Daily Links 10/10/2012: UPenn Nursing-founded RightCare raises $1.75 million


Barclays Prepares First U.S. Card ABS Deal in Bid to Grow Funding (Dow Jones Newswires via Fox Business)

Barclays' US Card business is based in Wilmington.

Memo To Oracle, SAP: Listen To P&G's Language (Information Week)

HR Technology Conference: D’oh, the humanity! (SAP Watch)

DELL: Investors Underestimate Enterprise Prospects, Says UBS (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

RightCare Solutions Raises $1.75M Series A Financing Round (PR Newswire)
Built on research at UPenn's nursing school, RightCare was the winner of the 2012 Wharton Business Plan Competition.

A Quirk in Time Warner Cable’s New Modem Fee (New York Times: Bits)

Cisco, Humax & Technicolor Join Comcast's Crew (Light Reading Cable)

Sprint Said to Hold Off on MetroPCS Counterbid for Now (Bloomberg)

Business Rx: Advice on getting customers for suggestion box start-up (Washington Post)
On DreamIt Ventures Philly startup Betterific.

Philly: Lots of television and radio deals
Top-10 market is healthy but not tight (Media Life Magazine)

Federal Reserve’s ‘Beige Book’ shows economy growing (Philadelphia Inquirer)



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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (10/1/2012 to 10/7/2012)





Accenture completed its acquisition of Wayne-based Octagon Research Solutions late last month. I spoke with David Boath, North American managing director for Accenture’s Life Sciences industry group, about its post-acquisition plans for Octagon. With the completion of the deal, I updated Philly Tech News' "Young Companies to Watch", replacing Octagon with Wayne-based SkillSurvey.

SAP announced on Monday it had completed its $4.5 billion acquisition of Ariba, after announcing on Friday the deal had received Justice Department clearance.

Lockheed, which employs 9200 in the Philly area according to the Philadelphia Business Journal, got caught up (perhaps unavoidably) in a heated political controversey over whether employees should be issued layoff warnings under the WARN Act due to the threat of massive defense budget cuts that could occur by year end without a budget deal.

This past Sunday was the 60th anniversary of the awarding of a patent for the barcode
to two Drexel graduate students.

In news from other sources, the Inquirer wrote about the end of Sunoco as an independent entity, and its legacy in Philadelphia. Redbox announced it would begin selling tickets from kiosks, beginning in Philadelphia, and partnering with Comcast-Spectacor's New Era Tickets. Exton-based iPipeline hired Philly native and former SAP and Ariba executive Paul Melchiorre as President.


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phillytechnews twitter feed 10/8/2012




Posted: 08 Oct 2012 02:39 PM PDT
phillytechnews: New PTN Post: InterDigital has moved corporate headquarters from King of Prussia to Wilmington http://t.co/mvCVjBD4
Posted: 08 Oct 2012 01:03 PM PDT
phillytechnews: Wanderfly is sort of a Pinterest for travel
Posted: 08 Oct 2012 12:58 PM PDT
phillytechnews: TripAdvisor buys NY-based Wanderfly, with Wharton founders, MentorTech funding http://t.co/xq6QNYqM
Posted: 08 Oct 2012 12:32 PM PDT
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Daily Links 10/9/2012: Workday raises IPO price range; ThingWorx raises Series C




Workday raises IPO price range to $24-$26 per share (Reuters)
Workday is an upstart Cloud competitor to SAP and others. If it prices in the middle of its range, Workday's initial market value would be $4 billion.

ThingWorx Raises Series C to Capitalize on Connected World Growth (Business Wire)

Inverness Graham Investments Announces a Controlled Recapitalization of RACO Wireless (Business Wire)
Inverness Graham Investments is based in Newtown Square.


Cisco rounds out SAP HANA server, appliance line-up (ZDNet)

SuccessFactors announces Headlines analytics software (SAP Watch)

Box announces partnership with SAP to promote better mobile and cloud security (The Next Web)

U.S. Panel Cites Risks in Chinese Equipment (New York Times)

First Round Capital Launches A Platform For Startups To Hack PR (TechCrunch)

Announcing hackPR – a New Way for Startups and the Press to Connect (Redeye VC)

Amazon Proves It Is Ready To Spend Massive Amounts Of Money To Destroy Hulu And Netflix (AMZN, NFLX) (Silicon Alley Insider)

Walmart Gives Same-Day Delivery a Shot in Four Cities (All Things D)
Philadelphia is one of them.

NBC regroups under Comcast with new cuts, spending (AP)

NBC News Shakes Up Management Team, New EP at ‘Rock Center’ (MediaBistro: TVNewser)

Governor Corbett Visits Award-Winning Ben Franklin TechVentures2 Business Incubator; Praises Impact on Job Creation in the Northeast
(PR Newswire)




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InterDigital has moved corporate headquarters from King of Prussia to Wilmington





Tom Paine

InterDigital's Delaware Headquarters

InterDigital has moved its corporate headquarters from King of Prussia to Wilmington, Delaware, Philly Tech News has learned.

In an 8-K filing with the SEC in late August, InterDigital, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDCC) said it had changed the "Address of Principal Executive Offices" from King of Prussia to Wilmington. Most of its corporate press releases are now datelined out of Wilmington, and its website lists Wilmington as its corporate headquarters. InterDigital develops patentable technology for advanced wireless communications.

In April, InterDigital announced it was seeking a $1.05 million grant from the Delaware Strategic Fund to open an office in Delaware employing 74 people. At the time, Patrick Van de Wille, InterDigital’s senior director of public relations and corporate communications, told the Philadelphia Business Journal that moving InterDigital’s headquarters from King of Prussia to Delaware “hasn’t been discussed."

In 2011, InterDigital said it would seek to auction itself to the highest bidder and its stock soared for a while, but bids were below expectations and InterDigital called off the auction in January of this year. InterDigital sold a portion of its patent portfolio to Intel for $375 million in June. The company has a current market value of $1.55 billion. InterDigital was founded, originally as International Mobile Machines Corporation, in 1972 in Philadelphia.

This latest move doesn't necessarily mean (as far as I know) that InterDigital, which at last report had 330 employees, will be reducing its King of Prussia presence. The company originally said its Delaware office would have a legal emphasis, which makes sense given the state's importance in corporate law. In 2011, InterDigital also opened an R&D office in San Diego, in an effort to attract more west coast engineering talent.

I asked Van de Wille by email to comment, but have not received a response.

Update: InterDigital spokesperson Patrick Van de Wille responded: "We recently made it [Wilmington] our corporate headquarters given the relocation of most of our corporate functions there, including the CEO’s and CFO’s offices. We continue to have research and engineering functions in King of Prussia, in addition to Long Island NY, Montreal and San Diego."



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Daily Links 10/8/2012: Avoid Huawei, Congressional committee recommends





Burned by the US, Huawei responds by comparing itself to a Silicon Valley startup (PandoDaily)

Cable prices not out of whack, a la carte won't work, analyst says (LA Times: Company Town)
I find this analysis very sketchy. While its true that programming costs are rising (something that Comcast should partially offset through its own rights and retrans fees), technology should be driving some costs down. Comcast's capex costs are actually declining.

Comcast trademarks DOWNLOAD2GO for mobile video product (FierceCable)

Why HP should be broken up (Financial Post)

Hacking food, deliciously, with Ordr.in’s API (now expanded to NYC, Philly and Boston) (PandoDaily)

SAP debuts HANA ad campaign (BtoB Magazine)

Higher Education Firm TargetX Wins 2012 Informatica 'Cloudy Award' as Top OEM Partner (PR Newswire)

Kenexa Introduces Fall Lineup of New Business Solutions
Investment in Innovation Enhances the Company’s Offering in the HR Space (Business Wire)



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Bar code patent issued 60 years ago today to Drexel researchers





Tom Paine

Illustration from original bar code  patent
The first patent for a bar code was issued to Drexel researchers Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver on this day 60 years ago (October 7, 1952). Woodland and Silver began working on the concept as graduate students in 1948, and filed the patent application in 1949. By 1951 Woodland had moved to IBM, where he tried to encourage development of the patent. IBM was not interested in that at the time but did offer to buy the patent, but was turned down. Philco later purchased the patent in 1962 and then sold it to RCA.

Silver later taught physics at Drexel but died in 1963 at the age of 38. Woodland, who just turned 91, later had a role in helping IBM implement the bar code.


The bar code did not come into widespread commercial use until the mid-1970s. IBM and the supermarket industry led efforts to develop standards, and with the invention of Uniform Product Code (U.P.C) in 1973, the use of bar codes in supermarkets first began in 1974.

This infographic published by a bar code technology firm gives a short version of the bar code's history.



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Philly Tech People News 10/7/2012




EMR Medical Device Connectivity Leader Nuvon Appoints Christopher Gatti as CEO (Business Wire)

C&D Technologies Names Christian Rheault as President & CEO (PR Newswire)

Former Disney Exec Paul Yanover Takes Over As Fandango’s New President (TechCrunch)

NBC News Appoints Executive Editors for Websites
New web team will head editorial efforts for NBCNews.com, Today.com and MSNBC.com
(Broadcasting & Cable)

LeSage Promoted to NBC Owned Stations' Digital SVP (Broadcasting & Cable)

Cigna Attorney Neil Tanner of Wyncote Named 2013 Eisenhower Fellow (Business Wire)

Empathy Lab expands its talent pool with new hires, promotions (Philly Ad Club News)

Geek of the Week: Caroline Bean, Director of Social Media @ GPTMC (Geekadelphia)





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SAP’s thin skin (Vinnie Mirchandani/Deal Architect)

Come On, Comcast… You’ve Gotta Be Better Than This
(TechCrunch)


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Updating Philadelphia's "Young Companies to Watch"





Tom Paine

I've updated Philly Tech News' "Young Companies to Watch" by removing Octagon Research Solutions after the completion of its acquisition by Accenture, which I wrote about here: (Accenture completes acquisition of Octagon Research Solutions; will be "fully integrated"). Although I don't know how much Accenture paid for it, Octagon was at the top of my list based on a rough estimate of potential market value.

To replace Octagon, I've added SkillSurvey of Wayne. Founded in 2001, SkillSurvey has been a pioneer in automating web-based reference-checking in the employment application process. According to a Bloomberg article earlier this year, the company said last year’s revenue was $9.5 million and this year's should be more than $14 million. SkillSurvey has raised $5.7 million from investors including Milestone Venture Partners and Inflection Point Ventures. It is probably a good M&A candidate giving the consolidation going on now in the talent management space.



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phillytechnews twitter feed 10/3/2012




Posted: 04 Oct 2012 08:03 AM PDT
phillytechnews: Daily Links 10/3/2012: Redbox to begin ticket sales in Philly, partnering with Comcast-Spectacor's New Era Tickets http://t.co/gyEWAGvC
Posted: 04 Oct 2012 07:40 AM PDT
phillytechnews: RT @arcangelfund: ARC founding partner @DJFresch welcoming a full house at @EarlyStageEast in Philly http://t.co/jiS4QIXt
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