Daily Links 4/12/2012: Two local PE firms team up to buy Minnesota Ed Tech firm

Poptent Launches World’s Largest Video Production House for Major Brands and Agencies (Business Wire)
A company spokesperson tells me by email that Poptent Productions will be primarily run out of Poptent's San Clemente, CA office (where David Mann and Jon Seidman are based), with support from a number of employees in the Philly-area office as well.

Open Table's rival to launch here (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Wilmington News Journal cans newly hired reporter after he posts self-written press release on blog sites (JimRomenesko.com)

Microsoft Inks Its Biggest Cloud Deal Yet: 7.5M Students And Teachers In India (TechCrunch)

Amazon Job Descriptions Hint at More Perks Coming to Prime (All Things D)
Comments by Mike Golden, president of Conshohocken-based ShopRunner.

Will Service Providers Steal ADT's Customers? (Light Reading Cable)
Comcast wants to be a big player.


Alarm Capital Alliance Partners with Norwest Venture Partners
Alarm Capital Alliance Eyes Major Growth Opportunities in the $43 Billion Security Alarm Industry (PR Newswire)
Alarm Capital Alliance is based in Media. The amount invested by Norwest Venture Partners, or the exact nature of its partnership with ACA, were not disclosed.

Boathouse, Renovus Capital Strike Secondary Deal for Atomic Learning (PE Hub)
Boathouse Capital and Renovus Capital Partners are both located outside of Philadelphia. Atomic Learning, based in Minnesota, provides tech tools and training to teachers. Boathouse and Renovus invested $19.0 million of subordinated debt and equity alongside Atomic Learning’s management.

SAP Says Hana Tests Well On Performance, Scalability (Josh Greenbaum/Information Week)

Making Sense of "Multi-tenancy" Claims (Brian Sommer/ZDNet Blogs)

EMC unveils preconfigured private cloud for partners (Computerworld)

RES Software Signs $3.5 Million Deal with Fortune 20 Company (Business Wire)
RES Software is based in Plymouth Meeting.

Leslie Moonves on Why Broadcast Trumps Cable, What He Said to Steve Burke (Q&A) (Hollywood Reporter)

Philadelphia Councilman Thinks Verizon May Be Foot-Dragging On FiOS Construction (CBS Philly)

TWC Bundles Up With Verizon Wireless In Five Markets
Regulators Have Yet to Approve MSOs' Spectrum and Co-Marketing Deals With Wireless Operator (Multichannel News)

InterDigital and LiveCast Successfully Integrate Video Optimization into Broadcast-Focused LTE Live Video Solution (Business Wire)



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Daily Links 4/11/2012: Safeguard Scientifics' Phillip Moyer on how East & West Coast startup ecosystems differ

How West and East Coast dynamics help startups succeed (VentureBeat)
Very good piece on how the East Coast is different, and also offers an attractive environment for startups, written by Philip D. Moyer, Vice President and Managing Director, Safeguard Scientifics.

VMware CFO Peek Leaves For Same Job At Workday; Shrs Off (Forbes)
As Workday prepares for IPO.

SAP Launches Attack On Database, Mobile App Markets (Information Week)

SAP database and mobility strategies: genius or madness? (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Plans to Dominate Enterprise Mobile Apps with HTML5 and New Partnerships (ReadWriteMobile)

It’s on — US sues Apple, publishers over e-book prices (paidContent)

Bloomberg takes another FCC shot at Comcast (LA Times: Company Town)

Comcast updates Xfinity TV for iOS with DVR management controls (The Verge)

Project of The Year Award Winners Announced at Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise Conference in Philadelphia : Ajungo Holdings, LLC, WizHive, Peirce College Honored (PR Web)

Amazon Takes Genomics Research to the Clouds (Wired Enterprise)

U.S. Federal Reserve Beige Book: Philadelphia District (via Bloomberg)

LEVEL 3'S TAX WOES: CLEC TOPS LIST OF DELINQUENT PA TAXPAYERS (Billing World)

Want to Reduce SunGard BC/DR Costs? It’s All About Transparency (Spend Matters)



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Philly-based mobile platform developer appRenaissance announces $1.5 million seed round, led by FirstMark Capital

Tom Paine

appRenaissance, the Old City Philadelphia-based mobile app development platform startup, today announced in a press release it had received seed funding of $1.5 million, lead by FirstMark Capital with additional investments by CEO Bob Moul and other angel investors.

Founded in 2010 by Scott Wasserman, appRenaissance hired its first employees in May of last year and says it is on pace to reach $1 million in revenue in its first full year of operation. Moul, who as CEO of Boomi helped lead it to being acquired by Dell in 2010, where it is now at the center of its Cloud strategy, came on board at the beginning of the year. In addition to developing individual mobile applications, appRenaissance also provides development tools and infrastructure, including what it calls its Unifeed Mobile Middleware platform, which it says speeds development time and simplifies integration with enterprise applications.

It is not surprising that FirstMark led the seed round, since I believe it was the sole institutional investor in Boomi. I have never found out exactly what Dell paid for Boomi (my guess is something north of $100 million), but FirstMark must have done well on that investment because Boomi didn't require that much capital prior to its exit (FirstMark led a $4 million round in 2008). FirstMark Managing Director Amish Jani, who was involved in the Boomi relationship, will be working again with Moul at appRenaissance, although board seats have not been announced.

Founder Wasserman, who received his computer science degree from the University of Delaware, has been the key technology guy at several area startups and development shops. He is also listed as being CTO of BizEquity Corp, an appRenaissance client based in Wayne which offers a cloud-based service geared towards simplifying the business valuation process. Geekadelphia featured Wasserman last month as their "Geek of the Week".

appRenaissance says the round will be used to add several key hires and accelerate development of its Unifeed middleware platform. The company's website currently shows it having nine employees.

Read press release.



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Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (4/2/2012 to 4/8/2012)

Dell had a busy week, announcing three acquisitions, one of which, thin client vendor Wyse Technology, may directly impact King of Prussia-based Devon IT's OEM relationship with Dell. I profiled Devon IT, speaking with its Pesident, Joe Makoid, and looked at both its upside and downside prospects.

I looked at New Hope-based, myYearbook parent company Quepasa's decision announced last week to rebrand under the name MeetMe.

First Round Capital appears to be adding more resources to support its portfolio companies, last week announcing that Jack Leidlein had joined the firm as its new Head of Talent.

WorldGate, a Bensalem-based pioneer in interactive TV that later tried to pivot to video phones, finally gave up the ghost by filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, an outcome anticipated as the company had virtually ceased operations some time ago. Founded in 1995, WorldGate listed debts of $50 million.

SAP AG celebrated the 40th anniversary of its founding with commemorative activities and a neat 60 second video timeline. Meanwhile, SAP's North American President based in Newtown Square, Robert Courteau, left the company after 15 months in the position. No explanation was immediately offered.

Wayne-based SunGard Availability Services announced it was getting into the Hadoop game, with a new service that gives users on-demand access to the big data processing platform.

The University of Pennsylvania will lead a $10 million National Science Foundation project aimed at automating more of the computer programming process.

paidContent looked at Invite Media one year after its acquisition by Google.

Comcast and other cable and media companies are asking the FCC to allow them to take steps that would disable Boxee's current method of streaming video.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners (Southeastern Pennsylvania) said it is seeking applicants for the next batch of "Project Liberty" startup ventures. Applications are due April 27.


Quote of the week: Oracle's President and CFO Safra Catz: "We are the cloud. Very few of these cloud companies are running on anything but our platforms. We don’t need the credit. You can’t start your day except in a cave without hitting Oracle a thousand times."

One wonders if she is on the same drugs Larry Ellison said SAP was on.


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Daily Links 4/10/2012: SAP reveals database, mobile roadmaps through 2015, acquires mobile development firm

Philly-based Medical tech firm eResearch being sold for $400M (AP via Business Week)

Comcast Xfinity On Demand rolling out to TiVo Premiere subscribers in SF Bay Area (The Verge)

The cable industry isn’t stupid, right? (Gigaom)

Comcast to test IPTV network at MIT (FierceCable)

SAP reveals database, mobile roadmaps through 2015 (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Lays out Plans to Become Big Player in Databases, Mobile (PC World)

SAP to Acquire Syclo, Extends Leadership in Mobilizing the Enterprise (PR Newswire)

SAP Buys Leading Enterprise Mobile Development Shop and Announces $155 Million Startup Fund (SiliconAngle)

HP to offer cloud-based computing service (San Jose Mercury News)

TE Connectivity to sell touch screen, pro service for $403M (Central Penn Business Journal)
TE Connectivity has its operational headquarters in Berwyn and substantial business units in Central Pennsylvania.

IAB's New Ad Formats Offer Tech Support for 'Skippable' Ads
Standards Will Allow More Publishers to Bring Ad-Skipping to Video (Ad Age)
Good for Solve Media's new offering.

Are you an indie, angel or venture company? (Gabriel Weinberg's Blog)
On current valuations.



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Taney leaves Buchanan Ingersoll and Rooney for Stevens & Lee

Tom Paine

Francis X. (Frank) Taney Jr., an attorney who is well known in the Philadelphia entrepreneurial and VC world and known by his many followers on Twitter by the (somewhat) self-mocking handle @scarylawyer, has left Buchanan Ingersoll and Rooney, where he was a partner and served as chairman of the firm's Information Technology Litigation Practice Group. As of Monday, he is Of Counsel at Stevens & Lee, working out of its Philadelphia office at 1818 Market Street. Stevens & Lee is a regional law firm based in Reading.

Taney told Philly Tech News by email that there wasn't a single reason for the move. "First off, BIR was/is a great firm, so none of this is intended as disparaging of BIR. But I'd say that different people value different things in law firms, and I'm attracted by S&L's entrepreneurial ethos, full service platform, high profitability and lean cost structure. In addition, given my focus on emerging companies, I'm also particularly excited about the ability to offer my clients investment banking services and potential access to capital through S&L's non-law firm affiliate, Griffin Financial Group." His practice at S&L will continue to be a mix of litigation (tech, IP, antitrust, commercial) and tech related transactional/counseling.

Taney has been actively involved as a leader in many key initiatives, such as the Entrepreneurs Forum of Greater Philadelphia, PANMA and Seed Philly, as well as holding open office hours at various locations in the Philadelphia area. He also did some pioneering work on protecting virtual property in communities such as Second Life, a concept I've never fully understood. He will continue to be active and visible in the community; in fact, tomorrow he will be holding open office hours at Quorum (though I don't know if there is any open time left).

He received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.



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Daily Links 4/9/2012: FCC okays basic cable rate regulation in Boston

Comcast May Face Renewed Rate Regulation in Boston, FCC Says (Bloomberg)

Boston wins authority to control cable fees (Boston Globe)
Comcast says it will appeal.

Comcast spent heavily in support of anti-online piracy bills (The Hill)

TV Sets Are Connected To Internet In 38% Of Homes
Connected TVs in U.S. Increase from 24% Two Years Ago: Leichtman Research Group Survey (Multichannel News)

Comcast Files Patent Application for Web TV Tech (Zatz Not Funny!)

Home automation: Comcast to add Technicolor touchscreen (Communications, Engineering & Design Magazine)


Jack Leidlein, First Round’s New Head of Talent, Wants To Hire You
But only if you're exceptional. (BetaBeat)

BAT signs £132m deal for cloud-based SAP
Company wants single instance of SAP across 65 countries (Computerworld UK)

Oracle Database Systems Insufficient for ‘Big Data,’ Says WSJ (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Commodore founder Jack Tramiel dies at 83 (VentureBeat)

Move Over Eye Candy, Here Comes the Business Tech Boom (Bloomberg Business Week)

Fujikura Ltd. States Intent to Acquire Battelle Ventures’ New Jersey Portfolio Company Nistica, Inc.
Bridgewater-based developer of wavelength selective switches to network equipment manufacturers will operate as a Fujikura subsidiary (Business Wire)

RCD Technology is Now Vizinex RFID, the Way You Imagined (PR Web)

Philly Tech News Facilities Roundup: Who's moving or expanding? (4/9/2012)

Tom Paine

Real estate decisions (leases, expansions, new buildings or offices) are often a good indicator of what's happening within a company or industry. This periodic Philly Tech News feature is a roundup of recent facilities news involving Philly area tech firms.

NextFab Studio, Philadelphia 's high-tech workshop and prototyping center featuring 3D printers and other design and fabrication tools, will be holding a preview party for NextFab2, its larger second location on April 19 from 6 to 9pm. The building, at 2025 Washington Ave in the Southwest Center City / Graduate Hospital neighborhood, was formerly a custom ironwork shop which is being reconfigured by Philadelphia architecture and design firm inHabit. The new studio will feature more advanced and a greater variety of equipment, private studios with 24/7 facility access, and a cafe at street level. The original NextFab studio in University City will continue to operate and there may be expansion plans for it, a spokesperson for the organization indicates. NextFab2 plans to open in July. Tickets for the preview party are available here for a small fee.

Technically Philly's Yael Borofsky took an insightful look at the exploding co-working, incubator and accelerator scene in Philly and asks whether some of it, at least, is a sign that a bubble is emerging.

NJTechWeekly.com's Esther Surden (a Philly Tech News contributor) has an article on Synchronoss' move to a larger headquarters in Bridgewater, NJ. Synchronoss, the company that helps many consumers activate their smartphones and tablets, resisted overtures from other states to stay in New Jersey, CEO Stephen Waldis told NJTechWeekly.com. The publicly traded company has moved to an 88,000-square-foot space vacated by pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Aventis in the Bridgewater Crossing office park. Though Waldis said “typically our engineering is done out of our [Bethlehem] Pa. location and offshore”, they are also beginning to build an engineering team in New Jersey. The company has 1,000 employees worldwide, and a market capitalization of over $1 billion.

A bit further north in Jersey, HR SaaS vendor iCIMS has moved to a new headquarters in Matawan, NJ, just up the road from its previous location in Hazlet. iCims, which says it currently has 200+ employees, plans to increase staff by almost 25% in 2012. The company announced a $35 million minority investment from Bala Cynwyd-based Susquehanna Growth Equity, LLC (SGE) earlier in the year.

On Thursday April 12th at 11:30 AM, the Free Library of Philadelphia will launch its new Techmobile “Hot Spot on Wheels” at Rowan House in West Philadelphia, with the help of Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter and Adel Ebeid, The City of Philadelphia’s Chief Innovation Officer. The Free Library Techmobile is a 25-foot van outfitted with six computers, all necessary broadband equipment, and a trained assistant who will provide computer training classes as well as one-on-one assistance during open-access time. The Techmobile will help the Free Library reach areas of the Philadelphia community that are not close to a library branch or one of the six stationary hot spots the library began launching last April. It was made possible by funds from the Federal Broadband Technologies Opportunities (BTOP) grant.

Micro Strategies says it is in the final stages of completing the certification process to establish a Microsoft Experience Center in its Malvern office, as well as in Denville, NJ. Micro Strategies descibes Microsoft Experience Centers as giving "Business and Technology Decision Makers the opportunity to test-drive the Microsoft business productivity platform in a real-life environment. Designed to enhance an understanding of available Microsoft technologies, the hands-on sessions offer the best way to learn about Microsoft business productivity tools and technologies without any sales pressure, long demos, or redundant presentations".



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Inaugural Princeton Tech Meetup Draws Enthusiastic Crowd

Esther Surden
Publisher & Editor, NJTechWeekly.com

An enthusiastic bunch of tech professionals attended the Princeton Tech Meetup kickoff meeting, held in the basement of a Nassau Street bar, on March 19. It was a promising beginning for a group pulling together tech developers and entrepreneurs from the central Jersey area.

The first meeting was primarily a networking event, drawing 90 attendees and providing them plenty of low-cost drinks.

The organizers, Chris Boraski, a Montgomery County web developer, and Venu Moola, a marketing and advertising entrepreneur and technology executive who lives in the Princeton area, promised to try to get faculty and students from Princeton and other nearby institutions involved in their effort.

Their goal: to bring together tech types, creative folks, entrepreneurs and investors. Some we spoke to in the audience were on the business side of startups; others included marketing people looking for prospects and even an advertising rep.

David Deutsch, a Flemington-based chief strategist for SynergiSocial, provided an introduction to social media that was well received. When businesses use social media--Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the like--to promote their products or services, they generally don't get anywhere because social media is, at its core, not marketing, Deutsch said.

Businesses need to understand that “it is a conversation, a place to connect, collaborate, ask questions, answer questions and get to know people. Indeed, it is the world's largest global conversation taking place right now about every topic imaginable, and it is happening with or without you.”

Travis Kahn, the newly appointed executive director at TechLaunch, the NJ tech accelerator that will be based at Montclair State University, explained how accelerators work to nurture, as well as speed to market, seed-stage companies. He asked audience members who thought their companies might be a match for TechLaunch to contact him.

Jeff Blake, N.J.-based vice president of sales for E-Zassi (Fernandina Beach, Fla.), an integrated online business-network, decision-support software and technology marketplace, spoke about open innovation in the life-sciences device marketplace. “We provide analytics and security for medical-device and life-sciences customers by automating the idea-capture process,” he said.

If there was one complaint, it concerned the noise level. Speakers had to compete with the venue’s sound system, and many in the back of the room gave up on listening because it was too difficult. The organizers are working to remedy this. A lot of business introductions took place at the kickoff, so most attendees were satisfied with the outcome and are looking forward to the next meetup.

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.

(Editor's Note: The next Princeton Tech Meetup is scheduled for April 16; location hasn't been determined yet.)


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Universal Studios' Movies Now Available on iCloud (Mac Rumors)

NBC Fires Producer of Misleading Zimmerman Tape (New York Times: Media Decoder)

Wharton Is Rebranding Itself Around A Single Word (Business Insider)

Philly Tech News People News 4/8/2012

Dan Moloney wins 2012 Vanguard Award
NCTA recognizes Dan with the cable industry's top honor (Motorola Mobility News Bytes)

First Round Capital Brings On Scribd’s Jack Leidlein As Head Of Talent (TechCrunch)

Vox Medica, Inc. Announces New Path Forward
Next Generation Partnership Team Affirms Commitment to Independence for Leading Healthcare Communications Firm (PR Newswire)

Innovative Solutions & Support, Inc. Announces the Appointment of Shahram Askarpour as President (Business Wire)

Nutrisystem Announces Management Transition
Joe Redling to Step Down as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Business Wire)
Michael J. Hagan, former chairman and CEO named as nonexecutive chairman; will begin CEO search. Hagan is also chairman, CEO and president of Yardley-based LifeShield Inc.

InterDigital Strengthens Senior Executive Team with Addition of Wireless Veteran Allen Proithis (Business Wire)

New owners bring Bill Marimow back to The Philadelphia Inquirer (Poynter)

Aria Systems Names Tom Dibble New CEO (Marketwire)
Aria Systems, a leader in SaaS billing services, was founded in Delaware County and still has its R&D based in Bromall, though its headquarters are now in California.

Code for America hires local #opengov hacker Mark Headd, one-man Philly office (Technically Philly)

Corporate Tax Expert and Industry Veteran William Brennan Joins Vertex as Chief Taxation Officer (Business Wire)

James Powers Joins Softmart as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
(PR Newswire)

CTN Solutions Announces Advisory Board to Support Growth of Technology Management Offerings
Philadelphia-Area Business Leaders Converge to Provide Strategic Guidance (Globe Newswire)



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