Daily Links 7/22/2013: Unisys snares $460 million Fed contract for border protection systems; Edison Ventures invests in two firms

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Women in the Workplace: Comcast CFO talks candidly about juggling personal life, work (Glenside News Globe Times Chronicle)

Comcast's X1 availability widens, mass-deployment still planned by year's end (Engadget)

Comcast & TiVo Hit Pause (Zatz Not Funny!)

Sprout Adding 3 New Series (Multichannel News)
Sprout, which is owned by Comcast's NBCU, is based in Fort Washington.

Netflix Q2 results are in: close to 30MM US streaming subscribers, $1B in revenue
(Gigaom)

Netflix Subscriber Growth Falls Short of Projections (Bloomberg)


TV tech: SeventySix sells Omek to Intel; Mass.firm moves to Radnor (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Unisys scores $460M contract to modernize border protection systems
(Washington Technology)

Edison Ventures Announces Investment in RealMatch (PR Web)
Leads $7 million round with $6 million investment.

Edison Ventures Invests in eSentire Provider of Network Security as a Managed Service (PR Web)
Leads $5.5 million investment in a $7.0 million total financing round in Ontario, Canada based eSentire.

RightCare Solutions, Inc. Reports Positive Topline Results with D2S2 in Reducing All-Cause 30-day Readmissions from Pivotal Study (PR Newswire)

SAP: McDermott to become sole CEO in 2014

Tom Paine

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SAP announced yesterday that Jim Hagemann Snabe has decided to step down as co-CEO as of May 2014. He will then join SAP's supervisory board, if 25% of shareholders approve. Snabe,47, said in a statement: “After more than 20 years with SAP, I have decided that it is time for me to begin the next phase of my career, closer to my family. What the entire SAP team has achieved since 2010 is remarkable, and the momentum we have built is now driving the transformation of the industry.”



This change will leave an American, Bill McDermott,51, as SAP's sole CEO for the time being, at least. McDermott has been based out of Newtown Square; SAP hasn't said whether this will continue to be the case. Perhaps SAP's next most important executive, Vishal Sikka, the board member responsible for technology and innovation, is based in Palo Alto, California. SAP is based in Walldorf, Germany.

Co-founder Hasso Plattner, who chairs SAP's supervisory board, has a stake of about 10 percent in the company and plays an important role in providing strategic guidance.


More information is expected from SAP in a conference call today.

SAP' s latest Sunday bombshell: Snabe leaving co-CEO role

Tom Paine

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I had just posted about Sanjay Poonen's Friday night tweet that he was leaving SAP:

Yes it's true, after 7+ years, I have decided to leave #SAP Aug 1. More than the fun growing big businesses here, I will cherish the PEOPLE!

— Sanjay Poonen (@spoonen) July 19, 2013

and wondering whatever existential meaning it might have when this popped out on my alerts:

SAP Co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe Proposed for Election to the SAP Supervisory Board.

Actually, the release goes on to say that Snabe will step down from his day to day role to spend more time with his family.

What the timing of SAP's latest Sunday surprise (it often drops bombs on Sundays) means is beyond me to guess at for now. It does seem to resolve, at least for the present, a conflict some perceived that needed resolution: sooner or later Bill McDermott was going to run his own show, if not at SAP then somewhere else.

A bit more context from this Bloomberg article. SAP
is expected to have more to say tomorrow.

Philly Tech People News 7/21/2013

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Sanjay Poonen, President & Corporate Officer, SAP, Technology & Innovation Products, announced on Twitter Friday he is leaving SAP after more than 7 years. No word on what's next.

Yes it's true, after 7+ years, I have decided to leave #SAP Aug 1. More than the fun growing big businesses here, I will cherish the PEOPLE!

— Sanjay Poonen (@spoonen) July 19, 2013

Albert Wiegman Joins Safeguard Scientifics Deal Team
(Business Wire)

John Swartley Appointed Associate Vice Provost for Research at Penn (Penn News)


Quintiq appoints Liz Monahan as global head of human resources
(Quintiq website)

Former big firm lawyer starts tech-centric solo practice (Philadelphia Business Journal)

NBCUniversal names new general counsel (LA Times: Company Town)

Verizon Names Manuel Sampedro to Lead Wireline Operations Serving Residential, Small-Business Customers in the Mid-Atlantic Region (PR Newswire)

EPAM’s Elaina Shekhter Recognized by CRN as One of the Top Women of the Channel (EPAM website)

Amazon vs. IBM: Big Blue meets match in battle for the cloud (Reuters via Yahoo News)

NewSpring Capital Portfolio Company VelociData Announces Former Motorola Chairman and CEO, Christopher Galvin, Joins Board of Directors as Company Closes $10 Million Financing (NewSpring website)

NextGen Healthcare (Horsham) parent Quality Systems settles with activist investor; Could sale be in the future?

Tom Paine

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Quality Systems, Inc., the Irvine, California-based corporation whose primary business unit is Horsham-based NextGen Healthcare, may be looking for a buyer, according to some reports.

Speculation was heightened by an agreement announced on Wednesday between Quality and activist investor Clinton Group, in which Quality is expected to add three of the investor's nominees to its board, two of whom will also serve on a transaction committee which will evaluate Quality Systems' strategy and direction.

Quality Systems, which provides electronic health record (EHR) systems and related services, was riding the wave of "meaningful use" funding authorized by the Federal stimulus program to incentivize medical practices to adopt electronic record keeping. The stock hit $48.50 in September 2011, but closed at $22.01 (NASDAQ: QSII ) on Friday as growth has lagged behind several other EHR providers, giving it a current market value of $1.3 billion.

Qaulity reported revenue of $460.2 million for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, an increase of 7% over the prior year. Net income was $42.7 million, a decrease of 44% from the prior year. Revenue generated by NextGen's operating units account for well over 90% of Quality's total revenue.

An analyst quoted in an Med City News article names Siemens, whose Malvern-based Healthcare IT unit already partners with NextGen in certain areas, as one possible buyer should it be sold.

Patrick B.Cline co-founded Clinitec, based in Horsham, in 1994; it was acquired by Quality Systems two years later and became the foundation of NextGen Healthcare. Cline retired from NextGen and Quality at the end of 2011, and is currently CEO of Irving, Texas-based Lightbeam Health Solutions.

Weekend speculation – SAP, IBM and Accenture in 2015. (Dennis Howlett/Diginomica)

Quintiq: The largest Philly-area software firm most people have never heard of

Tom Paine

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Bob Eastman of Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) has written an informative blog post on Quintiq, the supply chain software firm with dual headquarters in The Netherlands and Radnor.

Eastman says Quintiq's revenue is approaching $100 million and employment has nearly doubled in the past 18 months to 700. Quintiq brings considerable brainpower to the task of helping companies solve complex logistical and scheduling issues; its CEO and co-founder, Victor Allis, earned his PhD in artificial intelligence. Quintiq not only builds software, but also incorporates sophisticated quantitative tools as well. It focuses on process and service industries, rather than discrete manufacturing.

About 40% of Quintiq's customers run on SAP, Eastman says, probably one of the reasons the company set up its North American base in the Philly area in 2005. SAP serves as a starting point for many enterprises' supply chain systems, but is often supplemented by other vertical vendors providing more comprehensive solutions for specific applications. In February, SAP acquired Pittsburgh-based SmartOps, which is much smaller than Quintiq and seems focused on a different application set revolving around discrete inventory planning. A big part of SAP's stated plans for SmartOps is to give it more real time capabilities by putting it on its in-memory HANA platform.

Largely because of SAP's presence and also because of legacy industries located here that involve sophisticated supply chain challenges, the Philadelphia area has several supply chain software firms, including Exton-based Elemica, Wilmington-based Arkieva, and Marlton-based Acsis.

Quintiq sold a 48% stake to LLR Partners and NewSpring Capital two years ago. At the end of last year, Quintiq announced it was tripling its space in the Radnor Financial Center, where CEO Allis is primarily based. Quintiq is a truly global company with several international offices, most recently announcing the opening of an office in Seoul.


Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly said that Quintiq received a $48 million investment from LLR Partners and NewSpring Capital. The amount of the investment was never revealed, however; only the percentage of ownership was.

Daily Links 7/19/2013: Charter said to be working with Goldman on Time Warner Cable offer

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SAP vs. Oracle: Let's play dueling BS banjos (ZDNet)

SAP reveals road map details for its HANA in-memory platform (Computerworld)

Charter Said to Work With Goldman on Time Warner Cable Offer (Bloomberg)

Exclusive: John Malone bets on broadband in return to U.S. cable (Denver Post)


How Google or Apple Could Make Web TV a Reality: Spend Billions on the NFL (Peter Kafka/All Things D)

Cable's pay-TV share falls as satellite and telecom grow, FCC says (LA Times: Company Town)

VC investment continues to rebound in Q2 (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Microsoft Experiences Its Biggest Drop Of The Century As Shares Fall 12 Percent (TechCrunch)

ModCloth’s Vintage Threads Lift Sales Past $100 Million (Bloomberg)

Daily Links 7/18/2013: Dell postpones buyout vote: SAP software sales soft on China concerns

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SAP warns China's slowdown is hurting software sales (Reuters)

SAP Second-Quarter Software License Sales Miss Estimates (Bloomberg)

SAP’s Q2 shows core weakness (Dennis Howlettt/Diginomica)

Dell Buyout Vote Delayed (All Things D)

Verizon Shares Fall After Wireless Demand Boosts Expenses (Bloomberg)

Verizon Crosses 5M Video Subscribers
FiOS, Wireless Fuel Strong Q2 (Multichannel News)

Pushing the Right Buttons
Apple’s Move Into TV Relies on Cooperation With Industry Leaders (New York Times)

TOA raises $66M to eliminate hours spent waiting on the cable guy (VentureBeat)


Ebay Marketing Arm Unites Companies, Rebrands (Ad Week)

Quality Systems, activist firm reach settlement on board nominees (Reuters)
Quality Systems' primary business unit is Horsham-based NextGen Healthcare.

Philly manufacturing index surges to two-year high (MarketWatch)

Daily Links 7/17/2013: Red Tettemer rebrands, opens LA office

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Red Tettemer Rebrands, Opens Outpost in Los Angeles
Shop Changes Name to RTO&P (Ad Age)

Quintiq—The Biggest Supply Chain Vendor You May Not Have Heard Of (Technology Evaluation Centers)

Johnson & Johnson starts to 'harmonize our ERP landscape' (ZDNet)

SAP's Q2: The hot topics
Cloud software growth, HANA, rival Oracle and the global economy will be in the spotlight (Computerworld)

Salesforce.com launches Sales Performance Accelerator (PC World)

The Microsoft Reorg and Microsoft Dynamics: Odd Man Out or Shining Example? (Josh Greenbaum / EAConsult)

A Microsoft Reseller Explains A Big Fat Reason Why Microsoft's Surface PC Hasn't Sold Well (Business Insider)
Downingtown-based Softmart is one of a handful of resellers able to handle Surface products.


Aereo Spat Could Prompt Fox Supreme Court Challenge (Time)


Verizon Q2 preview: FiOS TV may crack 5M-subscriber mark, but has it lost its edge? (FierceCable)

X1 Marks the Spot (Cable360)

PeopleLinx Triples Revenue, Launches LinkedIn Sharing for Companies (PR Newswire)