Daily Links 5/30/2012: Dalgaard Joins Andreessen Horowitz As General Partner

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Workday takes on SAP and Oracle with payroll plans for UK, France
(ZDNet)

SuccessFactors Founder And SAP Exec Lars Dalgaard Joins Andreessen Horowitz As General Partner (TechCrunch)
That was fast.

SAP's Lars Dalgaard joins Andreessen Horowitz (Fortune Tech)

Salesforce.com Offers Replacement To Corporate Intranet And Moves Farther From CRM Roots (TechCrunch)

Jive Seen Luring Suitors Such as IBM, Oracle: Real M&A (Bloomberg)

Amazon cloud threatens ENTIRE IT ECOSYSTEM – report
Cannibal cloud gnaws on trad IT slingers' fat margins (The Register)


IDS Scheer mashes SAP HANA with CryEngine [VIDEO] (SAP
Community Network)

ETRM Software House of the Year: Triple Point Technology (Risk.net)
Discusses importance of Triple Point's acquisition of Plymouth Meeting-based WAM Systems
late last year.

Clearwire shares jump after last-minute Dish counterbid
(Reuters)

IMPACT 2013 Venture Summit Announces Two Key Developments (Business Wire)

Verizon's Shammo doubts Google Fiber will build in FiOS areas (Fierce Telecom)


Comcast blends Cisco’s WebEx into Upware marketplace (CED Magazine)

eviti, Inc. to Introduce Quicker, More Intuitive Oncology Decision-Support Platform in eviti 4.0
(Business Wire)




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Daily Links 5/29/2013: Comcast prepares for massive U. S. Open coverage at Merion

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Comcast teeing up U.S. Open coverage (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Comcast Brings Voice Control to X1 Remote (Multichannel News)

Apple Set-Tops Are Groundwork for ‘Grand Vision’ in TV, CEO Says (Variety)

Roku Raises a $60 Million Round, Led by Fidelity, to Fight for the Living Room (All Things D)

Videology Raises $60 Million, Prepares For Overseas Expansion And Convergence (Ad Exchanger)

'After Earth' takes Will Smith back near his Philadelphia hometown (LA
Times: Company Town)

Consulting firm [Electronic Ink] uses behavioral scientists to help companies (Philadelphia Daily News)

Pa awards $8.9M contract to connect its 11 health information exchanges (Med City News)


Salesforce.com to reveal 'Company Communities'
Pipe your intranet onto a BYOD smartphone, you know it makes sense (The Register)

EnterpriseDB's Tom Kincaid - why did SalesForce.com hire PostgreSQL expert? (ZDNet)

$156 billion reasons why Lars and SAP were never meant to be
(Phil Fersht/Enterprise Irregulars)

Amazon’s Web Services Threatens Almost All IT, Says Morgan Stanley (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Dow Jones turns to tech for future face-off with Bloomberg (paidContent)
Both Dow Jones and Bloomberg have significant development operations in the Princeton
area.




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Updated, revised and expanded: Philly Tech News Young Companies to Watch

Tom Paine

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Young

Companies

To Watch


After considerable delay (it took me longer to put this together than I anticipated) here is my updated, revised and expanded (to 41 companies, actually, from 30 previously) Philly Tech News "Young Companies to Watch".

Rankings reflect a general, though by no means precise, estimate of relative market values based on revenue or profits when reported, growth, invested capital and reported valuation points, and a scattering of any other data points and inferences that I could gather. Also I look at non-quantitative indicators such as a startup's intellectual property, the track record of its leadership, and evidence of market acceptance.

The depth and quality of these Philly-area startups, I believe, is much stronger than in the past, and there many other excellent startups not on this list but are included on the bench (see others to watch). And then there is a entirely different tier of earlier-stage startups that others in Philly area have compiled information on.

This is not a revenue-driven list; relative market values may vary greatly from revenue comparisons according to the quality of a company's intellectual capital, its market acceptance, and its long-term potential for growth and profitability. There are many other excellent consulting firms and agencies, but for this purpose I focus on product-driven businesses.

Each company is privately held (though publicly traded corporations may hold a minority interest in some, and InsPro Technologies has a small public float but most of its value is in its non-listed preferred shares) and has an official headquarters or co-headquarters in the broader Philadelphia region. All of these companies' strategies are largely driven by proprietary information technology.

At the least, the top five companies (SevOne, iPipeline, InstaMed, Quintiq & Monetate) may have the potential to become IPO candidates if they do not have some other exit first. Another notable trend is the strength in the insurance software space, which appears to be booming. iPipeline, InstaMed, InsPro Technologies, Unirisx and Adaptik are all represented, and there is also Adminovate which is not included here now but may be soon.

I update these rankings on a regular basis as new information becomes available, and welcome input or insights that that might enhance their accuracy.

Congratulations to Philly Tech News' Young Companies to Watch.


View the entire document







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Daily Links 5/28/2013: Baltimore's Videology raises $60 million from investors including Comcast Ventures, NEA

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AppNexus CEO Says 'Multi-Billion Dollar Exit' Expected (Business Insider)
First Round Capital was a seed investor.

Fashion Media Company Refinery29 Acquires Fellow First Round Capital Startup, SocialBomb (Business Insider)

Online Video-Ad Network Tremor Video Files For Its IPO (TechCrunch)
First Round Capital has a small stake in Tremor (according to its website) through Tremor's acquisition of FRC portfolio company SanScout. FRC is not listed as a major shareholder on Tremor's S-1.

The Cloud Company: People or Money? (New York Times: Bits)

Court Rules Comcast Did Not Discriminate Against Tennis Channel
Finds insufficient evidence to support FCC decision (Broadcasting & Cable)

Videology Reels in $60 Million in Fresh Capital (Ad Week)
Comcast Ventures among investors in Baltimore company.




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A Legacy Feud in Tech (New York Times)

Dell's downsized cloud ambitions might actually work out (InfoWorld)
Boomi remains key component of strategy.

Clearwire to pull Huawei from network (The Register)

SAP, SAP, Wherefore Art Thou SAP? (In Full Bloom)

Yanked From The Cloud: Why Connectify Unplugged Its Switchboard Campaign (TechCrunch)

More tax increases won't fix what ails the economy in Philly (OpEd/Philadelphia Inquirer)

Daily Links 5/24/2013

Comcast's David Cohen: U.S. Broadband Is World Class
Says companies have invested $1.2 trillion in past couple of decades (Broadcasting & Cable)

Hulu Said to Attract 4 Bidders(Fox Business)

KKR, Yahoo and Silver Lake/WME join list of Hulu suitors (LA Times: Company Town)
Additional bidders since earlier report.
"In return for regulatory approval of that deal, Comcast agreed to be a silent partner in Hulu. It cannot increase its stake but it also does not have to sell, even if the other two partners do". (Clarifies point which had not been clear to me.)



Henrik Fisker joins Hong Kong tycoon to salvage Fisker: sources (Reuters via Yahoo News)

TECH STOCKS: Salesforce, Google Losses Hit Tech Stocks (Dow Jones Newswires via Fox Business)

Major reorg at SAP: Dalgaard departs, and other goings on

With portfolio consolidation in sight, SAP cloud chief Lars Dalgaard steps down (Gigaom)

SAP shakes up development organization (PC World)
“We’re not letting Lars go,” McDermott added. “He’s our strategic cloud adviser. We’re not turning off his email and he can keep his PC.”



SuccessFactors CEO Dalgaard Leaving SAP in Cloud Business Shake-Up
(All Things D)


Good move at SAP (Vinnie Mirchandani/Deal Architect)

All change at SAP (Den Howlett/Diginomica)

SAP Said to End Talks to Buy Jive Software in Past Month
(Bloomberg)

Workday Says Getting Customers From Oracle, SAP (Investor's Business Daily)

SAP touts service that sells customer data from phone firms (CNET News)

ValueVision to change brand name from ShopNBC to ShopHQ; reports first profit in 7 years (Comcast owns 14%)

Tom Paine

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Eden Prarie, Minnesota-based ValueVision, which operates its home shopping network under the brand name ShopNBC, announced yesterday that it will rebrand itself as ShopHQ.

COO Carol Steinberg (a QVC and David's Bridal veteran and Temple Fox School alum) said that the company's NBC branding caused "a little bit of a disconnect with our business -- they're broadcasting, and we're retail." The company said it had been considering a name change for some time.

While the move will save ValueVision $4 million per year in licensing fees, Steinberg indicated that the rebranding will not change its relationship with NBC parent Comcast, which owns 14% of ValueVision, and that Comcast had been supportive of the decision.

ValueVision also reported yesterday its first quarterly profit since 2006, earning $1 million on revenue of $151.4 million.

In the small world of home shopping television, ValueVision is a minnow compared to West Chester-based QVC and HSN (Home Shopping Channel). ValueVision's top management is heavily staffed by QVC veterans. There has been frequent discussion by QVC parent Liberty Interactive's management about the possibility of buying out the 80% or so of
HSN it does not already own and combining its operations with those of QVC. Comcast, which at one time owned QVC, has not indicated any recent interest in expanding in the home shopping business. Its stake in ValueVision came through the acquisition of NBCU.

While the cable TV platforms are still very valuable merchandising platforms, the home shopping channnls are conducting an increasing amount of their business online. ValueVision said 46.2% of its sales came through online orders last quarter. But
while the ecommerce industry is booming, the home shopping channels are seeing slow growth.




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Daily Links 5/23/2013: Wharton Grads shine on ' Shark Tank ' ; Salesforce results good but outlook disappoints some

Wharton Grads Start a Feeding Frenzy on 'Shark Tank'
(Business Week)

Salesforce Q1 earnings: in line; $893m revenue (ZDNet)

Salesforce Forecasts Miss Estimates on Weak Software (Bloomberg)

Quality Systems, Inc. Reports Fiscal 2013 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results
Company Also Appoints Michael Aghajanian to Board of Directors (Business Wire)
Quality Systems' principal business is Horsham-based NextGen Healthcare.

If cable is dying, then why is it still making so much money? (Quartz)

BlackArrow Jumps in Cable’s Canoe
Licensing Deal Targets National Programmers, Looks to Accelerate Rollout of VOD Dynamic Ad Insertion (Multichannel News)

Comcast turns on 1,000 Xfinity WI-Fi hotspots in Chicago area (Chicago Tribune)

Verizon FiOS IPTV Media Server Slated For Fall Launch (Zatz Not Funny!)

NetSuite’s SuiteWorld (Denis Pombriant / Enterprise Irregulars)

CIOs of IT Vendors Have ‘A Really Horrible Job’ (Wall Street Journal: CIO Report)

Sparta Systems Launches New Business Intelligence Solution, TrackWise Analytics (Marketwire)

Daily Links 5/22/2013: Workday tops estimates with 61% growth; ValueVision to drop ShopNBC brand name

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TruePosition Tackles Indoor Locating (Directions Magazine)

Alteva Announces Workforce Reduction (Marketwire)
Does not effect Philadelphia; reducing 20% of staff in legacy New York telecom business.

Interactions Secures $40 Million of New Financing (PR Newswire)
Radnor-based Cross Atlantic Capital Partners participates again in new round for Massachusetts-based Interactive Voice Response vendor.

Workday reports sales up almost 61% (MarketWatch)
Beats on revenue; posts slightly smaller loss than expected.

HP's Whitman reiterates 'multi-year journey' amid Q2 revenue miss
(ZDNet)
At least as long as her contract, I suspect.

Microsoft Unveils Xbox One Entertainment Console (Hollywood Reporter)

Pay TV is hurting, and even skeptics now admit cord cutting could be at fault (Gigaom)

Cable Companies Chafe as Low-Rated Channels Change Names (Advertising Age)

ValueVision Media to Rebrand Its ShopNBC Electronic Retail Operations as 'ShopHQ' -- 'Your Headquarters for All Things Shop' (Marketwire)
Comcast owns about 15% of ValueVision (inherited through its acquisition of NBCU) so it
remains to be seen what this means for Comcast's future interest in the home shopping channel. See more info on switch via Internet Retailer, as ValueVision reports first quarterly profit since 2006.

Comcast, the Mets, and Other Winners in the New Man City-Yankees MLS Franchise (Business Week)




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