Liberty Interactive Completes Split-off (Business Wire)

Open Angel Forum Philly II Recap (Gabriel Weinberg's Blog)

Daily Links 9/23/2011: Comcast developing "AnyPlay" iPad TV streaming service

Newton's BigBelly Solar is building an Internet of trash cans (Boston Globe)
BigBelly has many of its trash bins in Philadelphia.

Amazon air conditions centers after criticism (MarketWatch)

Dish’s ‘Blockbuster Movie Pass’ Aimed More Towards Subs, Not Netflix (paidContent)

Dish misses out on opportunity to cash in on Netflix missteps (Ars Technica)

Comcast Working on iPad TV Streaming Service Called AnyPlay (Mac Rumors)

Vishal Sikka Gets Real on SAP HANA Benefits and Barriers (ASUG News)

The Oracle Mark Hurd Wants You To Know
As Oracle has reshaped its business, some misconceptions have arisen, Hurd says. He wants to set you straight. (Information Week)

HP: How to polish a Silicon Valley gem (EE Times)

Nationwide Said to Be in Talks to Buy Harleysville (Bloomberg)

Stylish Eyewear Maker Warby Parker Tries On $12M In Funding (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
New York-based online eyeglass retailer founded by Wharton students; First Round Capital an investor.



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OpenView Venture Partners invests $11.5 million in Valley Forge Cloud Services company Xtium

Tom Paine

Valley Forge-based Xtium announced today that it had received a $11.5 million Series A round from OpenView Venture Partners of Boston. Xtium provides IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) virtual private cloud service solutions to mid-market companies. Xtium says it is one of only three companies certified to be a hosting service provider for VMware, SAP, and Riverbed

Peter Ritz, co-founder and President of Xtium, has been a serial entrepreneur in the Philadelphia area involved in the founding of NTERA of Radnor (nanotech electronic inks for digital displays) and mobile business app provider AirClic of Trevose, and also directed legal operations for Ikon Technology Services.

For OpenView Partners, this represents its third major investment in the Philadelphia area announced in the past two months for a total of nearly $40 million, Monetate and NextDocs being the others. When I asked OpenView partner Firas Raou after the NextDocs investment was announced whether the firm had placed a particular emphasis on the area, he said it was only a coincidence. But now OpenView has close to one sixth of the $240 million it currently has under management invested here (at startups within a few miles of each other), so one would have to consider there might be some kind of connection. Valuations, I would guess, can be reasonably attractive for investors here since the market is not as overheated as places like Boston, New York and Silicon Valley.




View OpenView Venture Partners' local investments in a larger map
OpenView partners can easily visit each of their Philly-area portfolio companies in short, leisurely (non-rush hour) drive

Xtium raises $11.5M to expand pay-as-you-grow virtual private cloud services (VentureBeat)



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Philly & Tel Aviv-based Safend acquired

Lee, Massachusetts-based Wave Systems Corp announced today it has acquired Safend Ltd., a Tel Aviv-based company with US headquarters in Philadelphia. Safend provides endpoint security and data loss protection solutions.

The price was $12.8 million, of which $1.1 million was in cash and the rest in Wave stock. Wave says Safend has about 70 employees. Wave says it "will retain Safend's experienced executive team", including founder Gil Sever.

Safend VC backers have included Intel Capital, Elron Electronics Industries Ltd., and Walden Israel Venture Capital. Safend had raised at least $16.4 million, according to Crunchbase, so presumably this is not a good exit for its investors.



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After Delaware court ruling, Liberty Media split-off to occur on Friday; What does it mean?

Tom Paine

Liberty Media Corp announced yesterday that the Delaware Supreme Court had ruled in its favor in turning down an appeal of a previous Delaware Chancery Court ruling denying a challenge to its long-planned split-off, clearing the way for the move to be completed on Friday.

Everything Liberty does under Chairman John Malone might seem rather confusing to to some; his corporate structure and transactions are often geared towards maximizing tax advantages, among other goals. Liberty has been a constantly evolving investment vehicle. Malone, who has some Philadelphia connections (he was a top exec at Horsham-based General Instruments early in his career and his son Evan is founder of Philly's NextFab Studio and is also on the board of Liberty Media), is not reluctant to sell assets at the right price, and when the tax implications are favorable, then redeploy funds into what he sees as a more favorable opportunity.

Liberty Media before the split-off has consisted of three "tracking stocks"; Liberty Interactive (LINTA), consisting primarily of West Goshen Township-based QVC and some other smaller interactive eCommerce companies; Liberty Capita (LCAPA), which has interests in several media companies and also includes Berwyn-based wireless locator TruePosition and the Atlanta Braves; and Liberty Starz (LSTZA), which holds the movie channels that operate under that name. Tracking stocks are investment vehicles which reflect the value of a company's assets, but the shares do not actually represent legal ownership of part of those assets. Confusing, uh?

When the split-off is completed, Liberty Media will be renamed Liberty Interactive. Liberty Interactive (including QVC), will now be an asset-backed stock (shareholders will actually own part of the assets) as opposed to a tracking stock. Liberty Capital and Liberty Starz will continue to be tracking stocks under a new Liberty Media parent.

There will be a lot of cash (up to $10 billion), although its not clear exactly where that will be allocated and some will be used for share buybacks. The split-off opens the door for a number of rumored or possible plans to move forward:

• Acquisitions and investments: "We've been pretty frozen by this split-off interregnum," Malone was quoted as saying at Liberty's annual shareholder meeting earlier this month by Multichannel News. "You can probably expect a lot more activity by us post the split-off".
• Liberty Interactive may move to buy the roughly 70% of HSN (parent of Home Shopping Network) it does not own and integrate it with QVC.
• Rumors have been floating around that Liberty Starz could be acquired, with Time Warner named as one possibility.
• I could see some possibilty of a move with TruePosition, which doesn't particularly fit with other types of Liberty interests and could fetch a nice price because of the wireless IP goldrush.
• You could also see some movement with the Atlanta Braves, if a good buyer is out there. Liberty acquired the Braves as part of an asset trade with Time Warner, and nobody has believed it has a long term strategic interest in it.

Beyond that, QVC could benefit from an increased strategic emphasis on building a larger eCommerce business around it.

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Daily Links 9/22/2011: Its official: Apotheker out, Whitman in at HP

Philadelphia bill could regulate satellite dishes (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Exclusive: Whitman Expected to Get HP CEO Nod After Markets Close (and Not for the Interim Either) (All Things Digital)
HP Press Release announcing change.

Voting to Hire a Chief Without Meeting Him (New York Times)

HP’s Apotheker Said to Have Been Unaware of Plan to Oust Him (Bloomberg)

icueTV partners with SeaChange to launch “Watch & Buy” t-Commerce application to SureWest customers (Business Wire)
icueTV is based in Cherry Hill.

Net Neutrality Rules to Be Published Sept. 23
Rules to Go Into Effect Nov. 20; Verizon Plans to Re-File Suit (Multichannel News)

Comcast taps Johnathan Rodgers to replace Decker Anstrom on board (LA Times: Company Town)

Amazon story lands big for small paper (Washington Post)




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Daily Links 9/21/2011: Ex-SAP CEO Apotheker might be on the way out at HP

Liberty Media Zooms As Court Upholds Appeal On Spin-Off (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
Implications for QVC, perhaps TruePosition, as well as the Atlanta Braves.
Liberty Media's press release. Split-off expected to be completed Friday afternoon, Liberty says.

HP Board Said to Weigh Ousting Apotheker as CEO (Bloomberg)

Is HP competing for "worst board ever" honors? (Reuters)

Oracle Gains After Corporate Software Spending Boosts Profit (Bloomberg)

SAP's Software-Only Innovation Challenge (Josh Greenbaum/Information Week)

Analyzing the Crossgate Acquisition: An SAP and Market Perspective (Spend Matters)

Comcast upbeat about 3Q performance, CFO says (MarketWatch)

Turner Goes to Bat for Playoffs in Philly
TBS turns bus stops into dugouts to promote baseball (Broadcasting & Cable)

Cable wins broadband subs as telcos take TV (Gigaom)

Why Did Rosum Sell Out? (Directions Magazine)
Rosum recently sold its patent portfolio to Berwyn-based TruePosition.

Heartland Payment sees growth in market share, margins (Reuters)

Greenlight LaserFocus Now an SAP-Endorsed Business Solution for Automated User Access Risk Remediation (Marketwire)



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Sneak Peek: An early look at some new ventures popping up around Philly (Yorn, Vita Poducts, Storably)

Tom Paine

Yorn is a West Conshohocken-based startup which provides a feedback loop from mobile devices that people can use to rate the experience they've had with whatever it is you want feedback on, resulting in a "Yorn Score". Yorn received an investment of $150,000 from Ben Franklin Technology Partners SE in the 2nd quarter. Its CEO is Rick Rasansky, who founded early Philly SaaS startup eCal and was one of individuals behind Network Acquisition Corp, which acquired the Philly Wi-Fi network from Earthlink and later sold it to the city.

Vita Products, a Philadelphia-based company about which I've written previously, has raised $687,000 of a $937,000 offering, according to an SEC filing. Its VITAband product, originally designed with joggers in mind, is a bracelet providing medical professionals with your identification, relevant medical history and emergency contacts, and also includes contactless payment technology you can use with a Visa Prepaid Card.

Storably is a new Philly startup that will help people make use of idle space they might have, such as empty basements and parking spaces, by creating an online marketplace where others can rent that space for their storage needs. Its website goes live tomorrow, the company says, and Storably will be doing a demo at tomorrow night's Philly Tech Meetup. Josh Kowitt and Apu Gupta are co-founders and Wharton graduates. Community Manager Brendan Lowry wrote in an email: "We are a team of Philadelphians who love tech and all things Philly". Its office is located at 2038 Locust Street, between 20th and 21st.

University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine student Dr. Jonathan L. Lustgarten (he had previously earned a PHD in Biomedical Informatics at Pitt) is working to develop a state-of-the-art, easily deployed, electronic veterinary health record system to help veterinarians and staff in caring for animals during disaster relief efforts. As the winner of the Penn Vet 2011 Student Inspiration Award, Dr. Lustgarten will receive a $100,000 unrestricted grant to continue work on his project, named the Rehabilitation and Emergency COmputerized VEterinary Records, or RECOVER.


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Daily Links 9/20/2011: Morning Call reports on Amazon warehouse conditions

Inside Amazon's warehouse
Lehigh Valley workers tell of brutal heat, dizzying pace at online retailer. (Allentown Morning Call)
I wonder how GSI Commerce's warehouse operations compare to this.

Quidsi Co-Founder Marc Lore on What Happens After Amazon Buys Your Company and His New Site YoYo.com (Betabeat)

SAP to Acquire Business-to-Business Networking Provider Crossgate (PR Newswire)

Oracle's first quarter: Can the hardware deliver? (ZDNet Blogs)

Oracle's Q1 strong, but hardware sales lag; New SPARC chip on tap (ZDNet Blogs)

Internet of Things Comes to Life in Version 2.0 of ThingWorx Connected Application Platform (Business Wire)

Report tallies the growing vitality of U City (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Comcast's $9.99 Internet for low-income families goes nationwide (Ars Technica)

Comcast Sues British Telecommunications Over Network Patents
(Bloomberg)
Not sure what to make of this yet.

LMC Software Solutions Awarded Second Round of Ben Franklin Technology Partners Funding (PR Newswire)

SunGard to Acquire Syntesys to Expand SWIFT Connectivity and Professional Services over the AvantGard EcoSystem Communication Hub (Echos) (PR Newswire)

LCB turning off wine vending machines (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)



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Daily Links 9/19/2011: Netflix to split; Comcast in Xbox talks

Netflix DVD mailing service to split off and become Qwikster (Ars Technica)

Netflix Strategy Prompts Backlash (New York Times: Media Decoder)

Dish Said to Unveil Blockbuster Streaming Prices on Friday (Bloomberg)

Microsoft in talks with Comcast and Verizon for Xbox TV (Digiday)
Article says deals might be close. Verizon blog mentions Xbox report and certainly
doesn't deny it (Thanks to Dave Zatz for spotting).


Vail to consider Comcast deal (Vail Daily)
You've got to keep subscribers in places like Vail or Martha's Vineyard happy.

Adam Fogelson Re-Upped as Universal Pictures Chairman (Hollywood Reporter)

Reflecting upon SAP TechEd 2011 (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Relies on Software While Shunning Deals to Vie With Oracle (Bloomberg)

Fiberlink hiring 100 (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

AT&T makes desperate bid to save T-Mobile purchase with rivals’ help (VentureBeat)

Health Network Labs Chooses Altosoft's Insight to Enable Automated Reporting From Multiple Pathology Systems (PR Newswire)



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Hulu sale at risk even as new bids are due (Reuters)