Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (2/13/2012 to 2/19/2012)

SAP AG completed its $3.4 billion acquisition of cloud vendor SuccessFactors. Also, SAP and Oracle were given a June date for the retrial of the TomorrowNow case.

Radnor-based QlikTech last week reported Q4 2011 earnings per share (non-GAAP) slightly below analyst expctations, although revenue was on track at over $320 million for the full year (up 42% over 2010). The outlook for Q1 2012 was also soft compared to prior estimates. Chairman & CEO Lars Björk described QlikTech's growth outlook as being for "25% or greater over the next several years". QlikTech's shares closed down more than 8% the following day.

Comcast's 4th quarter 2011 results beat estimates, although apples to apples (including NBCU for 2010) revenue growth was only 3% and operating cash flow grew at a 4.2% rate. The most significant metric was the virtual halt in the decline in video subscribers. Comcast also made many shareholders happy by announcing a 44% dividend increase and a $6.5 billion stock repurchase program. On Friday, Comcast filed suit in Federal Court in Philadelphia against Sprint, alleging patent infringement, likely a countermove to Sprint's lawsuit against Comcast filed in December. This came after Comcast and other cable operators announced they were selling spectrum to and starting a joint venture with Verizon Wireless, signaling the end of their Clearwire (majority owned by Sprint) joint venture. Breaking up can be messy.

The circus around Philadelphia Media Network continued. The New York Times wrote a scathing piece on ownership interference in the newsroom and management's (specifically, Greg Osberg's) account of events being disputed by Daily News editor Larry Platt. Plans for layoffs and the integration of Inquirer and Daily News newsrooms were announced. The Rendell group trying to acquire the papers came under increasing criticism from both former and current Inquirer staffers, and many signed a statement protesting censorship and stressing the importance of maintaining editorial integrity. A local blogger said Rendell told her the deal was probably off, a position he denied (while not totally denying that he said it) . Then Rendell said his lips were sealed, something everyone knew he couldn't do, and soon he was talking about it on the radio and promising some type of firewall between ownership and the newsroom.


The Federal Reserve Board approved Capital One's $9 billion acquisition of Wilmington-based ING Direct USA, the online banking pioneer. The deal closed at the end of the week. Chairman & CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann will step down, although he will stay on for a while as an advisor. And Google received US and EU approval of its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which includes its Horsham-based set-top box business. The deal still awaits approval from China.

Highmark, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, and Independence Blue Cross joined with Lumeris to buy NaviNet , a communications portal that links physicians, hospitals and insurers.

Paoli-based search engine startup DuckDuckGO passed 1 million searches per day, and Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson wrote about it here. And King of Prussia-based ICG Commerce was renamed as Procurian.



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Daily Links 2/21/2012: Comcast intros Netflix-like service: available to Comcast video subscribers only

Rendell's silence lasts all of 2 days (Philadelphia Daily News)

Comcast launching new subscription VOD service
Streampix in the mold of Netflix business (Variety)

Comcast launching Netflix-like streaming service (LA Times: Company Town)

Magic Johnson, P. Diddy To Gain Comcast Channel Berths
Aspire, Revolt Are First Two New Multicultural Nets to be Offered by MSO under NBCU Merger Mandate (Multichannel News)

Verizon expands its push for younger, tech-oriented FiOS subscribers (FierceIPTV)

Cisco: Downplays Rumors It Will Sell Set-Top Box Unit (Eric Savitz/Forbes)


QlikTech Reveals Pricing for its QlikView Business Discovery Platform (Business Wire)

Is The Cloud Finally Catching Up With Mighty Oracle? (Victoria Barrett/Forbes)

Massive Air Force ERP Software Project Still Struggling (PC World)

Transcend United Technologies Continues to Scale Rapidly Growing Footprint by Acquiring Platinum Avaya Partner Relational Technology Solutions (PR Newswire)

Alteva Partners With Parallels to Provide Hosted VoIP Services to Cloud Services Customers (Marketwire)

ING and Capital One: Is a Culture Clash Inevitable (Time: Moneyland)



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News from HIMSS 2012: 2/21/2012

HIMSS Chief Predicts Dialed-Down Health IT Requirements (Information Week)

Highmark Selects Verizon to Help Develop First Statewide Health Information Exchange to Improve Patient Care Through Sharing of Information (PR Newswire)


Delaware Becomes First State to Enroll All Acute Care Hospitals in Statewide Community Health Record (Business Wire)

Newsbyte: SAP to Integrate Healthcare in the Community Through Collaborative Care (PR Newswire)

At HIMSS 2012 Siemens Demonstrates How Soarian is Connecting People to Connect Care (PR Newswire)

CenTrak Joins Cisco Developer Network as a Registered Developer and Completes Interoperability Verification Testing (PR Newswire)

Halfpenny Technologies Selected for First ONC LRI Initiative Pilot (Business Wire)




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Rendell: From now on, no comment (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Rendell to keep quiet? Impossible.

Cisco thinking out of the set-top box biz (New York Post)

Healthcare IT Conference HIMSS 12 kicks off in Vegas

Tom Paine


HIMSS 12, the annual conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, starts in Las Vegas today, and Philadelphia area businesses and organizations are well represented there. In addition to large players Siemens Healthcare (Malvern), SAP AG (Newtown Square), NextGen Healthcare (Horsham), Medecision (Wayne) and Precyse Solutions (Wayne), there are scores of smaller ventures, institutions, providers, payers, industry experts and consultants who have made the arduous trek from Philly to Vegas. (You can get an idea of what other areas companies are at HIMSS by searching for Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Delaware on this page). Although I am not one of them (boycotting Nevada because of its approval of Google's self-driving cars), I will do the best I can to stay on top of major developments remotely.


Dell, Siemens Partner On Image Sharing, Archiving (Information Week)

Firm logs instant feedback on doctor visits (Philadelphia Inquirer)

MEDecision: A New Day for Accountable Care at HIMSS 2012 (Marketwire)

Fiberlink Launches MaaS360 Mobile Device Management for Healthcare (PR Newswire)



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Philly Tech People News 2/20/2012

ING's Kuhlmann moving on
Personal savings advocate will serve as consultant, adviser after acquisition (Wilmington News Journal)

Comcast Promotes Cathy Avgiris to Executive Vice President and General Manager of Data and Communications Services for Comcast Cable
Avgiris to Lead Rollout of New Verizon Wireless Packages for Consumers (Business Wire)

Krishan Bhatia Expands Digital Duties at NBCU
Promoted to executive VP of digital Strategy and operations at NBCU's Entertainment and Digital Networks and Integrated Media division (Broadcasting & Cable)
Bhatia was a founding executive team member of Comcast Interactive Media.

Three Execs Elevated At Comcast's ThePlatform
Operator's Online-Video Unit Promotes Glass, Roberts and Horwitz (Multichannel News)

Fandango's former CEO joins Invidi's advisory board (Communications, Engineering & Design Magazine)

Michael Hagan Returns to Nutrisystem Board of Directors
Original architect of Nutrisystem’s direct-to-consumer e-commerce business model to rejoin board as lead independent director (Business Wire)

Top SAP Labs Executive Joins Saffron Technology (PR Newswire)

EXTOL Appoints Michael DeCosta Vice President of Sales (PR Newswire)

Boathouse Capital Adds Colin Raws (PE Hub)

Thomas McCole Joins Heartland Payment Systems® as Executive Director of Affiliates (Marketwire)

Elsevier Appoints New Managing Director for Clinical Decision Support Group (PR Newswire)



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Patent wars: Comcast sues Sprint, returning fire

Tom Paine


In what is probably a direct response to Sprint's lawsuits against Comcast and other cable companies filed in December, Comcast filed suit on Friday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennslvania against Sprint, alleging infringment of four of its patents.

The patents are US 6,112,305, Mechanism for dynamically binding a network computer client device to an approved internet service provider, US 5,987,323, Starting a short message transmission in a cellular communication system, US 6,885,870, Transferring of a message, and US 7,684,391, Communications system for delivering multimedia internet protocol packets across network boundaries.

Being neither a communications technology or IP expert, I have no idea what the significance of these specific patents might be, but this is not an unusual response in this type of patent dispute. Sprint's lawsuits were filed shortly after Comcast and other cable operators announced they were selling their wireless spectrum to and entering into a joint marketing agreement with Verizion Wireless, a deal that could alter the competitive landscape in the communications market. That move also signaled the ending of Comcast's reselling agreement with Clearwire, in which it still holds a minority stake. Sprint holds a majority stake in Clearwire.

The case number is 2:12-cv-00859. More information can be found on Pacer (registration required and fees may apply).



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Who Will Tell Philadelphia’s Story? (BUZZ BISSINGER/New York Times OP-ED)

Rendell says bid for papers is still on (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Capital One completes acquisition of ING Direct (AP via CBS News)

Journalists at Philly papers sign statement opposing “censored” coverage (Poynter)

Time Warner and MSG Network End Their Cable Dispute (New York Times)

Innovator’s Dilemma at its Finest – SAP, Oracle, and the Cloud ( Michael Bestvina/Tech Disruptive)

QlikTech shares down over 8% today after yesterday's earnings report

Tom Paine


Radnor-based Business Intelligence software vendor QlikTech reported its results late yesterday for the fourth quarter and full year 2011.

Total revenue increased 33% to $108.1 million in the fourth quarter, and total revenue for the full year 2011 was $320.6 million, a 42% increase from 2010. GAAP net income was $15.8 million in Q4, and $9 million for the year compared to $13.5 million for the full year 2010. Revenue slightly exceeded analysts' expectations, though non-GAAP earnings per share were 3¢ below expectations. QlikTech had cash and cash equivalents of $177.4 million as of the end of 2011.


During QlikTech's earnings conference call, Chairman & CEO Lars Björk said the company continues to ramp up for what he described as the opportunity to triple the size of the addressable BI market. He estimated QlikTech's growth outlook as being for "25% or greater over the next several years". Whether he was being prudently conservative, or signaling somewhat slower growth than might have been anticipated, is unclear. Guidance for 2012 is for revenue in the range of $405.0 million to $415.0 million (meaning growth of around 25 to 30% ) , and non-GAAP operating income in the range of $53 million to $58 million.

The number of customers at year end was 24,000 versus 18,000 the prior year. Year end headcount was 1,054, and if I understood Björk correctly he said about 100 more would be "onboarding" during Q1. Revenue grew faster in Europe than in the Americas in Q4, somewhat surprisingly given the economic issues there. Qliktech said it continued to see larger deals, but was not very specific about the size of them. Björk said that its inside sales channel continues to perform better than expected, and has shown itself capable of handling larger deals. QlikTech continues to expand it partners channel, its system integrator relationships, and its technology partners program with emphasis on value added solutions.

QlikTech shares finished down more than 8% for the day. I'm not sure whether investors were more concerned about the slight EPS miss or somewhat soft Q1 2102 outlook than they were about longer term growth and profitability issues. The other issue is competition; although Qliktech never mentions competitors it is not distinctly unique and up and comers such as Tableau are doing well. Although still considerably smaller than QlikTech, it said its revenue grew 94% in 2011 and it planned to hire 300 employees in 2012.



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Daily Links 2/17/2012: Philadelphia Media Network to merge newsrooms

Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, Philly.com to share newsroom (Mike Armstrong/Philadelphia Inquirer)

Inside Tennis Channel's fight with Comcast
Independent fights cable Goliath for better dial positioning (Variety)

Ad Group: Comcast Can Keep Claiming Better HD, Faster Internet Than AT&T
Better Business Bureau's Advertising Division Says MSO Cannot Claim Telco Offers Poor Quality (Multichannel News)


Johns Hopkins and VMware forge medical records mega-cloud
The tech is ready this time (The Register)

The ABCs of in-memory: What is in-memory and how does HANA fit into the SAP landscape? (SearchSAP.com)
Excellent presentation (about 1/2 hour) for those wanting to understand more about HANA and the evolution of in-memory within SAP.

Note to SuccessFactors: you can stop selling yourself (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)

Oracle and SAP given June court date for TomorrowNow retrial (Infoworld)

Suddenly, Dell is a Software Company! (ZDNet Blogs)

Futura Mobility, LLC Announces Launch and Expanded Leadership Team to Take Advantage of Rapidly Expanding Mobility Space
Futura Mobility offers complete Mobile Managed Services to enterprise clients with new IT infrastructure, investment capital and expanded senior team (Business Wire)

Comcast Puts RFID in Data Centers to Track Assets
(RFID Journal)
Solution provided by two Philly area companies.

Software AG Helps Build “Hospital of the Future” for Nemours (Business Wire)

Squirro Launch Accelerated (PE Hub)
Startup has several QlikTech, SAP people connections.



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