Links 1/6/2014: Comcast 'X2' rollout underway; Two top execs from Ariba deal depart SAP






 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email





Comcast ‘X2’ Rollout Is Underway (Multichannel News)

John Malone’s Next Chess Move to Take Control of Time Warner Cable (Wall Street Journal: MoneyBeat)

Samsung Lines Up Content Deals with Amazon, Comcast for 4K TV (Mashable)



Why HP May Buy a Cloud Software Company in 2014 (Re/code)

Bob Calderoni and Kevin Costello to Leave SAP – A New Chapter for Ariba Inside SAP (Spend Matters)

SAP Combines Cloud and Line of Business Apps, Calderoni Departs
(ASUG News)


Do we have any other bids for Responsys? (Diginomica)

Gartner: Global IT spending will grow slightly in 2014
(PC World)

Digital Health Startups Charm VCs (Information Week)


Pinterest Acquires Image Recognition Startup VisualGraph (Mashable)
These guys are small, but wonder how their offerings compare to those of Curalate.

T-Mobile buys prime spectrum from Verizon to boost “Un-carrier” coverage (Ars Technica)
Spectrum purchased by T-Mobile, which came from Verizon deal with cable companies, should
boost its 4G coverage in Philly and other markets.







Philly Tech People News 1/5/2014









Subscribe to Philly Tech People News by Email



Smit Takes Reins As NCTA Chair (Multichannel News)

Lehigh President Alice Gast to Step Down in July 2014; Will Become President of Imperial College London (Lehigh University News)


Cool Springs owner plans ambitious revival
(TribeLIVE)
Brian Shanahan is CEO of King of Prussia-based CardConnect, a payment processing company.

Read more: http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/alleghenyneighborhoods/alleghenyneighborhoodsmore/5186906-74/cool-springs-park#ixzz2pYZdZsvx
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

LoanLogics Increases Size of Compliance Unit (National Mortgage Pofessional)


Workday appoints Ashley Goldsmith as chief HR officer (HR Magazine)






Foxconn set to scout Pa. sites for $30 million plant
(NewsWorks)

Rivals threaten another sale of Philly newspapers (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Imagine a smartphone medical lab (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg on Re/code, NBC Investment and Keeping the Chairs (Exclusive) (The Wrap)






Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg introduce Re/code.net (CNBC video)





Links 1/3/2014: Phillies sign huge extension with Comcast SportsNet





 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


Phillies agree to new 25-year television deal (MLB.com)
Renews with Comcast SportsNet.

Phillies' 25-Year TV Rights Deal Worth An Average $100M Annually (Sports Business Daily)
Report says deal increases Phillies' equity stake in regional net to 25%.

Owners propose auction of Inquirer, Daily News, Philly.com (Newsworks)


Appature parent IMS Health files for $100 million IPO (GeekWire)
IMS Health, headquartered in Connecticut, has much of its US operations based in Collegeville and Plymouth Meeting. It was taken private by TPG and others in 2010 for $5.2 billion. Its Appature acquisition, made in 2013, was intended to help IMS better compete against companies like Veeva Systems on the technology front.

Marketo Pegged as Target in Cloud-Software Deal Spree: Real M&A (Bloomberg)

What is SAP HANA? A Look Through The History Of The Automobile (John Appleby/SAP HANA Blog)




DNAnexus builds online hub for scientists to store and share genetic data (VentureBeat)
First Round Capital participated again in DNAnexus' latest $15 million round, although this venture seems somewhat outside of FRC's usual domain expertise.

Odds dim for Fisker production in Delaware (AP via Miami Herald)

Vanguard's growing dominance: Morningstar (Philly.com: Philly Deals)




New Mossberg/Swisher site Re/code, with backing from Comcast's NBCU and Windsor Media, launches







Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email




Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher's new site (their relationship with The Wall Street Journal
terminated at year's end, thus ending the old AllThingsD) is now live at Re/code.

The Mossberg/Swisher holding company, Revere Digital LLC, is launching the new site with
minority investments from Comcast's NBC Universal News Group and Windsor Media, an investment firm run by Terry Semel, former chief of Yahoo and Warner Brothers, it was formally announced yesterday.

See more on the background behind the deal from Fortune's Dan Primack.


Revere Digital LLC is also signing a separate content partnership with NBCUniversal News Group to partner on tech coverage, beginning today. The two companies will maintain editorial independence, the announcement says, though each will have access to the other's content.

Revere's major annual conference will be the 'Code' conference and will be held in late
May at the same California location that the annual AllThingsD conference was held.

The Journal's new site is called WSJD and the AllThingsD URL redirects to its home page. Headed by Global Technology Editor Jonathan Krim, its difficult so far to get a reading on what WSJD will look like beyond some of the blog content that the Journal has long produced, such as 'Digits'.

One of my biggest hopes for the new Mossberg/Swisher site was that it would eliminate
the usual page load lag of several seconds that existed on AllThingsD. So far, so good.


Today in Philly Tech History 1/2/12: Versus rebranded as NBC Sports Network



Two year ago today, Comcast's NBC Sports relaunched the Versus cable channel as the NBC Sports Network, one part of a strategy reflecting Comcast's broader ambitions in sports programming. NBC Sports established a new headquarters in Stamford, CT.; previously Versus had been based in Philadelphia. Comcast also rolled up its regional sports networks, including CSN Philadelphia, under NBC Sports.






The new network kicked off with coverage following the NHL Winter Classic, which was played that afternoon at Citizens Bank Park and shown on NBC. The Rangers beat the Flyers, 3 to 2.



permalink


Philly Tech News' Top 2013 Stories







Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email




This is a collection of the most interesting, not necessarily most read, stories I covered on Philly Tech News during 2013.

Since I am generally only one person,I can't cover everything in-depth and I am sure there
are important things not included here. My focus has been on:

  • Following the developing contest between Comcast, Charter and other cable operators to consolidate the cable industry. Watching the challenges from over the top (OTT) delivery methods to the traditional cable model, as well as the continued growth of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH). Also important in 2013 was Comcast buying out the remainder of NBCU.  
  • Covering the enterprise software market, both large & small, as SaaS and the Cloud continue to gain share, Amazon Web Services soars, and everyone attempts to adjust to the new technology. Also, the continuing evolution of SAP's HANA in-memory platform.
  • Reporting on trends in the eCommerce industry, which I find to be perhaps the most active and dynamic area for innovation in the Philly Tech ecosystem. 
  • Covering dramatic changes occurring in healthcare IT and clinical trials technology.
  • Continuing to track the best young startups in the area via Philly Tech News Young Companies to Watch, which has been expanded to 50
    companies (although a few of those have recently been acquired).

I also want to thank Esther Surden, Editor & Publisher of NJTechWeekly, for working with me and sharing excellent content with me again this year.



12/30: Pre-New Year's Surprise: PTC acquiring Exton-based ThingWorx for $112 million + potential earnout

12/17: All in the (Insight) family: Unitrends buys PHD Virtual to compete against Veeam

12/12: Epicor moves Americas ERP headquarters from Yardley to Bensalem & planning for growth

12/7: Campbell Soup's Pearl Harbor Day SpaghettiOs tweet draws attention, mixed reaction (Update: tweet removed with apology)

12/1: US 1 reports on Rosetta founder Chris Kuenne's new PE firm, Rosemark Capital Group

11/22: Report: Comcast considering Time Warner Cable bid? Update: Could be joint bid with Charter

11/18: Deloitte releases Fast 500: MeetMe #3?; Here are Philly area representatives

11/17: Wrapup: Philly at Dreamforce 13 (with more company news)

11/15: CIA CTO Gus Hunt joins LLR Partners

11/13: Begin the IPO watch for Monetate

11/9: Looking Back on Hurricane Sandy and the Tech Community, One Year Later

10/21: IMPACT 2013 Venture Summit in Philly, starting today, features 50 presenting ventures

10/18: On heels of Veeva Systems' mega IPO, a look at its Philly ties and vision for life sciences IT

10/11: The big deal: Alibaba leads $206 million round in ShopRunner

10/10: Philly to get a giant new ecommerce/retail tech stock, of sorts: QVC Group

10/2: Three big deals: SAP Ventures; Heartland Payment Systems; LLR Partners

9/17: Rick Nucci's new gig: Venture partner at FirstMark Capital

8/29: King of Prussia-based Greenphire builds alliances to reach large global clinical trial payments market, as Sunshine Act takes effect Ranked #191 on Inc. 500

8/24: Comcast highlights for week: Roberts spends time with Obama on Vineyard; WSJ on Steve Burke

8/2: Reported Charter-Cox talks, Cablevision comments raise cable M&A speculation; Comcast's view

7/31: Conshohocken's eMoney Advisor an important (but quiet) Philly software firm

7/22: SAP: McDermott to become sole CEO in 2014

7/19: Quintiq: The largest Philly-area software firm most people have never heard of

7/9: Delco insurance software firm InsPro Technologies sees continued rapid growth

7/2: Will Comcast respond to Malone's cable acquisition ambitions?

6/27: SaaS Life Sciences vendor Veeva Systems, with significant Radnor (& now Ft Washington) presence, annnounces IPO plans

6/24: Seeking growth, SunGard Availability looks to Managed Services, expands Cloud strategy

6/20: GSI Commerce renamed eBay Enterprise

6/19: MentorTech Ventures joins MissionOG in CloudMine round

5/28: Updated, revised and expanded: Philly Tech News Young Companies to Watch

5/18: Tableau's market value soars past that of competitor QlikTech on first day of trading

5/3: Philly's Connexus Technology focuses in on emerging areas of Healthcare IT

4/3: Monetate's new CFO David Stetson

3/29: Phorum Philly '13 Highlights: PeopleLinx wins "Best in Show"; Philly Enterprise Hackathon 2013 announced

3/22: More on out of home digital advertising startup Vistar Media

3/18: Phorum Philly 2013, to be held this Thursday (the 21st), has a different focus, but same quality as last year's program

3/14: New Hope-based MeetMe names COO, myYearbook co-founder Geoff Cook CEO; focuses on monetizing growing mobile traffic

3/11: California-based Cloud Pharma CRM & CMS vendor Veeva Systems, with sales & marketing based in Radnor, may seek IPO

2/25: Artisan Mobile (formerly appRenaissance) launches mobile development platform, Artisan Optimize

2/22: 451 Group research note on Dell Boomi has some interesting info

2/12: Comcast to buy rest of NBCU from GE for $18.1 billion

2/5: SAP HANA consultant John Appleby, UK-based Bluefin Solutions set up shop in Philadelphia

1/15: Bain Capital invests $150 million in Wilmington-based SevOne

1/6: Johnson & Johnson among area enterprises implementing Workday HCM





















































































V3 Hot Seat: Workday CEO, Aneel Bhusri (V3.co.uk)
Didn't know Bhusri grew up in New Jersey. Wonder where?

Will DirecTV keep its Sunday Ticket football package or punt? (LA Times)






Warby Parker valued at $500 million (Fortune: Term Sheet)

Comcast’s ‘Streampix’ Multiscreen Video Service Adds Download Option (Multichannel News)

Netflix tests new price tiers, including $6.99 for single-stream (LA Times)


CDI Corp. Announces Corporate Realignment (PR Newswire)