Daily Links 9/20/2010: Rosetta buys digital agency Level Studios

I.B.M. to Buy Analytics Firm for $1.7 Billion (New York Times: DealBook)
Right in the middle of Oracle's big party.
Global CIO: Will Larry Ellison Launch Bidding War With IBM For Netezza? (Information Week)

Digital Agency Rosetta Bulks Up, Acquires Mobile Firm Level Studios
N.J.-Based Shop Adds 215 Employees, $45 Million in Revenue
(Ad Age)
Rosetta is based in Hamilton, NJ.

Who Will Run NBC? (The Daily Beast)

John Malone Heaps Praise on Roberts (Multichannel News)

Verizon Lines Up Seidenberg's Successor (Light Reading)


Philly Tech Tidbits 9/20/2010: SCVNGR, IDEA2010, Tedx Philly

The New York Times on Saturday had an indepth article on the psychology of entrepreneurs, focused on SCVNGR founder Seth Priebatsch. SCVNGR started as a project at Princeton, went through Philly's DreamIt Ventures incubator in 20008, before being backed by Highland Capital Partners and eventually, Google Ventures. The company is now based in Cambridge.

IDEA2010 is coming to Philadelphia September 30
through October 2. The annual conference of the Information Architecture Institute, which serves User Interface Design professionals, will be held at the Independence Seaport Museum.

Philly finally gets its own TEDx. TEDx Philly will be held on November 18 at the Kimmel Center.

Philly area entrepreneur Gabriel Weinberg (search engine Duck Duck Go) is part of an informal group of angel investors called Hacker Angels, who describe themselves as hackers "in the good sense." The group's website says "we may provide feedback, advice, mentorship, hacking, investment and/or serve as advisors or independent board members, on an individual basis". Other members include AOL executive Roy Rodenstein, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter, Hotornot's Jim Young, and Punchfork founder Jeff Miller. Four of the five members recently participated in a funding of Boston-based Locately, which provides consumer location analytics using GPS data.

Microsoft Windows Phone 7 is supposedly going to be launched on October 11, and it faces a difficult challenge getting developer mindshare away from Google's Android and Apple. To get things going in Philadelphia, Microsoft has scheduled two events: a Windows Phone 7 Firestarter event this Wednesday the 22nd at Penn's Houston Hall (there is also an evening workshop that night), and a Windows Phone 7 Developer Launch on October 6 at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia.

Chattersource, a new website created by two Wharton students, Amy Cooper and Kristina Anderson, is intended to be a sort of Yelp targeted initially at Philadelphia-area college students. A school email address is required for each account.


Vanguard Group #1 on 2010 Information Week 500

The new Information Week 500 is out, and although it often tends to read pretty much the same from year to year, one interesting move is that the Vanguard Group of Malvern, the giant mutual fund, now has the top ranking (though it has been highly ranked in previous years). See detailed profile here. I'll do a rundown of the other area companies included soon.





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NBC's fall guys
Comcast assembling exec army for autumn run
(New York Post)

Nemours Tops in the Nation for Health Information Technology (PR Newswire)

Motorola 'eager' to get into tablet market, but won't do so until next year (Engadget)

Oracle posts strong first quarter: Hurd makes debut; Exadata the focus (ZDNet Blogs)
Also, Oracle's Larry Ellison suggests his company is way ahead of SAP in developing in-memory database technology.

Apple, Google and Others: Vying for Prime Time in the Digital Living Room (Knowledge@Wharton)



Potential buyer gives WPCS International ultimatum
(Philadelphia Business Journal)


Daily Links 9/16/2010: Comcast sees huge opportunity in business services

Angelakis: Big Opportunities in Commercial
NBCU On Track for Year-End Close
(Multichannel News)

Coalition Seeks Another Comcast/NBCU Hearing
Argues deal deserves another vetting because it will 'set the benchmark' for future consolidation
(Broadcasting & Cable)

Netflix. Meet Hulu. Now, How About Merging Together? (Fast Company)

Sprint CFO: Clearwire buyout too expensive for now (Reuters)

Motorola Mobility: Westward, Ha! (Light Reading Mobile)
Not sure what this is going to mean for Horsham-based Motorola Home, which is to be spun off as part of Motorola Mobility.

Philly Fed Index Shows Contracting Manufacturing in Mid-Atlantic Region (Wall Street Journal: Real Times Economics Blog)
Philly Fed Business Outlook Survey

Oracle FY Q1 Revs, Profits Exceed Street Estimates (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
Oracle Earnings Top Estimates on Software, Sun Sales (Bloomberg)


Philly's Newspapers Are Going Back on the Block
(Daily Finance)

Checkpoint Systems Creates RFID-centric 'Visibility' Division (RFID Journal)

Alteva helps channel partners with no money down UC rental plan (FierceVoIP)
Alteva is based in Philadelphia.

Taleo Powers Talent Exchange With Aria Billing and Subscription Management Platform (Marketwire)
Aria is based in Media.




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Daily Links 9/15/2010: InstaMed raises $6 million

New auction set for Philadelphia newspapers (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Air Products Nominees Win Three Seats on Airgas Board (Bloomberg Business Week)

InstaMed Raises $6 Million in Growth Capital
Capital will support InstaMed’s triple digit growth and enhance its bi-coastal data centers
(Business Wire)


The World According to Dick Ebersol
The 2010 Broadcaster of the Year reflects on his accomplishments, a successful 2010 and what lies ahead
(Broadcasting & Cable)

Comcast CFO warns that programming costs will continue to go up (LA Times: Company Town)

Canoe CTO: 'T-Commerce' Coming in 2011 (Light Reading Cable)

Main Line tech stock keeps rising (Philly.com: Philly Deals)
On QlikTech.

Microsoft Questions Salesforce.com Cloud Computing Growth Prospects (Intelligent Enterprise)

The making of the Technology Park deal (Philadelphia Business Journal: Real Estate Blog)

Google Health--Rumors of its death have been somewhat exaggerated (The Health Care Blog)

WPCS Reports FY2011 First Quarter Financial Results (PR Newswire)

C&D Technologies Reaches Agreement in Principle with Group of Major Noteholders on Financial Restructuring Plan (PR Newswire)



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Daily Links 9/14/2010: Philadelphia Technology Park Opens in The Navy Yard

SCVNGR Launches Rewards in Philadelphia (Marketwire)

Newspaper buyers have until noon to reach deal with drivers (Philadelphia Daily News)
Philadelphia Inquirer Buyer Said to Cancel Purchase, Forcing New Auction (Bloomberg)

Philadelphia Technology Park Opens in The Navy Yard
Philadelphia Technology Park Debuts $25 Million Data Center to House Computer System IT Infrastructure for Philadelphia Area Organizations
(Business Wire)

Evolve IP Completes Financing of $8.7 Million in Growth Capital
(Business Wire)

GSI Commerce Appoints Deann Harvey Chief Sales Officer for Global Marketing Services Division
Harvey to lead global sales to extend reach and drive revenue for clients
(Business Wire)
Yesterday's post about PointRoll and GSI by Jim Hopkins on his Gannett Blog seems prescient now.


SAP Finds A Message And Messenger (Forbes Blogs: Upside Potential)

DEMO: SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott says ‘The device changes everything’ (VentureBeat)
SAP Press Release

IBM CEO Shreds HP, Mark Hurd (Silicon Alley Insider)

Airgas's McCausland Takes `Pugnacious' Tack in His $5 Billion Proxy Fight (Bloomberg)

Cox, Time Warner Cable in Swap Talks?
(Light Reading Cable)

UniTek Global Services Announces Public Offering of 6,250,000 Shares of Common Stock (PR Newswire)

Journal Register Company Expands Advertising Partnership With Yahoo! Into Philadelphia Market (Marketwire)

Ben Franklin Technology Partners (NE) lists new investments (Allentown Morning Call)




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Daily Links 9/13/2010: Post-Saridakis, pointed questions about PointRoll

Post-Saridakis, pointed questions about PointRoll (Gannett Blog)
PointRoll, based in Conshohocken, is owned by Gannett.

Drivers vote down latest contract offer from Philadelphia newspapers (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Paetec buying rival telecom Cavalier for $460M (AP via Google News)
Both Paetec and Cavalier have operations in the Philadelphia area.

Cable’s Fall Agenda in D.C.
Industry Thrust Into ‘Vortex’ of Broadband Policy Issues
(Multichannel News)

Will Oracle Buy Informatica Next? (IDG via New York Times)

SAP New-Product Blitz Tomorrow (Information Week: Global CIO Blog)

Ojo Video Phone Lives! Er, Again! (Zatz Not Funny!)

Chattanooga, TN beats Google to 1Gbps—for $350 a month (Ars Technica)

Cable-TV slowly steps into stereo 3-D (EE Times)

Ex-Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz Launches Health IT Firm
Picture of Health is recruiting staff for a firm that aims to "leverage technology in pursuit of better health."
(Information Week)


TiVo down but not out; turnaround could be coming (San Jose Mercury News)

Clearwire 'Finally in New York City' (Light Reading Mobile)