LInks 4/21: AstraZeneca commits ‘hundreds of millions’ to sequencing genomes of 2M people over 10 years; Google Cast confirmed for Google Fiber hardware



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



iCloud and Siri Teams at Odds as Apple Seeks to Move Cloud Services In-House (MacRumors)

 Google Cast confirmed for Google Fiber hardware
(Zatz not Funny)

 Comcast stabs set-top boxes in the back, pipes directly into smart TVs (The Register)

 Udall to McConnell: Call Up Rosenworcel Nomination (Multichannel News)

 Verizon warns strike could `pressure' earnings (USA Today)

 AstraZeneca commits ‘hundreds of millions’ to sequencing genomes of 2M people over 10 years (Techcrunch)

Accenture Sells 60% of Duck Creek (Insurance Networking News)

 Rapid Ratings Secures Growth Capital from LLR Partners to Accelerate Innovation in Financial Risk Management (Business Wire)
Targeting D&B.

 Microsoft Cloud Stumbles But Company Sees Light Ahead
(Fortune)
Unisys CEO: Security Sales Set To Soar As Cybsecurity Software Is Taken Global (CRN)
Pennsylvania slapped Uber with an $11.4 million fine for operating without a license (PCWorld)

 ServiceNow CEO – our approach to service management is different to the CRM vendors (Diginomica)


at 12:14 PM 0 comments

Alibaba's Cloud unit teams with SAP, Accenture in China to serve enterprise market (Update)


Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader



Alibaba’s cloud computing service unit, Aliyun, has teamed up with SAP and Accenture to provide services to the Enterprise market, the Shanghai Daily reports.

It has also built industry solutions in some sectors, including Internet of Things and online video streaming.

If I read the story correctly, the alliance is primarily aimed at the Chinese domestic market.

"It aims to can help both domestic companies to expand their overseas presence as well as establish local teams to boost revenues from foreign firms," according to the article.




Although its starting in China, Aliyun claims global presence, and its always possible the geographic scope of the partnership could expand.

Alibaba has been making huge investments in building a smarter cloud, with the aim of ultimately competing against Amazon Web Services.

Update: More info on partnership from Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post . Not clear what the specifics are behind the alliance agreement.







at 10:55 PM 0 comments

Labels: , , , ,

LINKS 4/20: Comcast to kill the cable set-top box; SAP Sees 2016 Sales on Track After Sluggish Start to Year



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


A guide to New Jersey startups (NJBiz)

SAS targets digital marketing with Customer Intelligence 360, updates architecture and IoT tools (ZDNet Blogs)
Philly has always been a major market for SAS, particularly in Pharma.

SAP Sees 2016 Sales on Track After Sluggish Start to Year (Bloomberg)

Comcast to kill the cable set-top box (Boston Globe)


Update: Comcast Xfinity TV Program Cited in Set-Top Dust-up (Multichannel News)

Wall Street is about to ask Google some tough questions about its big bets (Business Insider)


at 10:17 AM 0 comments

PointRoll's value: Where did it go?


Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader



One tweet I made recently received a good deal of attention:





King of Prussia-based PointRoll, one of the Philly area's first new media successes, was actually sold by Tegna, the successor to Gannett that contains its non-newspaper properties; the newspapers were spun to a new Gannett Company.

Not that this is new news. After all, the deal was reached in late November, as Technically Philly reported at the time.

But the deterioration in value was perhaps more than some Ad tech people realized.

When it was acquired by Gannett, ClickZ referred to PointRoll as one of the "top four rich media companies", and its future seemed bright. But years of being a corporate kickball within Gannett, which seemed to me to never quite know why it owned it, probably dulled its creative and competitive edge and contributed to its shrinking value over time.

Also, the price PointRoll sold for may have reflected the current state of valuations in the Ad tech market as a whole:





There also was the late 2014 settlement of charges that PointRoll overrode Safari users' privacy preferences. It paid a $750,000 fine and agreed to monitoring.



PointRoll still has value to advertisers in certain segments. The CEO of the company that acquired PointRoll, New York-based Sizmek, said PointRoll serves a majority of ads from the automotive, CPG and retail industry, and it fit well with its strategy.

As to how many associates are left in King of Prussia, Technically Philly reported at the time of its acquisition by Sizmek that 100 out of approximately 300 were let go. But Sizmek's LinkedIn page has only 48 in the Greater Philadelphia area.

And the Inquirer reported a few days ago that PointRoll's CEO, Mario Diez, has left his job to take the top job at Elodina, a New York-based business software firm cofounded by another PointRoll vet.




at 11:44 PM 0 comments

Links 4/19: Pepper Hamilton Expands Technology Group; Cable Firms Prepare To Fight Set-Top Rules



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


Pepper Hamilton Expands Technology Group (Globe Newswire)

 Cable Firms Prepare To Fight Set-Top Rules That Help Google, Apple (Investor's Business Daily)

 Escaping the Digital Media ‘Crap Trap’
(Guest column/The Information)

 Comcast Unifies Broadcast, Digital Video Distribution Platform (Multichannel News)
IBM’s new revenue streams have yet to deliver (Diginomica)

 IBM Shares Tumble After Earnings Forecast Misses Estimates (Bloomberg)

 New AWS service helps companies to move their apps to the cloud (PCWorld)

 COREDIAL CEO: LINES ARE BEING REDRAWN ON TECHNOLOGIES COMPANIES (Channel Partners)
YP Plans First-Round Bid for Yahoo (Bloomberg)
Margins in the Yellow Pages biz sure aren't what they used to be.

 Here are some of the brutal memes Googlers created about Tony Fadell and Nest (Re/code)




at 9:24 AM 0 comments

Republished from five years ago: Where I dismiss the very idea of a Trurmp candidacy


Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader


As the 2012 election approached, I wrote a brief post on the possibility of two Penn grads, Jon Huntsman Jr. and one Donald Trump, running for President.

Huntsman never gained traction in the GOP prmaries, and Trump chose not to run, presumably never to be mentioned again as a potential candidate.



at 12:11 AM 0 comments

Labels: , ,

Links 4/18: Verizon, wireline unions continue negotiations, but lock horns; Netflix Shares Slump As Subscriber Estimates Disappoint



 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


iPhone Rumors: Samsung-Made OLED Displays, All-Glass Design (Information Week)

 Trump and Wharton: A complicated relationship (AP via Philly.com)
Verizon, wireline unions continue negotiations, but lock horns on healthcare, outsourcing jobs and pensions (FierceTelecom)
Netflix Shares Slump As Subscriber Estimates Disappoint (Fortune)
Comcast VP Fuels Second-Screen Startup (Donahue Report)
Investors are slashing startup valuations—and not even Uber and Airbnb are safe (Quartz)


at 11:33 AM 0 comments

Sunday Highlights: Tom Siebel's C3 IoT competes with ThingWorx; Amazon Aims at Netflix With Separate Prime, Video Subscriptions





 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Tom Siebel's C3 IoT looks to expand, slay giants (ZDNet)
Siebel takes a bit of a slap at GE's Predix, which is closely allied with PTC's ThingWorx.

 Oracle acquires Israeli big-data firm Crosswise for reported $50m (Times of Israel)

 Oracle plans Exadata-as-a-service, in cloud or on-prem (The Register)

 Amazon Aims at Netflix With Separate Prime, Video Subscriptions (Hollywood Reporter)

 Verizon Makes Its Strike Case in Ad Buys (Multichannel News)
Sports Authority not the only sports retailer seeking new game plan (Philadelphia Inquirer)


at 9:47 PM 0 comments

Five leading banks, Safeguard Scientifics invest in $30 million Series E in Transactis


Tom Paine



 Subscribe in a reader



Today, Transactis announced that 5 major banks, Capital One, Fifth Third, PNC, TD, and Wells Fargo, along with Radnor-based Safeguard Scientifics, had participated in a $30 million financing as part of a Series E round into the New York-based company, a provider of electronic billing and payment solutions.

Each bank, along with Safeguard, invested an equal amount in Transactis as part of the Series E financing. Transactis has now raised $70 million, including this financing.

Safeguard led Transactis’ Series D financing in August 2014.

Transactis says it reaches more than 100M households and businesses in North America.



at 12:03 PM 0 comments

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Saturday Highlights; Verizon reportedly plans FiOS overhaul with new internet-based set-top box






 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Verizon reportedly plans FiOS overhaul with new internet-based set-top box     (Re/code)
True or False?


Verizon IPTV Ambitions May Go Beyond Go90 (Light Reading)

GoDaddy's Head Tech And Cloud Guru Resigns To Join Google (Fortune)

 Fieldglass gets a boost from SAP acquisition (Crain's Chicago Business)




at 9:19 PM 0 comments

Friday Links: Vanguard Lures More Fund Deposits Than All U.S. Rivals Combined; Obama Backs Wheeler's Set-Top Proposal, Big Time





 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email





Vanguard Lures More Fund Deposits Than All U.S. Rivals Combined (Bloomberg)

 Cablevision-Altice, Charter-TWC Mergers Seen Advancing (Investor's Business Daily)

 Obama Backs Wheeler's Set-Top Proposal, Big Time (Multichannel News)
AirTV Streams Local Channels Directly Into Sling TV (Zatz Not Funny)

 Arris/Weather Partner on OTT
(CableFax)

 The floodgates are about to open in a critical sector for Amazon, Microsoft, and Google
(Business Insider)

 Cardinal Health installs Business ByDesign SMB ERP in five months (SearchSAP)

 GSI Health moves to Center City (Philly Deals)
Yes, startup funding really is slowing in San Francisco (Quartz)


at 10:34 AM 0 comments

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)