Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (7/16/2012 to 7/22/2012): Phillies, First Round Capital

I looked at the Phillies' decision to go with a new ticketing system from a company owned by Major League Baseball, and some of the possible reasons behind it.

There were several significant fundraising rounds for First Round Capital portfolio companies including $105 million for Fab.com, and also one exit.

In this past week's edition of Philly Tech People News, I highlighted some personnel moves (and an award) for some top Comcast executives.

Philly-based off-price retailer Five Below had a very successful IPO, raising its offering price and bringing in $163 million, and then seeing the price shoot up 56% on the first day of trading. Also, the results of the July Philly Fed Business Outlook Survey were once again not very encouraging.

DreamIt Ventures is bringing its program to Austin this winter, and plans to show off its class at SXSW 2013.

The University of Pennsylvania joined CalTech and private VC firms in investing in online higher ed course platform Coursera. UPenn had been among the first schools to offer classes through Coursera.

NBCU reorganized its news operations, placing all of its news-related properties into a new NBCU News Group headed by Patricia Fili-Krushel, who will report to NBCU CEO Steve Burke. And the Wall Street Journal's Holman Jenkins wrote an interesting column questioning Comcast's current strategy of integrating content ownership with being a communications provider.


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Daily Links 7/25/2012: Tennis Channel gets fault call over Comcast from FCC

Tennis Channel triumphs over Comcast in FCC discrimination case (LA Times: Company Town)

Netflix Plunges on Guarded Outlook for New 2012 Signups (Bloomberg)

NBA taps SAP to develop 'unprecedented statistical experience' (ZDNet)

An Upstart Looks to Take on the Giants of Online Ticketing (Mashable)
Sticking to today's sports-related theme, San Francisco-based Ticketfly raises $22 million in a Round C led by SAP Ventures.


NSW Govt SAP roll-out to be cloud test case: Ovum (ZDNet)

Dell Does Software: The How To List (Josh Greenbaum/Enterprise Irregulars)

Big-Data Start-Up GoodData Lands $25 Million Series C Led by Tenaya Capital (All Things D)

Unisys swings to profit on ClearPath mainframe spike
Pays off debts ahead of schedule (The Register Channel)

For its new cloud, Google learns old tricks (Gigaom)
Radnor-based QlikTech among those joining Google Cloud Partner Program.

If You See Marc Benioff Smiling Today, Here’s Why (All Things D)

InterDigital Announces Second Quarter 2012 Financial Results (Business Wire)

TE Connectivity beats reduced profit forecast (Reuters)
TE Connectivity, which has its operational headquarters in Berwyn, had just reduced its earnings outlook last week.


WhoSay Gets $12 Million Series C Led By Comcast Ventures For Its Celebrity-Centric Social Platform (TechCrunch)



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Daily Links 7/24/2012: Comcast intros 305 Meg broadband, doubles speeds for two tiers

SAP Backs Full-Year Forecast After Profit Rises (Dow Jones Newswires via Fox Business)

SAP Overtakes Siemens as Germany’s Most Valuable Company (Bloomberg)

SAP defying gravity. Who'da thought that? (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)

Comcast Debuts 305-Meg Internet, Doubles Speeds For Two Broadband Tiers
MSO Launches 'Xfinity Platinum' to Take Fastest-Internet Claim From Verizon FiOS (Multichannel News)
Available to subscribers in Philadelphia region. Also doubling the speeds for current customers of its 25 and 50 Megabit per second services for no additional cost.

How Big Cable killed the open set-top box—and what to do about it
Researcher argues the FCC's set-top box strategy is doomed to failure. (Ars Technica)


Verizon and Redbox Start Testing Their New Web Video Service: Here’s What to Expect (Peter Kafka/All Things)

Netflix Hits Its Q2 Numbers, A Little Light on Subscribers (Peter Kafka/All Things D)

Group M Next Taps Pinterest Analytics Company Curalate (Ad Age)

Project Liberty incubator names three new tenants (Philadelphia Inquirer)


Universal Display Purchases Fujifilm’s Worldwide OLED Patent Portfolio for $105 Million (Business Wire)

Unisys Announces Second-Quarter 2012 Financial Results (PR Newswire)
Turns a decent profit.


Ametek raises FY profit forecast, sees more acquisitions (Reuters)

Lockheed raises 2012 guidance as second quarter net tops view (Reuters)



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phillytechnews twitterfeed 7/23/2012

phillytechnews: New PTN Post: Conshohocken-based ShopRunner brings in ex-Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson as its CEO http://t.co/xtGvpLMq Posted: 23 Jul 2012 02:09 PM PDT phillytechnews: New PTN Post: Conshohocken-based ShopRunner brings in ex-Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson as its CEO http://t.co/xtGvpLMq

phillytechnews: RT @PhillyJoeD: Ex-Yahoo CEO to head Conshy online-retail firm: MEMO: Read Mike Golden's explainer of what Scott Thompson will d... http ...

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Conshohocken-based ShopRunner brings in ex-Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson as its CEO

Tom Paine




ShopRunner, the Conshohocken-based unit of Michael Rubin's Kynetic LLC online retail holding company, this morning announced that it has hired Scott Thompson as its CEO. Thompson left Yahoo in May after a brief tenure as its CEO when it was revealed that his biographical information as it appeared in some places included a computer science degree he never earned. He also had a cancer scare, which apparently has been successfully treated. Prior to Yahoo, he ran eBay's PayPal unit, and certainly had the reputation of being an astute and successful executive. eBay, by the way, owns a 30% stake in ShopRunner, which it retained after acquiring GSI Commerce and spinning off the rest of ShopRunner to Kynetic. There was no discussion this morning by either ShopRunner execs or Thompson about the resume flap.

ShopRunner was launched in 2010 by Rubin and Mike Golden originally as a part of GSI Commerce, to offer an alternative to Amazon's Prime delivery subscription service for independent retailers, providing free two-day shipping and other benefits to its members. There isn't too much data out there about how its doing, though. Bloomberg cites some sources suggesting ShopRunner is having difficulties in gaining traction and getting some of the larger retailers to sign on.

ShopRunner CEO and long-time Rubin colleague Golden will now be President and report to Thompson, a move that may lead to some questions about his future role, though Golden explains in an internal memo that the Inquirer's Joe DiStefano obtained that it was always part of the plan to bring in a high-profile CEO for the long-term. Thompson, who has spent most of his recent years in Silicon Valley, will split time between the California offices of ShopSanity, a startup ShopRunner acquired earlier this year, and Conshohocken. In that regard, the newly approved helipad to be built on the riverfront in Conshohocken and paid for by Kynetic might come in handy in beating traffic from the airport. In fact, in my curious mind I wonder if the close timing of the two announcements is more than a coincidence.

Update: In response to an inquiry by Philly Tech News, ShopRunner's press representative said that the company is not currently releasing subscriber numbers.



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Daily Links 7/23/2012: Penn State marketing machine crippled

NCAA's Penn State Punishment Likely to Further Cripple School's Marketability (Ad Age)


Comcast will flood the Olympics zone (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Affils Make Case to Commerce for Retaining Retrans
NBC, CBS affiliates send letters in advance of July 24 hearing in 1992 Cable Act (Broadcasting & Cable)
Senate Commerce hearings tomorrow.

Twitter as media: Its ambitions grow with NBC Olympic deal (Gigaom)

Fundraising Drags on First-Half Venture Investment (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)

PANL: Cowen Dismisses Threats to OLED Spread; Apple Not an issue (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

VMware Profit Falls; Company To Buy Nicira for $1.26 Billion
(Fox Business)


CodeSquare Partners With Conestoga Bank to Engage Philadelphia's Digital Demographic (PR Newswire)



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Philly Tech People News 7/22/2012: Comcast moves & news

The appointment by NBCU head Steve Burke of Patricia Fili-Krushel as Chairman of the newly consolidated NBC News Group came as a surprise to some, the New York Post reports. Fili-Krushel is not considered to be a "news person" by many, although she did have oversight of ABC News a few years back. Burke worked with Fili-Krushel at ABC.

Jennifer Yohe Wagner, vice president/Strategic Business Procurement for Comcast Cable, was named the winner of the prestigious 2012 "Women in Technology" Award. The award is sponsored by Bright House Networks, and the winner was chosen by Communications Technology magazine, Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) and the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE). Yohe Wagner joined Comcast in 2007. "Through strong internal and external partnerships, and her relentless negotiation of large complex technology deals, she delivers the desired corporate results and savings", wrote Peter Kiriacoulacos, Chief Procurement Officer, Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal, on Comcast's corporate blog.

Grace Killelea, former senior vice president of talent at Comcast Cable, left the company to start her own executive coaching and speaking consulting business. Her firm, Philly-based Grace Killelea Consulting, counts Comcast among its initial clients. Killelea, who left Comcast in June after nine years there, oversaw Comcast's talent acquisition, talent management and diversity recruitment.

Also, Thomas J. Wlodkowski has joined Comcast Cable as Vice President of Accessibility. Wlodkowski will focus on enhancing the usability of Comcast's products and services for people with disabilities. He joins Comcast from AOL, where he had a similar role.

WVT Communications Group Appoints David J. Cuthbert as President (Marketwire)

Tonic Design Co. Announces New Managing Director
Former SVP, Marketing of Digitas Health and Co-founder of Cadient Group Joins Newtown-based Digital Marketing Agency
(Business Wire)


TE Connectivity Announces Key Management Changes and Provides Preliminary Third-Quarter Results (PRNewswire via Business Week)

UPS executive Romanella takes CEO job at UniTek Global Service (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Wingspan Names Kathie Clark as Director (Business Wire)

Janney Investment Banking Continues Expansion
Gregory Roth Joins Janney’s Technology and Media Group (Business Wire)


Cadient Group Hires Gabrielle Pastore to Lead Newly Formed Commercial Innovation Group (Philly Ad Club News)

Electronic Ink Welcomes Chris Britton to the Design Development Team (Electronic Ink Press Release)


LeadiD Adds Industry Veterans and Builds an All-Star Team (PR Web)




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Dell Targeting $5 Billion In Software Sales, Swainson Says (Bloomberg)

Comcast and the Future of Video
The TV marketplace is more than ready for deregulation (Holman Jenkins/Wall Street Journal)
Holman Jenkins raises some fundamental questions about Comcast's content+pipeline strategy.

phillytechnews twitterfeed 7/19/2012

phillytechnews: Daily Links 7/19/2012: Five Below raises $163 million in IPO; shares jump 56% http://t.co/Nkz9Iqob Posted: 19 Jul 2012 02:59 PM PDT phillytechnews: Daily Links 7/19/2012: Five Below raises $163 million in IPO; shares jump 56% http://t.co/Nkz9Iqob

phillytechnews: Five Below closes day up 56% Posted: 19 Jul 2012 02:41 PM PDT phillytechnews: Five Below closes day up 56%

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Daily Links 7/20/2012: DreamIt Ventures expands to Austin

Exclusive: Comcast Prepping 305 Mbps Tier To Counter Verizon's New Quantum FiOS Offerings (Broadband Reports)

NBCU combines news units, puts Pat Fili-Krushel in charge (paidContent)

Google Keeps Quiet on Plans for Moto (Light Reading Cable)

DreamIt Ventures Heads To Austin (TechCrunch)

Area venture investing falls off a cliff (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Five Below IPO a Home Run for Advent (and LLR Partners) (PE Hub)

How education startup Coursera may profit from free courses (Gigaom)
Not only is UPenn offering courses through Coursera, but this week it was announced that UPenn and Caltech would be equity investors in the online higher ed venture.

Universal Display agrees to $4M Plextronics OLED deal
Developer of organic LED materials and printed electronics specialist agree strategic alliance. (Optics.org)

Publicis Posts 2.8% First-Half Growth, and Maurice Levy Is Still Here (Ad Age)
Chaiman blamed a decline in the health-care sector, for which much of Publicis' presence is in the Philly area, for weak growth in North America.

Oracle Expands Project Management Offerings With Skire Acquisition (CRN)


Got the Next Great Idea? (New York Times)



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