Links 3/14/2014: Castlight Health soars on IPO; TruePosition to become part of new Liberty tracking stock
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Liberty Ditches Plans to Acquire SiriusXM Radio, Embraces New Tracking Stocks
(Hollywood Reporter)
Liberty Broadband Group would house the firm's interests in Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable and Berwyn-based TruePosition.
Castlight Health soars in debut as cloud offerings shine (Reuters)
Alibaba reportedly planning April IPO (PandoDaily)
EBay cuts Magento staff; Product chief Duvall departs
(Silicon Valley Business Journal)
Reports about 50 jobs cut, mostly in San Jose office.
Embarcadero moves into data modeling with CA ERwin buy (PC World)
ERwin originated at a Princeton startup, Logic Works, a couple of decades ago before being acquired by another company that was later acquired by CA.
Will Comcast Go You-Tubing? (Multichannel News)
George Norcross' fund-raising invites sent to IGM newsroom employees (Philly.com)
How does one respond?
Zycus Procurement Technology Secures Armstrong as New Client (Business Wire)
Links 3/13/2014: ShopRunner jumps on Amazon Prime price increase; layoffs hit EBay's Magento
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Amazon raising Prime subscriptions by $20 to $99 a year (Engadget)
Amazon Rival ShopRunner Jumps on Prime Increase (Wall Street Journal: Digits)
ShopRunner Sprints Out of the Gates in 2014 with New Retailers and Tremendous Growth (Business Wire)
Layoffs Hit eBay’s Magento Division; Product Chief Exits (Re/code)
Magento reports up through King of Prussia-based EBay Enterprise.
Has Your Leadership Role Scaled With Your Company? (Inc)
Interview with Monetate CEO David Brussin.
Quintiq Shatters Records in 2013 (Quintiq Press Release)
Revenue reaches $100 million.
Qlik Doesn't Fear Tableau, Oracle In Data Analytics (Investor's Business Daily)
[Boomi competitor] MuleSoft raises $50M to connect every business app to every other business app (Venture Beat)
Oracle, SAP Threatened by Big Data Startups Lotame, DataStax, Etc., Says Cowen (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)
Salesforce Just Disclosed A Really Odd Thing: It Doesn't Really Know Where Its Revenue Comes From (Business Insider)
Enterprise adolescent: Salesforce.com's struggles at 15 (The Register)
Charter Still Hanging Around Time Warner Cable
(New York Times: DealBook)
Fundable Acquires LaunchRock To Combine Crowdfunding And User Acquisition (TechCrunch)
Media Madness: Comcast, Disney, Al Franken & more
Tom Paine
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 |
| Universal Studios Florida Entrance / Wikipedia |
When Comcast made a surprise $54.1 billion bid for Disney in 2004, most observers thought the primary targets were its cable networks (particularly ESPN), and saw the theme parks as a mere afterthought. When Comcast acquired NBCU in 2011, NBCU only owned half of Universal Orlando at the time and again questions were raised about Comcast's commitment to that business.
But in 2011 Comcast agreed to buy out the other half of Universal Orlando, and as Bob Fernandez reported in Sunday's Inquirer, Comcast says its been a great business for them , and is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in its Florida and California parks in a challenge to Disney, although Comcast execs say there is plenty of room for both to grow.
The co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television Group, Anne Sweeney, is stepping down to focus on doing TV production, a surprising move, and hasn't indicated how she is going to go about doing that. There was speculation, largely since discounted, that Facebook COO Sheryl (I'm not the boss of you) Sandberg might be in line to replace Robert Iger as Disney CEO in two years when he steps down.
Disney is also reported to be considering the possible acquisition of YouTube network Maker Studios at a price that could exceed $500 million (the latest figure I saw was as much as $900 million). Another YouTube-based company, Fullscreen, received an investment from Comcast Ventures last year.
Netflix is trying to accelerate its international growth, starting with a new push in Europe later this year, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Comcast take an active interest in the international OTT market with its combination of content and technology. Streampix is not the delivery equivalent of Netflix yet (far from it), and Comcast would not have a built-in broadband advantage in Europe as it does in the US. I have no source on this, but its just my speculation that this is something Comcast might be looking at. Comcast has been saying recently it wants to boost its international presence.
Reports indicate that the Senate Judiciary Committee is moving its hearing on the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger from March 26 to April 2 to accommodate additional participants. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes says his company hasn't decided yet to change its name after Time Inc. is spun off, but will be happy when consumers can no longer mistake Time Warner Cable trucks for his own company's (Time Warner Cable and Time Warner Communications split a few years back).
More from DC: Senator Al Franken (D-Minn), whose media career reached its zenith on
NBC's SNL, again took to the public airwaves to blast the proposed merger on CBS Monday morning.
This while CBS CEO Les Moonves suggests he might just take his network off the public airwaves and go OTT if Aereo wins its upcoming Supreme Court case.
Links 3/12/2014: SunGard spinoff SunGard Availability loads up with $1.275B in debt
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Media executives question Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal (Reuters)
Comcast Deal Has 'Huge' Potential, Says Time Warner Cable CEO (Hollywood Reporter)
Son’s Challenge to Cable Won’t End T-Mobile Deal Scrutiny
(Bloomberg)
Where Comcast-TWC Would Face Broadband Competition (Wall Street Journal: Digits)
Comcast and NRG Launch Electricity Bundle in Pennsylvania
(Greentech Media)
Tennis Channel Asks FCC to Look Again at Comcast Case
(Variety)
SunGard spinoff SunGard Availability preps $1.275B in debt (Reuters)
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
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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
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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
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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)
HP acquires Philly-based network-simulation vendor Shunra
Tom Paine
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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.
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