NJ Software-Defined Network Startup Corente to be Snapped Up by Oracle

Esther Surden
Publisher & Editor, NJTechWeekly.com


Corente, a privately held company based in Bernardsville that provides software-defined networking technology (SDN) for Wide Area Networks (WANs), is expected to be acquired by Oracle for an undisclosed amount. Corente was founded in 2007.

The proposed transaction, revealed Jan. 7, 2014, is subject to regulatory approval and other conditions, the company said. The transaction is expected to close in early 2014, and until that time the companies will operate independently. The company was not available for comment as to whether it will stay in New Jersey.

In a letter to its customers and partners, Corente said its software-defined WAN virtualization platform accelerates the deployment of distributed and cloud-based applications and services by allowing customers to “provision and manage global private networks connecting to any site over any IP network in a secure” manner.

Together, the letter said, Oracle and Corente are expected to deliver software-defined networking offerings that create “cost-effective, secure networks, spanning global deployments” and offer a complete technology portfolio for SDN cloud deployments that “virtualize both the enterprise data center LAN [Local Area Network] and the WAN.”

The goal of the combination is for Oracle to retain Corente’s domain expertise, some observers say, but there is some disagreement about how the company’s products will proceed once it is acquired.

Jim Zucco, chairman and CEO of Corente. | Via LinkedIn

Writing on TechTarget, Shamus McGillicuddy says that Oracle is not trying to “compete in the burgeoning SDN market. Instead, the company is improving the networking components of its own technology stack for cloud application delivery.”

He quotes Brad Casemore, IDC research director, as saying, "The SDN stuff that went out in the press releases, in my mind, is an intentional distraction … It's clear this is not a competitor to data center overlays, like VMware NSX. It's an adjunct technology. Oracle is not going to compete with Cisco. This is about their cloud services strategy. It will support other areas of their business."


In other words, don't expect Oracle to start selling Corente's technology as a standalone Oracle SDN product, the TechTarget article said. Oracle will support existing Corente customers, but Oracle's true intent is to incorporate Corente into Oracle's cloud applications stack, according to the McGillicuddy post.

Corente’s management team and employees are expected to join Oracle after the transaction closes and continue to focus on facilitating virtualization and capabilities in the area of software-defined networking technology, the company stated.

 In discussing how the acquisition will affect customers and partners, the company said on its website, “Oracle is currently reviewing the existing Corente product roadmap and will be providing guidance to customers in accordance with Oracle's standard product communication policies.”

 “Any resulting features and timing of release of such features as determined by Oracle's review of Corente’s product roadmap are at the sole discretion of Oracle. All product roadmap information, whether communicated by Corente or by Oracle, does not represent a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract.”



Esther Surden is Publisher and Editor of NJTechWeekly, and a contributor to Philly Tech News. This article originally appeared in NJTechWeekly, and is republished here with her permission.

Chis Kuenne resigns from Rosetta to focus on new PE Firm

Tom Paine

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Chris Kuenne (Rosemark Capital website)

Chris Kuenne has formally resigned from the Hamilton, New Jersey-based digital marketing agency he founded and sold to Publicis for $575 million, Rosetta. The move was anticipated, as he had been serving Rosetta in an advisory, transitional role. He will now focus on his new private equity firm, Rosemark Capital Group, in addition to charitable activities and serving as an instructor at Princeton.

Kuenne founded Rosetta in 1998 and sold it to Publicis in 2011.

Philly Tech News reported in early December on the formation of Rosemark Capital, also referring to an excellent in-depth article on Kuenne by the Princeton-based publication US 1.

Links 1/21/2014: Verizon to buy Intel Media assets; SAP delays profit goals for Cloud push

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Comcast adds Barclays as adviser on Time Warner Cable deal: sources (Reuters)

Verizon to Purchase Intel Media Assets (Intel Newsroom)

Verizon Paying About $200 Mil for Intel’s Internet TV Group: Sources (Variety)


Why Verizon is buying Intel Media: it’s all about taking on Comcast (Gigaom)

Amazon Exploring Over-the-Top TV Service (Variety)



Verizon posts Q4 profit of $7.9B, adds 1.7M connections
(CNET News)



SAP Delays Profitability Target Amid Cloud Push (Bloomberg)

SAP to sacrifice margin for growth (Denn Howlett/Diginomica)


SAP going after Salesforce, Workday “with everything we have” says CEO McDermott (Computing.co.uk)

SAP Rejected by Supreme Court Over $391 Million Loss (Bloomberg)

SAP Customers Preparing for Critical “ERP on HANA” Upgrade
(ASUG News)

IMS Health: Pharma Companies Should Engage On Social Media (Information Week)

Links 1/20/2014: Workday appoints former SAP exec to lead in Europe; Monetate teams with SAP's hybris on new offering

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TWC’s Marcus Stands Firm Amid Bids, Jabs (Multichannel News)


Workday appoints former SAP exec to lead European expansion (Computerworld UK)

Monetate Partners with SAP's hybris to Address Global Ecommerce and Multichannel Marketing Demands (PR Newswire)

Accenture’s ClientHouse buy shows there’s more room for cloud software in Europe (VentureBeat)
In addition to Salesforce products, ClientHouse sells and integrates Veeva CRM and QlikTech offerings.




Ellucian Acquires CampusIT to Accelerate Delivery of New Solutions (Ellucian Press Release)
Ellucian was formed through the merger of SunGard Higher Education with Datatel in 2012. It is now based in Fairfax, VA, though it still has at least a couple of hundred employees in the Philadelphia area according to its LinkedIn page.

202 tech startups reap Pennsylvania tax credits (Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review)
You can see a complete list of tax credit awardees here (pdf)

Tax Break as a Not-So-Secret Weapon (New
York Times)


Phila.-area firms got $420M in venture funding in 2013 (Philadelphia Inquirer)



Vocera acquires mobile-enabled, medical alarms company mVisum for $3.5 million (Mobile Health News)

Glaser reflects on decade of health IT (Healthcare IT News)
John Glaser, a pioneer in health IT and electronic health records, is currently CEO of the Malvern-based Health Services Business Unit of Siemens Healthcare.



Dell in talks with IBM to buy Big Blue’s x86 server business
(Ars Technica)

Philly Tech People News 1/19/2014: Saridakis resigns as head of eBay Enterprise; SAP exec elected to NRF board, Monetate names Lehman as NA sales chief

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As previously reported on Philly Tech News, Chris Saridakis resigned as head of King of Prussia-based eBay Enterprise "for personal reasons"


SAP’s Lori Mitchell-Keller Elected to NRF Board of Directors (SAP Newsbyte)

ASUG Names Geoff Scott as Its New Chief Executive Officer (ASUG News)


Monetate Appoints Chris Lehman as Head of North American Sales (PR Newswire)


BlackBerry Hires Another SAP Exec, Eric Johnson, to Lead Global Sales (BlackBerry Review)

Bill Frezza, a long time Boston-based partner for Pittsburgh-based Adams Capital Management ($815 million under management), is transitioning out of the VC world to become a radio host, Fortune Term Sheet's Dan Primack reports.

Frezza has agreed to host a new radio program produced by RealClearPolitics and libertarian-leaning think-tank Competitive Enterprise Institute, which will provide “NPR-style content presented from a free-market perspective.”

He plans to remain a partner with Adams until his firm exits his remaining portfolio companies, which include BioLeap and Optellios in the Philadelphia area.

I look forward to hearing his future contributions.


Charter recruits Cox, AT&T, Sprint veteran Schultz to run sales and retention (FierceCable)

Comcast-Spectacor continues to reshape management team (Philadelphia Business Journal)


SCTE promotes Schankel to VP (CED Magazine)


PayChoice Names Former JPMorgan Chase Executive, Jonathan Wilk, as President (Marketwire)

The Judge Group Promotes John Battaglia to Chief Technology Officer (GlobeNewswire)

The Tipping Point (E-Commerce Version) (Jeff Jordan/Adreesson/Horowitz)

NBC Entertainment chief talks Leno, NFL and Peter Pan (LA Times: Company Town)

Chet Kanojia and Aereo Seek to Shake Up Television Industry (New York Times)

Exclusive: Fox, CBS, ESPN bid for Thursday night NFL games (Reuters via Chicago Tribune)
NBC thought to have submitted bid last night.

5 Big Business Intelligence Trends For 2014 (Cindi Howson/Information Week)

Chris McNabb, Dell Boomi GM, interviewed at Dreamforce

The SIIA interviewed several member companies at Dreamforce this past November. One was Dell Booomi, which has been an important Salesforce partner, and its GM Chris McNabb.

Links 1/17/2014: Roberts seen as kingmaker in Time Warner Cable battle

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Comcast’s Roberts Seen as ‘Kingmaker’ in Time Warner Cable Chase (Bloomberg)


Comcast considers a deal for Time Warner Cable (Philadelphia Inquirer)



Comcast Dropping ‘AnyPlay’
MSO To Discontinue In-Home Streaming Device On March 31 as Other Video Options Rise Up (Multichannel News)

IBM Commits $1.2 Billion To Cloud, Adding 15 Global Data Centers (Data Center Knowledge)


Health IT moving to critical step (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Dropbox Closes Roughly $250M Round At $10B Valuation, WSJ Says (TechCrunch)


Filing: IGM should be sold in Pa. (AP via Philly.com)

eMoney and Firefly Give Financial Advisors Remote Meeting Capabilities (PR Newswire)

Oracle builds a bridge to Salesforce.com with new adapter (PC World)

Thursday Night NFL bids reported to be due in tomorrow

Tom Paine

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John Ourand of Sports Business Daily reports that bids on the NFL's Thursday night package are due in tomorrow, and most of the major networks are expected to enter bids, including Comcast's NBC. Ourand says ABC is especially eager to get back in the NFL, as its the only major over-the-air network without an NFL package (although its owner Disney does have MNF on ESPN).

Ourand says the NFL would like the Thursday night package to be on a broadcast network. But Joe Flint of the LA Times thinks a cable network may be a more likely possibility, mentioning NBCSports Network, which has long been rumored to be interested in Thursday night to boost its ratings and recognition, as a candidate.

Another issue the NFL must determine is how many games to put in a Thursday night package. It does not want to leave its own NFL Network too bare.

Update: Flint wrote today (Sunday) that NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt declined to confirm that NBC had entered a bid on the Thursday night package, but said "we’d love to have more NFL games," and "Thursday night games might be really interesting to us." Greenblatt's comments came at the semiannual Television Critics Assn. press tour in Pasadena on Sunday.

First Round Capital’s Kopelman Challenges Conventional Thinking at NJ Tech Meetup

@Alan Skontra

                                   Josh Kopelman spoke to the NJ Tech Meetup in December. | Aaron Price

College entrepreneur, Internet pioneer and award-winning investor Josh Kopelman schooled more than 100 attendees of the NJ Tech Meetup’s 43rd monthly meeting Dec. 16, 2013 at the Stevens Institute of Technology campus in Hoboken.

Kopelman shared success stories and offered contrarian opinions about entrepreneurship, which meetup organizer Aaron Price praised for highlighting many of the ideas the group has explored this year.

Kopelman started his first company, a homework helper called Infonautics, in 1992 while he was still a student at the Wharton School of Business. He listed Infonautics on the NASDAQ exchange in 1996, and three years later he founded Half.com, which created a resale market for books, movies and music.

Kopelman sold Half.com to eBay in 2000, and three years after that he founded TurnTide, an anti-spam company that Symantec bought after just six months.

In 2004 Kopelman turned to investing by founding seed firm First Round Capital, which Kopelman said explores more than 3,000 ideas annually out of offices in New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco. This year Forbes magazine ranked Kopelman 12th on its annual “Midas’ Touch” list.

Kopelman said he is from Philadelphia, a large city but no Silicon Valley or even Silicon Alley. He mentioned his background to show that the adage of “right place, right time” covers a much larger map these days.

 “Great entrepreneurs can come up with great ideas anywhere in the country, just like great actors aren’t all born in Hollywood,” he said.

He then said he wanted to share some contrarian opinions.

First, he challenged a notion, taught by one of his Wharton professors, that successful entrepreneurs find an unmet market need.

 “It took me about 10 years to realize that I disagree with that professor,” Kopelman said. “We’ve funded many companies that are not trying to find an unmet market, but are instead finding a solution to an existing market but doing it faster, better, cheaper,” he said.

For example, Kopelman’s company was one of the seed investors of Uber, the new taxi service similar to AirBnB, through which private individuals use their own cars to give rides to people. Riders can use an app to request a driver, follow that driver’s progress en route, pay for the trip via credit card, and rate drivers for performance. “Uber is about solving an existing need of getting from place A to B faster, better, cheaper,” he said.

From the Uber story Kopelman segued into another idea about shrinking markets. He mentioned how Microsoft toppled what was a $1.2 billion print encyclopedia market by adding the digital Encarta encyclopedia to its software suite. The market soon collapsed in half, but Microsoft took a larger share of it.

Kopelman further promoted his idea of shrinking markets by telling the story of Half.com. “Our whole business model was based on the fact that when people buy books or movies, they typically read or watch them only once,” he said. “We would send an email to people asking, would you like your $30 back?”

Half.com found that people are interested in reselling their entertainment. Kopelman said that a Harry Potter book would resell an average of four times, with Half.com taking $3 from every sale. The site challenged established and larger retailers that only sold new.

“That’s a really asymmetric way to compete,” Kopelman said. “We cost our competitors 10 dollars for every dollar we made but we were able to turn them in such velocity and such volume that we were shrinking the market by removing the inefficiencies.” The plan worked; a year later eBay bought Half.com for $350 million.

Kopelman dispelled one more myth, that seed investing and venture capital are the same. “The goal of venture investing is to take a business and to scale it, to pour fuel into the engine,” he said. “That’s not the goal of seed investing.”

Seed investing, Kopelman explained, is about validating or disproving an entrepreneur’s hypothesis. “Oftentimes people pitch venture capitalists without validating the hypothesis and when they need to be pitching growth, and they pitch seed investors on growth when they should be talking about the hypothesis they want to validate,” he said.

Kopelman told the story of how as a seed investor he supported TechForward, which enables buy-back programs for electronics. At the time, retailers were losing traditional revenue because customers stopped extending warranties for products, such as televisions and phones, that they would soon upgrade.

TechForward thought to replace the lost revenue by creating a buy-back program in which a customer would pay money upfront for a guarantee that a retailer would buy back a product later, when the customer wanted to replace it. By offering store credit, retailers could lock customers into a cycle of upgrades.

Kopelman said that as a seed investor he gave TechForward $300,000 and asked the company first to test its hypothesis by collecting data from eight used computer stores in Los Angeles. He said that research enabled TechForward to hone its idea, and that later it was able to earn exponentially larger investment amounts from venture firms.

“At the seed stage you’re trying to run a series of experiments,” Kopelman said.

He ended his talk by opening the floor to audience questions, such as on what he looks for in a successful pitch. He said that entrepreneurs should be able to tell a story and have strong marketing ideas.

He added that he always looks for a team with a diversity of member strengths. “We’ll turn down ideas if we don’t like the team, though we won’t tell them that,” Kopelman said.


Alan Skontra is a journalist and writer based in Hoboken, and a contributor to NJTechWeekly.

This article originally appeared in NJTechWeekly, and is republished here with its permission.