Philly Tech People News 6/17/2012



Microsoft Veteran Nitin Bhatia Joins NextDocs to Further Drive Growth in Global Services
Bhatia brings decades of experience at Microsoft to his new role as leader of NextDocs’ Global Services team
(Business Wire)

SunGard Announces Chief Financial Officer Transition (Business Wire)

SAP Ventures hires Clarkson as COO, managing director (San Jose Business Journal)

JK Group Names Robert E. Farina as Chief Executive Officer
Top Software Executive Joins Industry Pioneer to Drive Growth and Expand Product Portfolios
(Marketwire)

iPipeline Increases Focus on Canadian Marketplace
Hires Canadian Insurance Expert to Support New Business Development Activities
(Business Wire)

Universal Display Corporation Strengthens Management Team with Addition of New Vice President Mauro Premutico
Premutico, patent protection and intellectual property law expert, will support Universal Display’s continued growth as leading OLED technology licensing and materials supply company
(Business Wire)


Ex-Canoe Exec Orduña Joins PayPal
Former Chief Product Officer of Cable's Ad Venture Aims to Strike Deals With MSOs, Others
(Multichannel News)

John Schanz Receives InfoWorld Technology Leadership Award (Comcast Voices/Official Comcast Blog)





Minority-Focused Startup Incubator DreamIt Access Gets Renewed Investment, Will Continue For Two More Cycles (TechCrunch)
DreamIt now accepting applications for Fall class in Philly.

15 Tech Scenes In Places You'd Never Think To Look (Fast Company)
According to Fast Company, Philly ranks with tech powerhouses like Savannah, Greenville SC, Grand Rapids and Hobbs NM.

New York: Techie Magnet (Wall Street Journal: Metro Money)
"Stylitics investor Kirsten Green, managing partner of Forerunner Ventures, told me she'd be less inclined to fund a start-up based in Philly, simply because of the logistical hassles."




The Great Replacement: Microsoft, Yammer, and a New World in Enterprise Computing (PandoDaily)

Will social software startups "collapse into the orbit" of the big vendors? (Dion Hinchcliffe/ZDNet Blogs)


Recent Philly VC Investments (Updated 6/16/2012)






Infonautics alumni meet to share experiences and what followed

Tom Paine





Former Infonauts (L to R) Edwin Watkeys, Alan Preston, Ron Berg, Lucinda Duncalfe, Rick Mosenkis, Josh Kopelman,
Marvin Weinberger, Andrea Michalek, Rich Gallagher, Mike Krupit (photo courtesy of John Ashmead)





















"The Infonautics Team & A Generation of Startups" was held this past Tuesday at Quorom at University Science Center. I had written a brief background piece on Infonautic's history prior to the event. Although I wasn't able to cover the event, Mike Armstrong of the Inquirer and Technically Philly's Juliana Reyes both provided excellent reports.


Although this event was certainly most worthwhile, co-sponsors Novotorium and Seed Philly subsequently announced they had decided to cancel most of the remaining "Entrepreneur Summer Camp" schedule, of which this was the kickoff event, citing what might have been an overly ambitious program competing with many other activities for a sometimes sparse summer crowd, as Novotorium's Mike Krupit explains. However, the Summer Camp Not-a-Hack-a-Thon Entrepreneur Sleepover on June 27 & 28 is definitely a go.





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Daily Links 6/15/2012: Microsoft reportedly in $1 billion deal for Yammer



Microsoft reportedly in $1 billion deal for Yammer (CNET News)

Take That Larry Ellison! Workday Is Expected To File For Its IPO This Month (SAI: Enterprise)

QlikTech Buys Expressor To Nix Scripting
Deal gives QlikView business intelligence software a graphical user interface to ease and speed data loading.
(Cindi Howson/InformationWeek)

Exit Interview: Nitin Bhatia On Sharepoint, Yammer, Leaving Microsoft And Joining NextDocs (TechCrunch)
Obviously, they wanted to talk with Bhatia mostly about Yammer; NextDocs is hardly mentioned.


Hey, Comcast, the Rich Aren't That Different (Bloomberg Business Week)
Comcast's problem with Chappaquiddick.

ShopRunner picks up the pace
The shipping program offers members a way to make purchases in two clicks.
(Internet Retailer)

Uber Wants To Drive You To The Philly Mini Meet-Up (TechCrunch)
What good is a 20% discount if their variable pricing just hikes up the price at the time?



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RockYou acquires Philly social game developer Ryzing (and its staying put)


Tom Paine






California-based social game maker RockYou, in which First Round Capital was an early stage investor, announced yesterday it was acquiring Ryzing, a Philly-based social game developer backed by area VC firm Artists & Instigators (formerly SeventySix Capital). Terms were not disclosed.

Ryzing's primary product is "Bingo by Ryzing" on Facebook, with more than 75,000 daily users. Ryzing's gaming platform gives players a chance at winning prizes through sweepstakes drawings. RockYou had already taken over distribution responsibilities for the game, which was released in 2011, earlier this year. Although RockYou's sweepstakes format enables it to avoid restrictions on cash payouts, if online gambling were to be legalized it has the potential to skyrocket.

Wayne D. Kimmel, founder and managing partner of Artists & Instigators, told me via Twitter DM that Ryzing's 6 person team was staying in Philadelphia and, in fact, they are looking to hire more people. Kimmel will also be joining RockYou's board.

Ryzing's team is led by Manu Gambhir, who has Wharton and Computer Science degrees from UPenn,and ran Cantor Fitzgerald's online gaming business in the United Kingdom (I had no idea Cantor Fitzgerald ever had an online gaming business). Dr. Dmitry Cherkassky, a UPenn Computer and Information Science PHD, led the design of the gaming system's architecture.

RockYou also announced yesterday it was relocating its headquarters from Redwood City, CA to San Francisco. It has raised $129 million, according to Crunchbase. First Round Capital participated only in the seed round; later, larger investors have included Softbank, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and Doll Capital Management.



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Daily Links 6/14/2012: Microsoft said to be in talks to buy Yammer



HP and SAP: What we need is a MASHED UP cloud
'We've moved away from doing it cheaper' (Thank god)
(The Register)

Microsoft Said To Be In Talks To Acquire Yammer Social Network (Bloomberg)
Raises question again as to whether SAP will make a major move.

Yammer Acquisition Rumors Push Jive Shares Up (All Things D)
As I was saying....

Comcast Bids For .Xfinity, While Dish Wants .Direct And .DTV Web Names (Multichannel News)

U.S. is probing how pay-TV industry affects online competitors (LA Times)

Eagles, Rovio announce an Angry Birds deal (Philadelphia Inquirer)



Philly Tech News Facilities Roundup: Who's moving or expanding? (6/13/2012)

Tom Paine

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

Zivtech, the Philadelphia development shop focused on content management systems such as Drupal and Alfresco and headed by partners Alex Urevick-Acelsberg and Jody Hamilton, moved this week from its old office on Strawberry Street to new digs in the Philadelphia Building on Walnut Street, where they have taken about half of the 15th floor-RJMetrics has the other half. They tell me they've just about doubled their square footage.
The old office, now available, was Indy Hall's original location. Zivtech also has people located in Madison, WI, and New York City.
Zivtech got Drupaldelphia off the ground a few years ago, and its fifth edition will be held on Saturday (correction: that's Friday), June 22 at Temple. There will be other events during the weekend, including the Drupaldelphia After / Zivtech Office Opening Party Jawn on Friday night.

Comcast has extended and expanded its lease at a former data center in Mount Laurel, going from 44,000 to 72,500 square feet. Comcast currently employs about 200 in the space at the former SunGard Data Systems facility, at Executive Park at East Gate on West Park Drive, which it first moved into in 2007. Comcast says it is expanding its research and development operations in Mount Laurel, which are apparently related to its rapidly growing Business Services segment.

Bethlehem-based online video service Viddler announced in April the opening of its second data center in New York City. Its existing data center in Phoenix now serves as a redundant backup. In what it described as a "six figure investment", Viddler said its "new, redundant, premium hardware assures the performance boost along with the ability to serve even more traffic at high speeds". "Lastly, we’ve enhanced our security and monitoring capabilities to provide a faster response to any potential problems."

Radnor-based Business Intelligence software vendor QlikTech has taken a seven-year lease on a pre-built 6,000 square foot space in the newly rennovated building at 292 Madison Avenue in New York, the Commercial Observer reported last week.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews cutting ribbon at opening of VideoLink's new Philadelphia
facility (Source: VideoLink)
Newtown, MA-based VideoLink opened a new video studio and production facility on Delancey St in Philly last week. MSNBC's (and Philly native) Chris Matthews was on hand for the ribbon cutting. The new facility has 4800 square feet, up from 3000 square feet in its old facility on N. 17th St. VideoLink is a provider of broadcast and corporate media services, solutions, and proprietary video production technology.

At Media, the social media-oriented branding agency, moved its offices in early March from Cherry Street to 222B Race Street. The new office provides ground level storefront space and two levels.

King of Prussia-based GSI Commerce, a unit of EBay, has opened a new office in New York. It houses staff from GSI Commerce's marketing services businesses including mobile advertising, ad retargeting, ad analytics, affiliate, and email. The office will have about 150 employees.



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Daily Links 6/13/2012: DOJ reported to be investigating Cable moves in online video



Constant Contact Acquires Business Listings Startup SinglePlatform, Deal Worth Up To $100M (TechCrunch)
SinglePlatform is a First Round Capital portfolio company.

Congratulations: Single Platform Acquired by Constant Contact (Howard Morgan/Way Too Early)

FCC to let cable firms stop carrying local TV in analog (LA Times)

U.S. Probing If Cable Operators Hamper Netflix, Online Video (Report) (Hollywood Reporter)

First GPS III Launch Delayed by Up to a Year, OCX by Two Years (Inside GNSS)
Doesn't appear to be Lockheed's fault.

Quality Systems, Inc. Reports Fiscal 2012 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results (Business Wire)
Quality Systems' principal business is NextGen Healthcare of Horsham.

What do Qliktech customers gain from Expressor? (Research with Results/Aberdeen Group Blog)