Links 1/28/2014: Comcast 4Q net rises 26%
Comcast 4Q Net Income Rises 26% As NBCU Improves Performance (Variety)
COMCAST REPORTS 4TH QUARTER AND YEAR END 2013 RESULTS (Comcast Press Release)
COMCAST INCREASES DIVIDEND AND SHARE REPURCHASES (Business Wire)
Phila. surveying residents
before Comcast franchise renegotiations (Philadelphia Inquirer)
SunGard preps amendment to $4.24B credit to back spinoff (Reuters)
HubSpot Eyes IPO as Sales Climb (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
Plex continues IPO drumbeat with the addition of former Eloqua CFO Don Clarke (PandoDaily)
Plex is said to be working toward IPO, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turns up on SAP's list of Cloud acquisition candidates.
Medium, Evan Williams’ Post-Twitter Media Startup, Raises $25 Million Round (Re/code)
IBM Exploring Sale of Software Defined Networking Business (Re/code)
Overcoming resistance to BI in the cloud (Diginomica)
MicroStrategy Announces Release of Cloud Based, In-Memory Analytics Service, Running at Multi-Terabyte Scale (PR Newswire)
Links 1/27/2014: Comcast, Charter reported near deal to split Time Warner Cable
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Comcast, Charter Said to Near Pact on Time Warner Cable Assets (Bloomberg)
Comcast Q4 Earnings Seen Rising Amid TWC Speculation (Investor's Business Daily)
Time Warner Cable Sale Will Cost Us All (Susan Crawford/Bloomberg)
SAP Joins Atos to Target State Cloud Deals Amid Spy Threats (Bloomberg)
Four Cloud ERP Providers on the Salesforce Platform
(Frank Scavo/The Enterprise System Spectator)
Is The Private Cloud Really Bigger Than The Public Cloud? (ReadWrite)
Nutanix CEO: companies are moving back to on-prem (Diginomica)
IBM and SAP open up big data platforms for citizen science (The
Guardian)
New IBM Kenexa Talent Suite Taps Big Data To Energize Today's Workforce (PR Newswire)
Malone’s Liberty Global to Buy Dutch Cable Provider Ziggo (Bloomberg)
NFL to block mobile streaming video in Super Bowl stadium (Ars Technica)
Bucks government to launch venture capital fund (The Intelligencer)
In conjunction with Ben Franklin Technology Partners.
Best Buy Stops Dabbling In Managed Services, Sells mindSHIFT To Ricoh (CRN)
Two years after acquiring it, struggling Best Buy sells mindShift, an SME computer services firm with a Philadelphia footprint, to Malvern-based Ricoh Americas. (While I knew Ricoh had operations out in Malvern, I didn't know it was their Americas headquarters.)
Foxconn could start manufacturing large displays in the US
(The Verge)
Philly Tech People News 1/26/2014
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Workday appoints former SAP exec to lead European expansion (Computerworld UK)
Chis Kuenne formally resigns from Rosetta to focus on new PE Firm (Philly Tech News)
MARK WEINER, MD, FACP, FACMI, NAMED ASSISTANT DEAN OF INFORMATICS (Temple University School of Medicine)
Revitas Expands Leadership Team to Meet Growth Demands (Business Wire)
WebLinc Adds Multi-Channel Retail Expert Marc Appana to its Senior Team (Business Wire)
Big Data Company LatentView Analytics Brings New CEO on Board; Eyes Global Expansion and Market Leadership (Business Wire)
My Alarm Center Names Brandon Savage as Senior Vice President of Customer Experience and Operations (PR Newswire)
PerformLine Hires Industry Veteran to Cultivate a Growing Client Portfolio (PR Web)
PerformLine is a First Round Capital portfolio company based in Morristown, NJ.
Comcast joins SAP in supporting 49ers' new stadium
Tom Paine
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Comcast, which provides cable and telecom services in the Bay area, and also reaches area viewers through CSN Bay Area and NBC Bay Area, announced jointly with the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday a 10-year partnership with the aim of delivering an “unmatched in-stadium fan experience.” The partnership coincides with the opening of the
49ers' new Levi’s Stadium next year.
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| Rendering of Levi's Stadium /Source San Francisco 49ers |
The agreement includes an array of in-stadium telecom and video services, as well as enhanced coverage from CSN Bay Area and NBC Bay Area. I find it interesting that NBC Bay Area is designated "the official broadcast partner of the San Francisco 49ers", since the
49ers are an NFC team broadcasted primarily on Fox.
Another technology company with a major Philadelphia-area (and also Bay Area) presence, SAP, also has a partnership role in Levi's Stadium. In late 2012, the 49ers announced that SAP would be a Founding Partner at the new stadium. SAP was named as the team’s exclusive Business Software, Statistics and Performance Partner, and the new training facility adjacent to the stadium will carry the SAP name.
SAP has developed specialized, HANA-based software that helps 49ers management in the
area of player evaluation, combining both the usual football stats and more heuristic
tools reflecting the role of human thought processes in evaluating all aspects of a player's potential.
SAP also has a role at the Super Bowl.It will be hosting the "SAP Stats Zone", to be located on Super Bowl Boulevard, a 14 block stretch of Broadway in Manhattan that will be temporarily closed off to vehicles and occupied by football-related exhibits. It will be open from
January 29 until Super Bowl Sunday.
While Comcast's stake in the sports industry is more obvious, SAP under mega sports fans
Hasso Plattner and Bill McDermott's leadership has taken on a much larger role in both marketing itself through sports and developing products for the sports vertical.
Saturday Highlights 1/25/2014: Report - Comcast may not submit sole bid for Time Warner Cable; SAP may look at big acquisitions again
Comcast Leaning Away From Sole Bid for Time Warner Cable - 3rd Update (Dow Jones Newswires)
If Comcast gets Time Warner Cable New York, could Cablevision be next?
Fox to acquire majority control of N.Y. Yankees' YES Network (LA Times)
SAP finance chief says could look at big acquisitions again: report (Reuters via Chicago Tribune)
Apple looking to build mobile payments service, report says (CNET News)
Alibaba: The First Real Test for Amazon’s Business Model (HBR Blog Network)
Zonoff Links Home Automation Silos Via Staples Connect (Zatz
Not Funny)
Rethinking the limits on relational databases (Craig Kerstiens)
Boston's tech identity issue versus Philly's
Tom Paine
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So you think its just Philadelphia that has a tech industry inferiority complex?
 |
| Dan Pimack / Fortune TermSheet |
As he sees it, some of the problem can be attributed to the lack of tech media based in Boston, although he notes the exceptions of a couple of Boston websites and one or two
people assigned to the beat from national tech blogs. While Silicon Valley is covered
to the hilt, on the east coast he perceives a New York media bias of sorts, in that since
so many media organizations are based New York, more reporters are based there and tend to hype up the next hot New York startup, which in a virtuous or vicious circle of sorts creates a stonger ecosystem for the New York tech scene. (That is my rough interpretation of his words, not his).
Of course Philly has, in addition to its local outlets (with due credit to Technically Philly), several well known tech reporters from national websites based around the area, though most are not here specifically to cover the Philly scene. In some cases, they only
live in the area due to its proximity to New York - at least that's my impression.
My point of view is that while a strong local tech media is important, it is also important that it is independent and objective in its coverage, rather than engaging in boosterism.
If you've got good stuff, you don't need to overhype it.
Links 1/24/2014: SunGard to spin off its Availabilty unit
SunGard Announces Plan to Split Off Its Availability Services Business; Will Separate into Two Strong, Industry-Leading Companies (Business Wire)
This comes after Wayne-based SunGard was reportedly seeking a sale of SunGard Availability. The spinoff plan for now does not seem to involve a public offering.
IBM and SAP: Looks like we're STUCK forever on the cloud highway (The Register)
Report: Apple TV successor with revamped OS coming in first half of 2014 (Ars Technica)
Philly area resident Scallan plays key role at Silicon Valley's high-flying Flipboard
Tom Paine
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Josh Kopelman coined the term "Redeye VC" to describe the bi-coastal nature of his existence managing First Round Capital. Lehigh grad and area native Paul Martino has maintained his residence in Doylestown in spite of the time he spent as co-founder of Aggregate Knowledge (recently acquired for $119 million) and his current position as managing partner with VC firm Bullpen Capital, both based on the west coast. App design guru Loren Brichter maintains a primary residence here while advising west coast firms. And there are other examples.
 |
| Greg Scallan / Twitter |
One who many may not realize lives in the Philly area is Greg Scallan, Chief Architect for Flipboard, the mobile news reader app platform that just last month confirmed it had raised another $50 million, closing out a Series C round of $100 million, led by Rizvi Traverse Management. Flipboard now says it has 100 million total users, up from 85 million at the time the first half of the round was announced, and is aiming for 150 million in 2014.
Scallan, who grew up on Staten Island (disclosure: the same place I did, though I didn't know him there - Staten Island is not a small village) received his BS in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh. After a few years at IBM and Paper Software, he joined Netscape not long after its famous 1995 IPO. He then served as Chief Architect-VoIP Platform at Tellme Networks, directing development of its Toll Free Directory Assistance service, and joined Microsoft after it acquired Tellme in 2007, leaving in 2009 to start Flipboard along with his long-time associate Mike McCue, Flipboard's CEO, and Evan Doll.
Although Flipboard is based in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto), Scallon told me in a phone interview he maintains his primary residence in the outer western burbs (near Chester Springs) for family reasons, but he spends considerable time on the west coast. He says he simply hasn't had the time to get too involved with the Philly Tech scene, though he would like to attend some of Philly Tech Meetup's events.
Flipboard launched first for the iPad and then the iPhone, but it now a has a significant percentage of Android users and launched an app for Windows Phone in November. Its not clear whether Flipboard will ultimately be more of a content curator, aggregator or publishing platform, though I'd say now its a combination of all three. Scallon says Flipboard and others in the news reading app space are still trying to work out optimal business models for it, and there is frequent discussion ongoing among players in the industry.
Although Flipboard initially may have focused on larger publications (who sold their own ads), it has gradually broadened its base, allowing users to curate their own collections gathered from Flipboard content and encouraging more smaller self-publishers to use its platform. However, the issue of how to help smaller publishers monetize remains.
One new competitor is Medium, founded by Blogger founder and Twitter co-founder Ev Williams. Medium favors a more web-based approach versus Flipboard's primarily app-based approach. Another significant competitor could be a Facebook product, reportedly named Paper, which may be introduced in the coming weeks. After selling the Washington Post to Jeff Bezos, the Graham family holding company relaunched its news reader entrant, Trove.
Scallan says Flipboard is a happy Amazon Web Services user for all of its cloud services, and has no plans to move to more of a hybrid or private cloud architecture.
Update 1/29: Flipboard wants to look more like
traditional magazine (Gigaom)
Update 2/4: Facebook's Paper vs. Flipboard: Comparing mobile news apps (Mashable via San Jose Mercury News)
Links 1/23/2014: SAP seen facing difficult challenges ahead
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Comcast, Verizon dissolve joint product-development venture (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Basic story a few months old, though adds interesting details. Joint marketing of each other's products in some areas continues, but I wonder how much actually has been sold through this arrangement. I doubt its been much.
T. Rowe Price Wants Time Warner Cable and Charter to Talk (New York Times: DealBook)
Comcast To Trot Out New Tech, Features For Sochi Games (Multichannel News)
Philly will be one of test markets for ‘Instant On Demand’.
Comcast buys majority stake in its Center City HQ, sources say (Philadelphia Business Journal)
IBM And SAP Have A Tough Road Ahead Against Amazon's Low Margin Cloud (ReadWrite)
SAP's master plan: A look at the challenges ahead (ZDNet)
Lessons from the death of a tech Goliath (Fortune)
On Siebel Systems.
Workday rolls out revamped, HTML5-powered user experience (Computerworld UK)
Salesforce.com courts Microsoft .NET developers with new tools (PC World)
eBay CEO Says Icahn PayPal Spinoff Makes No Sense (Re/code)
Lenovo To Buy IBM's x86 Server Business (Information Week)
Quality Systems, Inc. Reports Fiscal 2014 Third Quarter Results (Business Wire)
Quality Systems' core business is NextGen Healthcare, based in Horsham.
MapQuest Transfers Local Listings Management To Yext (Search Engine Land)
MapQuest, which was spun out as a venture from RR Donnelly, originated in Lancaster. It
still has a presence there, last I checked, though its been diminished by Google Maps and AOL management indifference.
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