Daily Links 2/6/2012: NBC's Super Bowl most watched TV program ever

Kenexa Agrees To Acquire OutStart, a Leading Provider of Next Generation e-Learning Solutions (Business Wire)

Kenexa Announces Financial Results for Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2011 (Business Wire)
Company says it paid $38.9 million for OutStart, from which it expects $13.5 million in GAAP revenue for 2012.

Local company's acquisition puts it on the global map (Wilmington News Journal)

NBC's Super Bowl XLVI most-watched show in TV history (USA Today)
What kind of bounce will NBC get?

Verizon to set up streaming service with Redbox (AP via LA Times)

Verizon teams up with Redbox to cash in on video (Gigaom)

Hands on with AnyPlay: Live Comcast video on your iPad (The Unofficial Apple Weblog)

Is Workday Silicon Valley's Next Big IPO? (Daily Beast)
Workday certainly deserves some hype, although this article perhaps provides too much of it.

Be everywhere: Google’s real social strategy (ZDNet Blogs)
By Will Reynolds of Philly's SEER Interactive.

Newgrounds Undergoing Redesign (GameKudos.com)
Newgrounds is based in Montgomery County.

Fisker lays off workers in Delaware, California (Wilmington News Journal)

SAP community portal launch date unclear due to bugs (Infoworld)

Greenphire trying for larger place clinical-trial information business (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Someone’s Trying to Frankenstein a Sports Blog Monster That Will Crush Philly.Com (Philly Mag: The Philly Post)

Q&A: Russ Fadel, CEO, ThingWorx – “Hooked on Entrepreneurship” (Safeguard Scientifics Blog)

Poptent's Super Bowl ad for Dannon's OIKOS Greek Yogurt

Poptent, the Philadelphia-born agency that crowdsources video advertising production, has had its Super Bowl ad for Dannon's OIKOS Greek Yogurt prereleased prior to the game. Poptent received 34 fully-produced entries from its top producers, and a spot titled "The Tease", directed by Lewis & Clark College student Remy Neymarc, 21, was selected. The final spot was then shot at Poptent Productions, a division of Poptent.

Poptent's website also shows some outtakes and behind the scenes activity from the shoot. Poptent was founded in 2007 and received $6.8 million led by MK Capital in late 2010. Although it has a considerable presence in Conshohocken, its headquarters is now in San Clemente, CA according to its website.

Poptent joins Red Tettemer & Partners, with its ad for Century 21, as Philadelphia agencies producing ads for the 2012 Super Bowl.






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NBC sees pay dirt with Super Bowls ads, spin-offs (Philadelphia Inquirer)

NBC Channels Marilyn Monroe in Super Bowl Ads to Aid Network (Bloomberg)

A Sign Law Spurs Investment in Philadelphia (New York Times)

Philly Tech People News 2/5/2012

Comcast Hires Singh From Cisco To Head Long-Range Planning
Exec Named Senior Vice President of Finance and Strategic Planning (Multichannel News)

Comcast-Spectacor leader Luukko makes Billboard power rankings (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Kenexa Expands Leadership Team With the Appointment of Goldschmidt to Chief Customer Officer (Marketwire)

Leydon to retire as VP and CIO after more than 30 years in IT field (News at Princeton)

SeaChange Announces Departure of Company President Yvette Kanouff
No Replacement Planned (Business Wire)

BizEquity Adds Leading Business Valuation Expert Scott Gabehart to Senior Team (Business Wire)

Investors see huge potential in Glassboro native's successful business, RJMetrics (Gloucester County Times)

Perelman family members squaring off over Philadelphia newspapers (New York Post)

Zach Nelson: A Decade in the Clouds (Vinnie Mirchandani/Deal Architect)

Red Tettemer's Super Bowl ad for Century 21

Century 21 Super Bowl ad produced by Philly's Red Tettemer and Partners

New York Post: Philadelphia Media Network owners hire investment bankers, sales effort already underway

Tom Paine


The New York Post, following up on its breaking story about the possible sale of Philadelphia Media Network (owner of the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com) this past weekend, reported today that the ownership group has hired an investment banking firm, Evercore Partners, to seek out potential buyers.

The article cites sources as saying that the company has met with at least three interested parties already, and some offers are expected in the next two to four weeks. It also says that the family of Raymond Perelman, the 94-year-old Philadelphia businessman who tried to acquire the papers two years ago, is again interested in bidding.

The Post says that investment firm Angelo Gordon initiated the sales process and hoped Alden Capital would buy its 30% stake, but that Alden, which holds a similar stake, decided it wanted to sell as well.

No word from the investors or PMN on these latest reports, the Post says.

The reported price tag of $100 million, compared to the $139 million the buyout group paid to purchase the properties in late 2010, suggests that the turnaround has not been going too well, although they have profited by the sale of the old Inquirer building. See the column by former Inquirer exec Rick Edmonds in yesterday's Poynter for one perspective.

Update: The Inquirer reports that former Philly Mayor and PA Governor Ed Rendell is among those putting together a group to make a bid.

Daily Links 2/3/2012: Comcast may invest in Mets, more Thursday Night Football to NFL Network

Financial Relief for Mets May Come From TV Partners (New York Times)
Comcast may invest in Mets so they can better compete against Phillies.


NFL Network Ups Thursday Night Football Games to 13 for 2012 Season (Hollywood Reporter)
NBC Sports had been reported to have had a keen interest in adding those games for its cable network.

Verizon’s cable spectrum mashup: evil genius or simply genius? (Gigaom)

Dish Asks Regulators to Reject AT&T Call for Rapid Network Build (Bloomberg)

DirecTV Stops Selling WildBlue
May be Working With Dish/Hughes On New Option (Broadband Reports)

Take This Mitt, and Pass Me the Broadsword (New York Times)
Curt Schilling's expensive new video game close to debut.


Online retailers hoping Congress acts as PA delays enforcement of sales tax law (Delco Times)

Systems Management, Cloud Services Likely in Dell's Software Acquisition Plans (PC World)

SuccessFactors Announces Preliminary Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2011 Results (PR Newswire)

NetSuite looks to a bright 2012 (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)

Newtown's EPAM Systems considered best of next week's IPO candidates (Dow Jones via NASDAQ.com)

Daily Links 2/2/2012: Are investors favoring Journal Register over Philadelphia’s Inquirer, Daily News?

Are investors choosing Journal Register over Philadelphia’s Inquirer, Daily News? (Poynter)

SAP will add 500 jobs in Newtown (Delco Times)

SAP-SuccessFactors deal delayed as US regulators conduct investigation (IT World)

SAP’s Greg Tomb: We Will Be De Facto Cloud Computing Leader (Talkin' Cloud)

Sizing the SaaS M&A market (Inorganic Growth)

NetSuite Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2011 Financial Results (PR Newswire via Yahoo Finance)

Dell Forms Software Group, Names Former CA CEO as Head (PC World)
Boomi a key component.

Franken wants probe of Verizon cable deal (The Hill)

Verizon-Comcast Alliance Seeing Pushback (Video: MarketWatch)

New Tech Partner Promises To Cut Netflix Streaming Bandwidth In Half (paidContent)

Unisys wallet emptied in rebadged server, storage cash crash
Mainframe biz profit wobbles in Q4 (The Register)

Boeing-Textron V-22 Is Said to Lose $1.75 Billion in Pentagon Budget Cut (Bloomberg)

Expanded Ben Franklin TechVentures helps Pennsylvania start-ups create jobs (Ben Franklin Technology Partners: Keynotes)

Viddler Redesign Launched!!! (The Viddler Blog)

The trials of Uber (Fortune Tech)



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Daily Links 2/1/2012: Senate to hold hearing on Verizon Wireless/Cable deal

Facebook Files for an I.P.O. (New York Times: DealBook)

Verizon’s wireless, marketing deal with cable firms to be considered at Senate hearing (Washington Post: Post Tech)

Comcast offers discount on Verizon Wireless service (San Jose Mercury News)

Comcast Takes Home Security To Mile-High City
'Xfinity Home' Service Provides 24-Hour Monitoring, Home Automation Features (Multichannel News)
Already available in Philly market. Anybody out there using it?

Comcast Signs Multiyear Extension With Amdocs
Vendor Also Cites Strong Performance in Europe, Emerging Markets (Multichannel News)

Unisys stock drops on decrease in quarterly profit, revenue (Philadelphia Business Journal)

SaaS valuations come back to earth — sorta (Gigaom)


D.C.’S IT ECONOMY: READYING FOR THE SEISMIC SHIFT (Edison Ventures Blog)

Quantum Leap’s tweet counter picks up more buzz (DelawareOnline: Delaware Inc.)

Infographic: Mobile ads show staggering growth, clicks up 711 percent (Gigaom)



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iPipeline's latest round a staggering $71.4 million

Tom Paine


Credit goes to Citybizlist for catching the Form D filing on Exton-based IPipeline's most recent round, which was announced last month. The actual amount of the round was $71.4 million.

While I can't determine now whether there were any other participants in this round, Technology Crossover Ventures was the only investor named in the press release, and there was no mention of anyone else being involved.

What exactly does an Insurance SaaS vendor do with $71.4 million? In addition to the usual needs to expand product development capabilities and sales & marketing resources, the press release also refers to international expansion. Also, the word is iPipeline will be moving to a larger headquarters building in Exton. Acquisitions, though not specifically mentioned in the press release, are another possibility, Providing some liquidity for shareholders and employees is sometimes a goal in these large later stage rounds, though there also is no mention of that.

As I had noted previously, Technology Crossover Ventures often makes some very large bets.