Philly-based corporate meeting management site StarCite, an ICG portfolio company, is acquired



Tom Paine


San Diego-based Active Network announced today it had acquired StarCite, the Philadelphia-based web-based business for managing arrangements for corporate meetings and events.

ICG, which most recently reported a 36% stake in StarCite, said its share of the proceeds would be $24.9 million, of which $15.8 million would be in cash. That would imply a value for the entire company of just under $70 million. ICG also said it will report an initial gain of $14 million on the sale, though the final proceeds could be higher.

StarCite had very strong growth in the early 2000's and was considered one of Philly's most successful internet-based businesses, but in recent years had seen slumping revenues and losses. It indicated earlier last year that it was looking for other investors or a possible acquirer. Other past investors had included TPG Growth, Norwest Venture Partners and TL Ventures.

Active Network describes itself as "the leading provider of organization-based cloud computing applications--serving the business events, community activities, outdoors and sports markets". It trades on the NYSE under the symbol ACTV and has a market value of over $700 million.



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Daily Links 1/5/2012: Gartner Cuts 2012 IT Spending Forecast To 3.7 Percent Growth



SAP and SuccessFactors: still questions to be asked? (BusinessCloud9)

Gartner Lowers 2012 IT Spending Forecast To 3.7 Percent Growth (TechCrunch)

Oracle's Downward Spiral (E-Commerce Times)

Active Network Launches Business Solutions Division, Powered by Leading SaaS Technology and a Global Ecosystem Connecting Event Suppliers, Organizations and Attendees
Company Acquires StarCite® and Its Online Marketplace for Leading Hotel, Destination and Venue Suppliers Worldwide
(Business Wire)

ICG Provides Update on Recent Events (Globe Newswire)

HBO to Netflix: We’re taking our ball & going home (VentureBeat)

Disney, Comcast And Why TV Everywhere Alone Is Not Enough (paidContent)

Comcast-Disney Pact Signals More Deals Aimed at Fighting Netflix (Bloomberg)

Motorola's Connected Home Gateway makes your house smarter, turns it into a 4Home (Engadget)

CES: Dish Poised To Unveil Wireless Broadband Plans, Multiroom DVR: Reports (Multichannel News)

Cisco's Alternative To Skype Has Quietly Been Killed (Silicon Alley Insider)
Cisco introduced Umi just a little more than a year ago. Originally, Cisco had hoped to market it to Verizon FiOS and Comcast customers, but it was ridiculously expensive and Comcast turned to Skype for its solution instead.

Marvell’s ARM chips will power Google TV’s future (Gigaom)

Why Would a Newspaper Company Launch a Startup Incubator? (ReadWriteWeb)


WEB EXCLUSIVE: FDA says "Pharma, guide thyself" (Medical Marketing & Media)



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Daily Links 1/4/2012: CloudMine, ElectNext and SnipSnap are chosen for Project Liberty incubator



Why Enterprise Software Will Never Be the Same (PC World)

Ben Franklin Announces Project Liberty Digital Incubator Inaugural Class (Ben
Franklin Technology Partners Press Release)
CloudMine, ElectNext and SnipSnap are chosen.

Disney and Comcast Link Up for Another 10 Years (All Things Digital)

Comcast, Disney Reach Major Carriage Deal
UPDATED: ESPN available online to Xfinity subscribers
(Broadcasting & Cable)


Amazon staffs up for new digital media service effort (Gigaom)

MetroPCS Launching Live Mobile TV Service Later This Year (TechCrunch)

TiVo shares soar after AT&T settlement (AP via CBS News)

Roku Streaming Stick delivers TV apps in a flash drive package (VentureBeat)

Solve Media Now Works With 3,000 Publishers And It's Closing In On A ~ $6 Million Series B Round (Silicon Alley Insider)
Solve Media was started in Philadelphia and backed by First Round Capital; moved to New York but still has office in Philly.

Echo Therapeutics Announces $3.6 Million Warrant Exercises (PR Newswire)

Independence Blue Cross gears up to launch mobile apps (Mobile Health News)

Shell completes transition of SAP-based HR application services to Accenture
(Computerworld UK)

Infor shows strong growth (ZDNet Blogs)



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Highlights: Last two weeks on Philly Tech News (12/19/2011 to 1/1/2012)



I took an end of year look at Exton-based digital signage company Scala and had a conversation with its CEO, Tom Nix.

Boston-based OpenView Venture Partners, which invested heavily in Philly ventures in 2011, has raised another $99 million, and there may be more to come.

Safeguard Scientifics invested in two companies, including West Chester-based Hoopla Software, which makes leader scoreboards for Salesforce.com systems, and a Virginia based "Internet of Things" startup. Safeguard's other Internet of Things portfolio venture, Exton-based ThingWorx, announced a significant staff expansion.

A Federal judge threw out RICO charges against SAP in Marin County's (CA) lawsuit against SAP over
a failed software implementation. Marin County has a separate lawsuit against Deloitte, the consultant on the project.

Oracle's 2nd quarter results released in December fell short of expectations, and shook up the market outlook in the enterprise software business going in to 2012.

An FCC administrative judge ruled against Comcast on the charges it discriminated against the Tennis Channel in package placement; Comcast says it will appeal to the full commission. And Sprint sued Comcast and other cable companies over alleged violations of its VoIP patents, a move some see as a reaction to the recently announced proposed relationship between several cable companies and Verizon Wireless.

And Verizon Wireless quickly dropped a proposed plan to charge some customers $2 for paying their bills online or by phone..


Novotorium accepts first tenant: Zuppler



Tom Paine


Novotorium , the Langhorne-based business accelerator started by Mike Krupit that launched late last year, today announced it had accepted the first company into its program: Zuppler. Founded by Shiva Srinivasan, Zuppler provides full-service restaurant portals that offer online ordering, table reservations, customized restaurant websites, ratings and other functions. Zuppler also manages the processing of the orders and ensures that the orders are received and confirmed by the restaurant. Its portals also have restaurant listings, events, coupons, menu, reviews etc. Originally started in India as aPlaceToDine.com two years ago, the company migrated to the US as Zuppler and currently services about 100 restaurants located mostly in the Chicago area.

Shiva earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Bangalore University and a master’s degree in computer science from Drexel University, and has 15 years of professional experience.

See the announcement from Novotorium's website.



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Penn-founded Coursekit raises $5 million



Tom Paine


Coursekit, which was founded in 2010 by CEO Joseph Cohen and two others at Penn, just announced it has raised $5 million to continue the rollout of its "social learning management system". Investors in this round include Social+Capital (started by former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya), David Tisch, Joel Spolsky, IA Ventures, and several angel investors. Last year it had raised $1 million in seed funding led by IA Ventures and Founder Collective and moved to New York.

Coursekit joins several other new players in the LMS market, including other venture-backed startups, large education market player Pearson PLC, and open source tools such as Moodle and Sakai. They are taking on entrenched market leader Blackboard (recently acquired by Providence Equity Partners) among others. Coursekit's emphasis is on social collaboration among class participants, and for now seeks course by course adoption rather than institution-wide deployment.

I wrote about Coursekit last month. It started at Penn as a small project to replace paper-based course syllabai.



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The Commodore 64 Is 30 Years Old (TechCrunch)
An iconic piece of Philly Tech history.

TV Rights and the Sports Effect (Zatz Not Funny!)

Watch out Comcast, I’ve Got Choices (Business Insider)


Notes on upcoming Philly Tech Events: Occupy Novotorium , NJ Drupal Camp, Redsnake Philly & more



Novotorium, the newly opened business accelerator in Langhorne, will be holding an open house it is calling "Occupy Novotorium" at its facilities during the week of January 16 to 20. It will hold events each day and startups will be able to work from there on days for which they register. Its free, but space is limited and you must register in advance.

Due to office schedule conflicts at Zivtech, Drupaldelphia's monthy meetups will be moving from the first Thursday
of the month to the third Tuesday, beginning this month. January's meeting will be held on January 17 at Zivtech.

Speaking of Drupal, the first New Jersey Drupal Camp will be held on February 4 in Princeton.

Space at the Redsnake Philly event in February will be limited to 120 people, and the tickets are being split 50/50
between PhillyPUG and Philly.rb. PhillyPUG's allotment will distributed in-person to those who attend its January meeting on January 10.Priority will go to those who have been more regular attendees, says PhillyPUG Organizer Tom Panzarella in an email.


January's Philly Tech Meetup Founders Happy Hour will be held at Venturef0rth, a new incubator/shared workspace on North 8th Street in Philadelphia, on January 11. Its founders are Jesse Kramer, Elliot Menschik and Jay Shah.

This month's Philly Amazon Web Services (AWS). meeting on January 12 will feature a presentation by Monetate's Hunter Blanks on using Elastic MapReduce, spot instances, and Hive. It will be held at Vox Medica offices in the Curtis Building.

And a happy hour introducing Bob Moul as President of Philly Startup Leaders will be held on January 17 at Ladder 15.

You can follow all the major upcoming tech events on the Philly Tech Events Calendar .



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Comcast and NBC launch sports network
The new outlet will boost programming and distribution of the former Versus. Costs could rise.
(Philadelphia Inquirer)
Inquirer's Bob Fernandez does an excellent job of explaining the current economics of sports programming.

Speaking of which:

MSG, MSG Plus Now Dark on Time Warner Cable Systems
RSNs, MSO Can't Bridge License Fee Differences as Contract Expires
(Multichannel News)

Planalytics To Provide Weather Guidance For The 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic (PR Web)