Highlights: Last Week on Philly Tech News (12/12 to 12/18 2011)

I profiled Center City-based virtualization monitoring and backup software provider PHD Virtual Technologies and its CEO, Thomas Charlton.

Philly Startup Leaders took what should be a major step forward by naming Bob Moul, who recently left Dell Boomi, as its President. And Mike Krupit's Bucks County-based business accelerator, Novotorium, which I wrote about in late October prior to its launch, announced a number of partnering organizations and individuals who will provide assistance to its ventures.

Salesforce took a small swipe at SAP's recently annnounced SuccessFactors acquisition by acquiring Cloud HCM player
Rypple, to be run by former SAP exec John Wookey, and promptly announced they would rename it SuccessForce. And SAP made a bold prediction, saying it would be the #2 database vendor by 2015, meaning it would have to pass IBM, Microsoft and Teradata by then.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts paid a $500,000 fine to the FTC for violating an antitrust provision requiring him to report significant increases in the number of Comcast shares he held; Federal officials say the reporting violation was inadvertent and Roberts reported it as soon as he became aware of it.
Comcast's NBC signed a 9 year extension with the NFL for an estimated $1 billion per year; in addition to retaining its Sunday night slot, it adds a Thanksgiving night game, some better playoff dates, and three Super Bowls. NBC may also bid on an expanded Thursday night package which would air on the soon to be rebranded NBC Sports Network cable channel (now Versus). Reports indicate that the proposed "innovation joint venture" between Comcast, other cable companies and Verizon Wireless would be based in Philadelphia, if the proposed arrangement passes regulatory scrutiny. And Comcast-Spectacor's proposed South Philly entertainent complex, slated to open this spring, will now be called Xfinity Live! rather than Philly Live!, doubling down on the brand name no one understands.

Four Philly area corporate IT execs were named to Comupterworld's 2012 "Premier 100" IT Leaders. And one Philly area resident who runs a small IT consulting firm created a storm with an article he contributed on Forbes titled "If I Were A Poor Black Kid".



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Daily Links 12/19/2011: AT&T drops T-Mobile bid

AT&T Pulls $39 Billion T-Mobile Bid After Regulator Opposition (Bloomberg)

Deal means more SAP cloud changes (Computerworld)

Oracle's 2Q to provide snapshot of tech spending (AP via Business Week)

Tech Startup AboutOne Announces Additional Participation in Oversubscribed Series A Funding (PR Newswire)

myYearbook Launches iPad App (Business Wire)

The Franklin Institute Announces the 2012 Franklin Institute Laureates (PR Newswire)

More Low-Key Than His Predecessor, NBC Sports Chief Still Aims High (New York Times)

Charter Communications Names Thomas M. Rutledge as President and CEO (PR Newswire)

AppMobi Solves HTML5 Audio Problems, Accelerates Animation with directCanvas (ReadWriteWeb)

UniTek Global Services Awarded 3-Year Contract With Leading Wireless Carrier (Globe Newswire)

Sprint Sues Time Warner, Comcast Over Digital Phone Technology (Bloomberg)

Exclusive: Falcone's wireless company running out of cash (Reuters)

Don’t cut that fiber just yet (CED Magazine)



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Philly Tech People News 12/18/2011

Philly Startup Leaders Announces Bob Moul as New President (Business Wire)
Leaving Dell Boomi.

Hewlett-Packard general counsel Holston exits (Philadelphia Business Journal)
Veteran Philadelphia attorney.

Deborah Crawford Joins University City Science Center Board of Directors (Business Wire)

Executive Team Member Named President of The Judge Group, North America (Business Wire)

25 Novotorium Partners Set to Help Emerging Businesses (PR Web)

Scala Positioned to Advance Digital Signage Market and Technology Leadership with Executive Appointments (PR Web)

Cross X Platform (CXP) Announces the Addition of Top Industry Leaders to the Team
(PR Web)

Qwiki Loses Its Director Of Communications To First Round Capital (Silicon Alley Insider)


QVC, Inc. Promotes Beth Rubino to Executive Vice President Human Resources and Workplace Services (PR Newswire)

WVT Communications Group Appoints David Cuthbert to Board of Directors (Marketwire)

NBCUniversal's Media Works Promotes Four
Brady, Trombley, Mayzurk and Siry upped in tech department (Broadcasting & Cable)

Michael Cusumano, MIT's Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management, Joins Quantum Leap Innovations Board of Directors (PR Newswire)



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SAP 2011 results analysis – The Awful Economy Is Really Going To Hurt Financial Analysts (John Appleby/People, Process and Technology)

SAP Spells out Vision for HANA-driven Software Architecture (PC World)

The Woman Who Saves Cable Networks (New York Times)
On Bonnie Hammer, chairwoman of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment.

Philly Area IT consultant's post on Forbes creates controversy

Gene Marks, a resident of the Philly suburbs who runs a consulting firm focused on CRM for small businesses
and has been a long time blogger and contributor to several publications, got quite a reaction with this piece he contributed to Forbes: "If I Were A Poor Black Kid". It has created a bit of an uproar on the Web. While no doubt Marks' intentions were good (though perhaps self-promoting; as a Forbes contributor he gets paid by the click), the article to some reflected a presumptuous, out of touch attitude and a lack of understanding of the practical difficulties inner city kids might face.

His commentary has provoked a number of responses, both satirical and reflective, of which some of the best are linked to below:

If I Were A White, Male Middle Aged Forbes Columnist… (Color Lines)

If I Were A Poor Black Kid (Modeled Behavior)

A Muscular Empathy (The Atlantic)

If I were the 99% I'd try to be the 1% (The Economist)

Trolling The Internet With 'If I Were A Poor Black Kid' (Forbes)



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Daily Links 12/16/2011: Salesforce makes HCM acquisition; will rename SuccessForce

Salesforce Makes A Rypple With New Acquisition (Wall Street Journal: Digits)

Salesforce snubs SAP with Rypple flip (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Sees No Further Big Cloud Buys After SuccessFactors - Report (Dow Jones via NASDAQ.com)

Dell Resurrects Venture Capital Arm (Wall Street Journal: Digits)
Something to keep an eye on, given Boomi's central role in Dell's emerging Cloud strategy.

Revenue Cycle Management: Healthcare's Next Frontier?
NextGen parent QSI acquires small claims processor ViaTrack to bolster position in burgeoning RCM market. (Information Week)
NextGen Healthcare is based in Horsham.

Xfinity rebranding raises doubts among experts (Philadelphia Inquirer)

FTC hits Comcast CEO Brian Roberts with $500,000 fine (LA Times: Company Town)
Apparently just a technical oversight, and anyway, what's $500,000 when you rule the world?

Cablevision Stock Hits 52-Week Low After COO Resignation (Hollywood Reporter)

What's Next for Cablevision? (Light Reading Cable)
Some suggest Comcast could be interested in Jersey, Connecticut pieces of Cablevision if it were to be put up for sale, but most doubt that will happen any time soon.

Cox To Sell Wireless Licenses To Verizon Wireless For $315 Million
MSO and Wireless Carrier Will Resell Each Other's Residential and Commercial Products (Multichannel News)

Penn State receives $10 million commitment to engineering research (Penn State Live)
Some good news on another difficult day for the University.



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Philly Area IT Execs named to Computerworld's "Premier 100" IT Leaders for 2012

Computerworld recently named its "Premier 100" IT Leaders for 2012. Computerworld usually represents the interests of the corporate CIO/CTO community, and these selections are reflective of that.

Those from the Philadelphia business community recognized are David Ballai, CIO and vice president of commercial solutions, Reed Technology & Information Services Inc. of Horsham (a LexisNexis company); Carol J. Dow, Chief technology officer and principal of global investment systems, Vanguard, Valley Forge; John South, Chief security officer, Heartland Payment Systems, Princeton; and Jimmy Z. Wang, Vice president and CIO, Teva Pharmaceuticals - Americas, North Wales.

Also named were Michael F. Fabiano, Vice president, strategic initiatives, NBC News, NBC Universal (Comcast); and Walt Oswald, Corporate vice president and CIO, Motorola Mobility, which has its cable tech business based in Horsham.

They will be honored at IDG's Premier 100 IT Leaders Conference, being held in March in Phoenix.




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Daily Links 12/15/2011: Comcast's priorities: Philly Live! now Xfinity Live!

Philly Fed Manufacturers See Improvement in Business Activity (Business Wire)
Outlook suggests modest expansion, but growing cost/pricing pressures.

Philadelphia-Area Manufacturing Increased to 10.3 in December (Bloomberg)

Philly Live!? No, Xfinity Live!
(Philly.com: The Insider)

NFL signs TV rights deals with Fox, NBC and CBS
The broadcast networks will pay a total of nearly $28 billion in fees over nine years under the new contracts, which take effect after the NFL's 2013 season. (LA Times)

mHealth: Seemingly Stuck in Neutral (Chilmark Research)

Microsoft Bows Out of the Clinical Market (Chilmark Research)

SAP Business ByDesign takes on two-tier ERP (SearchSAP)

University accuses Oracle of extortion, lies, 'rigged' demo in lawsuit
Montclair State has elaborated on its case against Oracle over an ERP project gone wrong (Techworld)

First Take: IBM Acquires Emptoris (Spend Matters)


FinTech 2012 (A VC)
Could be of interest to some Philly area FinTech people.

SAY Media Acquires Tech Blog ReadWriteWeb Dan Frommer joins as editor (Ad Week)
First Round Capital owns a stake in SAY Media.

CardioNet, Inc. Reaches Preliminary Agreement on Shareholders Litigation (Business Wire)

CardioNet, Inc. Announces the Launch of its Next Generation MCOT™ Device (Business Wire)



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SAP: We'll Be No. 2 Database Player By 2015 (Information Week)

What a Large Enterprise CIO Would Think of the SAP Cloud Position (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Influencer Summit: a qualified success (ZDNet Blogs)

Comcast expands IPv6 services into four more states (Network World)

NFL signs TV deals worth billions with Fox, NBC and CBS (LA Times: Company Town)

TaskRabbit Raises $17.8 Million, Brings in Eisner as Adviser (All Things Digital)
First Round Capital was early backer.

Daily Links 12/13/2011: Comcast in deal to distribute BBC

BBC strikes 'breakthrough' US news deal with cable giant Comcast (The Guardian)

Jive Software Raises $161.3 Million in Initial Public Offering (Bloomberg)

SAP promises innovation will help it compete in cloud space (v3.co.uk)

Making its Case: SAP HANA Coming to TIBCO, Tableau and Jive Software (Silicon Angle)

Gartner Has First Ever IaaS Magic Quadrant Report (ReadWriteCloud)

Philadelphia Technology Park Partners with Sunesys to Expand Connectivity Network in Southeastern Pennsylvania Region (Business Wire)
Sunesys is based in Warrington.

CDI to cut 200 jobs, narrow outsourcing services (MarketWatch)


Falcone’s LightSquared Said to Disrupt 75% of GPS in Tests (Bloomberg)

Dish May Partner With T-Mobile If AT&T Acquisition Fails (Bloomberg)

Verizon Said Not to Have Talked Netflix Offer (Bloomberg)


The Five Stages of Telecom Transition (Werblog)
By Wharton Prof and Telecom policy analyst Kevin Werbach.

Motorola Mobility Licenses FourthWall's EBIF, Mobile Device Software
Motorola Package Interactive TV Technology With Medios Service Management Suite (Multichannel News)

ChoozOn Named Newcomer of the Year by TechFlash
The World’s First Personal Shopper for Deals Brings Brands and Consumers Together (TechFlash)
I wrote about ChoozOn's King of Prussia operations in August.

GSI spinoff’s family values on display at office: Slideshow (Philadelphia Business Journal)



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Daily Links 12/12/2011: Report: Planned Comcast, TWC, Bright House & Verizon Wireless “innovation-technology joint venture”would be based in Philadelphia

Mobile Mashup
Cable operators can’t be true wireless carriers. Will a patchwork of partnerships and Wi-Fi cover their bases?
(Multichannel News)
Comcast, TWC, Bright House & Verizon Wireless “innovation-technology joint venture” will be based in Philadelphia, article says.

Comcast Has A Huge New Venture Fund, And This Woman Is Running It (Silicon Alley Insider)
On Amy Banse.


SAP taps NetBase for deep social media analytics (Gigaom)


More Acquisitions in Software? Aaron Levie Believes So. (Forbes)
Interview with founder of Box.

BI visualisation is just "eye candy": Pentaho (Computer Business Review)
Takes a poke at QlikTech.

IT services firm Epam eyes U.S. IPO in first quarter: sources (Reuters)
Although most of its operations are in Eastern Europe, Epam is based in Newtown, Bucks County.

Quality Systems, Inc. Acquires ViaTrack Systems
Acquisition Expands Electronic Data Interchange Services for Inpatient Market (Business Wire)
Quality Systems' principal business unit is NextGen Healthcare of Horsham.


3 New Digital Solutions For Capturing and Sharing Content (Mashable)
Mashable covers DreamIt Ventures Philly Demo Day.

Cross Atlantic Capital Partners Leads Series A Funding for Sagence Group (Business Wire)



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