Sunday Highlights: Netflix in agreement to pay Comcast for direct access to Comcast's network



Netflix Reportedly Enters Paid Deal With Comcast To End Slowdown Standoff (TechCrunch)

Comcast, Netflix Forge a Stronger Streaming Connection
(Multichannel News)

Inside The Netflix/Comcast Deal and What The Media Is Getting Very Wrong (Streaming Media)


Netflix strikes deal to pay Comcast to ensure online videos are streamed smoothly (Washington Post)


Comcast and Netflix Team Up to Provide Customers Excellent User Experience (Business Wire)
Press release doesn't add much.



Mayor calls out Verizon on broadband agreement
(Crain's New York Business)

Financialforce.com Repositions Itself As the Latest Cloud ERP Player
(CIO.com)

Program matches foreign investors with Phila. projects
(Philadelphia Inquirer)







RUMOR: Oracle Could Be Buying Marketing Tech Startup BlueKai For About $400 Million (Business Insider)

Fisker claims total nearly $1 billion (Wilmington News Journal)




RJMetrics' growth seen as symbol of Philly entrepreneurial progress




Tom Paine



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Whether, as Mayor Michael Nutter said on Tuesday at the opening of RJMetrics' new offices, that its an example of a company that can “start in Philly, grow in Philly and stay in Philly,” I'm not completely sure, because the startup had its first offices in Camden after originally working out of co-founder Robert Moore's home, which I think was in Jersey at the time if I remember correctly. But that's just a minor technicality.


L to R: deputy mayor for economic development Alan Greenberger, Jake Stein, Mayor Nutter, Robert Moore at RJMetrics office opening (Courtesy RJMetrics)



But another impressive fact about RJMetrics, co-founded by Princeton grad Moore and Penn
grad Jake Stein, was that it was basically bootstrapped from its founding in 2009 until receiving some seed funding in 2012, then getting a 6.25 million Series A round led by Trinity Ventures in 2013. (Trinity, by the way, just lead an $8 million round in Hoopla Software, which has development offices in West Chester.)

RJMetrics has grown from 26 to 46 employees since May 2013, and plans to nearly double that staff this year. This growth necessitated more space, and thus the move from The Philadelphia Building to The Widener Building at One South Penn Square.

RJMetrics has become a star in the business intelligence space, specifically in helping
companies doing business over the web analyze the data coming out of their operational websites. Its SaaS software is said to be easy and not too expensive to get started up on. It says it now has more than 250 clients.

The event was held not only to highlight RJMetrics' success, but the progress of the entrepreneurial community in Philadelphia, for which RJMetrics has been both a key example and a visible leader.




Radnor-based QlikTech reports 2013 growth of 21%; Ranks near top of Gartner Magic Quadrant




Tom Paine



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Radnor-based QlikTech reported its year-end 2013 results this afternoon.

Total revenue for 2013 was $470.5 million, an increase of 21% from 2012. GAAP net loss was ($10.0) million, compared with GAAP net income of $3.8 million in 2012.

For 2014, QlikTech's guidance projects revenue between $545 and $555 million, and a bottom
line (non-GAAP) of $30 to $35 million. The revenue projections indicate growth of between
16 and 18%.

Although it offers a very different solution, QlikTech business intelligence competitor Tableau reported 95% revenue growth to $81.5 million earlier this month, and GAAP net income of $11.2 million.

Some will offer different explanations, but my sense is that Tableau is taking much of it
out of QlikTech's hide.

Update 3/1/2014: QlikTech CEO Lars Björk and one analyst tend to downplay Tableau as a direct competitor, though I remain unconvinced.

In an interview with TheStreet.com, Björk reviews the company's progress and emphasizes
its push into the healthcare sector:






Also, Gartner's 2014 BI Magic Quadrant was released last week,and you can see that QlikTech ranks very high among the leaders:








Links 2/19/2014: Google Fiber talks expansion; TruePosition acquires Skyhook Wireless



FCC will not appeal defeat in Verizon internet access case (Reuters via CNBC)
But may seek to use other regulatory powers to enforce aspects of net neutrality.

Exploring new cities for Google Fiber (Milo Medin/Google Blog)
Google Fiber's talk of expansion positive for Comcast's regulatory argument (more evidence of competition) but negative in sense that several target cities are served by Comcast/TWC.
I don't doubt that specific timing of announcement is related to merger agreement.

Google Fiber May Have High-Profit Long-Term Payoff, Says Bernstein (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Net Neutrality, Google Fiber Plans Pound Cable Stocks
(Multichannel News)


Netflix Prime Time Speeds Plummet on Verizon FiOS, Pushing Net Neutrality in Spotlight (The Wrap)

Comcast acquisition of Time Warner Cable could undermine CBS deal (LA Times)


Trueposition Acquires Skyhook Wireless (PR Newswire)


Location Services Company Skyhook Wireless Gets Acquired By TruePosition (TechCrunch)

Long before Amazon, QVC ruled home shopping: Its stock is coming back (CNBC)


Microsoft’s Tatarinov: no-one serious is doing cloud ERP! (Diginomica)

Microsoft marshals marketing, service, social for Dynamics CRM, aims anew at Salesforce.com (PC World)


Intacct Raises $45M To Bring Bean Counters To The Cloud (TechCrunch)

Hospitals begin sharing patient data electronically (Philadelphia Business Journal)






Philly Tech News: Past week highlights on Twitter






























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.





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.