Federal CIO on leave following FBI sting at DC offices (ZDNet
Blogs)
Instant analysis: Bribery case may undo Kundra's Web 2.0 vision (Computerworld)

Sunoco To Cut 20% Of Salaried Workers In Pa. (Dow Jones via CNN Money)

NextStage, Murex put $3.2M in AnySource 'Internet HDTV' (Philly.com: Phiily Deals)
AnySource Media Secures $3.2M in Funding (Company Press Release)

Ben Franklin TechVentures plans expansion (Lehigh Valley Live)

NitroSecurity nabs UK’s Chronicle Solutions (Mass High Tech)
NitroSecurity acquired Philly area company RippleTech Inc. last year and is backed by NewSpring Capital.

RedVision Raises $6.8 Million (PE Hub)
Backed by Edison Venture Fund.

Key Hearing for Philly Dailies is Delayed (Editor & Publisher)

610 WIP Philadelphia to move to FM? (Radio Insight)

Be Mindful Of Online Consequences (The Bulletin)



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SAP to Reduce Business ByDesign Staff?

I think that's what this Bloomberg article is saying when it refers to SAP's "rental software project". The article also says the "workforce will be reduced to 1,800 from 2,600 as large parts of the software are already developed".

Update:
SAP: Business ByDesign SaaS Is 'Mature' (Information Week)
How can a product that's only being tested by 10 to 20 customers be considered "mature"?

Another thought: Does it really take 2600 people to create some SaaS software? Maybe thats been their problem.

Paper Cuts

Erica Smith, a St Louis journalist, has a blog called "Paper Cuts", which keeps track of job cuts in the newspaper business.
Started on a small scale in 2007, it obviously mushroomed as the number of cutbacks turned into a deluge. The Google Map she maintains showing the geographic locations of newspapers that have reduced staff gets very crowded by the number of pushpins on it now.

Safeguard Scientifics Announces Fourth Quarter and Year-End 2008 Financial Results (Business Wire)
Safeguard Scientifics revenue and loss up (Philadelphia Business Journal)


Comcast To Challenge 30% Cap In U.S. Court of Appeals
Court will hear oral arguments in Comcast's challenge of FCC's decision April 24 (Multichannel News)

Sprout Not A Good Night For Kids: Children's Activists
Group Likens 'Good Night Show' To Sleeping Pill For Toddlers (Multichannel News)
Sprout is based in Philadelphia. I find this whole topic rather humorous.

Canoe Rows Toward Enhanced TV
(Light Reading: Cable Digital News)

Dow Chemical/Rohm & Haas: Problems Solved? Hardly (Wall Street Journal: Deal Journal)

Herley Reports 2nd Quarter FY09 Financial Results (PR Newswire)

Universal Display Corporation Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2008 Financial Results (Business Wire)

As Cities Go From Two Papers to One, Talk of Zero (New York Times)

Q&A: SAP Europe chief executive José Duarte (vnunet.com)

arcplan Unveils New arcplan Enterprise 6 (Business
Wire)

iPipeline is stocked with potential customers for Exton company's online insurance software (Keystone Edge)

As researchers explore the genome, Softgenetics provides the newest software to read the map (Keystone Edge)



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Brian Tierney Speaks Out Of Both Sides Of Mouth

Tierney Disputes Time.com Blog - Says 'If This is Journalism, God Save the Democracy'
(PR Newswire)
"the Daily News is not going anywhere" -Brian Tierney, March 11, 2008


" The Inquirer, either way, will survive. The question is will The Daily News survive."

Brian Tierney, as quoted by the Daily Pennylvanian from a speech at Penn recently.

Half.com Lives (in a way)

In case you didn't know, Half.com, the online retailer co-founded by Philly entrepreneur and VC Josh Kopelman and sold to eBay in 2000 for $350 million, still exists in cyberspace, though with a somewhat limited scope. Used textbooks seem to be a big seller. Now eBay is announcing that Half.com listings will be included on eBay itself, starting in May. As Kopelman tweets, "WOW - eBay finally agrees to integrate Half.com listings. Great news, just 9 years too late... "

Wal-Mart Plans to Market Digital Health Records System (New York Times)

SAP, Sybase plan iPhone, Windows Mobile software (Reuters)

Comcast says it's now No. 3 US home phone provider (Reuters)

Ben Franklin Technology Partners stakes 11 companies (Philadelphia Business Journal)

DormNoise Helps College Students Plan Events and Manage Personal, Student Group, and Campus Schedules from One Location
Integrates with Mainstream Calendar and Mobile Applications; Ad Revenue Split with Colleges (Business Wire)

Red Tettemer Creates ScapeNation, Then Invites Tweens to Save it (PR Newswire)

Rodale's Best Life Folds (Media Bistro: Fishbowl NY)

InterDigital Announces $100 Million Stock Repurchase Program (Business Wire)

Oracle's Golden Goose, Maintenance Revenue, Contains Flight Risk (Dow Jones via CNN Money)

Salesforce.com Smells Blood, Hunts Bigger CRM Prey: Enterprise Cloud Customers (CIO.com)

The Reinvention of Innovation Works (Pop
City)
What Ben Franklin Technology Partners is up to on the other side of the state.

SMI Health and InfoSlate Partner to Educate Patients with Interactive Touch Screens in Physicians’ Offices (Business Wire)

XO Communications Deploys Ethernet Over Copper Services for DCANet (Marketwire via CNN Money)

Delaware Law Weekly Launches New Web Site Design, with Expanded Content and Complete Access to Case Digests and Archives (Business Wire)

Working Off The Tab (Forbes)
On Drexel's co-op program.

Spotlight on Creativity March 2009
(Innovation Philadelphia)



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5 Questions for David Lincoln of Element Partners (PE Hub)

Herley Industries up for sale-sources (Reuters)
Herley Industries is based in Lancaster. Its stock price is
up 15% today.

Clearwire Announces New CEO (Business Week: The Tech Beat)
Wolff out, Morrow in as Clearwire CEO (MuniWireless)

IDS Scheer Appoints Dr. Joerg Heistermann to CEO of the Americas Region
Seasoned Executive to Lead Growth of the Operation in Support of Increased Demand for ARIS-Based Offerings (Business Wire)

Franklin Electronic Publishers Slashes Operating Costs (PR Newswire)

Tim O'Reilly: 'You don't know the future, but you can rise to meet it' (The Guardian: Technology Blog)

New job for the man who exposed Comcast's P2P throttling (ars technica)

Area districts using technology to increase school security (Bucks County Courier Times)

Computer technology fingers illegal aliens
Bucks, Montgomery already scan prints to determine residency. (Allentown Morning Call)

Sarnoff Iris on the Move® (IOM) Iris Recognition System Selected by Schiphol Airport for Biometric ID Testing (Business Wire)

Wharton's Learning Lab Hosts Learning Symposium on March 13, 2009 (Technology at Wharton)

HostMySite Builds World's Fastest Server (Web Hosting Industry News)



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One Little Comment on Facebook gets Eagles Employee Fired

Facebook post gets worker fired (ESPN)

Rohm & Haas Reaches Deal with Dow

Still don't understand all the details. More later.



Dow reaches tentative deal on Rohm & Haas: WSJ
(MarketWatch)

Dow Reaches Agreement to Close Rohm and Haas Acquisition
(PR Newswire)

Dow Chemical and Rohm Settle a Dispute Over $15.3 Billion Merger (New York Times)

So here is the deal as I understand it:

-Rohm & Haas shareholders get their $78 per share-the original acquisition price.
-The Haas family and another major investor in the company agree to purchase up to $2.5 billion in "perpetual" preferred Dow shares, which pay a cool 15% interest rate.
-Dow also has a call option to have these R & H investors also purchase $500 million in Dow common stock.
-Buffet and Kuwait still major investors.
-Dow plans sale of about $4 billion in assets, including Rohm & Haas's Morton Salt unit.
-The deal closes April 1.

I haven't done the math so I am unqualified to say whether Dow will be able to maintain an investment grade rating under these terms.

Merck and Schering-Plough in $41B merger
Drugmaker to keep Merck name, and Merck CEO Clark will take reins. (CNN Money)

Circuit City shuts down after 60 years (Associated Press via Google News)

Nokia Stumbles in Patent Dispute (Wall Street Journal: Digits)
A small victory for InterDigital.


Lockheed Martin GPS III Team Progressing On-Schedule In Preliminary Design Review Stage (PR Newswire)

Leap Brings Cricket Service to Philadelphia (Wireless Week)

VC trickles into small firms (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Vitalize Buys r3 Health Partners (PE Hub)
Vitalize Consulting Solutions' operations office is located in Kennett Square.

ICG Commerce says business up 50% since Sept. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Staying Strong? Outsell Reports on “Big Three” STM Publishers (Library Journal)

A Search Engine for Seekers of Venture Capital (New York TImes: Bits)

Penn Hosts Conference on Virtual Worlds for Education: The Future of Technology Use in Learning (Media Newswire)

IBM unlikely to bid for Satyam stake: sources (Reuters)

SAP: Sustainability, supply chain and profits (Computerworld UK)

Broadband Growth Slows
(Multichannel News)

Integrating with social media on the horizon (Fierce Health IT)
On HealthCampDC



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