Comcast hopes fall schedule revives NBC's image (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Q&A With Geoff Cook: How We Solved The Chatroulette Porn Problem (TechCrunch)

Netflix likely to Become Largest Subscription Entertainment Business in U.S.
(Hollywood Reporter)

Daily Links 4/22/2011: Can Dish plus Blockbuster unseat Netflix?

Amazon Says It’s “All Hands On Deck” As Cloud Troubles Enter Day Two (All Things Digital)

Amazon, eBay wage costly battle for shoppers (Reuters)

Cloud Strategy Shifts in SAP Shops from Cost Savings to Agility (ASUG News)

Dell Boomi: The Digital Universal Translator (IT Business Edge)

Caution urged as smartphone technology expands into medicine and health (Philadelphia Inquirer)

How 'SNL's' Lorne Michaels Became Comedy's Most Powerful Man…Ever (Hollywood Reporter)

Can Dish plus Blockbuster unseat Netflix? (Washington Post)

Formspring Absorbs What’s Left of Q&A Competitor PeerPong: The People (All Things Digital)
PeerPong's investors included First Round Capital.



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SunGard Availability to use the channel to help reach for the Cloud

Obviously, Cloud Computing is a hot space right now. Just being recognized as a player in the Cloud can instantly boost your market value, and major vendors are lining up to outline their strategies and claim a slice of the market. Forrester projects that the market for Cloud Computing services will increase from about $41 billion in 2011 to $241 billion in 2020.


Earlier this year, Wayne-based Sungard Availablity Services (a unit of Sungard Data Systems) officially unvieled its Enterprise Cloud Service, something it had been putting the pieces in place for over the past couple of years. SunGard Availability, which has about $1.5 billion in annual revenue, historically has provided consulting, managed hosting, storage and recovery services, and business continuity management software. While it had been running some private clouds in a dedicated VMWare environments, this marked the company's formal entry into the multi-tenant Enterprise Cloud services business. The Enterprise Cloud Service is hosted out of SunGard's one million-square-foot datacenter on Spring Garden St. in Philadelphia and another datacenter in Colorado, according to Tier1 Research. It is built on Vblock technology from VMware, Cisco and EMC.


Gartner analyst Tom Bittman recently discussed the role of the channel (sales through partners and resellers) in Cloud Computing, writing that "the channel will be critical in broader adoption of cloud computing (and private cloud), and the channel is not ready to do this. The channel needs to be rebooted".


That is what SunGard is trying to do. It recently announced it is expanding its channel effort, which had not formally existed within the company until about two and 1/2 years ago, to the Enterprise Cloud Service. The channel program, under the direction of Melissa McCoy, Sungard Availability's vice president, Channel Programs, provides sales and marketing resources, training and education, and co-marketing opportunities as well as dedicated channel support. It includes both a Solutions Provider program, which benefits those who incorporate SunGard services into their own solutions, and a Referral program. The channel program applies to all SunGard services, not just Cloud services.


McCoy says sales from the channel program grew 60% last year, and channel-related activities accounted for more than one third of SunGard's new customers. Sungard expects its channel program to eventually contribute more than 10% of total revenue, eChannelLine reports. McCoy emphasizes Sungard's experience in managing sophisticated production environments and its entire portfolio of services, in addition to its Cloud Services, as factors distinguishing it from competitors.



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Daily Links 4/21/2011: Monetate announces Open Source competition for Philly-area developers

Verizon Q1 EPS In Line; Affirms 2011 Outlook; But Shares Slip (Forbes: The Tech Trade)

Verizon Tallies 3.7 Million FiOS TV Subs
Revenue From Telco's Fiber-Optic Services Grows 23.7% (Multichannel News)

CFO: Verizon not pursuing Web video for now (Reuters)


Amazon Cloud Failure Takes Down Web Sites (New York Times: Bits)

NHL deal brings Versus to the big time
Commentary: Deal for hockey rights will shake up Canadian sports TV (MarketWatch)


Clearwire, Comcast And Sprint Widen 4G Reach In D.C., Baltimore
WiMax Provider Ups Coverage to 2.81 Million People in Washington, 1.75 Million in Baltimore (Multichannel News)

Monetate Announces Open Source Competition for Developers in the Philadelphia Area (PR Web)

Philly Fed manufacturing index slumps in April
(MarketWatch)
U.S. April Philadelphia Business Outlook Report (Text) (Bloomberg)

More Predictions on the Huge Growth of ‘Cloud Computing’ (Wall Street Journal: Digits)

Gartner: BI, Analytics Software Spending Jumps 13.4% (PC World)

Electronic medical records systems create need for scribes to input data (Philadelphia Inquirer)



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Daily Links 4/20/2011: Will SunGard bid on Blackboard?

Want to Know How First Round Capital was Started? (Silicon Alley Insider)


NBC Sports Chief Says Network Will Make Money on $2 Billion NHL Deal (The Hollywood Reporter)

Comcast SportsNet pilots NBC O&O plan (Variety)

TiVo soars on ruling in Dish Network case
Dish to seek Supreme Court review of decision (MarketWatch)

Blackboard: Who Are The Buyers? (Forbes: The Tech Trade)
Some analysts name SunGard (with its SunGard Higher Education unit) as a potential bidder. I tend to think that its highly leveraged capital structure might limit SunGard's ability to act, given the multiple Blackboard will command, but suppose if they really want to do it they might be able to find a way to finance it.
Internet Capital Group of Wayne was a significant investor in Blackboard, although it divested its remaining interest last year.
(Update: Missed this announcement from a couple of weeks ago on SunGard/Blackboard partnership, though its not something to read too much into.)

Pearson and SunGard Higher Education Integrate Pearson LearningStudio SaaS-based LMS with the Banner Student and Luminis Platform Solutions (SunGard Press Release)
Interesting, though certainly coincidental, timing.

Hewlett-Packard Hires Homlish of SAP as Chief Marketing Officer (Bloomberg)

All change in SAP's on-demand leadership (ZDNet Blogs)

Gartner Says Worldwide Business Intelligence, Analytics and Performance Management Software Market Surpassed the $10 Billion Mark in 2010 (Gartner Press Release)

Philly Controller's Office devises an app for reporting waste and fraud (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Gov. Christie says he has 'grave concerns' about bill to deregulate basic phone service (NJ.com)



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Daily Links 4/19/2011: Comcast, NHL reach 10-year deal reported to be worth $2 billion

NBC Sports, NHL Reach New TV Deal (Hollywood Reporter)
Press conference planned for 1pm ET.

Comcast Extends U.S. NHL Rights; Deal Said to Reach $2 Billion (Bloomberg)

With $4 Million From Comcast, Fwix Launches Its Own Open Places Databases (TechCrunch)

Sprint to pay Clearwire $1 billion for wireless services in new pricing deal (AP via Washington Post)

Sprint & Clearwire Kiss & Make Up. But Where’s WiMAX? (Gigaom)

Sprint/LightSquared Deal Expected Soon (Light Reading Mobile)

Symphony Technology Buys Drug Info Co. ImpactRx From VCs (Dow Jones LBO Wire)
Mt Laurel-based ImpactRX had previously raised about $37.5 million from VCs.

SAP’s Wookey Departure: Much Ado About Nothing (ASUG News)

Wolfram|Alpha & DuckDuckGo Conspire to Eat Google's Lunch (Search Engine Watch)

Gruber ruminates on Apple's cloud (The Unofficial Apple Weblog)

Phillies Science Day at the Ballpark: Robot to Throw First Pitch Tomorrow?! (Geekadelphia)



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Daily Links 4/18/2011: Do Ebersol and Comcast disagree on Olympic strategy?

Olympic$ hurdle for Ebersol and Comcast (New York Post)

Key SaaS Software Executive Leaving SAP (PC World)

SAP denies acquisition rumours (v3.co.uk)
SAP moving closer to HP in market value, Bill McDermott notes.

MoneyTree: Venture funding up significantly in Philadelphia area (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Susquehanna Growth Equity Acquires MediMedia Information Technologies, LLC (PR Newswire)

New Invite Media Sales Chief, Bruce Falck, Discusses The Road Ahead For Google’s Demand-Side Platform Business (AdExchanger.com)

SavingStar Brings Coupon-Clipping Into Digital Age (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
First Round Capital invests again in $7 million second round for Massachusetts company.

Exclusive: Flipboard Confirms $50 Million Funding at $200 Million Valuation (All Things Digital)
Comcast Interactive Ventures a new investor.

Liberty Sets May Date for Spin-Off Vote
Spin Would Make Liberty Interactive Asset-Backed Stock (Multichannel News)

MRO Corp. Acquires Release-of-Information Services Vendor Keystone Management Solutions (Business Wire)



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SAP loses its Wookey: Will he show up at HP? (IT Knowledge Exchange: Channel Marker)

Philly Tech People News 4/17/2011

NBCUniversal diversity executive Paula Madison to step down
(LA Times: Company Town)

Comcast Names Maria G. Arias as Executive Director of Diversity and Inclusion (Business Wire)

Comcast Promotes Sarah Gitchell and David Marcus to Vice President, Deputy General Counsel (Comcast Press Release)

Heartland Payment Systems Adds to Executive Team (Business Wire)
Former ING Direct USA CFO Maria Rueda becomes Heartland CFO.

iMANY Expands Leadership Team With the Appointment of President and Chief Operating Officer (Marketwire)

update CRM Expands Life Sciences Team in North America (Business Wire)

Co-founder of Shop.org, Elaine Rubin, Joins Monetate Strategic Advisory Board (PR Newswire)

GSI Commerce Appoints John Healy as CEO of MBS Insight; Names Joe Gagnon President of e-Dialog (Business Wire)

USA Technologies and Executive Management Team Extend Employment Agreements
Leadership’s Agreements Extended Through June 2014 (Business Wire)

Aklero Risk Analytics Appoints Richard J. Downing to Lead Sales Development (National Mortgage Professional)

ISGN Hires John Axt as Title Operations Delivery Executive (Housing Matrix)

Cloud Computing Provider independenceIT Continues to Expand with New Business Development and Sales Leadership (Business Wire)

Daily Links 4/15/2011: Josh Kopelman on missing out on Twitter

Woulda Coulda Shoulda - Twitter (Redeye VC)


Bamboom Announces $4.5MM Seed Round of Financing Led by FirstMark Capital to Revolutionize Live TV (Marketwire)
First Round Capital also invests.

Bamboom takes over-the-air TV over the top (LA Times: Company Town)

Syncbak Aims to Bring Local TV Online (Gigaom: NewTeeVee)
Somewhat similar to the problem Bamboom is trying to address, but a different approach.

Meet Dell, your internet service provider (The Register)
On Boomi.

Philadelphia Looks to Condom-Locating iPhone App to Help Slow Spread of AIDS (All Things Digital)

NBCU Head of Washington, D.C. Office Exits (The Wrap)

Cablevision Brings Hulu, iTunes, Web Video To TV
Cable Operator's Optimum Link PC-to-TV Streaming Service Launched April 1 (Multichannel News)

Ballmer’s Bluster: Lots of Hype, Hot Air about Microsoft’s ERP Cloud
(ASUG News)

Lockheed-Cherry Hill wins military command-and-control systems work (Philadelphia Business Journal)



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