Daily Links 12/3/2012: Blackstone LaunchPad expands to Philadelphia, puts up $3M





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Blackstone LaunchPad expands to Philadelphia, puts up $3M for student entrepreneurship (Newsworks)
Blackstone LaunchPad Press Release

Telling the Story of PHL (Also Known as Philadelphia) (New York Times)


Loren Brichter: Designs on the future of iOS apps
(Gigaom)
Back in Philly from California.

SAP Clings To A Dated Cloud Apps Strategy (Doug Henschen/InformationWeek)

Why VMware is spinning off Cloud Foundry and SpringSource (Gigaom)

Morgan Lewis on both sides of HP disaster? UPDATE (Philly.com: Philly Deals)



Rocky Road for Rodale Inc.
Gunning for New E-Commerce Amid Executive Departures
(Ad Age)
Rodale is based in Emmaus, PA.

FTS Acquires Dependable Payment Processing and Discount Payment Processing (Business Wire)
FTS is based in King of Prussia.



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Philly Tech News VentureWatch 12/3/2012: 5 startups report new funding



Tom Paine


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InsPro Technologies, the Eddystone-based Insurance SaaS provider I recently profiled, has raised $1.5 million out of a proposed $3 million offering, according to a recent SEC filing. CEO Robert Oakes had told me the company would be raising one more round that should get it over the hump, funding wise, and this apparently is it. Past investors have included Cross Atlantic Capital Partners and Independence Blue Cross.

Xtium, the King of Prussia-based Cloud Services provider, has raised another $2 million. Xtium raised a $11.5 million Series A round of funding from Boston-based OpenView Venture Partners last year.

Southampton-based Smart Structures, Inc., which provides wireless Embedded Data Collector (EDC) solutions to monitor the integrity of concrete foundations, has raised $210,000 of a proposed $2 million offering. Smart Structures had previously raised about $2.3 million, according to SEC filings. Previous investors have included Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware Crossing Investor Group, and Emergent Growth Fund.

Philadelphia-based PHmHealth LLC has raised $175,000 of a $750,000 offering. PHmHealth says its platform allows home health care providers to check in through its NFC-enabled app verifying the visit and uploading the collected data to a secure cloud-based server.

Glen Mills-based Versify Solutions, which markets an energy usage management and trading platform, has raised $406,000 out of a total offering of $500,000. Versify had previously raised at least $2.3 million.
Past investors have included Fairbridge Venture Partners and Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania.




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Phillly Tech People News 12/2/2012: Fisker Hires Former GM Marketing Boss; Mark Harrington joins ListenLogic






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Moritz Upped to VP of Communications, Digital and Integrated Media for NBCU's E&DN/IM Division
Will lead communications for Integrated Media group; gains oversight of DailyCandy, Fandango, TV Without Pity
(Broadcasting & Cable)

Fisker Hires Former GM Marketing Boss Ewanick (Wall Street Journal: Driver's Seat)

Half.com, Ecount Veteran Joins Social Intelligence Pioneer ListenLogic
Mark Harington joins ListenLogic executive team as CMO to drive marketing and strategy.
(PR Web)

Rajant Names Hank Ottey Chief Engineer – Sales & Support Services (Business Wire)

DBA Technologies Returns to Its Roots, Heads Home to Doylestown (Marketwire)

Cadient Group adds two senior managers (Philly Ad Club News)

Electronic Ink Welcomes Reggie Murphy as Principal Consultant (Electronic Ink)



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Daily Links 11/30/2012: More on HP's Autonomy debacle





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Insight: How a desperate HP suspended disbelief for Autonomy deal (Reuters UK)

M&A The HP Way – Why the Autonomy deal was doomed, and what can’t be done to save HP (Josh Greenbaum/Enterprise Irregulars)

SaaS now replacing legacy apps as well as extending them, Gartner says (Computerworld UK)

One-Third Of SAP's Sales Are Now Through The Channel (CRN)

Unisys unveils new cloud application migration service (CloudPro)

NBCU gets some love from Wall Street: Retrans and network turnaround shift sentiment (Variety)


Scoop: Key pricing and launch details of Redbox Instant revealed
(Gigaom)

Network Giants Argue In Appeals Court: Aereo Should Be Treated Like A Cable Company (TechCrunch)
First Round Capital was a seed investor in Aereo.

GE Plans Silicon Valley Venture Stakes Along With Hiring (Bloomberg)

MetroPCS Climbs After Analyst Says Sprint May Counterbid (Bloomberg)

Google Acquires Shopping Locker Service BufferBox (All Things D)
Small potatoes, but interesting as a clue to Google's e-commerce ambitions. Competes with Amazon, Conshohocken-based ShopRunner.




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Daily Links 11/29/2012: Zucker named CNN President; Cable Biz Services revenues continue to soar





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The Series A crunch is hitting now. Have we even noticed? (PandoDaily)

CNN Names Jeff Zucker President
(Ad Age)

Workday Posts Strong Start As Public Firm
Workday post-IPO financial results exceed expectations and it sets lofty goals for market share gains against Oracle and SAP.
(Information Week)

AWS fattens EC2 cloud for big data, in-memory munching
Data Pipeline service links data sources, automates chewing and spitting
(The Register)

Analyst, SAP dispute over reported support discounts reveals murky picture (Computerworld)


Accenture Acquires Octagon Research Solutions as Competition Heats Up in Pharma (HfS Research via Octagon Research website)

Cable's Cut of the Biz Services Pie to Eclipse $7B (Light Reading Cable)

Rajant Teams with Northrop Grumman for Exclusive Distribution Rights for a Series of Risk-Reduction Exercises in the U.S. Army Network Integration Evaluations (NIE) (Business Wire)


Carter Validus Buys Philly Enterprise Data Center (Data Center Knowledge)
The data center is under long-term lease to Vanguard, the Business Journal reports.

Nine Mercer County tech firms win aid (Times of Trenton)

Instem Releases New Version of OmniViz Data Mining and Visual Analytics Software (Business Wire)




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Highlights last week on Philly Tech News (11/19/2012 to 11/25/2012)





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Posts from Philly Tech News:

Eddystone-based InsPro Technologies is the latest high growth insurance software company in the Philly area, having just been named to the Deloitte Fast 500 as #140. I spoke with CEO Robert Oakes.

The Neat Company opened an additional office location in Center City that could eventually house 140 more employees. I spoke with CMO Kevin Garton about Neat's commitment to Philadelphia, among other things.

Retirement plan administration managers Ascensus (Dresher) and ExpertPlan (East Windsor) agreed to merge. The larger partner, Ascensus, cited the value of ExpertPlan's web-enabled technology platform.

I looked at the changing relative fortunes of SAP and HP over the past two years.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners announced it was investing $1.5 million in eight early stage companies.

In news from other sources, HP took a $5 billion writedown from its $11 billion acquisition of Autonomy two years ago, claiming accounting malfeasance. Former Automomy CEO & founder Mike Lynch strongly disputed HP's allegations. Black Friday sales surpassed $1 billion online for the first time, according to comScore data. Comcast's NBC won the November ratings sweeps for the first time in nine years.




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Daily Links 11/28/2012: Workday signs on DuPont; Roberts in group meeting with President





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Jeff Zucker Nearing Deal to Run CNN (Report) (Hollywood Reporter)

Comcast's Roberts Among Execs Talking Budget With President (Broadcasting & Cable)

Va Beach/Kings/Arena Details worked out (WAVY)
Comcast-Spectacor would co-manage arena. More funding from state sought.

Humax's take on an IP-connected TV box for Comcast passes through the FCC
(Engadget)

Workday Sales Beat Estimates on Corporate Cloud-Computing Demand (Bloomberg)

Workday’s First Earnings Report Beats the Street (All Things D)

SAP Predictive Analytics goes GA, with a visual twist (SAP Watch)


Google buys Cambridge online marketing firm (Boston Globe)
This one's for real.

New SevOne appliance ratchets up the density
(Computerworld)

Tierney vs. Tierney: What's in a name? (Philadelphia Daily News)

Red Tettemer’s Annual Facebook Swag-athon Commences (MediaBistro: Agency Spy)

Amazon Supply: Changing the Face of MRO? (Spend Matters)

U.S. Federal Reserve Beige Book: Philadelphia District (Text) (via Bloomberg)
"The overall outlook appears less optimistic relative to the views expressed in the last Beige Book."




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Philly Tech TidBits 11/27/2012: Lehigh Valley Tech gets new look; Coworking grows in burbs & more



Tom Paine


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Lehigh Valley Tech, the hyperactive organization behind Lehigh Valley Tech Meetup, the recent Lehigh Valley Startup Weekend and other events and activities in that area, has received a rebranding and new look courtesey of Philadelphia branding agency At Media. The agency launched its "Brand Refresher" contest in June, and Lehigh Valley Tech was the winner out of over 100 applicants. At Media provided a new logo and business card design, as well as an ample supply of business cards.

Lehigh Valley Tech's original homemade logo emphasized the transition from the area's steel industry legacy. The new logo retained some of the old color scheme including Bethlehem Steel's trademark International Orange shade, but aims to present a more modernistic and forward looking appearance.

Lehigh Valley Tech's old (left) and new (right) logos

Lehigh University launched a new professional master's program in technical entrepreneurship this spring. The one year program, which utlizes many assets within the University's ecosystem, is designed to be more relevant to students with an entrepreurial bent who otherwise might leave school altogether to go it alone. The inaugural class has 15 students, and Lehigh's goal is to grow enrollment to 30. Also, Lehigh's Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation has opened a new Creativity and Innovation Lab, including 3-D printers, power tools, routers, modeling clay and plastic parts. Presumably Lehigh has these types of tools within its Engineering school but the new resources and lab space are dedicated to the Baker Institute. Since the launch of the Baker Institute in 2010, enrollment in entrepreneurship courses at the University has grown from 193 to 524 students.

Reworkwc Interior

Coworking is expanding in the burbs. Reworkwc, founded by Tom Hudzina, opened a few months ago in downtown West Chester. Also in downtown West Chester is Central Casting, a private (not open to the public) shared coworking setup between what member John Young describes as "four programmers and a seamstress sharing a lease". Young also said they learned alot from Philly's Indy Hall. "We think Indy Hall is great -- one of the best coworking space(s) in the country. Alex Hillman has his head in the right place, and he knows perfectly well that the hard part, and the important part, is community," Young wrote in an email to me.

Skylight Coworking opened early this month in the center of Phoenixville, which is just west of King of Prussia. Individually owned and operated by founder Shannon Coghlan, Skylight features 2,000 square feet, a conference room and kitchen. Skylight is also building an events schedule, including its "Geeks with Talent" show on January 24.



I've provided a helpful map for those who get lost beyond City Line Avenue.




View REWORKWC in a larger map





NextFab Studio, Philly's high tech prototyping workshop, is in the process of relocating from its original 3711 Market Street location to a larger facility at 2025 Washington Avenue. The old location closed to the public on November 15, and the new place is scheduled to open to the public on December 29, with a grand opening party on January 17. The Washington Avenue space will be five times larger than its space at 3711 Market.





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Daily Links 11/27/2012: Time for Oracle to buy HP?; Comcast's Syfy bets big on 'Defiance'





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Time for Oracle to buy HP? (Uneasy Empires)

Autonomy founder's open letter to HP demands a lot of answers (ZDNet)

OS/2 a quarter century on: Why IBM lost out and how Microsoft won (The Register)

Salesforce.com Revenues Surge, But Should You Ignore Losses? (Information Week)

Amazon’s dead serious about the enterprise cloud (Gigaom)

With 'Defiance,' Comcast's Syfy Bets $100M On Convergence Of TV And Videogames (Forbes)

Cyber Monday was biggest online sales day ever, with 30 percent growth (San Jose Mercury News)

Bentley’s Pivot from a Product to a “Hybrid” Services Company (Directions Magazine: All Points Blog)




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Daily Links 11/26/2012: First Round Capital launches new holiday e-commerce website for portfolio companies





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First Round Capital Rounds Up E-Commerce Deals From Its Portfolio Companies On New Website (TechCrunch)

NBCUniversal and DirecTV near new distribution deal
(LA Times: Company Town)

NBC, Verizon Strike TV Everywhere Deal
Deal covers TV stations, cable nets and the Internet
(Broadcasting & Cable)

Why the Cost of Sales Gap is Shrinking between SaaS and Legacy Software Vendors (Sandhill.com)

Michael Hinkelman: Green and powerful (Philadelphia Daily News)
Viridity Energy's Audrey Zibelman.

SAP Moves Upstream (IDC Insights: Intelligent Oil & Gas)

NextGen Healthcare and Microsoft Corp. Join to Deliver Consumer-Based Healthcare Information Technology Solution
New Mobile Application Designed for Windows 8 Platform
(Business Wire)


Will Surescripts Become De facto NwHIN? (Chilmark Research)
NextGen Healthcare partners with Surescripts for its open HIE solution.

Bright House Buys Telovations (Multichannel News)

Sprint launches 11 new LTE markets; maintains small-city focus
(Gigaom)
Philly said to be on the list to launch in a few months.

IBM and Google to Discuss the Future of the Cloud at Wharton BizTech Technology Conference (PR Web)



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