Saturday morning headlines: Comcast X1 outage; SAP among those discussing BlackBerry bid (report)

Comcast's new X1 cable boxes are apparently suffering a nationwide outage (Engadget)

Exclusive: Cisco, Google, SAP discussing BlackBerry bids - sources (Reuters)

Database Company MongoDB Raises $150M to Chip Away at Oracle
(Wall Street Journal: Digits)


How MongoDB raised $150M in warp speed to challenge IBM, Oracle, and SAP (VentureBeat)

Exclusive: With IPO elusive, Avaya explored sale to Oracle this year - sources (Reuters)


N.J. on track in race to let casinos offer online gambling (Newark Star-Ledger)

Links 10/4/2013: Comcast's Philadelphia market antitrust case lingers on

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Her business helps clients use cloud computing smartly (Philadelphia Daily News)
Khushboo Shah of Cloudamize.


Procurian in Accenture: The Profitable Son Returns (Spend Matters)
More insights into Procurian's history and rise to success.

How Pa. startups are getting $75M more in state funding (Newsworks)

Bentley Extends SACS’ Leadership in Engineering Software for Offshore Structures with Acquisition of MOSES
(Business Wire)

Case on Comcast cable customers won't go away (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Comcast Expands CBS Deal for VOD, Online Streaming Rights (Variety)

Lockheed to furlough 3,000 workers due to U.S. shutdown (Reuters)



Oracle’s Ellison Forgoes Payout to End Pillar Buyout Suit (Bloomberg)

Violin Memory is winning flash-supply race – Quadragon™ rivals (The Register)

Sparta Systems and Veeva Systems to Deliver End-to-End Quality Solution (Marketwire)


Reliance Globalcom Partners with Philadelphia Technology Park to Provide Expanded Global Network Connectivity (Business Wire)

Philly Tech News Three big deals: Veeva prices IPO; Accenture buys Procurian; Comcast buys Universal City tower

Tom Paine

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California-based Veeva Systems, which has a significant presence in the Philadelphia area, indicated its pricing range for its planned IPO in a regulatory filing.

The company and existing shareholders are offering 13 million shares at $12 to $14 each, which could raise as much as $183 million. At the midpoint of that range, Veeva would be valued at about $1.6 billion. The price range and number of shares is not final and can be adjusted as the offering date approaches. No word on when it might be scheduled yet.

Veeva is a SaaS life sciences vendor that started with CRM, but appears to be taking broader aim at the large vertical market, with Oracle its primary competitor. It has offices in Radnor and Fort Washington. I've written about the planned offering here and also here.



Accenture, already a leading force in the third-party procurement space, today announced plans to acquire another leader, King of Prussia-based Procurian, for $375 million.

Procurian, mostly owned by Wayne-based ICG, was considered by many to be best-of-breed among procurement outsourcing vendors. Founded in 1999 as ICG Commerce near the height of the VerticalNet bubble (ICG was also an investor in that company), it changed its name to Procurian in early 2012. I'm not an expert on its history, but my recollection is that it struggled for a while before honing in on a strategy that clicked. ICG gradually bought out most other investors, including Cross Atlantic Capital Partners.

Spend Matters, an authoritative website covering the procurement industry, provides more insight into the deal and says it establishes a benchmark price for top companies in that sector of about 3x revenue, which presumably would put Procurian's revenue at roughly $125 million.

In its own statement, ICG said it expected to realize approximately $324 million from the transaction and that it (ICG) will emerge "as a high-growth, pure-play cloud computing company, with market-leading positions in the public sector, compliance and insurance markets."

Procurian has approximately 780 employees and all are expected to join Accenture, the acquiring company says.

Universal City Plaza (Wikipedia)

Does Comcast have an edifice complex, or does it simply prefer buying to leasing? Comcast is buying the 35 story Universal City Plaza, the tallest building in the Valley, for a reported $420 million. NBCU is already the majority tenant there, but according to one source the building is almost 30% vacant. Earlier this year Comcast purchased a big part of 30 Rock, and there has also been seemingly well-grounded speculation that it is looking at building one or more additional towers in Center City.

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

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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

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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

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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)