Philly Tech People News 8/10/2014

Luukko to chair Philly Sports Holdings (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Lenfest becomes Inquirer, Daily News publisher (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Cablevision Hiring Of Former Yahoo Tech Chief Spotlights WiFi Build Out (Deadline.com)


Dilipkumar Khandelwal takes over as SAP Labs India MD (Times of India)

NJ Serial Entrepreneur, Wharton Grad Marc Lore Snags $55 Million to Build E-Commerce Platform Jet

Esther Surden
Publisher & Editor, NJTechWeekly.com

Marc Lore has raised $55 million for a new e-commerce platform called Jet. |Source: Quidsi website

Whenever New Jersey entrepreneurs want to point to a local success story, they mention Quidsi — the parent company of Diapers.com and several other e-commerce sites — founded in Montclair and sold to Amazon.com in 2010 for $550 million.

Now one of Quidsi’s founders, Marc Lore, has raised money for a new e-commerce startup, Jet. And the amount of money he has raised is not small.

“I’m happy to confirm,” Lore wrote on his blog “that we’ve raised a $55M Series A round of funding led by NEA [Menlo Park] with participation from Accel Partners [Silicon Valley], Bain Capital Ventures [Boston, New York and Palo Alto] and MentorTech Ventures [Philadelphia] . Lore is a Wharton graduate and MentorTech invests only in ventures having a Penn connection. It had also invested early in Quidsi.

 The raise took place as soon as Lore was out from under a noncompete agreement with Amazon, sources say.

 Lore said in the blog that it’s too early to discuss the details of the business he is building. He did say, however, “e-commerce has come a long way in just two decades, altering our expectations around price, selection and service."

"We now expect the lowest prices, infinite selection and overnight delivery right to our doorstep. This transformation in customer experience is undeniable and, at the same time, I believe there is still a massive opportunity for innovation.”

Lore added that Jet will “make use of the latest advancements in technology to create a new shopping experience that will empower customers like never before. Jet will bring unprecedented transparency and efficiencies to the overall e-commerce market, and as a result, will transform the customer experience in a way that, until now, has not been possible.”

An article in Fortune says Lore is building the company alongside two Quidsi cofounders, former VP of special operations Nathan Faust and former project director Mike Hanrahan. Lore’s former cofounder Vinit Bharara, whose January 2014 talk NJTechWeekly.com covered here, is not involved in this project, sources say.

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Business Insider says Jet will operate out of Hoboken and already employs 30 people.

Recode.net’s Jason Del Rey, who broke the news July 29, 2014, says the deal values Jet at more than $100 million. The startup had been self-funded until this point and is expected to officially launch in 2015.




Esther Surden is Publisher and Editor of NJTechWeekly, and a contributor to Philly Tech News. This article (with some small additions) originally appeared in NJTechWeekly, and is republished here with her permission.

Proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable knocked by PSC staff report (New York Daily News)

Cord-Cutting Slows But Danger Still Real – Moffett (Light Reading)

Cover Oregon: Oracle comes out swinging, files lawsuit, accuses Kitzhaber of 'campaign'
(Portland Oregonian)


SAP Smart Financials, Evolution towards HANA Optimized Solutions and Follow-Up Questions
(SAP Community Network)

K.K.R., Blackstone and TPG Private Equity Firms Agree to Settle Lawsuit on Collusion (New York Times: DealBook)
One of the deals in which collusion was alleged was the 2005 $11.3 billion LBO of SunGard
Data Systems.

Amazon starts same-day delivery in Philly (Philly.com)

Is Jive Software caught between a rock and a hard place? (Gigaom)

Links 8/7/2014: More on Cerner's plans for Siemen's health IT unit; John Glaser's view

SAP’s ‘More Like Google’ Campaign Leads to Millennials, Startups
(Wall Street Journal: CIO Journal)

Some SAP customers scratching their heads over how to use Hana, survey finds (PC World)


Cerner: Millennium Remains the Core Product Line
(Health Data Management)

John Glaser, Ph.D., Siemens Healthcare CEO, Reviews the Logic of the Cerner-Siemens Deal
(Healthcare Informatics)

InterDigital Announces Second Quarter 2014 Financial Results
(Globe Newswire)
Revenue almost triples year over year.

Ben Franklin Approves $1.9M for Eleven Early-Stage Companies (Ben Franklin Technology Partners SEP)


UPDATED: Bankruptcy court plan calls for AT&T, DirecTV to take over Comcast SportsNet Houston (Houston Chronicle)

Sprint Appoints New CEO And Drops Bid to Buy T-Mobile (Wired)

TIBCO on the block? (Diginomica)
I'll pass on the SAP/TIBCO rumors since its only the 100th time I've heard them, although
Spotfire would be an interesting addition.



Sage Cloud forms over US (Business-Cloud.com)

.Doctor On Demand Raises $21M Series A And Adds Comcast As A Customer (TechCrunch)

AT&T Said to Weigh Buying Comcast’s Houston Sports Network
(Bloomberg)

CenturyLink brings gigabit broadband to 16 cities: Seattle, Denver, and more (PC World)

Cerner acquires Malvern-based Siemens Health Services for $1.3 billion

Tom Paine

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Cerner has agreed to acquire Malvern-based Siemens Health Services, one of the major purveyors of hospital administrative systems and EHRs, for $1.3 billion. Siemens Health Services grew out of the 2001 acquisition of Shared Medical Systems, but its growth had stalled in recent years as other vendors (particularly Epic) had gained prominence.

Shared Medical was founded in 1969. Siemens acquired it for $2.1 billion.

The health IT business is only one part of a much larger Siemens Healthcare segment. Siemens had decided to exit the business so finding a buyer who would be a good custodian for it became a top priority, Siemens said. Siemens Health Services estimates its 2014 revenue at $1.2 billion. Cerner, which is based in Kansas City, expects combined 2014 revenue of $4.5 billion.

Although Siemens apparently will dispose of some other pieces of its Healthcare unit as a result of a corporate strategic review, it plans an ongoing joint venture with Cerner that will combine capabilities of Cerner's IT business with Siemen's diagnostic businesses.

Cerner indicated that in the short term it expected to operate the two businesses on a stand-alone basis and no major personnel changes are imminent. The combined company will have 20,000 employees, of whom about 5,000 appear to be coming over from Siemens.
The trade source HIStalk provides excellent coverage.

Liberty Interactive reaffims intent to create QVC tracking stock, but doesn't say when

Tom Paine

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Liberty Interactive had announced late last year (I believe) its intent to create one of its separate tracking stocks for its West Chester-based QVC business named the QVC Group. Tracking stocks, which Liberty Interactive's John Malone employs frequently, do not carry ownership of a company's assets but are intended to reflect the underlying value of the asset.

Little more had been said and no action had been taken since then. But today Liberty Interactive said it still planned on creating the QVC Group tracking stock, consisting of its interests in QVC and HSN (38%). However, Liberty said it has delayed the move "in light of the pending Provide Commerce transaction (agreed to be acquired by FTD), and other factors. As a result, "Liberty is reevaluating the optimal structure and best alignment of the Liberty Digital Commerce Group assets," and "the timing of the transition to the QVC Group has been delayed".

No word on when it will happen, but when it does the QVC entity will trade separately on the market with a value likely in excess of $10 billion. It may also facilitate the oft-discussed merger of QVC and HSN.

Links 8/5/2014: Fox withdraws on Time Warner; Comcast confessions

HIStalk: Cerner agrees to acquire Malvern-based Siemens Health Services for $1.3 billion (HIStalk)


Time Warner Rebuff of Fox May Not Just Be Negotiating Ploy
(New York Times)

USA Today Owner Gannett Splits Off Publishing From TV (Ad Age)
Wonder where PointRoll, which is owned by Gannett, ended up?

Pennsylvania Prepares for a Massive Cloud Implementation (State Tech Magazine)

Cablevision Second-Quarter Underlying Profit Rises, Subs Drop (Hollywood Reporter)

It’s Time for Open, Shared Home Wi-Fi (Walt Mossberg/Re/code)

Comcast Confessions: why the cable guy is always late (The Verge)

Liberty Interactive Update on QVC Group Tracking Stock (Business Wire)

John Malone: Combined Fox-Time Warner Would Be 'Very Powerful' (Hollywood Reporter)



Liberty Interactive Corporation Reports Second Quarter 2014 Financial Results (Business Wire)

ServiceMax unfazed by Oracle’s TOA buy – doesn’t expect a call from Benioff

Links 8/4/2014: Comcast expands Internet Essentials program

Jeff Bewkes May Get an $80 Billion Question This Week (Re/code)


Comcast is expanding its $10-a-month Internet program for the poor (Washington Post)

Three Signs That Enterprise Tech Is Booming (ReadWrite)


RelateIQ – Tinder for Sales Reps Looking to Hook Up? (ClikZ)

Microsoft continues global CRM expansion in battle against Salesforce.com (PC World)

IBM launches an HR consultancy, three management tools (Information Week)
Built around Kenexa offerings.


Birth of an app (Philadelphia Inquirer)

They like to think of themselves as the Uber of health care (Philly.com)

Complaints about electronic medical records increase (Pittsburgh Post-Gazettte)

Philly Tech People News 8/3/2014

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SAP to focus on small businesses with launch of SMB Solutions Group
(ZDNet)


Prime Image Positions for Growth With New Leadership Appointments (Business Wire)

Unirisx Further Expands Sales Presence in EMEA (Marketwire)

NJIT Taps Tomas Gregorio, Pioneering Healthcare IT Executive, to Head Healthcare Systems Innovation at the New Jersey Innovation Institute (PR Web)