First Round Capital RoundUp

You've got to hand it to Josh Kopelman, the guy who convinced an Oregon town to change its name to Half.com, for having a talent for coming up with big ideas that promote the brand (in this case, First Round's investment philosophy and portfolio companies). The second annual First Round Holiday Greeting Video has achieved an almost cult-like popularity on the web. It was particularly smart to emphasize its 2009 investments; there are so many new ones now its hard to keep track of them all.

First Round portfolio company Foodzie has brought some big talent on-board, according to TechCrunch. Adam Sah, who helped create Google Gadgets, has joined the Boulder-based online artisan food marketplace as VP Engineering.

More on another Boulder startup (Boulder is where its all happening now) and recent First Round investment SimpleGeo. Meanwhile, venture money continues to flow into the location-aware space, as another company called Gowalla just raised $8.4 million (First Round not involved). However, SimpleGeo is approaching the market more from an API angle than an end user app like Gowalla is.

First Round also participated in a round announced this week led by Kleiner Perkins in One Kings Lane, a private sale website for home furnishings.

Wired's Epicenter Blog writes about how Knewton is trying to change the business model for college test prep courses by driving out excess costs while hopefully producing a higher quality product.

Meanwhile, First Round's Christine Herron talks to Daily Finance about how the cost of getting a startup off the ground is shrinking.




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Boost Mobile Ad

I had to check and see whether this Boost Mobile ad was for real or someone's idea of a parody. Boost Mobile is the Sprint prepaid brand in Philadelphia and other markets.

Will Comcast Deal Move Summer Scene From Hamptons to, Gasp, Jersey? (New York Observer)

FCC chairman's dinner RT LOL! (Washington Post: Post Tech)

Microsoft, SAP to outline doubts on Oracle/Sun deal (Reuters)

SAP Business byDesign: Taming the multi-tenant beast (Enterprise Irregulars)

Heartland Executives Told the Truth, Judge Says (IDG via New York Times)

Versus Sub Count Takes 9 Million Hit As Previews End
Dish, Time Warner Cable, Cox Free Previews End, As DirecTV Dispute Lingers (Multichannel News)

TV’s QVC expands its mobile channel with a robust iPhone app (InternetRetailer.com)

IMS Drops as Senate Data Measure Casts Doubt on Sale (Bloomberg)

Technology Leaders (TL Ventures) in fight over fees
(Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Instem Announces New Full Service Office in Shanghai
Instem’s New Shanghai Office Providing Local Support for Chinese Clients (Business Wire)




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Comcast-NBC Universal: Will the Marriage of Cable and Content Work? (Knowledge@Wharton)


Sprint: Today, An Upgrade, As Citi Turns Bullish; Will It Merge With T-Mobile? (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Sprint's Hesse commits to Clearwire, hints at new 4G pricing scenarios (Fierce Wireless)


Kulicke & Soffa's CEO to retire in June 2011 (EE Times)

GSI’s Fun Weekend (Wall Street Journal: Digits)

SAP Sets Pace on 'Flexible' Software Pricing
The German software maker is blazing new trails by letting customers pay for licenses over longer stretches. Microsoft, Oracle, and Adobe aren't far behind (Business Week)

SAP: We're serious about SAP on-demand (SearchSAP.com)

SAP: Out with the Old, Shrugging Off The Tag (Enterprise Irregulars)

SAP: All-in-One Carbon, Energy, Sustainability Software
SAP promises new software to integrate carbon counting, energy efficiency, environmental monitoring and social responsibility reporting. (Greentech Media)

PSERS Reports Q3 Results (PE Hub)


Motorola Expands 4G Broadband During 2009 as It Builds Momentum for WiMAX and LTE in 2010 (PR Newswire)

Microsoft Buys Health-Care Software Company (IDG via New York Times)

Herley Reports Earnings for First Quarter of Fiscal 2010 (PR Newswire)




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USA Technologies to postpone key Annual Meeting (for a long time)

USA Technologies Announces New Date for Annual Meeting Due to Misleading, Inaccurate and Selective Disclosure by Dissident Group
Rescheduled Meeting to Be Held on June 15, 2010 (Business Wire)

You have read this headline carefully to fully understand what management has done. They've pushed back the Annual Meeting
from December 15, 2009 to June 15 2010. Cool way to avoid a proxy vote, if you can do it.




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First Round Capital 2009 Holiday Card

First Round Capital 2009 Holiday Card from First Round Capital on Vimeo.

Daily Links 12/9/09: Mister Roberts goes to Washington

Comcast CEO Roberts Said to Meet With U.S. Regulators on NBC (Bloomberg)

Should Consumers Fear the Comcast Deal? (New York Times: Room For Debate Blog)

Disney's Iger: NBC/Comcast No Threat (MediaPost: Media Daily News)


SAP Outlines Five-Year Enterprise Software Plan
SAP's unfolding strategy emphasizes on-demand computing, cloud architectures, flexible pricing, mobile and in-memory computing. (Information Week)

SAP Planning to Open up On-demand Development Platform (PCWorld)

SAP Influencer Summit, Dispatch 2: First-Day Ramblings (Spend Matters)

SAP Lifts Some Restrictions On Partner Sales To Large Companies (Channel Web)

Analyst eyes Motorola break-up scenario; shares up (Associated Press via Forbes)

Leading Independent Proxy Advisory Firm RiskMetrics Group Recommends USAT Shareholders Vote BLUE Proxy Card 'FOR' Each of Independent Shareholder Group SAVE's Board of Director Nominees
(PR Newswire)
USA Technologies Comments on RiskMetrics Report
Urges Shareholders to Vote FOR the Company’s Nominees on the WHITE Proxy Card Today (Business Wire)

Heartland Payment Systems Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit Dismissed in US District Court (Business Wire)

Cloaked in the Cloud
(The Boomi Blog)

Nobel Prize Winning Founder of Retirement Manager Financial Engines Plots IPO (alarm:clock)

Verizon To Pay New Jersey $795,000 To Settle FiOS Marketing Suit
State Announces Settlement With Verizon Over Its Advertisement And Sale Of FiOS Service (Multichannel News)

Innovative Solutions & Support, Inc. Announces Financial Results for the Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2009
Completes year of profitability, revenue growth and positive operating cash flow (Business Wire)


C&D Technologies Reports Fiscal 2010 Third Quarter Results
Third Quarter Revenues, Unit Volume, Margins and Earnings All Sequentially Improve Relative to Second Quarter (PR Newswire)




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Daily Links 12/8/09: Mobile Solutions Provider Movitas Acquires PhindMe

SAP to launch Salesforce.com rival in mid-2010
Plans new web-based programs for sales management (Reuters)
Article doesn't suggest where the existing "Business ByDesign" architecture fits in here.

SAP Influencer event: First impressions (Enterprise Irregulars)


SAP and Siemens Sign Global Reseller Agreement for i.s.h.med and i.c.m.health
Companies Address Growing Market of IT Solutions for Healthcare (PR Newswire)


Putting a Bar Code on Places, Not Just Products (New York Times: Bits)

Top 10 Internet of Things Products of 2009 (Read Write Web)

Eastern Technology Council honors Enterprise Award winners (Philadelphia Business Journal: Technology Blog)

Agilence Secures $2 Million in Venture Capital Funding
Investment Will Enable Provider of Innovative Loss Prevention Solutions to Expand Product Development, Sales, and Marketing (Business Wire)

Mobile Solutions Provider Movitas Acquires PhindMe
Advances Strategies for Bringing Mobile Solutions to Location-Centric Businesses (Business Wire)
As first reported here last Thursday.


TNT: Historical Society’s interactive PhilaPlace Web site needs your stories (Technically Philly)


Liberty CEO discusses Comcast, MGM
Maffei: Comcast gets hedge, but pays high price (The Hollywood Reporter)

Comcast-NBC U merger could hurt consumers
(Philadelphia Inquirer: Op Ed)

Tyco Electronics Q1 profit may top Street view (Reuters)

Sarnoff Releases Acadia® II SoC Development Platform
(Business Wire)




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Daily Links 12/7/09: Enterprise Award Winners Announced

Enterprise Award Winners Announced (Eastern Technology Council)

NBC-Comcast Deal Puts Broadcast TV in Doubt (New York Times)

Brave New Targeted World?
Comcast-NBCU deal could speed up addressability (ADWeek)

One or Two Funny Things About the Comcast-NBC Universal Deal (Portfolio.com)

What exactly does Comcast already own? Here's a list (ars technica)

Comcast CEO defends NBC Universal deal (USAToday.com)

Tibco Takes After Twitter (Wall Street
Journal: Digits)

SAP Making EPM Push Against Oracle (PC World)

The SAP Influencer Summit, East Coast Travels, and an Endeca Webinar (SpendMatters)

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Rutgers University Partner with BioImagene to Develop Companion Algorithms™ for Digital Pathology (Business Wire)

Agenda: HITECH Rules on Schedule (Health Data Management)

ActiveStrategy, Inc. Partners with Business & Decision to Market Performance Management Software (Business Wire)




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USA Technologies' Suit Against Dissidents over Messsage Board Comments

USA Technologies (USAT), the Malvern cashless and contactless payment system provider that is currently in the middle of a proxy fight, is going after two dissidents on the Yahoo! Finance message board for USAT who have been saying some bad things about their management of the company. (There is no indication at this time that they are connected to the leadership of the group that launched the proxy battle.) USA Technologies filed suit in the Federal Eastern District of Pennsylvania in late August against the unknown holders of the two Yahoo! screen names, "MICHAEL_MOORE_IS_FAT" and "STOKKLERK". In the complaint, the company claims that the defendants' comments were defamatory towards management and were part of a "scheme" on behalf of the anonymous posters to "enrich themselves through undisclosed manipulative trading tactics". USA Technologies also issued a subpoena to Yahoo! seeking the identity of its critics.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is representing the defendants, claiming First Amendment rights. Also, the EFF says, a California statue awards attorney fees to anonymous speakers if an out-of-state subpoena is quashed and ""if the underlying action arises from the moving party's exercise of free speech rights on the Internet and the respondent has failed to make a prima facie showing of a cause of action." California is involved since Yahoo! is headquartered there.
USA Technologies' argument against the motion to quash was to be heard this past Friday.

A post on the EFF's website provides a link to court documents.



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Successful turnaround at Unisys (Philly.com:Philly Deals)

Could NBC Sale to Comcast Spell Trouble for Hulu? (ClickZ)

Cadient Interactive Announces the Launch of HATCH Consulting Services
HATCH Experts to Guide Healthcare and Life Sciences Companies and Brands Through Interactive Strategies (PR Newswire)

Pharma: Socializing in a Straightjacket
Players tiptoe into social media (ADWeek)
I believe the author meant to refer to Chris Kuenne as the CEO of Rosetta, the Princeton-based interactive marketing agency, rather than Rosetta Stone.



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