Building a New Kind of Software Company (Sandhill.com)
By Lars Bjork, CEO of Radnor-based QlikTech.

Working Separately, Together
(New York Times)
Features Philly's Indy Hall.

Get excited, people! Microsoft Store may be coming somewhere near Philly area by 2014

I'm sure everyone in the Philly area feels a void from not having an official Microsoft store nearby.

But one might be coming-by 2014, perhaps.

At the 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner outlined the company's plans to expand its branded store chain to 86 stores by 2014. Specific locations were not named, but this somewhat fuzzy map from a slide show he presented shows possible locations:

If your eyes are sharp, maybe you can pinpoint their placement better than I can, but it looks to me like a couple of them might be in (or near) the Greater Philadelphia area. One looks like its in Delaware.

More on the Alteva acquisition

I listened to the conference call today with Warwick Valley Telephone President & CEO Duane W. Albro regarding its acquisition of Philly-based hosted VoIP and Unified Communications provider
Alteva, which was announced yesterday. He stuck very close to the wording of the press release, adding very little new information.

Warwick Valley plans to merge Alteva with its CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) business US Datanet, which appears to be based in Syracuse. Which raises the question, what will happen to Alteva's operations here?


"Alteva absolutely plans to stay in Philadelphia", Alteva CEO David Cuthbert said today in a statement sent to Philly Tech News. "This is our home and where we grew our business and will continue to grow our business". Cuthbert also says, "Regarding our employees, there will be no job cuts whatsoever as it pertains to this new relationship. We expect our Philadelphia based team, and Alteva based team to continue to grow in the months ahead. In fact, we are in the process of hiring multiple account managers and additional positions throughout our organization".

Cuthbert also emphasized that Alteva is "completely dedicated" to continiung to serve the needs of its clients and partners in the area.

Though publicly traded (NASDAQ: WWVY) , Warwick Valley is not a very large company; its quarterly revenues seem to be running at a flat $6 million per quarter rate. Albro did say during the conference call that Warwick was paying 3.1 x current revenue for Alteva and the acquisition would increase its revenue base by 30%, so presumably Alteva's revenue is around $6 to $7 million. Warwick Valley has not yet broken out its existing CLEC revenues in its financial statements.

Update 7/18: An Alteva spokesperson says David Cuthbert will continue to serve as CEO of Alteva, in addition to being President & COO of Warwick Valley, Louis Hayner will also have a duel role as Chief Sales Officer of both Warwick Valley and Alteva, and Alteva founder Bill Bumbernick will continue to assist the company as a consultant. Mark Marquez, Chief Technology Officer/Systems Architect at Alteva, will become Chief Network Officer for Warwick Valley.



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Daily Links 7/15/2011: QlikTech off 10% on downgrade

Waiting for Canoe (SNL Blogs)
Is Canoe Ventures adrift?

Invidi Preps 'SnapPing' TV Tags For Second-Screen Interactivity
Addressable-Ad Firm Solution Allows Audio, Speech, Text and Image Recognition (Multichannel News)

Is Comcast Headquartered Near Lake Woebegon? (Forbes Blogs)

Hedge fund buys local publisher Journal Register (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Alden Global Capital also holds a "significant stake" in Philadelphia Media Networks (owner of the Inquirer and Daily News), which raises the possibility of more cooperation between them in the future, the Inquirer reports.

Qlik Technologies shares tumble after downgrade (AP via Forbes)

Guardian Capital Partners Acquires R&D Circuits (Business Wire)

Boathouse Capital Closes $120M Debt Fund (PE Hub)

Quality Systems Inc. Opens Innovation Centre in India (Business Wire India)
Quality Systems is parent of Horsham-based NextGen Healthcare.



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Philly-based hosted VoIP & Unified Communications provider Alteva acquired

Alteva, a Philadelphia-based hosted VoIP and unified communications provider, has been acquired by the Warwick Valley Telephone Company of Warwick, New York, it was announced today. The total value of the acquisition is $17 million in cash and stock ($11 million in cash, $4 million in stock and $2 million in potential earnouts).

Warwick Valley intends to combine Alteva's operations with its USA Datanet CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) business as it seeks more growth than its traditional local telephone business offers. Warwick is in Orange County, in the far northern exurbs of New York. Warwick Valley will hold a conference call tomorrow to explain the deal.

Alteva was founded in 2003 by Bill Bumbernick and is headquartered in the Bourse building along Independence Mall. No word yet on what this deal will mean for its Philadephia presence.

You can see my previous pieces on Alteva here
and here.



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Robert Sandie on being pushed out at Viddler

Viddler co-founder Robert Sandie posted a rather blunt (though restrained) note on his personal blog yesterday about him being forced out as the company's CEO/President. He will continue to serve on the board and still has a significant stake in the company, but will no longer have an operational role. No word yet on his replacement. He says he will probably leave Bethlehem and move elsewhere, mentioning Philly as one possibility.

Sandie says the online video service is "profitable, 25+ employees and growing". Interestingly, he also says that "after the fate of Viddler is decided, I will probably be more public on lessons learned/etc". Does that mean the company is actively considering a sale?

Ben Franklin Technology Partners NE and First Round Capital are the only institutional investors I am aware of. (Update: ITJ Ventures was apparently another investor. I was wrong about First Round having ever been involved.)



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Daily Links 7/14/2011: Cuts at Digitas Health; Journal Register sold to hedge fund

Software AG Drops as Sales Miss Estimates (Bloomberg)
Cites fall in demand for SAP-related products. Softwsre AG also has an area presence through its acquisition of IDS Scheer a couple of years ago.

Software AG's weak Q2 rattles investors, shares plummet (Reuters)

Axe falls at Digitas Health (Medical Marketing & Media)

‘Digital First’ (Yardly-based) Journal Register Sold To Hedge Fund (paidContent)

Can Discounted Tablets Lure New Newspaper Subscribers? (Knowledge@Wharton)

Philadelphia 76ers Owner Reaches Agreement to Sell Team to Apollo’s Harris (Bloomberg)

Comcast Bans Seattle Man From Internet for His Cloudy Ways (Wired: Epicenter)

Safeguard Scientifics Celebrates 40 Years of Trading on the NYSE
Milestone to be Commemorated Today with Ringing of the Closing Bell (Business Wire)

Jaspersoft Closes New Financing (PR Newswire)
Open Source BI vendor raises $11 from backers including return investor SAP Ventures.


Obama’s health IT coordinator: Know the regulations (Philadelphia Business Journal)



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Daily Links 7/12/2011: Workday enters market for Higher Ed administrative systems

Octagon Research Solutions, Inc. Advances Regulatory Cloud Strategy, Expands Internationally (Business Wire)

Cigna adding Conn. jobs, stirring concerns about Phila. staffing
(Philadelphia Inquirer)
Update: Cigna announces its moving corporate headquarters from Philadelphia to Connecticut


Verklin Out At Canoe, Timko Named Interim CEO
MSO-Owned Advertising Venture Has Yet to Show Traction (Multichannel News)

Philadelphia newspapers unveil plans to deliver subsidized Android tablets to subscribers (Liliputing)
Includes video of yesterday's press conference.

Workday Delivers First Unified Higher Education Administrative Solution in the Cloud (Workday Press Release)
Sounds as if Workday is going right after SunGard Higher Ed and Oracle Peoplesoft.

SunGard Higher Education Launches Integration Certification Program for Collaborative Member Solutions (SunGard Press Release)

MyYearbook chases engagement, games and mobile for social networking success (Gigaom)
Story totally misses the fact that myYearbook is geared towards teens.

Turntable.fm Has Lots Of Buzz, But Will The Labels Crush It? (paidContent)

Google Hand Holding Brings Pharma to YouTube (ClickZ)

Janney Montgomery Scott settles SEC charges (AP via Business Week)

Dealtalk: Barnes & Noble won't get better bid than Malone's (Reuters)



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Daily Links 7/11/2011: Philadelphia Media Network to offer Android tablets, launches new media venture incubator

Philly Papers to Sell Android Tablets (Ad Week)

Philadelphia Daily News to become ‘loud, irreverent, fun tabloid’ (Poynter)
Philadelphia Media Network also announces launch of "Project Liberty", incubator for new media ventures in cooperation with Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Drexel, the Knight Foundation, and DreamIt Ventures.

VCA Antech, Inc. to Acquire MediMedia Animal Health, LLC Unit of MediMedia USA Inc. (Business Wire)
Yardley-based animal health marketing data & communications firm Vetstreet sells for $146 million.

Halma Buys Avo Photonics For Initial Cash Consideration of $9 Million (Dow Jones via Fox Business)
Also potential for additional $11 million payout.


Cisco Set-Top Plant Is for Sale (Light Reading Cable)
Is Cisco considering exiting the business entirely?

After early zeal, TV networks pull back Web series (AP via Boston Globe)

NHL Hands Extensive Ad Sales Responsibilities Over To NBCU (paidContent)

Guess what? Netflix won’t buy Hulu
(Gigaom: NewTeeVee)

TripAdvisor Buys Once-Popular Facebook App Where I’ve Been (All Things Digital)
Where I've Been was actually started by Craig Ulliott when he was in Philadelphia before he got funded and moved to Chicago.

ShopRunner takes to the streets
The shipping service soon will launch a mobile app aimed at shoppers in stores. (Internet Retailer)
ShopRunner is one of the ventures spun out from GSI Commerce prior to its acquisition by EBay and is part of Michael Rubin's new ecommerce holdings.

SAP creates 100 jobs in Ireland to expand technical and R&D functions (Computer Weekly)



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FCC Bureau: Judge Should Mandate Tennis Carriage
Enforcement Bureau Says Net Made Case For MSO Discrimination Based On Affiliation; Recommends $375,000 Fine Against Comcast (Multichannel News)

Comcast hopes to make a splash with Skype (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Jets GM, SAP co-CEO share game plans for winning (AP)

Philly Tech People News 7/10/2011

iMANY Names Chief Marketing Officer
Susan McKenna Appointed to Lead Global Marketing Organization (Marketwire)

MTI Names Michael Kelly SVP, Business Development (Business Wire)

NBC Universal Names Suzanne Kolb President of E! Entertainment (Ad Age)

SeaChange CMO McGrath To Lead ThePlatform's European Campaign
Exec Named GM of Europe for Comcast's Video-Publishing Subsidiary (Multichannel News)

Neiman Group adds Mike Raetsch as VP Director of Client Services (Philly Ad Club News)

Brownstein Group adds seven new people as client roster grows (Philly Ad Club News)

Lannett Announces Appointment of Vice President - Logistics and CIO (Business Wire)