The Inquirer (actually, I guess, Philly.com) has released its 2008 edition of "The Top 100 Businesses in the Philadelphia Region". Its a valuable resource with lots of useful information. It also features profiles of SunGard CEO Cris Conde and Comcast's Cathy Avgiris, who heads up the company's rapidly growing digital voice service.


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All-digital cable move may spark viewer ire (USA Today)

Comcast all-digital in 3 years, to push HD/Internet (Electronista)

DOCSIS 3.0 Deployments-Shades of Gray (xchange)

Verizon's fiber guru talks strategy (CNET News Blog)

Oracle damages in SAP case could top $1 bln: filing (Reuters)

Oracle-SAP lawsuit update: Why Oracle won’t get its $1b (SearchSAP.com: SAP Watch)

Inquirer, Daily News may share
newsroom jobs (Associated Press via philyBurbs.com)

The Yahoo Watch
(Recovering Journalist)
About Yahoo's Newspaper Consortium, of which Philadelphia Media Holdings is a key member.

Theo Kremers Appointed Chief Executive Officer of Lithium Technology Corporation
(PRNewswire)
Lithium also to discontinue its flat cell production in Plymouth Meeting.

Volatility for Quality Systems (iStockAnalyst)
Still haven't found any more info about the circumstances under which Quality's CEO resigned earlier in the week. This note
doesn't mention anything about it.

Ernst & Young Recognizes Primavera(R) CEO as Entrepreneur Of The Year for Greater Philadelphia (PRNewswire)

COMSYS Announces Rebranding of Process Solutions Group
TAPFIN Process Solutions to Offer Complete Workforce Fulfillment and Management Services (BusinessWire)
T. Williams Consulting of Audubon, which was acquired by COMSYS last year, is now part of TAPFIN.


Thermo Fisher Scientific Partners with NextDocs to Offer Comprehensive Enterprise Document Management and Workflow Solutions for the Laboratory (ThomasNet)
NextDocs is based in King of Prussia.

ZipClaims.com and InstaMed® Enhance Medical Billing for Millions of Practitioners (BusinessWire)
InstaMed is based in Philadelphia.


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UPenn Named 6th Best Place to Work in IT by Computerworld

Computerworld has released its 2008 list of the "100 Best Places to Work in IT". Area companies and institutions named are SEI Investments (43), Temple University (53), the University of Pennsylvania (6), and Automotive Resources International (99).
Others of area interest include SAS Institute (5), Verizon Wireless (27), Penn National Insurance (62), Exelon (70), Discover Financial Services (73), Aetna (78) and Boeing (85).


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Electronic health-record standards agreed (Reuters)

SAP agrees to pay $83.3 million in settlement with i2 Technologies (Associated Press via Forbes)

SAP sticks its head in the ground (InfoWorld: Tech's Bottom Line)

Oracle Profit Advances 27%, Fueled by Acquisitions (Bloomberg)

Comcast gets spectrum for WiMAX femtocells, wireless services (ars technica)

NFL Network offered stake for broadcast rights (Philadelphia Inquirer)


Comcast and Cisco Announce Successful Live Network Demonstration of the World’s First 100GE Router Interface
(BusinessWire)

Comcast Picks DTA Partners
Source: MSO Plans To Order 6 Million Digital-to-Analog Converters In 2008 (Multichannel News)

Great News: IDS Scheer Joins The Open Group! (IDS Scheer: ARIS BPM Blog)

PA Venture Capital Initiatives To Spur Growth In Young Technology Companies, Gov. Rendell Says (PRNewswire)

Business Beat: Playing the phone market (Metro Philadelphia)
On startup PhindMe.

WRDS at 15: Growing Global Subscriber Base Fuels Expansion for Wharton Research Data Services (Technology at Wharton)

East Whiteland company amends credit facility (Daily Local News)
Vishay Intertechnology.

MetroPCS lures Sprint, Verizon subs with ‘bring your phone’ (Telephony Online)
Launching in Philadelphia in the fall.

Miner3D 7.1: Raising the Bar for Visual OLAP (PRNewswire)

Comcast Interactive: Movies.com Won't Be Our Last Deal (Silicon Alley Insider)

SCTE: Comcast’s Burke Stresses Video Reliability (Multichannel News)


Heartland Payment Systems Signs Merchant Acquiring Agreement with Discover Financial Services (BusinessWire)

Pfizer Launches Major Agency Review, Denies Consolidation (Advertising Age)

QlikTech and Kalido team up (IT Week)

Lack of RFID standards leads to media panic (ZDNet)

NetSpend Funds Aid Start-Ups (Wall Street Journal)
More on Sapphire Mobile Systems leaving town.

Motorola Enhances Digital Addressable Controller – New Software Release Simplifies Secured Access Control (WebWire)

Oracle on the Move
(Insurance & Technology)


Checkpoint Acquires Successful RFID Startup OatSystems (Information Week)


Zillow Extends Selling Tools to Newspaper Partners (Editor & Publisher)
The Inquirer to be one of the first to roll it out.

Tapping the Community Pool
Online communities let you see what's on your customers' minds. (Inc.)
Discusses NeatRecieipts.



Forum explores Philly WiFi Digital Inclusion system (Weekly Press)

Codima Inc. (OTC:CDMA) Enters New Era - Elects Board Members And Appoints CEO (BusinessWire)


Rigas Senences Cut (Associated Press via Philly.com)

Spot cable shop woos pharma advertisers with VOD channel (Medical Marketing & Media)

J.J. Manion Jr., 60, financial officer (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Quality Systems Reports Resignation of Its President and Chief Executive Officer Effective August 16, 2008 (BusinessWire)
Quality Systems' major division is NextGen Healthcare Information Systems of Horsham, which is a very substantial business.
Obviously, something is up with this resignation. A dissident director has been fighting the CEO for at least a couple of years. Don't know if that has anything to do with it.

Quality Systems stock falls after CEO's resignation (Associated Press via Forbes)

CBS3 fires Mendte (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Checkpoint Systems Acquires RFID Software Company OATSystems (RFID Journal)
More detailed information on acquisition announced yesterday. OATSystems is a real innovator in the RFID space. Its technology allows companies to collect and analyze more detailed information using RFID. The acquisition may also help Checkpoint to expand into vertical markets it hasn't traditionally been in. No word on the price, but I'm guessing it was at least $100 million.

Can and Should RedLasso Survive? (Zatz Not Funny!)

SAP exec discusses Imagineering, the future of development (SearchSAP.com)

SAP chief: Big software isn't going away (CNET News Blog)


Are SAP Business ByDesign customers happy with their choice? (SearchSAP.com)


Motorola Gains DOCSIS 3.0(R) Certification in First CableLabs(R) Wave to Include Digital Voice Modems
(PRNewswire)

Motorola Gets ‘Deeper’ On Fiber
Vendor Expands Broadband Access Network Portfolio For Cable (Multichannel News)

Commcast Videowall, philadelphia
(media architecture group)

The Death of Stealth Mode (Redeye VC)

Revisiting Cybercities (Phiily.com:
Philly Deals)

Boomi Teams With Taleo to Simplify and Accelerate SaaS Integration for On-Demand Talent Management Solution (Marketwire)

Red Hat’s other open source management project (451 CAOS Theory)

PHR Task Force Appointed
(eHealth)

Oracle Forms Health And Sciences Business Unit (Information Week)
When Oracle starts focusing on a specific vertical market, it means acquisitions are sure to follow. It would not be
surprising to see them focus on a few Philly area companies, such as Quality Systems' NextGen Healthcare Information Systems
(see above) or Octagon Research Solutions.

Checkpoint to Acquire OATSystems (Associated
Press via Forbes)

Vertex® Acquires Leading Global Tax Accounting Solution (BusinessWire)

Comcast Owned Fandango Buys Movies.com From Disney (paidContent)

Comcast To Deploy Femtocells
To ease congestion and costs of WiMax offerings... (Broadband Reports)

MPOWER Ventures Funds Sapphire Mobile Systems, Rebrands as MPOWER Mobile
(PRNewswire)
Moving headquarters to Austin.

NewSpring Capital thrives in unlikely environment (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Oracle Makes Another Insurance Software Buy (PC World)
Follows acquisition of Chester's AdminServer.

Kenexa Launches New Customer Service Simulation Platform to Predict Job Performance (Marketwire via CNNMoney)

Google, Salesforce Expand Integration Of Cloud Computing Platforms (Intelligent Enterprise)


Temple University to Deploy Meru Wireless LAN Across Eight Campuses in Philadelphia Area (BusinessWire)

SEPTA: New fare tech by spring (Metro Philadelphia)

FreshDirect Selects AirClic to Mobilize Its Grocery Delivery Process
( PRNewswire)

PDS Announces Vista HRMS(R) (PRNewswire)

Another reason to hate Phila.'s business privilege tax (Philly.com: Philly Inc)

"Transformers" Sequel Brings Movie Studio to Wanamaker Bldg.
DreamWorks Pictures Leases 15,000 SF as Movie Production Rolls into Philadelphia (CoStar Group)

Venture capitalists reflect a market where there's no more easy money (Wilmington News Journal)

More on Unisys's Attempt to Place Signs on Two Liberty
Place (Associated Press via Fort Mills Times)

NFL Network in talks with ESPN (Philadelphia Inquirer)


US FCC sides with cable in dispute with Verizon (Reuters)

Software giant SAP to invest more money in Canada, co-CEO Kagermann says (The Canadian Press)

Event Objects Announces Open Attendee Trade Show Registration Platform (Free-Press-Release.com)
New startup sighting. They do have a web site at http://www.eventobjects.com.
It is little more than a shell, but it does offer ways to access the company by mail.

Report: NYPD's cops can learn from video simulators (Newsday)
Mentions Environmental Tectonics as a possiblity.

The School of the Future in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (NextGenWeb)

People in the News

The Judge Group Hires Industry Expert to Head Growing SAP Practice (Press Release)

Dr. Rainer Feinen to Fill New Post (PRNewswire)

TruePosition Expands Business Operations Department by Appointing Dominic Li as Vice President of Marketing and Portfolio Management (BusinessWire)

Lockheed Martin Program Director Inducted Into GPS Hall of Fame (PRNewswire)

Kris Herrin Joins Heartland Payment Systems as Chief Security Officer (BusinessWire)

PEOPLE: Checkpoint names Powers to VP post (Cherry Hill
Courier-Post)

Alycia Lane sues KYW-TV (Philadelphia Inquirer)
I sometimes wonder whether CBS somehow concocted this entire affair as sort of an ongoing "virtual reality show".

Comcast deal covers basics (Indianapolis Star)

Five-Year Plan Bears Fruit for SAP
Software projects in the works with VMware and others. (InternetNews.com)


SAP in the Middle East (Business Week: GlobeSpotting)

Sun Chemical rolls out project management software (IT PRO)
Sun Chemical is using GenSight, whose US headquarters is in Doylestown, as its project management platform.

Gartner says BI market dominated by mega-vendors (IT Week)
Discusses QlikTech's gain in market share.

FCC To Verizon: Don't Talk Voice Customers Out Of Switching To Cable (information Week)

Cable ads attacking Verizon confuse consumers
(Associated Press via Centre Daily Times)
I've seen some of these ads, and they are absolutely, deliberately misleading.

ClearPoint Announces $12Million of New Capital (PRNewswire)

Vector180 LLC. Partners with ClearPoint Technology Group, LLC.
(PR.com)
As far as I can determine, there is no relationship between this ClearPoint and the one mentioned above.

InstaMed(R) Announces Release of Healthcare Payments White Paper for Payers (PRNewswire via Forbes)
InstaMed is based in Philadelphia.

Assembly Opens In Philadelphia, PA (Shoot)

Speed Dating, VC-Style (Forbes: Boost Your Business Blog)
On Early Stage East.

ICP Firefly of Australia Selects Online Provantis Preclinical System (BusinessWire)

I-many Releases New Versions of the I-many Contract Management and Demand Management Software Suites for Life Sciences (BusinessWire)

Most Doctors Aren’t Using Electronic Health Records (New York Times)

Comcast, Big Ten Network Reach Broad Multimedia Agreement for Big Ten Network Content (BusinessWire)


Microsoft NavicGates Television -- Again, Acquires Leading Addressable TV Ad Firm (Online Media Daily)

Three Comcast Networks to HD
The Golf Channel, Versus, E! Entertainment Television to Launch in HD by Year-End (Broadcasting & Cable)

Expo's Philadelphia Freedom
Soak in a Little History; Soak Up a Little Cheese Steak (Cable360)

Gartner Says Worldwide Business Intelligence Platform Market Grew 13 Per Cent in 2007 (life PR)

SAP to buy manufacturing execution software company (SearchSAP.com)
More details on deal announced Tuesday.

Werner on Traffic.com "monopoly" and Mineta and Trimble Ethics Concern(Directions Magazine: All Points Blog)

Sprint Nextel, Verizon execs duel on NXTcomm08 stage (RCR Wireless News)

By the Numbers: Top Ten U.S. Wireless Service Providers (RCR Wireless News)

Microsoft's BizTalk gets a dose of modeling smarts
IDS Scheer is integrating its ARIS modeling platform with Microsoft's BizTalk Server (itbusiness)

Philly Fed Firms Continue to See Decrease in Business Activity (PRNewswire)
Philly Fed's June Business Outlook Survey.

The Insider: Entrepreneurial Education: Priming Students to ‘Think Creatively and Innovate’ (Innovation Philadelphia Blog)

Universal Display Corporation Reviews Company and OLED Industry Progress at 2008 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (BusinessWire)

Octagon Previews Viewpoint Quantum Company to Promote Accelerated Publishing at DIA Annual Meeting (PharmaLive)

Portico Systems Enhances Industry’s First Integrated Provider Management Solution (BusinessWire)

ParagonRx Licenses Ethidium Technology for Next-Generation Physician Information Exchange Network (WebWire)