Daily Links 1/13/10: Philly Fed Chief sees 3-3.5% growth in 2010

Roberts Tells Genachowski There Are No Quick Retrans Fixes
Comcast Chief Says FCC Needs To Assess Whether "Different Approaches' Are Needed (Multichannel News)

Comcast wants "clear rules," even if it means net neutrality (ars technica)

Philly Fed's Plosser sees GDP growth at 3-3.5% for 2010 (Philly.com:
Philly Inc)

Beige Book-Philadelphia-
January 13, 2010 (Federal Reserve Board)


Amtrak To Add WiFi, Upgrade Fleet (Wired Blogs: Autopia)

salesforce.com Ready for Acquisition Trail? (24/7 Wall Street)
Berwyn's Boomi could be one logical candidate.

Moto Sells EMEA Docsis Modem Biz (Light Reading: Cable Digital News)

Governor Rendell Announces $2.25 Million in Federal Funds to Help Expand Reliable, Affordable, High-Speed Internet Access in Pennsylvania (PR Newswire)

Study: Pa. Should Skip Tax Breaks for Tech Firms (Associated Press via ABC News)
Study conducted by Union-aligned organizations.


Copy Cat: Xerox Unveils Plan For Addressable TV Ads, Says It Could Rival Branded Entertainment
(MediaPost: Media Daily News)
I'm sure Xerox will make a lot of money off of this, just like they did with Ethernet, the GUI and the Mouse.

SAP PARTNERS SPARE CUSTOMERS’ CASH FLOW WITH HOSTED SOLUTIONS
CIBER, itelligence, Optimal and RunE2E Offer Midsize U.S. Customers Industry-Specific SAP® Business All-in-One Solutions at Fixed Subscription Cost and Minimal Up-Front Investment
(SAP Press Release)

Analytical Graphics _ Space Foundation Discovery Institute — Great Grant! (Satnews Daily)

MEDecision Completes Successful 2009 as Demand for Health Information Exchange Grows (Business Wire)

BFTP/NEP Releases 2009 Annual Report for Download (BFTP/NEP)



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Daily Links 1/12/10: BioLeap gets $5 million in Financing

Google's investment arm to grow partner ranks (Reuters)
Google Ventures teams up with First Round Capital on VigLink.

BioLeap, Inc. Secures $5M Series A Financing from Adams Capital Management and Quaker BioVentures
(Business Wire)

Will 2010 be mobile advertising’s big year? (VentureBeat)

Check Out Boston's Mobile Tech Scene (Silicon Alley Insider)

Mobile Apps Provider Flurry Poised For Growth (MediaPost: Online Media Daily)

Private Vegas meetings between Comcast, FCC (The Hill: Hillacon Valley)
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, I guess.

'Would Comcast Have Created Google?' (The Atlantic Wire)

Princeton scientist focuses on future of laser technology
(Times of Trenton)

BPM Pure Play days numbered with Progress acquisition of Savvion (OnStrategies Perspectives)

ARIS for Independent and Occasional BPM (IT Business Edge)

Jaspersoft 3.7 reaches high into enterprise, and Oracle's backyard (ZDNet Blogs)

Verizon Wireless: We spent $163M in Phila. area (Philadelphia Business Journal: Technology Blog)

First Phase Of Verizon FiOS Build Coming To An End
Company will now focus on improving uptake in existing markets... (Broadband Reports)

Environmental Tectonics Corporation Announces Third Quarter and Year To Date Fiscal 2010 Results (PR Newswire)

Adaptive Digital Technologies Announces Two Complete Suites of Industry Standard, VoIP Voice Engine Software for Android™ (Newswire
Today)



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First Round Capital RoundUp: 1/11/2010

More from First Round's "Startup Trek" of incubators and shared workspaces in NYC last week: NYC-based Entrepreneur in Residence Charlie O'Donnell writes "What I learned on the First Round Startup Trek" (includes video clips). O'Donnell also explains what he sees as his role with First Round in this post for The Business Insider.



First Round was reported this week to be an initial outside investor in Jelli, a crowdsourcing service allowing individuals to indicate their song preferences and influence the playlists of traditional radio stations, such as Live 105 in San Francisco.

First Round portfolio company Aggregate Knowledge of San Mateo CA has raised an additional $9 million, increasing its total funding to date to $34.5 million. (It is not clear whether First Round participated this time.) Aggregate Knowledge has shifted its business model from being an ecommerce recommendation engine to providing display ad analytics to marketers, as Venture Beat explains. Also on the display ad front, Philadelphia-based Invite Media announced it had invaded the UK and Europe with the opening of its London office. Invite Media provides what it calls the first universal buying platform for online display media

Jingle Networks, the free directory assistance company (Free411), raised another $6.75 million to increase its total funding to almost $90 million. CEO Scott Kliger says "all of our current investors participated in this round", TechCrunch reports ; First Round Capital and Comcast Interactive Capital were existing investors. There are questions as to whether Jingle is profitable on a cost per call basis, but Kliger says "the voice service is profitable" and the additional investment will be used to expand its mobile ad network.

The New York Times reported how one investment firm is creating a "fund of funds" including venture capital, which might make it easier for large institutional funds to participate in relatively smaller VC funds such as First Round. Also, Fred Wilson weighs in on the "larger portfolio/smaller portfolio" issue, using First Round as a comparison to Union Square.

The Times also does a writeup on Pittsburgh online apparel retailer ModCloth, which First Round invested in.

First Round portfolio company Pinch Media has merged with Flurry; the two companies will combine their expertise in tracking and measuring the use of mobile applications. The merged company, which will operate as Flurry, may seek additional funding this year.




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Daily Links 1/11/10: Casket Maker buys K-Tron for $435 million

Hillenbrand to Acquire K-Tron International (PR Newswire)
Caskets and Material Handling Systems. Imagine the possible synergies.

FusionStorm Acquires CentriServ (Marketwire)
CentriServ was a Devon IT company, according to Devon IT's website.

ImpactRx Closes Series E Round of Financing (PR Newswire)

TCA 2010: Ebersol Hopes USOC, Comcast Continue To Hold Off On Olympic Network
Says NBCU Will Likely Bid For 2014-16 Games Without Comcast (Multichannel News)

Comcast Blamed for Leno-Conan Switch (The Atlantic Wire)

Comcast, the FCC, and "Open Internet" Rules: Where We Stand (David Cohen/Comcast Voices)

Fitch Revises SunGard Data Systems' Outlook to Stable; Affirms Ratings (Business Wire)

Advanta Corp.’s Board of Directors Authorizes Liquidation of Assets with Goal of Maximizing Recovery to Stakeholders
(Business Wire)

Salesforce.com cites Vuzit as case for mainstream cloud computing
(Vuzit Blog)

Philadelphia’s First “Gym” for Innovators Opens at the University City Science Center (Business Wire)

Chesco man gets 4-year sentence for deals with Iran
(Philadelphia Inquirer)

ALM Announces Plans to Merge The Legal Intelligencer and Pennsylvania Law Weekly (Business Wire)




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NBC sets Jay Leno's prime-time exit and return to late night; still no deal with Conan O'Brien (LA Times: Company Town)

Philly Tech People News 1/10/2010

Cordani Becomes CIGNA CEO
Harris is New Chairman of the Board (Business Wire)

Comcast's top lawyer calls the workload shots (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Journal Register Company Names Veteran Media Executive John Paton as Chief Executive Officer
Company To Expand Multi-Platform Local News Strategy (Business Wire)

Aria Systems Promotes Tom Dibble to Chief Revenue Officer (Marketwire)

Financial Software Systems appoints Steve Mills to head Global Sales
(bobsguide.com)

e-DMZ Security Names Scott Hammack Chief Executive Officer (Business Wire)

Matt Bieber Promoted to Principal at Originate Ventures (Business Wire)

Comcast Promotes Grace Killelea to Senior Vice President of Talent for Comcast Cable (Business Wire)

Comcast Entertainment Group Promotes Kolb And MacLellan
Senior execs expand roles (Broadcasting & Cable)

Industry Experts Join Instem; New Jersey Office Opens
Instem to Accelerate Penetration of New Solutions Throughout Preclinical Market (Business Wire)

The Keane Organization Appoints Mary Greener Steigerwalt as Chief Operating Officer (Business Wire)




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Issa: Comcast-NBC deal "will go through" (The Hill: Hillicon Valley)

Skype’s CEO says companies (like Comcast) are squelching innovation (VentureBeat)

Pfizer to cut 680 jobs at 2 Pa. sites (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Highly ranked Wyeth IT operations particularly hard hit.

Philly Phanatics
High viewer standards in DMA #4 (Broadcasting & Cable)

Daily Links 1/8/10: Court of Appeals appears to lean towards Comcast in Net Arguments

Heartland in $60 mln settlement agreement with Visa (Reuters)

FCC Gets Torrent Of Tough Questions From Judges
BitTorrent Decision Gets Scrutinized at Appeals Court Oral Arguments (Multichannel News)
Court to FCC: You Don’t Have Power to Enforce Net Neutrality (Wired Blogs)

Cable's Tru2way Build Continues (Light Reading: Cable Digital News)


Rosetta acquires Wishbone (Medical Marketing and Media)

Mistras Delivers Increased Profitability and 21% Second Quarter Revenue Growth; Net Income of $3.6 Million and Adjusted EBITDA of $12.3 Million (Globe Newswire via CNN Money)

IBM, Accenture top SAP implementation partner rankings, but smaller SIs strong (SearchSAP.com)

Clearwire looking at multiple new wholesale partners (Fierce Wireless)

Internet Capital Group (ICGE) Sells 772.92K Common fo Blackboard (BBBB); Expects $8M Income Tax Refunds in 2010 (StreetInsider.com)

Catching up with FlyCast (Droid, Recording, Video) (Zatz Not Funny!)
FlyCast is based in Lancaster.

Philadelphia's Mütter Museum goes digital with new Webisodes (NJ.com)




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Daily Links 1/7/10: Comcast/FCC appeals case over internet practices on tomorrow

FCC To Defend Reprimand Of Comcast For Internet Practices (Dow Jones via CNN Money)

Comcast CEO (again) rules out NBC move to cable (Radio Business Report/Television Business Report)

Motorola Strengthens IP Video Portfolio With Strategic Acquisition (PR Newswire)

Motorola at CES
(Media Experiences 2 Go-Motorola Blog)

Motorola Expands Media Mobility Solutions to Video Service Providers (PR Newswire)

CES 2010: Microsoft Expands IPTV Platform To Handle 'TV Everywhere' (Multichannel)

DivX TV: Online Television, No Box Required (Mashable)
This DivX product is the outgrowth of DivX's acquisition of AnySource Media of Malvern last September. I believe some of those people remain in Malvern (in fact, internet job postings suggest they've been looking to hire several people out there).


BuLogics Introduces World's First Wireless Controller for Smart Grid Metering
Bridges Z-Wave and ZigBee Technology Standards (PR Newswire)

Oracle Buys Data Quality Vendor
DataLens technology will bolster Oracle's data hub, supply chain, and ERP applications, the database giant says. (Information Week)

QlikView Offers the First Business Intelligence Application Built on Android (PR Newswire)


SEI to Add Loan Automation, Data Feeds to Outsourcing Services (Bank Systems & Technology)

MCCC Introduces iPhone Apps Programming Course (Montgomery County Community College)

Unisys, CardioNet are the best and worst local stocks for 2009 (Philly.com: Philly Inc)

University HealthSystem Consortium gets access to Executive Health Resources information (Philadelphia Business Journal)




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Daily Links 1/6/10: Justice Department to Study Comcast Takeover of NBC

First Round Capital Takes A Tour Of NYC’s Start-Up Scene
(Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)

Outsourcing entrepreneurs: How the EU lets startups slip through its fingers (VentureBeat)

Kenexa: Piper Turns Cautious; Awaiting Job Growth (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Verizon's FiOS ETF: $360 Starting January 17
Verizon only acknowledging 'changes' coming... (Broadband Reports)

Verizon fights for 40% FiOS penetration, two-day deployment (Telephony Online)


Justice Department to Study Comcast Takeover of NBC (Bloomberg)

Tennis Volleys Program Carriage Complaint Against Comcast
Network Says Comcast Favors Own Networks; Wants To Improve Its Sports Tier Positioning
(Multichannel News)

Thomson Reuters to Create Data-Driven Profiles of World's Leading Research Institutions (PR Newswire)

Lockheed Martin to cut 1,200 jobs (Philadelphia Business
Journal)

XIPWIRE Launches Mobile Payment Service
(Business Wire)

Yuxi Pacific Announces Mobile Remote Deposit Capture for iPhone (PR Newswire)

Private Equity Firm Buys Rock-It Cargo (Journal of Commerce)

SAP 2010 collapse and other nonsense (ZDNet Blogs)

Vexed Tech to SAP, Oracle: Shut Up Those Shrieking Servers
(IDG via New York Times)

C&D Technologies Awarded Contract for Development of Large-Format Lithium-ion Batteries (PR Newswire)

$30 Million in New Contracts Awarded to WPCS (PR Newswire)



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Daily Links 1/5/10: Internet Capital Group acquires control of GovDelivery

Two old-school tech stocks were a dichotomy in 2009
Commentary: Investors treat Unisys, NCR differently despite similar challenges (MarketWatch)

What’s First Round Capital Looking For In Their Investments? (CenterNetworks)
On First Round's New York tour.

Cox, Motorola Join 'Digital Locker' Group DECE
Consortium Announces Common File Format, and Selects Authentication Provider, DRM Vendors
(Multichannel News)

Internet Capital Group Buys GovDelivery (PE Hub)

Sen. Kohl to hold antitrust hearing on Comcast-NBC Universal merger (Washington Post: Post Tech)
While they are at it, the senators should take a look at whether Sen. Kohl's NBA team gets special treatment under antitrust laws.

Is poor software design damaging your business? (Computer Business Review)
On Philly's Electronic Ink.


Thomson Reuters buys Discovery Logic, will be part of Healthcare & Science unit (Philadelphia Business Journal)

T-Mobile upgrades 3G footprint to HSPA 7.2 (FierceWireless)

Blogger Relations at SAP (Enterprise Irregulars)

How Boards Should Deal With M&A
A conversation between two experts. (Forbes)
Using SAP as an example.


InfoLogix Announces 1-for-25 Reverse Stock Split (PR Newswire)

Minneapolis completes municipal Wi-Fi network (MuniWireless)




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