Links 1/6: A look at two Salesforce-native ERP suites; On NJ's dying newspapers

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FinancialForce signs hotshot CEO to lead cloud ERP surge (Diginomica)

Business Leader interview – Pat Garrehy, CEO and Founder of Rootstock (Enterprise Times)
Two Salesforce-native ERP suites, though each quite different.

Jon Corzine Gets $5 Million Fine and Lifetime Ban for Tanking MF Global (The Observer)
New Jersey has a decidedly mixed record in choosing statewide office holders.

In New Jersey, Only a Few Media Watchdogs Are Left (NY Times)


Zagster's race to become the 'next big transportation business in Boston' just got a big boost (Boston Business Journal)
Zagster started in Philly as CityRyde.

New Money: Sales Software Company Mediafly Raises $10M (ChicagoInno)
Wayne-based Boathouse Capital was the investor. Although only a few of its portfolio companies are local, Boathouse's portfolio has grown and its made some interesting investments. It has $350 million under management.

Uber Driver Beat Up Rider Who Asked To Go To New Jersey, Lawsuit Alleges (Buzzfeed)

Man who says he invented e-mail sues Techdirt for disputing claim (Ars Technica)


Comcast replaces TiVo/Rovi with Gracenote for metadata (FierceCable)

Walmart buys Zappos competitor ShoeBuy for $70M to help Jet.com battle Amazon in online apparel (GeekWire)

The Limited is closing all of its 250 stores (Washington Post)

Bikeshare company Zagster, once Philly's CityRyde, raises $10 million led by Edison Partners

Tom Paine

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Zagster, the bike sharing company that started in Philadelphia as CityRyde, moved to Boston and more than survived.

Today it announced a $10 million Series B led by Edison Partners.

Zagster operates more than 140 fully hosted bike-sharing programs in 30 states across the U.S. and Canada, and says it experienced 300 percent growth in riders and programs over the past year. Zagster has locations in Philadelphia, West Chester and Princeton.

In 2013, Peter Key profiled in the Philadelphia Business Journal how CityRyde started out at Drexel's Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship in 2007, moving to Boston to join that city's Techstars program.

Co-founder Jason Meinzer left Zagster in 2014 and is now associate product manager for Beachbody in California, according to his LinkedIn profile. The other co-founder, Timothy Ericson, is Zagster's CEO.

It strikes me as an unusual investment for Princeton-based Edison, but perhaps it sees Zagster more as a SaaS play than an operations company.

Links 1/5: Trump Tells Confidant He Still Opposes AT&T-Time Warner; Comcast set to license home automation like X1

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Gartner to Acquire CEB for $2.6 Billion in Cash and Stock
Creates the Leading Global Research and Advisory Company for All Major Functions in the Enterprise (Press Release)

Gartner acquires CEB for $2.6 billion, eyes business decision maker expansion (ZDNet)
CEB apparently provides a window into Salesforce's market.


After spurring M&A from Google, Namely raises $50M to take on the biggies in HR (TechCrunch)

Trump Tells Confidant He Still Opposes AT&T-Time Warner (Bloomberg)


CES 2017: Comcast Unit Boots Up Direct-to-Consumer OTT Service for Content Players (Multichannel News)

Comcast set to license home automation to Charter, Cox, Rogers, others in the same way it licenses X1 in video (FierceCable)

Charter CEO Sees Cable Bundle Surviving Cord-Cutting Trend (Hollywood Reporter)


Qlik buys Swedish mapping software firm Idevio (Telecompaper)

Links 1/4: RJMetrics acquirer Magento raises $250 million; Comcast's new 'Gateway' will centrally manage your smart home

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Magento Commerce Receives $250 Million Investment from Hillhouse Capital (MarTech Advisor)
Magento separated from the former EBay Enterprise a year ago, and acquired the bulk of RJMetrics (now Magento Analytics) last summer.
FT says Magento was valued at over $700 million in the transaction.

AT&T Plans 5G as Fiber Alternative (Telecom
Ramblings)

Megyn Kelly Faces Big NBC Challenges: "Daytime Is Brutal" (Hollywood Reporter)


Comcast's new 'Gateway' will centrally manage your smart home (Engadget)

Netflix: 3 Things to Watch for in 2017
(Barron's)
Trump, Comcast, & content costs.

Is LoRa technology the wireless standard IoT has been waiting for? (TechTarget)
Comcast testing with Semtech in Philadelphia & San Francisco.

Salesforce: Relax, Says Canaccord, Big M&A Is Unlikely (Barrons: Tech Trader Daily)


Salesforce Sets Its Sights on $20 Billion (Fortune)



Spark reels in second $15M payment from Pfizer (Philadelphia Business Journal)

PennDOT Applies to Make Pennsylvania National 'Proving Ground' for Automated Vehicle Technologies

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
Jan 03, 2017, 13:00 ET


HARRISBURG, Pa., Jan. 3, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) recently applied to a U.S. Department of Transportation solicitation to be designated as an Automated Vehicle Proving Ground Pilot to facilitate the safe and innovative development of these technologies.

"This application further illustrates that we're a national leader in supporting automated vehicle development with safety and flexibility in mind," PennDOT Secretary Leslie S. Richards said. "We've put in significant work on this issue with our task force, with our partners in the legislature, and through close collaboration with the industry."

The application outlines the benefits and possibilities for testing within the state that already exist and offer an array of environments and topography under varying degrees of testing. The proposal includes testing facilities:

in Pittsburgh, building on the city's leadership in development and testing for these vehicles and offering an urban environment, connected signals and multiple bridges and tunnels;
at Penn State University, which has a closed track where commercial, transit and other vehicles can be tested at low speeds and with controlled incidents; and
at the Pocono Raceway, which offers a closed track and is ideal for testing higher speeds, multiple connected vehicles (platooning) and other options.
"We're thrilled to be a partner with PennDOT on this application, and continue our leadership as a laboratory for innovation that benefits all residents," said Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto.

The proposal also underscores Pennsylvania's innovative cooperation among government, industry and academia by:

Offering a unique and scalable approach to this technology with the varied stakeholders and testing facilities included.
Highlighting the department's active and ongoing Autonomous Vehicle Policy Task Force, which recently issued its recommended guidance to assist with testing policies, which not only demonstrates investment in this innovative mission, but also illustrates the collaborative framework necessary to make testing proving grounds a success.
Establishing PennDOT as the lead agency on this issue in the state, aligning with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Federal Automated Vehicles Policy (September 2016).
Including technical and research partners – the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the University of Pennsylvania and Carnegie Mellon University – in addition to the testing partners.
For more information on the task force and to review the guidance for which public comment is being accepted through January 12, visit www.penndot.gov.

MEDIA CONTACT: Erin Waters-Trasatt, 717-783-8800; or Alexis Campbell, 717-787-0485

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

Links 1/3: Megyn Kelly to NBC; Viridity Energy sold to Ormat for $35M + possible future earnout

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Megyn Kelly Is Said to Be Leaving Fox News for NBC (NY Times)

Megyn Kelly to leave Fox News for NBC (Politico)


Comcast Acquires Watchwith (Multichannel News)

Charter, Verizon Among Group to Trial New ‘Open Caching’ Platform (Multichannel News)


Viridity Energy Sold to Ormat for $35M—Plus Possible Future Payoff (GreenTech Media)

Busted Oracle finance cloud leaves Rutgers Uni unable to foot bills (The Register)


Vanguard weighs in: Is active mutual fund management dead? (CBS News)

Digital-sign proposal for 1900 Market St. building draws neighborhood ire (Philly.com)

Parts of S. Jersey closer to expanded high-speed internet (NJ.com)

Philly Tech News: 2016 top stories

Tom Paine

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I'm displaying here what is emphasized on Philly Tech News, so new or occasional readers might know what to expect from this site on an ongoing basis.

I focus primarily on deals, initiatives and developments that are likely to have a transformative effect on companies and markets, with an emphasis on the enterprise market.

Philly is my centerpiece, but I believe it is limiting to consider it in isolation. Most everything is connected to things happening in New York, DC, Silicon Valley, Europe, or Asia. I try to show where those connections are.

While its unclear whether there are any unicorns on the horizon, the depth and breadth of the startup pool today in the Philly area with the potential to scale is unparalleled. I'm going to double down on the startup sector, with particular emphasis on the booming Health and Life Sciences IT scene, IoT, and Fintech.

I always appreciate the contributions of Esther Surden, who has her own great site at NJTechWeekly. And I encourage other voices with distinct viewpoints to consider being content contributors to Philly Tech News.





Linode suffers repeated DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks (January 1)


LiquidHub acquires pure strategic digital agency in Atlanta's THINK (January 3)


East Falls' consumer IoT firm BuLogics spinoff StratIS says its breaking even, may seek to raise venture capital (January 8)


TierPoint: Local presence important part of national data center strategy (February 16)


Philadelphia's IntegriChain gets investment from Accel-KKR
Buys out all outside investors (March 1)


Investor Singer takes position, looks for changes at Radnor's Qlik (March 3)


Zonoff prepares for Connected Home IoT Platform Battles (March 30)


Radnor-based QLIK accepts Thoma Bravo's $3 billion, $28.50 per share off (June 2)


Thoma Bravo, one week after its $3 billion Qlik deal, acquires Wayne- based Elemica (June 7)


Safeguard Scientifics leads $17.5 million financing in SF-based Aktana (June 8)


Veeva Systems, off of strong earnings, holds commercial summit in Philadelphia (June 9)


Vanguard's McNabb: "We are a technology company" with 3,000 engineers (June 17)


Citi Prepaid, originally eCount, sold to German company (July 3)


Edison Partners Opens Princeton Office Doors to Early-Stage Tech Startups (July 9)


Philadelphia-based Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property & Science acquired by PE firms for $3.55 billion (July 12)


Philly Tech Venture Roundup: WeWork sues ex-employee over story; Zenefits, Evariant, roundCorner, CenTrak (July 17)


Michael Dubin, Main Line native & Haverford School grad, sells his Dollar Shave Club to Unilever for $1 billion (July 20)


A little background: Trump, Roger Ailes and Fox News (July 21)


Amazon Web Services continues to swallow the computer industry, and other Amazon notes (July 28)


Valuations are funny things; they can go up and down like YoYos
Theranos, SevOne, Jet.com, Birchbox, RJMetrics (August 6)


In early June, QVC’s US sales "began to experience significant headwinds" (August 6)


Dentsu Aegis Network to acquire majority stake in Columbia, MD-based marketing agency Merkle, valued ~ $1.5 billion (August 14)


Malvern-based Scala, pioneer in digital signage, sold to Ohio competitor (August 16)


Doylestown-based clinical trials tech firm Bioclinica is being acquired by buyout firm Cinven Ltd for reported $1.4 billion (August 23)


Does SAP still love Delco? (August 31)


TierPoint completes TekPark data center expansion (September 30)


Dreamforce '16: The Philly Connection (October 4]


Carrick Capital Partners invests $50 million in InstaMed (October 13)


Motherboard on Pittsburgh mayor's ties to Uber; Inquirer's editorial stance on Uber since Kopelman became chairman (October 15)


Salesforce's hacked & leaked acquisition target list included Qlik, Veeva Systems (Update: Tableau explored sale) (October 19)


Trump: Would not approve an AT&T / Time Warner deal, and would seek to break up Comcast / NBCU (October 22)


Move towards OTT causing upheaval in content, telecom markets; Comcast in the middle of it all (October 24)


CenturyLink buys Level3; Implications for Comcast (October 31)


Much of late election activity centered on Pennsylvania, Philly (November 13)


LiveRamp swallows 2 First Round-backed ventures for $140mm plus incentives (November 17)


Dell Boomi competitor MuleSoft looking at 2017 IPO (November 26)


With iPaaS market on growth tear, Dell Boomi ups game with new release (December 7)


Private Equity buyouts this week: Apple Leisure Group (Newtown Square) ; Phlexglobal (Malvern) (December 14)


CB Insights’ Tech IPO Pipeline Report; 369 2017 prospects, but not one in Pennsylvania (December 21)


eMoney Advisor benefitting from Fidelity acquisition: CEO Ed O'Brien: We're growing and hiring (December 23)


Wayne-based Fintech startup QuantaVerse has a compelling value proposition (December 27)

Links 1/2: Non-tech companies buying tech startups; Philly's 35-year-old accounting software

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PLM, BIM, ALM and IoT software providers: how much do you know about customers’ cloud strategies? (SandHill)
Mentions ThingWorx and Bentley Systems.

These tech startups are IPO candidates to watch in 2017 (Business Insider)

For Non-Tech Companies, if You Can’t Build It, Buy a Start-Up (NY Times: DealBook)

Philly's 35-year-old accounting software is somehow still kicking (Philly.com)

Comcast to resume airing Yankees, Nets after reaching deal with Fox (NJ.com)



Who is the Fifth Largest HCM Vendor? (HRE Online)

Retrans battles: Tricky finding out where to watch the game

Tom Paine

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The dispute between NBC and Charter Communications over retrans fees meant Charter subs (including Time Warner Cable's) might not be able to see tonight's Green Bay-Detroit game, which looked like it might be a very big game (although it turned out to be not quite so important after this afternoon's Giants-Redskins game).

So Packer and Lion fans thought they had dodged a bullet when NBC announced on New Year's Eve that it would hold of on its threat to pull the network from Charter systems for an indefinite period of time while negotiations continued.

But for some the problems remained. For example, patrons of an Asheville, NC restaurant (including some diehard Packer fans) expecting to watch the Packers-Lions game found it was not being carried in that market on DirecTV,  the restaurant's system, because of a retrans battle between Hearst (which owns the NBC affiliate in the market) and DirecTV. Though of course it was still available on Charter systems in the area.

Links 1/1: Comcast resolves disputes with Fox News, YES network; Philly.com on King of Prussia startup Forerunner Group

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Got a beef with Comcast? Hire a 'chat robot' to do your haggling. It's 'hilarious' (Philly.com)

Comcast resolves disputes with Fox News, YES network (Marketwatch)


Helping hospitals track counterfeit drugs is this start-up's Rx (Philly.com)

Analysis: A Complete Breakdown of PA’s Presidential Results (Maps) (Politics PA)



AWS sees growth in database migrations (VentureBeat)

Saturday Highlights: NBCU extends Charter deadline: Pharma's middlemen to feel squeeze in 2017

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Husband of South Jersey's Kellyanne Conway possible pick as top lawyer (PhillyVoice)

Pharma's middlemen will feel the squeeze in 2017
(Reuters)

No NBCUniversal-Charter deal? Then no 'Sunday Night Football' for Spectrum customers (LA Times)


NBCUniversal extends deadline, averting a Charter-Spectrum blackout — for now (LA Times)

Experts say SAP needs to work hard to push SAP S/4HANA and HCP in 2017 (TechTarget)