Daily Links 7/7/2011: Lengthy contract extensions for SAP co-CEOs

Lubert-backed SmarterAgent lures NY, Seattle techs (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

SAP: No Change at the Top as Board Extends CEO Contracts (PC World)

Rimini Street second quarter bookings, revenue jump (ZDNet Blogs)

Can Comcast Stop Losing Video Subscribers? (Light Reading Cable)

OH My! Omnicom, Horizon Team Up To Pitch Comcast (MediaPost: Media Daily News)

Comcast to hike rates 3.3% for cable TV customers (Lancaster Intelligencer Journal)
Not clear from this article which parts of Pennsylvania this applies to right now, but they'll probably get everyone eventually.


Major ISPs agree to "six strikes" copyright enforcement plan (Ars Technica)

Liberty Media’s Malone Says Buyouts of Live Nation, HSN May Make Sense (Bloomberg)

Third Circuit Remands Newspaper-Broadcast Rule Change Back To FCC
Upholds Decision Not To Loosen Other Regs (Multichannel News)

Back to the future for Safeguard (Philadelphia Business Journal)

APAC Customer Services to be Acquired by One Equity Partners
(Business Wire)
JPMorgan investment arm will merge APAC with Horsham-based NCO Group.

Turntable.fm and the Siren Song of the Start-up Pivot (Betabeat)
First Round Capital portfolio company reportedly raising funds at $40 million valuation.
Update: Turntable.fm  funded  at $37.5 million valuation

Commonwealth Court rules in Department of Public Welfare's favor over its bid award to Deloitte Consulting LLP (Harrisburg Patriot-News)

With new web addresses, Internet continues to grow (Philadelphia Inquirer)



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Competition heats up in online pet food & supplies business; Everyone is raising funds and Amazon gets in

Competition may be heating up for Plymouth Meeting-based Pet360 (which operates under PetFoodDirect.com and other brands), a leader in the online pet food and supplies market which just last week announced an $18 million round of equity financing lead by Updata Partners and joined by previous investor LLR Partners of Philadelphia.

Today, Amazon got into the game through Quidsi, the New Jersey-based online retailer (Diapers.com, Soap.com) founded by some bright Wharton people that it acquired last year for $540 million. Quidsi introduced Wag.com, which will offer free shipping for orders over $49. Quidsi has experience with customer service and the logistics of picking and shipping often bulky items on a low cost basis.

Also today, New York-based PetFlow today announced a Series B funding round of $10 million. PetFlow is basically in the same business, although they say they focus on healthier foods and hard to find items.

All of this led many commentators today to make comparisons to the Pets.com fiasco of the 2000 Internet bubble era. But people in the US spend over $50 billion a year on their pets, its a growing market, and there is a much better understanding today of the markting, economics and logistics of online retailing. Whether there will be room for three or more major players in the market, though, is another question.

Kenexa/Taleo IP litigation settled

Talent management SaaS vendor Kenexa of Wayne has settled litigation resulting out of its 2007 intellectual property lawsuit against competitor Taleo, the company announced in an SEC filing
yesterday.

Kenexa's suit centered on a patent for enabling the entering of resume information into a structured database.

The settlement includes the cross licensing of certain intellectual property between the two firms, and a cash payment of $3 million from Taleo to Kenexa.



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Daily Links 7/6/2011: Safeguard Scientifics to Acquire 36% Interest in Penn Mezzanine

DST Systems, Inc. Acquires Assets of IntelliSource Healthcare Solutions of King of Prussia (PR Newswire)

Safeguard Scientifics to Acquire 36% Interest in Penn Mezzanine
(Business Wire)

Microsoft's Malvern partner (NextDocs) plans global growth (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Out Of Investment Hibernation, New Jersey Still Bullish On Venture (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)

Iger Says Hulu Owners ‘Committed to Selling’ (Bloomberg)

Insight Comm buyer likely to be picked within month: report (Reuters)

Business Intelligence Market Led by SAP, IBM and Oracle (Enterprise Apps Today)

Amazon hiring hundreds to Lehigh Valley warehouse (Allentown Morning Call)



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Daily Links 7/5/2011: Philly's CityRide gets funding and methodology validaton

CityRyde Gets Funded, and Methodology Validation to Turn Bike Rides into Cash (PR Web)

Slideshow: Most Active VC Firms to Date in 2011 (PE Hub)
First Round Capital fifth most active in terms of number of deals.

Sun Valley Moguls Shift Focus to Media Models (Bloomberg)

Verizon to kill unlimited data plans on July 7 (VentureBeat)

LightSquared gets $265M as the FCC weighs its fate (Gigaom)


Lockheed Martin Team Completes Design Milestone for GPS III Program (PR Newswire)

SAP Business One Gets New Hosted, Subscription Model (PC World)

Deloitte Wants Software Lawsuit Kept Away From Jury (PC World)

ASG Software Group Completes Acquisition of PERFMAN (Business Wire)



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SportsBusiness Journal: ESPN close to landing rights for Wimbledon (Sporting News)
Beats out Comcast/NBC.

Philly Tech People News 7/3/2011

E-retailing veteran Fiona Dias is leaving GSI (Internet Retailer)

SCTE Elevates Three Staffers
Group Promotes DiGiacomo, Harris and Russell; Retains Hughey and Wright as Subject-Matter Consultants (Multichannel News)

RDC Names Frank R. Sanchez to Board of Directors (Business Wire)

T-Mobile Appoints Marty Pisciotti as Vice President General Manager of Greater Philadelphia Tri-State Region to Oversee Local Sales and Operations (Business Wire)

Comcast extends employment contract for CEO Brian Roberts (LA Times: Company Town)

How Comcast makes its Skype integration look seamless (Gigaom)

Daily Links 7/1/2011: Comcast Shutters NBC Universal Digital Studio

Comcast exec David Cohen raises at least $1.2 million for Obama (Washington Post)

Google Inc. among those in preliminary talks to buy Hulu (LA Times: Company Town)

Comcast Shutters NBC Universal Digital Studio
Eleven Positions Affected; Third Season Of American Family Insurance Series in Limbo (Ad Age)

Providence Equity to Buy Blackboard for $1.64 Billion in Education Deal (Bloomberg)
Providence Equity was part of the consortium that lead the LBO of SunGard in 2005, and has other interests in the Education market. Its not inconceivable that Blackboard eventually could end up
being combined with SunGard Higher Education, if that makes strategic sense.

Salesforce places bets on HTML5 (ZDNet Blogs)

InterDigital Rallies Following Strong Nortel Patent Auction (Forbes: The Tech Trade)

Verizon 'Evaluating' Usage-Based Pricing for FiOS, DSL
Still Leaving the Door Open to the Idea (Broadband Reports)

TiVo $2.4B Takeover Seen After Fight With Dish (Bloomberg)

Fiserv Acquires Payments Provider CashEdge for $465 Million (Bank Systems & Technology)
Exit for Bala Cynwyd's Susquehanna Growth Equity.

D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc. to Brew Up Process Automation with Integrated ERP Software (PRLog)
Implements system from Wayne-based Deacom.


LLR Partners Leads a Recapitalization of Bristol-based Strategic Distribution, Inc. (LLR Press Release)



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Daily Links 6/30/2011: DreamIt Ventures teams up Ben Franklin Tech Partners, local angel investors, to keep more startups in Philly

Accelerator DreamIt Ventures gets on the cash bandwagon (Gigaom)
Aims to team up with local angels and Ben Franklin Technology Partners to keep more promising startups in Philly.
Ben Franklin press release.

Domain-name expansion likely to create turf wars (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Obama in Philly Thursday
Comcast exec, young professionals host two DNC events to raise campaign cash (NBC Philadelphia)

Comcast Gets Two More Weeks To Respond To Bloomberg Complaint
July 13 Deadline Moved to July 27 (Multichannel News)

Scripps Sets $1 Billion Buyback in Sign Cable Programmer Won’t Seek Buyer (Bloomberg)

Why Adobe is losing the mobile development war (GoMo News)
Lancaster's appMobi introduces appFlash.

Delaware, Philadelphia advertisers team up (Wilmington News Journal)

HP: Break ‘Em Up? (Forbes: The Tech Trade)

SAP’s four dimensions of SaaS success (Enterprise Irregulars)

ShopRunner kicks up the pace
The Amazon Prime competitor plans an e-wallet and a monthly subscription option. (Internet Retailer)
One of the important pieces left over after eBay acquired most of GSI Commerce.

Technology-in-education conference reaches out to tweeters (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Lokadot Launches Free iPhone App for Philadelphians and 'Old City' Tourists for 4th of July Weekend (PR Newswire)



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More First Round Capital portfolio news; Square, RockMelt get big investments

Following up on two companies I discussed in yesterday's First Round Capital Roundup: Mobile payments processor Square has raised $100 million in a third round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; the new financing values the company at more than $1 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Square also added another powerful Board member, Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker. Square was founded by Twitter's Jack Dorsey; First Round Capital invested in its Series A round in 2009.

While Facebook has been working closely with social web browser RockMelt on product integration, Facebook has not invested in the startup. But now one of its major backers has; Accel Partners teamed up with Khosla Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz to lead a $30 million round. Accel's Jim Breyer will join RockMelt's board. Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz knows a little bit about browsers, having been behind the development of Netscape. First Round Capital also reinvested in this round.


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