Links 10/3/2013: Verizon introduces new cloud offering

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email

Veeva Seeks to Raise Up to $183 Million in Cloud Computing IPO (Bloomberg)
Based in Califonia, Veeva has a significant presence in the Philadelphia area.

Twitter Discloses Its I.P.O. Plans (New York Times: DealBook)

Accenture to Acquire Procurian Inc., Expanding Its Leading Capabilities in Procurement Business Process Outsourcing
(Business Wire)
Procurian, formerly ICG Commerce, is based in in King of Prussia and mostly owned by ICG.
Accenture will pay $375 million for it.

ICG Group Announces Procurian's Signing of a Definitive Agreement to be Acquired by Accenture for $375 Million (Globe Newswire)
ICG says it will emerge from transaction as "Pure-Play Cloud Computing Company."

Accenture Acquires Procurian for $375M in Cash (Spend Matters)



Accenture procures procurement’s prize property: Procurian (Enterprise Irregulars)


Neat Acquires ProOnGo, Extending the Neat Digital Filing System (PR Newswire)

Comcast purchases Universal City tower for about $420 million (LA Times: Company Town)

These charts show Comcast acting more and more like a monopolist (Timothy B. Lee/Washington Post)


Inside the Focus Shakeup: Universal Plotted Peter Schlessel Move for Months (Analysis) (Hollywood Reporter)

QLIK, DATA: Demand Momentum Continues, Says Pac Crest; TIBX Has Upside (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)


IBM Acquires Xtify, A Mobile Messaging Company (TechCrunch)
Conshohocken-based SeventySix Capital was an investor. No clue on price yet. Xtify is based in New York.


Verizon brings cloud offering into self-service era (IT World)

Best Buy Updates Decade-Old Site to Double Online Sales
(Bloomberg)
Best Buy is a Monetate customer.

Fab Is Firing 100 People For The Second Time A Few Months After Raising $150 Million (Business Insider)

Three big deals: SAP Ventures; Heartland Payment Systems; LLR Partners

Tom Paine

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



SAP Ventures announced today the formation of a new fund, SAP Ventures Fund II, which SAP is funding with $650 million. SAP Ventures points out in its release that when combined with the SAP HANA Real Time Fund, a $405 million fund-of-funds that invests in early stage VC funds, SAP Ventures has added more than $1 billion in VC funding within the past twelve
months. SAP Ventures also said it is building out a dedicated 10-person business development team to enable its portfolio companies to access and leverage the capabilities and expertise of the SAP enterprise ecosystem through its limited partner, SAP AG.

SAP Ventures operates as an independent company from SAP AG, which remains its sole limited partner. SAP Ventures says it has had 12 initial public offering (IPO) and merger and acquisition (M&A) events to date in 2013, including IPOs Control 4, Just Dial, Marin Software, Tremor Video and Violin Memory; and acquired portfolio companies Aepona, Apriso, Datria, ExactTarget, Ignite, ScaleIO and Voxeo.

Totals assets under management by SAP Ventures are now over $1.4 billion. Nino Marakovic is CEO and managing director of SAP Ventures.

Philadelphia-based private equity firm LLR Partners has plunked down a $50 million investment in Cigital, a Dulles, VA provider of products and services for software security. Cigital, which considers itself as the world’s largest consulting firm specializing in software security, was founded in 1992 as an offshoot of DARPA. Cigital provides services to numerous private sector clients as well as to government agencies.

The investment reflects LLR's increased focus on the federal government technology sector and its recent staff additions in the DC area.

Princeton-based Heartland Payment Systems, looking to expand its mobile retail payment capabilities, has invested $20 million in Boston-based Leaf, which developed a "tablet designed for commerce" which works as a mobile extension of a retailer's POS system. Leaf will remain independent and Heartland will not have exclusivity in terms of distribution to the payment processing or POS industries, Bostinno reports.

Heartland also works with another Boston-based mobile payment tech startup, DreamIt Ventures alum LevelUp, although Heartland does not appear on LevelUp's investors roster on its website. LevelUp and Leaf are different though some aspects of their services appear duplicative, and there has been no word on how Heartland's Leaf investment might impact its relationship with LevelUp. I've asked Heartland representatives for comment on that, and will let you know what I hear.

Update: In response to my question about how its Leaf investment would effect Heartland's
relationship with LevelUp, I received the following response attributed to Heartland CEO
Bob Carr:


"While Heartland remains one of LevelUp's distribution partners, our ultimate goal is to enable greater merchant choice by allowing business owners to work with the business solution providers that they deem best for their individual needs. We are excited that LevelUp has signed on to participate in the Leaf ecosystem and look forward to other providers and developers building applications for the Leaf Appstore to assist merchants in best managing their businesses."

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

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


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

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



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

Follow @phillytechnews

Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Philly Tech News Weekly Highlights by Email







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

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



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

Follow @phillytechnews



Subscribe to Philly Tech People News by Email




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

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



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

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



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

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



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)