Wrapping up: SAPPHIRE Now 2011

SAP Chief Says Software Fees Fund Research (Bloomberg)

SAP's evolving cloud play (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Hana Overshadows BusinessObjects 4.0 At Sapphire (Information Week)

SAP's Big Mobility Moves Highlight Oracle, Microsoft Competition (eWeek)

SAP’s Partnership with China Telecom – a New Channel into the Chinese Market, and an Early Glimpse at Partner Hosting for Business ByDesign (Feeding the SAP Ecosystem)

SAP Cloud Partnerships Expand On-Demand Options (Information Week)

The Future of Business: SAP vs. Workday (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP innovating with cloud, mobile and in-memory computing (Constellation Research)

Daily Links 5/19/2011: Dick Ebersol leaves NBC Sports; Mark Lazarus named successor

DreamIt And Comcast Partner For New Program For Minority Entrepreneurs (TechCrunch)

Dick Ebersol to Leave NBC Sports (NY Times)
This New York Post article from about a month ago suggested this kind of conflict might have been brewing.

Dick Ebersol leaves NBC Sports; Mark Lazarus named successor (USA Today)

Comcast yanks funds for nonprofit after tweet about FCC Baker’s jump (Washington Post: Post Tech)
As I tweeted last week, it is Comcast's fate from now on to be thrown into one or two major media controversies each day. Comcast has now said this was a mistake and is trying to rectify
the situation, if the organization will accept.


Philly Fed Firms See Slight Growth in Business Activity (Business Wire)
Philadelphia Area’s Manufacturing Expands at Slowest Pace in Seven Months (Bloomberg)

Salesforce.com raises revenue outlook, shares rise (Reuters)

Liberty Media Makes $1 Billion Bid to Acquire Barnes & Noble (Mashable)
This is strange; not John Malone's typical kind of business.

Comcast Exec Wants 1-Terabit Optical Standard (Light Reading Cable)

Corning cites Verizon for fiber optic boom (Reuters)

Independent Mac retailers emerge from the Apple Store shadow (Computerworld)
Article features Philadelphia's Springboard Media.



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Comcast exec downplays Baker backlash (The Hill)

The Fastest Growing Industry in the Country? It's Digital Voice (The Atlantic)

Wharton Start-Up, Chattersource, Helps Students Find Housing, Haircuts (Forbes: The Startup Economy)

[Baltimore-based] Millennial Media Is Said to Talk With Banks About IPO (Bloomberg)

News and Views from SAP's SAPPHIRE Now: 5/18/2011

SAP Certifies Amazon Cloud as Production-Ready (Gigaom)

Microsoft chases Amazon in taking SAP to the cloud (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP launching in-memory computing cloud
Partners will build applications that use SAP's HANA in-memory compute engine (Network World)

Exclusive: SAP-Oracle Tussle Alters Hana Appliance Plan (Information Week)

SAP Forecasts $7 Billion Revenue From New Units (Bloomberg)

Can SAP see the win-win-win pot of gold that is Sybase? (ZDNet Blogs)

The Long Retreat Up Market (Enterprise Irregulars)

News and Views from SAP's SAPPHIRE Now: 5/17/2011

SAP: In-memory to hit all applications; Collaboration, mobility in focus (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Revs up Mobile Application Strategy (PC World)

SAP Goes After Oracle's Database With ASE (PC World)

ByDesign Follows a Familiar Path to the Large Enterprise (Feeding the SAP Ecosystem)

SAP Calls Itself an Innovation Company and Compares Itself to Apple (ReadWrite Enterprise)

SAP may appeal U.S. $345 mln Versata patent ruling (Reuters)

Daily Links 5/17/2011: Seeking "savoir-faire," Publicis buys Rosetta for $575 million

Publicis to Acquire Rosetta for $575M (ClickZ)
How will Princeton-based digital shop work with Philly-based Publicis units Digitas Health and Razorfish Health in Pharma/Med/Life Sciences, where Rosetta has a strong presence?

Seeking "savoir-faire," Publicis buys Rosetta for $575 million (Medical Marketing & Media)

Publicis Groupe to Acquire Digital Shop Rosetta for $575 Million
Marks Change of Heart for Fiercely Independent CEO Kuenne (Ad Age)

Ben Franklin group announces investments of $2M (Philadelphia Business Journal)

HP: We Underinvested In Services, Says Apotheker (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

InterDigital Opens San Diego Outpost in Quest to Ease “Bandwidth Crunch” (Xconomy San Diego)

Philadelphia To Roll Out EHR From eClinicalWorks (Information Week)

Netflix Now The Largest Single Source of Internet Traffic In North America (TechCrunch)

Meet DOCSIS, Part 2: the jump from 2.0 to 3.0 (Ars Technica)

Daily Show mocks FCC's Baker for taking Comcast job (Ars Technica)

The Top 7 U.S. Cities To Find An IT Job Right Now (Forbes: CIO Central)
Philadelphia, Edison NJ are two of them, report says.

Philadelphia Must Catch Up on Open Government, Councilman Says (Government Technology)

Universal Business Payment Solutions Acquisition Corporation Announces Closing of its Initial Public Offering (Business Wire)



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News and Views from SAP's SAPPHIRE Now

SAP, Dell Partner on In-memory and the Cloud (PC World)

What's coming at SAPPHIRE Now? (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Upgrades Performance Management Suite (Information Week)

HP Moves Earnings Report Forward As Leaked Memo Blasts Stock (Silicon Alley Insider)
I doubt Leo is going to be showing up at SAPPHIRE.



ASUG Partners with Conshohocken's vcopious to Launch New Virtual Platform at Annual Conference (Business Wire)

Daily Links 5/16/2011: SunGard CEO Cristobal Conde steps down

SunGard Announces Chief Executive Officer Transition (Business Wire)
SunGard emphasizes that this is a long-planned transition for Cristobal Conde which has nothing to do with the company's sluggish performance in recent years. Some speculate, though, that it might be a step towards preparing for an exit (IPO or split-up?) for the PE firms involved.

City of Philadelphia Selects eClinicalWorks for Electronic Health Records (Business Wire)

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2011 Greater Philadelphia finalists announced (Business Wire)

WSJ: data caps keep Netflix from "swamping the network" (Ars Technica)

Dish Network CEO Resigns (Light Reading Cable)
Charlie Ergen will remain as Chairman.

Greenblatt: NBC Will Add New Brian Williams Show to Schedule as 'Soon as It's Ready' (Hollywood Reporter)

The Uncertain Future of '30 Rock' (The Atlantic Wire)

Report: Comcast Wants Ron Meyer to Stay at Universal -- For Now (The Wrap)

Comcast Aims Metro Ethernet At Midsize Business
Services Portfolio Provides Capacity Up to 10 Gbps (Multichannel News)

RCR Wireless News global tour set for Philadelphia (RCR Wireless News)

One Small Start-Up’s Plan To Get Customers To Notice: An IPO
(Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
Israel-based WhiteSmoke, maker of English grammar software with US headquarters in Wilmington, plans IPO on the NASDAQ.

India owner sells Blue Bell software firm to Cerberus for $137M (Philly.com: Philly Deals)


Temple Opens Vault on Hybrid System (HPCwire)



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SAP annual conference kicks off in Orlando today

SAP's big annual confab, SAPPIRE NOW 2011 AND THE ASUG ANNUAL CONFERENCE, kicks off today in Orlando and runs through the 18th. Although it is not in as turbulent environment as last year's conference, which followed in the wake of CEO-level changes (Leo Apotheker out, Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe in) and occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Sybase acquisition, there are several key issues industry analysts will be watching closely:



One year after the Sybase acquisition, where does SAP's mobile strategy stand?

What tangible progress can SAP show for its Business ByDesign SaaS product line?

The positioning of other SaaS offerings such as Sales on Demand, which are intended to work in tandem with its on-premise ERP systems. Also, any indication of management direction in this area in the wake of John Wookey's recent departure.

Offering a more complete explanation of its strategy for its HANA in-memory database analytics technology.

How will SAP position the relational database technology it acquired through the Sybase acquisition?

An update on SAP's software maintenance strategy and related plans for "key performance indicators".

Observers will also be watching closely to see how in-sync top management team members appear to be with each other.



Another anticipated highlight will be Sting's live performance on Wednesday night.

Philly Tech People News 5/15/2011

NFTE Philadelphia to Honor Michael G. Rubin at Annual Visionary Gala on November 17th (Business Wire)

NBCU Ups Dunleavy, Rosenbloom (Multichannel News)

Veeva Systems Hires Paul Shawah as Vice President of Multichannel Strategy (Business Wire)
Joins Veeva from SAP.

CRF Health Appoints John Larson as Chief Operating Officer (Business Wire)

Leading Social Journalist Steve Buttry Joins Journal Register Company (Journal Register Press Release)

Marc Keller Joins Advanced Call Center Technologies as Chief Compliance Officer (Business Wire)

Comcast is king of its empire (Cherry Hill Courier-Post)
A couple of newsworthy quotes from Comcast EVP David Cohen's South Jersey speech. Perhaps an NBC-type version of "60 Minutes"is coming.

Pac-12 TV deal: The ESPN-Fox partnership (San Jose Mercury News)
How they kept Comcast locked out.

3 Things to Expect From Hulu’s New Content Deals (Gigaom: NewTeeVee)