Daily Links 4/24/2013: GE drops $105 mm into EMC/VMware cloud spinoff; Unisys plummets after earnings release

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Amazon: Hard luck Microsoft, AWS will always be cheaper
We're in the driving seat and the only way is down (The Register)

Pivotal’s Audacious Plan (New York Times: Bits)
GE invests $105 million (yes, thats right) in EMC/VMware cloud spinoff.

Salesforce.com seeks more advertising, marketing revenue from social (Gigaom)

Red ink flows in difficult first quarter for Unisys (Philly.com: Philly Inc)
Unisys shares are down 20% on the day.

Comcast: Unlicensed Spectrum Now Top Route to Web Access
Exec to Tell Senate to Do More to Free Up Spectrum (Multichannel News)

Here Comes Amazon's Kindle TV Set-Top Box (Bloomberg Business Week)

Harry Potter coming to Universal Studios Hollywood (LA Daily News)

NBCUniversal Celebrates New Digital Efforts (Hollywood Reporter)

Publicis Groupe to Spend $4 Billion on Acquisitions Over Next Five Years
Maurice Levy Says Small and Midsize Digital Firms Are Next Targets (Ad Age)


Smart-phone app for runners wins Villanova contests (Philadelphia Business Journal)




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Daily Links 4/23/2013: Comcast Ventures' Toth focused on B2B; Aereo on to Boston

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Q&A: Louis Toth backs B2B startups for Comcast Ventures (Silicon Valley Business Journal)

Aereo targets Comcast subscribers with Boston launch
Online video platform will debut in Beantown on May 30 (FierceCable)

Apple Returning $55 Billion to Investors as Forecast Trails (Bloomberg)
Had to doublecheck this headline to make sure a hacker hadn't gotten into Bloomberg's twitter feed. I half-expected Apple to give it to charity.


Feds seize Fisker loan reserve
Energy Dept. taps Fisker reserve on eve of loan payment (Wilmington News Journal)

Fab Is Raising A Mondo Round At A $1 Billion Valuation (TechCrunch)
First Round Capital was an early investor.

DailyWorth Raises Additional $1 Million For Series A (TechCrunch)
Although its based in New York, DailyWorth's founder and CEO Amanda Steinberg lives in Philly; Investors include Philadelphia's RobinHood Ventures and Gabriel Investments.

The InstaMed Healthcare Payments Account Revolutionizes the Way Providers Get Paid (Business Wire)

Infor Bets $500 Million On Enterprise App Refresh (Information Week)

Lockheed profit beats view; budget cuts hit sales outlook (Reuters)

Lockheed IS&GS unit has trimmed more than 650 employees this year
(Washington Post: Capital Business Blog)
Lockheed IS&GS has significant employment in King of Prussia.




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Daily Links 4/22/2013: Netflix leaps on quarterly results; CardioNet to become BioTelemetry

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As Time Warner Spins Off Magazines, Analysts Eye a Merger With CBS (Ad Age)

CBS Corp. Takes Minority Stake in Local TV Streaming Tech Firm Syncbak (Hollywood Reporter)

Netflix Jumps 18%: Q1 Revenue, EPS Beat; 2M Net Domestic Streaming Adds
(Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Netflix Subscriber Gains Exceed Estimates on Originals
(Bloomberg)

CardioNet, Inc. to Modify Business Structure in Support of Growth Strategy
Company to Change Name to BioTelemetry, Inc. (Business Wire)

Capital One posts solid quarterly earnings; former ING Direct said to be well positioned (Wilmington News Journal: Delaware Inc)

Deloitte local employment down 18% (Philadelphia Business Journal)

IDC: SAP and Oracle winners as software growth slows (PC World)


Upstart, A Site For Crowdfunding People, Raises $5.9M From First Round, Eric Schmidt, And Others (TechCrunch)

Thrown for a Curve in Rhode Island (New York Times)
Ongoing fallout from failure of Curt Schilling's 38 Studios.




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Philly Tech People News 4/21/2013: New CEO at Publicis' Rosetta; Loren Brichter 'helping' at Facebook

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Christopher L. Eisgruber named 20th president of Princeton University (News at Princeton)

Wharton Dean to Step Down Next Year (Bloomberg Business Week)

Digital Interactive Agency Rosetta Announces New CEO (Rosetta Currents)

Facebook 6.0 for iOS available, Loren Brichter 'helping' at Facebook (The Unofficial Apple Weblog)

Former Motorola exec Larry Robinson to run Arris Home Devices business
Marwan Fawaz to step down; vendor organizes solutions under Home Devices and Network & Cloud segments (FierceCable)

Comcast Cable Announces Promotions in Business Services and Communications & Data Services (Business Wire)

Comcast Promotes Greg Butz to Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing Operations for Comcast Cable (Business Wire)


NorthPoint Continues Expansion and Growth with Opening of Philadelphia Office (PR Web)

Sabre Appoints Mariano Alicea Jr. as Senior VP, Corporate Development (Sabre Systems Blog)

Xyntek Appoints Matt Thompson as Vice President of Sales (PR Newswire)




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SAP reports 13th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth as core applications lag but sales of Hana, cloud and mobile grow. (Information Week)

SAP and Microsoft: Frenemies with Benefits, But What’s in It for Customers? (ASUG News)

Economics Changing for Cable, Bundling Threatened: John Malone (CNBC)

Today in Philly Tech History 4/20/1971: Safeguard Scientifics begins trading on NYSE

On April 20, 1971 (42 years ago), Wayne-based Safeguard Scientifics (SFE) began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Safeguard has been in fairly unique company most of that time as a publicly listed VC firm.

Two years ago, on the 40th anniversary of its initial trading launch, Safeguard published a special website highlighting 40 facts about its company history.

Safeguard was founded in 1953.




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Daily Links 4/19/2013: SAP misses sales estimates, primarily on Asia

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SAP Software Sales Miss Estimates on Lower Demand in Asia
(Bloomberg)

SAP Co-CEO Upbeat Despite Lower Q1 Results (NASDAQ.com)

SAP co-CEO: Cloud computing business profitable (AP via Miami Herald)

Blackstone bails on Dell (Fortune)

IBM looks to sell its x86 server business to Lenovo as profits crash (Ars Technica)

IBM Down 8% on Q1 Miss: Business ‘Resilient,’ Bulls Insist (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Google Fiber Is World-Changing! Or Maybe Not. Or Both! (All Things D)

Shuttered Ad Tech Startup Team Lands at Intel’s Web TV Project (All Things D)

What are Comcast, Samsung and Time Warner Cable cooking up for The Cable Show? (FierceCable)


PHD Virtual Announces 40 Percent Year-Over-Year Growth With 12th Consecutive Record Quarter (Business Wire)




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Daily Links 4/18/2013: Zonoff raises $3.8 million; Mashery looks like good exit for First Round, others

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[Malvern-based]Zonoff gets $3.8M to connect the smart home with super software (Gigaom)

Mashery Sale Looks Promising for First Round, Formative, OpenView, Others (PE Hub)

Arris Unveils New Leadership Team
Former Head of Motorola Home Marwan Fawaz to Exit; Robinson and McClelland Tapped to Lead New Home Devices and Network & Cloud Units (Multichannel News)

Verizon posts gains on mobile, Fios growth (PC World)

Verizon Continues to Build FiOS TV, Internet Subs in Q1
Telco Adds 169,000 Video, 188,000 Broadband Customers in Period (Multichannel News)

Citing security concerns, Dish claims it's a better buyer for Sprint than Japanese carrier Softbank (The Verge)

SAP's first quarter: The key questions (PC World)

Philly Fed Disappoints as Indicators Point to Economic Rut (Reuters via CNBC)

Visit Philly Lets Locals Create Content (ClickZ)




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Daily Links 4/18/2013: Arris closes Motorola Home acquisition; Google Fiber coming to Provo

Arris Seals Up $2.35B Motorola Home Deal
Arris CEO Says Leadership Team of the Newly Combined Company will be Revealed Thursday
(Multichannel News)

Google Fiber coming to Provo's 'Silicon Slopes' (CNET News)
Provo already has fiber backbone, but Google will enhance it.

Twitter Said to Seek Deals With Viacom, NBC to Feature TV (Bloomberg)

Montco fires private investment-pickers (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

SAP users win bigger say in software development (ZDNet)

Intel Acquires API Manager Mashery (All Things D)
Investors included OpenView Venture Partners and First Round Capital; Comcast an important
customer.

Daily Links 4/16/2013: Broadcasters ask for new hearing on Aereo; Microsoft takes aim at Amazon Web Services

Public's views to be sought on Philly's Comcast cable pact (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Comcast says the free ride is over for basic cable — encryption is coming (VentureBeat)

Why Aereo Is/Isn’t a Big Deal (Zatz Not Funny!)

Broadcasters Ask for New Hearing in Aereo (Variety)

Microsoft Takes Aim at Amazon With a New Cloud Service
(New York Times: Bits)

Lots of new functionality/little elapsed time: Workday and Adaptive Planning updates (Brian Sommer/ZDNet)

Internet Ad Revenues Again Hit Record-Breaking Double-Digit Annual Growth, Reaching Nearly $37 Billion, a 15% Increase over 2011’s Landmark Numbers (PYMNTS.com)

How Wireless Carriers Monetize Your Movements (Mashable)

University City Science Center Accepting Nominations for Inaugural Innovators Walk of Fame (Business Wire)

Hackathon sponsors make rules developer friendly (Philadelphia Business Journal)

AGI Awarded IEEE Philadelphia Section Corporate Technology Innovation Award
The Company's Software Analyzes the Effects of Wind Farms on Radar Systems (Marketwire)


Efficient IP, SAS (Paris) announces Efficient IP, Americas
Efficient IP, Inc. (EIP Americas) will focus on sales and services throughout the Americas. (PR Newswire)

Daily Links 4/15/2013: Dish offers $25.5 billion for Sprint

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Dish offers $25.5B for Sprint, outbidding Softbank by $5B to become a wireless player (VentureBeat)

Verizon offers Clearwire $1.5 billion for spectrum leases, says WSJ (The Verge)

More Cracks Undermine the Citadel of TV Profits (New York Times)

How a Simple Press Release Reveals AT&T’s Anti-Competition Hypocrisy (Wired)


Seven Questions for Workday CEO and Greylock Partner Aneel Bhusri (All Things D)

Best Practices for SAP HANA Data Loads (John Appleby/SAP Community Network)
Probably more detail than most readers need, but I thought the description of the approach, process, and results was very interesting.

Why the cloud is threatened by unprofitability (USA Today)
Not sure if author truly understands cloud economics, accounting issues, long-term recurring revenue streams.

News organizations protest exclusion from Philadelphia bond meeting (Philadelphia Inquirer)
"Asked what might be said that would be inappropriate for the public to hear, Dubow declined to speculate, saying there wasn't enough space for reporters anyway."
Specious logic. They certainly could have reserved room for a small pool of reporters if
they had chosen to.

Blue Bell company fires CFO due to investigation
(Philadelphia Business Journal)

Government Shouldn’t Be In The Accelerator Business (FeldThoughts)

PANL[Ewing, NJ-based Universal Display]: Low TV Set Opportunity Offsets Mobile, Says Canaccord (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)



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