HP names former SAP CEO Apotheker as its CEO

This is strange (I've used that word twice today). Gets booted (pretty much) at SAP, goes on to a bigger job.

HP Names Former SAP CEO Léo Apotheker As Their New CEO And President (TechCrunch)

Surprise! HP names Leo Apotheker CEO; Can he rewrite his legacy? (ZDNet Blogs)

Edison Venture sells two stakes

Edison Venture Fund of Lawrenceville, NJ, announced yesterday that they have sold their stake in CambridgeSoft, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based provider of software for the life sciences industry, back to the company. Edison says it received $40 million on a $5 million investment; 11x its initial investment and 3x a follow-on investment in CambridgeSoft. The Wall Street Journal's Venture Capital Dispatch dicusses Edison's exit strategy.

This follows an announcement earlier this week that Edison portfolio company TrueCommerce of Cranberry Township PA (near Pittsburgh), a supply chain software firm, had been acquired by HighJump Software of Eden Prairie, Minnesota. In that deal, the terms were not disclosed, but Edison said it received (pdf) a 4X return on investment and achieved a 30% IRR, which in VC terms is OK but not outstanding.




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Daily Links 9/30/2010: Sprint Execs quit Clearwire board

Plosser Opposes More Fed Bond Buying, Sees Small Deflation Risk (Bloomberg)
Plosser goes to Vineland (of all places).

The John Malone-Barry Diller throwdown (Hollywood Reporter)

Sprint Leaders Quit Clearwire Board (IDG via New York
Times)
Apparently due to Clearwire's antitrust concerns, though strange since Sprint owns a majority of Clearwire. One possible explanation of what's really going on from Light Reading Mobile.

Comcast: We will meet our IPv6 deadline
ISP to release more open source code, begin test of standard this fall (Network World)

Comcast takes free anti-botnet service nationwide (CNET News)

Comcast Interactive Shifts Fandango’s Budkofsky To Run Mobile Ads (paidContent)

Snarls in labor talks with key unions at papers (Philadelphia Inquirer)
The Inquirer's latest update sounds more optimistic.

Nicusa Capital Calls for Leadership Changes at BioClinica
(PR Newswire)
BioClinica's response

SAP Torn Between the Old World and the New (CIO.com)

Global CIO: Tibco Surges And CEO Flips Off IBM, Oracle, And SAP (Information Week)


Announcing the Winners of the $10,000 Grant! (Gigabit Genius Grant)




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Daily Links 9/29/2010: SunGard Higher Ed getting into course management software

Course-Management Software Deal Marks a First for SunGard (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Software firm seeks to close road in Upper Uwchlan corporate park (Daily Local News)
Bentley Systems looks to expand.

Cisco to Unveil an Affordable Home TelePresence Product for Consumers Next Week (All Things Digital: BoomTown)
May start rollout with Comcast, Verizon.

NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker on Content, Convergence, Comcast -- and Conan (Knowledge@Wharton)

Motorists on N.J. Turnpike, Garden State Parkway to get high-tech traffic 'forecasts' (Newark Star-Ledger)

Clearwire throttling at-home WiMAX users? (Engadget)
Clearwire Unclear About Customer Throttling
Many users still confused about Clear's definitions of "unlimited," "excessive" (Broadband Reports)

SAP to buy Sage? (AccMan)

TruePosition talks up commercial proposition for mission-critical LBS (Total Telecom)

Off-Site Options for Mission-Critical Data (Signal Scape)
On the opening of the Philadelphia Technology Park.

PAETEC’s risky business (Inorganic Growth)

Oracle, Sun Labs Form Health Sciences Institute (eWeek)




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Daily Links 9/28/2010: Venmo introduces Gifi

The Wall Street Journal today has a story on the difficulties SAP has faced in getting Business byDesign off the ground (subscription required).
Also, the SAP acquisition rumor de jour centers on British-based Sage Group, which provides Financial and CRM software to the SME market.
MARKET REPORT: Sage chief looks to a future fight
(Mail Online)


Gifi lets you hide money for your friends to encourage Foursquare check-ins (VentureBeat)
Venmo's new app introduced at TechCrunch Disrupt.

TechCrunch Scooped Up By AOL
(Wired Blogs: Epicenter)

NBC Universal-Comcast prep Olympic bid (Hollywood Reporter via Reuters)

FCC denies delays in Comcast-NBC Uni review
Tells THR: 'We have not announced a timetable' (Hollywood Reporter)

Comcast Shakes Up Speed Tiers
16 Mbps users get 20 Mbps upgrade, 22 Mbps tier goes away (Broadband Reports)

Canoe's Verklin: National ITV Ads Are Here Now
MSO Ad Venture Targeting 25 Million Households By End Of 2010 (Multichannel News)

HDNET Coming To New Comcast Markets This Week? (Zatz Not Funny!)

The Long Goodbye: Xmarks Tried to Sell Twice, Before Closing Down With Class (All Things Digital: BoomTown)
Xmarks had been backed by Mitch Kapor; First Round Capital was also an early seed investor.

Evidently IBM bought Cast Iron Systems for $190 million (DBMS2)
I wonder what this implies for the valuation of Cast Iron competitor Boomi of Berwyn.

SDI plans on high job growth over time (Philadelphia Business Journal)


Connectify Releases Version 2.1 - Extends Wi-Fi Sharing to Major Gaming Systems (PR Newswire)




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Meet Steve Burke: NBCU's Prudent Risk-Taker, Zucker Antidote (The Wrap)

Vivendi sells $2 bln NBC stake to GE (Reuters)

Sony, Warner, Disney Planning $30 Home Film-Viewing Option
(Bloomberg)

Will These Guys Kill The Next Google? (Knowledge@Wharton via
Forbes)

Boomi is making some noise with its move to the cloud
Internet software service simplifies applications integration (Philadelphia Business Journal)
39 employees, according to the article, which is less than I would have thought at this point (though that is not necessarily a bad thing).




Unilever SAP integration looming with £2.3bn Alberto Culver acquisition (Computerworld UK)

Infosys to develop a SAP Business ByDesign practice (ZDNet Blogs)



Novell Launches SUSE Linux for SAP (eWeek)

Answering Our Own Questions About Oracle's Social Acquisition Plans (Read Write Cloud)

Burke to head NBC Universal following merger

Burke Will Head NBC Universal Following Comcast Merger (paidContent)

Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb's top challenge is complacency (USA Today)

Philly Tech People News 9/26/2010

Philip Emond Named as CIGNA’s Chief Information Officer (Business Wire)

Bentley Appoints Norbert Young, Jim Porter, and Patrick McCrory to New
Bentley Infrastructure Ambassadors Council (Bentley Systems Press Release)

Monetate Welcomes Dell Veteran and Bazaarvoice CMO Sam Decker to Board of Directors (PR Newswire)

Ben Franklin (NE) names Beste new chairman (Allentown Morning Call)

Executive Anna M. Seal Elected to CDI Corp. Board of Directors (PR Newswire)

Supply Chain Consultants Announces the Retirement of Dr. Bibi Singh, President and Co-Founder of the Corporation
Dr. Singh Has Been Appointed Chair of the Board of Directors (Business Wire)

Razorfish Health Hires 4 Executives (Press Release via PharmaLive)

tierney Announces New Hires; Evolves Digital Focus (Philly Ad Club)

RDC Appoints Technology Leader (Business Wire)


Acurian Announces Kim Basciani as Director of eRecruitment (Business Wire)



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Daily Links 9/24/2010: Clearwire in discussions with T-Mobile; Zucker to leave NBCU

Official: Jeff Zucker leaving NBC Universal
Says he'll step down once Comcast deal is finalized (Hollywood Reporter)

Did Comcast Boot the Best Guy To Run Its Cable Networks? (GigaOM: NewTeeVee)

Comcast’s Burke: NBC Title Contender or Behind the Scenes Power? (Wall Street Journal: Deal Journal)

Clearwire open to funding from T-Mobile USA (FierceWireless)

Hackers who disrupted Comcast.net site sentenced (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Kenexa: Piper Upgrades (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

Oracle Wants a Chip Company? Which One? (All Things Digital: Digital Daily)

MLB Beefs up At Bat App With New Ballpark Features (PC World)

ETC’ 293% boost in gov’t sales boosts 2Q (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Holy Redeemer Partners with MobileMD to Deliver Health Information Exchange Services to Care Community
(PR Newswire)




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myYearbook on Silicon Alley Insider's Digital 100

Social Networking site myYearbook of New Hope is the only company from the Philadelphia area (though some think of New Hope as a distant New York suburb) that I see on Silicon Alley Insider's Digital 100: The World's Most Valuable Startups. myYearbook is ranked 68th with estimated market value of $185 miliion, which may seem a little high, but perhaps not with some people talking about Facebook being worth $25 to $30 bilion. myYearbook's backers include First Round Capital and Northwest Venture Partners.

Recyclebank, which started in Philadelphia before moving its HQ to New York and still has significant operations here, has an estimated market value of $100 million, SAI says. Recyclebank has recieved investments of over $70 miliion, according to CrunchBase, so $100 million would be a marginal return. I've always had some questions about the long-term economic viability of Recyclebank's business model.

A relatively small fund, PENN-related MentorTech Ventures, has two of its portfolio companies in the top 100: Jersey City's Diapers.com and New York's Yodle, which I think actually started out in Philly.

Who else from the Philly area might belong on this list? Four possibilities that come to mind are Cloud software integrator Boomi of Berwyn, corporate meeting management site StarCite of Philadelphia (an ICG portfolio company), and two Healthcare IT firms: Portico Systems of Blue Bell (Safeguard Scientifics) and Octagon Research Solutions of Wayne. The SAI rankings are very consumer-centric, though, and don't pay much attention to enterprise-oriented applications.




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Daily Links 9/23/2010: QlikTech says its launching aggressive Global Recruitment Initiative

QlikTech Launches Aggressive Global Recruitment Initiative (Business Wire via MarketWatch)

Hey Cable Guys! Cord Cutting is Real, and It’s a Problem, Says Verizon CEO (All Things Digital: MediaMemo)

Comcast Tees Up TV Everywhere Relaunch (Light Reading)

Zucker: Comcast Integration Top Priority
Says NBC Turnaround Has Begun (Multichannel News)

Perelman Bids $85 Million for Philadelphia Inquirer and Sister Newspaper (Bloomberg)
Lenders again win auction of Philadelphia newpapers (Reuters)

Ellison jabs at Salesforce, recaps Exalogic before finally previewing Fusion in closing keynote (ZDNet Blogs)

Hara: 40 Customers, New Software and Growing Fast
The city of Philadelphia is the company’s latest customer. (Greentech Media)