NBC sets Jay Leno's prime-time exit and return to late night; still no deal with Conan O'Brien (LA Times: Company Town)

Philly Tech People News 1/10/2010

Cordani Becomes CIGNA CEO
Harris is New Chairman of the Board (Business Wire)

Comcast's top lawyer calls the workload shots (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Journal Register Company Names Veteran Media Executive John Paton as Chief Executive Officer
Company To Expand Multi-Platform Local News Strategy (Business Wire)

Aria Systems Promotes Tom Dibble to Chief Revenue Officer (Marketwire)

Financial Software Systems appoints Steve Mills to head Global Sales
(bobsguide.com)

e-DMZ Security Names Scott Hammack Chief Executive Officer (Business Wire)

Matt Bieber Promoted to Principal at Originate Ventures (Business Wire)

Comcast Promotes Grace Killelea to Senior Vice President of Talent for Comcast Cable (Business Wire)

Comcast Entertainment Group Promotes Kolb And MacLellan
Senior execs expand roles (Broadcasting & Cable)

Industry Experts Join Instem; New Jersey Office Opens
Instem to Accelerate Penetration of New Solutions Throughout Preclinical Market (Business Wire)

The Keane Organization Appoints Mary Greener Steigerwalt as Chief Operating Officer (Business Wire)




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Issa: Comcast-NBC deal "will go through" (The Hill: Hillicon Valley)

Skype’s CEO says companies (like Comcast) are squelching innovation (VentureBeat)

Pfizer to cut 680 jobs at 2 Pa. sites (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Highly ranked Wyeth IT operations particularly hard hit.

Philly Phanatics
High viewer standards in DMA #4 (Broadcasting & Cable)

Daily Links 1/8/10: Court of Appeals appears to lean towards Comcast in Net Arguments

Heartland in $60 mln settlement agreement with Visa (Reuters)

FCC Gets Torrent Of Tough Questions From Judges
BitTorrent Decision Gets Scrutinized at Appeals Court Oral Arguments (Multichannel News)
Court to FCC: You Don’t Have Power to Enforce Net Neutrality (Wired Blogs)

Cable's Tru2way Build Continues (Light Reading: Cable Digital News)


Rosetta acquires Wishbone (Medical Marketing and Media)

Mistras Delivers Increased Profitability and 21% Second Quarter Revenue Growth; Net Income of $3.6 Million and Adjusted EBITDA of $12.3 Million (Globe Newswire via CNN Money)

IBM, Accenture top SAP implementation partner rankings, but smaller SIs strong (SearchSAP.com)

Clearwire looking at multiple new wholesale partners (Fierce Wireless)

Internet Capital Group (ICGE) Sells 772.92K Common fo Blackboard (BBBB); Expects $8M Income Tax Refunds in 2010 (StreetInsider.com)

Catching up with FlyCast (Droid, Recording, Video) (Zatz Not Funny!)
FlyCast is based in Lancaster.

Philadelphia's Mütter Museum goes digital with new Webisodes (NJ.com)




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Daily Links 1/7/10: Comcast/FCC appeals case over internet practices on tomorrow

FCC To Defend Reprimand Of Comcast For Internet Practices (Dow Jones via CNN Money)

Comcast CEO (again) rules out NBC move to cable (Radio Business Report/Television Business Report)

Motorola Strengthens IP Video Portfolio With Strategic Acquisition (PR Newswire)

Motorola at CES
(Media Experiences 2 Go-Motorola Blog)

Motorola Expands Media Mobility Solutions to Video Service Providers (PR Newswire)

CES 2010: Microsoft Expands IPTV Platform To Handle 'TV Everywhere' (Multichannel)

DivX TV: Online Television, No Box Required (Mashable)
This DivX product is the outgrowth of DivX's acquisition of AnySource Media of Malvern last September. I believe some of those people remain in Malvern (in fact, internet job postings suggest they've been looking to hire several people out there).


BuLogics Introduces World's First Wireless Controller for Smart Grid Metering
Bridges Z-Wave and ZigBee Technology Standards (PR Newswire)

Oracle Buys Data Quality Vendor
DataLens technology will bolster Oracle's data hub, supply chain, and ERP applications, the database giant says. (Information Week)

QlikView Offers the First Business Intelligence Application Built on Android (PR Newswire)


SEI to Add Loan Automation, Data Feeds to Outsourcing Services (Bank Systems & Technology)

MCCC Introduces iPhone Apps Programming Course (Montgomery County Community College)

Unisys, CardioNet are the best and worst local stocks for 2009 (Philly.com: Philly Inc)

University HealthSystem Consortium gets access to Executive Health Resources information (Philadelphia Business Journal)




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Daily Links 1/6/10: Justice Department to Study Comcast Takeover of NBC

First Round Capital Takes A Tour Of NYC’s Start-Up Scene
(Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)

Outsourcing entrepreneurs: How the EU lets startups slip through its fingers (VentureBeat)

Kenexa: Piper Turns Cautious; Awaiting Job Growth (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Verizon's FiOS ETF: $360 Starting January 17
Verizon only acknowledging 'changes' coming... (Broadband Reports)

Verizon fights for 40% FiOS penetration, two-day deployment (Telephony Online)


Justice Department to Study Comcast Takeover of NBC (Bloomberg)

Tennis Volleys Program Carriage Complaint Against Comcast
Network Says Comcast Favors Own Networks; Wants To Improve Its Sports Tier Positioning
(Multichannel News)

Thomson Reuters to Create Data-Driven Profiles of World's Leading Research Institutions (PR Newswire)

Lockheed Martin to cut 1,200 jobs (Philadelphia Business
Journal)

XIPWIRE Launches Mobile Payment Service
(Business Wire)

Yuxi Pacific Announces Mobile Remote Deposit Capture for iPhone (PR Newswire)

Private Equity Firm Buys Rock-It Cargo (Journal of Commerce)

SAP 2010 collapse and other nonsense (ZDNet Blogs)

Vexed Tech to SAP, Oracle: Shut Up Those Shrieking Servers
(IDG via New York Times)

C&D Technologies Awarded Contract for Development of Large-Format Lithium-ion Batteries (PR Newswire)

$30 Million in New Contracts Awarded to WPCS (PR Newswire)



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Daily Links 1/5/10: Internet Capital Group acquires control of GovDelivery

Two old-school tech stocks were a dichotomy in 2009
Commentary: Investors treat Unisys, NCR differently despite similar challenges (MarketWatch)

What’s First Round Capital Looking For In Their Investments? (CenterNetworks)
On First Round's New York tour.

Cox, Motorola Join 'Digital Locker' Group DECE
Consortium Announces Common File Format, and Selects Authentication Provider, DRM Vendors
(Multichannel News)

Internet Capital Group Buys GovDelivery (PE Hub)

Sen. Kohl to hold antitrust hearing on Comcast-NBC Universal merger (Washington Post: Post Tech)
While they are at it, the senators should take a look at whether Sen. Kohl's NBA team gets special treatment under antitrust laws.

Is poor software design damaging your business? (Computer Business Review)
On Philly's Electronic Ink.


Thomson Reuters buys Discovery Logic, will be part of Healthcare & Science unit (Philadelphia Business Journal)

T-Mobile upgrades 3G footprint to HSPA 7.2 (FierceWireless)

Blogger Relations at SAP (Enterprise Irregulars)

How Boards Should Deal With M&A
A conversation between two experts. (Forbes)
Using SAP as an example.


InfoLogix Announces 1-for-25 Reverse Stock Split (PR Newswire)

Minneapolis completes municipal Wi-Fi network (MuniWireless)




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First Round "New York City Startup Trek"

First Round Capital will hold a "New York City Startup Trek" tomorrow, January 5, between 9:30 am to 7 pm.  A group of First Round VC's will tour 8 different incubators and temporary work spaces around the city, conducting walkthroughs and "meet and greets".  See schedule here .




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Growing AWeber helps small businesses manage their email marketing

When people hear of AWeber Communications, the Huntingdon Valley email marketing firm, they probably envision a gentleman named Weber (presumably Al) busily roaming the premises. But there is no such person; AWeber stands for Automated Web Assistant. The real person behind the business is Tom Kulzer, who founded it in 1998 at the age of 21 while selling modems and studying at York College.

Unlike some other major email marketing firms in the area, such as Listrak of Lititz, AWeber focuses on serving smaller customers. Kulzer has built a business that helps over 70,000 mostly small businesses manage their email marketing programs, the company says. Despite the negative image of some types of email marketing due to spam, the opt-in (permission-based) email marketing business has been growing rapidly, even through the recession. AWeber, which had 5 employees in 2004, now has 50, and moved from a 4,500 square foot space to 24,000 square feet in August.

AWeber provides small businesses with automated tools for running their email marketing programs. The key is the "autoresponder", which automatically delivers a series of followup emails to subscribers after they sign up. Other services include programs which help customers design email newsletters, an analytics package, and subscriber management tools. AWeber also claims to have excellent email deliverability rates do to strong anti-spam monitoring and close communications with ISPs, among other factors. In addition, Aweber has a large affiliate marketing program that many of its own customers are users of. There are a multitude of competitors, but major ones include Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT) and iContact.

AWeber was also honored in December as one of the best places to work (among medium-sized businesses) in Pennsylvania.

AWeber recently acknowledged they were hacked before Christmas; Here is the company's statement on the incident (also see this commentary). I'll keep you updated on further developments.






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Daily Links 1/4/10: Public interest groups call for antitrust probe of TV Everywhere

Public interest groups call for antitrust probe of TV Everywhere (Washington Post)

Thinking of Hiking Up Billable Rates? Here’s Why You Shouldn’t (Wall Street Journal: Law Blog)

Chegg Founder’s New Startup Raises $7.5 Million (paidContent)
Josh Kopelman is apparently an individual investor in the stealth ebook startup.

Thomson Reuters Acquires Discovery Logic, Inc (PR Newswire)

2009 RJMetrics Year In Review (The Metric System)

Invite Media Opens In UK; Discusses European Opportunity (AdExhchanger.com)
Interview with Nat Turner.

Innovation Inspired by Economics: 2010 Health IT Forecast (iHealthBeat)




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People News 1/3/2010

DecisionOne Appoints New SVP, Sales and Marketing (PR Newswire)

MISTRAS Group, Inc. Appoints Michael Keefe as General Counsel
(PR Newswire)

Lucinda Holt, CEO of ClickEquations, has been named an Eisenhower Fellow for 2010, she announced on her blog, Cereal CEO

Janney Investment Banking Continues Expansion
Charles Mather joins Janney to support Capital Markets (Business Wire)

McCarter & English Continues to Expand in Philadelphia With Hiring (LawFuel.com)

Volpe and Koenig Adds New Shareholder (Company Release)

Matt Kesner is now Vice President-Sales for Solution Exchange, LLC of West Chester. He was previously Executive Account Manager at EPIUse. Solution Exchange specializes in marketing SAP- related software.




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