Daily Links 8/31/2012: Bill McDermott talks to Churchill Club

SAP’s McDermott Says Call From Jobs Confirmed Tablet Push (Bloomberg)

SAP's Bill McDermott: We'll Have A Billion Users By 2015 (Eric Savitz/Forbes)


McDermott at Churchill Club (Video)




Workday Discloses Finances, Plans for Founders’ Control (Wall Street Journal: Digits)

IPO-Bound Workday Said to Win Contract for Google’s HR Systems (Bloomberg)

Saba Software Extends Rally; The Next Cloud Target? (Eric Savitz/Forbes)

With Google Fiber Sign-Ups Behind Schedule, Google Lowers Pre-Registration Thresholds (TechCrunch)

Serial Entrepreneur Bob Moul shares about Philly's burgeoning tech-startup scene (Video: Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce)

First Round Capital Opens Portfolio Company Services to the Community with +Startup Series, Starting with Design (PandoDaily)



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More views on IBM-Kenexa deal

Tom Paine

I'm trying to dig in and get a more complete picture of IBM's $1.3 billion acquisition of Wayne-based Kenexa, announced on Monday, and the plans for it going forward.

What it is not: despite some media reports, I do not see it as IBM acquiring a technologically superior Cloud or SaaS platform through which it can expand into other verticals beyond talent management. SAP acquired SuccessFactors partially for that purpose, but I doubt Kenexa's overall technology (or technology leadership) is good enough to play the same role for IBM.

What Kenexa and its CEO Rudy Karsan are recognized for is providing thought leadership and superior services in the talent management space, particular around recruiting and talent assessment. But it is a company that has always, in my view, led with a consultative emphasis with technology following, rather than the other way around. That is not necessarily a negative, since Kenexa has usually achieved a solid understanding of customer needs before seeking out technology solutions for them. But it has resulted in Kenexa having many pieces of technology gained through acquisitions spread about in different places rather than being integrated around one platform.

In announcing the acquisition, IBM emphasized Kenexa's potential as a "social business" tool, but in fact Kenexa is not a highly social solution today. This is where IBM hopes to be transformative. Kenexa will become part of IBM Collaboration Solutions (formerly Lotus), IBM's core social enterprise business run by General Manager Alistair Renee, while also working closely with IBM's Global Process Services unit. Thematically, Kenexa fits into IBM's concept of creating a "smarter workforce". IBM apparently also aims to pitch talent management solutions more directly to the CEO function rather than to HR, as has usually been the case.

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Daily Links 8/30/2012: Workday files for $400 million IPO

InterDigital CEO Says Apple-Samsung Case Providing Boost (Bloomberg)

Comcast Said Near U.S. Approval To Encrypt Basic-Cable Signals (Bloomberg)

Comcast's Set-Top Accelerator Gains Traction (Light Reading Cable)

Why Google is going to sell Motorola’s set-top box biz (Gigaom)

Employee-Software Company Workday Files For $400 Million IPO (Bloomberg)

Funding Your Company via the Wharton Network (Wharton Entrepreneurship Blog)

Amazon.com to begin collecting Pa. sales tax (AP via Reading Eagle)
Beginning Saturday.



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Daily Links 8/29/2012: Razorfish Health merges with Publicis Healthware; Google said to hire banker to sell Motorola Home

Philly-based Razorfish Health in merger with Publicis Healthware (Medical Marketing & Media)

Google Said To Hire Barclays To Sell Motorola’s Home Business (Bloomberg)

Comcast-Spectacor hasn’t spoken with Kings at all, arena project barely off the ground (NBC Sports)

The arena: impressions of a presentation (Virginian-Pilot)

Why The Cable Companies Aren't Screwed (Silicon Alley Insider)

Why Time Warner Cable’s NYC fiber rollout is nothing like Google’s (Gigaom)

Internal Oracle Document Details HCM Software Strategy Plans (PC World)

Ariba Shareholders Approve Acquisition by SAP (PR Newswire)
Companies say regulatory approval, deal closure anticipated in 4th quarter.

New SAP Software Gives Customers '360-degree' Insight Into IT Environments (PC World)


Dash for a Good Cause: How Business Intelligence Transformed My Daughter’s Fundraiser (Derek Loranca/The Decision Factor)
Derek P. Loranca is a Philly area resident who works for a Fortune 100 corporation as a BI Specialist. He is also active in the SAP BI community.

Wendy Warren leaves Philly.com for NBCWashington.com (Poynter)


How Technology has Changed, One National Geographic at a Time (John Gelhard/CarrierBid Communications)
John Gelhard is a principal of Philly-based telecom consultant CarrierBid Communications.

Aetna, eviti Launch a Decision Support Program to Make Cancer Care More Effective and Efficient (Business Wire)
eviti is based in Philadelphia.


Federal Reserve Board Beige Book: Philadelphia, August 29, 2012 (Federal Reserve Board)



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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (8/20/2012 to 8/26/2012)

SAP co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe said in an interview with a German newspaper last week that "further acquisitions are possible", a comment that set off alarms for some because similar comments from him in the past have preceded major SAP buys. However, this time he specified that no particular deal was in the pipeline right now, and it seems unlikely to me that SAP would try to pull something else off until the Ariba deal is settled.

The proxy battle over NextGen Healthcare parent Quality Systems ended with what appears to be a partial victory for dissident shareholder Ahmed Hussein, as he and NextGen Healthcare founder and former Quality President Patrick Cline were elected to the board. Former NextGen President Scott Decker announced he was leaving the company. It was not clear whether the timing of the departure of Decker was related to the proxy battle. Electronic health records vendor NextGen, which is based in Horsham, constitutes most of Quality Systems' business.

Inc. Magazine released its annual Inc. 5000 report, and the top Philly metro companies are shown here. Leading the way are Leadnomics (Philadelphia), Accolade (Plymouth Meeting), and WebiMax (Mount Laurel).

Fallout continued from Comcast's layoffs at NBC's Tonight Show and Jay Leno's pay cut, which created a bit of a chill over the classic car market. Comcast won a stay from the US Court of Appeals' DC Circuit delaying enforcement of the FCC's order that the cable operator place the Tennis Channel on the same tier as the Comcast-owned Golf Channel and NBC Sports Network. And a story broke that Comcast-Spectacor and Live Nation were making a proposal that Virginia Beach build a new arena with the supposed promise of an NBA team (the Kings, it was rumored), though Comcast-Spectacor denied in a statement that any specific pro team was lined up. The proposal to Virginia Beach's City Council was to be made today.

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Harrisburg Patriot-News to go to three days per week print schedule; Are Advance Publications' NJ papers next?

Tom Paine

Advance Publications is expanding its transition to a three days per week print schedule for its newspaper properties. The new format, which Advance first initiated at a Michigan paper and then expanded to Alabama and New Orleans, is now being rolled out to Harrisburg and Syracuse.

The Harrisburg Patriot-News and Advance's online arm in Pennsylvania, PennLive.com, will form one organization, PA Media Group, and the company will change its print schedule to three days a week beginning in January 2013, the Patriot-News announced today. "At the same time, the organization will intensify its online and digital news-gathering efforts 24 hours a day, seven days a week", the Patriot-News says. A print edition will continue to be published on Sundays and the other two editions will be "on the scale of the current Sunday editions". Sunday circulation has fallen from 176,000 in 1992 to 118,000 today, and daily circulation has taken a similar plunge, according to the paper. A similar announcement was made today by the Syracuse Post-Standard.

No word yet from Advance's New Jersey group, which includes the Newark Star-Ledger, The Times of Trenton, and the NJ.com website, but it would not be surprising if they were the next to fall.

Obviously, with few exceptions the newspaper industry business model is still trying to find a bottom.

A personal note: as a child I delivered Advance Publications' flagship paper, the Staten Island Advance, and the Star-Ledger.



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Daily Links 8/28/2012: News from VMworld

Unisys Rolls Out Updated Private Cloud Solution (CRN)

Devon IT Selected By Acer As Software Provider For Its New Line Of Thin Client Solutions (Press Release)

VMworld shows a VMware in flux (Gigaom)



Active in Cloud, Amazon Reshapes Computing (New York Times)

Time Warner Cable Boosts New York Speeds as Google Project Looms (Bloomberg)
Don't really consider this comparable to Google Fiber, as that project is consumer-oriented and TWC's is business-oriented. Comcast has done a couple of limited buildouts like this in small parts of certain cities (Boston, Seattle, I believe), but don't know if they have anything planned for Philly.

Comcast's ThePlatform Opens Window On Video Storefronts
Commerce Extension for MPX Enables Multiscreen Transactional Content Purchases (Multichannel News)

ESPN shells out $5.6 billion to keep Major League Baseball (LA Times: Company Town)
Double ESPN's previous deal per annum. We (consumers) will pick up most of the tab through ever increasing cable prices. NBC still looking to get foot in MLB door.

Takeaways from three years of angel investing (Gabriel Weinberg's Blog)

phillytechnews twitter feed 8/26 to 8/27/2012

phillytechnews: @Support Every time I try to use your new reply format, my browser hangs (Safari). Wish you would fix this. Posted: 27 Aug 2012 03:46 PM PDT phillytechnews: @Support Every time I try to use your new reply format, my browser hangs (Safari). Wish you would fix this.

phillytechnews: Daily Links 8/27/2012: Dark days at The Tonight Show http://t.co/OSv3VsMc Posted: 27 Aug 2012 03:30 PM PDT phillytechnews: Daily Links 8/27/2012: Dark days at The Tonight Show http://t.co/OSv3VsMc

phillytechnews: Comcast-Spectacor, Live Nation to present to Va Beach City Council tomorrow http://t.co/j7nkyhZO Posted: 27 Aug 2012 02:45 PM PDT phillytechnews: Comcast-Spectacor, Live Nation to present to Va Beach City Council tomorrow http://t.co/j7nkyhZO

phillytechnews: PTN Post: IBM to acquire Wayne-based Kenexa for $1.3 billion http://t.co/HgQzac1I

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IBM to acquire Wayne-based Kenexa for $1.3 billion

Tom Paine

Wayne-based Kenexa, one of the Philadelphia area's largest software as a service (SaaS) vendors, announced this morning it had agreed to be acquired by IBM for slightly less than $1.3 billion. That represents a 42% premium over its closing price on Friday.

Founded in 1987 by Chairman & CEO Rudy Karsan and others, Kenexa began primarily as a consulting and staffing firm helping its corporate clients manage their recruiting processes. Kenexa did not start off as a technology provider but evolved into one through internal development and numerous acquisitions. Although it later exited the staffing business, consulting services are still an important part of its overall offering. Kenexa completed its IPO in 2005. In 2011 it had revenue of $283 million and a net loss of $7 million. Kenexa has about 2,800 employees and about 8,900 customers.

The IBM-Kenexa deal follows a series of M&A transactions in the Human Capital Management (HCM) SaaS space, as SAP acquired SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion, Oracle acquired Taleo for $1.9 billion, and Salesforce acquired a smaller firm named Rypple, around which it is building its Work.com platform to be introduced next month at Dreamforce. Also, emerging powerhouse Workday is planning an IPO later this year. Kenexa, however, is not the same kind of animal as most of these, as it strengths are still in the talent acquisition (recruitment) and onboarding areas, although it has broadened its portfolio. Taleo is probably its most comparable major competitor.

While IBM emphasized in its announcement the "social business" aspects of Kenexa's platform, and many of the media accounts picked up that theme, I wouldn't really think of Kenexa as being a big social play right now though I'm sure its trying to move in that direction.



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Daily Links 8/27/2012: Dark days at The Tonight Show

Acer Enters Thin Client Market With New Veriton N Series Enabling Flexible and Efficient Virtualization (Marketwire)
Incorporates technology from Devon IT as part of offerings.

Verizon Avoids FiOS TV Injunction
(Light Reading Cable)

'The Tonight Show' experiences dark days
The NBC program starring Jay Leno suffers a ratings slide and layoffs amid instability in the TV business — and after network missteps. And the stakes are rising. (LA Times)

After meeting with Apple execs, analyst expects no television solution any time soon (Fortune Tech)

Assessing Virginia Beach as a suitor of the Sacramento Kings (Sacramento Bee)
Comcast-Spectacor to present to Virginia Beach City Council tomorrow.


Thoma Bravo Buys Software Company Deltek For $1.1 Billion (Bloomberg)


PANL: Samsung Jury Defeat Negative, Says Canaccord; Goldman Defends (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

A Comparison between Pacific Crest’s 2011 and 2012 SaaS Survey Results (Trident Capital Blog)

PA eHealth Collaborative Announces $6 Million in Grants to Advance Electronic Exchange of Health Information (PR Newswire)

Virtua Reaches Major Milestone in Multi-entity Health System IT Adoption
Using Siemens embedded, workflow-driven, enterprise health IT solutions, Virtua clinicians are electronically managing patient care orders and the complete care process. (PR Newswire)



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Philly Tech People News 8/26/2012

Empathy Lab Expands Digital Leadership Team to Support Business Consulting Growth
Industry Luminary, Valeria Maltoni joins Empathy Lab as Senior Director of Strategy (PR Web)

Electronic Ink Welcomes Gareth Pryce as Vice President of Client Strategy (Electronic Ink Press Release)

Rob Hoevens Joins Longview Solutions as Executive Vice President, International (Marketwire)

Arkieva Appoints Three New Managers in Expansion of Its Marketing and Sales Staff (Business Wire)

LeadiD Hires Tom Shriver to Accelerate Its Growth in the Insurance Lead Space
Tom Shriver Joins LeadiD as SVP Sales to Bring Quality, Confidence and Trust to Insurance Carriers and Lead Providers (PR Web)




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