Daily Links 11/8/2011: Bentley Systems makes two acquisitions

Bentley Acquires FormSys to Expand SACS Offerings for Floating Structures (Business Wire)

Bentley Makes Point Clouds Valuable Across Full Infrastructure Lifecycle Through Acquisition of Pointools Ltd (Business Wire)

Liberty Interactive Reports Third Quarter 2011 Financial Results (Business Wire)
QVC revenue grows 6%; parent Liberty increases stake in HSN slightly to 34%, buys back shares.


Exclusive: HP weighing sale of webOS unit (Reuters via Fox Business)
Oracle mentioned as one possible buyer.

PHD Virtual Technologies Announces Additional Investment (PR Web)
Insight Venture Partners and Citrix Systems invest again in Philly-based provider of virtualization monitoring solutions.


Getting your staff on board with superior customer service (Washington Post)
By Gary Jackson, chief executive of Philly-based Shunra Software.

Siemens/MobileMD To Play In Accountable Care Arena
The technology giant positions itself for emerging reimbursement environment with purchase of health information exchange vendor MobileMD (Information Week)


Tyco CEO Breen to resign from Comcast board (MarketWatch)

Don't Pull the Plug on Cablevision (Barron's)

Dish Network CEO Ergen: 'We're just not getting our fair share yet' (Fierce Cable)

Sneak peak at Comcast’s Skype on Xfinity service (Gigaom)


Gary Flake names all-star cast of investors in Clipboard’s $1.4M round (Geekwire)
First Round Capital is one of them.

PANL: Gabelli, Avian Doubt Skeptical View Of Patent Hearing (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
Wondering who Universal Display's IP attorneys are.

Universal Display Corporation Announces Third Quarter 2011 Financial Results (Business Wire)

USA Technologies, Inc. Reports Results for First Quarter of Fiscal 2012
License and Transaction Fee Revenues Up 62%, Total Revenue Up 51% Compared to a Quarter a Year Ago (Business Wire)

CardioNet, Inc. Reports Third Quarter 2011 Financial Results (Business Wire)

Plosser says Fed should target inflation, not jobs (Reuters)



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Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (10/31-11/6 2011)

Tom Paine

I reported on Comcast's 3rd quarter earnings release last week; a mixed bags perhaps, but don't worry about them. Comcast is making plenty of money, though its NBC Broadcast Networks don't appear to be making much of it.

Meanwhile, the city of Longmont, Colorado took a step, in theory, towards competing with Comcast, passing a referendum that would allow it to utilize a largely dark fiber network that runs through town to offer competing telecom services. However, no business plan or financing is in place.

I wrote about Publicis' decision to merge its Philly-based digital health agencies, Digitas Health and Razorfish Health, into its New York-based Publicis Healthcare Communications Group.

And I spoke with co-founder Aksel Güngör of Philly startup Ridaroo about his firm's efforts to develop the market for applications that help bring Carpoolers together in the US.

In other big stories last week, Malvern's Siemens Healthcare made a move into the Healthcare Information Exchange market by acquiring MobileMD of Yardley, SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott say SAP's Cloud strategy will be unveiled early next year, and Monetate said its 3rd quarter revenue increased by 387%.

And Ewing, NJ-based OLED technology firm Universal Display (NASDAQ:PANL) has been bouncing up and dowm on an almost daily basis buffeted by differing analyst reports, rumors, questions on whether Apple would incorporate its technology, and a possible European patent ruling, among other things.

Best Buy expands in IT services by acquiring mindSHIFT, which has significant Philly presence

Tom Paine

Best Buy geared up its efforts to provide IT services to small and medium sized enterprises by acquiring Waltham, Massachusetts-based mindSHIFT Technologies for $167 million, it announced today. mindSHIFT, which has 500 employees, provides cloud services, data center services and professional services mostly on the East coast, including Philadelphia.

mindSHIFT expanded into the Philly market by acquiring Dynamic Digital Services of Levittown in 2005, and in 2007 through the acquisition of Network Alternatives, Inc. of Langhorne, a provider of full-service technology solutions to small- and medium-sized enterprises in the legal and professional services markets. mindSHIFT had over 60 employees at its Langhorne facility, it said in a press release early this year. The Philadelphia Business Journal rank it as #24 on their list of Top Technology Providers and #12 on their list of Largest Systems Integrators for 2011.

The deal reflects an effort by Best Buy to reduce its reliance on Big Box electronic retailing, and increase its base of commercial customers.



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SAP seeks to speed up, facilitate HANA deployments (SAP Watch)

DuPont's AMOLED HDTV tech licensed by... someone, will likely be used to build HDTVs (Engadget)

Universal Display Not Likely To Get Apple OLED License Deal (Forbes: Tech Musings)

PANL: Key Patent Claims Denied In German Hearing, Says Watchdog Group (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
Story needs more interpretation/confirmation.

Dish Advances as Dividend Calms Concerns Over Network Spending (Bloomberg)

Time Warner Cable gets hit with 'large' outage (CNET News)
Update: Probably caused by outage at Level 3.

An “eHarmony For Voters” (TechCrunch)
On Philly startup ElectNext.

Google Ventures Takes A Sip Of Milk, Invests In Kevin Rose’s New Startup
(TechCrunch)
First Round Capital is also an investor.

Philly Tech People News 11/6/2011

Comcast Promotes Peter Kiriacoulacos to Executive Vice President of Comcast Cable and Appoints Him Senior Vice President of NBCUniversal
Will Serve As The Chief Procurement Officer of Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal (Business Wire)

McGinn Named VP of NBC 'Multi-Station Local Programming'
Will head up the Nonstop Network and its national programming focus (Broadcasting & Cable)

TMG Health Hires New Vice President of Enrollment & Billing Services (PR Newswire)

ONPATH Technologies Appoints Gene Litt as Vice President of Marketing (PR Newswire)

AMETEK Names Steven F. Sundberg Vice President & General Manager - Medical Interconnects Division (PR Newswire)

AMETEK: Kevin C. Coleman Named Vice President - Investor Relations (PR Newswire)

OHANA COMPANIES HIRES NEW DIRECTOR OF CLIENT DELIVERY, MICHAEL AVON (pdf) (Ohana Companies Press Release)

Robert McCreary Joins Electronic Ink as Vice President of Client Strategy (Electronic Ink Press Release)

Verizon Delaware President William R. Allan to Retire After 33 Years of Service (PR Newswire)

TELEVISION EXECUTIVE VETERAN CHARLES PAIGE JOINS TELVUE SALES & MARKETING TEAM (PR-USA.net)

DR. LOUIS GLASGOW APPOINTED CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FOR LIGHTWAVE LOGIC, INC. (PR-USA.net)



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Longmont, Colorado votes to take on Comcast, CenturyLink

Tom Paine

Voters in Longmont, Colorado passed a referendum this week that will allow the city to utilize a 17 mile fiber optic loop that is mostly dark today to offer competitive, commercial telecom and cable services to businesses and residents there. The loop was installed by a local power utility in the 1990's at a cost of $1.1 million, and is only used today by a few public agencies and a local hospital. Comcast and incumbent local telco CenturyLink (formerly Qwest) are the two major established competitors there. Longmont is a city of about 86,000 people in Boulder County.

The passing of the referendum does not mean any services will be immediately available in Longmont, but only that Longmont can now legally consider offering them. A Colorado law passed in 2005 prohibits municipalities from offering commercial services using publicly owned infrastructure without voter approval. An effort backed by the Colorado Cable Telecommunications Association, which includes Comcast, is reported to have spent $300,000 on a campaign aimed at defeating the referendum, which passed with about 60% of the vote. The Cable industry objects to
competing with government entities which do not face the same taxes, and also have power to regulate its competitors.

Although many advocates consider the outcome a major victory towards establishing more competition for Comcast, big questions remain unanswered. There is no business plan in place, nor did the referendum authorize any financial committment to the project, which is supposed to be self-financing. Seventeen miles of fiber by itself does not constitute a system. Longmont will probably look to bring in a commercial partner to help develop a service. This type of arrangement doesn't always work out, though, as people in Philadelphia well know from the Wireless Philadelphia experience.

With its unused fiber network, Longmont had pitched Google very hard to be chosen as the pilot city for its "Google Fiber" project, for which Kansas City, Kansas & Missouri were ultimately chosen.

Colorado has been a paticularly contentious state for Comcast's customer relations. Its frosty relationship with the ski resort town of Vail is one example.

The anti-utility sentiment in Colorado also showed up in the nearby city of Boulder, where voters narrowly passed referendums that could allow the city to take over the municipal energy franchise from Xcel Energy, the state's biggest electricity provider. In that case, though, much of voter fustration was driven by perceived mismanagement and cost overruns associated with a pilot "smart grid" project Xcel was trying to implement in Boulder, something that originally appealed to many in this environmentally conscious city. Others felt Xcel wasn't moving quickly enough on adding renewable energy sources.



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No HBO Go for Roku users on Comcast or DirecTV (Gigaom)

Philly's Ridaroo trying to develop nascent market for Carpooling apps

Tom Paine

Although carpooling is gaining in popularity in Europe, it has been slower to take root here in the US, due in part to lower fuel prices relative to Europe, a generally less dense population concentration, and perhaps by a strong American attachment to their own personal transportation. Safety and personal security are also important factors. While HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes in dense traffic corridors encourage a certain amount of pooling, most Americans have preferred to go it alone. Census Bureau data says 10% of American workers carpool to work, down from 20% in 1980.

Of course, changing economics (higher fuel prices, financial pressures), environmental concerns and more traffic congestion could change that. And this is what Philadelphia startup Ridaroo is betting on happening.

Riadaroo's value is its application, which allows users within participating organiztions to connect with others with similar routes who are also willing to carpool. It also provides for flexibility. There are many people who might not want to commit to an everyday carpooling schedule, but might want to do so on an occasional or perhaps sudden basis, and through Ridaroo you can make those arrangements through a feature named "Quick Trip". The benefits of Ridaroo probably increase when there are more participants at a given location, since the larger network means a greater probability of finding a suitable hookup.

Ridaroo's app allows each participating organization to to have its own unique and secure portal. Commuters can create and edit personal profiles to connect with others within that portal. Ridaroo says it has a "unique algorithm" that matches commuters based on start address, destination address, and other factors.

While Ridaroo has publicized its service to college students, which it expanded this Fall from Drexel to all area colleges (and is available for free to students), the key monetization potential appears to lie within the Enterprise market. Ridaroo co-founder, COO and Director of Business Development Aksel Güngör told me the startup is working with some large corporations in the Philly area, and also a few governmental organizations in DC, on possible deployments, though it does not yet have a major client to announce. In addition to providing a convenience and a cost-saving option to employees, an organized carpooling app may also help companies reach measurable goals for sustainability and reduced carbon footprints, which are becoming increasingly important for many.


Güngör and co-founder & CEO Andy Guy launched Ridaroo about a year ago with a little angel funding from family and friends. They have been working out of Drexel's Baiada Center business incubator. Both are Drexel grads, Güngör having an undergraduate Finance degree and Guy an undergrad degree in Computer Science from Penn State and an MBA from Drexel. They are the only full-timers at this point, although they've been getting part-time development help from some Drexel students.

The market is fairly open in the US. Carpooling.com, which claims to have the largest carpooling network in Europe, is said to be pondering an entry into the US market. In the US, Zimride seems to be the furthest along. In September it raised $6 million in VC funds in addition to $1.5 million it had previously raised. That much investment would appear to provide a degree of validation for the market. Facebook just announced it will be financing Zimride's expansion into Menlo Park, where several thousand Facebook employees will be based at its new headquarters there. Another startup, Y Combinator-backed Ridejoy, is more focused on helping people find passengers to share (and help cover expenses on) longer road trips.

Güngör said Ridaroo's goals for now are to get a couple of substantial enterprise clients on board, and at some point, to seek a larger funding round.



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Daily Links 11/4/2011: Malvern's Siemens Healthcare to acquire Yardly-based Health Info Exchange vendor MobileMD

Siemens Healthcare Enters into Definitive Agreement to Acquire Leading HIE Developer MobileMD, Inc. (PR Newswire)
Siemens Healthcare is based in Malvern, MobileMD in Yardley. MobileMD is listed on Philly Tech News' "Young Companies to Watch".


Google May Tinker With Pay-TV Service: Report
Search Giant Has Approached Disney, Time Warner and Discovery About Kansas City Trial (Multichannel News)

Clearwire Shares Soar After Sprint Says It May Provide Financial Backing (Bloomberg)

NetSuite Sales Surge, Making for a Good Day in the Cloud (All Things Digital)

PANL Surges 15%; CNBC Warns Of Patent Threat (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Manufacturer Must Pay Up for Bogus Patent Suit (Courthouse News Service)
As if Checkpoint Systems needed any more problems right now.

inTEST Reports 2011 Third Quarter Financial Results (Marketwire)



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Daily Links 11/3/2011: SAP says Cloud strategy coming, while Oracle defends its own and criticizes Salesforce

SAP Readies Comprehensive Cloud Strategy
Co-CEO Bill McDermott says SAP is ready to "unleash the tiger" in the cloud computing market in 2012. (Information Week)

Oracle defends its cloud, tears into Salesforce.com (Ars Technica)

NetSuite Q3 better than expected (ZDNet Blogs)

HDS to release converged computing platform for SAP
SAP HANA will be available later this year (Computerworld)

Competition and a weak economy plague cable TV (CNET News)

DirecTV Reports Third-Quarter Subs, Profit Increase (Hollywood Reporter)

How Much Does an NBC Turnaround Even Matter Any More? (Ad Age)

TE Connectivity beats, warns on consumer markets (Reuters)
TE Connectivity, formerly Tyco Electronics, has its operational headquarters in Berwyn.

ICG Announces Third Quarter Financial Results (Globe Newswire)
Says delays in contract signings impacting second half, lowers revenue guidance.

Business Intelligence Decisions and Directions (Sandhill)
Interview with Radnor-based QlikTech's Donald Farmer.

Intel Capital Leads $35.5M Round In TV E-Commerce Platform Delivery Agent (TechCrunch)

VCs Turn Gloomy About Their Prospects: Report (PE Hub)



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Monetate Reports Record 387% Revenue Increase in Third Quarter (PR Web)


Kenexa Shares Popped: What You Need to Know (Daily Finance)

Pa. Court Holds Onto Suit Against AcademyOne (Courthouse News Service)
AcademyOne is based in West Chester.

Giant’s online service leases N.E. Phila. building: The Fine Print (Philadelphia Business Journal)