Daily Links 11/22/2010: Franken Seeks Probe of Comcast for Naming NBC Managers

Comcast’s Plans for Executives Offer Clues to Future of NBC (New York Times)

For NBC Sale, Tensions Rise in Washington (New York Times)

Senator (Franken) Seeks Probe of Comcast for Naming NBC Managers (Bloomberg)

FiOS Zips Into Speed Lead With 150-Meg Broadband
Verizon Boasts 150/35 Mbps Tier is Fastest Residential Broadband in U.S. (Multichannel News)

SAP CEO promises users clear product roadmaps
Jim Snabe highlights in-memory, cloud and mobile at user group conference (Computerworld
UK)

Oracle Asks Jurors to Find SAP Owes $1.7 Billion (Bloomberg)

Philadelphia University Announces Groundbreaking New College of Design, Engineering and Commerce (PR Newswire)

Ben Franklin (Northeastern Pennsylvania) to Invest $915,141 in PA Technology Companies (Business Wire)

Hacking away at the Next Big Thing
Baltimore event brings tech mavens together to work on projects (Baltimore Sun)

Novell through the years (Network World)
Safeguard Scientifics was an early backer.

Does US need Chalfont firm's new PCs?
(Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Innovative Tech Company Offers Free Tours Of Future ‘Green’ Data Center
(Business Wire)




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Philly Tech People News 11/21/2010

First Round Capital Promotes Charlie O'Donnell To Principal (Silicon Alley Insider)


Curtis Riddle to retire from Gannett’s U.S. Community Publishing; Howard Griffin named president and publisher of The News Journal in Wilmington, DE (Business Wire)

Electronic Ink Appoints Veteran Software Executive as Vice President of Client Strategy
Chuck Ambrogi brings a wealth of IT and vertical market experience to the business system design consultancy (Business Wire)

PRINCETON: Presidential Awards go to two Princeton scientists (Princeton Packet)

NCTA head McSlarrow to resign spring 2011 (Washington Post: Post Tech)

Viridity Energy Names Laura Manz as Senior Vice President, Western Region (Business Wire)



Retail Industry Veteran Bob Myers Joins Monetate Strategic Advisory Board (PR Newswire)

Brownstein Group welcomes new employees and promotes Adam Deringer and Erin Allsman as VPs (Philly Ad Club News)

Cadient Group adds and promotes six (Philly Ad Club News)

NewSpring Capital Adds Two Investment Professionals (Press Release)

vcopious Appoints Rahul Rankavat as New Director of Software Development (Exhibitor News Network)


Raj Singh Appointed President and COO of Judge International (Business Wire)

Jonathan Chou to Join Kulicke & Soffa as Chief Financial Officer





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Lazarus To Lead Cable Sports At Comcast-NBCU: Sources
Former Turner Executive Would Have Oversight For Versus, Golf, RSNs (Multichannel News)
Would report to Dick Ebersol.

Can QVC Translate Its Pitch Online? (New York Times)

SAP chief info officer: Apps in works for RIM tablet (CNET News)

Daily Links 11/19/2010: Oracle Rests in SAP case

First Round - Six Years, Our Third Fund, and Looking Ahead (Redeye VC)

Comcast Trims Another Division (Light Reading Cable)

Sprint Nextel's Technology Lead at Risk as Clearwire Faces Cash Crunch (Bloomberg)

A Philly spin on the TED conference (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Oracle Rests SAP Case, Slams HP CEO (All Things Digital: Digital Daily)

SAP System Issue Blamed for Delayed San Diego Audit (PC World)


Google Turns Its Local Eyes to Groupon–But Who Else Could Enter Bidding? (All Things Digital: BoomTown)

NimbleCommerce lets newspapers build their own Groupon (VentureBeat)
Philly.com is one of their initial clients.

NetSuite Jumps On Salesforce Beat; Feltl Starts At Buy Rating (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

FI Compliance Solutions Launches New Loan Portfolio Review Solution (PR Newswire)

Philadelphia U. plans College of Engineering, Design and Commerce (Philadelphia Business Journal)

As Tech Deals Boom, Talk Turns to Bubbles (New York Times: DealBook)

HIStalk Interviews Jonathan Phillips (HIStalk)
Interesting perspective on the M & A environment in Healthcare IT.




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DreamIt Ventures to start New York incubator program, push back Philly until Fall

Forbes' Maureen Farrell reports that Philly's DreamIt Ventures is starting a New York incubator program next summer, and as a result will push its 2011 Philly program back to the Fall. While co-founder Steven Welch says DreamIt remains committed to Philadelphia, this move is bound to raise questions about that.

The article notes only 8 of DreamIt's 34 startups are currently based in Philly.

Steve Burke announces Comcast/NBCU Management Team in Memo

Steve Burke has announced the new management team for the Comcast/NBCU joint venture in a memo today. No major surprises from what had previously been indicated. It confirms that Bob Greenblatt (ex-Showtime) will become Chairman of NBC Entertainment. Also, it will be particularly interesting to see what Dick Ebersol will do with NBC Sports, Versus, The Golf Channel and Comcast's Regional Sports Networks all reporting to him.

The LA Times' Company Town blog notes that there are going to be numerous chairmen running around NBCU's executive suite. Sort of like all the czars in the Obama administration.

Comcast left standing alone by (proposed) Cablevision spinoff (Reuters Blogs)

Daily Links 11/18/2010: Salesforce reports 30% revenue growth

Oracle-SAP Trial Chugs Toward Finish Line (All Things Digital: Digital Daily)

Oracle Is Anticompetitive, Services Group Tells DOJ (PC World)

Benioff kneels at the altar of cloud computing (Computerworld)
Salesforce.com Announces Fiscal Third Quarter Results (PR Newswire)
Revenue up 30% year-over-year.
Salesforce.com Shares Jump After Sales Forecast Exceeds Analyst Estimates (Bloomberg)

Philadelphia Fed Factory Index Rises to 22.5, More Than Quadruple Forecast (Bloomberg)
Philly Fed November 2010 Business Outlook Survey.

Netflix charges ahead amid mad competitive scramble for internet TV (VentureBeat)

Pay-TV Suffers Second Straight Subscriber Loss, SNL Kagan Says (Bloomberg)

Comcast: T-Commerce Four Times More Effective Than Online Shopping
Comcast at 14.5 Million EBIF Homes, TWC to Be at 4.5 Million by Year-End (Multichannel
News)




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First Round Capital Roundup: 11/17/2010

Jelli, a First Round Capital portfolio company that enables radio stations to use "crowd sourcing" to determine playlist priorities, is gaining an expanded presence in the Philadelphia market. WYSP/Philadelphia and WPST/Trenton have both considerably increased the number of hours programmed by Jelli users, who vote online for the artists and songs they wish to hear. Jelli also just recently introduced an iPhone app. Based in San Mateo, CA, the company has raised a total of $7 million to date, with Battery Ventures being another significant investor.

Yummly of Palo Alto, which provides a semantic search engine for recipes, raised $1.85 million, led by First Round, Intel Capital, and Harrison Metal Capital. Presumably, co-founder and CEO David Feller goes back a ways with Josh Kopelman, since he worked previously at Half.com, eBay, and StumpleUpon (an early First Round portfolio company).

First Round and Shasta Ventures lead a $3 million round in MOVIECLIPS.COM, a Los Angelos-based startup that is building a searchable database of movie clips (with licensing from the studios). Here is an interview with the company founders.

Daily Links 11/17/2010: Ben Franklin Technology Partners funds nine companies for $2.3 million

Comcast Teams With Sporting News On Regional Digital Publications
First RSN-Backed Edition Launched In Philadelphia (Multichannel News)

Comcast talks with regulators on NBC deal heat up (Reuters)

Comcast's clumsy Hollywood kickoff
Its NBC Universal efforts make it look clueless (Variety)

Comcast Reshuffles NBC’s Deck: Who’s Up, Down And Out
(Forbes: Moneywood)

War over? Comcast says "Consensus at hand on net neutrality" (Ars Technica)

Hulu Plus launches, cuts price -- look out Comcast and Netflix? (Seattle Times)

Nine firms get a total of $2.3M from Ben Franklin program (Philly.com: Philly Inc)


Verizon Offers Free Security Credentials To Healthcare Professionals (Information Week)

'GIS Day' to Showcase Cutting-Edge Technologies and Jobs (PR Newswire)

PolicyMap Introduces Four New Decision-Making Tools
Additional Web 2.0 Functionality Helps People Understand, Use, and Share Good Data (PR
Newswire)

UniTek Global Services, Inc. Announces Financial Results for Fiscal Third Quarter 2010 (Globe Newswire via
MarketWatch)

Xyntek's Biometric Solutions for Staff User Authentication & Patient Identification (Marketwire)




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Brian Tierney's New Gig

The New York Times reports that former Philadelphia Inquirer publisher Brian Tierney is back in business, having set up a PR firm simply called "Brian Public Relations" in King of Prussia and acquired an interactive promotional firm, Realtime Media , to go with it, with backing from NewSpring Capital.

He is also taking along Philly.com President Ryan Davis with him.

Daily Links 11/16/2010: GSI Commerce off 7% on analyst's downgrade

Gaspin to Step Down From NBCU
Top TV exec to leave company after Comcast deal complete (Broadcasting & Cable)
Also, more on Amy Banse's move to Silicon Valley; NBCU's Zalaznick to oversee Telemundo.

Kurtz: Olbermann On the Rocks With MSNBC
(Slate)

Hands-On With Comcast’s Xfinity TV App (Gigaom: NewTeeVee)

Comcast's Smit Says TV App Will Help Speed Up Innovation: Video
(Bloomberg)


TEDx at the Kimmel: Where ideas go to mix (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Drexel University Announces $45 Million Gift (PR Newswire)
From Bennett S. LeBow for new B-School facility.

GSI Commerce: Cowen Turns Bearish; Sees More Competition (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
The underlying question: Is GSI Commerce's core business model really profitable?

QlikTech Files Registration Statement for Proposed Secondary Public Offering (Business Wire)

Oracle Sees Ex-SAP CEO’s Testimony as “Context” for Damage Claim (All Things Digital: Digital Daily)

SAP Owes Oracle $40.6 Million for Infringement, Expert Tells Federal Jury (Bloomberg)
$40.6 million precisely?

Improving SAP usability: Perspectives from the ‘Google generation’ (SearchSAP.com)

Motorola Invests In BlackArrow
Amount of Funding in Dynamic Advertising-Insertion Startup Not Disclosed (Multichannel News)
Comcast Interactive Capital is already an investor in BlackArrow.

Pepperjam founder invests in capital fund (Scranton Times-Tribune)
Founder Kris Jones sold Pepperjam to GSI Commerce last year.

The implications of too much VC money and too little startup talent (Fortune)




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