HP acquires Philly-based network-simulation vendor Shunra

Tom Paine

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HP announced this week on a blog post it had acquired Philadelphia-based Shunra, which provides network-virtualization and application-performance engineering technology. Shunra has already been an HP partner.

Shunra Network Virtualization builds real-world application performance testing into business and mission-critical applications prior to deployment. HP said in a statement, "We expect Shunra’s technology will bolster our mobile capabilities and expand our growing Software as a Service (SaaS) portfolio within our Application Delivery Management (ADM) business." Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2014, were not disclosed.

Shunra started out in Israel but moved its headquarters to Philadelphia after raising $11.5 million led by Insight Venture Partners in 2004. Shunra had earlier been managed by CEO Thomas Charlton, who also brought another Insight Venture Partners portfolio firm, PHD Virtual, to Philly and served as its CEO, before departing to focus on his own startup, Goliath Technologies. Shunra's current Chairman & CEO is Gary Jackson. PHD Virtual was acquired by another Insight Venture Partners-backed company, Unitrends, late last year.

Shunra's LinkedIn page shows 93 employees, including 26 in the Philadelphia area and 30 in Israel.

Saturday Highlights: Aereo shuts down in SLC, Denver

Aereo's internet TV service in Denver and Salt Lake City shuts down today (Engadget)

Aereo's not for sale... not now, anyway (Engadget)


Last year’s CBS blackout was terrible for everyone. Here’s one idea to fix it. (Washington Post)


SAP HANA: Just a Sidecar to IBM i, For Now (IT Jungle)

Death of the mainframe – again (John Appleby/Diginomica)

Northern Virginia-based UC provider iCore expands with new Philly offices

Tom Paine

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Northern Virginia-based iCore Networks has opened a new Philadelphia office at the Centre Square Building at 1500 Market Street. iCore provides cloud-based unified communications (UC) solutions, which replace on-premise equipment, to businesses. The office already has some employees on board, and the company expects it to eventually house 25 people, mostly in sales and customer support. In a statement, iCore said its "decision to build a presence in Philadelphia is largely driven by the area’s burgeoning business climate and wealth of opportunities."

iCore, founded in 2001 with about 160 employees in total at present, bundles "best of breed" technologies into what it calls its unique "CloudFUZN" solution. The latest expansion follows recent facility openings in other major national markets, including Atlanta and San Francisco. This year, iCore also plans to expand its presence into Boston and New York.

iCore would appear to be competitive with companies such as Philly-based Evolve IP, Alteva, and to some extent, Comcast Business. This regional expansion is being headed by iCore’s Senior Vice President of Sales, Michael Bertamini.

Links 3/7/2014: AT&T worried about Comcast

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Comcast Has AT&T Worrying About the US (Wall Street Journal: Corporate Intelligence)

Will Comcast's Mega-Merger Spin Off an All-New Cable Company? (Bloomberg Business Week)


Verizon offers discount to wireless and Fios triple-play customers (CNET News)


Salesforce at 15 (Denis Pombriant / Enterprise Irregulars)

Eight eye-openers from Salesforce.com's annual report (PC World)


Box Said to Project $200 Million in Revenue as IPO Nears
(Bloomberg)

Andreessen Horowitz leads $37.2M investment in high-flyer DigitalOcean (Gigaom)


Unitrends talks investment and acquisition (Channel Pro)
Unitrends acquired Philly-based PHD Virtual late last year.

Links 3/6/2014: Comcast ties down FreeWheel deal

Comcast Finishes FreeWheel Acquisition (Re/code)
Price said to be $360 million, plus potential $15 million in various payouts, a bit higher than reported previously.

A Q&A with Comcast's top government guy (Fortune)

U.S. antitrust chief recused on Comcast, Time Warner Cable review (Reuters via Chicago Tribune)


OnDeck Capital Raises $77M Led by Tiger Global to Expand Small Business Lending (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
Prior investors First Round Capital and SAP Ventures participated again.

Payoneer Secures $25 Million Funding Led by New Investor Susquehanna Growth Equity, LLC (Business Wire)

$70M upgrade to telecom hotel at 401 N. Broad (Philly.com: Philly Deals)


Safeguard Scientifics Announces Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2013 Financial Results (Business Wire)

New York VC Investments Top $1B In The First Quarter (TechCrunch)



Oracle: Villain Or Scapegoat In Oregon Insurance Exchange Mess? (Information Week)

LLR Partners closes 4th fund at $950 million

Tom Paine

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Philadelphia-based middle market private equity firm LLR Partners today announced the close of its fourth fund, LLR Equity Partners IV, L.P, at $950 million.

The firm said in a statement that LLR 4 began investing in 2013 and has closed investments in five companies – ACRE, Cigital, iJET, Logi Analytics and Ultisat. LLR Partners "remains focused on a broad range of industries, including business services; consumer and education; financial services; security, defense and government services; healthcare services; and software and IT services," according to LLR.

The firm also announced that Todd Morrissey and David Stienes were promoted to partner in LLR 4. LLR Partners was founded in 1999.

LLR has also made recent efforts to boost its presence in the Washinngton, DC area and the government technology sector.

Amerimar Enterprises Acquires 401 North Broad Street, Key Telecom Carrier Hotel in Philadelphia
(Marketwire)

Former SevOne CEO Phelan joins Osage Venture Partners; Drahms promoted to Partner

Tom Paine

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Osage Venture Partners, Bala Cynwyd, announced today that Michael Phelan has joined the firm as a Venture Partner. Until last year, he had served as CEO of Wilmington-based SevOne, in which Osage is an investor, seeing it reach a $150 million recapitalization led by Bain Capital Ventures in late 2012.

In a statement, Osage said that Phelan is joining the firm "with a focus on providing hands-on support to portfolio companies and on strengthening Osage's relationships with the regional entrepreneurial community."

Osage also announced the promotion of David Drahms from Principal to Partner. Drahms joined Osage in 2005.

Links 3/5/2014: SAP adds subscription pricing for HANA cloud services; Bucks firm planning huge NJ data center

Verizon Wireless Plans to Triple AWS Deployment This Year to Ease Congestion (Re/code)

Netflix and Comcast Are Only Trying to Help You (Bloomberg Business Week)

Dishing Out Some OTT (Multichannel News)

Comcast Marches Toward 1 Million Wi-Fi Hotspots (Multichannel News)



SAP adds subscription pricing for Hana cloud services (PC World)

NetSuite CEO Nelson: Spare me the Workday collision talk (ZDNet)


Tableau and Splunk partner up (ZDNet)


Bucks firm starts $650M data center at ex-Pfizer site (Philly.com)
Two years ago the same firm, Steel ORCA, announced a similarly sized facility in Fairless Hills, Bucks County, but that facility has not been built.

Why India’s answer to Alibaba & eBay is the tech IPO to watch (VentureBeat)
Started by Wharton grad who couldn't obtain US visa.

Fed: Phila. region's economy slipped in January, February (Philly.com)

Veeva Systems posts results, extends Salesforce partnership

Tom Paine

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Veeva Systems, the life sciences cloud software company with its Eastern US offices in Radnor, announced today it had extended its global partnership with Salesforce for another ten years through 2025.

Veeva will continue to use the Salesforce1 platform for its CRM product, and Veeva will continue as Salesforce’s preferred worldwide partner for the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. The agreement includes minimum payment commitments from Veeva over the term of the extension. Otherwise, the commercial terms of the agreement remain largely unchanged, the company says.

Meanwhile, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2014 Veeva reported today total revenue of $210.2 million, up 62% from the prior year, while net income was $23.6 million, a 26% increase.

Quarterly results were slightly ahead of Wall Street expectations, and Veeva's guidance for the next fiscal year was mostly in line with expectations.

Links 3/4/2014: Dish, Verizon up OTT talk

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Netflix CFO: Comcast Bandwidth Deal Doesn’t Change Our Economics (Variety)

McAdam: Verizon talking to networks about 'wireless over-the-top play' (FierceCable)



Comcast extends 'Internet Essentials' program indefinitely (CNET News)


Disney, Dish Network reach truce on ad-skipping AutoHop (LA Times)

Dish Takes Lead in Race to Offer Streaming TV to Rival Cable (Bloomberg)


Field Service Software Developer ServiceMax Raises $71M From Kleiner Perkins, Meritech Capital (TechCrunch)

Marketo Sets Its Sights On B2C (Ad Age)

Silk Road Had Digital Outpost in Pennsylvania (New York Times: DealBook)
At Lafayette College.