Earnings Reports 7/29/2010

Checkpoint Systems, Inc. Announces Second Quarter 2010 Results (Business Wire)

ICG Announces Second Quarter 2010 Financial Results
ICG Achieves Core Consolidated Aggregate Revenue Growth of 25%
Company to Receive $25.4 Million Cash Dividend from ICG Commerce
(Globe Newswire)

Safeguard Scientifics Announces Second Quarter 2010 Financial Results
2010 Aggregate Partner Company Revenue Guidance Increased, Expected to be between $325 Million and $350 Million
(Business Wire)

Motorola's Second-Quarter Profit Tops Estimates on Droid Sales (Bloomberg)
Motorola Expects Home Segment Sales To Fall 7% In 2010
Cable-Centric Unit's Revenue Declined 13% In Q2
(Multichannel News)

CDI Corp. Reports Second Quarter 2010 Results and Announces Dividend (PR Newswire)

Innovative Solutions & Support, Inc. Announces Fiscal 2010 Third Quarter Financial Results (Business Wire)

Dataram Reports Fiscal 2010 Fourth Quarter Financial Results (Business Wire)




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Comcast results beat estimates

Comcast Profit, Revenue Top Estimates on Premium-Product Sales (Bloomberg)
But profit falls 9% on NBC Universal expenses.

Moffett on Comcast 2Q: Sunny with Chance of Regulatory Clouds
Says NBCU deal conditions will affect future cash flow
(Broadcasting & Cable)

Comcast’s Burke: ‘With NBC, Our Ad Business Will Be Worth $10 Billion’ (paidContent)

A look at Comcast 2Q results by business segment (AP via Google News)

Comcast Corporation Q2 2010 Earnings Call Transcript (Seeking Alpha)




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Daily Links 7/27/2010: Apple to open Center City store on Friday

Apple to Open First Retail Store in Philadelphia (on Friday)
(Mac Rumors)

Lockheed surfs Pentagon changes; 2Q net up 12 pct (AP
via Google News)

Unisys Soars As Q2 Results Crush Street Rev, Profit Estimates
(Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
Unisys income triples on sale of health-information unit (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Unisys to Offer Mainframe Cloud Services (PC World)

Ametek Q2 results beats Street, sees strong FY10 (Reuters)

New ISP rank and cost data from Ookla, Comcast on top (Seattle Times)

Comcast's Target: 105-Meg D3 Downstream (Light Reading Cable)

UnitedHealth Said Near $1.5 Billion Purchase of Services Firm (Bloomberg)
Would acquire Newtown Square-based Executive Health Resources Inc.

Harleysville CIO Akhil Tripathi Resigns
Sources say Tripathi left the company for personal reasons.
(Insurance & Technology)




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SAP profits increase 15%, but short of estimates

SAP Second-Quarter Profit Rises 15%, Missing Estimates (Bloomberg)
Software revenue up 64 percent in the Americas, up 11 percent in Asia, but down 9 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

SAP reports healthier Q2 2010 (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Reports Revenue Up 12 Percent, Earnings Up 15 Percent (IDG via New York Times)

SAP Completes Tender Offer for Shares of Sybase, Inc. (PR Newswire)

Bayer Implements Global IT Strategy With SAP (PR Newswire)

SaaS Market Grows Spectacularly to the Detriment of the IT Kings (ReadWrite Cloud)




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Enterprise Software Is Sexy Again (TechCrunch)

Clicking on T-Commerce
Comcast to Deploy Shopping Channel QVC’s New EBIF App
(Multichannel News)

Franken: Comcast-NBCU, Net Neutrality are 'First Amendment' Issues of Our Time (The Wrap)

Pace Makes $475M Move on 2Wire (Light Reading Cable)


Dechert Must Pay Taxes for Canned Computer Software (The Legal Intelligencer via Law.com)
I'm not sure whether this Pa. Supreme Court ruling leaves a gray area as to whether SaaS or cloud computing services would be taxable.

Start-Ups Look To Disrupt Stodgy PC Management Space (Wall Street
Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
Fiberlink Communications of Blue Bell is one of the companies discussed.

Kenexa Announces Acquisition of The Centre for High Performance Development (Business Wire)

Sabre founder to speak about success at BDPA conference (Philadelphia Inquirer)




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Philly Tech Tidbits 7/25/2010

Drexel graduate Nathan Kuruna has been going all over America shooting interviews with gamers about Newgrounds, the Glenside-based Flash gaming site founded by Tom Kulp, with the goal of producing a video documentary titled "Everything, By Everyone", a site called Kokatu Australia reports. But he is going to need some funds to put the whole production together, so he has set up a KickStarter page where people can contribute. Right now he is about halfway to his $12,000 goal. Contributions of $100 or more will get you a personal tour of Newgrounds' offices.

Boomi, the Berwyn-based provider of cloud-based application integration systems, tweeted last week that they are looking to fill several new positions. Everyone in the business talks about how great Boomi is doing, but I haven't been able to find any information of how Boomi is actually doing in terms of metrics (such as revenue, growth or number of employees) although I am sure some industry analysts have a good idea. Boomi hasn't reported any additional venture capital infusions since an initial round of $4 million by FirstMark Capital in 2008. Competitor Cast Iron Systems was acquired by IBM in May.
Another company that appears to have several open positions is Health Market Science, the King of Prussia-based healthcare marketing information company.

Two upcoming events are of particular interest. The BDPA (Black Data Processing Associates), an organization founded in Philadelphia in 1975 by Earl A. Pace, Jr. and the late David Wimberly, will hold its National BDPA Technology Conference at the Philadelphia Downtown Marriot July 28 through July 31. And Tech cocktail, which hosts technology showcases in various US cities, is coming to Philadelphia for the first time. The event, to be held on the evening of August 12th at the Field House Sports Bar, will features companies in the DreamIt Ventures program as well as other local startups.

Applications to be Fellows for the initial year of Code for America, which will help Boulder, Philadelphia, Boston, Seattle and DC build Gov 2.0 apps, are due August 15, ReadWriteWeb reports. Fellows will spend most of their 11-month 2011 term in Code for America's home base of San Francisco and will spend one month in the city they are assigned to help. The program provides a stipend of $35,000, travel expenses and health benefits.

Alteva, the Philly-based provider of hosted VoIP and unified communications services, cites the the potential for significant energy savings and reduced carbon dioxide gas emissions from using hosted versus on-premise VoIP systems.

Collegeville-based mobile technology firm Movitas seems to have ramped up its online advertising since announcing a $3 million investment last week. I am seeing Movitas ads all over the place.

Geekadelphia reports that the Center City Apple store on Walnut Street now has an Apple logo, though it is still unclear when the store will be ready to open.




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A look at Philadelphia's MedAd Firms

Medical Marketing & Media's July 2010 issue should be of interest to anyyone in the Philly advertising, digital media or pharma/healthcare communities. This is MM & M's "Agency Issue", providing profiles of what it considers the top 75 advertising agencies in the business in terms of revenue. Philadelphia-area shops profiled include:

Cadient Group (King of Prussia)

CDM Princeton (Princeton)

Digitas Health (Philadelphia)

Dudnyk (Horsham)

nitrogen-formerly Dorland (Philadelphia)

Razorfish Health (Philadelphia)

Rosetta Healthcare (Hamilton, NJ)

Roska Healthcare Advertising (Montgomeryville)

Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare Innovations (Newtown)

Vox Medica (Philadelphia)

Others in the Top 75 with offices in the Philadelphia area include IMC2 Health & Wellness, evoke interaction, Eveo, and Blue Diesel.
Several others are in New York or further up the Jersey Turnpike.

The profiles give detailed information on each agency, including in some cases headcount, revenue, growth, account wins and losses, key new hires, and business mix (such as digital vs. non-digital). Some agencies prospered in 2009 while others did not do as well. While the overall economy and healthcare cost containment were factors, other industry-specific trends such as industry consolidation, shifts in category spending, salesforce cutbacks and an increasing emphasis on reaching both physicians and consumers through direct media were also important drivers. There appeared to be a growing use of social media, which Pharma has been slow to adopt to due to regulatory issues. Heavily digitally-oriented agencies probably tended to perform better than more traditional shops, several of which reported an emphasis on beefing up their digital capabilities. At the same time, some digital shops tried to add more full-service capabilities.

Cadient Group, which had been one of the faster growing companies in the area, reported a bit of a down year in 2009 with revenue declining 15%, mostly due to two customer roster consolidations and one merger, according to CEO Steven Wray, and it reduced staff by 30 people. However, Digitas Health reported 49% growth, althought its (independently managed) sister agency within the Publicis family Razorfish Health did not give specific figures for the year, perhaps because it was only broken out into a separate shop from the rest of Razorfish in March of this year. MediaBistro"s Agency Spy did report in April that Razorfish Health had "purged" its creative department. Publicis acquired Razorfish from Microsoft in August 2009.

Rosetta Marketing reported 10% growth overall and 33% in healthcare. Rosetta garners a good deal of M&A speculation, both as a possible acquirer and seller, given that it is one of the largest independent agencies out there with a strong digital heritage.

Blue Diesel is planning an expansion of its Newtown office, according to MM & M.




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Daily Links 7/22/2010: Comcast’s NBC Purchase May Mean Selling Stations (Bloomberg)

Comcast, GE: Character Assassins Shouldn't Shoot Down NBCU Deal
Parties Believe FCC Should 'Expeditiously' Approve The Union
(Multichannel News)

Comcast’s NBC Purchase May Mean Selling Stations or Arbitration (Bloomberg Business Week)

New DirecTV chief looks beyond the fizz (LA Times)

QlikTech Announces Closing of Initial Public Offering of Common Stock and Exercise of Over-Allotment Option (Business Wire)
Sold full over-allotment of 1,680,000 shares in addition to initial offering of 11,200,000 shares.

SAP-Sybase: What to Expect in the First 90 Days (PC World)

Tyco Electronics posts quarterly profit (Reuters)

SEI Investments reports 2Q income growth (AP via Bloomberg Business Week)

DreamIt Aims To Accelerate New Business Development (Forbes)

SeatGeek Lands $1 Million for Predictive Ticket Pricing (Digital Media Wire)
NY-based graduate of DreamIt Ventures program.

SunGard Acquires Fox River Execution (PR Web)

Cobblestone | Harris Williams Advises E-Mon, LLC, in its Sale to Strategic Buyer Honeywell International (Business Wire)
E-Mon, which is based in Langhorne, manufactures smart energy submeter systems and integrated energy intelligence software.

Dow Electronic Materials Inaugurates New Facility to Serve Fast Growing OLED Market (Business Wire)




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