Links 9/24/2014: Comcast: Discovery & other critics tried 'extortion' tactics in exchange for silence

Comcast: Discovery, Other Critics Tried ‘Extortion’ Tactics to Stay Quiet on Merger (Variety)

Comcast says it’s too expensive to compete against other cable companies (Ars Technica)
Cable companies are like mob families; although they can collaborate on things, they're
supposed to stay in their own territories.


Comcast Plans RDK-for-Broadband Gateway Trials in Q4 (Light Reading)
Arris collaboration with Comcast. The RDK joint venture is based in Philadelphia. Arris has operations in Horsham.



The past, present and future of enterprise mobility (Bill McDermott/Diginomica)

CRM has failed? I am so tired of hearing that (Paul Greenberg/ZDNet)

Bullpen Capital's Paul Martino likes his odds with online betting startups
(Silicon Valley Business Journal)
Paul Martino is an native of the Philadelphia area. Though bicoastal, I believe he still
maintains a residence in Bucks County.

Tibco Halted, Jumps 7%: Reviews Buyout Bids, Says Reuters (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)


$734M IPO for Radnor lab products supplier VWR (Philadelphia Business Journal)

Sage Group to acquire Mt Laurel-based PayChoice for $158 million

Tom Paine

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Sage Group PLC, the UK's largest publicly traded software firm by market value, added to its US cloud business for SMEs yesterday by announcing an agreement to acquire Mt Laurel-based PayChoice, a more than twenty year-old provider of cloud-based payroll services.

The price was $157.8 million. PayChoice, with 260 employees in 16 offices in the US, had 2013 revenues of $38.9 million and has over 100,000 SMB customers. Robert Digby is CEO. PayChoice processses about 1.8 million paychecks each pay period. PayChoice is profitable and growth is in single digits, Sage says, but it expects to increase growth by cross selling among its customer base.

PayChoice licenses its software to others who operate their own service bureaus, though in the early 2000s several licensees were acquired and consolidated to establish the present
day PayChoice.

Sage Group, which has a significant US business, primarily serves small to medium-sized enterprises with accounting and ERP software. It has been seen by many as being behind the
curve in moving applications to the Cloud, a situation paticularly acute in the US. Sage has had basically flat revenue over the past four years. For FY 2013, total revenue was $2.147 billion, of which $623 million was from North America.

PayChoice has been backed by Great Hill Partners, Baird Venture Capital and North Hill Ventures.

Links 9/23/2014: Comcast's Werner: Triple-play is not enough

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Comcast Eyes Augmented Reality Tech (Light Reading)

Comcast's Werner: Triple-play is not enough, we must innovate
(FierceCable)

The battle for the hotel television (SNL)


Comcast to add over 1,000 miles of cable to network next year (Houston Business Journal)

Morgan Lewis & Bockius nears merger with major Boston firm (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Pa. House committee skips vote on ride-sharing legislation (Philadelphia Inquirer)



Aging Tech Giants Like EMC Look to Deals to Help Bolster Revenue
(NY Times)

Infor plots move into cloud financials in strike against Workday (PC World)

Links 9/22/2014: Sage buys Mt Laurel-based PayChoice; SAP's new CRM packages built around Hybris

Sage buys Mt Laurel-based PayChoice for $157.8 million, bolsters SMB base (ZDNet)

What's holding back in-memory databases? (Computing)

Hybris, SeeWhy, CRM, cloud: How SAP is pulling it all together (ZDNet)

EMC reportedly held merger talks with Hewlett-Packard
(PC World)

In EMC Talks, HP Was Interested Most in VMware (Re/code)



AT&T & Chernin Buy Fullscreen, the Big YouTube Video Network (Re/code)
Comcast participated in a major round last year, and NBCUniversal was said to be one of the companies pursuing Fullscreen.

Private search engine DuckDuckGo is blocked in China (VentureBeat)

Philly Tech People News 9/21/2014

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.
Former Qualcomm Exec to Head Google Fiber (Light Reading)

VC-backed ClearFit hires Beyond.com vet Chris Billetz (PE Hub)

Ex-Chief Data Officer Mark Headd is leaving Philadelphia (Technical.ly Philly)

Stuzo Adds Partner, Focuses On Scaling MEG.com (PR Web)

Revitas Prepares for Sales Growth with Appointment of New Senior Vice President, Sales (Business Wire)

Acting-CEO of medical device company resigns
(Philadelphia Business Journal)

Larry Ellison — Genius Leader, Terrible Copywriter (Re/code)

Oracle CEO changes — laying out the conspiracy theories (Gigaom)


The Concur Acquisition In Context: A SaaS MegaExit (Tomasz Tunguz/Redpoint Ventures)

A Clue in 2000 Ruling? (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Possible clue to ruling in Comcast/Time Warner deal?

University of Delaware wants a 'traditional' datacenter (ZDNet)

Home Depot ignored security warnings for years, employees say
(Ars Technica)

Cox acquires mobile app Experience, which adds Phillies to client roster

Tom Paine

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Cox Enterprises, parent of Cox Communications (Cox Cable), the Atlanta Journal Constitution and several ecommerce businesses, has acquired Experience, an Atlanta-based provider of a mobile app that enables fans to purchase seat upgrades at games and events, and buy and sell tickets with season ticket holders. The app, which uses iBeacon technology for iOS users, also offers other features intended to enhance the spectator experience. The price was reported to be in excess of $200 million.


Experience was launched by Atlanta serial entrepreneur Tripp Rackley with the support of his unusual venture relationship with Cox. Rackley, who sits on Cox's board, has a $250 million fund from Cox dedicated to his venture activities.

It has relationships with over 170 professional and collegiate teams, as well as several live event brands. Teams it partners with include the Braves, Falcons, Orlando Magic, Dallas Cowboys, and the University of Alabama.

Experience has a partnership with MLB Advanced Media, and recently added the Phillies to its client roster, a company source tells me (confirmed by this tweet:)

Experience adds its 19th @MLB partner: @Phillies! Download the app to Upgrade today: http://t.co/qO3X8dvK97 pic.twitter.com/CMfE8DpkUi

— EXPERIENCE (@ExpApp) September 8, 2014

Life after Larry may be coming, but it’s not here yet for Oracle
(Diginomica)

Oracle earnings: 62 cents per share, ex-items, vs. expected EPS of 64 cents (CNBC)

SAP CEO Says Concur Purchase Is `Growth Move' (Bloomberg Video)

SAP $8.3 Billion Concur Buy Caps Pricey Cloud Push (Information Week)

Alibaba Is Already Bigger Than Facebook, Amazon, and IBM (Wired)

Margaret Walson, Co-Founder of Service Electric Cable TV, Dies (Multichannel News)

Links 9/18/2014: Ellison to step down as CEO, but he'll still be there; SAP to buy Concur for $7.4 billion

Tom Paine

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Larry Ellison Will Step Down as CEO of Oracle (Re/code)
But he's still very much there.

SAP to Acquire Concur, Expanding the World’s Largest Business Network (SAP Press Release)

SAP to Buy Concur for $7.4 Billion to Boost Cloud Sales (Bloomberg)


Netsuite Slams Rival SAP in Newspaper Ad (Re/code)

”Great ERP, worse PLM” – What SAP PLM needs to sharpen its competitive edge (Engineering)



Qlik courts the business manager with easier analytics (PC World)

Walter Isaacson on the women of ENIAC (Fortune)

Comcast CEO "Cautiously Optimistic" on Approval for Time Warner Cable Acquisition
(Hollywood Reporter)

Rally at Comcast building opposes cable merger (Philadelphia Inquirer)