Philly Tech People News 5/22/2011

Wilson Sonsini Hires Delaware Chief Judge (New York Times: DealBook)

Tal Rabinowitz Tapped as NBC's New EVP, Comedy Programming
Will replace the departing Jeff Ingold in June (Broadcasting & Cable)

Empathy Lab Launches Program Management Group for Complex Digital Initiatives
Ex- HP leader to spearhead new offering (Business Wire)

ISGN names Tiru chief information officer (Housing Wire)

TE Connectivity Names Joe Donahue Chief Operating Officer (PR Newswire via Sacremento Bee)

Universal Display Chief Technical Officer Dr. Julie Brown Honored with a 2011 Fellow Award by the Society for Information Display (Business Wire)

PayChoice Promotes Douglas Harrison to President of Service Bureau Division (Business Wire)

e-Dialog Names Christian Wright as Chief Technology Officer (Business Wire)

The ÖDM Group adds Greg Benedetti as VP Communications (Philly Ad Club News)

A Lost Chance at Redemption for Ebersol (New York Times)

Comcast executive hosts Obama fundraiser in June
(LA Times)
David Cohen, who also hosted a fundraising event for Obama during the 2008 election cycle.

Want To Get Rewards For Going Out? Good, Because LoSo Wants To Find You Free Drinks (TechCrunch)
West Chester-based LoSo launches in Philadelphia.

Daily Links 5/20/2011: Liberty Media Offers $1 Billion For Barnes & Noble

Updated: Liberty Media Offers $1 Billion For Barnes & Noble; Would Buy 70 Percent (paidContent)
Equity in B&N would be held in its Liberty Capital unit, which is slated to be spun off from Liberty Media this summer. Which suggests that this move is not related to QVC's strategy, since QVC would remain part of Liberty Interactive.

Tweet about FCC member’s new job at Comcast sets off firestorm (Washington Post)

Issa Asks FCC to Explain Baker’s Departure for Comcast After Deal Cleared (Bloomberg)

NBC's Dick Ebersol is a vanishing breed in button-down corporate media world (LA Times: Company Town)

Comcast, Moto Invest in CMAP Startup (Light Reading Cable)

Watch Out, iTunes! Verizon Could Push Its VOD Service Over-the-Top (Gigaom: NewTeeVee)

Verizon to swap unlimited data plans for tiers, shared family plans (Ars Technica)

Kenexa shares soaring Friday (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Marc Benioff on Salesforce.com’s “Monster Quarter” and the Road Ahead (All Things Digital)

Rooting for growth
Is Central Pennsylvania cultivating an environment for investment? (Central Penn Business Journal)

Happy trails to Cris Conde (Finextra)



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Josh Kopelman, SAP Ventures had LinkedIn stakes

First Round Capital's Josh Kopelman was a rather early investor in LinkedIn, which launched its IPO today. LinkedIn's offering was priced at $45, and the shares traded as high today as $122.70 before closing at $94.25; the company now has a market value of $9.1 billion. Kopelman invested in LinkedIn not through First Round but an earlier personal investment vehicle, Midas Capital. No word on the size of his stake, although it was presumably small, or when he invested.

Also, SAP Ventures, a unit of SAP AG, participated in a $22.7 million round in LinkedIn in late 2008. That round gave LinkedIn a valuation in excess of $1 billion at the time. SAP has worked with LinkedIn to develop applications to help connect its partner communities.

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)