily Links 6/25/2012: Comcast gets Supreme Court hearing on class action antitrust suit

Comcast Gets U.S. High Court Hearing On Consumer Lawsuit (Bloomberg)

Verizon, T-Mobile swap spectrum for mutual LTE growth
The Big Four's largest and smallest carriers strike a deal for AWS spectrum (CNET News)
Gives T-Mobile more AWS spectrum in Philly area. See my previous article on T-Mobile's spectrum holdings in the Philly region.

It’s Official: Microsoft Confirms It Has Acquired Yammer For $1.2 Billion In Cash (TechCrunch)

Quest Gets $27.50-A-Share Bid, Topping Insight’s Offer (Bloomberg)
Dell presumed to be bidder.

TicketLeap relaunches with deeper social integration, better mobile apps, & more (VentureBeat)

Help wanted at SAP: Mobile, cloud, big-data practitioners (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Cisco, Citrix link arms for VDI partner push
Virty desktops are like ERP in the 1990s (The Register: The Channel)



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Daily Links 6/12/2012: Radnor's QlikTech makes acquisition; Comcast to work with PayPal, TiVo on T-Commerce

QlikTech Acquires Expressor Software to Deliver the Data Users Need with the Governance IT Requires (Business Wire)
QlikTech's first acquisition, at least in recent times. QlikTech's CFO had hinted that some small acquisitions might be in the pipeline during the company's last earnings call.

PayPal To Offer E-Commerce On TV Sets With Comcast, TiVo (Bloomberg)

TiVo Treads Into T-Commerce With PayPal Pact
Solution to Be Available to DVR Maker's Cable Operator Customers (Multichannel News)

Comcast Kicks Tires On ActiveVideo's Web-Based VOD Interface
MSO Licenses Vendor's CloudTV H5 Platform For Trial in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Multichannel News)

Comcast Must Back Off Internet Speed Claims
Ad assertions examined after Verizon complaint (Adweek)

Verizon's sharing plans: Confusing but inevitable (Comp

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Comcast's Q1 results mostly positive; X1 launch expected soon

Tom Paine

Comcast today reported results for Q1 2012 that easily beat Wall Street's consensus expectations. Viewing results compared to 2011 as if NBCU and 100% of Universal Orlando were fully included in last year's result, revenue increased 9.6% to $14.9 billion and operating cash flow also increased 9.6% to $4.7 billion. Earnings per share increased 32% over last year's first quarter.

NBCU, High Speed Internet and Business Services were the best performing segments. NBCU revenue grew 18% for the quarter; even if you exclude the big bump from the Super Bowl, revenue still grew by 12.4%. It is important to note, however, that operating cash flow from Broadcast Television and Filmed Entertainment combined was still negative, so its hardly time to proclaim a completed turnaround there. (See Steve Burke's reported recent comments on the current economics of the film industry.) High Speed Internet added 439,000 new customers with revenue growth of 10.3 %. Business Services revenue grew 37% as that unit moved upmarket towards serving more mid-market customers and added new services.

One negative was the net loss of 37,000 video subscribers. Some analysts thought this number might be lower, as Comcast appeared close to having stopped the trend of losing subscribers. Prices hikes implemented across 62% of Comcast's footprint during the quarter may have slightly increased customer churn, though. Overall video revenue grew only 1.6%.

Some key points that came up during the conference call:

• Roberts said Streampix (Comcast's prototypical Netflix-like service) now has about 2 million users.
  
  
• Home security and "Smart Home" service Xfinity Home is now available across 72% of Comcast's footprint, the company said. It would reveal nothing about the number of subscribers signed up yet, saying Comcast found it had needed to train salespeople to take "a more consultative approach" to selling the product.
  
  
• Comcast's new "X1" cloud-based interface, which had been piloted in Augusta GA, will roll out "in a major market" in the second quarter (maybe it will be Philly, since Comcast often launches there), with further expansion later in the year. Comcast clearly sees X1 as revolutionary in how subcribers will navigate their systems to locate content, and how its cloud architecture will make system enhancements much easier to deploy to subscribers. Update: Light Reading says it will be launched in Boston in May, around the time of the Cable Show, which is being held there this year.
  
  
• Comcast does not forsee implementing usage-based broadband pricing.
  
  
• A question about whether the Verizon Wireless joint marketing venture would go forward if for some reason the spectrum sale (by SpectrumCo to Verizon) did not receive Federal approval was sidestepped with a reaffirmation by Roberts that the company remained optimistic the sale would be approved later this year.
  
  
• Programming expenses grew 5.5% in Q1, and Comcast expects the rate of growth for the full year to higher than that (I would guess Olympic rights might be part of that depending upon how those expenses are recognized).
  
  
• Comcast's Xfinity TV app has been downloaded 5 million times, although more people are using it now for its tools (interface, remote, guide) than to view content.
  
  
• Comcast says it expects to demonstrate some exciting synergies between NBCU and Comcast Cable during the upcoming Olympics.
  

Comcast shares closed the day down less than 1%.



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Daily Links 3/22/2012: Verizon Wireless/Cable deal gets blowback at Senate hearing

Comcast, Verizon face critics at Senate hearing (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Lawmakers fear Verizon Wireless deal with cable firms will limit consumers’ choices (Washington Post)

VZ for VOD? Don’t Bet on It, Says Bernstein (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Tech Talk Episode One: The Cloud(Comcast Voices/Official Comcast Blog)

AT&T, Comcast, Other ISPs Urged by U.S. to Step Up Cybersecurity on Home PCs (Bloomberg)

Company dumps SAP support for Rimini Street, funds projects with savings (SearchSAP)


Oracle, SAP getting rattled by the ‘Cloud’
Web-based software attracting bigger corporate customers (Marketwatch)

Discount retailer Five Below eyes IPO -sources (Reuters)
Philly-based company backed in part by LLR Partners, co-founded by Encore Books founder and former Zany Brainy CEO; article speculates that market value could exceed $1 billion.

Kembrel's Killer Business Model: A Pop-Up with Weekly Flash Sales (215 Magazine)

EHR cost debate heats up (Government Health IT)

AWS partners with open-source private cloud provider Eucalyptus (Computerworld)

A video aerial view of Apple's NC data center (The Unofficial Apple Weblog)

Yummly raises $6M to build its digital kitchen (Gigaom)
First Round Capital was a seed funder of Yummly; its founder, Dave Feller, goes back aways with Josh Kopelman to Half.com.

Dog Vacay Raises $1 Million in Seed Funding Lead by First Round Capital to Fuel Nationwide Expansion (PR Web)



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Daily Links 3/21/2012: Ellison says SAP "must be on drugs"

Oracle: Hardware business decelerates, cloud combat coming into view (ZDNet Blogs)

Oracle defies gravity, not out of the woods yet (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Bloogs)

Ellison on SAP's database plan: "They must be on drugs" (Bloomberg via Times of India)

Verizon to the Cable Industry: Let’s Be Friends (Susan P. Crawford/Bloomberg)
Susan P. Crawford, a law professor and Bloomberg columnist, served as President Obama's Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy.

Comcast, Verizon Say They’re Itching to Fight Google, Apple (Peter Kafka/All Things D)

Verizon, Comcast Clash With Opponents Over Cable Spectrum Deal (PC Magazine)

Global Deal: QVC Expands in China Through Joint Venture (Wall Street Journal: Deal Journal India)

The JOBS Act Can Rebalance Risks and Rewards for Emerging Growth Companies, Investors (Jon Callaghan, Jeff Clavier, Josh Kopelman and Jason Mendelson/PE Hub)

Boston's OpenView Venture Partners closes 3rd VC fund at $200M (Boston Business Journal)
OpenView made major investments last year in Philly area startups Monetate, NextDocs and Xtium.

Comcast, Liberty Global Lead $11M Round In Ad Startup Integrate
Company's Solution Designed to Track Ad Impressions Across Multiple Platforms (Multichannel News)

Medidata Gains Raves on Wall Street for Drug Development Tools (Xconomy New York)
Article cites importance of Medidata's 2008 acquisition of Conshohocken-based Fast Track Systems.

CRF Health Announces Record Breaking Revenue and Earnings Growth in 2011 (Business Wire)