Daily Links 10/27/2011: QlikTech reports 50% growth, small profit

Safeguard Scientifics consolidates life science, tech portfolio management (Med City News)
Kevin Kemmerer resigns, Jim Datin has taken over management of the technology portfolio in addition to life sciences portfolio. Surprising, seems sudden; looking for more explanation.

QlikTech Announces Third Quarter 2011 Financial Results (Business Wire)
Revenue grows 50% to $75.5 million, small*(GAAP) net profit. Americas revenue up 71%.


Quality Systems, Inc. Reports Record Fiscal 2012 Second Quarter Results; Board-Approved 2:1 Stock Split Effective Today (Business Wire)
Continues to report strong top line and bottom line growth. Quality Systems' primary business is NextGen Healthcare of Horsham.

InterDigital Rises as Sales Top Estimates, Sale Talks Continue
(Bloomberg)

Comcast/NBCU Deal Lawyers: Online Video Competition Was Key Concern
Attorneys for Comcast, FCC, Verizon give personal takes on merger conditions and impact on over-the-top services. (Broadcasting & Cable)

Comcast Moves NBCU Local’s Shopping Guide To DailyCandy (paidContent)

Time Warner Cable Slumps as Profit Misses Estimates on Subscriber Losses (Bloomberg)

Time Warner Cable continues big bet on broadband (Gigaom)

Motorola Mobility's Home Sales Drop 10% In Q3
Set-Top Shipments Decline 3% Year Over Year (Multichannel News)

CardioNet, Inc. Board of Directors Announces the Resignation of Randy Thurman as Chairman of the Board (Business Wire)

Marketing continues for Philadelphia Media Network tablet despite exec's departure (NewsWorks)

SAP Updates Business One Application for Small Companies (PC World)

Instem Chosen for Global Deployment of Provantis SaaS; Roche Consolidates Preclinical Software Systems (Business Wire)

Kenexa to Transfer to the New York Stock Exchange (Business Wire)
Also indicates higher guidance for Q3 results.

Heartland Payment Systems Reports 55% Increase in Third Quarter Adjusted Earnings per Share
Board Authorizes $50 Million Share Repurchase Program (Business Wire)

CDI Corp. Reports 2011 Third Quarter Results (PR Newswire)



permalink

Daily Links 10/26/2011: SAP officially reports results, ponders share repurchases

SAP Profit Rises After Damages Provision for Oracle Is Cut (Bloomberg)
Some uncertainty about outlook for next year.

Strong cash flow prompts SAP to mull share repurchases (Reuters)

SAP mulling dedicated cloud sales force to push on-demand products (V3.co.uk)

Workday Aims at Enterprises With Cloud ERP as IPO Approaches (PC World)

A Bad Day for the Salesforce Kool-Aid (All Things Digital)

KofP prodigy in $1.5B Oracle cloud software deal (Philly.com: Philly Deals)


Safeguard Scientifics Announces Third Quarter 2011 Financial Results (Business Wire)

Comcast Launches HD, Full-Screen Versions Of TV Guide Network In Freedom Region
Rollouts Should Be Completed By End Of Q1 (Multichannel News)
The Freedom Region includes the Philly area.

Netflix Now 33% Of Peak Downstream Internet Traffic In U.S.: Study
Streaming Video Overall Represents 60% of Peak Downstream Bandwidth Usage, According to Sandvine (Multichannel News)
Another reason I think Netflix may face crunch; cheap bandwith for streaming is not infinite.

Daniel B. Burke Dies at 82; Helped Engineer Capital Cities-ABC Deal (New York Times)
Father of NBCU CEO Steve Burke, and brother of former J&J CEO James E. Burke.

Clearwire Soars; Sprint Discloses Tentative Deal On LTE (Eric Savitz/Forbes)
Not a financial agreement, but rather an agreement to determine mutual tech specs for LTE.

Don’t look now, but AWS might be a billion-dollar biz (Gigaom)

Daily Links 10/25/2011: NBC Sports, including Versus, moving to Connecticut

NBC Sports may move its Phila., N.Y. operations to Conn. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

It's official: NBC sports coming to Connecticut (Connecticut Mirror)


Tech bubble 2.0, revisited (FT Blogs)

Who’s next on Oracle’s hit list? (Gigaom)

Dell Boomi gets a business rules engine (Computerworld)

Dell Boomi AtomSphere Fall Release Harnesses Power of World’s Largest Integration Cloud to Simplify Integration Complexity (Business Wire)

Modelling market for SAP heats Up (IT-Director.com)

Mainframes pump up profits at Unisys
Bucking Uncle Scrooge Sam (The Register)

Cross Atlantic Capital Partners Completes Its Most Recent Investment in Rootstock Software (Business Wire)
Saleforce.com also invests. See my post on Cross Atlantic's investment in Rootstock from June.

What I learned from raising venture capital (Gabriel Weinberg's Blog)
DuckDuckGo's reported funding is $3 million (actually, one dollar less), according to an SEC filing.

After Dismal Earnings Outlook, Netflix Loses $2.3 Billion In Market Cap (TechCrunch)

Netflix and the economics of nonrival goods (Felix Salmon/Reuters Blogs)

Who Will Own Your Living Room? (Silicon Angle)

AMETEK Announces Strong Third Quarter Results (PR Newswire)
Raises guidance for full year.

AMETEK Acquires EM Test (PR Newswire)
Continues to be acquisitive.

Nokia Maps plus HTML5 equals offline mobile maps (Gigaom)

Industry's First Integrated Wireless Receiver Gives U-Verse TV Customers More Freedom to Easily Watch TV Anywhere, in Any Room in the Home
(AT&T Press Release)

Health IT Wins More Venture Capital in 2011
Venture capital for healthcare software and IT services hit $207 million in the third quarter of 2011, a 14% increase compared to Q3 2010. (Information Week)



permalink

Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News

New Jersey Tech Weekly's Esther Surden contributed a piece she wrote on her website on the recent New Jersey Technology Council (NJTC) Executive Leadership Summit in Jersey City and Synchronoss Technologies CEO Stephen Waldis' keynote address.

USA Technologies Chairman & CEO George Jensen Jr. does resign, and yes, as I had speculated, it was the Yahoo message board for USAT that he was posting messages on.

Ben Franklin Technology Ventures of Southeastern Pennsylvania announces $1 million in funding for six ventures.

I reported on a new business accelerator, Novotorium, that is set to open with a November 1 launch party at its Langhorne offices.

And I take a look at the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree report on VC funding in the Philadelphia area.



permalink

Daily Links 10/24/2011: Oracle buys RightNow for $1.5 billion, Workday raises $85 million

Oracle Buys RightNow for $1.5 Billion to Add Cloud Services
(Bloomberg)
Big day for Montana.

Oracle Targets Salesforce with Latest Buy: RightNow for $1.5 Billion (Silicon Angle)

Exclusive: Aneel Bhusri’s Workday Raises $85 Million at a Whopping $2 Billion Valuation (All Things Digital)
Perhaps the biggest emerging threat to SAP.

SAP and United Nations Population Fund Unveil Interactive Analytics as Population Grows Beyond 7 Billion (PR Newswire)

Just How Much Damage Did Netflix Really Do To Itself? (All Things Digital)
Earnings due today.

Netflix loses 800,000 US subscribers in third quarter (Gigaom)
Share price down almost 20% after close.

Netflix Q3 Top Ests, But Shares Hit By Weak Q4 Outlook (Forbes: Tech Musings)

UberMedia Launches Chime.in Interest Network: New Social Media Platform for Connecting and Engaging Around Interests (Marketwire)
Comcast Ventures described as "strategic funding partner"; First Round Capital already an investor in UberMedia.

On the Call: Verizon CFO on non-FiOS areas (AP via Bloomberg Business Week)
Says it will serve those areas with fixed LTE.

Unisys more than triples profits, earns $79M (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Amazon’s Online Drugstore Soap.com Adds Groceries To The List (TechCrunch)

MobileMD Gets Connecticut HIE Deal (Health Data Management)
MobileMD is based in Yardley.

Sidera Expands at 401 North Broad in Philly (Data Center Knowledge)



permalink

Philly Tech People News 10/23/2011

Michael R. Conn Joins Kynetic as Chief Financial Officer
Former GSI Commerce CFO Reunites with Business Partner Michael G. Rubin (PR Newswire)

Monetate Adds Publishing Industry Veteran Rob Yoegel as Content Marketing Director (PR Web)

Scala Announces Retail Expert Marcy Patzer Has Joined The Company (PR Web)

Former Consumer Reports’ Executive Jerry Steinbrink Joins PMN in New Role (Philly Ad Club News)

CableLabs Confirms CEO's 2012 Departure (Light Reading Cable)

GSI Commerce names Barratt e-Dialog president (Direct Marketing News)

BizEquity Announces Board of Directors (Business Wire)

Malovetz Joins MTI As Vice President, Strategic Services (Business Wire)



Salesforce.com to 'unlock' SAP's Core Software for 'social Enterprises' (PC World)

Questions loom over status of shuttered McNeil plant )Philadelphia Inquirer)

Cantor cancels Penn speech, Occupy Philly still protests (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Venture Capital in the Philadelphia Metro Area
(Jennifer Knudson/Philly Fed Research Rap) (pdf)

Jobs's final plan: an ‘integrated’ Apple TV (Washington Post)

Philly VC Deals flat vs. last year; longer term funding may be concern

Tom Paine

Venture Capital investment in Philly Metro area companies was just under $120 million in the third quarter of 2011, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree report based on data from Thomson Reuters, released Wednesday. This was more than the $89 million reported in Q2, but less than the $124 million reported in the same quarter last year. Total investment for the first three quarters of 2011 was $337 million, compared to $334 million for the first three quarters of last year. Thirty-six deals were reported in the quarter.

In terms of individual investments, there were no surprises; all the large deals had previously been announced. ISGN, the Bensalem-based mortgage processing technology business, was the largest recipient, raising $30 million. Boston-based OpenView Venture Partners' trio of area investments, Monetate, NextDocs, and Xtium, which I wrote about here, accounted for about $31 million (though I believe these numbers don't reflect another $5 million invested in Xtium).

Other IT-oriented investments included Instamed ($5.5 million), GreenPhire ($1.5 million), Lightning Gaming of Boothwyn ($1 million), Cross Current Corporation of Doylestown ($800,000), Vita Products of Philadelphia ($700,000), and Sanovia of Philadelphia ($500,000). PlaySay, which the report says raised $250,000, has since moved to Washington DC and now has raised a total of $550,000 from Bethesda, MD-based Novak Biddle Venture Partners. AssetVUE and MobileReactor LLC both recently raised $200,000 from Ben Franklin Technology Partners, as was announced ealier this week. Connectify raised an unspecified amount from an investment firm related to the US Intelligence comunity, and recently launched spare space rental site Storably is also reported to have raised funds.

Some angel investments and other larger private equity investments may not be included in the MoneyTree report.

Nationally, VC investment was up 31% over the prior year"s third quarter. Software investments reached $2 billion, the highest level in nearly a decade.

The biggest concern going forward is whether the current level of funding can be maintained. Venture Capital fundraising hit an eight year low in the third quarter, dropping 53% from the prior year, according to the National Venture Capital Association, and VC investments are far outpacing fundraising as many firms are working downs funds they had previously raised.



permalink

Daily Links 10/21/2011: Questions asked about Fisker Automotive

Ben Franklin expands start-up incubator
Addition is expected to help create up to 200 technology jobs in three years. (Allentown Morning Call)

Cantor speech at Wharton abruptly canceled (Politico)

What if Gartner is right? (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)

Salesforce hires Bruce Richardson - this is a big deal (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)


SAP And Oracle: Get Real About In-Memory Analysis (Information Week)

Car Company Gets U.S. Loan, Builds Cars In Finland (ABC News)
Fisker Automotive received a $529 million loan guarantee from the Federal government to produce electric cars in Delaware, but right now they are only being built in Finland. The Wilmington News Journal reports that the Delaware production plans have been pushed back to mid-2013, though Fisker takes some dispute with that. Conshohocken-based A&I Ventures has a small stake in Fisker.

Bernstein Research: Cable Deal Could Be T-Mobile 'Plan B'
Analysts say deal with Comcast, TWC for spectrum could be just the ticket (Multichannel News)


Inside Comcast’s massive IP VOD network (Gigaom)

Comcast No Longer Choking File Sharers’ Connections, Study Says (Wired: Threat Level)

Verizon's FiOS TV Subscriber Growth Slowed in Third Quarter (Hollywood Reporter)

Verizon Profit Doubles on Smartphones; User Gains Fall Short (Bloomberg)



permalink

Daily Links 10/20/2011: Philly Fed Business Outlook Survey shows signs of improvement

Philly Fed Manufacturers See Improvement in October (Business Wire)

Philly Fed factory activity highest since April (Reuters)

Dell Looks in Mirror, Sees Hip Silicon Valley Startup (Wired: Wired Enterprise)
"Boomi engineering team with[sic] remain in Philadelphia, but some sales staff will work out of the new Silicon Valley Research and Development Center", article says. Dell Boomi's Bob Moul responded to my tweet wondering if there might be a gradual shift of Boomi activity towards Silicon Valley, tweeting: "not in the plans - just signed lease to double space in Berwyn. Cool bldg in Santa Clara tho... :-)"

Integration Key to Dell's New Approach to IT (IT Business Edge)

Would Janney have really left city without deal? (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

David Kramer Retires as CEO of Digitas Health and Razorfish Health at end of 2011 (Press Release via Philly Ad Club News)

Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire BNI Video
Acquisition Will Advance Cisco's Videoscape Service Provider Video Strategy (Cisco Press Release)
Comcast Ventures was a "founding investor" of BNI Video.

BNI Video Seeks Scale With Cisco (Light Reading Cable)

U-verse TV Loses Momentum, Broadband Stalls
AT&T Adds 176,000 TV Subs and Just 3,000 Net Wireline Broadband Customers (Multichannel News)

Analysts Size Up Third-Quarter Pay TV Subscriber Trends (Hollywood Reporter)

SAP Loses ByDesign VP, Gains Global On-Demand Head (Accounting Today)

SEPTA smart card contract delayed
(Philadelphia Inquirer)

Siemens and Synthes Launch Software for Preoperative Planning of Trauma Surgery (Medgadget)

The Bigger the Risk the Bigger the Reward (SevOne Blog)
On SevOne being ranked #2 on Deloitte's 2011 Philadelphia Fast 50.

PayChoice: Next generation of payroll/HR software technology set to deliver (Business Wire)



permalink