Eniac Ventures formed to seed Mobile Apps

The name Eniac should ring a bell for most Philadelphians, since that was the name of the first true computer that was developed at Penn's engineering school. Now four former classmates at the
school have joined together to form a small seed fund named, aptly enough, Eniac Ventures, that will focus completely on mobile applications. It was founded by Hadley Harris, Nihal Mehta, Vic Singh and Tim Young, and has raised $1.6 million, according to TechCrunch. Mehta is a serial entrepreneur who was an angel investor in AdMob, which sold last year to Google for $750 million. They expect the typical investment size to be in the $25,000 to $100,000 range.

The one Philly-area startup the fund is already invested in is NearVerse. Others in their portfolio are Localytics (in which area entrepreneur/angel Gabriel Weinberg also invested), MightyMeeting , and Philo.

Note: On its Twitter account, Eniac gives its location as "NYC/Cambridge".

New H-P Chief Experienced With Board Feuds (Dow Jones Newswires via NASDAQ.com)

H-P shares slip as new CEO fails to impress Street
Apotheker stresses more focus on software and IT services (MarketWatch)

HP’s Apotheker Appointment Sparks Talk of Closer Ties With SAP
(Bloomberg)

T-Mobile Says 4G Can Wait, Clearwire WiMax Is ‘Niche’ (Bloomberg)

Could Coax Hit 20 Gigabits Per Second? (Multichannel News)

QVC Launches Fifth Global Market (PR Newswire)
Italy.

History in 3-D
Welcome to Liberty 360, a circular theater telling the American tale. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

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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