Comcast to Sell ‘Substantial’ Equity Stake in A&E (Bloomberg)

The SAP HANA Effect (SAP CTO Vishal Sikka)
Responds to Oracle attacks.

myYearbook parent Quepasa reports solid growth in first full quarter of combined operations

Tom Paine

New Hope-based Quepasa Corporation (NYSEAMEX:QPSA), the entity that acquired myYearbook late last year and is set to rebrand as MeetMe later in the year, announced its first results as a combined company for a full quarter yesterday.

First Quarter revenue of $10.8 million represented a 30% increase over the combined total of what the two companies reported separately for the same period last year. Quepasa reported a net loss of $1.9 million and a non-GAAP measure of "Adjusted EBITDA" of $673,00. I had some difficulty reconciling all elements of cash flow from Quepasa's financial statements (maybe my fault), but cash & cash equivalents of just over $8,000,000 at the end of the quarter were down about $250,00 from year end.

The company said during its earnings conference call it had launched its mobile virtual currency across its iPhone and Android platforms during the quarter, and that early adoption looks promising. Monetizing mobile users is seen as being very important because a majority of Quepasa visits now come from mobile devices and the company feels users will be more likely to make purchases from the mobile apps because the transaction is simpler to complete. Mobile revenue now accounts for 14% of revenue and is growing rapidly. Monthly active users during the quarter totaled 3.2 million, up 62% from a year ago, the company says, although that is a fairly small percentage of the 81.5 million registered users reported. During the first quarter of 2012, a "Locals" feature was also introduced on the myYearbook mobile apps and web site, which encourages more connections between users on a local basis.

Quepasa says its plans to rebrand as MeetMe and transition both myYearbook and Quepasa to a common platform, which I reported on when they were announced last month, are on track, with myYearbook's switchover scheduled for July and Quepasa's later in the year. Quepasa also says it expects to be available in six languages by year end, versus the three I believe they are currently available in.

The company said it believed it is too early for them to start providing guidance, since they are still working to complete the integration process. Quepasa's current market cap is $138 million, and its share price is largely unchanged since yesterday's earnings announcement.



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Daily Links 5/4/2012: Philadelphia Enterprise Award winners named, IT innovations lead Wharton Biz Plan competition

The Midas List? Yeah, sure, & I’m Brad Pitt (Om Malik/Gigaom)

Cable TV Subs Fell 5% In 2011: Nielsen
Broadband With Broadcast-Only TV Households Jumped 14% (Multichannel News)

Mobile Industry Faces Spectrum, Deal Paralysis (Reuters via Fox Business)

Verizon Goes on Offense Against AWS Deal Critics (Wireless Week)

InterDigital Announces New $100 Million Stock Repurchase Authorization
Issues Financial Guidance for Second Quarter 2012 (Business Wire)
Second Quarter results will include "solid revenue from a sale of four patent families", which is "unrelated to the company’s broader efforts to create value by monetizing certain larger patent portfolios".

Philadelphia Enterprise Award winners named (Philadelphia Business Journal)

IT Innovations Dominate 2012's 'Great Eight' Business Plans at Wharton (Knowledge@Wharton via Forbes)

Silicon Valley Pioneer Kurtzig Goes After SAP, Oracle (Wall Street Journal: Digits)

Boathouse Capital and CMS Mezzanine Invest in
BioPharm Communications, LLC (Boathouse Capital website)

Azavea Announces the Release of GeoTrellis, an Open Source High Performance Geographic Data Processing Engine and Programming Toolkit (PR Web)



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Checkpoint Systems faces severe downturn, makes change at top

Tom Paine

Checkpoint Systems, which provides loss prevention (shrink management) and inventory tracking systems using EAS and RFID technologies to retailers, issued quarterly results today showing a dramatic revenue decline. The company also announced that Chairman, President & CEO Rob van der Merwe was stepping down. Board member George Babich, Jr., a former President and Chief Financial Officer of Pep Boys, will become interim CEO and President. Another board member, William S. Antle, III will serve as non-executive Chairman.

Checkpoint Systems (NYSE: CKP), not to be confused with Checkpoint Software, is based in Thorofare (Gloucester County), NJ. In late 2010, Checkpoint moved its official headquarters location to Philadelphia, although that move has since been rescinded, apparently. The company's shares are down 16% today; more notably, the shares have lost two thirds of their value since the onset of the recession.

Revenue for the first quarter was down 10.8% to $162.3 million; the company said organic revenue (excluding the impact of acquisitions) fell almost 15%. The core of the problem was Europe, particularly in Checkpoint's apparel labeling systems business. GAAP operating loss was $19.6 million compared to a loss of $9.0 million for the first quarter 2011. The company is withdrawing all financial guidance for the full year. Although Checkpoint stressed during its conference call that its balance sheet is sound and it can repatriate additional funds if needed, it will have to renegotiate some terms of its loan covenants to get more flexibility on certain ratios.

In the first quarter, Checkpoint expanded its restructuring program, which is intended to produce annualized run rate savings of approximately $67 million at a cost of approximately $56 million.

Interim CEO Babich said the "board believes strongly" in Checkpoint's strategy, but the problem has been in the pace of execution. The business "needs to be rightsized" to match current market demand, he said. A special committee of the board has been established to guide a turnaround initiative. Babich will lead a deep fact finding effort and assessment, with the goal of reporting back to the board by the end of July.

Babich was pressed by at least one investor on the conference call as to why Checkpoint had not hired a banker and put all its strategic options on the table, including that of selling the company. Babich said the board was committed to doing the review process first, both to fix immediate problems and to make a better assessment of longer term structure and options. For example, Babich questions whether Checkpoint's existing "matrix management" structure is best for running the business. He did say that once the review is completed, all options for the future of the business would be considered.

Checkpoint had been coming under increasing pressure from investors to make changes.

While Checkpoint wants to maintain a leading position in shrinkage management systems, it also looks to grow its business in an area it calls Merchandise Visibility, which uses RFID technology and advanced software from its 2008 acquisition of OATSystems. Merchandise Visibility solutions are intended to give retailers a much better dynamic, real time view of where all their inventory is.

Checkpoint Systems was founded in 1969 as subsidiary of Logistics Industries. It started off serving the library market but quickly saw the opportunity to move into retail.



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Daily Links 5/3/2012: Uber soft launches in Philadelphia

Rob Van Der Merwe Steps Down as Checkpoint Systems, Inc. Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer (Business Wire)

Checkpoint Systems, Inc. Announces First Quarter 2012 Results (Business Wire)

Warwick Valley Telephone aims to answer customers' shifting needs (Middletown Time Herald-Record)
Alteva's upstate New York-based parent, which held its annual shareholders meeting in Philadelphia yesterday.

Set-top revenue declines at Motorola Mobility (FierceCable)

Cablevision Falls After Discounting Leads to Cash Flow Drop (Bloomberg)
Cable competition is a great thing, where it exists.

Multiplatform TV: Comcast Set To Launch Live ESPN, Disney 'TV Everywhere' Services (Multichannel News)


ICG Announces First Quarter Financial Results (Globe Newswire)

Quepasa Corporation Reports Record Results for the First Quarter of 2012 (Marketwire)

Oracle, SAP Battle Over 'hypothetical License' Damages (PC World)

LogiStar Partners with Futura Mobility to Extend MDM Services to its Integrated SAP Practice (Business Wire)
Both companies are based in Fort Washington.

Uber Feels The Brotherly Love, Begins Testing Its On-Demand Car Service In Philadelphia (TechCrunch)

Devon IT Demos New Thin Client and VDI Solutions at Citrix Synergy 2012 (Business Wire)

Comcast's Q1 results mostly positive; X1 launch expected soon

Tom Paine

Comcast today reported results for Q1 2012 that easily beat Wall Street's consensus expectations. Viewing results compared to 2011 as if NBCU and 100% of Universal Orlando were fully included in last year's result, revenue increased 9.6% to $14.9 billion and operating cash flow also increased 9.6% to $4.7 billion. Earnings per share increased 32% over last year's first quarter.

NBCU, High Speed Internet and Business Services were the best performing segments. NBCU revenue grew 18% for the quarter; even if you exclude the big bump from the Super Bowl, revenue still grew by 12.4%. It is important to note, however, that operating cash flow from Broadcast Television and Filmed Entertainment combined was still negative, so its hardly time to proclaim a completed turnaround there. (See Steve Burke's reported recent comments on the current economics of the film industry.) High Speed Internet added 439,000 new customers with revenue growth of 10.3 %. Business Services revenue grew 37% as that unit moved upmarket towards serving more mid-market customers and added new services.

One negative was the net loss of 37,000 video subscribers. Some analysts thought this number might be lower, as Comcast appeared close to having stopped the trend of losing subscribers. Prices hikes implemented across 62% of Comcast's footprint during the quarter may have slightly increased customer churn, though. Overall video revenue grew only 1.6%.

Some key points that came up during the conference call:

• Roberts said Streampix (Comcast's prototypical Netflix-like service) now has about 2 million users.
  
  
• Home security and "Smart Home" service Xfinity Home is now available across 72% of Comcast's footprint, the company said. It would reveal nothing about the number of subscribers signed up yet, saying Comcast found it had needed to train salespeople to take "a more consultative approach" to selling the product.
  
  
• Comcast's new "X1" cloud-based interface, which had been piloted in Augusta GA, will roll out "in a major market" in the second quarter (maybe it will be Philly, since Comcast often launches there), with further expansion later in the year. Comcast clearly sees X1 as revolutionary in how subcribers will navigate their systems to locate content, and how its cloud architecture will make system enhancements much easier to deploy to subscribers. Update: Light Reading says it will be launched in Boston in May, around the time of the Cable Show, which is being held there this year.
  
  
• Comcast does not forsee implementing usage-based broadband pricing.
  
  
• A question about whether the Verizon Wireless joint marketing venture would go forward if for some reason the spectrum sale (by SpectrumCo to Verizon) did not receive Federal approval was sidestepped with a reaffirmation by Roberts that the company remained optimistic the sale would be approved later this year.
  
  
• Programming expenses grew 5.5% in Q1, and Comcast expects the rate of growth for the full year to higher than that (I would guess Olympic rights might be part of that depending upon how those expenses are recognized).
  
  
• Comcast's Xfinity TV app has been downloaded 5 million times, although more people are using it now for its tools (interface, remote, guide) than to view content.
  
  
• Comcast says it expects to demonstrate some exciting synergies between NBCU and Comcast Cable during the upcoming Olympics.
  

Comcast shares closed the day down less than 1%.



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Confirming rumors, Exton-based iPipeline acquires UK-based Assureweb

Tom Paine

A few weeks ago I reported on rumors in the UK press that iPipeline was in talks to acquire Assureweb, a UK-based SaaS platform for life, mortgage and pension insurance quotations and applications.

Today, the deal was announced. Exton-based iPipeline says in a statement that Assureweb "will lead the expansion of iPipeline’s online insurance solutions to the UK, Europe and Asia". Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Assureweb, which is located in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, has nearly 85 employees, the company says. Andrew Simon will continue to serve as Assureweb CEO. Assureweb has been owned by a consortium of UK insurers, including Aviva, AEGON, Friends Life, Prudential, and Scottish Widows Plc.

The deal apparently utilizes a chunk of the $71.4 million iPipeline raised from Technology Crossover Ventures in January. In addition to achieving geographical expansion, iPipeline says the combination of its own products with Assureweb's will be synergistic.

I'll be looking for more details on the deal in the UK press.



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Daily Links 5/2/2012: SAP, Oracle database war gets heated; Oracle states claims for TomorrowNow retrial

SAP and Oracle up the ante in the phony database wars (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)

Amazon Wins SAP as Cloud Partner for Smartphone Software Afaria (Bloomberg)

Oracle Claims $777 Million Damages in SAP Infringement Case (Bloomberg)

Comcast Must Put Bloomberg TV Near Other News Channels, FCC Says (Bloomberg)

Kenexa Announces Financial Results for First Quarter 2012 (Business Wire)
Increases guidance for year.

After 2 Years Of Pivots, ShowMe Finally Has A Sticky Product -- 500,000 Lessons Are Being Added Every Month (Silicon Alley Insider)
ShowMe, now based in New York, originally launched as Easel Learning at DreamIt Ventures Philadelphia in 2010.

PlaySay gamifies language learning with speech recognition app (VentureBeat)
PlaySay, which started out in Philly and moved to DC, has apparently moved again, this time to San Francisco.

Devon IT Releases Package Management for Thin Client Solutions (Business Wire)



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Comcast Q1: Strong NBCU results

Comcast Reports 1st Quarter 2012 Results (Business Wire)
Revenue and operating cash flow increase 9.6%, pro forma (apples to apples including all NBCU results for prior year). Strong NBCU
results; video subscriber losses at 37,000, Business Services revenue grows 37%.

QlikTech discusses quarterly earnings; Radnor-based company now at over 1100 employees and growing

Tom Paine

Radnor-based Business Intelligence software vendor QlikTech reported its Q1 2012 results this past Thursday, which exceeded guidance. Revenue grew by 26% to $79.2 million, and GAAP operating loss was $7.8 million (QlikTech usually emphasizes non-GAAP income, but being a traditionalist I always look at GAAP results first). For the full year 2012, the company raised its guidance for revenue to be in the range of $408.0 million to $418.0 million and non-GAAP operating income to be in the range of $55.0 million to $60.0. At the midpoint of that guidance, revenue would grow 29% over 2011.

Headcount is now at 1157, up 31% over the prior year; there were 103 new hires in the quarter, and the company expects to add more than that in Q2. The last time I checked a couple of quarters ago, perhaps slightly more than 10% of those were based in Radnor. QlikTech is a rather geographically decentralized company.

The major mesage I picked up during the conference call was the growth of large enterprise accounts. QlikTech CEO Lars Bjork spoke of accounts with "tens of thousands" of users. He said the perception some competitors try to paint of QlikTech being largely a departmental solution is inaccurate.

At its Qonnections 2012 Global Partners Conference held in Miami Beach last week, one announcement was the introduction of QlikMarket, QlikTech's version of the App Store that will come on line late in the year. QlikMarket will feature "predefined solutions" for specific applications or verticals from QlikTech partners. The company doesn't have much specific public information out about it yet (apparently its existence was prematurely discovered via an employee's LinkedIn profile).

Bjork says he hasn't seen "big data" apps impacting QlikTech's business yet. In terms of competition, QlikTech usually doesn't talk about specific competitors, although Bjork did say it is "not a greenfield and we're the only ones around, in many cases". Tableau and Tibco's Spotfire are probably two of the most important competitors in QlikTech's specific space. Bjork said he doesn't see any direct competition from any of SAP's HANA-based products at this time, as "its a very different offering". On the mobile front, I got the sense that progress is being slowed by performance related to bandwidth and device capacity issues. Bjork said they are hopeful widespread LTE availability will address some of the bandwidth issues; QlikTech is also said to be working on caching for the iPad.

CFO Bill Sorenson may have hinted at possible small acquisitions later in the year. In discussing cash flow projections, he said they could be impacted slightly buy some "technology tuck-ins" that could materialize during the year. QlikTech has not been acquisitive at all to this point. The company has over $200 million in cash.

QlikTech shares closed today at $28.44, down from $30.82 before Thursday's earnings release. Its market capitalization is now $2.4 billion.



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Daily Links 5/1/2012: SAP appoints new President for North America

Geraldine McBride Named President of SAP North America (SAP Newsroom)
Rejoins SAP from Dell.

SAP's Sikka Fires Back Against Oracle's 'falsehoods' About HANA (CIO.com)

An Obligation To Help Each Other (Women 2.0)
By Joanne Lang (Founder & CEO, AboutOne).

Update: Philly Is Not A Mirage, But Maybe The Philly Tech Scene Is? (Philebrity)

SunGard Announces First Quarter 2012 Results (Business Wire)

Steve Burke Tells CAA Retreat: ‘Movie Business Is In Steady Decline’ (Exclusive) (The Wrap)

Sony virtual MSO play could hinge on Comcast
Conglom studying Xfinity/Xbox loophole (Variety)

NBC Universal's Style Network and DailyCandy Team Up for StyleCandy
(Ad Age)

Earnings Preview: Comcast to report 1Q earnings tomorrow (AP via Business Week)

FCC delays Verizon bid for spectrum from cable firms
(Washington Post: Post Tech)
Procedural delay.


iBuilding Realty Partners Launches with High-Tech Blueprint for Real Estate Value Creation
(Business Wire)
Will leverage Evolve IP technologies.

Motorola Mobility posts $86 million loss in Q1 on $3.1 billion in revenue, ships 8.9 million phones (The Verge)
Sale to Google still awaits Chinese approval (for which I think they will extract a price); Home segment increases profits.

Heartland Payment profit beats Street on higher volumes (Reuters)
Heartland Payment Systems is based in Princeton.



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