Philly Tech News: Past week highlights on Twitter






























at 11:34 AM 0 comments

PTN Posts Last Week: Comcast, Hoopla Software, PA Turnpike & More



Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic focuses on how mobile healthcare startups can work with large healthcare organizations

Oregon firm acquires King of Prussia-based Maxwell Systems from LLR Partners; some job losses expected

Irish firm acquires Chester County waste management software firm, PC Scales Technologies

Comcast's objectives in acquiring Time Warner Cable

Hoopla Software raises $8 million led by Trinity Ventures; moving to larger Malvern-area offices

PA Turnpike hires IT consultant: Maybe using IT to improve safety would be a good idea


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Links 2/18/2014: Instacart comes to Philly: Revzilla ramping up at Navy Yard






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Delivery start-up Instacart follows rain to Philly
(USA Today)

Revzilla adds larger building at Navy Yard
(Philly.com: Philly Deals)


Netflix Talks for Time Warner Cable Carriage Said to Slow
(Bloomberg)

Will Comcast’s Merger with Time Warner Give It Too Much Power? (Knowledge@Wharton)



Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal rekindles Charter-Cox Communications speculation (MarketWatch)

Comcast readies for Washington war (Politico)

How the US could block the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger (Ars Technica)


Schumer Has Family Ties To Comcast Time Warner Cable Deal (Gothamist)

Arris ‘Holding Our Breath’ On Comcast/TWC Deal (Multichannel News)



Reaching Every Enterprise in the World: Welcome Graham Younger (Box Blog)
Joins Box from SAP, where he was SVP & GM of Global Sales for SuccessFactors / SAP Cloud.





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PA Turnpike hires IT consultant: Maybe using IT to improve safety would be a good idea



Tom Paine



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Ironically, the day before the latest traffic apocalypse on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
on Valentine's Day, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission announced it had chosen Decision Lens, which describes itself as "the leading provider of cloud-based prioritization and resource optimization software," to assist its CIO and senior management in prioritizing and planning future IT pojects. The release indicates that Decision Lens is used by several other state transit authorities, including PENNDOT, which is managed separately from the Turnpike.




I don't know whether the types of projects the Commission may consider would include any that help better manage traffic, detect hazardous road conditions (perhaps using road sensors), and create better systems for warning motorists of approaching trouble. Might
not be a bad idea, since the PA Turnpike seems to have more than its share of these incidents.


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Links 2/17/2014: PennApps winners; SAP renames TechEd as d-code



Manipulating math and stumping Siri (Daily Pennsylvanian)
PennApps results.

FinancialForce revenue jumps 85 percent (Diginomica)

Oracle Scores Partial Win Against Rimini in Court (Re/code)

Oracle, Rimini Street both claim victory after judge's ruling on copyright (PC World)


SAP renames TechEd conference series as d-code (Computer Weekly)

Danone puts HR in cloud with SAP's SuccessFactors
Global rollout covering 100,000 staff (Computerworld UK)

The SAP HANA ecosystem – the excitement and the caution (Vinnie Mirchandani/Enterprise Irregulars)


Stealthily, Comcast Fortifies Its Arsenal (New York Times)

Independent Networks Offer Mixed Opinions about Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger (Multichannel News)


An inside look at NBC Sports' Olympics television production (Philadelphia Inquirer)






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Philly Tech People News 2/16/2014









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Loretta J. Mester Named President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Effective June 1, 2014
(Business Wire)

Marianne Brown Joins SunGard as Chief Operating Officer, Financial Systems (Business Wire)

Heartland Payment Systems® Announces New Chief Branding Officer (Business Wire)

Shared Spectrum Company Names Mike Daniels and Bill Merritt to Board of Directors (Business Wire)

Peter Luukko Appointed to the Board of Pointstreak Sports Technologies Inc. (Company Press Release)





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Sunday Highlights: PACT award finalists named



2014 Enterprise Award Finalists and Honorees (PACT)

What's coming for SAP in 2014? (John Appleby/SAP Community Network)

Three Technology Revolutions (Pew Research Internet Project)

Start-up opens digital door for students with autism (Philadelphia Inquirer)




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Hoopla Software raises $8 million led by Trinity Ventures; moving to larger Malvern-area offices




Tom Paine



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Hoopla Software, which is headquartered in Silicon Valley but has an R&D office in West Chester, announced last week it had raised an $8 million Series B round led by Trinity Ventures. The round also included participation from previous investors Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE: SFE), Illuminate Ventures and additional private investors.

Hoopla, founded in 2010 by veteran Philadelphia-area entrepreneur Michael Smalls, provides cloud-based software that uses gamification techniques and insights gained
from data analysis to boost performance for groups such as sales and customer
service teams. The company said it grew over 250 percent in 2013, adding over 150 new customers.

Hoopla's LinkedIn page shows 26 employees, 9 of whom are based in the Philadelphia area. Hoopla hopes to double that headcount by the end of the year, and also plans to release
a mobile version in the Spring.

Salesforce participated in Hoopla's Series A, and Hoopla's website still emphasizes its
product's close integration with Salesforce's CRM platform. California-based Trinity Ventures also invested $6.25 million in Philadelphia-based RJMetrics last year.

Hoopla raised $2.8 million in its Series A round in 2012, led by Safeguard Scientifics.

Prior to founding Hoopla, Small's Philadelphia area experience included executive roles at Destiny Websolutions, TurnTide and ClickEquations.

Update 2/16: Responding to my email inquiry, CEO Michael Smalls tells me that Hoopla
is moving from West Chester to the Malvern area "with expanded space to enable us to continue to add to the engineering team there and add sales resources to give us better east coast coverage. John Galvin, our CTO (and colleague from Destiny and ClickEquations) runs the Philly area office." Smalls says he is now living in San Jose but makes frequent trips back to the area.

Hoopla was also named a finalist for the PACT Enterprise Awards ( to be presented on May 8) in the category of "Technology Startup Company."



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Comcast/TWC merger: What some commentators are saying to date



There are many angles to the Comcast/Time Warner Cable saga, and many more that will
come out over time.

I've tried to highlight articles that capture some of the key points so far here:



Two mayors far apart on Comcast deal (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

A Bigger Comcast May Beget More Deals (New York Times: DealBook)

DOJ Antitrust Chief Uncertain for Comcast Review (Wall Street
Jounal: MoneyBeat)

Comcast taps its ex-SEAL, Neil Smit, to lead bulked-up cable group (LA Times)


Wolff: NBC odd man out in Comcast merger (USA Today)

THE REAL PROBLEM WITH THE COMCAST MERGER (Tim Wu/The New Yorker)


Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger: Is Apple TV toast? (Fortune Tech)

Comcast vs. the Cord Cutters (New York Times)

State wired in for huge impact (Denver Post)


Analysts Watch Cox After Comcast-Time Warner Cable Deal
(Wall Street Journal: MoneyBeat)






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Links 2/14/2014: SAP serious about opening HANA startup cafes





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Putting on PennApps: 2 days and $200,000 (Daily Pennsylvanian)

SAP founder outlines start-up strategy as small firms call on the "tank" to be agile
German enterprise software giant opening new start-up spaces to foster collaboration
(Techworld)

Hedge Fund Takes Stake in Malone’s Liberty Interactive (New York Times: DealBook)
Liberty Interactive is QVC's parent company. It is expected to spin out QVC as a tracking stock some time this year.

Tech vendors and cable companies push for more Wi-Fi spectrum (Ars Technica)


TAKING THE PULSE OF MEDICAL APPS AT MOBILE MONDAY MID-ATLANTIC (Mobile Week)

4 questions raised by Castlight Health IPO filing (Med City News)


MicroStrategy Launches In-Memory Analysis Engine (Information Week)


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Reports: How the Comcast/TW Cable deal was done



How Comcast Snatched TW Cable Away From John Malone (Variety)

Comcast Talks From Sochi Win Time Warner Cable in Six-Day Sprint (Bloomberg)

Comcast's deal for Time Warner Cable left Charter out in the cold (LA Times)

Comcast-Time Warner Cable: What it may mean for other media deals (LA Times)

Everything you need to know about the proposed $45B Comcast-Time Warner merger (Gigaom)






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