Links 3/11/2014: DreamIt Health taking applications; PeopleLinx integrates with Twitter (which promptly crashes)

DreamIt Health Accepting Applications for Third Class (Medgadget)
Interview with Elliot Menschik.

Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia Embraces Social Collaboration (Information Week)

Castlight Health hikes IPO pricing amid health tech boom (VentureBeat)


PeopleLinx Integrates Social Marketing Platform with Twitter (PR Newswire)


Fox executive raises questions on Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger (Reuters)

Scale and the Comcast-TWC Acquisition (TeleFrieden)
Rob Frieden is Pioneers Chair and Professor of Telecommunications and Law, Penn State University.

Amazon’s TV streaming box to ship with Netflix and Hulu Plus apps
(Gigaom)

Netflix's international streaming prospects underappreciated (Investor's Business Daily)
Would not be surprised at all if Comcast was eyeing the international OTT market.




Huawei expands partnership with SAP, launches new HANA hardware (PC World)

Collaboration Software Maker Jive Explores Sale (Re/code)

Wanxiang ‘diligently assessing’ Fisker plant (Wilmington News Journal)

A 2014 Message from Xtium’s CEO (Xtium Blog)

West Chester investors go public vs. U.S. regulators
(Philly.com: Philly Deals)



Philly Ad Agency, D4 Comes Down with another case of Veria (PR Web)

Links 3/10/2014: Comcast in deal to sell 'House of Cards', other Sony content directly

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


Comcast Cuts Sony Deal to Sell ‘House of Cards,’ Early-Release Movies (Variety)

How Comcast Is Building a Machine To Dominate the Future (Wired: Opinon)


Verizon's Shammo: We'll look at FiOS expansions once it returns the cost of capital (FierceTelecom)

Feds Poised to Open More Airwaves for Wi-Fi (Re/code)



Accenture, SAP merge enterprise solutions in to a one-stop shop
(ZDNet)

SAP hopes to help Germany win World Cup with HANA
(PC World)


Oracle to revamp schools ERP software, with an eye on Workday (PC World)
Ellucian (created from the SunGard Higher Ed/Datatel merger) is also a major player in this market.

Network effect of industry-crowdsourced physician data (Pharmaceutical Commerce)
Contributed by Dan Goldsmith, general manager, Veeva Network.


Cloud ERP Deployments Declined In 2013, Panorama Says (IT Jungle)

Adminovate Swaps Out SAP Business ByDesign For NetSuite (PR Newswire)

Philly Tech News Top Stories of Week: 2/28/14 thru 3/8/14

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email


HP acquires Philly-based network-simulation vendor Shunra


Northern Virginia-based UC provider iCore expands with new Philly offices


LLR Partners closes 4th fund at $950 million


Former SevOne CEO Phelan joins Osage Venture Partners; Drahms promoted to Partner



Veeva Systems posts results, extends Salesforce partnership


Liberty Media says not finished looking at Time Warner Cable, other possibilities

Philly Tech People News 3/9/2014: CRF Health names Kent, former chief executive officer of ClinPhone, as Board Chairman

Follow @phillytechnews



Subscribe to Philly Tech People News by Email


CRF Health Welcomes Steven W. J. Kent to Board of Directors (Business Wire)

SAP Bolsters Cloud Leadership, Names Former NGA Human Resources CEO Mike Ettling as Cloud for HR Lead (SAP News)

Former SevOne CEO Phelan joins Osage Venture Partners; Drahms promoted to Partner (Philly Tech News)

Connotate Names Laura Teller Chief Strategy Officer
(Marketwire)

Goetz To Leave Time Warner Cable At End of March (Multichannel News)



Mangos Taps Internal Talent to Lead Its New Media Program (PR Web)


Beyond.com Brings Jobs to Indianapolis; Increases Company Footprint in the Region (Business Wire)

Comcast 'doubling down' on theme park business (Philadelphia Inquirer)

HP acquires Philly-based network-simulation vendor Shunra

Tom Paine

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



HP announced this week on a blog post it had acquired Philadelphia-based Shunra, which provides network-virtualization and application-performance engineering technology. Shunra has already been an HP partner.

Shunra Network Virtualization builds real-world application performance testing into business and mission-critical applications prior to deployment. HP said in a statement, "We expect Shunra’s technology will bolster our mobile capabilities and expand our growing Software as a Service (SaaS) portfolio within our Application Delivery Management (ADM) business." Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2014, were not disclosed.

Shunra started out in Israel but moved its headquarters to Philadelphia after raising $11.5 million led by Insight Venture Partners in 2004. Shunra had earlier been managed by CEO Thomas Charlton, who also brought another Insight Venture Partners portfolio firm, PHD Virtual, to Philly and served as its CEO, before departing to focus on his own startup, Goliath Technologies. Shunra's current Chairman & CEO is Gary Jackson. PHD Virtual was acquired by another Insight Venture Partners-backed company, Unitrends, late last year.

Shunra's LinkedIn page shows 93 employees, including 26 in the Philadelphia area and 30 in Israel.

Saturday Highlights: Aereo shuts down in SLC, Denver

Aereo's internet TV service in Denver and Salt Lake City shuts down today (Engadget)

Aereo's not for sale... not now, anyway (Engadget)


Last year’s CBS blackout was terrible for everyone. Here’s one idea to fix it. (Washington Post)


SAP HANA: Just a Sidecar to IBM i, For Now (IT Jungle)

Death of the mainframe – again (John Appleby/Diginomica)

Northern Virginia-based UC provider iCore expands with new Philly offices

Tom Paine

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email

Northern Virginia-based iCore Networks has opened a new Philadelphia office at the Centre Square Building at 1500 Market Street. iCore provides cloud-based unified communications (UC) solutions, which replace on-premise equipment, to businesses. The office already has some employees on board, and the company expects it to eventually house 25 people, mostly in sales and customer support. In a statement, iCore said its "decision to build a presence in Philadelphia is largely driven by the area’s burgeoning business climate and wealth of opportunities."

iCore, founded in 2001 with about 160 employees in total at present, bundles "best of breed" technologies into what it calls its unique "CloudFUZN" solution. The latest expansion follows recent facility openings in other major national markets, including Atlanta and San Francisco. This year, iCore also plans to expand its presence into Boston and New York.

iCore would appear to be competitive with companies such as Philly-based Evolve IP, Alteva, and to some extent, Comcast Business. This regional expansion is being headed by iCore’s Senior Vice President of Sales, Michael Bertamini.

Links 3/7/2014: AT&T worried about Comcast

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Comcast Has AT&T Worrying About the US (Wall Street Journal: Corporate Intelligence)

Will Comcast's Mega-Merger Spin Off an All-New Cable Company? (Bloomberg Business Week)


Verizon offers discount to wireless and Fios triple-play customers (CNET News)


Salesforce at 15 (Denis Pombriant / Enterprise Irregulars)

Eight eye-openers from Salesforce.com's annual report (PC World)


Box Said to Project $200 Million in Revenue as IPO Nears
(Bloomberg)

Andreessen Horowitz leads $37.2M investment in high-flyer DigitalOcean (Gigaom)


Unitrends talks investment and acquisition (Channel Pro)
Unitrends acquired Philly-based PHD Virtual late last year.

Links 3/6/2014: Comcast ties down FreeWheel deal

Comcast Finishes FreeWheel Acquisition (Re/code)
Price said to be $360 million, plus potential $15 million in various payouts, a bit higher than reported previously.

A Q&A with Comcast's top government guy (Fortune)

U.S. antitrust chief recused on Comcast, Time Warner Cable review (Reuters via Chicago Tribune)


OnDeck Capital Raises $77M Led by Tiger Global to Expand Small Business Lending (Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
Prior investors First Round Capital and SAP Ventures participated again.

Payoneer Secures $25 Million Funding Led by New Investor Susquehanna Growth Equity, LLC (Business Wire)

$70M upgrade to telecom hotel at 401 N. Broad (Philly.com: Philly Deals)


Safeguard Scientifics Announces Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2013 Financial Results (Business Wire)

New York VC Investments Top $1B In The First Quarter (TechCrunch)



Oracle: Villain Or Scapegoat In Oregon Insurance Exchange Mess? (Information Week)

LLR Partners closes 4th fund at $950 million

Tom Paine

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email

Philadelphia-based middle market private equity firm LLR Partners today announced the close of its fourth fund, LLR Equity Partners IV, L.P, at $950 million.

The firm said in a statement that LLR 4 began investing in 2013 and has closed investments in five companies – ACRE, Cigital, iJET, Logi Analytics and Ultisat. LLR Partners "remains focused on a broad range of industries, including business services; consumer and education; financial services; security, defense and government services; healthcare services; and software and IT services," according to LLR.

The firm also announced that Todd Morrissey and David Stienes were promoted to partner in LLR 4. LLR Partners was founded in 1999.

LLR has also made recent efforts to boost its presence in the Washinngton, DC area and the government technology sector.