Philly Tech People News 9/15/2013

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SAP Channel Chief Eric Duffaut Exits Company
(The VAR Guy)

RDK Management Names Comcast’s Steve Heeb President & GM
(Multichannel News)

Behind NBCU’s Dramatic Week: Steve Burke’s Drive For Cash
(Variety)

Comcast Ups 3 Execs, Hires DirecTV Senior VP (Variety)


NBCUniversal Taps Cesar Conde As EVP (Multichannel News)

Matt Wallach was elevated to President of Veeva Systems, a California-based cloud software
company with offices in the Philly area, according to Veeva's recently filed Form S-1. Wallach, a co-founder who has been based in Radnor, has been Chief Strategy Officer.


TiVo Appoints Daniel M. Moloney to Its Board of Directors (Marketwire)

The Judge Group Promotes Jared Rakes to Executive Vice President (Business Wire)

Comcast gets a lot of things right with its Xfinity connected home products (Gigaom)

Links 9/13/2013: Will Comcast build another tower?; Josh Kopelman on his Twitter decision

Buzz builds on another Comcast tower (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Moffett predicts Charter could roll up smaller operators to 'retool' for run at Time Warner Cable (FierceCable)


Twitter IPO: VC Josh Kopelman Missed Out — Why He’s OK With It (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)


Why Philly Tech Rocks (PeopleLinx Blog)

Uh oh. Amazon U.S. East is in trouble again (Gigaom)

Amazon Web Services Hit By Slowdown (Information Week)


Amazon Web Services opens new Herndon office (Washington
Business Journal)
Sounds like a major expansion of IT/Engineering staff near Virginia data center.

Workday's CEO Owns a Fake Town and a Piece of Every Customer (Business Week)


Tangoe Delivers Edison 10X Return
Edison Ventures proudly announces that it has exited Tangoe, Inc. of Orange, CT. (PR Web)

Links 9/12/2013: Report: Verizon may be considering providing nationwide broadband TV serviceWould leverage FiOS progamming

Twitter files papers to go public (Gigaom)
S-1 still under wraps.

Verizon wants a national TV audience (New York Post)

Workday's big data play: The gateway drug to financials? (ZDNet)

How will we integrate all these enterprise cloud apps? (PandoDaily)
Discusses Dell Boomi, among others.

Dell to invest more on PCs, tablets after $25 billion buyout win (Reuters)

Comcast Names Brassel SVP Business Intelligence, Promotes Other Senior Execs (Multichannel News)



Firm developing power technology gets $550k investment (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Life sciences SaaS vendor Veeva Systems, with significant Philly area presence, files for IPO of up to $150 million

Tom Paine

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Veeva Systems, the Pleasanton, CA-based life sciences software firm with a significant presence in the Philadelphia area, has filed for an IPO to raise up to $150 million.

Veeva, which competes with Oracle and others in providing SaaS solutions to pharmaceutical and life sciences sales & marketing functions, has its US sales, marketing and customer service functions based out of Radnor. In June, it acquired Fort Washington-based healthcare provider data firm AdvantageMS. Veeva co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Matt Wallach, a Wallingford native, is based here. (Update: Wallach was named President of
Veeva Systems last month, reporting to CEO Peter Gassner.)

Veeva reported revenue of $129.5 million for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2012, more than double the previous year. Income was $18.8 million.

Looking at the recent Bessemer Ventures Partners data on the valuations of publicly traded SaaS companies relative to their revenues, one can speculate at what Veeva's market capitalization could be, particularly considering that Veeva has been profitable while many listed in the BVP data are still not.

Veeva, founded in 2007, has reached this point with only $4 million in venture funding from Emergence Capital Partners and $3 million in angel funding. Emergence Capital has a stake of more than 30%.

I first wrote about Veeva's possible IPO plans in March.

Veeva would list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "VEEV".

Links 9/11/2013: Cloudamize gets $1.2 million in seed funding

IPad-Toting Doctors Fuel Publisher Profits as Paper Fades
(Bloomberg)

Apu Gupta: Why Not Philly? (Wall Street Journal Blogs)

Cloudamize Announces $1.2 Million in Seed Funding Led by MissionOG and Gabriel Investments
Funding Accelerates the Growth of the Cloud Optimization Platform (PR Newswire)


That Apple TV Refresh is Coming Next Week (All Things D)

Jeff Shell's promotion to run Universal Pictures surprises Hollywood (LA Times)

Steve Burke: NBC's Ratings Woes Hurting Revenues (Hollywood Reporter)

SAP looks to boost 'big data' position with Hadoop deals, new apps (Computer World)

A look back at the infamous Enron "Metal Man" ad

Tom Paine

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Part of the purpose of the 2012 Jobs Act was to make capital more accessable to early stage companies, and make it easier for qualiified individuals to invest, while still providing reasonable investor protections.

However, there is concern in the angel investor community that final rules for implementation of the Jobs Act recently adopted by the SEC and due to go into effect later this month will in fact discourage, rather than encourage, angels from investing. Others are still concerned that, even with these constraints, the JOBS Act will still encourage more fraud.

But thinking back in history a bit, there were huge some huge NYSE-traded corporations that, in spite of all of regulations that listing came with, were capable of carrying out massive fraud on investors.

A reminder of this was the remarkable (and nonsensical) Enron advertisement called "Metal Man" that ran not too long before the Enron scandal blew up in late 2001. The epitome of corporate narcissism, the ad tried to portray the notion that somehow Enron had better ideas than anyone else. In fact, the company's value was mostly built on a house of cards. The "Why?" mantra of the ad probably later haunted many investors who asked themselves why they invested in this wayward Houston outfit.

Links 9/10/2013: NextDocs receives $13.5 million in funding; Shake-up at NBCUniversal

Shake-up at NBCUniversal reflects foreign focus
NBCUniversal names Jeff Shell its top film exec as Meyer moves to an advisory role..
(LA Times: Company Town)

Comcast V.C. Arm Joins Benu Networks’ $26.6 Million ‘B’ Round (Multichannel News)

NextDocs Receives $13.5 Million in Funding to Fuel Expansion (PR Newswire)


SAP Extends the Power of Predictive Analytics to Unlock Big Data With Acquisition of KXEN (PR Newswire)

SAP Buying KXEN For Predictive Analytics Tools (Information Week)



SAP pumps $40m into Virtustream to boost cloud delivery (ZDNet)

Workday aims anew at Oracle with planned software for higher ed (PC World)

Cisco enters data storage market with purchase of Whippany, NJ-based Whiptail (Reuters)
Pays steep price/revenue ratio to enter flash storage market.

PTC Expands Technology Deployment Options with Acquisition of Hosting Provider NetIDEAS
Deal Strengthens Long-Time, Successful Relationship Delivering Hosted PLM Software to Customers Worldwide (Business Wire)
NetIDEAS is based in Marlton.

Penn Medicine Streamlines Data Sharing With Startups (Information Week)

Active Data Exchange Acquires WebEvent Solution From Asure Software (Business Wire)

Artisan Launches Industry-First Partner Program for Mobile App Conversion Rate Optimization (Business Wire)

Links 9/9/2013: Drexel forming new College of Computing and Informatics

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DREXEL ANNOUNCES NEW COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATICS (Drexel Now)

Deloitte gobbles enterprise software specialists
(ZDNet)

SAP focuses on stability, data source support with Business Objects update (PC World)


Why SunGard AS Chose CloudStack (Data Center Knowledge)

Unisys takes on the big names in x86 servers with mainframe technologies (IT World)

Quality Systems, Inc. Acquires Mirth Corporation (Business Wire)
Quality says acquisition will "accelerate {Healthcare Transformation Strategies of QSI’s [Horsham-based]NextGen Healthcare Subsidiary and Mirth".

Aramark files plans to go public again (AP via Boston Globe)

OLED CEO Lists Blue Material, Lighting, Thin-Films, Vapor Printing Among Goals (Barron's: Tech Trader
Daily)

NBC spreads its wings on Sixth Avenue (New York Post)
Should pretty much rebut ridiculous rumors about Comcast relocating NBC stuff to Philly.



Comcast Begins EA Games Pilot (Light Reading)

NBCU Switch-Up: Esquire Network to Take Over Style, Not G4 (Exclusive) (Hollywood Reporter)

Live From Tokyo? NBC Faces a Time Shift for the 2020 Olympics (Business Week)



PACT Announces IMPACT 2013 Venture Summit Full Conference Lineup (Business Wire)

How Infor CEO Charles Phillips Is Quietly Becoming The 'Steve Jobs' Of Business Software
(Business Insider)

Verizon’s bid to kill network neutrality law goes to court Monday (Ars Technica)

Philly Tech News TidBits 9/8/2013: Novotorium, Recovery Networks, Async Interview

Tom Paine

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Novotorium, the Langhorne-based business incubator, will hold a program featuring classes and individual guidance for health, wellness and nutrition startups on Monday, September 16, through Friday, September 20. The program will be followed by a business plan competition on Monday, September 23 with a prize of $2,500 in cash and $3,000 in services to the top business in the competition. Companies may apply to participate in the program at the Novotorium website; there is no cost to participate.

Recovery Networks, the cloud backup and recovery solutions provider based in the Philadelphia Naval Yard industrial park, was recently named to the 2013 CRN Next-Gen 250, which CRN says "identifies solution providers that are on the cutting edge of technology and business model shifts". Recovery Networks' primary data center is located within the Philadelphia Technology Park. It provides backup and recovery solutions for both hybrid and private clouds.

Philadelphia-based Async Interview,an online video interviewing platform provider, announced last week the integration of its product with iCIMS, a New Jersey-based leader in SaaS talent management solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises.