Daily Links 5/24/2012: Huawei Files Antitrust Complaint With EU Over InterDigital

Why Cloud Matters (Video: Knowledge@Wharton)

Is SAP leaving ERP behind? (IT Knowledge Exchange)

Ellison, Phillips, McDermott to Take Stand in Oracle-SAP Retrial (PC World)

Huawei Files Antitrust Complaint With EU Over InterDigital (Bloomberg)
Here is InterDigital's response

Kohl urges careful critique of Verizon spectrum deal, cites concerns on competition (The Hill)

NBCU Exploring Buyback of MSNBC.com (Ad Week)
We are talking about the website here; NBC had already bought out Microsoft's interest in the cable channel of that name.

Jon Miller: Hulu still essential to broadcasters (paidContent)

CyOptics withdraws $100 million IPO (Renaissance Capital via NASDAQ.com)
CyOptics, which makes optical eqiupment for the telecom industry, is based in Breinigsville, PA.

Deutsche Telekom CEO Says T-Mobile USA Merger Is Option (Bloomberg)


Days is back, Platt out at Daily News (Philadelphia Daily News)

After Broadband: Imagining a Future When Connected Networks Are All-pervasive (Knowledge@Wharton)



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InstaMed raises another $14 million

Tom Paine

InstaMed, the heavily UPenn connected (I mean its management & investors, not the school) healthcare payments processing platform based in Philadelphia, has just announced it has raised another $14 million. The press release did not name any investors, but only said that "the new capital included funding from five funds, including one new fund, and angels" and that more than 90% of previous investors participated.

This will bring the total investment in InstaMed to at least $36 million, according to my figures. It last reported a $5.5 million raise late last year. Investors have included Osage Partners, NJTC Venture Fund, US Bancorp, and Ashby Point Capital. Josh Kopelman was an early investor through his personal Midas Capital fund. See my brief writeup on InstaMed from last year.

InstaMed recently said it had surpassed $30 billion in Healthcare Payments Processed, and projects that it will process $20 billion in 2012 alone.



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News from The Cable Show 5/23/2012: Ramping up Docsis, Conan O'Brien speaks

Does Docsis Have a 10-Gig Future? (Light Reading Cable)

Cable Show 2012: Motorola Envisions 'Whole-World DVR'
Vendor Says an MSO Customer Will Launch Basic Network DVR Trial by End of 2012 (Multichannel News)

Cable Show 2012: Conan O'Brien Evangelizes Social Media, Admires Walt Disney (Hollywood Reporter)

Cable Execs Root for TV Everywhere, But No Timeline on Mass Adoption
From ESPN to Discovery, a Quest to Get Viewers to 'Authenticate' (Ad Age)

Cable Show 2012: NCTA President Praises FCC's Broadband Campaign (Hollywood Reporter)


Comcast Asks FCC to Revoke Boston's New License to Reregulate Rates
FCC's Media Bureau had recertified the city in April (Broadcasting & Cable)

Comcast CEO Roberts not attending The Cable Show (FierceCable)


CableLabs Nears End of CEO Search (Light Reading Cable)

Carlyle's Cable Muscle (Light Reading Mobile)



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Daily Links 5/23/2012: Philadelphia startup RightCare Solutions wins Janssen Prize, receives $100,000 award

EPAM Systems (Newtown) to Acquire Thoughtcorp, Expand North American Footprint, Gain Entrance into Telecommunication Industry and Expand Agile, Business Intelligence, and Mobile Competencies (EPAM Press Release)
Says total price is $17.4 million in cash, stock, and assumption of liabilities.

Google mum on plans for Motorola operation in Horsham (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Oracle buys Vitrue to hone social marketing chops (Gigaom)

An Ohio startup + $200M = Gigabit broadband for 6 towns (Gigaom)

Dell Drops as Profit, Forecast Miss Estimates on PC Slump (Bloomberg via San Francisco Chronicle)

Analytic Software Wins Janssen Prize to Reduce Hospital Readmissions (Xconomy San Diego)
Philadelphia startup RightCare Solutions receives $100,000 award.

USA Technologies faces second proxy fight in three years (Philly.com: Philly Inc)

Connexin Software Introduces OP Cloud (Business Wire)

Voxware Announces New SAP Certification (Business Wire)

News & Views on SAP's $4.3 billion acquisition of Ariba

SAP buying e-commerce vendor Ariba for $4.3 billion (CIO.com)

SAP Continues Acquisition Binge: Next Bite Is Ariba (ASUG News)

Ariba: Probing on SAP’s New Procurement and Supplier Network “Angel” (Jason Busch/Spend Matters)

SAP bulking up with Ariba. A done deal? (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)

Cloud Wars 2012 Continues, SAP buys Ariba ( Michael Fauscette/Enterprise Irregulars)

SAP Buys Ariba – Huh? (Andrew Bartels/Forrester Blogs)



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SAP to acquire cloud-based procurement offering Ariba for about $4.3 billion

Tom Paine

SAP just announced it will acquire Ariba for approximately $4.3 billion, a 20% premium on yesterday's close.
Although not a complete surprise, Ariba was probably not too high on the various lists of possible SAP targets that float around.

Ariba provides a cloud-based service for B2B business commerce and procurement.

It is based in Sunnyvale, California. Ariba has approximately 2,600 employees, and recorded $444 million in total revenue and 38.5 percent annual growth in 2011. Net income was $33 million, although Ariba posted a slight operating loss.

Ironically, heavy put action was reported on Ariba on Monday.

SAP acquired cloud HRM vendor SuccessFactors in December 2011 for $3.4 billion to strengthen its position in the Cloud. However, although SAP gave SuccessFactors founder Lars Dalgaard responsibility over all of its Cloud offerings, it said in today's statement that "it is planned to consolidate all cloud-related supplier assets of SAP under Ariba" and maintain Ariba as an independent company within SAP.

SAP is already a significant player in the procurement space, as is Oracle. SAP boosted its presence with the acquisition of Crossgate late last year. Perhaps the fastest rising up and comer, Coupa, just raised another $22 million in venture capital.

SAP said in its statement that "the Ariba network will benefit from the performance delivered by using SAP's in-memory platform SAP HANA".


Spend Matters' Jason Busch commented at the end of last month, "We will also be sharing our analysis of SAP's new SRM interface, which bears a surprising resemblance to Ariba's new UI as well".

SAP to Expand Cloud Presence with Acquisition of Ariba (PR Newswire)



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Highlights: Last week on Philly Tech News (5/14/2012 to 5/20/2012)

I reported on how T-Mobile is using the breakup fee and spectrum received from AT&T to reboot its strategy on several fronts, and the role the Philadelphia region plays in it.

Newtown-based Freedom OSS, from which I'd heard little for a while, resurfaced as a subcontractor to Lockheed on a new $250 million contract for building a private Cloud environment for the Army. Which makes me wonder, does the Army actually have someone named Private Cloud?

I covered SAP's mega trade show, Sapphire, remotely (it was held in Orlando). The two biggest topics there were probably SAP's effort to provide a clearer roadmap for its Cloud strategy, and rolling out new capabilities and applications for its in-memory HANA platform.

China signed off on Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility on Sunday, and the deal closed this morning. According to one report citing Motorola's new CEO, Google has not decided yet what to do with its Horsham-based set-top box business.

Exton-based Bentley Systems held its annual "BE Together" user conference at the PA Convention Center last week. Among other things, Bentley announced an acquisition and also said it was opening a new office in Center City Philadelphia that could house up to 50 employees.

A Center City startup which began life as Storably, a site for renting out things like spare parking spaces and storage space, saw that wasn't gaining much traction and so it did a major pivot and launched last week as Curalate, a web service that helps marketers develop programs on Pinterest. First Round Capital, New Enterprise Associates, and UPenn-related MentorTech Ventures are investors.

Philadelphia Media Network CEO Greg Osberg stepped down, although he will continue as an advisor for a while. Although Osberg described it as a move he had planned to make once the ownership change was completed, this New York Times report suggested he may have been pressured out ahead of schedule.

The Philly Fed manufacturing index took a rather dramatic downward plunge into negative territory in May.

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News from The Cable Show 5/22/2012

TV Everywhere’s Counting Problem (All Things D)

The Cable Show 2012: Verizon, Comcast Unveil 'viewdini'
Mobile Search Product Signs on XFinity (Multichannel News)

Cable firms warn against heavy government oversight of Web (LA Times)

Cable Show 2012: Comcast To Take X1 Guide To Some Existing Set-Tops, Too
CTO Werner Says MSO to Deploy Cloud-Based Interface to RNG 150 Boxes (Multichannel News)

Cable companies offer free Wi-Fi -- what's the catch? (Audio: Marketplace Tech)
Includes comments by Wharton prof Kevin Werbach.

Extra lane: how Comcast assures that Xfinity TV on Xbox 360 works well
Vint Cerf and other experts question Comcast's traffic management practice (Ars Technica)

Comcast Spotlight Forms Advanced-Ad Unit, Teams With SMGx
'CM 360' to Focus on Targeting, Interactivity and Measurement (Multichannel News)

Comcast service would connect home phone line to smartphones (LA Times)

Daily Links 5/22/2012: Google closes acquisition of Motorola Mobility; What happens to Horsham operations?

It's Official: Google Is Now a Hardware Company (Bloomberg Business Week)
Deal closes. Story cites new head of Motorola Mobility as saying Google hasn't figured out yet what to do with set-top box business.

Clash of the Theme Parks
Universal, armed with cash from Comcast, takes aim at Disney (New York Times)

Accelerating our Cloud Business (Lars Dalgaard)
Leaked internal memorandum by SAP Cloud chief confirmed as authentic by two top reporters on SAP beat. Must read for SAP
and Enterprise Cloud followers.

Why athenahealth might buy Epocrates (MobileHealthNews)

Physician education software expanding to patients, med students (Med City News)

QED Proof of Concept Program Opens Fifth Round With New Participants and New Special Emphasis Topic (Globe Newswire)
University City Science Center program adds a special track focusing on digital health technology.

Cable Show 2012: Comcast announces X1 launch, demos "Project Dayview"

Tom Paine

The Cable Show 2012 has kicked off in Boston today, and Comcast has already made or has been involved in some key announcements.

As many had expected, Comcast said today it would launch its next generation, cloud-based X1 video platform in Boston in the "coming weeks". It will expand X1 to more markets later in the year. The platform, which had been tested over the past year under the name "Xcalibur" in Augusta, Ga, uses IP technology and cloud servers on Comcast's network to provide interactive, customized apps and social media features to Comcast subscribers. X1's user interface is intended to help users search, navigate and play both linear and on-demand video content. Comcast also emphasizes that X1's cloud-based architecture will enable it to deliver updates for the platform much more frequently than the traditional set-top box allowed. The service, which will be available at first only to Comcast triple play subscribers, also comes with a companion X1 remote control app for iPhones and iPod Touches.

See Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit demo X1:





Comcast also announced that it is developing an "advanced user interface" that provides a personal visual dashboard for Xfinity subscribers, under the name "Project Dayview". It is being demoed at The Cable Show. The idea is for users to see and manage information from all their Xfinity-related apps and devices in one place. Comcast says Dayview will be "integrated into Comcast's next-generation TV and connected TV products, as well as mobile devices and personal computers", beginning later this year.

Here Smit demos Dayview:





Also, five of the major cable operators (including Comcast), four of whom are part of the joint marketing arrangement with Verizon Wireless (do I see some type of connection here?) will provide cross access to each company's subscribers to all of their collective 50,000+ WiFi hotspots under the brand name "Cable WiFi".



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There’s a Map for That: AT&T Reveals Its NJ Upgrade

Esther Surden
Publisher & Editor, NJTechWeekly.com

In an effort to increase the visibility of its service upgrades in both the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas, AT&T has introduced a microsite that includes maps of the upgrades it has completed since January 2011.

To find the maps, go to this website for New York or this one for Philadelphia. Activate the map by choosing a town from the pull-down menu on the left side of the screen. You can zoom in on the map to see in greater detail where the upgrades have been made.

NJTechWeekly.com looked at a North Jersey upgrades sample and noted the following:

• Hoboken has had 11 capacity upgrades (adding more traffic lanes to the cell site to reduce dropped calls and improve service quality) and 11 network connection upgrades (expanded network connections with fiber lines, allowing more traffic to flow back to the network faster.) Also, there are enabled 4G data speeds for compatible devices.


• In Basking Ridge, the company has made five capacity upgrades and five connection upgrades.


• Looking at Newark, we found 67 total upgrades with one new cell site, 35 capacity upgrades and 31 network connection upgrades.

In central N.J. and South Jersey:

• Camden has had a total of nine upgrades, four for capacity and five for network connections, while Haddonfield has received only two upgrades, one for capacity and one for network connections.


• The state capital, Trenton, has received one new cell site, five capacity upgrades and 18 network upgrades.

NJTechWeekly.com didn’t see Princeton or Atlantic City listed on either map.

In a release, AT&T said that in the greater New York region, from the beginning of 2011 through March 26, 2012, it has:

• Built more than 40 new cell sites, providing more bars in the area.


• Upgraded more than 45 cell sites, providing faster mobile internet speeds.


• Added more than 3,000 carriers to increase spectrum on area cell sites, providing extra capacity to reduce dropped calls and improve service quality at busy times.


• Expanded nearly 2,900 network connections with fiber lines at area cell sites, helping reduce dropped calls and enable 4G data speeds for compatible devices.

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



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