Links 10/2/2013: Monsanto acquires Climate Corp for $1 billion +; First Round Capital early investor

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SAP launches $650 million fund, highlights corporate venture growth (Reuters)

Rumors of the Death of SAP Business ByDesign Greatly Exaggerated
(Mint Jutras)

Monsanto Acquires Weather Big Data Company Climate Corporation For $930M (TechCrunch)
First Round Capital was early investor; should be a good exit for them. In fact, FRC's Howard Morgan was apparently in personally in Angel round.

Why a Stage 2 Extension May Not Happen for a While (Healthcare Informatics)
Siemens Healthcare's John Glaser comments.


Comcast’s Inadvertent ‘X2’ Preview (Multichannel News)

Bain Capital’s Burlington Surges After $227 Million Offering
(Bloomberg)

New Pa. insurance system debuts with some glitches (AP via York Dispatch)


Tech firm led by former Markell aide secures equity partnership with NASCAR (Delaware Inc.)

The industry’s hot new entrepreneurs
The tech startups to watch, and how they’re changing real estate in NYC (The Real Deal)
Details several interesting east coast real estate information startups, including Philadelphia-based BuyerMLS.

Links 10/1/2013: LLR invests $50mm in Cigital; Heartland Payment invests $20mm in Leaf

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Cigital Secures $50M Investment from LLR Partners (LLR Partners)

Square Competitor Leaf Scores $20 Million Investment From Payments Giant Heartland (All Things D)
First question: What does this mean for Heartland's relationship with LevelUp?

After Raising $20M from Heartland, Aron Schwarzkopf's Vision for Leaf Grows (VentureFizz)


Artisan Adds Two New Products to Its Mobile Experience Management Platform (Business Wire)

AT&T attempts to out-Google Google in Austin fiber race (CNET News)

CableLabs Exec Joins Apple (Multichannel News)

Comcast forms VIPER team to deliver IP video to Apple, Microsoft, Samsung devices (FierceCable)

NBC Digital Hit With Layoffs (Variety)

Intel boss joins Hulu CEO contenders (NY Post)

Intel and Sony Ambitions for Internet TV Services Meet Skepticism (New York Times)



Merck reorg reimagines sales force (Medical Marketing & Media)

Salesforce Is A Platform Company. Period. (TechCrunch)

Philly Tech News Weekly Highlights 9/22 to 9/28/2013

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AllThingsD is cutting its ties with Dow Jones at year's end, and Comcast's NBCU is reported to be one possible investor in its next life.

Comcast petitioned to have a bankruptcy court oversee a reorganization of troubled Comcast
Sportsnet Houston (complicated story).

Supply Chain planning and optimization software firm Quintiq, with dual headquarters in Radnor and The Netherlands, opened an impressive new tower in The Netherlands as its new EMEA headquarters, and produced a video to give people a visual tour.

EBay's PayPal acquired payment processing platform Braintree for $800 million in cash. Mobile payments app Venmo, which started up in Philly, moved to New York and was acquired last year by Braintree for $26.2 million, was cited as a key component of the deal. I pondered whether Venmo's founders, who started the business while undergrads as Penn, got their fair share of the payout.

Saturday's highlighted links include Dan Shipper's post on what he learned from bootstrapping startup Firefly while a student at Penn.

And Rick Nucci was named the new President of Philly Startup Leaders, succeeding former Boomi mate Bob Moul, who definitely raised the organization's visibility and effectiveness.

Links 9/29/2013: Hasso Plattner responds to Oracle's barbs at HANA; QVC launches Pinterest-like offering

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Cable shopping channel QVC launches toGather, a Pinterest-like social network (Gigaom)

Oracle Debuts New Cloud Services (CRM Magazine)
One early adopter is CardConnect, which is based in King of Prussia.

SAP BW on HANA trial at Amazon – will they come? (Diginomica)


Haaso Plattner on HANA and Oracle (Hasso Plattner Blog)

Sceptical markets snub Violin Memory: Can the flashy biz bounce back? (The Register)

Shake Up: Salesforce Taps New CMO as Two Presidents Head for Exits (All Things D)


Monetate Adds "Open time" Personalized Email and Display Advertising Products to its Cloud Offering
(PR Newswire)

Glen Mills' Versify Solutions get a jolt with new contract, venture capital (Keystone Edge)

His business is to enhance your social business (Philly.com)
On PeopleLinx's Nathan Egan.

Penn Engineering's GRASP Lab and Wharton's Mack Institute Take the Y-Prize Global (PR Web)

Philly Tech People News 9/28/2013

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Behind NBCU's latest shuffle at the top (Fortune)

SAP names former Apple exec, retired admiral to National Security Services team (Washington Technology)

SAP Names Mark White General Manager of Global Public Services and Healthcare Industries (SAP Newsroom)

Pavlou appointed Associate Dean for Research, Doctoral Programs and Strategic Initiatives (Fox School at Temple)

iPipeline UK Announces Ian Teague, COO/CFO, Appointed UK Managing Director (Business Wire)

Elemica Names Ed Rusch Vice President, Corporate Marketing (Marketwire)

Cadient Group Expands Strategy Team (Philly Ad Club News)

EXTOL International Names Jeffrey Inns Vice President, Product Infrastructure (PR Newswire)

Comcast wants bankruptcy court to oversee restructuring of Comcast SportsNet Houston

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Comcast SportsNet Houston Files for Chapter 11 Protection (Multichannel News)

CSN Houston faces ‘total gridlock;’ Comcast/NBC wants bankruptcy trustee to oversee troubled network (Houston Chronicle Blog)

Jim Crane: Astros will fight bankruptcy case against ComcastSportsNet Houston (Houston Chronicle Blog)


Forbes offers another view on Astros profits (Houston Chronicle Blog)

Saturday highlights 9/28/2013: Firefly's Dan Shipper on what he's learned from bootstrapping

What I learned bootstrapping a 6-figure business from school (Dan Shipper/Distilled Thinking)
Penn student and founder of mostly bootstrapped and Dorm Room Fund-backed Firefly looks back on what he's learned. Definitely worth the read.

Box moves toward IPO destiny (San Jose Mercury News)
The very successful side of the cloud storage business.


It’s Official, The Nirvanix Cloud Storage Service Is Shutting Down
(TechCrunch)
A less successful side of the cloud storage business.

Mobile app dev for enterprises just got easier with new Node.js service (CITEworld)
Also discusses Philly-based CloudMine.

Did Venmo founders get payout they deserve?

Tom Paine

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The announcement yesterday that EBay's PayPal was acquiring payment processing platform Braintree for $800 million in cash, combined with the fact that so much attention was being lavished on Braintree's Venmo mobile payment unit (as I discussed yesterday and PayPal President David Marcus also emphasized to TechCrunch) left me pondering why Venmo only sold for $26.2 million when Braintree acquired it just 15 months ago (the deal was done by June 2012 though it didn't become public knowledge until August) if it was such a valuable part of an $800 million deal now. And did the co-founders, Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail, who started Venmo as undergrads at Penn, get a good deal from Braintree?

Of course, valuations are always a bit tricky when the same party is on both sides. Accel Partners had led Venmo's largest round, and was also a lead investor in Braintree. I'm just mentioning that fact, not inferring in any way that Accel did not take proper steps too see that the interests of both companies were fully represented in the transaction.

But I do hope Kortina and Magdon-Ismail had some kind of earnout provision or equity kicker from Braintree that will give them the type of return they deserve for their efforts.

Links 9/27/2013: FCC tells Comcast to put Bloomberg TV in its news hood; Speculation that Intel may pull plug on Web TV project

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Intel Looking for Help from Amazon or Samsung to Keep Its Web TV Project Alive (All Things D)

FCC Tells Comcast to Put Bloomberg TV Among News Channels
(Bloomberg)

Top NBCU Digital Exec Lauren Zalaznick to Depart Company (All Things D)

Bill Seeks To End 'Unnecessary and Costly' Set-Top Security Ban
But Proposed Bill From Reps. Robert Latta and Gene Green Would Preserve FCC’s Ability To Regulate Set-Top Boxes In The Future (Multichannel News)


RingCentral, Violin Memory IPOs Price, Debut Friday (Investor's Business Daily)

Violin Memory's price craters after $162 million IPO (San Jose Mercury News)
SAP Ventures was a major investor in Violin Memory, as advancements in flash memory technology is deemed critical to the future of SAP's in-memory HANA platform.


Oracle CFO Says Cloud Computing Will Lift Profit Margins
(Bloomberg)


Can we refocus on SAP customer needs? (Vinnie Mirchandani/Enterprise Irregulars)

USA Technologies Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2013 Results (Business Wire)
Long struggling Malvern company post 24% year over year revenue growth, small GAAP profit.


Localytics: SF and LA love the iPhone 5S. Philly OK with the 5C. (Fortune Tech)

How Massachusetts Tried To Fleece Its Technology Sector With "Tech Tax" (ReadWrite)


Schilling's 38 Studios video game headed to auction block (AP via
Philadelphia Inquirer)

Philadelphia-born Venmo considered prize in Ebay's Braintree acquisition

Tom Paine

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Ebay announced today it was acquiring Chicago-based Braintree, a web and mobile payments processor, for $800 million in cash. It will become part of Ebay's PayPal unit.

Speculation about Braintree being a target has been heavy for a least a month. Much of the talk has focused on Venmo, the Philadelphia-born mobile payments startup that later moved to New York. Braintree's growth in mobile payments has been said to have been phenomenal paricularly since it acquired Venmo last year for $26.2 million; mobile payments now account for about one-third of Braintree's total payments processing of about $12 billion annually, PandoDaily reported recently. Venmo provides an easy to use tool to send payments via mobile; many are excited about the potential of its new Venmo Touch app.


Venmo's co-founders, Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail, both attended Penn, where the two were originally randomly paired as freshman roommates. Venmo was founded in 2009; it received a round of funding led by Accel Partners in 2011 and relocated to New York.

See also PayPal’s David Marcus: Braintree Keeps Its Brand And Ops Intact; Venmo Will Be Used For Big P2P Push from TechCrunch.


Also this week, King of Prussia-based Ebay Enterprise (formerly GSI Commerce) made several
significant announcements at its Client Summit in New York.

Links 9/26/2013: Nucci to succeed Moul as PSL head; Air Products looks for new CEO

Ackman strikes again? Air Products looks for new CEO (CNBC)

Exclusive: SunGard in talks to sell data unit to Apax - sources
(Reuters)

Rick Nucci Selected as Next President of Philly Startup Leaders (Philly Startup Leaders)

Corbett launches fund for high-tech startups (Pittsburgh Business Times)

Will Verizon Go Wireless-Only And Spinoff FiOS? (Investor's Business Daily)



U.S. cable company turns to a three-year-old startup to solve its Netflix problems (Gigaom)

FCC Votes Comcast/Bloomberg Complaint Appeal
Decision in Restricted Proceeding Won't Become Public Until Order is Released (Multichannel News)

FCC Orders Comcast to Place Bloomberg Channel in News ‘Neighborhood’ (Variety)



Cable-TV Bundles Work Great, Say Bundlers of Cable TV (Business Week)

Comcast pulls plug on MyTV Choice offer for new subscribers
(FierceCable)



Igniting a new network: Meet our Tech Hub partners (Google Official Blog)
Why not in Philly?

LevelUp reports raising $7.5M (Boston Business Journal)
Some concerns about early DreamIt Ventures alum; relationship with Princeton-based Heartland Payments Systems one area of emphasis.

hybris Tapped by Airgas to Drive its Expanding B2B Commerce Channel (Globe Newswire)
Airgas, based in Radnor, is already an SAP Businsss Suite customer.