phillytechnews twitterfeed 7/23/2012
|
Posted: 23 Jul 2012 02:09 PM PDT
phillytechnews: New PTN Post: Conshohocken-based ShopRunner brings in ex-Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson as its CEO http://t.co/xtGvpLMq
|
|
|
Conshohocken-based ShopRunner brings in ex-Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson as its CEO
Tom Paine
ShopRunner, the Conshohocken-based unit of Michael Rubin's Kynetic LLC online retail holding company, this morning announced that it has hired Scott Thompson as its CEO. Thompson left Yahoo in May after a brief tenure as its CEO when it was revealed that his biographical information as it appeared in some places included a computer science degree he never earned. He also had a cancer scare, which apparently has been successfully treated. Prior to Yahoo, he ran eBay's PayPal unit, and certainly had the reputation of being an astute and successful executive. eBay, by the way, owns a 30% stake in ShopRunner, which it retained after acquiring GSI Commerce and spinning off the rest of ShopRunner to Kynetic. There was no discussion this morning by either ShopRunner execs or Thompson about the resume flap.
ShopRunner was launched in 2010 by Rubin and Mike Golden originally as a part of GSI Commerce, to offer an alternative to Amazon's Prime delivery subscription service for independent retailers, providing free two-day shipping and other benefits to its members. There isn't too much data out there about how its doing, though. Bloomberg cites some sources suggesting ShopRunner is having difficulties in gaining traction and getting some of the larger retailers to sign on.
ShopRunner CEO and long-time Rubin colleague Golden will now be President and report to Thompson, a move that may lead to some questions about his future role, though Golden explains in an internal memo that the Inquirer's Joe DiStefano obtained that it was always part of the plan to bring in a high-profile CEO for the long-term. Thompson, who has spent most of his recent years in Silicon Valley, will split time between the California offices of ShopSanity, a startup ShopRunner acquired earlier this year, and Conshohocken. In that regard, the newly approved helipad to be built on the riverfront in Conshohocken and paid for by Kynetic might come in handy in beating traffic from the airport. In fact, in my curious mind I wonder if the close timing of the two announcements is more than a coincidence.
Update: In response to an inquiry by Philly Tech News, ShopRunner's press representative said that the company is not currently releasing subscriber numbers.
permalink
Daily Links 7/23/2012: Penn State marketing machine crippled
NCAA's Penn State Punishment Likely to Further Cripple School's Marketability (Ad Age)
Comcast will flood the Olympics zone (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Affils Make Case to Commerce for Retaining Retrans
NBC, CBS affiliates send letters in advance of July 24 hearing in 1992 Cable Act (Broadcasting & Cable)
Senate Commerce hearings tomorrow.
Twitter as media: Its ambitions grow with NBC Olympic deal (Gigaom)
Fundraising Drags on First-Half Venture Investment (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
PANL: Cowen Dismisses Threats to OLED Spread; Apple Not an issue (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
VMware Profit Falls; Company To Buy Nicira for $1.26 Billion
(Fox Business)
CodeSquare Partners With Conestoga Bank to Engage Philadelphia's Digital Demographic (PR Newswire)
permalink
Philly Tech People News 7/22/2012: Comcast moves & news
The appointment by NBCU head Steve Burke of Patricia Fili-Krushel as Chairman of the newly consolidated NBC News Group came as a surprise to some, the New York Post reports. Fili-Krushel is not considered to be a "news person" by many, although she did have oversight of ABC News a few years back. Burke worked with Fili-Krushel at ABC.
Jennifer Yohe Wagner, vice president/Strategic Business Procurement for Comcast Cable, was named the winner of the prestigious 2012 "Women in Technology" Award. The award is sponsored by Bright House Networks, and the winner was chosen by Communications Technology magazine, Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) and the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE). Yohe Wagner joined Comcast in 2007. "Through strong internal and external partnerships, and her relentless negotiation of large complex technology deals, she delivers the desired corporate results and savings", wrote Peter Kiriacoulacos, Chief Procurement Officer, Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal, on Comcast's corporate blog.
Grace Killelea, former senior vice president of talent at Comcast Cable, left the company to start her own executive coaching and speaking consulting business. Her firm, Philly-based Grace Killelea Consulting, counts Comcast among its initial clients. Killelea, who left Comcast in June after nine years there, oversaw Comcast's talent acquisition, talent management and diversity recruitment.
Also, Thomas J. Wlodkowski has joined Comcast Cable as Vice President of Accessibility. Wlodkowski will focus on enhancing the usability of Comcast's products and services for people with disabilities. He joins Comcast from AOL, where he had a similar role.
WVT Communications Group Appoints David J. Cuthbert as President (Marketwire)
Tonic Design Co. Announces New Managing Director
Former SVP, Marketing of Digitas Health and Co-founder of Cadient Group Joins Newtown-based Digital Marketing Agency
(Business Wire)
TE Connectivity Announces Key Management Changes and Provides Preliminary Third-Quarter Results (PRNewswire via Business Week)
UPS executive Romanella takes CEO job at UniTek Global Service (Philadelphia Business Journal)
Wingspan Names Kathie Clark as Director (Business Wire)
Janney Investment Banking Continues Expansion
Gregory Roth Joins Janney’s Technology and Media Group (Business Wire)
Cadient Group Hires Gabrielle Pastore to Lead Newly Formed Commercial Innovation Group (Philly Ad Club News)
Electronic Ink Welcomes Chris Britton to the Design Development Team (Electronic Ink Press Release)
LeadiD Adds Industry Veterans and Builds an All-Star Team (PR Web)
Subscribe to Philly Tech People News by Email
permalink
Comcast and the Future of Video
The TV marketplace is more than ready for deregulation (Holman Jenkins/Wall Street Journal)
Holman Jenkins raises some fundamental questions about Comcast's content+pipeline strategy.
phillytechnews twitterfeed 7/19/2012
|
Posted: 19 Jul 2012 02:59 PM PDT
phillytechnews: Daily Links 7/19/2012: Five Below raises $163 million in IPO; shares jump 56% http://t.co/Nkz9Iqob
|
|
Posted: 19 Jul 2012 02:41 PM PDT
phillytechnews: Five Below closes day up 56% |
Daily Links 7/20/2012: DreamIt Ventures expands to Austin
Exclusive: Comcast Prepping 305 Mbps Tier To Counter Verizon's New Quantum FiOS Offerings (Broadband Reports)
NBCU combines news units, puts Pat Fili-Krushel in charge (paidContent)
Google Keeps Quiet on Plans for Moto (Light Reading Cable)
DreamIt Ventures Heads To Austin (TechCrunch)
Area venture investing falls off a cliff (Philadelphia Business Journal)
Five Below IPO a Home Run for Advent (and LLR Partners) (PE Hub)
How education startup Coursera may profit from free courses (Gigaom)
Not only is UPenn offering courses through Coursera, but this week it was announced that UPenn and Caltech would be equity investors in the online higher ed venture.
Universal Display agrees to $4M Plextronics OLED deal
Developer of organic LED materials and printed electronics specialist agree strategic alliance. (Optics.org)
Publicis Posts 2.8% First-Half Growth, and Maurice Levy Is Still Here (Ad Age)
Chaiman blamed a decline in the health-care sector, for which much of Publicis' presence is in the Philly area, for weak growth in North America.
Oracle Expands Project Management Offerings With Skire Acquisition (CRN)
Got the Next Great Idea? (New York Times)
permalink
Daily Links 7/19/2012: Five Below raises $163 million in IPO; shares jump 56% after offering
Oracle Buys Skire to Boost Its Primavera Project Management Software (PC World)
I haven't heard too much out of Oracle Primavera recently, but I believe it is still primarily based in the Philly area. Oracle acquired the project management software pioneer founded by Joel Koppelman, which at the time was based in Bala Cynwyd, in 2008. Koppelman, who has since left Oracle, is now listed as "Chief Sculptor at JMK Adventures" on his LinkedIn profile.
Five Below prices IPO at $17.00, at high end of the range (Renaissance Capital)
Philly-based retalier raises $163 million.
Five Below's shares soar in initial trading (AP via Philadelphia Inquirer)
Shares jumped 54% after offering. Update: Five Below (NASDAQ: FIVE) closed the day up 56%.
Philly Fed Firms Continue to Report Weak Business Conditions (Business Wire)
Philly Fed factory activity shrinks for third month in July (Reuters)
Burke Creates NBCU News Group to Oversee NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC
NBCU EVP Fili-Krushel to Serve as Chairman (Multichannel News)
First Round Capital portfolio company Fab.com raises $105 million round, among other FRC-related deals
Tom Paine
New York-based Fab.com has raised a fab $105 million in its third round of funding. First Round Capital was a seed round investor in Fab.com, which started out as a gay social network before pivoting and launching as a design-focused ecommerce site last year. The new valuation is reported to be $600 million. This round was led by Atomico with participation by numerous other investors including FRC. Fab.com expects to do $140 million in sales this year.
Another New York-based firm in which FRC was a seed investor, social advertising startup 33Across, raised a new round of $13.1 million, bringing its total funding to date to over $26 million.
In other FRC news, Dan Primack reports in Fortune's Term Sheet email newsletter this morning that online movie scene site MovieClips has raised Series C funding led by U.S. Venture Partners. Once again, First Round was an early investor. Primack says he's hearing that the valuation is in the $80 million range.
Portfolio company Say Media, a San Francisco-based digital media company, raised a new round of $27 million led by New Enterprise Associates. Say Media was formed two year ago through the acquisition by VideoEgg (then an FRC portfolio company) of blogging platform Six Apart. All Things D reports that Say Media's plans include continuing its content acquisition strategy. Also, GoDaddy acquired portfolio company Outright, a cloud-based financial management company that had been positioned as a sort of Mint for small businesses. Terms were not disclosed.
permalink
phillytechnews twitterfeed 7/18/2012
|
Posted: 18 Jul 2012 07:30 PM PDT
phillytechnews: @njtechwkly Definitely interested in what you might have to report
|
|
Posted: 18 Jul 2012 05:36 PM PDT
phillytechnews: RT @gigaom: Design shopping site Fab raises $105M http://t.co/zd9FhId2 |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
