Links 4/23/2014: Wireless lobby group names ex-FCC member & current Comcast exec Baker as president; What's up with LevelUp?

Software Firm Whacked for $391 Million (Courthouse News Service)
SAP still on hook in patent infringement case, court says, even though Patent & Trademark Office says(in non-final ruling) that patents are invalid.

SAP's on-site apps fumble for the gearstick as cloud stamps pedal (The Register)


Wireless lobby group names former FCC member [& Comcast exec] Baker as president (Washington Post)

Dish Said to Target Summer Debut for Internet-TV Service
(Bloomberg)

Chernin Teams With AT&T in Online Video Investment Venture (New York Times: DealBook)


Cognizant Snaps Up Itaas (Multichannel News)

Ireland company sets up Philadelphia office to be close to Comcast (Philadelphia Business Journal)


Regulators approve settlement with Verizon over broadband rollout (NorthJersey.com)

Tough Realities Persist In Mobile Payments
(ReadWrite)
Interesting details on LevelUp's progress to date.

Unisys Announces First-Quarter 2014 Financial Results (PR Newswire)
Revenue declines 6%; loss increases.


University takes a pass on Oracle after ERP lawsuit settlement
(IT World)
Montclair State choses Banner from Ellucian (formerly SunGard HE) instead.

Bain Capital invests $230 million in Oregon firm that acquired King of Prussia's Maxwell Systems

Tom Paine

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The Portland, Oregon-based construction software firm which acquired King of Prussia-based
Maxwell Systems from LLR Partners in February has agreed to sell a $230 million stake in itself to Bain Capital.

Bain's investment in Viewpoint Construction Software largely replaces the stakes held by Updata Partners and TA Associates while providing additional growth capital. Viewpoint declined to say whether Bain's investment would give it a majority ownership position, according to the Portland Oregonian.

Maxwell, which served smaller contractors and was probably set back by the recession,
was viewed as a tuck-in acquisition by the larger Viewpoint, which has some 700 employees.
Maxwell also seemed to be behind in adopting a cloud computing platform. At the time of
the Maxwell acquisition Viewpoint said there would be some job reductions in King of Prussia; terms of that deal weren't disclosed.

The Bain investment means an IPO, though still a possibility for Viewpoint down the road, probably won't happen for a while. But these kinds of larger, later stage investments have become common recently as some companies draw back from the nervous IPO market and seek what is essentially a round of bridge financing.

Links 4/22/2014: Comcast earnings don't miss a beat, said to be near Charter deal; Aereo arguments

Comcast Adds Cable-TV Customers Again, Bucking Industry (Bloomberg)

Charter Said to Near Deal With Comcast For 1.5 Million Customers (Bloomberg)


Comcast/Netflix: Unwinding the Latest Traffic Jam, but at What Cost? (Knowledge@Wharton)


Argument preview: Free TV, at a bargain price? (SCOTUS Blog)

Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Aereo Case (New York Times)

In Aereo hearing, Supreme Court expresses concern for cloud computing – but doubt over tiny antennas (Gigaom)


Dell Boomi sees strong growth, aims to improve integration errors
(ZDNet)


How Fieldglass survived difficult times on the way to an exit (Chicago Tribune)
Fieldglass agreed to be acquired by SAP last month.

Dancing Giants: At SAP, it is about trying to make the battleship turn faster (PandoDaily)

Center City showing signs of weakness (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Netflix beats estimates: Hastings opposes Comcast/TWC deal (Update: Comcast responds)

Tom Paine

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Netflix today reported first quarter results that topped estimates, with over $1 billion in
revenue and 48 million subscribers worldwide.

Its net profit of $53 million, or 86 cents per share, also beat estimates.

Netflix also said it planned to raise prices for new subscribers in many countries by up to $2 per month, or 25%.

In his letter to shareholders, CEO Reed Hastings also revealed publicly his opposition to Comcast's proposal to buy and merge with Time Warner Cable.

The merger "would possess even more anticompetitive leverage to charge arbitrary interconnection tolls for access to their customers. For this reason, Netflix opposes this merger," Hastings wrote.

Earlier this year, Netflix reached an agreement with Comcast to pay for direct interconnect access to Comcast's network. Initial results indicate increased speeds for customers using Netflix with Comcast.

Update: Comcast responds

Links 4/21/2014: First Round Capital portfolio firms in the news

Pfizer Said to Have Held Now-Dormant Talks to Buy AstraZeneca (Bloomberg)

Cash-strapped Square talks with potential buyers
Half of $340 million raised has been consumed, sources report (MarketWatch)

Aereo Case Will Shape TV’s Future (New York Times)

Aereo to Face Uphill Battle in Supreme Court, Experts Say (Analysis)
(Hollywood Reporter)


All atwitter for Gnip: Boulder waits to see impact of Twitter's purchase of local firm (Boulder Daily Camera)

Exclusive: Birchbox banks $60 million (Fortune Tech)
Square, Aereo, Gnip & Birchbox are all First Round Capital portfolio companies.

Tucker Twitmyer leaves EnerTech Capital (Fortune Term Sheet)
Will join Franklin Square Capital Partners.

Comcast, Time Warner Cable tie-up could change business services landscape (SNL Kagan)

Charter Shares Soar On Comcast/TWC Speculation (Multichannel News)

AT&T wants to beat Google Fiber to the punch in 21 new cities (VentureBeat)

SAP’s New EVP And GM Of Mobile Sees Tech Trends Converging
(TechCrunch)


ICD-10 Delay: What's Next For Healthcare Organizations? (Information Week)

Philly Tech People News 4/20/2014

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Sungard Availability Services Appoints Josh Crowe as Chief Technology Officer (PR Newswire)

Relay Taps Lisa Herman to Lead Client Delivery Efforts as Growth in Client and Customer Base Expands (Marketwire)

Sources: Mitchko-Beale out at Cablevision (Multichannel News)

Horsham firm riding TV set-top box boom (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Aereo’s CEO on the future of Netflix, TV sports and the public airwaves (Gigaom)

Antennas for us all: How Aereo wound up at the Supreme Court
(Ars Technica)

Can 'WiFi First' Work? (Multichannel News)

Saturday Highlights: NY Times on Comcast's David Cohen

Comcast’s Real Repairman (New York Times)
On David Cohen.

Comcast not laughing at Franken, Poehler act (NY Post)


OpenSSL and Linux: A Tale of Two Open-Source Projects (NY Times: Bits)
Eric Steven Raymond comments.

As It Becomes an App Platform, Dropbox Gobbles Up More Than One App Startup Per Month (Re/code)

Here’s a look inside a typical VC’s pipeline (VentureBeat)

Kanojia Calls Broadcasters’ 'Rube Goldberg' Knock On Aereo 'Insane' (Multichannel News)

Comcast and Time Warner to sell subscribers to Charter (FT via CNBC)

Digital Security: Why Do So Many Still Say “No”? (Ari Jacoby/Re/code)
Ari Jacoby is CEO and cofounder of Solve Media.

ARRIS Acquires SeaWell Networks (PR Newswire)

Links 4/17/2014: Fortune on Monetate; SAP sales, earnings miss estimates

SAP Sales, Earnings Miss Estimates Amid Shift to Online (Bloomberg)

Germany's SAP braced for continued currency crunch (Reuters)

SAP Profit Grows as Businesses Flock to Web Services -- Update (Dow Jones Newswires)

SAP CRM Strategy, Hybris Take Front-Seat in Q1 Earnings Call (ASUG News)

Outside Philadelphia, the digital marketing company Monetate is rapidly growing. So is its business opportunity. (Fortune Tech)


Infor CEO Phillips talks cloud, UI, and industry focus (ZDNet)

IBM profit falls on weak hardware sales, transition costs (PC World)



Are Silicon Valley CEOs Endorsing Comcast-Time Warner Cable Deal? (Re/code)

Linode Invests $45 Million to Retool its Infrastructure (Data Center Knowledge)
Linode is based in Galloway, near Atlantic City.

Linode raises Hourly Billing flag against Digital Ocean pirates
VPS-vs-VPS fight brings billing parity to hosting market (The Register)

The price of being webscale: Google spent $2.35B on infrastructure in Q1 (Gigaom)

Hadoop analytics startup Karmasphere sells itself to FICO (Gigaom)


I Xchange winners announced by Ben Franklin Tech Partners (Lehigh Valley Business)

Links 4/16: QVC expands to France; Did Verizon astroturf in effort to change NJ regs?

QVC To Expand European Presence To France (PR Newswire)

Q&A: SAP's Mike Ettling discusses SuccessFactors cloud HR strategy (Computer Weekly)

Verizon led massive astroturf campaign to end NJ broadband obligation (Ars Technica)

Comcast's Enemy May Be Comcast (Holman Jenkins/WSJ)

TWC To Make Its WiFi Network Looks Like Cellular (Multichannel News)

Aereo Shows Off Their Rooftop Antenna Farm Ahead Of Supreme Court Ruling (TechCrunch)

Barry Diller Talks Murdoch Succession, Pegs Aereo Supreme Court Odds at '50-50' (Q&A) (Hollywood Reporter)
Diller also discusses QVC experience: "I mean, everybody said to me: "You can't do that. You can't go to Philadelphia!."



LevelUp exploits smart bundling to drop credit card interchange fees to 1.95%, saving merchants boatloads (Pando Daily)

Technology Slump Fuels Concern Startup Values May Follow
(Bloomberg)