Links 5/8/2014: Invite Media founders land $130 million, led by Google Ventures, for Flatiron Health

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Google Ventures Leads $130M Round For Big Data Medical Software Company Flatiron Health (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
Flatiron Health was founded by Invite Media founders Nat Turner and Zachary Weinberg. First Round Capital was an early backer. Some of the funding will be used to acquire oncology EHR company Altos Solutions.

Flatiron Health raises $130 million to improve cancer care (Fortune Term Sheet)


Siemens to split off health care division (DOTmed)
Siemens' US healthcare business is based in Malvern.

SAP Shakeup: McDermott Speaks Out (Information Week)
Important interview with McDermott.


MeetMe Reports First Quarter 2014 Financial Results (Business Wire)

SunGard Announces First Quarter 2014 Results
(Business Wire)
Completed split-off of SunGard Availability Services; about 90% of revenue now from
Financial Services business.

Box Takes on GE as its Largest Customer (Wall Street Journal: CIO Journal)


Oracle subpoenas Comcast in connection with Solaris support lawsuit (PC World)


Comcast, Time Warner Cable defend merger in House (USA Today)

The Most Republican Company? The Makers of Wonder Bread (and Tastykakes) (New York Times)

Governors Ask Pfizer About Job Losses After AstraZeneca Purchase (Bloomberg)

Links 5/7/2014: Comcast ties up Olympic Games through 2032; More management changes at SAP

NBC Secures Olympic Games Broadcast Rights Through 2032 for $7.65 Billion (Hollywood Reporter)

Comcast to face merger questions from House panel
(Philadelphia Inquirer)


Charter, AT&T Join Arris’s Top Customer List (Multichannel News)

SAP Fires Cloud Chief Shawn Price and Realigns Company (Re/code)
Also new head of SAP North America in Newtown Square. More on that below:

SAP Reorganization Yields New SAP North American President, Old Structure (ASUG News)



The Consumer Revolution of Enterprise Computing (New York Times: Bits)

Alibaba, ShopRunner, eBay: is Philly's e-commerce legacy fading? (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Alibaba's deal-making ripples across Silicon Valley (Reuters)
More on Alibaba's dealings with Michael Rubin and stakes in Kynetics' ShopRunner and Fanatics.


Amazon's Wholesale Slaughter: Jeff Bezos' $8 Trillion B2B Bet (Forbes)


Alteva Announces Appointment of Interim CEO (Marketwire)

Garfield Group rebrands and repositions

Tom Paine

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Newtown-based Garfield Group, one of most established business to business, tech-oriented marketing communications agencies in the mid-Atlantic region, announced in late March changes to its brand and business, and the addition of new talent and disciplines.

Clearly indicating a broader emphasis than traditional public relations, Garfield says it "now functions as a united team — branding, public relations and digital — leveraging integrated talent and insights to optimize programs across all online and offline channels." It will use a new single "G" brand symbol, distinct enough so it won't be at risk of being confused with that of Gatorade's.

Two key additions to the team are intended to help implement this new direction. Garfield has recently added Matt Pfluger (formerly of G2) as vice president, digital strategy and Bryon Lomas (formerly of Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners) as vice president, creative director. The firm also elevated Steve Clark to vice president, director of account services and Amy Valli to vice president, director of public relations.


Although Garfield has represented many of the more prestigious, innovative tech firms that have grown up in the Philly area (and some beyond) since its founding in 1990, President and founder Larry Garfield said in a phone interview with me that he wanted to broaden the firm's regional footprint, get closer to the area's startup scene, and increase its content, digital and video production capabilities.

Current clients include tax software giant Vertex, Opportunity Finance Network, Lotame, rapidly growing healthcare navigation firm Accolade, IMS Health, FreedomPay and online medical supplies firm Burmans.



Last September, Gretchen Roede, who had headed Garfield's public relations wing,
left to form a new firm, Broadpath Strategic Communications, and a few Garfield people (and some clients) followed. Roede had been at Garfield for 15 years. The reasons for the split are not clear, but both Garfield and Roede suggested the two wanted to pursue slightly different paths. “I’m really interested in putting together a firm that I think fits with the needs of today’s technology companies, and certainly being able to do it on my own terms is important as well,” Roede told the Philadelphia Business Journal at the time her new firm was announced.


Garfield, a South Jersey native, Phillies fan and Wharton grad, worked at other agencies
before starting his own in 1990.

Links 5/6/2014: Ben Franklin funds nine startups; Did SAP place too much emphasis on HANA?

Tom Paine

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Ben Franklin Approves $975,000 for Nine Early-Stage Companies (Ben Franklin Technology Partners)

Alibaba Files to Go Public in the U.S. (New York Times: DealBook)

SAP Shakeup Puts Focus Where It Belongs (Information Week)
Was too much hype built around HANA?

SAP and VMware Head for the Future Together
(New York Times: Bits)



Salesforce combining Radian6 with Buddy Media to create Social Studio (PC World)

Report: PE firm wants to sell Austin's Epicor Software for $3.5 billion (Austin Business Journal)
Epicor's Americas headquarters for its ERP business is in Bensalem.

Workday takes another shot at Oracle, SAP with recruiting app
(PC World)

Here’s what Tableau CEO Christian Chabot thinks about competing against Microsoft, MicroStrategy and everyone else
(GeekWire)


EPAM Acquires Jointech, Expands China-Based Delivery Capabilities (EPAM)

Comcast Goes Wide With X1 Upgrade (Multichannel News)

Comcast Commits to RDK-B (Light Reading)


Shammo: No comment on Comcast-TWC, FiOS plans on track (FierceCable)

BioTelemetry, Inc. Reports First Quarter 2014 Financial Results (Globe Newswire)

Links 5/5/2014: More on SAP shakeup; Tableau continues rapid growth

SAP tech chief Sikka steps down in management shakeup
(PC World)

SAP after departure of tech chief Sikka: The big questions (Computerworld)


SAP Management Shakeup: Hana Mastermind Leaves (Information Week)

Tableau posts 86 percent increase in Q1 revenues, net loss rises to $5.6 million (GeekWire)


TrialNetworks Joins the DrugDev Family of Technology-Driven Solutions to Advance the Common Goal of Enabling More Efficient Clinical Trials (Business Wire)
DrugDev is based in Audubon PA & London.

Google Search competitor DuckDuckGo teases major revamp, beautiful new design (VentureBeat)



Putting the Odds on a Publicom Collapse (Ad Age)

Slidejoy Wins Wharton Business Plan Competition Perlman Grand Prize (Wharton Entrepreneurship Blog)

Level 3 accuses five unnamed US ISPs of abusing their market power in peering (Gigaom)
Doesn't say if Comcast is one of them.

Observations of an Internet Middleman (Level3 Blog)



Universal Display Drops 8% on Report Samsung Nixes OLED TV Production Expansion (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Boomi co-founder Rick Nucci launching new venture, Guru

Tom Paine

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I first had a hint that Boomi co-founder and Philly Startup Leaders President Rick Nucci was preparing to launch a new startup when I saw this tweet by him a couple of weeks ago, communicating about his LaunchRock site, usually a sign that something is up:

.@LaunchRock i can log in to your site, but my launchrock site is down: http://t.co/53Dp3muHl2

— Rick Nucci (@ricknucci) April 23, 2014

Indeed he is, and Walnut Street Labs reports it is called Guru, has already been funded and has been hiring, and plans a formal product announcement on June 16. Not much information so far, except that "Guru lets you capture, verify, and share your facts and answers, right from the apps you use every day." You can see its LinkedIn site here.

Nucci will be at Walnut Street Labs in West Chester on Tuesday (May 6) from 9 to 10am. His topic will be "My Ten Favorite Startup Mistakes."

Philly Tech People News 5/4/2014

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LiquidHub Hires Stephen Racioppo as Chief Operating Officer, and Announces Amsterdam Office Addition (Business Wire)

OneTwoSee Appoints Rick Bergan EVP of Business Development and Sales (PR Web)


Bill Bolton Joins Adminovate as Chief Development Officer (Business Wire)

InterDigital Announces New Chief Technology Officer (Globe Newswire)


NBCU names New CFO
(Multichannel News)

Sunday Highlights: Vishal Sikka leaves SAP; other changes

Alibaba I.P.O. May Unleash Global Fight Over Users (New York Times)

SAP AG: Executive Board Personnel Changes (SAP)
Vishal Sikka, Executive Board Member in charge of Products and Innovation, departs.

SAP: Sikka resigns. Three questions that need answers. (Diginomica)



SAP’s Venture With China Telecom Helps Double Cloud Sales
(Bloomberg)

With IPO Hopes Fading, Square And Box Face Reality Of Commodity Products (TechCrunch)

Comcast to bring its X1 service to L.A., New York within year of merger (Reuters via Chicago Tribune)

Comcast nears deal to stream EA games to TVs: sources (Reuters)

What's Happening To The SaaS Market? (TOMASZ TUNGUZ)

University of Texas-Austin goes with Workday for finance, HR, payroll

Tom Paine

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Workday, the up and coming enterprise cloud company, has targeted higher ed as one of its
key verticals, reflecting the backgrounds of co-founders Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri, who built a major presence in that market at Peoplesoft (acquired by Oracle).

Workday announced one of its biggest higher ed wins this week, The University of Texas at Austin. I haven't been able to confirm exactly what incumbent they are replacing (no response to my inquiry to Workday).

Why the release from Workday now, I'm not sure. UT announced on one of its websites that it had selected Workday last September and said in December that the contract had been approved by the UT System's Board of Regents.

This FAQ about the selection process posted on a UT website is interesting. It seems to indicate that Peoplesoft was the only competitive bidder.

This contract covers financial administration, human resources and payroll only. Another
RFP will be sent out for student information system bids. Workday is developing a student
information system and is beta testing it with some institutions.

Workday's existing higher ed customers include Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgetown and Yale.

Of course Ellucian, formed through the merger of SunGard Higher Ed and Datatel, is another large player in the market. Ellucian still has a large presence in Malvern.

Another interesting announcement this week came from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh. It said it was replacing its Oracle system with one from Netherlands-based ERP vendor UNIT4. I had not known that UNIT4 was active in the higher ed market.

Links 5/2/2014: Fortune: Invite Media founders raise 9 figure round for big data cancer fighting venture

Google Ventures leading nine-figure investment in Flatiron Health (Fortune Tech)
Flatiron was founded by Invite Media founders Zachary Weinberg and Nat Turner. Amazed they got so far so quickly. Taking on big challenge - cancer, using big data.

HOW LEBOW STUDENTS HELPED SAP HIRE EMPLOYEES ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM (Drexel Now)

News Corp: Moving SAP ERP to Amazon cloud will save ‘tens of millions of dollars’ (Computerworld)


As Netflix Resists, Most Firms Just Try to Befriend Comcast (New York Times)

House Judiciary Sets Comcast Witnesses (Multichannel News)


AstraZeneca rejects Pfizer's raised bid of $106 billion (Reuters)