News from The Cable Show: 6/16/2011

Comcast Shows Off 1 Gbps Broadband (Gigaom)

Comcast Uses Cisco Gear In 1-Gig DOCSIS Demo
Vendor's 3G60 CMTS Card, Modems Used on Operator's Chicago Network (Multichannel News)

Did the cloud just kill the set-top box? (Gigaom: NewTeeVee)

Interview with Comcast's Brian Roberts
(Bloomberg Video)

ICUETV SCORES TCOMMERCE DEALS WITH MAJOR MSOS (InteractiveTV Today)

Cable Show 2011: Ethnic TV Tables Turning To Cable
Bandwidth Improvements, Online Platforms Tilting Field To Cable: Execs (Multichannel News)

Cox: We're Not Selling Our Spectrum (Light Reading Cable)

Motorola Mobility looks to tablets, smartphones as set-tops fade (Crain's Chicago Business)

Daily Links 6/16/2011: Philly Fed Index drops; Capital One reported winner of Wilmington's ING Direct

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2011 Greater Philadelphia Award Winners Announced (Business Wire)

June Philly Fed index drops into negative level (MarketWatch)
Not a good sign.

Philly Fed factory activity lowest level in 2 years (Reuters)
Philly Fed Press Release

Churchill Club podcast: Venture capital roundtable 2011 (ZDNet Blogs)
First Round Capital's Josh Kopelman was on the panel. Very interesting listen.

Capital One Near Takeover of ING Direct USA (Bloomberg)
Update: deal reported to be reached.

Providence Equity Partners Is Said to Be Leading Bidder to Buy Blackboard (Bloomberg)
Some analysts had suggested that SunGard, through its SunGard Higher Ed unit, might have been a possible bidder. (Although its worth pointing out that Providence Equity was a major investor in SunGard's LBO.)


WPCS agrees to be bought by DirecTV installer Multiband (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Alan Haberman, Who Ushered In the Bar Code, Dies at 81 (New York Times)
Implemented technology that had been pioneered earlier at Drexel.


WCI Consulting Expands to Philadelphia
Business Intelligence Provider Establishes East Coast Presence (Business Wire)



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Philly loses BioNanomatrix headquarters to San Diego

BioNanomatrix today announced it had opened its new headquarters offices in San Diego, although it will maintain its Philadelphia offices. The company, which is developing a nanotechnology-based single-molecule imaging platform for low-cost whole genome analysis, had announced plans to add a West Coast presence when it closed a $23.3-million Series B round (pdf) of equity financing earlier this year. It had not been clear at that time, however, that BioNanomatrix would be relocating its headquarters.



CEO Dr. R. Erik Holmlin said in a statement "that while a number of key employees are moving from Philadelphia to San Diego, the company’s East Coast office will remain 'an important site for ongoing research and development' of its systems in the field and support for users". BioNanomatrix also named two new key executives today.


BioNanomatrix was spun out of a research project at Princeton by its founder, Chief Scientific Officer Han Cao, in 2003. It is not clear whether Dr. Cao is relocating to San Diego. The company's headquarters have been located at Philadelphia's University Science Center. Ironically, its new headquarters will be at San Diego's University Science Center.

News from The Cable Show: 6/15/2011

Okay, Okay, Maybe Netflix Is a Problem for Cable After All (All Things Digital)

@ Cable Show: Netflix And Hulu On Cable Set Tops? (paidContent)

@ Cable Show: Comcast’s Roberts Shows Off 1Gbps Potential (paidContent)

Comcast likely to show off gigabit cable broadband (Gigaom)

What You Need to Know About Comcast Xcalibur (Zatz Not Funny)

NBC Chairman Robert Greenblatt Shares His Plan to Rebuild the Network (Exclusive Q&A) (Hollywood Reporter)

How thePlatform Fits in Xfinity (Interview: Light Reading Cable)

Comcast To Stage Network DVR Trial
MSO Plans Small Trial of Technology Later This Year (Multichannel News)

Motorola Hooks Up With Honeywell For Home Security
Joint Solution to Combine 4Home Systems With Honeywell Alarm Panel Hardware (Multichannel News)


The Cable Show 2011: Genachowski: Broadband Adoption 'Just Not Good Enough'
Praises cable for deployment and adoption efforts to date, but wants more (Broadcasting & Cable)



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Chris Saridakis to Head GSI Commerce Once eBay Acquisition Closes (All Things Digital)

Is ING Direct Ready to Name a Buyer?
ING Groep's board of directors reportedly ready to meet to discuss the sale of its U.S. online bank division. (Bank Systems & Technology)
Capital One, said to be a leading bidder for ING Direct, has also bid for HSBC's US credit card business, the Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required).

Context Capital Ups Bet On Betzwood (FINalternatives)
I wrote about Bala Cynwyd-based Context's initial investment in Betzwood last year.

H-P sues Oracle over Itanium 'strong arm' tactics (MarketWatch)

FieldView raises US$2m to boost market share (DatacenterDynamics)
Philly's Osage Ventures joins round in Edison, NJ startup.

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)