Links 1/30/2014: Ellison says IBM, SAP no longer Oracle's main rivals; Report: Microsoft Cloud Boss Nadella may be new CEO, Gates may leave board

Ellison says IBM and SAP no longer Oracle's main rivals (PC World)

IBM Sees SaaS as Driver for Social Business in the Cloud (eWeek)

Splitting SunGard, sponsors clear path toward exit (Reuters)

Microsoft’s Next CEO Reportedly Will Be Its Cloud Boss Satya Nadella, Gates Could Be Replaced On Board (TechCrunch)

Unisys Announces Fourth-Quarter 2013 Financial Results (PR Newswire)



The Rise of Vertical-Specific SaaS Vendors (Norwest Venture Partners Blog)

NetSuite posts strong Q4 (ZDNet)


Time Warner Cable Posts Solid Q4 Results, Growing Internet Base But Shedding TV Customers (Variety)

Analysis: Charter's bid for Time Warner Cable hinges on Rutledge's skill (Reuters)

Comcast’s Expanding Mid-Section (Multichannel News)

NBCU, Comcast Offer Targeted Advertising (Multichannel News)


Did Google Really Lose on Its Original Motorola Deal? (New York Times: DealBook)

FCC says US telcos can start moving to IP-based calling, but in baby steps (The Register)

Links 1/29/2014: Google to sell Moto Mobility to Lenovo for about $3 billion

Phorum 2014 to Explore Customer Engagement as Top Enterprise Tech Trend (Business Wire)

Lenovo To Buy Motorola Mobility From Google For About $3B (TechCrunch)
Google bought Moto Mobility for $12.4 billion, sells its phone business for $2.9 billion, sold Horsham-based Home unit to Arris (with Comcast taking stake) for $2.35 billion; said to retain most patents (at least from phone business). Moto Mobility also had $3 billion
in cash and $1 billion in tax credits when Google acquired it, according to DealBook. Google said at the time of the acquisition that it valued Moto Mobility's patents at $5.5 billion.

It’s Official: Lenovo Is Buying Motorola From Google for $2.91 Billion (Re/code)

We’ve just signed an agreement to sell Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion: http://t.co/PKDXrTq6Oe pic.twitter.com/vLcDBXlvIh

— A Googler (@google) January 29, 2014

Planned Comcast Tech Center Raises Sights in Philadelphia (New York Times)


Gartner: Today's on-premises ERP systems will soon get the 'legacy' label (PC World)

Plex's Growth Strategy: Glass Half Full (Frank Scavo/ The Enterprise System Spectator)

A fresh approach to SaaS pricing – Plex Systems (Den Howlett/Diginomica)

REPORT: HUNDREDS OF PATCH EMPLOYEES LAID OFF (Romenesko)

Bloomberg's Alex Sherman on Comcast, Charter & Time Warner Cable / Bloomberg TV

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.

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

Well, then read this article, What's really wrong with Boston tech? by Fortune's Boston-based Dan Primack (a Haverford College grad no less), who covers the PE business globally, on Boston's somewhat diminished national status in the tech world, although they are still much bigger than us (according to the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers & the National Venture Capital Association based on Thomson Reuters data for 2013, New England ventures raised $3.3 billion versus $420 million for Philadelphia Metro). Although Primack notes a recovery from the meltdown of the old Route 128 minicomputer era, and a much more engaged and vibrant urban tech scene, he still wonders where the next big things are coming from.

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)