2/21: Comcast’s ‘Tech ETA’ feature goes wide; Probe of China trader shows how Comcast learned DreamWorks was for sale




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Comcast’s ‘Tech ETA’ Feature Goes Wide (Multichannel News)

Probe of China traders shows how Comcast learned DreamWorks was For Sale (Philly Deals)

Tosh in deeper financial doo-doo as banks turn up the pressure (The Register)
Its Westinghouse problem.






Lumos ends fiber spin-out plans, sells to private equity firm EQT Infrastructure for $950M (FierceTelecom)

Following Lumos’ sale, analyst fingers T-Mobile’s possible interest in Zayo (Fierce Telecom)

Google Fiber’s Webpass internet service coming to Seattle, job posting reveals (Geekwire)

Verizon Stock the Cheapest It’s Been in Fifteen Years, Says Moffett Nathanson (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)


Outcome Health snags Salesforce exec (Crain's Chicago Business)
Outcome Health is the former Context Media.


GE’s secret weapon is its training center on Hudson River (Boston Globe)



News from HIMSS 2017 with a local spin

Tom Paine



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Epic to add Geisinger spin-off xG Health Solutions care management content in EHR, population health platform (Healthcare IT News)

Epic's new app program tries to connect EHR networks (Modern Healthcare)

As Rometty prepares to open HIMSS, M.D. Anderson walks away from Watson (Med City News)

Salesforce builds out ecosystem for Health Cloud, adds better patient targeting, risk scoring (ZDNet)

Healthcare model: Choose Netflix over Blockbuster (Med City News)
"Zajac credits Stephen Klasko, the president and CEO of Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, as the person who is talking about the Netflix effect in healthcare."



Expert breaks down the difference between customer service and patient experience (Healthcare IT News)
Christine Holt of Holy Redeemer Health System said that the entire patient experience paradigm must include an emotional connection that produces loyalty.


Cerner IT support: 'We've flipped the model upside-down' (Kansas City Business Journal)









HIMSS17 Sessions to Get Excited About This Year (InstaMed)


From HIMSS 2/20/17 (HISTalk)

CloudMine and Redox Partner to Optimize Seamless and Secure Sharing of Healthcare Data in the Cloud

Dell Boomi Speeds Healthcare Innovation and Digital Transformation with Cloud Integration




With DHA's electronic health records system operational, Bono eyes next steps (Federal Times)

Siemens Healthineers Establishes Global Digital Ecosystem to Drive Digitalization of Healthcare














InstaMed sent a small army:





Things I learned at HIMSS17
(Med City News)



Big data? Not yet. At HIMSS, time moves slowly
(AthenaHealth)







Uncertainty surrounds nation's largest health IT gathering (Modern Healthcare)




Amazon & SAP: The geographical search for domain expertise

Tom Paine



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Amazon North America fulfillment center network 2015 /
MWPVL International (Click to enlarge)



Amazon announced at the beginning of the year plans to add 100,000 employees during 2017.

And these are not only fulfillment jobs. Amazon is geographically diversifying its workforce, not just in its fulfillment centers, but for higher-level development work as well.

It opened an office in Minneapolis in Mid-2016 , initially aiming for 100 employees, focused mostly on ecommerce and logistics, areas where the Twin Cities have a deep pool of talent. A source tells me Amazon plans to get much larger there. The talent pool in Seattle can not grow enough to keep up with its demand for talent.

Last month, Amazon announced a new office in Pittsburgh. It already has has 50 employees working in technical roles on Amazon Web Services and Alexa, and expects to add dozens more over time, NEXTpittsburgh reported.

Also last month, the Boston Globe reported that Amazon was looking for 100,000 to 200,000 square feet in downtown Boston. It already has substantial employment at Kendall Square in Cambridge.

Amazon also has ecommerce staff in New York. And of course it has Amazon Web Services' enormous US East data center operation in Northern Virginia.

Here is a listing of Amazon's fulfillment and distribution centers worldwide.

You can see the concentration around Philly and the Lehigh Valley. And Amazon's Prime Air is running numerous cargo flights out of Lehigh Valley International.

But while it has a scattering of non-fulfillment professionals in the Philly area, there doesn't appear to be any significant functional groups here. But its an intriguing idea.

---------

Meanwhile, on a smaller scale, SAP has been expanding its Pittsburgh operations. SAP will be adding 242 jobs there, along with some jobs in Newtown Square, the company announced along with Governor Wolf in January. It already has 579 employees inside the K&L Gates Center downtown.

While some of its Pittsburgh operations represent general regional functions, its also a major center for SAP's supply chain business.

It acquired Pittsburgh-based SmartOps in 2013, and SAP tells me that the Pittsburgh office will be the largest centralized presence for SAP's major supply chain entity, Ariba, outside of its headquarters in Palo Alto.

In case you haven't noticed, supply chain tech is hot. New technologies (in-memory, Cloud, IoT, AI, maybe even blockchain), are opening up new possibilities, and Amazon and the on demand economy are driving the use cases forward. Old mainframe systems were limiting. Pittsburgh, with its industrial legacy and universities, particularly Carnegie Mellon, has long been a leader in supply chain systems and implementations. Philly has some assets in that area as well.









2/20: Boomi competitor MuleSoft files to raise $100 million in IPO; SAP license fees are due even for indirect users, court says




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EPAM Systems (EPAM) Misses Q4 EPS by 2c (StreetInsider)


IT solutions firm SHI posts $7.56B in revenue for 2016 (NJBiz)

Lehigh Valley technology provider integraONE acquires Montgomery Co. company
(Allentown Morning Call)

App integration company MuleSoft files to raise $100 million in IPO (VentureBeat)
MuleSoft is a close competitor to Dell Boomi.


SAP license fees are due even for indirect users, court says (PCWorld)

Deloitte goes all gooey for SAP HANA on AWS
2,500 suits to be flung off bench to preach ERP on cloud
(The Register)


Azure’s rise instills doubts in AWS shops ( David Linthicum / Infoworld)



Philly Tech History September 2011: Curalate's predecessor is born

Tom Paine



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From Philly Tech News: September 20, 2011

Storably is a new Philly startup that will help people make use of idle space they might have, such as empty basements and parking spaces, by creating an online marketplace where others can rent that space for their storage needs. Its website goes live tomorrow, the company says, and Storably will be doing a demo at tomorrow night's Philly Tech Meetup. Josh Kowitt and Apu Gupta are co-founders and Wharton graduates. Community Manager Brendan Lowry wrote in an email: "We are a team of Philadelphians who love tech and all things Philly". Its office is located at 2038 Locust Street, between 20th and 21st.


Storably didn't fly and soon pivoted to Curalate.


http://www.phillytechnews.net/2011/09/sneak-peek-early-look-at-some-new.html


Sunday Highlights: Vanguard plans to add 1700 crew members in 2017 to catch up with growth; Comcast’s surprisingly viral future




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At Vanguard, customer complaints rise along with assets (Investment News)

Vanguard plans to add 1700 crew in 2017.

Comcast’s Surprisingly Viral Future (Don Steinberg / Philadelphia Magazine)

China fraud: How a Wharton grad made $29M buying DreamWorks before Comcast (Philly.com)


Change is constant for Alkemy X, a Philly-based entertainment and advertising firm (Philly.com)
ex-Shooters.

Kraft Heinz Withdraws $143 Billion Offer to Merge With Unilever (NY Times: DealBook)

Uber’s CEO promises an ‘urgent investigation’ into a former employee’s sexual harassment claims ((Recode)


Meet The 'Fastest-Growing' $1 Billion Enterprise Software Firm (IBD)
ServiceNow.





Saturday highlights: Vanguard Group systems crash for a while; PHH has bleak outlook




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Google is testing VoLTE support for some Project Fi subscribers (VentureBeat)

The $99 Billion Idea: How Uber and Airbnb Won (Bloomberg Business Week)

Kraft Heinz Takeover Bid Shakes Up Big Food and Its Slow Growth (Bloomberg)
Could shake up some Philly-area food businesses as well.

'Massive exodus' continues from active funds, and Vanguard is reaping the gains (CNBC)





PHH cuts South Jersey jobs, loses $202M, exits joint venture (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Appeals Court Agrees To Hear CFPB/PHH Case (Pymnts)

With No Frills and No Commissions, Robinhood App Takes On Big Brokerages (NY Times)

Measuring Dark Social Using Google Analytics (TOMASZ TUNGUZ / RedPoint)

Rider University adds computer science major to meet demand
(NJ.com)




2/17: Toshiba's big problem was Westinghouse's acquisition; Kraft Heinz after Unilever




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IT Services Giant Accenture Plans U.S. Hiring Spree (Reuters via Fortune)
A majority of its more than 380,000 employees are in India, Reuters reports.

Chaos at Toshiba: $6.3 billion write-down, chairman resigns, bankruptcy looms (Washington Post)


The $6.3 billion hit is related to Westinghouse’s acquisition in December of Stone & Webster, a nuclear construction business, from Chicago Bridge & Iron in December.

The Post reports: "Toshiba, which bought a majority stake in Pennsylvania-based nuclear power company Westinghouse in 2006, earlier said that it had received internal information late last month about irregularities during the acquisition. It had learned that controls at Westinghouse had been “insufficient” and that the company had used “inappropriate pressure” to make the acquisition."

i
Universal Rising: iPhone 8 One of the Ingredients for New $90 Cowen Price Target (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)

Potential Activist Funds Line Up to Take a Salesforce Stake (Bloomberg)

SAP license fees are due even for indirect users, court says (PCWorld)

T-Mo Jumps 4% as Reuters Says SoftBank Looking to Sell Them Sprint (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)

What’s the repair bill for Google Fiber, AT&T damage? (Charlotte
Observer)



2/16: Charter Launches 5G Field Trials; Hamilton Lane sees IPO of 11.9 mln shares to be priced between $15-$17/share




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While Amazon dominates cloud infrastructure, an oligopoly is emerging. Which will buyers bet on? (Diginomica)

BRIEF-Hamilton Lane sees IPO of 11.9 mln shares to be priced between $15-$17/share (Reuters)

Charter Launches 5G Field Trials (Light Reading)

Charter’s Rutledge: 'T-Mobile doesn’t understand our MVNO deal' (FierceCable)


TiVo-Rovi Integration ‘On Track,' CEO Says (Multichannel News)

Arris’ McClelland says warrant deals made Comcast and Charter ‘comfortable with the level of spend' (FierceCable)


Apple Vowed to Revolutionize Television. An Inside Look at Why It Hasn’t (Bloomberg)

Former Obama aide Plouffe fined $90,000 for illegally lobbying Emanuel on Uber's behalf (Chicago Tribune)

New Jersey undisputed king of online gaming compared to Delaware, its lone rival (NorthJersey.com)


IBM links with Indiegogo, Visa, Bosch and more in $3B IoT push (TechCrunch)


Philly Fed manufacturing demolishes expectations, hits its highest level since 1984 (Business Insider)


Radnor-based enterprise software buyout firm PeakEquity Partners closes first fund at $137 million

Tom Paine



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Greg Case / PeakEquity website


Radnor-based PeakEquity Partners, a private equity firm specializing in majority buyouts and minority recapitalizations of enterprise software and solutions businesses, yesterday announced the completion of fundraising for PeakEquity Partners Fund I, L.P. (“PeakEquity I”), which closed on over $137 million of capital commitments, surpassing its $100 million target.


I profiled PeakEquity shortly after its formation, in early 2015.

Greg Case and Paul Winn formed PeakEquity Partners in 2014, and were joined by Ric Andersen in 2015. D.J. Andrzejewski joined PeakEquity Partners in 2014 and was promoted to Principal in 2016.

Case's experience includes Apax Partners and LLR Partners; Winn was previously with IBM and ran software ventures including Princeton Softech, and Anderson was previously a Managing Director at Silver Lake Partners and a Partner at Milestone Partners

To date, PeakEquity I has led three enterprise software and solutions buyouts, deploying $50 million of fund equity, and over $200 million of fund and co-investor equity:


  • G5 is a software as a service (“SaaS”) digital marketing platform for multiple real estate verticals.



  • EnterpriseDB provides enterprise class database solutions based on PostgreSQL, an open source data platform for digital businesses.



  • Valiant Solutions is a leading SaaS provider of human capital management solutions.








Radnor-based PeakEquity Partners closes on 1st fund at $137 million (Press Release)

Radnor, PA, February 15, 2017 – PeakEquity Partners, a private equity firm specializing in majority buyouts and minority recapitalizations of enterprise software and solutions businesses, today announced the successful completion of fundraising for PeakEquity Partners Fund I, L.P. (“PeakEquity I”), which closed on over $137 million of capital commitments, surpassing its $100 million target. PeakEquity I’s limited partners include a diverse base of asset managers, family offices and individuals.

Greg Case and Paul Winn formed PeakEquity Partners in 2014, and were joined by Ric Andersen in 2015. D.J. Andrzejewski joined PeakEquity Partners in 2014 and was promoted to Principal in 2016.

Mr. Case (Co-Founder and Partner), previously a Senior Partner and Shareholder at Apax Partners as well as a Partner at LLR Partners, leverages over 25 years of private equity investing experience and has dedicated the last 15 years to investing in, and providing strategic guidance to, enterprise software and solutions businesses.

Mr. Winn (Co-Founder and Partner), having served in executive leadership positions at large and middle market enterprise technology companies from product development, site management and general management at IBM to President/CEO roles at Genicom, PowerQuest and Princeton Softech, has been building sustainable growth enterprise software and solutions businesses for over 25 years.

Mr. Andersen (Partner), previously a Managing Director at Silver Lake Partners and a Partner at Milestone Partners, as well as a senior partner at Price Waterhouse, PwC Consulting, and IBM, leverages over 30 years of business leadership, value creation, and investing in industry, management consulting and private equity.

Mr. Andrzejewski (Principal), previously with Stripes Group, Milestone Partners and Venrock, brings over eight years of private equity experience sourcing and executing investments across a variety of software and technology sectors.

PeakEquity Partners invests in enterprise software and solutions companies that have large addressable markets, proven technology, products and offerings, and demonstrated traction with a meaningful base of referenceable customers. To date, PeakEquity I has led three enterprise software and solutions buyouts, deploying $50 million of fund equity, and over $200 million of fund and co-investor equity.

G5 is a software as a service (“SaaS”) digital marketing platform for multiple real estate verticals. G5 simplifies the complexity of digital marketing with a cloud-based platform that creates, measures, and optimizes the entire customer experience – from awareness to advocacy – for a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing approaches.

EnterpriseDB provides enterprise class database solutions based on PostgreSQL, an open source data platform for digital businesses.

EnterpriseDB is the leading worldwide provider of Postgres software and services that enable enterprises to reduce their reliance on costly proprietary solutions and slash their database spend.

Valiant Solutions is a leading provider of human capital management solutions. Valiant’s solutions are delivered in a SaaS platform which powers a suite of integrated payroll, time and labor management and human resources products.

Stanwich Advisors LLC and CV Brokerage Inc. served as placement agents for PeakEquity I and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP served as legal counsel.

About PeakEquity
PeakEquity Partners (www.peakequity.com) is a private equity firm focused on investments in Enterprise Software and Solutions companies. The principals of PeakEquity Partners have extensive experience as investors and operating executives in multiple market sectors. The firm invests in businesses that have large addressable markets, proven technology, products and offerings, and demonstrated traction with a meaningful base of reference-able customers. PeakEquity invests in companies with revenues of $15 to $50 million that have the potential for annual revenue growth in excess of 30%. PeakEquity can invest $20 to $50 million or more per portfolio company and will take minority or majority positions. The firm leverages and provides access to extensive operating resources to provide companies an edge in capturing market segment leadership and achieving revenue growth and margin objectives.