Cherry Hill's icueTV teams up with Groupon at The Cable Show

icueTV, the Cherry Hill-based provider of an interactive apps platform for cable tv, will team up with Groupon today to demo an interactive app which TV viewers can use for Groupon, the Chicago Tribune reports.


The application will enable viewers to subscribe to Groupon using their remote controls. The Tribune story says the demo will not show a user being able to sign up directly through the TV for an actual voucher, "but icueTV technology does encompass this kind of functionality". No word yet on whether this is only a demo, or if Groupon and icueTV have specific plans to roll this out.


icueTV made a lot of noise at the Cable Show two years ago, as I reported then, but has been almost invisible (publicly, at least) since then. A variety of factors, some technical and some marketing related, have slowed the adoption of interactive apps.

Channel Intelligence Announces Acquisition of ClickEquations
(Business Wire)
CI is backed by Internet Capital Group. Conshohocken-based ClickEquations has been a First Round Capital portfolio company, and also has had backing from ICG. ClickEquations has been working with Channel Intelligence for some time, judging from this 2008 press release (ClickEquations was then known as Commerce360).
Update: A little more on the deal from the ClickEquations blog. ClickEquations President Craig Danuloff will continue as Chief Product Officer at Channel Intelligence.

SAP Rolling out New Analytics for SMBs (PC World)

BioLeap Moves Headquarters and Expands Staff to Meet Demand for Its Novel Molecular-Design Services
New Jersey Company’s Proprietary Technology Serves Research For Drug Discovery, Consumer Products, and Agrochemicals (Business Wire)

Lockheed Martin Space Systems to Eliminate Approximately 1,200 Positions (PR Newswire)
Includes cuts in Delaware Valley.

Ericsson to Buy Telcordia for $1.2 Billion (Bloomberg)
Telcordia is based in Piscataway.

News from The Cable Show: 6/14/2011

Comcast to Offer Customers Skype Video Calls on Their TVs (NY Times)

COMCAST TEAMS WITH SKYPE TO OFFER VIDEO CALLS ON TV (InteractiveTV Today)
Interview with Comcast's Neil Smit and demo.

Comcast Taps Facebook for Enhanced TV Experience (Hollywood Reporter)

Comcast Confirms Xcalibur Partners (Light Reading Cable)

CableLabs Melds Comcast's CMAP And TWC's CESAR
R&D Consortium Releases Technical Report Defining 'Converged Cable Access Platform' (Multichannel News)

Arris' cable technology teases us with 4.5Gbps download speeds (Engadget)

Motorola Mobility and Time Warner Cable Collaborate To Deliver an Advanced Video Gateway Platform
DCX3600M provides entertainment hub for the evolution of TV and video content sharing in the home (Motorola Press Release)

Comcast Spotlight Licenses Ensequence iTV Manager® Platform for Local Interactive Advertising (Marketwire)


Cable Show 2011: Cutthroat Chicago A Cable Kind Of Town (Multichannel News)

Media chiefs confront challenges facing cable TV industry (LA Times: Company Town)


@ Cable Show: Britt: ‘No Such Thing As A TV Anymore’ (paidContent)



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The Cable Show kicks off in Chicago tomorrow

The Cable Show, the big annual cable industry trade show of the NCTA (National Cable & Telecommunications Association), kicks off officially tomorrow in Chicago and runs through Thursday. Industry trade pub Light Reading Cable expects the two major themes to be highly interrelated: IP (Internet Protocol) Video and TV Everywhere.


Expect plenty of news from Philly area companies Comcast, QVC, and Motorola Mobility's cable equipment business. On Thursday, Brian Roberts is expected to demo Comcast's "next generation video product", presumably based on the Xcalibur project that it has been rather secretly testing out in Augusta, Georgia. Motorola Mobility today announced the introduction of Motorola Televation, a broadband device that it says "works with a Wi-Fi router to allow consumers to watch live TV on a connected IP device anywhere around the home".


Other Philly-area companies exhibiting include icueTV of Cherry Hill, which provides an interactive apps platform, the Exton-based Society of Cable Telecommunictions Engineers, network performance monitoring firm SevOne of Wilmington, which counts Comcast as a major customer, and TelVue Corporation of Mount Laurel, which provides digital video servers for hyperlocal and community broadcasters.


Go here to see live event steaming.



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Daily Links 6/13/2011: Comcast teams up with Skype on video chat

Comcast bringing Skype video chat into the living room (Gigaom)

Cable Operators Chip at $20 Billion Business Market as Video Growth Slows (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg to Make Good on Threat, File Comcast Complaint with FCC
(MediaBistro: TVNewser)

Moto, Comcast Team on In-Home TV Streamer (Light Reading Cable)

eBay Settles Lawsuit Over $2.4B GSI Commerce Acquisition, Deal Expected To Close This Week (TechCrunch)

Tale of two data center strategies: Apple vs. Facebook (ZDNet Blogs)
Apple's new data center apparently using SAP's HANA, along with many other tools.

Oracle Exadata Gains Certification for SAP Applications (PC World)

HP’s Big Shakeup: Bocian and Mott Out; Livermore Steps Down, Joins Board (All Things Digital)

MEDecision Announces Highmark Inc.'s Selection of Its Collaborative Health Management Platform (Marketwire)

IMS Strengthens Payer Capabilities with Acquisition of Med-Vantage
Software Provider Brings Leading Technology Platform, Clinical Expertise and Proven Provider and Member Engagement Solutions (Business Wire)

USAF Decisions On GPS IIIB Could Affect FAA (Aviation Week)

ExpenseWatch.com Goes Mobile -- Releasing Expense Reporting Apps for the Android, Blackberry and iPhone Smartphones (PR Newswire)




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FCC Can Require Cable Companies to Share Sports Shows, Appeals Court Rules (Bloomberg)
Although this is only an Appellate ruling, DC Circuit rulings are rarely overturned, particularly on commerce-related issues. “We doubt that Philadelphia baseball fans would switch” to an alternative service “if doing so would mean they could no longer watch Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels take the mound” for the Phillies, the Court said in its opinion.

How Comcast scored that four-Games victory (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Comcast's $4.4B Olympian bid a bold online bet (AP via Forbes)

Verizon's future is in the clouds (Fortune)

Philly Tech People News 6/12/2011

To Meet Rapidly Increasing Demand for In-Memory Computing, SAP Appoints Christoph Kollatz Executive Vice President, SAP HANA (PR Newswire)

Archer Promotes Derins and Miller to Managing Partners (The Archer Group)

Comcast Names Johnnie Giles Executive Director for External Affairs (Business Wire)

Pervez Qureshi Named as Chief Executive Officer of Epicor
Former Chairman, President and CEO George Klaus to Retain Chairman Role (Press Release)
Epicor was recently combined with Activant, which has significant operations based in Yardley, PA.

Scott Slifer Joins ISGN as President of Sales and Marketing
(National Mortgage Professional)

Joseph M. Manko, Jr. Joins Mufson Howe Hunter & Company as Managing Director (Business Wire)

Janney Continues to Deepen Equity Research, Adding Senior Internet Analyst Richard Fetyko (Business Wire)

Catholic Health East Appoints Three Information Services Leaders (Press Release)

ShopNBC Appoints Logistics Veteran Nathan Martin as Vice President of Fulfillment (Marketwire)
Another QVC veteran joins ShopNBC.


municibid Appoints Chief Marketing Officer (municibid Press Release)

Safeguard Scientifics celebrates 40 years on the NYSE; Special Librarians invade Philly

Safeguard Scientifics, which historically had been the major catalyst behind the growth of the Philly area's tech sector and remains an important factor today, is celebrating its 40th year of being listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which it will culminate by ringing the NYSE closing bell on July 14. Safeguard is rather unique, being one of the few publicly listed firms whose primary business is venture capital.

As part of its commemoration, Safeguard has set up a special website, which will highlight 40 significant historical facts about Safeguard - one per day leading up to July 14. For example, one of those facts is that Safeguard was originally founded as the Lancaster Corporation in 1953.


The Special Libraries Association (SLA) will hold its 2011 Annual Conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, beginning on Sunday and running through June 15. Special Librarians are special people; they bring a great deal of specific knowledge and expertise to fields like business, technology, medicine and healthcare. The information business is big in the Philly area, and Drexel's iSchool has one of the best Special Library programs in the country. The Philadelphia chapter of the SLA will play a role in hosting the conference.

Daily Links 6/10/2011: IBM preparing to launch potential QlikTech competitor

The startup behind Comcast’s home service: iControl (Gigaom)

Comcast CEO’s Bet on Profitable Olympics Met With Skepticism (Bloomberg)

NBCUniversal Executives Huddle for First Retreat Under Comcast (Hollywood Reporter)

IBM at 100: Big Blue`s Top Divestitures and Spinoffs (eWeek)
SAP AG was originally a spinoff out of IBM.

IBM Readies Data Visualization Play
Cognos release could disrupt market dominated by specialty vendors QlikTech and Tableau. (Information Week)

Gartner Top 25 Supply Chain: Apple Tops, SAP Customers Abound (ASUG News)

ePayments Week: eBay's ecommerce platform (O' Reilly Radar)

Definitive Answers On Quality Score: Q&A With ClickEquations’ Craig Danuloff (Search Engine Land)
ClickEquations is based in Conshohocken.

Synergy 2011 - Interview with Joe Makoid, Devon IT (Citrix TV)



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Daily Links 6/9/2011: Roberts To Unveil Comcast's Next-Generation Video Product at Cable Show

Cable Show 2011: Roberts To Unveil Comcast's Next-Generation Video Product
CEO to Stage Demo During General Session Thursday, June 16 (Multichannel News)


Keeping Olympics was priority for NBC (LA Times: Company Town)

Comcast Said to Be in Talks Over G4 Cable Channel (New York Times)

Comcast doubly blessed with wireless spectrum (FierceCable)
Discussion from yesterday's RCR Wireless conference in Philadelphia.

Carrier consolidation shifts investment strategy, VC panel says (RCR Wireless News)

Comcast CFO Discusses Comcast/NBCUniversal and the Future of Media (Video: Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce)

One Financial Analyst’s Bearish View on SAP and Oracle (ASUG News)

SAP’s Snabe Says Closer Linkup With HP on Real-Time Analytics Makes Sense (Bloomberg)

Why SAP must acquire a hardware vendor for In-Memory (John Appleby/Bluefin Solutions)

KKR Said Is to Seek a Minority Stake in ING Unit Amid GE, Capital One Bids (Bloomberg)

SunGard Implements Hara Environmental and Energy Management to Strengthen Sustainability and Energy Efficiency Initiatives (Business Wire)

Ahead of the Bell: Janney upgrades Heartland (AP via Forbes)
Could benefit from new swipe fee limits.

500 Startups Unveils 2nd Batch of 21 Startups
(TechCrunch)
Includes LaunchRock, which was originally launched in Philly.

PHILADELPHIA NAMED 2012 CODE FOR AMERICA FINALIST (City of Philadelphia Press Release)



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Daily Links 6/8/2011: Google And Invite Media One Year Later

Comcast Scales Up Home Security Push
Expands Broadband-Based System to Seven Markets, Including Philadelphia, Houston, and Portland, Ore. (Multichannel News)

How Will NBCUniversal's Olympics Deal Affect Comcast's Stock? (Hollywood Reporter)

NBC finally ‘gets it,’ will kill the Olympic tape delay (Gigaom: NewTeeVee)

GE, Capital One Said to Vie for ING Online Bank; Bids May Reach $9 Billion (Bloomberg)

Google And Invite Media: One Year Later, DSP Looks To Global Expansion (paidContent)

Online advertising a boon for Philadelphia firms (Philly.com: Philly Deals)


appMobi Acquires Hosting Platform; Launches Tech To Speed Up HTML5 In Mobile Gaming (TechCrunch)

ARAMARK Sells Stake In Online Food Ordering Service SeamlessWeb For $50M (TechCrunch)

Sprint Pares Clearwire Voting Interest to Less Than 50% (Bloomberg)

Dell Plans New VAR Cloud Certification By Year-end (CRN)

Twitter post leads to LVEDC firing
Tweet about summer hours policy contributes to employee's termination (Allentown Morning Call)

U.S. Federal Reserve Beige Book: Philadelphia District (Text) (Bloomberg)



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