Daily Links 2/8/2010: On Comcast's Xfinity rebranding effort

Comcast, Verizon battle it out for market share
Varied TV, Web services make comparisons hard (Boston Globe)

Beginning Feb. 12, Comcast's Xfinity Reaches Into 11 Markets
Initial Rebranding Push Expected To Last Up To Eight Weeks (Multichannel News)

Comcast Xfinity Rebranding Largely Laughed At
Analysts, customers aren't particularly impressed... (Broadband Reports)

ANXeBusiness Corp. Acquires S2S Communications
Combined Company Further Strengthens Positions in the Managed Security and Managed Network Services Markets (Marketwire)
S2S Communications is based in Conshohocken.

Transcend United Technologies Launched (PR Newswire)

Small tech firm taps organic growth plan
Next-generation LED maker looks to the future (NJBIZ.com)

Why Your Cloud Applications Should Be Multi-tenant (Enterprise Irregulars)
Podcast interview with Boomi CTO Rick Nucci.

ResCap’s Ditech Operations Relocating to Pennsylvania (DSNews)

IMS Health Announces Stockholder Approval of Merger Agreement with Affiliates of TPG and CPP Investment Board (Business
Wire)

NASDAQ OMX Announces Fourth Quarter 2009 Results (Globe Newswire via CNN Money)




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Breaking: Apotheker to resign immediately as SAP AG CEO

SAP AG said today that the SAP Supervisory Board has reached a mutual agreement with CEO Leo Apotheker not to extend his contract as a member of the SAP Executive Board, and that Apotheker has resigned as CEO and member of the SAP Executive Board effective immediately.
SAP will function now with two CO-CEOs; Co-CEOs: Bill McDermott, head of field organization, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product development.
The implications of this announcement are astounding, frankly. SAP has had some problems recently, but I've never heard a clue of anything like this going on, and it is so unusual for SAP to make a change like this that isn't planned out over a long period of time.

Press Release

SAP CEO Apotheker steps down after seven months (Reuters)

SAP: Apotheker gone, co-CEO's appointed
(ZDNet Blogs)
Dennis Howlett not very surprised.

SAP: New leadership, same old story? (ZDNet Blogs)



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Philly Tech People News 2/07/2010

InterDigital Names Terry Clontz Chairman of the Board of Directors (Business Wire)

InterDigital Appoints Naresh Soni Chief Technology Officer (Business Wire)

Viridity Energy Names Samuel A. Wolfe as Director of Legal & Regulatory Affairs (Business Wire)

e-DMZ Security Appoints Experienced Information Security Professional, Andrew Clarke, As Vice President to Head Growing EMEA Business (Business Wire)

Robert Sammis Joins BioClinica as VP of Finance for eClinical Division (Business Wire)

Backe Digital hires Andrew Schultz as Digital and Experience Strategist (Philly Ad Club)

O3 World adds Keith McGinnis and Alex Turbett (Philly Ad Club)

Mickey Flynn to Step Down as President of Pennsylvania Bio Mid-Year, Board Names Chris Molineaux His Successor (Business Wire)


MODA Names New Members to QC Micro Advisory Board (PR Web)




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IMHO: ‘Thank You For Calling Comcast…’ (New York Times-The Local-Maplewood Blog)

SAP's Proof of Concept for Augmented 'Corporate' Reality (ReadWriteEnterprise)

4th Quarter 2009 Philly VC Investments; Not too much for IT

The PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree detailed report on 4th quarter 2009 VC investments is out (free registration required).

Total investments in Philadelphia Metro were $142 million. But after subtracting $61 million for Biotech, $43 million for Medical Devices, and $25 million for Industrial/Energy, that only leaves about $13 million for investments that might primarily be considered IT-related, spread over 13 deals.

Most of these I have reported on before, including MobileMD, MuseAmi, PackLate, Agilence, and Timsesight Systems. Other investments revealed in the report are Core Solutions of Wayne ($500,000), which supplies electronic health record (EHR) systems for behavioral healthcare, Alphion Corporation of Princeton Junction ($1 million),which develops and manufactures integrated photonic components, and NearVerse of Philadelphia ($1 million), which provides mobile IP network application services.



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Daily Links 2/5/2010: Air Products goes after Airgas

Air Products Offers to Acquire Airgas for $60.00 Per Share in Cash (PR Newswire)

USA Technologies and SAVE Announce Settlement of Proxy Contest (Business Wire)

Rich Hofmann: Technology completes the sports spectator experience (Philadelphia Daily News)

Democrats Question Comcast on NBC Deal (New York Times)

Top Issues at Comcast-NBCU Hearings: Jobs, Competition, Broadcast TV and Online Video (Comcast Voices)

DT Considers T-Mobile USA IPO, Spinoff (Telecom Ramblings)


IBM Acquires Initiate Systems: Five Key Takeaways (Spend Matters)

Studio out of Studio Centre plan (The Reporter Online)

What Is Printmaking Today? Philadelphia Dares to Ask (New York Times)

Advanta veterans launch MultiFunding for small businesses
(Philadelphia Business Journal)
Founded by Ideablob guy Ami Kassar.

QSI: Sales Up, Profits Flat, Stock Down (Health Data Management)
Quality Systems' NextGen Healthcare Information Systems is based in Horsham.

SunGard Acquires Inmatrix (PR Newswire)

EduCon 2.2 — A ProfHacker Perspective (ProfHacker)




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Daily Links 2/4/2010: Comcast's big day on the Hill

Comcast/NBCU Hearings on
Capitol Hill (CSPAN)

Republicans: Don't Let Regulators, Others Sidetrack Comcast/NBCU (Multichannel News)

Comcast says no big job cuts from NBC deal (Reuters)

From Here To Xfinity: Comcast Rebranding Starts Next Week (paidContent)


Unisys Announces Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2009 Financial Results (PR Newswire)

Marlin Equity buys certain segments of Unisys
* Forms new co called Burroughs Payment Systems Inc (Reuters)

Kulicke & Soffa Reports Results for its First Fiscal Quarter 2010 (Business Wire)
Kulicke & Soffa FY Q1 Crushes Ests; Stock Jumps (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

SAP Launches a Google Wave for the Enterprise (Mashable)

Software AG 2009 Profits Rise 22%; Predicts Growth in 2010
(Bloomberg via Business Week)
Includes results from recently acquired IDS Scheer.

Technitrol Reports Q4 and FY09 Results, Board Declares Dividend
Results Reflect Continued Operating Profit Improvement (Business Wire)

QlikTech Positioned in the Challenger Quadrant Based on Review of its QlikView Product in 2010 Business Intelligence Platforms Magic Quadrant (PR Newswire)

U.S. lawmaker seeks probe of Pa. Turnpike aide's firing (Philadelphia Inquirer)

BioClinica Inks Multi-Year Outsourcing Deal with Leading Biopharmaceutical Company
Company will Standardize Electronic Data Capture and Global Data Management for Frazer, Pennsylvania-based Cephalon, Inc. (Business Wire)

Lancaster's Illuminex expects $2M equity investment (Keystone Edge)




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Daily Links 2/3/2010: Tough times? Don't worry about Comcast, as earnings more than double

Comcast's profit more than doubles (MarketWatch)

2010: The Year Comcast Embraces Convergence (GiagaOM)

Comcast Launches XFINITY (Comcast Voices)

NBC affiliate board chair wants conditions on Comcast - NBC Universal deal (LA Times: Company Town)

Comcast to Acquire New Global Telecom
(Light Reading: Cable Digital News)

Monster to Acquire HotJobs Business and Enter into Multi-year Traffic Agreement with Yahoo! (Business Wire)
It will be interesting to see what impact this will have on the Yahoo! Newspaper Consortium of which Philadelphia Newspapers is a part, although Philly.com has been using Monster rather than HotJobs.

Kenexa Swoons As Outlook Misses (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
Janney Montgomery Scott Downgrades Kenexa (KNXA) to Neutral; Lowers Estimates & PT on Increased Risk Profile
(StreetInsider.com)


IBM Buying MDM Vendor Initiate Systems (PC World)

Clarifying the Future of NetWeaver PI (Feeding the SAP Ecosystem)

SAP Questions Gartner BI Magic Quadrant Ranking
The report on business intelligence platforms places SAP behind Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, SAS, and Microstrategy on ability to execute. (Information Week)

MedQuist Agrees to Purchase Domestic Assets of Spheris
Stock and asset purchase agreement would provide Spheris' customers with access to industry-leading technology platform and transcription services. (PR Newswire)

NJ Judge Issues Mixed Order on Use of E-Voting Machines
(IDG via New York Times)

Ben Franklin provides loans to Bethlehem startups (Easton Express-Times)
Viddler is one of them.




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Report: Comcast acquires VoIP firm

The blog Von is reporting that Comcast has agreed to acquire privately held VoIP provider New Global Telecom. Von cites an internal Comcast email sent by Comcast president of business services Bill Stemper. NGT, based in Golden, CO, is "one of the nation’s largest providers of wholesale hosted and trunk-based VoIP solutions", Stemper says in the email. In October of last year, Comcast acquired Chicago-area CLEC Cimco Communications. More moves had been expected by Comcast in the business telecom market.



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Daily Links 2/2/2010: Bank of New York to Buy PNC Unit for $2.3 Billion

Venture Capital’s Most Trafficked Web Sites (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
First Round Capital is #1.

Bank of New York to Buy PNC Unit for $2.3 Billion (New York Times: DealBook)

Kenexa Announces Financial Results for Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2009 (Business Wire)
Kenexa Q4 results, Q1 view lag market; shares fall (Reuters)


Mistras Group, Inc. Announces Asset Protection Solutions for Improved Smart Grid Reliability (Globe
Newswire via CNN Money)

Is Twitter losing its luster? (Network World)
Based on study by Camden's RJ Metrics.

ThePlatform Encroaches on Brightcove's Turf (Light Reading: Cable Digital News)

SAP RELEASES PUBLIC BETA VERSION OF CLOUD-BASED PROJECT 12SPRINTS, BECOMES RESEARCH PARTNER FOR THE 2.0 ADOPTION COUNCIL (SAP Press Release)

Last-Minute Travel Startup PackLate Raising $1 Million In Funding
(paidContent)
Philly-based stealth startup. Missed this one last month.
The site has launched: PackLate

Software firm finds niche in financial services (Daily Local News)

Judging the Philadelphia ADDY Awards. A tight show but I do have one question… (Gods of Advertising)

Editorial: Cleaning up the BRT mess (Philadelphia Inquirer)




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Daily Links 2/1/2010: Comcast-NBCU merger faces Hill scrutiny Thursday

IMS Health to Sell Debt as Junk Spreads Widen: New Issue Alert
(Bloomberg via Business Week)

Virtify Plans Global Expansion, Forms Key Partnership with IMS Health (Xconomy Boston)

Comcast Will Be Shaking Up Their Speed Tiers
22/5 tier going away, 16/2 being upgraded to 20/4 (Broadband Reports)

Comcast-NBCU merger faces Hill scrutiny Thursday (Washington Post: Post Tech)

Comcast's E! Makes $200 Million In Ad Revenue, On Par With Bravo (Business Insider: The Wire)

This Week In New York Tech: February 1 (Silicon Alley Insider)

Leap Seeks Buyers, WSJ Says (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Big screen and bigger ideas
EduCon promotes innovative ideas, tools. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

SAP's Enterprise Collaboration Tool Entering Public Beta (PC World)

Setback for SAP in Oracle Suit (PC World)

The Networked Grid 100: Movers and Shakers of the Smart Grid (Greentech Media)
A virtual Who's Who of Smart Grid Technology.

Pennsylvania Capital Should Weigh Bankruptcy, Controller Says (Bloomberg)




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