Anaplan CEO on using blockchain technology for enterprise planning efficiency




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Philly EnterpriseTech Roundup 12/5: Bear repellent spill in NJ Amazon warehouse; FS Investments trying to close merger later this month


Tom Paine




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One was left in critical condition, and 54 Amazon worker were treated after a discharge of bear repellant occurred in a Robbinsville (Mercer County) NJ Amazon warehouse. A can was punctured by an automated machine Wednesday morning inside the building, causing the spill. In total, 25 workers were hospitalized.

The critical patient has improved and all patients are expected to be released from the hospital within 24 hours.
Local bears, presumably, have been thoroughly repelled. But this incident may add to the current labor tensions over Amazon's warehouses.

THIS WASN'T EVEN AMAZON'S FIRST BEAR REPELLENT ACCIDENT . (Wired)

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As it works to pull off a merger, FS (formerly Franklin Square) Investments admits to having some shortcomings . In a recent call with analysts and in a meeting with advisers, FS Investments' senior management publicly acknowledged its various shortcomings, including the eroding valuation of its flagship fund, the publicly traded FS Investment Corp. FS currently manages $24 billion. As executives acknowledge, the net asset value and share price of FS Investment Corp. are both eroding.

FSIC is seeking shareholder approval to merge with another listed BDC, Corporate Capital Trust (CCT). The shareholders of FS Investment Corp. (NYSE:FSIC) and Corporate Capital Trust (NYSE:CCT) approved proposals related to the merger of FSIC and CCT at their respective annual meetings, and the merger is expected to occur around December 19.



















































at 11:21 PM 0 comments

Philly EnterpriseTech Roundup 12/4: Hamilton Lane invests in NEA spinoff; Liberty Media reported wanting to buy iHeart; GSK snags Tesaro

Tom Paine




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Maryland-based New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the largest venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, has created a $1.35 billion spinoff fund consisting of its more mature startup investments.

The new fund, NewView Capital, will take startups that have been sitting on NEA’s books for a decade or longer and haven’t sold out or gone public. Investors include fund manager Goldman Sachs, NEA itself and Philly-based investment manager Hamilton Lane. Meanwhile, existing investors can cash out.

Among the holdings included in NewView are 23andMe and a small stake in Uber Technologies. Thirty-one portfolio companies are moving from NEA to NewView.

Wharton grad Ravi Viswanathan is leaving NEA to run the new operation. The valuation process necessary before splitting off the investments was challenging at times, Viswanathan told Bloomberg.





The New York Post reports that Liberty Media is positioning itself to acquire radio giant iHeartMedia when it exits bankruptcy, probably
early next year.

Liberty chairman John Malone wants to combine iHeart with his other music properties, which include satellite-radio giant Sirius XM as well as concert promoter Live Nation and its Ticketmaster service.





Tesaro shares soared 60% following a $5.1 billion takeover bid From GlaxoSmithKline . Tesaro’s drug Zejula belongs to a class of cancer drugs called PARP inhibitors, that work by blocking an enzyme that cancer cells use to repair damage in their DNA.


















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Veeva Systems, reporting excellent quarter, nears billion dollar run rate


Tom Paine




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Veeva Systems (NYSE: VEEV) is now closing in on a billion dollar annual run rate, reporting Thursday total quarterly revenues of $224.7 million for its 3Q FY 2019 , up 27% Year-over-year, beating forecasts, and showing a positive outlook for FY 2020. Its Veeva Vault business is growing at 52% per year and represents 48% of Veeva revenue. The operating margin for Veeva was 37.6% in the quarter, an all-time high. Veeva now has a market value of nearly $14 billion.


Veeva, based in Pleasanton, CA, has a marketing, product development and sales presence on the east coast based out of its Radnor offices. Many of its largest customers are based in the Pennsylvania / New Jersey region. Veeva's industry-specific SaaS offerings are sold almost exclusively to the life sciences industry.

Vault's scale remains underappreciated by the Street, as its annual run rate can triple within five years to $1.2 billion and control "meaningful" market share within the $5-billion total addressable market, KeyBanc Capital Markets' Brent Bracelin said, according to Benzinga .

Veeva CFO Tim Carbral said in an interview with CMLviz.com , "Given the size of the market within life sciences, we think we could get multiple billions [of dollars of revenue] from life sciences."

"We're now on our way to being one of the few multi-billion-dollar cloud companies. And we are in unique in having really strong growth and profit. You know, it's been five years since our IPO, this was our 21st earnings call. And we have exceeded top and bottom line, consistently, on every single call." added Veeva head of marketing Nitsa Zuppas.

Most of Veeva's growth has been organic to date, and the company has been successful in leveraging a handful of pinpoint acquisitions. I would expect in the near future maybe a little more of the same, but there's a lot happening in pharma's digital ecosystem and some larger targets may eventually present themselves. Veeva is also named by some analysts as a possible target for some very large tech companies.

In another issue, a federal judge in Manhattan last Monday refused to toss claims by a New York-based company that makes software for clinical drug trials, Medidata Solutions, that Veeva lured away several key employees and used their knowledge of confidential information to develop its competing product.

Veeva is not cheap, with its stock priced at 14x FY2020 forecasted revenue.






at 12:42 AM 0 comments

Bush 41: The commencement speech that was never heard

Tom Paine




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When I graduated from Business School some time ago, I received my degree in a separate business school ceremony before attending the general commencement ceremony for the entire university across campus. It was a perfect May day in Charlottesville. We were honored to have then-Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush as the commencement speaker. One of his sons, Marvin, had received an undergraduate degree from the University on that day.

Bush began his speech, but within a couple of minutes the microphone cut off. No problem, someone adjusted it. He started again, but the mic cut off again in a few seconds. After a brief delay, he began again, and then it cut off. This happened over and over again, perhaps a total of 10 times, until he finally gave up.

It was difficult for all of us to watch that. but Bush was patient and handled it professionally. I pondered whether it was just a short, or if someone on the University's staff was deliberately sabotaging his speech. More likely the former. But I never heard an explanation.

Although most commencement speeches are formulaic, I would have certainly liked to have heard what he had to say.

RIP



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The Day in Tweets 11/30




















































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Veeva Announces Fiscal 2019 Third Quarter Results: Total Revenues of $224.7M, up 27% Year-over-year

Veeva Announces Fiscal 2019 Third Quarter Results
Total Revenues of $224.7M, up 27% Year-over-year

Subscription Services Revenues of $178.2M, up 25% Year-over-year

November 28, 2018 04:05 PM Eastern Standard Time
PLEASANTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE: VEEV), a leading provider of industry cloud solutions for the global life sciences industry, today announced results for its fiscal third quarter ended October 31, 2018. All results, including prior periods, and guidance reflect the new revenue recognition standard ASC 606.

“Our focus on innovation and customer success coupled with our consistent execution sets us up for a great finish to the year and establishes a strong foundation for next year and beyond.”
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“We executed well across all areas of the business, expanding our leadership with Veeva Commercial Cloud and Veeva Vault,” said CEO Peter Gassner. “Our focus on innovation and customer success coupled with our consistent execution sets us up for a great finish to the year and establishes a strong foundation for next year and beyond.”

Fiscal 2019 Third Quarter Results:

Revenues: Total revenues for the third quarter were $224.7 million, up from $177.0 million one year ago, an increase of 27% year-over-year. Subscription services revenues for the third quarter were $178.2 million, up from $142.8 million one year ago, an increase of 25% year-over-year.
Operating Income and Non-GAAP Operating Income(1): Third quarter operating income was $63.1 million, compared to $42.5 million one year ago, an increase of 48% year-over-year. Non-GAAP operating income for the third quarter was $84.4 million, compared to $58.4 million one year ago, an increase of 45% year-over-year.
Net Income and Non-GAAP Net Income(1): Third quarter net income was $64.1 million, compared to $34.9 million one year ago, an increase of 83% year-over-year. Non-GAAP net income for the third quarter was $70.3 million, compared to $38.9 million one year ago, an increase of 81% year-over-year.
Net Income per Share and Non-GAAP Net Income per Share(1): For the third quarter, fully diluted net income per share was $0.41, compared to $0.23 one year ago, while non-GAAP fully diluted net income per share was $0.45, compared to $0.25 one year ago.
“We are pleased to report our results came in well above guidance for the quarter, as we continued to deliver a unique combination of growth and profitability,” said CFO Tim Cabral. “Looking to next year, we expect to hit $1 billion in total revenue, significantly ahead of our original plan.”

Recent Highlights:

Strategic Wins for Vault Clinical — The company had its first Veeva Vault CTMS win with a top 20 pharmaceutical company, who will deploy globally. Another leading CRO chose Veeva Vault eTMF, the third top 7 CRO to standardize on the product.
Veeva Extends Leadership in CRM Across All Segments — A top 10 pharmaceutical company added more than 5,000 Veeva CRM users across multiple regions as part of its global expansion. Additionally, a major consumer health company selected multichannel Veeva CRM for 40 markets. Momentum also continued in SMB, with Veeva adding 31 new customers since the start of the fiscal year.
Top 50 Pharma Goes Global with Veeva OpenData — Veeva signed a top 50 pharmaceutical company to implement Veeva OpenData globally. In addition, a top 20 selected Veeva OpenData for the U.S.
Continued Enterprise Progress in Vault RIM — In the quarter, a top 20 pharmaceutical company chose Vault RIM for its global regulatory operations, the sixth top 20 to select Veeva regulatory solutions.
Financial Outlook:

Veeva is providing guidance for its fiscal fourth quarter ending January 31, 2019 as follows:

Total revenues between $226 and $227 million.
Non-GAAP operating income between $77 and $78 million(2).
Non-GAAP fully diluted net income per share of $0.40(2).
Veeva is providing guidance for its fiscal year ending January 31, 2019 as follows:

Total revenues between $855.8 and $856.8 million.
Non-GAAP operating income between $298.6 and $299.6 million(2).
Non-GAAP fully diluted net income per share of $1.58(2).



at 12:59 AM 0 comments

Larry Ellison makes a brief appearance at AWS: reinvent






at 10:15 PM 0 comments

Philly EnterpriseTech Roundup 11/27: BuzzFeed CEO proposes industry mergers; Technical glitch screws up 'The Match' revenue; FT profiles SEI's Al West

Tom Paine




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The FT did an excellent profile of Al West and his Oaks-based business, SEI Investments . It explains how SEI started as a systems house and moved to become a major funds manager in addition to third-party systems management. (The FT seems to give non-subs a one time-limited read.)


Vanguard cut its minimum investment from $10,000 to $3,000 , adjusting in one area it was considered behind much of the industry.



In a New York Magazine interview , BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti floated the idea of a merger between other digital publishers such as BuzzFeed, Group Nine Media, Refinery29, Vox Media and Vice Media. And its more than a float; actual discussions between some of these parties are reportedly already occurring.

Most of these firms have historically relied on paid content for revenue. A few years ago the paid content market's potential seemed limitless to some, but the law of big numbers started kicking in and showed the market is ultimately finite. Thus the pressure from VCs and corporate investors to rationalize costs, starting with cutting duplicate overheads among the firms. At the same time the combined companies would have more leverage in dealing with online ad giants Facebook and Google (and an oncoming Amazon).

No one has any idea how these things might work out, but a merger between BuzzFeed and another Comcast-backed venture, Vox Media, could be a logical first step.


In a somewhat related item, the made for TV (well, isn't everything?) "The Match: Tiger vs Phil" bombed out commercially because of a malfunctioning sign-in page at the source of the broadcast, AT&T's Turner Media's Bleacher Reports' website. Many could get in for free while the sign-in feature did not work, leaving those who actually paid $20 furious. Comcast and most everyone else who carried the broadcast agreed to refund all paying customers. It was not, as some thought, Comcast's error.
But the actual viewership numbers were outstanding - several times what At&T expected. Of course, too much traffic may have caused the systems failure.



The non-partisan website Watchdog.org notes that with a new state law on the books , Pennsylvania is aiming to be a vanguard of autonomous vehicle technology. The recently signed Act 117 0f 2018 establishes a number of guidelines and practices for the use of automated vehicles in work zones and platooning of motor carrier vehicles. Bill sponsor Rep. Greg Rothman, R-Camp Hill, said even more proposals related to autonomous vehicles should be expected in the next legislative session as the state looks to stay on the cutting edge.

“We already rely on machines,” Rothman said. “And most of our cars you're driving today are operated by computers. So, the question is, can you respond as quickly? Can you react as quickly as a computer? And the answer is no, you can't.”


at 10:36 PM 0 comments

An early evaluation of SAP's $8 billion Qualtrics acquisition; Betting on growth

Tom Paine




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I was thinking of writing a comprehensive evaluation of SAP SE's proposed $8 billion acquisition of Qualtrics, but there are several things I don't understand well enough yet so that will have to wait. But theses are the key issues I'll be watching down the road:

First, some financial metrics.

Revenue for the first six months of 2018 were $184.2 million, vs $131.4 million for 2017's first six months. Qualtrics said it expects its full-year 2018 revenue to exceed $400 million and forecasts a forward growth rate of more than 40 percent, not including any positive impact from SAP. Revenue for 2019 is forecasted to be $575 million. The company is nominally profitable, which is better than most SaaS startups.


Qualtrics is a Cloud SaaS product, not a market research company, though it definitely has some serious domain expertise in survey research. It conducts some survey research, but the amount seems almost incidental. Its developed relationships with third-party vendors, such as Walker for B2B research. But Qualtrics should be measured against existing enterprise software industry metrics.

Concept: The basic premise of marrying SAP's transaction-oriented data with customer experience data is a good idea. The acquisition seems aimed at SAP's new CRM strategy (or Experience Management as Qualtrics refers to it), though ERP certainly can play a role.


Price: If I were a shareholder I might be concerned over how $5 billon went up to $6 billion and then to $8 billion in no time. I wouldn't be sure, if it had gone public, how the IPO aftermarket would have been a given the current shakiness of the tech market and the size of the offering.
I won't quibble with the acquisition price as long as Bill McDermott's grand strategy is working out. 

However, McDermott's large acquisitions at high PE ratios should hopefully exceed a high hurdle rate for paying back and exceeding the cost of SAP's investment over time. Its impressive to say Cloud revenue growth is high, but that should be measured against the amount of capital spent to buy it.

Product: Qualtrics is designed as a self-service product. It has many valuable industry functions built in to it. But self-service has limitations; some customers may not use it well.

With data visualization (dataviz) software, there's a gap between products that require some rigor in their data model and those that don't. Its easy to create colorful graphs, but they're of no use if the data is bad. The same for survey data.

There is risk that a Google or Microsoft could match what Qualtrics has. In particular, Microsoft's LinkedIn should have a strong interest in this market; its a natural fit with its product.

The better known Survey Monkey is also a competitor, but not as strong in the enterprise. Qualtrics is much larger and growing much faster.

There is a big difference between Consumer and B2B research, and the Qualtrics platform needs to handle both well if it will serve both segments..

Qualtrics owns this segment of the market with a tremendous head start on everyone else. Some traditional survey research firms have developed self service tools with varying results. One firm SAP knows well is GfK, formerly the third largest survey researcher behind Nielsen and IMS Health. It is based in Germany, and is in fact a SAP ERP customer. But last year it backed off of its faltering growth plan and was broken up into pieces. Market Research is not a business that scales well, unless its syndicated.


Outlook: No doubt that there's a market for Qualtrics, but I'm skeptical as to whether it can ever make a decent return financially to, and be closely integrated into SAP.


at 12:02 AM 0 comments

With new law on books, Pennsylvania aims to be a vanguard of autonomous vehicle technology, officials say | Watchdog.org



With new law on books, Pennsylvania aims to be a vanguard of autonomous vehicle technology, officials say
By Dave Lemery | Watchdog.org 18 hrs ago




Pennsylvania state Rep. Greg Rothman, accompanied by Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary
 Leslie Richards (left), talks Nov. 20 about autonomous vehicle technology at a news conference to discuss
the recent signing of House Bill 1958.
Image courtesy of Pennsylvania House Republican Caucus





Not content to bask in the glow of their legislative victory last month, supporters of self-driving vehicle technologies in Pennsylvania are already moving forward on their plans to make the state a hotbed for the still-embryonic industry.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf last month signed House Bill 1958, sponsored by Rep. Greg Rothman, R-Camp Hill, which establishes a number of guidelines and practices for the use of automated vehicles in work zones and platooning of motor carrier vehicles.

Rothman and Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Leslie Richards took part in a news conference this week with the Autonomous Vehicle Coalition in which they talked about what those provisions mean and the potential long-term impact of HB1958, now on the books as Act 117 of 2018.


Rothman said even more proposals related to autonomous vehicles should be expected in the next legislative session as the state looks to stay on the cutting edge.

"It's fascinating what's going on in this field and this industry," he said. "We are hoping that this also helps with the brain drain in Pennsylvania, attracts young people when they find out that Pennsylvania is a leader in autonomous vehicle technology and a leader in using technology to improve our lives. And I expect we will have even more activity on the legislative front in the next session."

According to Rothman and PennDOT Executive Director Mark Compton, the work zone portion of the new law relates to the use of “attenuators” by work zone crews that provide some protection in case a traveling vehicle plows into the work zone.

“The attenuator is the vehicle at the end of a work zone that – it looks like an accordion, you may recognize it now, you'll recognize when you see it there,” Rothman said. “I think there are 75 or so in the fleet that are used. And right now, someone has to sit in that attenuator, driving it or waiting for it to move.”

Rothman said that Royal Truck & Equipment has designed an attenuator that works in an automated fashion, meaning that highway workers will be protected without any one of them having to sit inside the vehicle. Now, thanks to Act 117, PennDOT is empowered to make use of such vehicles.

“Platooning” is the practice of multiple transport vehicles sharing information while traveling down the highway so that if one experiences a slowdown or other hazard, the other vehicles in the platoon, with computer assistance, can respond appropriately ahead of time. The platooned vehicles would still have human drivers but could help to prevent large-scale highway accidents.

“With conventional trucks, critical risk factors are driver reaction time and concentration,” Rothman wrote in a memo to his fellow lawmakers when he introduced HB1958. “Indeed, some 94 [percent] of all traffic accidents are due to human error. Platooning technology reacts in as little as 30 milliseconds compared to 1-1.5 seconds for human reaction.”


The law limits the number of vehicles in a single platoon to three, and they can only operate on Pennsylvania’s highways. The vehicles in the platoon will be allowed to follow one another at a much closer distance than is generally allowed by state law, improving aerodynamics and reducing fuel costs.

Richards said that Pennsylvania was already seen nationally as a leader on automated vehicle technology even before the passage of Act 117, and its implementation will allow the state to reinforce that status.

“We're also working on the first ever of its kind test track in coordination with the Turnpike Commission, Federal Highway Administration and Penn State,” she said. “Those plans are in development right now, and we will have a very high level, again, one-of-a-kind test track where we can test a lot of these vehicles, we can do high speed interchange movements. We're looking at emergency response vehicles as well as work zone vehicles, and we're really excited we have a good head start on that and that will be coming as well.”

Asked about concerns related to the safety of automated vehicles, Rothman argued that they’re going to improve safety in the years to come. The safety issue came to the forefront this year after an automated vehicle being tested by Uber hit and killed a pedestrian in Arizona. Media reports indicate Uber is preparing to resume testing in the Pittsburgh area.

“We already rely on machines,” Rothman said. “And most of our cars you're driving today are operated by computers. So, the question is, can you respond as quickly? Can you react as quickly as a computer? And the answer is no, you can't.”

Dave Lemery is the Pennsylvania & New Hampshire News Editor for Watchdog.org. He welcomes your comments. Contact Dave at dlemery@watchdog.org.


Dave Lemery is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years of experience. He was the editor of Suburban Life Media when its flagship newspaper was named best weekly in Illinois, and he has worked at papers in South Carolina, Indiana, Idaho and New York.










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