Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (1/2/2012 to 1/8/2012) : StarCite, DailyWorth, Novotorium & more

Philly-based SaaS corporate meeting management service StarCite, which had struggled during the recession but was showing signs of recovery, was acquired by San Diego-based Active Network for about $57 million in cash and stock. Active Network says it bought StarCite for both its customer base and its technology, and is not planning any cuts, reports the Business Journal's Peter Key, although some senior management will depart. StarCite has over 300 employees including over 50 in Center City. Active Network expects revenue before some accounting adjustments of $47 million attributable to StarCite in 2012. The combined company will hopefully be better positioned to compete with Cvent, which raised $136 million last year. Wayne-based ICG was StarCite's largest equity holder, with a reported 36% stake.

Philly Tech News reported on Bucks County incubator Novotorium accepting its first venture partner: online restaurant portal Zuppler.

DailyWorth, the email newsletter started by Philadelphian Amanda Steinberg (though based in New York now) raised $2 million from a prestigious list of investors, although some media reports failed to mention the round was actually led by Philadelphia's Robin Hood Ventures.

Coursekit, which was founded at Penn but also migrated to New York, raised $5 million as it seeks to revolutionize learning management systems in higher education.

SAP Ventures participated in a $53.4 million round for enterprise social media vendor Lithium Technologies, perhaps indicating another possible option for SAP's long-term social media strategy.

New Jersey Tech Weekly contributed a post on its top stories of its inaugural year of 2011.

And Center City's RJMetrics, provider of ecommerce business intelligence software, having done an amazing job of bootstrapping for about 3 years finally broke down and took in $1.2 million to fund accelerating growth.



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Daily Links 1/9/2012: iMany rebrands as Revitas

A Brand New Year for Revitas
iMANY rebrands, renames as Revitas™, and expands and integrates product offering to help businesses increase profitability and minimize risk (Business Wire)

It’s Been a Great Year at ThingWorx (ThingWorx Blog)

BioLeap shares drug discovery technology in research collaboration (Med City News)

Edison Ventures Invests in KEMP Technologies Fuels Growth for Industry Leading Load Balancer for SMB (Edison Ventures Press Release via NJTC Blog)

The latest to target smart home management: Time Warner Cable (Gigaom)
Using iControl, the same company Comcast is using (and has invested in.)

Dish’s Hopper: a whole-home DVR with a primetime twist (Gigaom)

CES 2012: The Convergence of TV and Mobile Platforms (Read Write Web)

GreenPeak Chipset to Power New ZigBee RF Remote Controls for Comcast’s Xfinity TV Service (Business Wire)

Motorola Mobility Provides Business Update (Motorola Press Release)
Friday press release that indicated weaker than expected quarter.

11 Tech Factors That Changed Education in 2011 (Mashable)

CRM Watchlist 2012 Winners 1B - The Big Guns Again (Paul Greenberg/ZDNet Blogs)



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Philly Tech People News 1/8/2012

Ruben Mendiola Joins Comcast as Vice President and General Manager of Multicultural Video Services
Hispanic Executive leads Multicultural Video at Comcast (Business Wire)

CED Person of the Year: Comcast's Jorge Salinger (Communications, Engineering & Design Magazine)

SCTE hires Comcast's Davidson as new VP of engineering, network operations (Communications, Engineering & Design Magazine)


Zachary Katz Named FCC Chief of Staff (The Wrap via Reuters)

Vision Research Selected To Receive ACADEMY AWARD® For Contributions To High-Speed Camera Technology (PR Web)
New Jersey-based Vision Research is a unit of Ametek. Its not something you would think of Berwyn-based Ametek for, but its amazing to look at all the niches it is involved in.

William Harrington Joins Osage University Partners as Managing Partner (Marketwire)

Rowan University names four to South Jersey Technology Park Board of Directors (NJ.com)

PHH replaces CEO as mortgage business struggles (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Dudnyk names Drew Desjardins as new SVP, Strategic Planning and Account Management (Philly Ad Club News)

The Judge Group Announces Managing Director of Strategic Accounts (Business Wire)

John Galloway Joins Campaign Grid in Philadelphia Office (Press Release)

Distinguished Litigation and Intellectual Property Attorney Frederick A. Tecce Joins Philadelphia IP Boutique Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP (Business Wire)

Learning Technology Researcher and Innovator Dr. Tony O’Driscoll Joins ProtonMedia’s Executive Advisory Board (Business Wire)


If you have a significant tech or digital media promotion or hire to announce, send it to phillytechnews@gmail.com. It will be more likely to be included if there is a link provided to an announcement.



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What might SAP learn from Apple? (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)

News Analysis: Lithium Technologies Adds $53M in Financing (Ray Wang/Enterprise Irregulars)

Moto Mobility Had a Blue Christmas (Light Reading Mobile)

Comcast Xfinity Skype webcam for cable boxes revealed by FCC (Update: Pics, pricing and details!) (Engadget)

Deloitte: 9% have cut cable, another 11% are considering it (Gigaom)

Latest Comcast Xfinity ad; Woman cries over leaving Xfinity for FiOS

New Jersey Tech Weekly’s Top Five Stories of 2011

(Philly Tech News was pleased to form a working alliance with New Jersey Tech Weekly, a website that started up in 2011. Here, its Publisher & Editor Esther Surden shares some inaugural year highlights and its top stories for 2011.)



Esther Surden
Publisher & Editor, New Jersey Tech Weekly

This year has been an exciting one for New Jersey Tech Weekly. After months of preparation, our website finally launched in July. We have been reporting stories from all over N.J. ever since, thanks to the hard work of South Jersey web designer Robert Ortiz, copyeditor Phyliss Greenberg and freelance contributor Alan Skontra and an alliance with Philly Tech News. We’d like to thank the early industry supporters who helped out with our first stories, giving us access to their CEOs and their conferences and events with no strings attached.

We started with nothing but an abiding interest in N.J. tech in all its forms and are pleased to report we are now receiving more than 2,500 unique hits per month. We know that sounds like nothing compared to most websites, but we are still building momentum. We hope to report even greater numbers as word of our web publication spreads further throughout the N.J. tech crowd. In the meantime, we are delighted to present a roundup of the five 2011 stories that attracted the most attention.

By far, our top story was:
Innovation Key to Cognizant Success Says D’Souza at FDU Rothman Event. (This story received more than 3,000 hits on its own.)
Francisco D’Souza, president and CEO of Teaneck-based Cognizant Technology Solutions, recently discussed major innovations that have caused his company to thrive. Chief among them: an innovative business model and investment in developing Cognizant 2.0, a real-time operating system D’Souza says is the “glue” holding his knowledge-based workforce together.
Followed by:

2. SHI’s Thai Lee says Company is in NJ to Stay
We continue our series on the state of the tech business climate in N.J., interviewing, via email, Thai Lee, CEO and president of SHI International Corp.
SHI is a fixture in N.J. The privately held, woman-run IT solutions provider has been located here for 23 years, growing from a $1 million regional value-added reseller (VAR) to a $3 billion global technology company. SHI has recently begun making investments that will allow it to shift to the lucrative cloud computing business.

3. Converge NJ, Home to Many Tech Groups, to Close
Converge NJ, the coworking space in Union, N.J., will close its doors as of October 15. The three-year-old venture is pulling the plug for a number of reasons, among them that people have simply lost interest, founder Steve Guberman said in a post on the Converge home page. The coworking space, open for 14 months, had not yet become sustainable, he added.

4. NJ’s First Tech Accelerator to Focus on Enterprise
Last week N.J.-based investor and software engineer Ken Kay, who is well-known in the angel community as a founder of Jumpstart NJ Angel Network, announced he is launching N.J.’s first tech startup accelerator, Ecelerator. It will be located somewhere in the Newark or Hoboken area. The twist: Ecelerator will focus on business-to-business (B2B) startup opportunities.

5. Asbury Agile Conference Brings New York Tech Scene to Jersey Shore
At the Asbury Agile conference last week about 100 web “makers and doers,” mostly from the Jersey Shore area, listened to a full agenda of useful talks aimed at honing best practices and showcasing local talent.



Esther Surden is Publisher and Editor of   New Jersey Tech Weekly , and a contributor to Philly Tech News. This article originally appeared in New Jersey Tech Weekly.

DailyWorth raises $2 million, led by Robin Hood Ventures

Tom Paine

Mount Airy resident Amanda Steinberg's personal finance site for women, DailyWorth, just raised $2 million. Amanda tells me by email that despite some press reports, Philly angel investor consortium Robin Hood Ventures actually led the round. Other investors include Joanne Wilson, Stocktwits founder Howard Lindzon, 500 Startups' Dave McClure, TechStar's Dave Cohen and Eric Schmidt of TomorrowVentures. The daily email newsletter, which was originally modeled on Comcast/NBCU's DailyCandy, says it has over 200,000 subscribers nationwide.

In early 2012, DailyWorth will launch two new editions: MoreWorth for the affluent woman and CreateWorth for female entrepreneurs. Former New York Times columnist and award-winning journalist MP Dunleavey heads up DailyWorth’s editorial team.

Last year, DailyWorth raised an $850,000 seed round led by Robin Hood Ventures, and its total funding to date is
just over $3 million. Though Steinberg continues to reside in Philly, DailyWorth has its headquarters in the Union Square neighborhood of New York.

Though no financial data on DailyWorth is available, last month Joanne Wilson said of Steinberg in an interview with O'Reilly Radar ,"She has created tremendous traction and sells advertising at lightning speed, to the point that we don't have any inventory. She's done an amazing job. If she pivoted in one direction, she could be a huge, huge business".



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Daily Links 1/6/2012: Baltimore mobile ad firm Millennial Media files for IPO

Verizon Fixed-Line Sale Would Enable Vodafone Deal, Goldman Says
(Bloomberg)

Comcast CFO: NBCUniversal Must Address Profit Drop at Film Studio (Hollywood Reporter)

Comcast 'Completes' Docsis 3.0 Rollout (Light Reading Cable)


Baltimore's Millennial Media files for IPO
Mobile advertising firm filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday (Baltimore Sun)

Areas of Investment Interest for 2012 (Trident Capital Blog)

Oracle can't appeal SAP order right away: judge (Reuters)

IDC Insight
Ten significant business analytics technology events
What you need to be aware of when planning your BI investment (Computerworld UK)


Zonoff to Launch 'Intuitive Home' at CES (PR Newswire)
Former AnySource Media CEO Mike Harris has new startup in Malvern.

KIT Digital Acquires Sezmi Assets For $27 Million
Hybrid Broadcast-Internet TV Startup Failed to Attract Consumers (Multichannel News)



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SAP Ventures participates in $53.4 million round in social media vendor Lithium Technologies

Tom Paine


SAP Ventures has joined in a $53.4 million round led by New Enterprise Associates in Lithium Technologies, Inc., a vendor of enterprise-oriented social media software.


Lithium is a close competitor to Jive Software, which last month raised $161 million in an IPO. SAP has worked closely with Jive, and late last year before Jive filed for its IPO it was rumored that SAP might soon acquire it . SAP Ventures was not, however, an investor in Jive, according to available information. There was some discussion that Jive-related issues (instability due to a version change) might have contributed to the delay announced last month in rolling out the new SAP Community Network.

Last month SAP announced a relationship with NetBase to resell its social media analytics tool to its customers. SAP Ventures had also been an investor in LinkedIn prior to its IPO and SAP had integrated LinkedIn capabilities into the SAP Community Network.

Its seems clear that SAP is spreading its bets in terms of its social networking strategy. Whether and when it will make a major acquisition in this space, or if it will just continue to rely on partnerships, remains to be seen.

The Series D round also included all previous participating investors, including Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Emergence Capital, Greenspring Associates, Shasta Ventures and Tenaya Capital. Lithium is based in Emeryville, CA.



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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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